U.S. Seeks to Avoid Ground War Welcomed by Islamic State

Abstract: As the debate on how best to contain the Islamic State continues to rage in Western capitals, the militants themselves have made one point patently clear: They want the United States and its allies to be dragged into a ground war. In fact, when the United States first invaded Iraq, one of the most enthusiastic proponents of the move was the man who founded the terrorist cell that would one day become the Islamic State, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. He excitedly called the Americans’ 2003 intervention “the Blessed Invasion.” His reaction — ignored by some, and dismissed as rhetoric by others — points to one of the core beliefs motivating the terrorist group now holding large stretches of Iraq and Syria: The group bases its ideology on prophetic texts stating that Islam will be victorious after an apocalyptic battle to be set off once Western armies come to the region. Should that invasion happen, the Islamic State not only would be able to declare its prophecy fulfilled, but could also turn the occurrence into a new recruiting drive at the very moment the terrorist group appears to be losing volunteers. It is partly that theory that President Obama referred to in his speech on Sunday, when he said the United States should pursue a “sustainable victory” that involves airstrikes and supports local forces battling the Islamic State rather than sending a new generation of American soldiers into a ground offensive. “I have said it repeatedly: Because of these prophecies, going in on the ground would be the worst trap to fall into. They want troops on the ground. Because they have already envisioned it,” said Jean-Pierre Filiu, a professor of Middle East Studies at Sciences Po in Paris, and the author of “Apocalypse in Islam,” one of the main scholarly texts exploring the scripture that the militants base their ideology on. Image Kurdish fighters with the Y.P.G., or People's Protection Units, in the Syrian town of Hasaka in August. Credit Mauricio Lima for The New York Times “It’s a very powerful and emotional narrative. It gives the potential recruit and the actual fighters the feeling that not only are they part of the elite, they are also part of the final battle.” The Islamic State’s propaganda is rife with references to apocalyptic prophecy about the last great battle that sets the stage for the end times. Terrorism experts say it has become a powerful recruiting tool for the group, also known as ISIS or ISIL, which sells potential fighters on the promise that joining will give them the most direct chance to battle Western interests and will bring ancient Islamic prophecies to fruition. The specific scripture they are referring to describes a battle in Dabiq as well as in al-Amaq, small towns that still exist in northern Syria. The countdown to the apocalypse begins once the “Romans” — a term that militants have now conveniently expanded to include Americans and their allies — set foot in Dabiq. Last year, when Islamic State militants beheaded the American hostage Peter Kassig, a former United States Army Ranger, they made sure to do it in Dabiq. “Here we are, burying the first American crusader in Dabiq, eagerly waiting for the remainder of your armies to arrive,” the executioner announced. Dabiq is now the name of the Islamic State’s monthly online magazine, and each successive issue continues to hammer home the notion of the looming doomsday battle. Meanwhile, Amaq is the name the militants have chosen for their semiofficial news agency, which last week was the first to announce that the couple who carried out the attack on a holiday party in San Bernardino, Calif., killing 14, were “supporters” of the Islamic State. How to undo the Islamic State is a matter of intense debate. As the United States prepares for a general election, Republican contenders are pushing for a ground invasion, with Senator Ted Cruz vowing to “carpet-bomb them into oblivion.” Where ISIS Has Directed and Inspired Attacks Around the World More than a dozen countries have had attacks since the Islamic State, or ISIS, began to pursue a global strategy in the summer of 2014. “I don’t know if sand can glow in the dark , but we are going to find out,” Mr. Cruz said at a campaign stop on Saturday. Regardless of a ground intervention’s potential to succeed, some veteran analysts caution that the act of invasion would play handily into the group’s prophetic vision. “To break the dynamic, you have to debunk the prophecy,” Mr. Filiu said. “You need to do so via a military defeat, like taking over Raqqa. But it needs to be by local forces — by Sunni Arabs.” That so far has been the approach of the Obama administration, which has armed as well as provided air support to a number of militias in northern Iraq and Syria, hoping to give a local veneer to the tip of the sword. The result has been mixed, with gains only in areas that are outside the main Sunni Arab strongholds that the Islamic State controls. The effort has been limited by the fact that the only viable partners so far have been Kurdish militias, who are willing to fight only in a ribbon of land in northern Syria, which is predominantly Kurdish. In those areas, victory over the Islamic State has been like pushing on an open door. Last month, the northern Iraqi city of Sinjar, which had been under the brutal rule of the Islamic State for more than 15 months, fell to Kurdish forces in less than 48 hours, after a sustained assault by American A-10 attack jets. As Kurdish forces advanced, the Islamic State fighters, having booby-trapped roads and houses, chose to run rather than fight for the city, burning hundreds of tires so the smoke would obscure their departure. Yet a month since then, the Kurdish forces have advanced little beyond the city of Sinjar, and their commanders have been clear about why: The rest of the area is predominantly Sunni Arab rather than Kurdish. Image Peter Kassig, shown in a photo provided by his family. Mr. Kassig, a former U.S. Army Ranger, was murdered by the Islamic State in Dabiq, Syria. Credit Kassig Family, via Associated Press The same pattern has been repeated in neighboring Syria, where the Syrian Kurdish forces reached the village of Ein Eissa earlier this year — just 30 miles north of Raqqa, the de facto capital of the terrorist group’s self-declared state. But they have stayed put. “It would not be appropriate for us to go further south,” Redur Xelil, the main Syrian Kurdish force’s spokesman, said in an interview this summer, summing up the unease that many of his soldiers expressed at the thought of Kurdish rebels invading and trying to hold an Arab area. To date, the United States and its partners have failed to find a Sunni Arab partner force. In October, the Obama administration acknowledged that a $500 million program to train thousands of local troops — many of them Sunni Arab — had failed. And a new United States-backed entity intended to claw back Arab land from the Islamic State seems to exist in name only. Proponents of a ground assault argue that an even bigger recruiting drive than the militants’ end-of-times prophecy is their promise of an Islamic state. “They actually, it seems to me, have two objectives,” said Jessica Stern, one of the authors of the book “ISIS: The State of Terror.” “One is to goad us into a ground war. And the other is to run a state, and they are contradictory.” In the most recent issue of Dabiq, an essay alleged to have been written by the British hostage John Cantlie discussed similar options, with the first being that the Islamic State is allowed to continue to expand while the West does nothing. The second alternative was to drag the United States into war by carrying out a deadly attack on American soil. “Then again,” the essay concludes, the Americans “may well come to Dabiq on their own without the Islamic State needing to blow up any dirty bombs in Manhattan.”

Terrorism
Islam
ISIS,ISIL,Islamic State
US Military
Iraq
Syria
Peter Kassig,Abdul-Rahman Kassig
Dabiq


Harvick Wins at Phoenix

Abstract: Kevin Harvick led on 224 of the 312 laps and pulled away on a series of late restarts Sunday for his second straight Sprint Cup win at Phoenix International Raceway in Avondale, Ariz. It was his fifth Sprint Cup win at the track over all, the most on the career list. Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished second, and the pole-sitter, Brad Keselowski, was third.

Car Racing
Kevin Harvick
Brad Keselowski
Dale Earnhardt Jr


Syracuse Thumps St. John’s in Its First Game at No. 1

Abstract: The fifth-year seniors Andy Rautins and Arinze Onuaku made their final home game at Syracuse one to remember, combining for 35 points as the Orange beat St. John’s, 85-66, Tuesday night in its first game in two decades as the No. 1 team in the nation. Syracuse (28-2, 15-2 Big East) closes the regular season on Saturday at Louisville, looking to finish 9-0 on the road. The Orange’s only losses have been to Louisville and Pittsburgh. Onuaku finished with a season-high 21 points and had 8 rebounds. Rautins had 14 points and 7 assists. Wes Johnson had 13 points, 4 assists and 4 blocks. D. J. Kennedy led St. John’s (15-14, 5-12) with 19 points, and Paris Horne had 18. OHIO STATE 73, ILLINOIS 57 Jon Diebler hit seven 3-pointers for 21 points at home to lead No. 6 Ohio State (24-7, 14-4 Big Ten), which clinched at least a share of the conference title. DeMetri McCamey had 18 points for the Illini (18-12, 10-7). VILLANOVA 77, CINCINNATI 73 Scottie Reynolds scored all of his 17 points in the second half, and No. 9 Villanova let most of a 16-point lead slip away before holding on against host Cincinnati. The Wildcats (24-5, 13-4 Big East) got their second win in their last five games. Rashad Bishop had 19 points for Cincinnati (16-13, 7-10). VANDERBILT 64, FLORIDA 60 John Jenkins scored 18 points and A. J. Ogilvy 16 as No. 13 Vanderbilt delivered a blow to host Florida’s N.C.A.A. tournament hopes. Jermaine Beal chipped in 13 points for Vanderbilt (23-6, 12-3 Southeastern Conference), including two key free throws with 6.2 seconds remaining. Vernon Macklin had 21 points and 9 rebounds for the Gators (20-10, 9-6). GONZAGA 78, BAKERSFIELD 59 Matt Bouldin scored 15 points for No. 18 Gonzaga (25-5) at home in its regular-season finale. The Bulldogs had already won their 10th consecutive West Coast Conference title and a bye into the league tournament semifinals. BAYLOR 86, TEXAS TECH 68 Tweety Carter scored 18 points to lead No. 21 Baylor past host Texas Tech. Baylor (23-6, 10-5 Big 12) trailed by 11 points in the first half, then rallied in the second half. Mike Singletary scored 20 points for Texas Tech (16-13, 4-11). UTEP 80, MARSHALL 76 Randy Culpepper scored 32 points to lead No. 24 Texas-El Paso over host Marshall, clinching the Miners’ first outright Conference USA championship. UTEP (23-5, 14-1) squandered an 11-point lead with nine minutes remaining but rode a strong finish by Derrick Caracter, who scored 10 of his 18 points in the final five minutes. Tyler Wilkerson led Marshall (22-8, 10-5) with 22 points and 16 rebounds. Women TEXAS A&M 78, OKLAHOMA 55 Tanisha Smith scored 19 points and Danielle Adams had 18 as No. 15 Texas A&M (21-7, 9-6 Big 12) cruised at home against No. 11 Oklahoma (20-9, 10-5).


Cub’s Death Reveals How Little Is Understood About Pandas

Abstract: The giant panda cub that died Sunday morning had uneven coloring and hardness in her liver, officials at the National Zoo in Washington said Monday. That information came from a preliminary necropsy, but it was not a conclusive cause of the sudden death of the 6-day-old female cub, who was heard grunting just 17 minutes before she was found lifeless, zoo officials said. Final results of a full necropsy will not be available for another two weeks. The cub’s sudden death came as a dispiriting shock to the zoo, which has invested millions of dollars in efforts to propagate the beloved but endangered species , and it opened a window into the fraught world of captive breeding. “Conservation is a life and death business,” said Pamela Baker-Masson, associate director of communications for the zoo. “This one was particularly devastating for us.” After her first seemingly healthy days, the cub was discovered on the floor in the pandas’ den early Sunday morning after her mother, Mei Xiang, let out honks of distress . Zoo patrons had expressed concern that the cub’s 217-pound mother had crushed the baby, who weighed just four ounces — as little as a stick of butter — in her arms. But the necropsy found no outward signs of trauma or infection, the zoo’s chief veterinarian, Dr. Suzan Murray, said at a news conference. The cub’s liver, which was roughly the size of a lima bean, was hard to the touch in several spots, Dr. Murray said. Also worrisome, she said, were small amounts of liquid in the panda’s abdomen. The liquid itself was not thought to be enough to cause death, Dr. Murray said, but could be a sign of liver malfunction. One of the challenges in breeding pandas, as well as many other critically endangered species, is that little is known about either their behavior or specific biology in the wild. Consequently zoos have very few markers to refer to in establishing what, say, a normal liver of a one-week-old panda might look like. What is known is that panda cubs do not have a high rate of survival in either zoos or the wild. Mei Xiang has had only one cub in more than a decade of trying to conceive at the zoo. The female panda in residence at the zoo in the 1980s, Ling-Ling , had five cubs, all of which died; three were stillborn and two died of pneumonia. Pandas born in captivity have not been successfully reintroduced to supplement the fewer than 1,600 pandas remaining in the wild. However, the 300 or so captive animals, most held in a panda reserve outside of Chengdu, China , do play a critical role in research and act as an insurance genetic bank for the wild population. Another important function of a baby panda at a zoo is to act as a fund-raiser. A new panda cub would “inspire and grab the attention of millions and billions, and therefore we can explain the plight of their cousins to a broader audience,” said Sybille Klenzendorf, managing director of species conservation for World Wildlife Fund. “We are sad we lost a cub and sad we lost an ambassador.” Zoo officials said it was impossible to guess the mental state of Mei Xiang after the death of her baby. The mother panda did sleep normally Sunday night and was roaming her cage Monday. She also nibbled at biscuits and bamboo, they reported. And she was seen still cradling her pear-shaped rubber toy — much as she had done before the birth and during pseudopregnancies.

Pandas
Endangered and Extinct Species
Smithsonian National Zoological Park


9/11 Defendants Were Protesting ‘Unjust System,’ Lawyers Say

Abstract: GUANTÁNAMO BAY, Cuba — Lawyers for five men charged before a military commission with conspiring in the attacks of Sept. 11 complained on Sunday that the process was rigged to lead to the execution of their clients, and they offered new details and explanations for a sometimes chaotic daylong arraignment on Saturday . Throughout the arraignment, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and the other four defendants refused to talk to, or even listen to, the judge. Several delayed the hearing by praying, and one shouted to the judge that guards at the prison might kill them. Another was brought to the court in restraints and later took off his shirt, before insisting that the full charges be read aloud, which lasted into the night. One of the lawyers, James G. Connell III, who represents Ali Abd al Aziz Ali , said at a news conference on Sunday that the defendants’ refusal to acknowledge the judge was a “peaceful resistance to an unjust system.” While Mr. Connell was prohibited from relaying anything his client had told him, he said, the defendants’ actions “appeared to be a coordinated strategy.” Several of the lawyers amplified their complaints about restrictions on what they could discuss — including a Dec. 27, 2011, prison order about “contraband” information that includes details about the historic perspectives of jihadi activities and certain information about detention operations. A crucial part of the case will be the defense’s effort to present evidence, as mitigation against death sentences, of torture while the defendants were in the custody of the C.I.A. But the lead prosecutor, Brig. Gen. Mark S. Martins, speaking later, characterized such complaints as “a bit misleading.” He said that the lawyers were prevented from giving documents about certain topics to their clients — about the identities of interrogators, for example — but that they were free to speak with them about anything. He also reiterated that prosecutors would not use evidence “polluted” by torture, but said that other evidence was available to prove the case. General Martins also said that one part of the audio of the hearing that had been censored from observers, because a defense lawyer had said something about torture, would be included without censorship in a public transcript. Late Saturday night, after the hearing ended, one defendant, Ramzi bin al Shibh , looked to the back of the room, smiled and gave a thumbs-up sign . Eddie Bracken of New York, whose sister Lucy died in the World Trade Center, was watching the proceeding through a soundproof window at the back of the room and said that he and other family members interpreted the gesture as a taunt aimed at them. But Maj. William T. Hennessy, a Marine lawyer representing Walid bin Attash , said he was in the viewing gallery and saw the thumbs-up. He said that Mr. bin al Shibh was gesturing at an interpreter assigned to his defense team who was sitting in a chair in front of the gallery window. He said that Mr. bin al Shibh’s eyes had fixed on the interpreter, with whom he has a rapport, and followed him as he walked over to him for a brief conversation. Mr. Bracken, speaking on behalf of the families who attended the arraignment, said watching the proceedings made him “very angry,” both because it took him back to the events of Sept. 11 — he said he watched the second plane hit the World Trade Center tower where his sister worked, although he did not realize that at the time — and because of the detainees’ displays of defiance. “They turn around and they converse with each other — that’s good; my sister and those people that were lost, they can’t converse with anybody,” he said. “It brought up all the old memories and that whole day and up to today. And listening to all their rhetoric and how they perceive themselves and how the lawyers are perceiving them, it’s hurtful because they have no remorse.” Still, Mr. Bracken said, he respected the defense lawyers, saying they were doing their jobs and upholding the Constitution. He also said he approved of bringing the case before a military commission at Guantánamo Bay , and looked forward to a sentence of either the death penalty or life in prison. Cheryl Bormann, another lawyer for Mr. bin Attash, wore a traditional Muslim clothing that covered everything but her face throughout the hearing and at one point asked the women on the prosecution team to consider dressing more modestly. Appearing in Western clothes in talking to reporters, she said she always wears Muslim garb in her client’s presence out of “respect for his religious beliefs.” She also explained that in 2008, during an earlier attempt to try the case before a tribunal, a female paralegal on the prosecution team had regularly worn short skirts and “very revealing tops” to court, which was a distraction to the defendants, making it harder for them to focus on a proceeding that may result in their execution. A woman on the prosecution team on Saturday was similarly dressed in a way that clashed with her client’s religious beliefs, Ms. Bormann said. Later, General Martins said he had not responded to Ms. Bormann’s comments in court because “they didn’t merit a response.” He said all of the women on the prosecution team dressed professionally and appropriately. Ms. Bormann also declined to comment in response to a question about whether she had received death threats on Saturday. But she also said, “I’ve been doing death penalty work for a very long time, so I’m accustomed to being universally hated for that.” Despite the disruptions, General Martins said that the process had moved along and that the defendants had been arraigned on the scheduled day. He also referred to the dispute over whether the case would have been better brought in civilian court, saying “speculation about what would have happened in federal court is just that — unconfirmable speculation.” Still, he noted that several terrorism cases in the traditional criminal justice system have also had rocky moments. In the trial of Zacarias Moussaoui in connection with the Sept. 11 plot, for example, a federal judge on several occasions ordered him removed from the courtroom for outbursts. Mr. Moussaoui is now serving a life sentence.

September 11 (2001)
Guantanamo Bay Naval Base (Cuba)
Mohammed Khalid Shaikh
Military Tribunals
Detainees
Terrorism
Ali Ali Abdul Aziz
Attash Walid Muhammad Salih bin
bin al-Shibh Ramzi
Martins Mark S


Naming a Senator to Follow a Tough Act

Abstract: How difficult can it possibly be to find a new junior senator for New York once Hillary Rodham Clinton takes charge at the State Department? Gov. David A. Paterson will get to pick her successor. It should be a breeze. We are a large state, with roughly 11 million people who are at least 30 years old, the age threshold that the Constitution sets for United States senators. Surely, in a pool that vast, Mr. Paterson will be able to find a gay, black, Roman Catholic woman with a Latino surname, thanks to her father, and a mother who was born in China to Christian missionary parents but who converted to Judaism. Oh, and this gay, black, Roman Catholic woman with a Latino father, etc., should live outside Rochester or maybe Syracuse. It would be nice if she also had an Ivy League law degree, but that isn’t essential. No point overdoing the requirements. Thus will the governor be able to satisfy just about every constituency clamoring for the Clinton Senate seat. Mr. Paterson’s lieutenants say it is too early to talk about possible appointees. The Clinton seat is hardly cold. It’s not even empty. Mrs. Clinton is still a sitting senator. President-elect Barack Obama has not tipped his hand, publicly anyway, about his druthers for secretary of state. Still, Mr. Paterson said the other day that he had already been approached about the Senate appointment by nearly enough people to fill a football team’s offensive and defensive lines. Aides to the governor have let it be known to reporters in Albany that someone from upstate would be desirable. A woman would be nice, too. So would a Latino. For himself, Mr. Paterson said he would be unable “to serve all these interests with one appointment.” But how hard could it be to satisfy not only these groups but also others demanding attention? As we said, New York is a big state. Note that the speculation about the next senator has turned almost exclusively on credentials like ethnicity, gender and geography. Nothing has been said about finding someone who is exceedingly knowledgeable or creative or reflective or graced since kindergarten with a capacity to play well with others. (In this situation, the others include New York’s senior senator, Charles E. Schumer, who may well extract a blood oath from the new senator never to hold a news conference on Sunday, that being Mr. Schumer’s own favorite day to romance television cameras.) Naturally, once he makes his selection, Mr. Paterson will not say openly that ethnicity, gender or geography guided him. He will have chosen only the most knowledgeable, creative, reflective and gracious person above the age of 29 to be found anywhere in this great Empire State of ours. Of course. And Sarah Palin was absolutely the best person John McCain could have found as a running mate. Whoever is selected, one thing is certain: Mrs. Clinton will be a tough act to follow. Even calling her New York’s junior senator, while technically accurate, is mildly absurd. Given who she is, there is nothing junior about her or the influence she wields. Her anticipated cabinet appointment translates into a loss for New York, both the city and the state. Sure, Mr. Schumer is, and will continue to be, a formidable national force. But New York will need all the influence it can muster, especially after the 2010 census, which in all likelihood will further erode the size of the state’s Congressional delegation. New York State ’s population is growing — it’s about 19.3 million — but at a slower rate than the country’s population as a whole. Representation in Congress is a zero-sum game. If others gain House seats, we lose some. So the number of New York seats, once as high as 45 and now down to 29, may well shrink some more. Having not one but two powerful voices in the Senate would help offset the damage. Another aspect of Mrs. Clinton’s anticipated job change is that, more and more, New York State has government by appointment. Mr. Paterson hates being described as an “accidental governor,” but that’s what he is. He inherited his position only because Eliot Spitzer had designated him his running mate, and then messed up royally. The state’s chief fiscal officer, Thomas P. DiNapoli, was not popularly elected to his job, either. The Legislature made him comptroller after Alan G. Hevesi messed up in his own way. A poll issued last week by the Siena Research Institute showed that, nearly two years later, 72 percent of New Yorkers still have no opinion about Mr. DiNapoli or even a clue about who he is. Now we are about to have a designated senator. That is reason in itself to comb upstate for a gay black Roman Catholic woman with a Latino surname and a Jewish connection. No way will two hours pass, let alone two years, with 72 percent of New Yorkers blanking on her name. The way things are, we can’t afford someone who walks in anonymity.

Senate
New York State
United States Politics and Government
Politics and Government
Clinton Hillary Rodham
Paterson David A


Obama Summons G.O.P. and Democratic Leaders for Deficit Reduction Talks

Abstract: WASHINGTON — President Obama stepped up pressure on Congressional Republicans on Tuesday to agree to a broad deficit-cutting deal, pledging to put popular entitlement programs like Medicare on the table in return for Republican acquiescence to some higher taxes. Mr. Obama, who met secretly with Speaker John A. Boehner at the White House on Sunday to try to advance the talks, called House and Senate leaders from both parties to the White House for further negotiations on Thursday. And he rejected talk of an interim deal that would get the government past a looming deadline on raising the federal debt limit without settling some of the longer-term issues contributing to the government’s fiscal imbalances. “We’ve got a unique opportunity to do something big, to tackle our deficit in a way that forces our government to live within its means,” he said in an appearance in the White House briefing room, casting himself as much an honest broker as a partisan participant in the talks. “This will require both parties to get out of our comfort zones, and both parties to agree on real compromise.” Mr. Obama’s previously undisclosed Sunday meeting with Mr. Boehner suggests that the talks are entering a critical phase. There were also intense staff-level negotiations between the White House and Congress over the details of a multi-trillion-dollar package of spending cuts that could clear the way for a vote to raise the debt ceiling, constrain the growth of government and radically reshape the role of government in American society. The two sides remain in a deadlock over the president’s insistence that the package contain tax increases as well as spending cuts. While Mr. Obama did not retreat from that demand Tuesday, he coupled it with a pledge to take on spending in “entitlement programs,” a promise likely to unsettle many Democrats. While a broad-based agreement may appeal to the White House, neither Senate Republicans nor Democrats may be as eager to embrace one. Democrats worry that a deal that cuts Medicare could rob them of what they see as their political advantage on the issue; Republicans trying to win the majority next year might not like an agreement that is seen as giving Democrats credibility on reducing the deficit. But Mr. Boehner, while again saying that higher taxes were a nonstarter, expressed pleasure at Mr. Obama’s willingness to single out entitlements. “I’m pleased the president stated today that we need to address the big, long-term challenges facing our country,” he said in a statement. The speaker’s session with Mr. Obama was their first face-to-face encounter since the talks presided over by Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. collapsed last month, officials with knowledge of the meeting said, though the speaker and the president also met privately just before those discussions broke up. The substance of their talks was not disclosed. But Mr. Boehner’s meeting was evidently made known to other House and Senate Republican leaders. Mr. Obama said the two sides needed to reach a deal within two weeks to pass legislation before Aug. 2, when the Treasury Department says the government risks defaulting on its debt. And he restated that Congress should not procrastinate and let negotiations “come down to the last second.” Senate Republicans have suggested in recent days that a “mini-deal” be struck, which would allow the government to get past the Aug. 2 deadline but leave the larger fiscal choices to be thrashed out in the 2012 election. The president rejected that, saying: “I don’t think the American people sent us here to avoid tough problems. That’s, in fact, what drives them nuts about Washington, when both parties simply take the path of least resistance.” Still, Mr. Obama eased his tone noticeably from his feisty news conference last week, in which he compared the work habits of lawmakers unfavorably with those of his daughters, Malia and Sasha. “It’s my hope that everybody’s going to leave their ultimatums at the door, that we’ll all leave our political rhetoric at the door,” he said. Mr. Obama also eschewed a populist tone, making no reference to “millionaires and billionaires” or owners of corporate jets, even as he spoke of the necessity of eliminating tax breaks and loopholes. The budget impasse is dominating the White House and Congress. With Republicans protesting that the Senate should be concentrating on fiscal issues this week, Senator Harry Reid, the Nevada Democrat and majority leader, conceded the point on Tuesday and abruptly called off a planned debate on Libya. After complaints by Republicans that their Fourth of July break had been canceled to deal with the debt-limit fight and not Libya, Mr. Reid essentially threw in the towel and said the Senate would instead take nonbinding votes later this week on how to address the debt-limit dispute. “Notwithstanding the broad support for the Libya resolution, the most important thing to focus on this week is the budget,” Mr. Reid said. Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, restated his opposition to any budget deal containing new taxes. He accused Democrats of a “cheap attempt” at making Republicans look bad by saying that Republicans refused to consider ending a tax break for corporate jets. Senate Democratic leaders last week called off their planned Fourth of July break due to the Aug. 2 deadline. But the budget talks are occurring mainly off the floor in leadership offices and at the White House so Mr. Reid scheduled the bipartisan Libya resolution for floor debate.

Obama Barack
Health Insurance and Managed Care
Taxation
Federal Budget (US)
National Debt (US)
United States Politics and Government
Medicare
Medicaid


State’s Witnesses in Zimmerman Trial Put the Prosecution on the Defensive

Abstract: SANFORD, Fla. — Prosecutors in the second-degree murder trial of George Zimmerman scrambled Tuesday to undo damage to their case by one of their leading witnesses, a Sanford police officer who interviewed the defendant hours after he fatally shot Trayvon Martin. The witness, Officer Chris Serino of the Sanford police, had testified under cross-examination on Monday afternoon that Mr. Zimmerman seemed to be telling the truth when he said he had fired his gun in self-defense. The officer’s remarks made for a dramatic moment in the trial — and clearly benefited the defense — but drew no immediate objection from the prosecutors. The court then recessed for the day. But early on Tuesday, citing case law, the prosecution successfully argued that Officer Serino’s comments about Mr. Zimmerman’s truthfulness should be disregarded by the jury. The judge then instructed the jurors, who are being sequestered during the trial, to ignore the officer’s statement — nearly 17 hours after he made it. Officer Serino’s testimony, in the second week of the trial in Seminole County Court, was the latest setback for prosecutors, whose witnesses have repeatedly helped bolster the defense’s case. Mr. Zimmerman has said he shot Mr. Martin, an unarmed 17-year-old, in self-defense after he was attacked on a drizzly night in February 2012. Prosecutors say that Mr. Zimmerman, who identifies as Hispanic, profiled Mr. Martin, who was black, and followed the teenager through the town house complex where Mr. Zimmerman lived and Mr. Martin, of Miami, was visiting. On Monday, jurors watched and listened to audio and visual recordings of a calm and willing Mr. Zimmerman being interviewed by the police shortly after the shooting. One officer testified that Mr. Zimmerman had shown no trace of malice or ill intent. After prosecutors probed inconsistencies in Mr. Zimmerman’s story — he said that Mr. Martin had jumped out of the bushes, although no bushes were found at the place he indicated — two police officers who took the stand said that the discrepancies were slight and that the broad narrative of self-defense offered by Mr. Zimmerman remained largely unchanged. Mark Osterman, a federal air marshal who described Mr. Zimmerman as “the best friend I’ve ever had,” and who wrote a book about the shooting, recounted on Tuesday what Mr. Zimmerman told him about the events of Feb. 26, 2012, the day of the killing. Image Dr. Valerie Rao, the medical examiner, was cross-examined by a defense lawyer, Mark O’Mara. Credit Pool photo by Joe Burbank Mr. Osterman’s account largely matched what Mr. Zimmerman — who was photographed bleeding after the killing — told the police. There was one exception: Mr. Osterman’s contention that, according to Mr. Zimmerman, Mr. Martin had grabbed his gun but that he managed to get it back. That contradicted Mr. Zimmerman’s account to the police, in which he said Mr. Martin seemed to be reaching for his gun. Other pieces of testimony may also have reflected poorly on Mr. Zimmerman. Officer Serino, who took the stand again on Tuesday, said the expletives that Mr. Zimmerman used as he was pursuing Mr. Martin connoted ill will — a necessary component in a second-degree murder conviction. The police officers were also clearly disturbed that Mr. Zimmerman, a community watch volunteer, seemed to have pursued Mr. Martin on foot after a police operator had told him he need not do so. Last week, a young woman who had been on the phone with Mr. Martin that night testified that he told her he was being followed by a “creepy” man, and that she later heard her friend crying, “Get off, get off.” One of the clearest witness accounts of the fight that proved damaging to the prosecution came from John Good, a neighbor of Mr. Zimmerman’s. He testified last week that he saw a person in dark clothes on top of and repeatedly striking someone light skinned who was lying on the ground and wearing red or white. Mr. Zimmerman was wearing a red jacket that night. Jurors also heard Tuesday from Dr. Valerie Rao, a medical examiner in Jacksonville, Fla., who concluded after studying photos that Mr. Zimmerman’s injuries were “very insignificant” and “not life threatening,” and that scrapes on the back of his head could have come from just one strike against the sidewalk. Her testimony cast doubt on Mr. Zimmerman’s claim that Mr. Martin struck him repeatedly, banging his head on the pavement, causing him to fear for his life. But under cross-examination by Mark O’Mara, one of Mr. Zimmerman’s lawyers, Dr. Rao conceded that Mr. Zimmerman’s injuries could have come from multiple blows. Mr. O’Mara also noted that Angela Corey, the special prosecutor in the case, had recommended that Dr. Rao be appointed, although she insisted that had no bearing on her testimony. The state also presented a television interview from 2012 with Mr. Zimmerman by Sean Hannity, the Fox News host, in which Mr. Zimmerman recounted his version of events before adding, “I feel that it was all God’s plan,” as Mr. O’Mara squirmed by his side. The Sanford police did not charge Mr. Zimmerman in the killing, citing insufficient evidence and Florida’s expansive “stand your ground” law, but that decision provoked national protests. Six weeks later, after Ms. Corey was assigned to the case, Mr. Zimmerman was charged with second-degree murder. But many legal experts said this week that the state had overreached and that it should have filed manslaughter charges. The jury can still find Mr. Zimmerman guilty of manslaughter, but it would fall to the prosecutors to argue for that result without appearing to concede a weakness in their case.

Trayvon Martin
George Zimmerman
Sanford FL
Murders


After Vote, Coalition Seems Likely in Kyrgyzstan

Abstract: BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan — Supporters of the government that took power after an uprising in April appeared to be on the way to winning seats in a new Parliament, but were likely to be compelled to form a coalition with at least some figures from the previous government, according to preliminary results from an election in Kyrgyzstan on Sunday. If the pattern holds, no single party will have a majority, muddying the political waters in a country where both the United States and Russia have military bases. The elections were the first here since a new Constitution was adopted in June, making Kyrgyzstan the first parliamentary republic in Central Asia. Last spring, members of the interim government had expected the election to pivot on issues of political freedoms and corruption in the government of the ousted president, Kurmanbek S. Bakiyev. Their criticism of his rule included allegations that United States military contractors had made financial deals with his family and associates. Instead, according to analysts and politicians here, security became the pivotal issue after an outbreak of ethnic violence in June between the Kyrgyz majority and Uzbek minority killed at least 400 people. Since then, Kyrgyz nationalist parties and parties whose candidates include former generals and police officials, some affiliated with the former government of Mr. Bakiyev, have gained ground. Many parties advertised on billboards with pictures of their candidates in military uniforms. “I celebrate that we cannot say who will win,” Edil Baisalov, a former chief of staff for President Roza Otunbayeva, and leader of a small party, Magnanimous People, said in an interview before the voting. “This is democracy. You have to be ready to fail in elections, ready for the people to vote you out.” Preliminary results from 30 percent of precincts counted by early Monday indicated that five parties would clear the 5 percent threshold of the national vote needed to win seats in the 120-member Parliament. These included two parties, the Social Democrats and Ata Meken , that had supported the interim government. Their strongest opponents, a Kyrgyz nationalist party and a party led by a former prime minister, Felix Kulov, were also clearing the threshold, according to the preliminary count. Russia had expressed support for Mr. Kulov’s party after Mr. Kulov said he would reverse the reforms that established a parliamentary system, and return Kyrgyzstan to presidential rule. While the total vote, expected by later Monday, could change the overall picture, no single party appeared likely gain a dominant position. The vote went smoothly, though the country was rife with rumors that losing parties would claim fraud and take to the streets. After the April uprising, the interim leaders said the question of whether to extend the lease for the American airbase at Manas, outside the capital, would be taken up by the newly elected government. The more pluralistic politics in Kyrgyzstan could complicate these negotiations. In recent weeks, the importance of Manas in supplying troops in Afghanistan from the north was underscored by attacks on fuel convoys coming into the war zone from the south, via Pakistan.

Kyrgyzstan
Politics and Government
Elections


Qaddafi Son Seif al-Islam Is Alive and Held by Rebels, Rights Group Says

Abstract: TRIPOLI, Libya — Seif al-Islam el-Qaddafi , the son and presumed heir of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, is alive and well and being held by a rebel militia outside the Libyan capital, according to an American human rights organization that was granted rare access to him. But the group said that Mr. Qaddafi had been denied access to legal counsel as he awaited trial on charges of crimes against humanity. No date has been set for his trial, nor is it clear whether he will be tried in Libya, whose justice system is in disarray, or by the International Criminal Court in The Hague. The international court issued a warrant for his arrest in June, but the Libyan authorities are insisting that he be tried on Libyan soil. A representative of Human Rights Watch , a New York-based advocacy group, saw Mr. Qaddafi on Sunday in the mountain town of Zintan southwest of the capital, where he has been held since he was captured on Nov. 19. Fred Abrahams, a researcher for the group, said that he had met with Mr. Qaddafi in private for 30 minutes, and that the Zintan fighters were treating their captive “with care.” Still, Mr. Abrahams said, Mr. Qaddafi complained of “total isolation” from his family and said he wanted to see a lawyer but had so far been denied access to one. “The new Libya should be about giving prisoners and detainees their rights,” Mr. Abrahams said. “They should give him the rights that his father denied to Libyans for so long. That would be a legal and moral victory for the new Libyan authorities, to say, ‘We will not behave like you.’ ” Though friends and supporters have not been allowed to visit Mr. Qaddafi, several high-ranking officials in Libya’s interim government have been to see him. They include the country’s general prosecutor, a former justice minister and Prime Minister Abdel Rahim el-Keeb, whom Mr. Qaddafi dismissed as “the so-called prime minister” during their meeting, Mr. Abrahams said. Rumors have circulated about the treatment of Mr. Qaddafi at the hands of the Zintan fighters, who were believed to be resisting efforts by the central government to take over his case. The office of the general prosecutor in Tripoli, Abdelaziz al-Hasadi, has jurisdiction, and gave Human Rights Watch clearance to visit Mr. Qaddafi. Mr. Abrahams was then taken to Zintan, where militia commanders appeared to be cooperating with the central authorities. Mr. Abrahams said the arrangement showed how the situation in Libya was still evolving. “It is not accurate to say he is being held by a militia outside of government control, although it is not true that he is in a prison directly controlled by the government, either,” he said. Officials said the prosecutor planned two parallel investigations of Mr. Qaddafi, one into corruption before the Libyan revolution and the other into crimes committed during the conflict. The first is under way, they said, but it was not clear when the second would begin. Abdul Majid Saad, Libya’s deputy general prosecutor, said Mr. Qaddafi would be allowed to have a lawyer as soon as he could hire one, though considering the way his family is viewed in the country, finding a willing lawyer may not be easy. “Seif al-Islam can have a local or an international lawyer, and they can come make sure the procedures we use will all be fair, and that can happen starting now,” Mr. Saad said. “Today, tomorrow, the day after tomorrow. It depends on Seif al-Islam.” Human rights activists say that the legal process for trying more than 8,000 prisoners accused of fighting for the Qaddafi government is opaque, with no trial dates set; they say none of the prisoners have access to a lawyer. “The authorities think they can be held there and just wait forever,” said Nasser Jerrari, director of the Hope Association, a local rights organization. “There are many innocent people in jail as well.” Mr. Abrahams of Human Rights Watch said that Mr. Qaddafi had no complaints about the conditions of his detention. “He said the food was good, he’s being treated well and he’s getting proper medical care,” Mr. Abrahams said. That care included the amputation of parts of Mr. Qaddafi’s right thumb and right index finger, Mr. Abrahams said, adding that Mr. Qaddafi told him that he was injured in a NATO airstrike on his convoy in Wadi Zimzim, outside the town of Bani Walid, which killed 26 of his associates, and that a doctor operated on his hand in Zintan in the last week of November. Rebel militias have emerged as influential power brokers in postwar Libya, and fighters from the town of Zintan rank among the most powerful. In addition to holding Mr. Qaddafi, they have claimed the important task of administering and protecting Tripoli International Airport, and a representative from the town is the defense minister. Tuesday was the deadline set by the transitional government for out-of-town militias to leave Tripoli, where they had been staking out turf and skirmishing with one another since the Qaddafi forces were driven out in August. Few militia commanders appeared to have complied. Mokhtar al-Akhdar, the commander of the Zintan fighters at the airport, said the postwar Libyan state was still too weak. “If the government has good people to secure the airport, then we will hand it over and go home,” he said. “But they cannot even control the border with Tunisia. If we give the government the airport, they will destroy it.”

Middle East and North Africa Unrest (2010- )

War Crimes Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity


Putin Critic in Graft Trial Could Face 10-Year Sentence

Abstract: MOSCOW — Prosecutors on Friday said they would seek a 10-year prison sentence for Aleksei A. Navalny, Russia ’s most prominent critic of President Vladimir V. Putin , on embezzlement charges that critics say are intended to crush the opposition. At a courtroom in central Moscow, prosecutors accused Mr. Navalny and his brother, Oleg, of stealing almost $500,000 from two firms, one of which is an affiliate of the French cosmetics company Yves Rocher. Prosecutors requested an eight-year sentence for Oleg Navalny. The judge in the case, Yelena Korobchenko, said later that she would announce the verdict on Jan. 15. Local reporters described the men as “in shock” after hearing about the length of the requested prison terms. Aleksei Navalny denied any guilt and cited testimony from Yves Rocher employees who said that no crime had been committed. Mr. Navalny became a prominent opposition figure after exposing corrupt deals in government companies, including contracting fraud at the state pipeline operator Transneft that he said cost the company $4 billion. Navalny on Putin, Being Bugged and Revolution Aleksei A. Navalny rose to prominence as an anticorruption blogger with a special knack for turning a memorable phrase. He became one of the leaders of the so-called white ribbon protest movement, which emerged after elections in December 2011 that were widely thought to be fraudulent. It petered out in summer 2012. Mr. Navalny ran for mayor of Moscow last year, and he won 27.2 percent of the vote. It was more than expected for an opposition candidate, but not enough to force a runoff. Mr. Navalny has also become a magnet for criminal investigations. Last year, he was convicted and sentenced to five years in prison, quickly commuted to a suspended sentence, in a separate embezzlement case. He has been living under house arrest in Moscow since February . Prosecutors on Wednesday requested nine years in prison for the Yves Rocher case. They later said Mr. Navalny should serve an additional year in prison for the remaining term from his previous conviction. Russia has increased pressure on the opposition since the beginning of the conflict in Ukraine this year. At an annual news conference on Thursday, a journalist confronted Mr. Putin for using the term “fifth column” in public speeches to discredit the opposition. “I was trying to unite society, not divide it,” Mr. Putin said.

Aleksei Navalny
Russia
Vladimir Putin
Embezzlement
Oleg A Navalny
Criminal Sentence


Former Montana Governor Won’t Run for Senate in 2014

Abstract: WASHINGTON — Brian Schweitzer, the former governor of Montana, announced Saturday that he would not run for the state’s open Senate seat in 2014, a decision that further impedes Democratic efforts to retain their majority in the midterm elections. The announcement by Mr. Schweitzer, a popular two-term governor, came as a surprise to many Democrats, who viewed him as their best hope to fill the seat being vacated by Senator Max Baucus, the Montana Democrat who earlier this year announced he would not seek re-election. In an interview with The Associated Press, Mr. Schweitzer, 57, said that while he had considered a race, “people need to know I am not running for the United States Senate.” He said that he did not want to leave Montana for Washington. In order to retake the Senate, Republicans would need to gain six seats. They welcomed Mr. Schweitzer’s decision. “This news is a pivotal, sea-change moment in our efforts to earn back the majority in the Senate,” said Brad Dayspring, a spokesman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee. Image The announcement by former Gov. Brian Schweitzer, here in 2010, came as a surprise to many Democrats. Credit Luke Sharrett/The New York Times Democrats have failed to recruit their top-choice candidates in several states, including South Dakota. Republicans are hoping to pick off four Democratic incumbents in Republican-leaning states — Senators Mark Begich of Alaska, Kay Hagan of North Carolina, Mary L. Landrieu of Louisiana and Mark Pryor of Arkansas. Mr. Schweitzer’s decision not to run opened up yet another seat that Republicans say is within their grasp. The National Republican Senatorial Committee began an intensive opposition-research effort against him over the last two months, and Mr. Schweitzer recently weathered a series of unflattering news stories linking him to a nonprofit group tied to political activities. “Just two days ago, Senate Democrats were quoted promising Brian Schweitzer tremendous resources to get in the race,” Mr. Dayspring said. “We did our homework and there was a lot of rust under Schweitzer’s hood — a lot of rust. In addition, Schweitzer looked at the race and realized he couldn’t win in light of how unpopular the Democratic agenda of higher taxes, bankrupting spending, and the Obamacare train wreck is in Montana these days.” But Democrats said they were optimistic about their chances of retaining Mr. Baucus’s seat. “We remain confident that Democrats can hold the Montana seat and the overall math still favors Democrats next year,” said Guy Cecil, the executive director of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. “Only three Democratic incumbents have lost re-election in the last decade. Our incumbents are positioned to win, we’ve already recruited a strong challenger to Mitch McConnell and Republicans have failed to expand the Senate map into blue and purple states.” Senator Jon Tester, Democrat of Montana, said he understood Mr. Schweitzer’s decision and looked forward to other talented Democrats stepping up. “Running for the U.S. Senate is a big decision for a potential candidate and their family,” Mr. Tester said. “Just because this year wasn’t the right time for Brian to run doesn’t mean we don’t have great Montana Democrats who are willing to run and capable of winning the seat.” The list of potential Democratic candidates in Montana includes: Denise Juneau, the state public schools superintendent; Monica Lindeen, Montana’s securities and insurance commissioner; Brian Morris, a Montana Supreme Court justice; Stephanie Schriock, president of Emily’s List, the influential political action committee that backs Democratic women who support abortion rights; and State Senator Kendall Van Dyk.

Brian Schweitzer
Senate races
Democrats
Max Baucus
Montana


Literacy Laws Challenge Third Graders and Schools

Abstract: CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Educators like to say that third grade is the year when students go from “learning to read” to “reading to learn.” Yet one afternoon last month, there was Anthony, a 10-year-old whose small frame was highlighted by baggy black cargo shorts, struggling with “Tiny the Snow Dog,” a picture book with only a handful of words per page. “This is Tiny,” he read to his teacher, Holly Bryant. “He is my dog.” Anthony is one of about 1,900 children from the Charlotte-Mecklenberg School District who failed the standardized reading test given to all North Carolina third graders in the spring. Under a recent law similar to those in more than a dozen states, such students in North Carolina may be required to repeat the grade. The law, being applied this year to third graders for the first time, poses a set of thorny educational challenges. About 1,500 students — or one of every eight who completed third grade in Charlotte in June — ended up enrolling in literacy school, along with Anthony, who has been attending four days a week for the past six weeks. Fourteen states in 2012 enacted policies either mandating or strongly recommending that schools hold back students who could not read properly by third grade. Districts in Arizona and Colorado also offered summer school for struggling third-grade readers for the first time this year, then will consider whether to hold back some of them before the new school year begins. While the summer courses are likely to make some difference, teachers here and around the country say the third-grade laws are another example of lofty educational goals paired with insufficient resources. A six-week course, they say, cannot possibly make up for what Anthony and the others need: the extra help and focus should start in preschool. “It’s like, O.K., we’re going to do this, and if kids don’t read at third-grade level, they’re going to be held back,” said Bill Anderson, a former principal and executive director of MeckEd, an education advocacy group in Mecklenberg County. “And, oh, by the way, there’s not going to be any money for this. School districts just have to figure this out.” Image About 1,500 children in the Charlotte district took the reading classes. Credit Megan Gielow for The New York Times In North Carolina, the state provided some funding, but districts also relied on nonprofit foundations to supplement the costs of the summer reading academies. State budget reductions in recent years have led to larger class sizes and a reduction in teaching assistants, even in the youngest elementary classes. Fewer than a quarter of the state’s 4-year-olds are enrolled in state-funded preschool, according to the National Institute for Early Education Research . Although many of the new state laws do include provisions requiring schools to identify and support students who show signs of reading difficulties as early as kindergarten, the biggest focus does not come until third grade, along with the consequences for schools and students. “The emphasis is in the wrong place, and it ought to be much earlier,” said Barbara O’Brien, policy director of the Campaign for Grade Level Reading, a nonprofit advocacy group, and a former lieutenant governor of Colorado. “I think it’s bittersweet that we have this almost national focus and agreement on what’s important, and it’s at a time when no one wants to spend money to do things the right way.” Educators also say that many out-of-school factors contribute to a child’s reading ability. Research suggests and the American Academy of Pediatrics recently issued a policy recommending that parents read to their babies from birth. The policies follow the pattern of many other educational reform efforts that impose consequences for failure to meet certain goals. “It’s sort of the hammer falls under certain conditions,” said Robert C. Pianta, dean of the Curry School of Education at the University of Virginia. In the absence of a strong reading curriculum and teacher training between pre-K and third grade, he said, holding students back a grade seems “in some sense unfair to kids.” In Florida, one of the pioneers in holding back third graders because of inadequate reading skills, all teachers are required to assess children’s reading levels starting in kindergarten and to offer extra support for children who have trouble learning to read. “Principals did start looking at this as, ‘We’ve got four years to make sure this happens,’ ” said Mary Laura Bragg, vice president of advocacy at the Foundation for Excellence in Education, a nonprofit founded by former Gov. Jeb Bush, “not just, ‘Oh, we’ve got to start looking at this in third grade.’ ” Ms. Bragg served as head of reading initiatives with the Florida Department of Education under Mr. Bush, who backed the state’s policy on holding back struggling third-grade readers when he was governor. Image Carter Alexander, 9, taking part in the Read to Achieve program last month at Cotswold Elementary in Charlotte, N.C. Credit Megan Gielow for The New York Times Florida introduced its policy in 2002, and between that year and 2013, the percentage of fourth graders reaching proficiency in reading on national tests rose to 39 percent from 27 percent, one of the largest improvements in the country. Research using Florida’s test results has also shown that, on average, students who repeated third grade performed better on standardized reading tests through middle school than peers who had scored just a few points above the cutoff for moving up to fourth grade. But lasting results are harder to document. The percentage of Florida eighth graders reaching proficiency in reading on national tests rose from 29 percent in 2002 to just 33 percent in 2013, similar to increases elsewhere in the country. Other studies show that students who must repeat a grade drop out of high school at higher rates than their peers. In North Carolina, the law originally mandated a repeated grade and summer school for any third grader who could not demonstrate proficiency at reading either on the end-of-year standardized test or other measures, including portfolios amassed by teachers. The policy offered exemptions for students with learning disabilities or those who had been learning English for two years or less. After pressure from parents, teachers and advocacy groups, the Legislature modified the law to offer school districts and principals more flexibility in assessing students’ reading abilities and in placing them after third grade. Also, while districts had to offer the summer reading classes, struggling students were not required to attend. With states starting to align standardized tests with the Common Core, new academic standards that have been adopted by more than 40 states, more students have fallen short of proficiency guidelines than in the past. That could mean many more third graders subject to the new policies about repeating the year. The challenges for teachers were evident in Charlotte on a recent morning. In one classroom, Emily Hill, who teaches kindergarten during the school year, was instructing two 9-year-olds on how to pronounce vowel combinations like “ai,” “ie” and “ee.” In another class, full of students who had tested at around a second-grade reading level at the end of third grade, Ullanda Tyler, a teacher with 11 years of experience, had moved beyond basic phonics to work on vocabulary and skills like inference. Yet students still had trouble explaining definitions she had recently taught. All students who attended the summer classes took a test at the end to measure their progress. Later this month, principals in Charlotte will decide which of the students must repeat third grade. Reading experts said children should not be in such a position this late in elementary school. “If I were a parent and I had a struggling third grader, I would get whatever help I could to help get them up to speed,” said Deborah J. Stipek, dean of the Graduate School of Education at Stanford University. “But if I were a state policymaker or superintendent, I would say, ‘What can we offer these kids in pre-K, kindergarten and first grade so they aren’t behind when they get to third grade?’ ”

Reading and Writing Skills
Tests
K-12 Education
North Carolina
Summer school


Blueprints for Taming the Climate Crisis

Abstract: Here’s what your future will look like if we are to have a shot at preventing devastating climate change. Within about 15 years every new car sold in the United States will be electric. In fact, by midcentury more than half of the American economy will run on electricity. Up to 60 percent of power might come from nuclear sources. And coal’s footprint will shrink drastically, perhaps even disappear from the power supply. This course, created by a team of energy experts, was unveiled on Tuesday in a report for the United Nations that explores the technological paths available for the world’s 15 main economies to both maintain reasonable rates of growth and cut their carbon emissions enough by 2050 to prevent climatic havoc. It offers a sobering conclusion. We might be able to pull it off. But it will take an overhaul of the way we use energy, and a huge investment in the development and deployment of new energy technologies. Significantly, it calls for an entirely different approach to international diplomacy on the issue of how to combat climate change. “This will require a heroic cooperative effort,” said Jeffrey D. Sachs, the Columbia University economist who directs the Sustainable Development Solutions Network at the United Nations, which convened the multinational teams. The teams, one in each of the 15 countries, looked at what would be necessary to keep the atmosphere from warming more than 2 degrees Celsius, 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit, above the preindustrial average of the late 19th century, a target that most of the world committed to at the climate summit meeting in Copenhagen five years ago. To do so, CO 2 emissions from industry and energy use would have to fall to at most 1.6 tons a year for every person on the planet by midcentury. That is less than a tenth of annual American emissions per person today and less than a third of the world average. And we haven’t quite figured out how to get from here to there. The American team built several paths that would hit the target, using different mixes of nuclear power, renewable energy and fossil fuels with carbon capture and storage technology. So did the Russian team, aided by the expected shrinking of the Russian population. But the Chinese team was stymied by the country’s vast heavy industry — its steel makers and cement plants, which use enormous amounts of energy. The best it could do was chart a path that took CO 2 emissions to some 3.4 tons per person by midcentury. “We have shipped a lot of industry to China,” Mr. Sachs said. “Industry is hard to decarbonize.” Over all, the teams built plausible technological paths to cut annual emissions across the 15 countries only to about 2.3 tons per person. The analysis, however, offers solid ground for hope. The teams expect to improve on these paths in coming months. Faster deployment of some technologies than assumed could provide for deeper decarbonization in several countries. What’s more, likely changes in economic structure in coming decades — such as China’s expected shift away from heavy industry — could further shrink the carbon footprint. Most important, the assessment offers an opportunity to end decades of inconsequential horse-trading over climate change and to start addressing the problem for real. Five years since political leaders from countries around the world committed to do whatever it took to keep global temperatures from rising more than two degrees above the preindustrial average, no one had taken the trouble, until now, to evaluate how that might be achieved. Lacking any understanding of the feasibility of the exercise, governments postured and jockeyed over which country should be responsible for what, offering as little as they could get away with in actual reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, whether the collective effort met the two-degree commitment or not. “If governments don’t have any idea of what two degrees means in their countries, how can they commit to two degrees?” asked Guido Schmidt-Traub, executive director of the Sustainable Development Network. The report commissioned by the United Nations could end the jockeying: to stick to the two-degree limit every country, rich and poor, must reduce annual CO 2 emissions to 1.6 tons per person, whether it is responsible for a lot or a little of the climate change so far. This is dictated not by fairness, but by our technological frontier. There is wiggle room for negotiation. China’s emissions from manufacturing would look smaller if they were allocated to consuming rather than producing countries . Still, we know of no feasible technology that would allow, say, the United States to have negative emissions in 2050 so India or China could emit more. The new assessment also underscores the pointlessness of small, incremental emissions cuts. Under the path, the United States decarbonizes its energy supply at an average pace of almost 4 percent a year over the next four decades. That is more than 10 times faster than the Energy Information Administration’s forecast last year. China takes CO 2 out of its energy about six times as fast as the E.I.A.’s forecast. This is not achievable by going after low-hanging fruit, such as replacing coal with natural gas in power plants. Doing so could even be counterproductive, locking the country’s energy infrastructure into a high-carbon path. Most important, perhaps, the new assessment suggests that deep decarbonization can be done without breaking any economy. Chinese incomes, for instance, are assumed to grow about 4.6 percent a year until midcentury. The decarbonization paths rely on aggressive assumptions about our ability to deploy new technologies on a commercial scale economically. For instance, carbon capture and storage is supposed to be available starting in about 10 years. Second-generation biofuels are assumed to come into play by 2020. Hydrogen fuel cells and power storage technology are deployed starting around 2030. But these technologies all exist today and seem reasonably scalable. The teams did not rely on more speculative technologies, like cold fusion, to make their numbers. The new approach — which the United Nations hopes will inform the debate up to the next climate summit in Paris in fall 2015 — could offer a path out of the stalemate that international climate negotiations have become. No country will commit legally to slash its CO 2 emissions by 80 percent over the next 40 years. But if there is a map, many might offer their best effort to follow it. Absent a legal commitment, a long-term path could encourage the large investments ultimately required to address the problem. “Governments won’t precommit to huge technological revolutions on a legal basis,” Professor Sachs said. “Countries might be willing to aspire more on a conditional basis.” What’s more, countries are more likely to participate if they understand what everybody else is trying. “The Chinese want to see an American pathway to two degrees,” Mr. Schmidt-Traub said. Big challenges remain. Any 40-year forecast must be taken with some skepticism. Technologies that seem feasible and economic today might turn out not to be. And it bears repeating that though the teams contend they can get to 1.6 tons per person, they have not yet. Russia, for instance, hit the target. But Oleg Lugovoy of the Environmental Defense Fund, who worked on the Russian plan, observed that “if we don’t have carbon capture and storage we would have to reconsider.” And while sketching a technological path toward a low carbon economy will certainly help ground in reality the abstract negotiations over the future of climate, it does not do away with the main hitch that has stumped progress for decades: How much will this all cost and who will pay for it? The team purposefully did not assess the costs of their paths to prevent distributional arguments from flaring up immediately. That gives policy makers space to consider the implications without having to stake out a negotiating stance. An assessment of costs and how they could be distributed will be added in a next iteration to be published next spring. Debates over cost allocation and technology transfer could still hamstring prospects of substantive international collaboration. But despite these risks, the report offers a promising new path to overcome the decades-old logjam of climate change negotiations. For the first time, when we say we can stop the climate from heating we will more or less know what we are talking about.

Greenhouse gas
UNFCCC
Carbon dioxide
Carbon Capture
Climate Change
Global Warming
Jeffrey D Sachs
Environment
UN


Pennsylvania: Governor Signs Law to Help Protect Crime Victims

Abstract: Ignoring the chants of protesters on the block where a Philadelphia police officer was killed decades ago and the cause célèbre of Mumia Abu-Jamal was born, Gov. Tom Corbett signed into law Tuesday a measure he said would curb the “obscene celebrity” cultivated by convicts at the expense of victims. The law allows prosecutors or crime victims to seek an injunction when an offender’s conduct “perpetuates the continuing effect of the crime,” including causing “mental anguish.” The measure won unanimous approval in the State Legislature last week after Mr. Abu-Jamal, serving a life sentence for the 1981 shooting death of Officer Daniel Faulkner, delivered a recorded commencement address this month to 21 graduates of tiny Goddard College in Vermont. “This unrepentant cop killer has tested the limits of decency,” Governor Corbett said. Mr. Abu-Jamal, 60, drew international support in the decades since his conviction with claims that he is the victim of a racist justice system.

Pennsylvania
Crime
Tom Corbett
Legislation
Mumia Abu-Jamal
Daniel Faulkner


Diana Inquest Hears Fayed’s Accusations

Abstract: LONDON — Mohamed al-Fayed waited more than 10 years for the day in open court when he could lay out his theory of high-level conspiracy in the deaths of Princess Diana and his son Dodi, her lover when both died in a Paris car crash in August 1997. When the moment came on Monday, in the fifth month of the long-delayed inquest into their deaths, Mr. Fayed, the 75-year-old owner of the Harrods department store, outdid himself with sensational new twists to his accusations that Britain ’s royal family was behind the crash. In a written statement he read before the packed benches of Room 73 in the Royal Courts of Justice, and under questioning, Mr. Fayed repeated his central claim: What caused the high-speed impact with a pillar in the Pont de l’Alma tunnel beside the Seine was not, as lengthy official inquiries by the French and British authorities found, that their Mercedes was traveling at excessive speed to outpace pursuing photographers and driven by a man who had been drinking heavily, but a conspiracy led by Prince Philip, now 86, the husband of Queen Elizabeth. And, he said, it was “executed” by the British and French secret intelligence services, with help from the C.I.A. But this time, Mr. Fayed added a new co-conspirator, Prince Charles, 59, Diana’s divorced husband and heir to the throne. Mr. Fayed said Charles had “participated” in the plot so that he could marry his “crocodile wife,” Camilla Parker-Bowles. By arranging for Diana and his son to be killed, Mr. Fayed said, Philip and Charles had saved the royal family from having the princess marry a Muslim and bear his child. “They cleared the decks,” he said. “They murdered her.” For the first time, Mr. Fayed said Diana had told him she was pregnant in a telephone call an hour before the couple left the Ritz Hotel on the brief journey that ended with the crash. He said the couple told him during the call that they planned to announce their engagement within days, once the princess had informed her sons, Prince William and Prince Harry. Medical and forensic experts who have testified at the inquest have said there was no evidence that she was pregnant when she died. Aides to Mr. Fayed told British newspapers they had urged him not to resort to the kind of provocative language he has commonly used regarding the royal family since the crash, lest he alienate the appeal court court judge sitting as coroner, Lord Justice Scott Baker, or the 11-member jury. But Mr. Fayed — son of a Cairo school inspector who rose from the management of a furniture store in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, to the ownership of Harrods, a 65,000-acre estate in Scotland and the Fulham soccer club in London — expressed himself as explosively as ever. He called Philip a “Nazi” and a “racist.” He said Philip could not accept the idea of Diana, mother to a future British king, marrying Dodi, a Muslim, “somebody who is naturally tanned, with curly hair.” He referred to the bloodline of Prince Philip, who was born in Greece into a family connected to several European royal families, including the German House of Battenberg, which was Anglicized to Mountbatten. “It’s time to send him back to Germany from where he comes,” Mr. Fayed said. “You want to know his original name? It’s Frankenstein.” The inquest is in many ways a forum fashioned by Mr. Fayed to test his conspiracy theories. He spent millions of dollars in legal battles to ensure the inquest would be held, despite the decade-long delay, under a British law that requires a coroner to rule on the cause of death of any British subject who dies abroad when the body is repatriated. He made sure the inquest would be held in public and before a jury, conditions vigorously opposed by the royal family and many in Britain’s legal establishment. With a legal team led by Michael Mansfield, a high-profile barrister who made his reputation in some of Britain’s most sensational libel cases, Mr. Fayed has seen to it, by calling dozens of witnesses, that few corners of Diana’s life have been left unexplored. The inquest has heard from Buckingham Palace aides, the princess’s closest friends, members of her personal staff and bodyguards, and one of her sisters, along with policemen, ambulance crewmen, doctors and others who tried to save her on the night of the crash. Little has been spared, not even details of relationships the princess had with several other men before the brief, final affair with Mohamed al-Fayed’s son. Mr. Fayed began his testimony by saying he would make “no allegations,” but he quickly repeated charges he has made over the years. He said the princess had told him of her fear that she would be killed. “She told me that she knew Prince Philip and Prince Charles were trying to get rid of her,” he said. In questioning Mr. Fayed, Lord Justice Scott Baker and lawyers who were not part of his own legal team implied that credulity was strained by the number of people Mr. Fayed claimed were involved in the conspiracy, ranging from former Prime Minister Tony Blair “and his senior henchmen” to French, British and American security personnel, medical and forensic experts in Paris, Britain’s ambassador to France at the time of the crash, two former heads of Scotland Yard and the private secretary to Queen Elizabeth, among others. Challenged to provide proof to support his claims, Mr. Fayed said he had faced an uphill struggle against the powerful forces arrayed against him. “You want me to get the proof, but I am facing a steel wall from the security services,” he said. A lawyer for Scotland Yard, Richard Horwell, gave the day’s sharpest rebuke, saying, “You haven’t even permitted this woman to have dignity in death, have you, Mr. Fayed?”

Diana Princess of Wales
Fayed Mohamed al-
Royal Family
Great Britain


George Kissell, a Mentor to Baseball Players, Dies at 88

Abstract: George Kissell, who became one of baseball’s most renowned teachers in a long career with the St. Louis Cardinals’ organization as a manager, player, coach and instructor, died Tuesday in Tampa, Fla., of injuries in an auto accident on Monday. Kissell, who lived in Pinellas Park, near St. Petersburg, was 88. Kissell’s death was announced by the Cardinals. The Pinellas Park police said Kissell had been a passenger in a car driven by his daughter, Karolyn Kidwell, that collided with another auto. Kissell never played in the major leagues, but he tutored virtually every player who made it to the Cardinals through their minor league system going back to the 1940s, and he imparted his baseball wisdom to players arriving in St. Louis from other major league teams. What became known as the Cardinals way — their approach to fielding, hitting and strategy — was essentially the Kissell way. In 1971, when Kissell was a Cardinals coach, he oversaw Joe Torre’s switch from catcher to third baseman, working with him daily in spring training and providing insights that served Torre well long after he left St. Louis. “He’d stand behind me and throw a ball off a concrete wall, and I’d have to react to its bounce and catch it,” Torre recalled in his memoir “Chasing the Dream.” “The more we did it, the closer I moved to the wall, and the closer I moved to the wall, the more my reaction time quickened.” Torre remembered how Kissell also convinced him that his feet were spread too wide apart in his fielding stance. Rather than simply ordering Torre to make a change, Kissell likened his stance to that of a basketball defender who would be ill-positioned to guard against a fleet player like Bob Cousy. “I learned one of many lessons from George that day,” Torre wrote. “As a manager, you have to find a way to communicate with people — to correct and suggest things — without having them resent you for it.” Kissell, who grew up in the Watertown, N.Y., area, was signed by the Cardinals’ organization in 1940. He played for three seasons in the minor leagues, then served in the Navy during World War II. He was a minor league manager, instructor and scout in the Cardinals’ system from 1946 to 1968 and a coach for the Cardinals from 1969 to 1975. He tutored players in the Cardinals’ system after that at spring training and directed their winter instructional camps in Florida. At his death, he was the Cardinals’ senior field coordinator for player development. In 1993, Kissell received the King of Baseball award from minor league baseball for his service to the game. In 2005, the Cardinals named their spring training clubhouse in Jupiter, Fla., for him. In addition to his daughter, Kissell’s survivors include his wife, Virginia, and a son, Dick, according to The St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Whitey Herzog, the former Cardinals manager and general manager, marveled at Kissell’s rapport with young players and his love for the game. “He is one of those baseball lifers that loves to talk baseball, and kids eat that up,” Herzog told The Tampa Tribune in 2005. “George Kissell is the only man I know who can talk for 15 minutes about a ground ball.”


New York City’s Jobless Rate Drops to Lowest Level in 5 Years

Abstract: In Mayor Bill de Blasio’s first month in office, New York City’s unemployment rate continued its long, gradual decline, falling below 8 percent for the first time in five years. But the city’s rate, which dropped to 7.8 percent in January, is still significantly higher than the nation’s, and more than 100,000 residents of the state have lost their extended unemployment benefits before they could find jobs, the State Labor Department reported on Thursday. Lawmakers in Washington did not renew the extended benefits that had been available to the long-term unemployed since the depths of the last recession. The report from the Labor Department provided the first look at the condition of the New York City labor market in 2014. It included the annual revision of past data, which reduced the unemployment rate for December to 8 percent, from the 8.1 percent rate that the department originally reported. The last time the city recorded an official unemployment rate of less than 8 percent was in January 2009, just as the financial crisis was taking hold. The monthly jobs survey that accompanies the unemployment report showed that the city shed fewer jobs in January than it normally does that month. Certain types of employers, including stores, hotels and restaurants, usually take on additional workers before the year-end holidays and lay them off when business cools in the new year. All told, the city lost about 77,000 jobs in January, much less than the 10-year average loss of about 100,000 in the first month of the year, said Elena Volovelsky, an economist with the Labor Department. But after accounting for the usual seasonal fluctuations, that loss translated to a gain of about 22,000 jobs in January, according to Barbara Byrne Denham, an independent economist who adjusts the city numbers to be comparable with those for the state and nation. Every industry other than the government added jobs in January, on a seasonally adjusted basis, Ms. Denham said. But even with a slight gain, Wall Street still employed fewer people than it did at the end of 2012, she said. “Wall Street is not adding jobs,” Ms. Denham said. “It’s just in one of the longest, most protracted slumps in that industry since the Great Depression.” The Labor Department said that the number of jobs in the city surpassed 4 million for the first time in January, and that employment in the state was at a record high of 7.53 million jobs. Ms. Volovelsky said the cold and snowy weather did not have a marked effect on employment. “It probably had some effect, but it’s hard to measure,” she said. Statewide, there was a slight loss of jobs, on a seasonally adjusted basis. The state lost about 1,400 jobs, but many of those that were eliminated came from government. About 5,400 private jobs were added in January, while the statewide unemployment rate fell to 6.8 percent, from 7 percent in December. The unemployment rate does not account for all residents who are out of work, only those who tried to find jobs. It also does not reflect how many people are collecting unemployment insurance payments. Those benefits normally go to people for up to 26 weeks after the loss of a job. But in hard times when new jobs are scarce, the federal government offers additional benefits. At one point in the last recession, some people were eligible to collect unemployment payments for 99 weeks. But by early January, fewer than 190,000 state residents were collecting regular unemployment benefits. The Labor Department said the expiration of extended benefits at the end of 2013 “impacted 102,700 state residents,” or about one-eighth of the 1.3 million Americans who lost their extended benefits. The national unemployment rate for January was 6.6 percent. The federal Labor Department is scheduled to release national figures for February on Friday morning.


Obama’s Test: Can Penalties Change Russia’s Course?

Abstract: WASHINGTON — After Russia invaded Crimea, a senior American official vowed to “make it hurt.” More than two weeks later, Moscow has given no sign that it feels any pain, and the challenge for President Obama is whether he is willing or able to inflict enough to change the Kremlin’s calculus. When President Vladimir V. Putin signed an annexation treaty on Tuesday, he essentially laughed off the modest sanctions imposed so far by the United States and Europe, all but guaranteeing that Mr. Obama and his allies will follow up with another round. “More is coming,” Jay Carney, the White House spokesman, said after the Moscow ceremony. But it remained unclear just how much more, not just in the next 24 hours, but in the longer run. Mr. Obama’s critics and even some supporters were surprised and disappointed that the financial sanctions he imposed on Monday were applied to only 11 Russian and Ukrainian figures who were unlikely to have many assets to freeze in the United States. The president quickly came under pressure from both sides of the aisle on Tuesday to be more assertive. “Putin has dramatically escalated this crisis by taking the decision to annex Crimea,” said Michael McFaul, who was Mr. Obama’s ambassador in Moscow until a couple of weeks ago. “The Obama administration must respond and expand the list of sanctioned individuals well beyond what was announced yesterday.” David J. Kramer, an assistant secretary of state under President George W. Bush and now the president of Freedom House, a Washington-based advocacy group, said sanctions should target the most senior officials in Moscow, Russian banks and state-owned enterprises, and eventually Mr. Putin himself. Video As President Putin announces the annexation of Crimea, a look at the geopolitical costs and how China is closely watching the situation. Credit Credit Alisa Borovikova/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images “Until Putin and his circle pay a real price for their actions — and I think the U.S. and E.U. can impose such a price — the Kremlin won’t see a reason to stop,” Mr. Kramer said. Senior administration officials said they were trying to stage their response, starting relatively modestly to make the point that their punitive actions can grow much more damaging if Mr. Putin does not reverse course. They had hoped that their approach would allow room for Mr. Putin to stop short of actual annexation after a Russian-supported referendum in Crimea on Sunday, a hope that has now proved unfounded. Realistically, American officials recognize that there is now little chance of prying Crimea out of Moscow’s hands, although that is not something they will admit publicly. Instead, the goal is to make Mr. Putin at least pay a price for Crimea and to deter him from escalating the crisis by further destabilizing the largely Russian-speaking eastern Ukraine or even trying to take control of parts of it outright. After the annexation treaty signing on Tuesday, the United States and six other industrial powers that belong to the Group of 8 with Russia all but signaled that they will throw it out of the organization. Instead of traveling to Sochi in June, where Mr. Putin was scheduled to host this year’s G-8 meeting, Mr. Obama invited leaders of the rest of the group, reconstituting themselves as the G-7, to meet in The Hague to talk about Ukraine next week on the sidelines of a previously scheduled nuclear summit meeting. Mr. Carney said the United States would also expand its sanctions, and noted that the geopolitical uncertainty had already taken a toll on Russia’s currency and markets. “I wouldn’t if I were you invest in Russian equities right now unless you’re going short,” he said. And yet world markets rose on Tuesday after Mr. Putin’s speech and action, either shrugging off the crisis or interpreting his reassurance that he did not want to split Ukraine as a signal that he would be satisfied after taking Crimea. The ruble, bolstered by Russia’s central bank, backed off the record lows it had fallen to in recent days. Video President Obama announced sanctions aimed at President Vladimir V. Putin’s inner circle. Credit Credit Gabriella Demczuk/The New York Times Either way, Mr. Obama was left on the defensive against critics who said he was not being strong enough. Mitt Romney, his Republican challenger in the 2012 election, said Tuesday that Mr. Obama and his team waited too long to project strength and prepare possible punishments before Mr. Putin sent troops into Crimea. “Part of their failure, I submit, is due to their failure to act when action was possible, and needed,” Mr. Romney wrote in The Wall Street Journal. Mr. Carney said it was “preposterous” and “provably wrong” to suggest, as other critics have, that the president sent a signal of weakness that emboldened Mr. Putin after failing to follow through on threats to retaliate against Syria last year for a chemical weapons attack on civilians. Mr. Carney went on to note that Mr. Bush’s willingness to invade Iraq “didn’t seem to affect Russia’s calculations when it came to its actions in Georgia” in 2008. Mr. Obama has given himself more tools to use against Russia, if he chooses to do so. An executive order he signed on Monday authorizes sanctions against not just Russian government officials but also the Russian arms industry and Russian oligarchs who support Mr. Putin’s rule. One Russian who has been on some lists of possible targets circulated in Washington and Brussels is Igor Sechin, a longtime Putin adviser who is now the president of Rosneft, the state oil company. Rosneft is deeply entwined in a variety of projects with ExxonMobil, including a joint venture signed in December to develop oil reserves in Siberia. If Mr. Sechin is barred from traveling to the United States and has his personal assets frozen, current and former government officials said that could put the partnership between the oil companies in real jeopardy. Republicans in Washington are also pushing Mr. Obama to be more assertive to break Russia’s energy grip over Ukraine and Europe. “If we are serious about challenging Putin’s aggression,” said Representative Ed Royce, Republican of California, the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, “the U.S. and our European allies should make an all-out effort to break that grip.”

US Foreign Policy
Barack Obama
Crimea
Russia
Vladimir Putin
Sanctions
Ukraine


Debated Home Run Recalls a Moment of Yankees Lore

Abstract: In this season’s move from the old Yankee Stadium to the new one, much has been said about the transfer of venerated franchise legends from across the street. One memory — that of the “Jeffrey Maier homer” — was revived Sunday afternoon when Jorge Posada hit a much-debated pinch-hit two-run homer in the seventh inning to rally the Yankees to a 7-3 victory against the Cleveland Indians . As was the case in the old park in 1996, when the youthful Maier reached over the right-field fence to assist a home run by Derek Jeter in the American League Championship Series, Sunday’s home run was discussed at length by the managers and umpires. Did Posada’s fly ball really clear the wall? Did a fan interfere? Unlike in 1996, when Maier reached down below the top of the wall to deflect a ball Orioles right fielder Tony Tarasco thought he could catch, Indians right fielder Trevor Crowe was reaching above the top of the wall. And also unlike 1996, the major leagues of 2009 use video review . Although there was room for disagreement even after the review, it was determined that Posada’s fly ball was a legitimate home run. “I didn’t think it was gone,” Posada said, referring to his initial reaction after hitting the ball. But Posada later watched several angles of replay, as the umpires presumably did. “They did the right thing,” Posada said. The umpiring crew, led by Jerry Crawford, declined to explain its decision after the game. Eric Wedge, Cleveland’s manager, said the hand of a fan and Crowe’s glove met at the same time at the top of the fence. Had that happened, interference might have been called. “All I know is my glove was where the ball was going to be and the fans got to it first,” Crowe said. “What interfered with the play was the fans. I got up there, but the fans were over my glove.” Replays seemed to show that the ball might have hit a fan and that it certainly hit the top of the fence before bouncing back onto the field off Crowe’s glove. Such debates might not have been necessary if the Yankees had as many empty seats in the cheaper outfield rows as they did in the high-priced chairs around the infield. Paid attendance was announced as 43,068, but once again there were many empty seats near the field , including entire vacant rows in the lower deck behind the Yankees’ dugout. The Posada home run gave the Yankees their first lead of the day, 4-3. It came off Indians reliever Jensen Lewis, ruining a good six-inning effort by Carl Pavano, the former Yankee who started for the Indians and gave up just one run. The Yankees added three runs in the eighth when Cody Ransom hit a three-run double with two outs on a fly ball that dropped near the left-field line ahead of Shin-Soo Choo. A. J. Burnett, the Yankees’ starter, left with one out in the seventh after giving up three runs. The winning pitcher was Jonathan Albaladejo, the first relief pitcher, who entered with the bases loaded and one out and finished the inning by getting the next two outs on two ground balls. Brian Bruney and Mariano Rivera finished up. Cleveland took a 3-0 lead on a solo home run by Choo in the second inning and a two-run homer by Ryan Garko in the fourth. Pavano retired the first 10 batters until Jeter doubled with one out in the fourth. He scored on a single by Mark Teixeira to cut the Indians’ lead to 3-1. Pavano, in his first season with the Indians, spent the previous four with the Yankees but made only 26 starts because of injuries , compiling a record of 9-8 and an earned run average of 5.00. Burnett walked seven, hit a batter and threw three wild pitches. Jeter, whose fan-assisted homer in 1996 helped propel the Yankees to a World Series title, was asked if Posada’s homer Sunday reminded him of his 13 years before. “No,” Jeter said. Asked why not, he replied, “Because it went over the fence.” Inside Pitch Joe Girardi said Chien-Ming Wang had no pain or injury to explain his 0-3 record and 34.50 earned run average. Because the Yankees have an off day on Thursday after a three-game series with Oakland, they may skip Wang’s regular start in the rotation Friday in Boston and go with a four-man rotation for the next week. Referring to Wang’s performance in a 22-4 loss to the Indians on Saturday, Girardi said he thought Wang threw more good sinkers Saturday than he did in his first two starts combined.

New York Yankees
Cleveland Indians
Baseball
Yankee Stadium (NYC)