Rice Approaches New Role With Diplomacy

Abstract: STANFORD, Calif. — John Wesley Rice played football and coached football. He loved football. He was an offensive tackle, and he taught his daughter to appreciate line play and games called on the radio, and they religiously followed the Alabama Crimson Tide and the Cleveland Browns. His daughter, Condoleezza Rice, would become national security adviser and secretary of state. But when she was a diplomat, her football obsession only deepened. She often recalled her first in-person Alabama football contest. It was 1966 or ’67. Ken Stabler was the quarterback. Rice shared that memory again on Saturday as she stood on a terrace at Stanford Stadium, her beloved Cardinal minutes from the opening kickoff against U.C.L.A. Earlier in the week, Rice was named to the college football playoff selection committee, and her nomination drew mild criticism from football cave men and widespread acclaim elsewhere. Clad in Cardinal red, she paused for the national anthem, her right hand over her heart. She looked down at the band and the cheerleaders and the players, all the pomp of another college football Saturday. She was asked what her father, who died in 2000, would make of all this: first, that next season there would be a college football playoff; then, that his daughter would help select the teams. Image Condoleezza Rice is an ardent fan of college football. Credit David Steinkraus/Journal Times, via Associated Press “He’d be thrilled about the playoff system,” she said. “I think he’d think I’ve finally found honest work.” John Wesley Rice, like a lot of college football fans, thought that the way national champions were selected made little sense. The 1966 season caused much consternation in that regard. That was the year Notre Dame went for a tie against Michigan State, and both teams finished the season undefeated and ahead of Alabama in the polls. Both Michigan State and Notre Dame were crowned national champions by the various entities who made selections. Alabama, also undefeated, winner of the Sugar Bowl, generally came in third. Rice and her father had listened to Notre Dame-Michigan State on the radio. “He was so frustrated that the national champion had a tie,” she said. “He was never satisfied with that. You had split polls. You had subjectivity. Like all football fans, there was always frustration about not determining the champion head-to-head.” That will change next season, when a selection committee with about 230 combined years of experience in college football, with three Hall of Famers and a former member of Congress and a retired three-star general, will pick four teams for a semifinal format. The committee does not lack brainpower. It includes a Rhodes scholar, three Phi Beta Kappa graduates, two academic all-Americans and a reporter who recently retired. Image Notre Dame Coach Ara Parseghian and Michigan State’s Duffy Daugherty after their undefeated teams tied in 1966. Credit Associated Press Rice was the lone woman named to the committee, less than 14 months after she became one of the first two female members at Augusta National Golf Club. Some, notably the former Auburn coach Pat Dye, took exception to her inclusion. Dye said that everything she knew about football had been learned secondhand, that she could not understand the sport without having played “with your hand in the dirt.” Never mind that the same could be said of some male committee members. Or that Rice spent Saturday much the way she spends most Saturdays: awake at 6 a.m., her television tuned to ESPN’s “College GameDay.” That was followed by game surfing between Minnesota-Northwestern, South Carolina-Tennessee and Navy-Toledo; followed by the Stanford home game; followed by more television time at night. She even planned to catch ESPN’s “College Football Final” before bed. Rice cared little for the controversy, which dissipated almost as quickly as it flared. She is familiar with both criticism and football, a combination ideal for a committee that will make tough decisions for each postseason. She regularly talks football with David Shaw, Stanford’s coach. Asked about the hubbub over her credentials, he said: “There were questions about Andrew Luck’s arm strength, too. I feel the same way about her.” (Luck was an all-American and a No. 1 overall draft choice. He is now a budding N.F.L. star with Indianapolis.) From 1993 to 1999, Rice served as Stanford’s provost. The athletic department reported to her office for things like budgets and compliance. She was on the committees that hired Dennis Green and Tyrone Willingham as football coaches. Willingham was also named a member of the selection committee last week. He led the Cardinal to the Rose Bowl in the 1999 season, coincidentally the last game Rice watched in person with her father. Image The teams became national champions in much-debated selections. Credit Michigan State University, via Associated Press Larry Scott, the commissioner of the Pacific-12 Conference, first broached to Rice the idea of her fit on the selection committee. “Why me?” was her initial reaction. He told her that the conference commissioners wanted a variety of backgrounds and integrity in decision making, not just insiders but also others who understood the game. “I thought it would be amazing to get someone of that caliber that is a really serious sports fan involved,” Scott said last week in an interview. “It takes the caliber of the committee to a whole different level.” Rice plans to draw on her diplomatic background. She is, after all, familiar with the collaborative process: seek data, refine data, question data, argue data, come to some sort of consensus. She is pleased that strength of schedule will be heavily considered. Her father would have liked that. On Saturday, she glanced toward the field to check how many minutes remained before kickoff. Stanford would win, 24-10, to remain in contention for the Bowl Championship Series, which is in its final season. Rice had talked enough about politics for one day. “If you’ll excuse me,” she said, “I’ve got to get my game face on.”

Condoleezza Rice
College Sports
College football
Bowl Championship Series


Lethal Fire Rages Through Forest in Northern Israel

Abstract: JERUSALEM — A fire raging in a rain-starved forest in northern Israel on Thursday has left at least 40 people dead, caused the evacuation of thousands of people, burned some kibbutz houses to the ground and prompted the government to call for urgent international aid in fighting the blaze. A spokesman for the fire service in the area, Hezi Levy, said the fire was the biggest and deadliest in Israel’s history. The blaze, fanned by strong winds, was still spreading at nightfall. Fire service officials said they were hoping to bring it under control by Friday. The scale of the crisis forced Israel, which prides itself on being one of the world’s most nimble and generous countries in disaster relief, into the unusual position of petitioner. Cyprus, Greece and Spain agreed to send firefighting helicopters, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. Turkey, whose relations with Israel have been under extraordinary strain, rapidly sent two, Turkish officials said. Other assistance was expected from Azerbaijan, Britain, Bulgaria, Egypt, Jordan, Romania and Russia. Mr. Netanyahu, who traveled to the north, described the disaster as “unprecedented” and said that Israel had “suffered a harsh blow.” The 40 fatalities occurred when a bus carrying trainee prison guards near a penitentiary got caught in the flames. Many of the casualties were believed to be members of the Druse community. The penitentiary, Damun, sits in the Carmel hills near the city of Haifa and holds Israelis and Palestinians. The commander of the Haifa district police, Ahuva Tomer, was critically injured in the fire, and several other members of the security and rescue services were reported injured or missing. In Kibbutz Beit Oren in the Carmel hills, houses were burned to the ground. Most of the residents were believed to have evacuated ahead of the fire. The University of Haifa was evacuated as a precaution, as was a luxury spa hotel, Yaarot Hacarmel. Later, residents of several other villages were ordered to evacuate their homes, and the authorities were preparing for the possibility of evacuating some neighborhoods of Haifa. Officials said the fire started near the Druse village of Usifiya. The cause was not immediately known. It raged through the Carmel Forest, considered one of Israel’s most beautiful. The area is known as Little Switzerland. Israel’s president, Shimon Peres, said, “If there is something we can say, it is that those involved in this difficult event are exhibiting true bravery that symbolizes the holiday of Hanukkah .” He was referring to the eight-day Jewish festival of lights, which started on Wednesday evening and which Jews celebrate to commemorate the bravery and miracles of the ancient past. The president’s office said in a statement that he had spoken with the prime minister of the Palestinian Authority, Salam Fayyad, who “expressed his condolences to the people of Israel on behalf of the Palestinian people.”

Israel
Forest and Brush Fires
Prisons and Prisoners


European Union Tells Italy to Clean Up Naples

Abstract: BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union ordered Italy on Thursday to clean up Naples within a month or face legal action. Talks this week with the Italian authorities failed to show they were adhering to the union’s waste management laws to resolve a festering garbage collection crisis in that city, said Barbara Helfferich, a spokeswoman for the union. The European Commission said it had demanded “speedy compliance” with union law and proof within a month that officials were taking steps to clear the trash, she told reporters. Some 250,000 tons of backlogged trash has been piling up on the streets of Naples since collection came to a near halt in December. Collectors have stopped picking up garbage in Naples and Italy’s southern Campania region because there is no more room for the trash at dumps. The region has long been plagued by garbage crises. Dumps are packed to overflowing, and local communities have blocked efforts to build new ones, citing health risks. The European environment commissioner, Stavros Dimas, already has threatened Italy with fines to force it to comply with waste management rules. He has called for the Italian authorities to set up a long-term strategy to deal with the region’s waste. “The situation in Campania is intolerable, and I fully understand the frustrations of residents who fear for their health,” Mr. Dimas said. European officials said a waste management plan for Campania was adopted more than a decade ago but never properly implemented. The Italian government, harshly criticized for failing to clean up the streets of Naples, has appointed a commissioner to deal with the crisis. But the streets have yet to be fully cleared of the heaps of garbage. The authorities and residents have blamed organized crime infiltration of garbage collection services, disorganized bureaucracy and protests that hinder the construction of dumps and disposal plants. Some Italian regions have recently volunteered to take Neapolitan garbage.

Waste Materials and Disposal
Naples (Italy)
Collectors and Collections
European Union
Italy


Cardinal Dolan, Pope Material or Not, Gains Notice in Rome

Abstract: VATICAN CITY — He keeps a set of vestments here, at the American seminary, so he does not have to lug the red robes back and forth to New York. He is a practiced frequent flier; last fall, he flew a round trip in a day, borrowing a billionaire’s jet so he could preside at a dinner in Manhattan without missing a meeting in Rome. And he keeps careful tabs on both cities — last weekend, in Rome to bid farewell to one pope and help choose the next, he ducked into a priest’s office to watch a streaming webcast of Yankees and Mets spring training. Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan, the archbishop of New York, has become an object of fascination in Rome for the fluency of his juggling act: he is simultaneously head of the United States’ most prominent Roman Catholic diocese and president of its national conference of bishops, tapped by the Vatican for numerous prestigious assignments and by network television anchors for their most prized interview spots. In the weeks since Pope Benedict XVI announced his intention to retire, the possibility that Cardinal Dolan could succeed him has been largely dismissed on the theory that his biggest strengths — outsize personality, Everyman affect, relentless public cheer — mark him as distinctively American in a way that makes it unlikely he would be chosen by his colleagues. But in recent days, his joyful and telegenic orthodoxy is getting new attention in Rome; on Thursday, a prominent Vatican reporter, Sandro Magister , highlighted his qualifications, calling him “the consummate candidate, who represents the impulse in the direction of purification.” Cardinal Dolan has colorfully dismissed speculation that he could be pope, saying that he expects, and is eager, to return to New York. Nonetheless, this papal interregnum has become an important period for him, presenting an opportunity for him to use mass media to reach Catholics in his vast and diverse archdiocese, and to elevate his stature as he faces battles with President Obama over health insurance regulations and with Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York over a proposed liberalization of the state’s abortion laws. He shows an easy demeanor; he is unfailingly positive, even when asked difficult questions. But even he is quick to say that he represents a new style, not a new point of view, for Catholic bishops. In an interview here, before the cardinals decided to stop speaking to reporters, he described the church’s teachings as a gift to be treasured, but said, “Let’s perhaps work on a way to wrap it in a more attractive way.” Named a bishop by Pope John Paul II and a cardinal by Benedict XVI , Cardinal Dolan warned against anticipating change in “timeless truths of the faith” from a new pontiff. “When we use the word ‘tradition,’ it’s not only a song from ‘Fiddler on the Roof,’ it happens to be a very powerful teaching,” he said. Cardinal Dolan, 63, is one of the newest members of the College of Cardinals; he was granted his red hat only 13 months ago, so his seating at meetings, and even his position in the procession to the conclave, will reflect his short tenure. But he has repeatedly won votes of confidence from his peers. The American bishops elected him their president in a surprise vote in 2010; in Rome, global bishops elected him to continue their work on “new evangelization” after their synod last fall. Most significantly, early last year he was tapped by Benedict to deliver a keynote address to the full College of Cardinals. “I was very impressed by him,” said one of those in attendance, Cardinal Wilfrid F. Napier of Durban, South Africa. “In the sense that he’s only been in New York for a couple of years, there’s a little bit of untested quality about him,” said Edward N. Peters, a professor of canon law at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit. “But if you look back at the synod of bishops in October, just about every time bishops were allowed to vote for one of their own, not only was he elected, but he was usually elected far and away.” A Missouri native, Cardinal Dolan has spent more years in Rome than in New York — as a seminarian, he studied at the Pontifical North American College , and then he served as that institution’s rector from 1994 until 2001. He speaks Italian (although he described his fluency as “primitive” last year), happily offers Roman restaurant recommendations and loves to walk the cobblestone streets. But he is less Romanized than many cardinals, and even the cardinal’s biggest fans say his biggest strengths in the United States — his fondness for beer and barbecue, his physicality and exuberance — define him as American in a way that is a liability in a church headquarters that at times views the New World with a combination of condescension and disdain. Image In 1974, a young Timothy M. Dolan, left, shook hands with Pope Paul VI at the Vatican. Now Cardinal Dolan, he is back in Rome to help pick a new pope, and is making an impact. Credit Vatican, via the Archdiocese of St. Louis, via Associated Press “Italians don’t understand him,” said one Vatican official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the news media. He added, “They don’t like people joking on serious occasions, warming the crowd.” But Cardinal Dolan’s fellow cardinals seem to marvel at the impact of what Cardinal Edward M. Egan, who preceded him as archbishop of New York, described as his “million-dollar personality.” His manner is particularly striking in an era when the church is often on the defensive in the public square. Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley, the archbishop of Boston, said that when he served as bishop of Fall River, Mass., he decided to send as many seminarians as he could to the college in Rome because Father Dolan was the rector. “His great joy in being a priest is something I wanted my seminarians to experience,” Cardinal O’Malley said. Cardinal Dolan has some of the attributes of a gifted politician — he remembers names, works crowds, checks in. During a visit to a New York synagogue , he put his right arm on the left shoulder of each person he greeted; some adults he hugged, some babies he held. During a walk through Kennedy International Airport, he greeted each worker, pausing as some kissed his ring, posing for photos with others. The high and mighty are charmed, too: it was the billionaire real estate investor Mortimer B. Zuckerman who lent him a plane to get back to Rome last fall. Bishop Terry R. LaValley, who heads the sprawling upstate New York diocese of Ogdensburg, said Cardinal Dolan would call at random times, just to check in. “Sunday morning at the gas station, the phone rings — it’s Cardinal Dolan; New Year’s Eve, ‘How are you doing?’ ” Bishop LaValley said. He is masterful at small talk, frequently turning to food (“I can taste the carbonara as we speak,” he exclaimed at Kennedy Airport) and sports (“They didn’t look too good yesterday,” he said of the Yankees). And he has a strikingly contemporary worship style — short homilies, conversational tone, informal language — which contrasts with the erudite and occasionally bombastic tone associated with earlier generations of prelates. Cardinal Donald W. Wuerl, the archbishop of Washington, who taught the future New York archbishop when he was still a seminarian, said Cardinal Dolan’s outgoing style and ability to project enthusiasm were huge assets to the church back home. “There’s a sense in which he’s ideal for New York, because there is so much energy in New York, you just associate that with New York: everything, the Great White Way, people being up all the time, and its self-identification as the center of the world,” he said. But Cardinal Wuerl cautioned against expectations of an American pope. “There’s an old Roman saying: ‘You never put limits on divine providence,’ ” he said. “So Lord knows what will happen. But I think there’s always the great caveat of, can anyone, right now, from the United States, ever effectively serve and be that voice, because the temptation would be that an American would be identified with America first, and the See of Peter and the chair of Peter second.” And some Vaticanisti — the small band of commentators who closely watch high-level church affairs — say that in the unlikely event an American does become pope, it is more likely to be Cardinal O’Malley, whose humble mien, facility with languages, Capuchin habit and experience responding to sexual abuse have impressed insiders. Cardinal Dolan said he did not know, nor was he particularly concerned about, how other cardinals assessed him. “In my mind, what I care most about is what God thinks about me, and whether I’m doing his will,” he said. “I also have to say, I’m always wondering what the people of the Archdiocese of New York think about me, and that’s a source of consolation, because I can feel their love and support.”

Cardinal Dolan
Cardinal Catholic
Pope
Catholic Church


F.B.I. Examining if Hackers Gained Access to Clinton Aides’ Emails

Abstract: WASHINGTON — The F.B.I. investigation into the suspected state-sponsored Russian theft of emails and documents from the Democratic National Committee’s computer networks has expanded to determine if aides and organizations considered close to Hillary Clinton were also attacked, according to federal officials involved in the investigation. But so far, a sampling of senior Clinton aides at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia found none who said they had been notified by the F.B.I. or private investigators that their private emails had been compromised. At this point, law enforcement officials say, there is evidence only of attempts to gain access to those associates through “spear-phishing” attacks, often crude efforts to get someone to click on an email that releases malware into the computer. The committee has said that Russia hacked into its computers and has been supported in its assertion by several private cybersecurity firms, including Crowdstrike, the company that investigated the committee’s breach. Two years ago, several Clinton aides who had worked at the State Department were notified that their accounts there had been broken into by one of the same Russian intelligence agencies, the Federal Security Service, or F.S.B., suspected of getting into the committee’s system. That hacking, which went largely undetected while Mrs. Clinton was secretary of state in President Obama’s first term, gave the Russian intelligence services what one diplomat termed a road map of Mrs. Clinton’s associates and frequent email partners. Mrs. Clinton’s private server while she was secretary of state, in Chappaqua, N.Y., would have been another obvious target. But last month the F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, said there was no “direct evidence” that Russia or any other power had “successfully hacked” into Mrs. Clinton’s server. Still, he said, there was evidence that intruders had tried, and when Mr. Comey said any successful intruders were probably far too skilled to leave evidence of their intrusion behind, law enforcement officials said, he had the Russians in mind. For years American intelligence agencies and the F.B.I. have tracked the operations here of two of the most sophisticated state-run hacking groups in the world, the G.R.U., Russia’s military intelligence agency, and the F.S.B., the state security service and successor, twice removed, of the K.G.B. of the Soviet era. The activities of the two groups in the United States and around the world have been tracked for so many decades that their successes and misadventures are the subject of movies and lore in both the United States and Russia. But since they turned to hacking techniques and sometimes cyberweaponry, the Obama administration has rarely protested in public about the group’s boldest information-warfare attacks, in part to avoid retaliation. The administration decided not to publicly identify the Russians as the power behind State Department, White House and Joint Chiefs of Staff intrusions. James R. Clapper Jr., the director of national intelligence, told Congress that the United States would not name or shame any country engaged in ordinary espionage — of the kind the United States also does — but should focus instead on setting norms against the theft of intellectual property and destructive attacks. For that reason, Mr. Obama has focused on agreements with China to protect corporate secrets. Now some administration officials think they may have misunderstood Russia’s intentions. After the public release of the emails and documents that brought down the chairwoman of the Democratic Party, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, and the threat by WikiLeaks to release more documents from this and other hacks, administration officials say they are in a strange new world in which Russia may be using the products of espionage to influence an American election. Some outsiders agree. “There is nothing new in one nation’s intelligence services using stealthy techniques to influence an election in another,” Jack Goldsmith, a professor at Harvard Law School, wrote on the Lawfare blog on Monday. He noted that the United States had engaged in covert actions to influence elections in Indonesia, Italy, Chile and Poland during the Cold War. Video The Democratic Party opened its convention to news of an embarrassing email leak, while Senator Bernie Sanders struggled to rally his supporters behind the presumptive nominee, Hillary Clinton. Credit Credit Josh Haner/The New York Times But he added that “doing so by hacking into a political party’s computers and releasing their emails does seem somewhat new.” It could foretell an era of data manipulation, in which outsiders could tinker with votes, or voter data, or “lose” electronic ballots. Federal officials say their investigation has been underway since the spring, when the committee notified the F.B.I. of the intrusion. The committee’s suspicions were triggered by what appeared to be a relatively clumsy attack by the G.R.U. In the course of investigating that attack, the F.B.I. discovered an earlier, more sophisticated attack on the committee by the F.S.B., which is often in competition with the G.R.U. But investigators say the committee was reluctant to cooperate deeply in the federal investigation, relying instead — as many companies do — on private investigators that they hired. The committee brought in Crowdstrike, which reported publicly in June that it had evidence that the hack began last summer. Julian Assange, who founded WikiLeaks, argued to Richard Engel of NBC in an interview broadcast Monday that “there is no proof of that whatsoever” that Russia was behind the original hacking. “We have not disclosed our source, and of course, this is a diversion that’s being pushed by the Hillary Clinton campaign.” Mr. Assange also said another round of emails to be released would provide “enough evidence” to indict her, but her campaign manager, Robby Mook, said, “He says a lot of things, so I’m not, I’m not going to pay attention to that.” Many cybersecurity firms that have examined the evidence released by Crowdstrike say Russia appears to be the source. Thomas Rid, a cyberexpert and author of “Rise of the Machines,” noted in an article published on Vice’s website that the intruders made several mistakes: “One leaked document included hyperlink error messages in Cyrillic,” because the documents had been edited with Russian language settings, and other “metadata” was consistent with “identical fingerprints” found in attacks on the German Parliament. The Germans named one of Russia’s intelligence agencies as the attacker in that case.

Russia
Cyberwarfare
DNC
US Politics
FBI
US
Hillary Clinton
Email
WikiLeaks


Stockton, Calif., Moves Closer to Bankruptcy

Abstract: STOCKTON, Calif. — The signs of better times are easy to spot downtown: the picturesque marina on the San Joaquin Delta, the gleaming waterfront sports arena, and the handsome high-rise that was meant to house a new city hall. But those symbols are now bitter reminders of how bad things are here today: on Tuesday this city of almost 300,000 moved a step closer to becoming the nation’s largest city to declare bankruptcy. During a contentious meeting that stretched late into the night, the City Council decided, nearly unanimously, to begin mediation with public employee unions and major bond creditors in what is widely seen as the city’s last-ditch attempt to restructure its finances outside of bankruptcy. Facing a budget deficit from $20 million to $38 million on a budget of roughly $165 million, the Council declared a fiscal emergency for the third year in a row. “Right now we are a city that has frankly hit a wall,” Mayor Ann Johnston told the Council and hundreds of city residents who attended the meeting. “If the players don’t come together and agree to a fix, then we’re all in big trouble.” Under a law passed by the California Legislature last year, cities must hire a third-party mediator to help negotiate with unions and debtors for a period of 90 days before declaring Chapter 9 bankruptcy. Stockton will be the first to test the new procedure. Nearby, Vallejo, Calif., declared bankruptcy in 2008, and Stockton has hired the same bankruptcy lawyer who represented that city. Stockton officials say they hope mediation will allow them to avoid bankruptcy and indicated they might focus their push on reducing generous retiree health benefits. The city is also suspending $2 million in debt payments this year. The city has already drastically cut back municipal staff, including the Police and Fire Departments. With nearly 100 fewer police officers than there were just four years ago, many residents fret about rising crime rates; there were 58 murders last year, an all-time high for the city. City Manager Bob Deis blamed previous administrations for the city’s troubles, saying that in his 32 years of municipal management he had “never seen such poor fiscal management practices.” Stockton, about an 80-mile drive east of San Francisco, boomed a decade ago, as eager buyers from Silicon Valley bought up homes in the area. But in the past several years, housing values have plummeted, and the city has steadily had one of the highest foreclosure rates in the country. During the boom times, the city eagerly began development projects to improve the area, transforming the waterfront and refurbishing several buildings that had fallen into disrepair. City officials lured a Sacramento restaurateur to open an upscale bistro, in part by offering space in a historic downtown building rent-free for five years. But the restaurant struggled and closed after just two years, and the space has sat empty and shuttered for the past year. In 2007, after Washington Mutual shut down operations in an eight-story building here, the city bought the space for $35 million, reasoning that the price was a bargain, less than the cost of construction. Officials planned to move out of the crumbling old City Hall building and into the Washington Mutual building, but it soon became clear that the city did not have the money for the move. “The city was very aggressive in trying to take advantage of the boom and got completely swept up in those times — not unlike its citizens,” said Jeffrey Michael, the director of the Business Forecasting Center at the University of the Pacific. “It’s a combination of bad luck and bad management. If they’d been more prudent, you might still be cutting back 20 percent of the staff, but maybe you wouldn’t be dealing with the brink of bankruptcy.” The city consented to a wide variety of bond agreements that have contributed to its increasing debt, but officials say that generous retirement health benefits and the increasing costs of maintaining them also threaten to cripple the city with insolvency. The city estimates that it will pay $9 million in retiree health care benefits in the 2012 fiscal year, and that the amount will double over the next 10 years. Much of the harshest criticism of the current city administration has come from the police union, which has accused Mr. Deis of manipulating numbers. The union paid for billboards that proclaimed “Welcome to the 2nd most dangerous city in California: Stop laying off cops!” and included a running tally of murders in the city and Mr. Deis’s telephone number, against a background depicting spatters of blood. Mr. Deis accused the union of harassing him after it bought a house next door to his. The union said the purchase was an investment and not intended to antagonize Mr. Deis. “Things have just gone from bad to worse,” said Kathryn Nance, an executive board member of the police union and a Stockton native. “There’s just nowhere to cut anymore, and the whole city is suffering.” But Ms. Nance and other union officials say they believe that the city has more money than it is letting on and criticized decisions to give raises to several top city workers and spend millions on outside consultants and lawyers to help with the fiscal crisis. Councilman Elbert Holman dismissed the union’s criticism by comparing the city to a patient with a life-threatening infection. “If I have to cut off my arm to save my life, it’s a negative thing, but what choice do I have?” he said. “And who do I want to operate on me, an intern who has no experience or someone who has actually done this before? We can’t work off emotions. We just have to be practical.” Even if there are no other options, nobody here sees bankruptcy as an ideal solution, and people fret about another black eye for a place that has twice been ranked the “most miserable city in America” by Forbes magazine . Denise Jefferson, a former city planner and the executive director of the Miracle Mile Improvement District, said previous administrations had ignored signs of problems for years, despite internal criticism from employees. “Everyone kept pretending that the problems were something the next generation could clean up, but there’s no way to clean this up anymore,” she said. “In high times everyone wants to grow, but the growth we had was never something we could sustain. We played the game, and now there’s no longer a game to play.”

California
Bankruptcies
State Legislatures
Stockton (Calif)
Arbitration Conciliation and Mediation


Players Shine in Exhibition Game in Africa

Abstract: The N.B.A. put on a show in its first exhibition game in Africa — starting with a dunk straight from the tipoff by Luc Mbah a Moute. That had the crowd roaring at Ellis Park Arena in downtown Johannesburg, and it got even louder when the N.B.A. legends Hakeem Olajuwon and Dikembe Mutombo stripped off their business suits and wore their old team uniforms to play for a little while in the second quarter. The game became serious in the second half: Chris Paul’s Team World rallied to beat Luol Deng’s Team Africa, 101-97.

Basketball
NBA
Africa
Dikembe Mutombo
Hakeem Olajuwon


Addenda

Abstract: Accounts  E*Trade Financial, New York, named Grey, New York, part of the Grey Global unit of the WPP Group, to handle its creative account, which had been at BBDO Worldwide, New York, part of the Omnicom Group. Spending was estimated at $175 million.  Kao Brands, Cincinnati, part of the Kao Corporation, consolidated its media account at Initiative, New York, part of the Interpublic Group of Companies, by awarding the agency, which handles television buying for products like Ban and Jergens, the duties for print buying and media planning, which had been at Media Kitchen, New York, part of the Kirshenbaum Bond & Partners division of MDC Partners. Spending was estimated at $150 million. People  Dave Morgan was named executive vice president for global advertising strategy at AOL, New York, a new post. He had been chairman at Tacoda, which AOL, part of Time Warner, acquired in July.  Wayne J. Keeley , assistant director for development at the National Advertising Division of the Council of Better Business Bureaus, New York, was named director at the Children’s Advertising Review Unit of the council. He succeeds Elizabeth L. Lascoutx , who joined the law firm of Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz, New York, as counsel.

Advertising Marketing
WPP Group
Omnicom
Interpublic
E TRADE Financial


N.F.L. Playoffs, as Seen From Below .500

Abstract: Many roads can lead to the N.F.L. playoffs. Some teams get there with offense, others with defense or special teams. Some have depth, while others ride a superstar through the regular season. At 7-8-1, the Carolina Panthers are just the second N.F.L. team with a losing record to qualify for postseason play in a nonstrike season. Vince Lombardi may have believed winning was the only thing, but for Carolina, the key to a playoff berth this season was geography. The defending champions of the N.F.C. South, the Panthers were able to defend their division title despite winning five fewer games than last season by virtue of the division collapsing on itself, going a combined 10-29-1 in nondivisional games. The A.F.C. North in particular brutalized the N.F.C. South, going 12-3-1. Image The 1938 Chicago Black Hawks won the Stanley Cup finals with a 14-25-9 record. Credit Associated Press Yet through the quirks of the N.F.L. postseason format, Carolina, as a division winner, will have home-field advantage over the 11-5 Arizona Cardinals in Saturday’s wild-card matchup. The Philadelphia Eagles, however, at 10-6, will be sitting at home wondering what might have been if they played their home games a few states farther south. Still, the Panthers have won four consecutive games. They find themselves favored by 6 ½ points against a Cardinals team that two quarterbacks and nine weeks ago was considered a candidate to be the first N.F.L. team to play a Super Bowl in its home stadium. “It tells you that no matter what you do during the regular season, it just doesn’t matter,” Panthers running back Jonathan Stewart said this week. “Things amp up to a whole different notch in the playoffs.” Stewart’s team can take heart in knowing that the only other sub-.500 nonstrike-year N.F.L. playoff team, the 2010 Seattle Seahawks, won their first-round matchup, against the defending Super Bowl champion New Orleans Saints. They were eliminated the next week, but making the second round was a remarkable result for a team that lost five of its last seven regular-season games and was outscored by 97 points during the season. Image U.L. Washington, top, was part of a 50-53 Kansas City Royals team that advanced to the playoffs in 1981. Credit Associated Press “The underdog role, I think we cherished it and kind of took it to heart,” Seattle’s Marcus Trufant said after the playoff win against New Orleans. “Nobody gave us a chance and we just kind of shrugged our shoulder.” There was plenty of hand-wringing and eye-rolling at the time as to whether a losing team had any business being in the playoffs, but there was precedent, of a sort. In the bizarre 1982 season, a 57-day player strike resulted in a nine-game season and a playoff format in which 16 of the league’s 28 teams qualified. That led to the Detroit Lions and the Cleveland Browns earning wild-card spots despite going 4-5. It was just as unpopular in those days for a losing team to be rewarded with a postseason spot, so when the Browns were eliminated by the 8-1 Los Angeles Raiders in the first round, The Cleveland Plain-Dealer’s article about the game led with “Justice was served.” Image Elgin Baylor, left, led the 1958-59 Minneapolis Lakers to the finals with a losing record. Credit Gene Herrick/Associated Press The Lions were also sent packing, losing, 31-7, to the Washington Redskins. The year before, Major League Baseball had its only experience with a losing team in the playoffs, also as a result of a player strike. A work stoppage began on June 12, and play did not resume until Aug. 9. The decision was made to split the season in two and have first-half champions play second-half champions in an extra divisional playoff round. The Kansas City Royals were 50-53 overall, which easily qualifies as the worst record for a playoff team in M.L.B. history, but they had the excuse that in the season’s second half they were 30-23 and became the game’s only American League West Second Half Champions, a title that is unlikely to be resurrected anytime soon. Baseball purists were undoubtedly happy when the underwhelming Royals were swept out of the playoffs three games to none by the Oakland Athletics, who were 64-45 over all. Another strike in 1994 canceled the World Series but also saved baseball from some embarrassment as the Texas Rangers were leading the American League West with a record of 52-62 when the season was called off. Those circumstances are easy enough to write off as flukes, but what the N.F.L. will want to avoid is wading into the territory of the N.H.L. and the N.B.A., where winning is hardly a prerequisite for postseason play. Image Chuck Connors, right, acted and played for a 20-28 Celtics team that made the playoffs. Duke Snider, left, Connors's former Brooklyn Dodgers teammate, made a guest appearance on "The Rifleman." Credit Associated Press In 1938 a 14-25-9 record could not stop the Chicago Black Hawks from winning the Stanley Cup finals. The Toronto Maple Leafs duplicated the feat in 1949, going 22-25-13 before winning the finals. In 2012, the Los Angeles Kings won the Stanley Cup after officially going 40-27-15. But the 15 represents overtime losses, not ties, so the team’s record could instead be viewed as 40-42. It is the N.B.A., however, that has made an art of celebrating regular-season futility. It began in 1947-48, the fledgling league’s second season, when the Boston Celtics were 20-28, earning a playoff spot. The competition was not fierce, as the Providence Steam Rollers were the only team that did not qualify for at least a tiebreaking playoff game. A few years from becoming an unstoppable dynasty, the Celtics of that season lost in the first round of the playoffs and were most notable for featuring Chuck Connors, a rare two-sport athlete who went on to play baseball for the Brooklyn Dodgers and the Chicago Cubs before starring in the television show “The Rifleman.” The next season three losing teams made the N.B.A. playoffs and by 1949-50, there were four. The Syracuse Nationals in 1950-51 became the first N.B.A. team with a losing record to win a playoff series when they beat the Philadelphia Warriors in a two-game sweep behind the Hall of Famer Dolph Schayes and the player-coach Al Cervi before falling to the Knicks in the Eastern Division finals. In all, 100 N.B.A. teams have qualified for at least a tiebreaking playoff game, with 1985-86 serving as either the high or low point, depending on your perspective, as six sub-.500 teams made the playoffs. Those teams have not found much success, though, as a losing team has advanced to the second round just 18 times with three making it to a conference final. The key to success, it seems, is to have a talented big man on the roster, as Elgin Baylor and Moses Malone each led a losing team to the N.B.A. finals, with Baylor’s 1958-59 Minneapolis Lakers and Malone’s 1980-81 Houston Rockets both just missing a shot at a championship as teams that had no business being there. The Panthers, despite being more talented than their record implies, are unlikely to join the Black Hawks, the Maple Leafs and the Kings as losing-teams-crowned-champions. But they are part of a long, if not proud, line of losing teams to make the playoffs. And if the Cardinals do not find some answers on offense, Carolina may begin the postseason with a win, which would give hope to losing teams everywhere.

Football
Playoffs
Carolina Panthers
Arizona Cardinals


Two Killed by Bomber at Ministry in Kabul

Abstract: KABUL, Afghanistan — A suspected Taliban suicide bomber shot his way into the Ministry of Information and Culture in central Kabul on Thursday, then blew himself up, leaving at least two others dead and severely damaging a kindergarten in the building, officials and witnesses said. The blast, which also wounded at least 21 people, set off a panicky scramble by parents working at the ministry to find their kindergartners, but only two appeared to be among the wounded, said Kabul’s police chief, Gen. Muhammad Ayub Salangi, after he toured the scene. The attack was notable more for its audacity than for the number of victims. The ability of Taliban insurgents and their affiliates to strike successfully at guarded targets in the Afghan capital has hurt confidence in the government and the American-led war effort here. No senior officials were killed or hurt in the attack, but ministry workers emerged shaken from the five-story building. The bomber first fatally shot a policeman at the building’s entrance and then set off the explosion inside, General Salangi said. A second man died later, according to the deputy police chief, Gen. Ali Shah Ahmadazi. Akhtar Muhammad Amir, an official at the state-run Bakhtar news agency, said he was on the fifth floor when he heard shooting and then a huge explosion. “Thick dust covered all the corridors, and all the windows of the offices were shattered,” he said. “Some of our staff were wounded by the flying glass from the windows.” He said the main conference hall and the adjacent kindergarten on the ground floor were badly damaged. “Mothers were searching for their children,” he said. Part of one wall of the ministry was destroyed. Police and security officials swarmed around the front of the building, on one of the busiest streets in the capital. A Taliban spokesman claimed responsibility for the attack within minutes in a telephone call to news agencies, saying that three suicide attackers were involved. But General Ahmadazi said a single bomber had detonated his explosives inside the main conference hall on the ground floor after firing on guards. General Salangi said the attack was similar to one in January on the five-star Serena Hotel when at least three bombers in police uniforms penetrated security by attacking with gunfire and successive suicide bombs. The Taliban, which are fighting the government of President Hamid Karzai and his American-led backers, have made repeated attacks on government buildings and convoys of foreign forces in the capital. Mr. Karzai condemned Thursday’s attack from Istanbul, where he was attending a conference. He linked the attack to Afghanistan’s recent diplomatic moves to make peace with opposition groups. “Our enemies are trying to undermine the recent efforts by the government for a peaceful solution to end the violence,” he said in a statement. This month the Taliban said its supporters had fatally shot a 34-year-old British aid worker in Kabul whom it accused of spreading Christianity. The Afghan police also said the killings of two other foreigners running the international courier service DHL in Kabul were an attack by terrorists. The Taliban have said they will continue attacks until foreign forces withdraw from the country.

Afghanistan War (2001- )
Terrorism
Taliban
Kabul (Afghanistan)
Bombs and Explosives


U.N. Official Calls Darfur Aid Tenuous

Abstract: UNITED NATIONS — A combination of stopgap measures by United Nations agencies and the Sudanese government has kept aid flowing in the world’s largest relief program in Darfur, but the makeshift effort cannot be sustained, John Holmes, the United Nations humanitarian coordinator, said Tuesday. “These are Band-Aid solutions, not long-term solutions,” Mr. Holmes told reporters, summarizing a joint assessment by the United Nations and Sudan last week after the government in Khartoum shut down 16 aid organizations. The decision to expel 13 foreign organizations and disband 3 local ones immediately followed an announcement on March 4 by the International Criminal Court in The Hague that it was indicting President Omar Hassan al-Bashir of Sudan on war crimes charges in the conflict in Darfur. Violent flare-ups have plagued Darfur, an arid western province, ever since; a Sudanese aid worker was shot dead in front of his family on Monday night. Mr. Holmes said the shooting was being treated as a robbery but remained under investigation. Mark Simmons, Sudan country director for a Canadian organization, the Fellowship for African Relief , said the aid worker might have been killed for refusing to give up his satellite phone. In another development, Ayman al-Zawahri, the No. 2 leader of Al Qaeda, urged the Sudanese in an audiotape released on Tuesday to undertake jihad against what he said was a “crusade” being organized by the West to manufacture a crisis in Sudan as an excuse to invade another Islamic land. Both sides in the Darfur conflict are predominantly Muslim, and Mr. Zawahri said he was not defending the Bashir government. Indeed, he said that it was “reaping what it sowed” and that it should repent for pandering to the West. Mr. Zawahri questioned why the International Criminal Court had not issued any arrest warrants for Western leaders. He wondered why the United Nations and the international community had not reacted to Palestinian suffering the way they had to suffering in Darfur. “Why hasn’t the United Nations and the international community intervened to lift the siege from Gaza, while it pretends to cry over the people of Darfur being deprived of relief and aid?” he said on the 17-minute tape. On the joint United Nations-Sudan technical assessment in Darfur, Abdalmahmood Abdalhaleem, the Sudanese ambassador to the United Nations, said it showed that “the humanitarian situation is fully under control.” Mr. Holmes noted that although both parties had signed off on the assessment, the United Nations had a slightly different long-term perspective on the $1 billion-a-year assistance program, which serves many of the 4.7 million people in Darfur. The money for some programs that were run by expelled agencies is going to run out. For example, water programs will probably run out of financing in a month, Mr. Holmes said. He said Sudan had not supplied enough doctors to staff all 43 health-care centers that had been run by the expelled groups. The World Food Program, a United Nations agency that will remain in Sudan, used to deliver food through many of the agencies that were shut down. The program delivered food for March and April to 1.1 million people by using local committees, but another method will have to be found, Mr. Holmes said. The assessment “reveals a huge amount of work to do if the decisions are not reversed quickly in order to make sure that there is a sustainable and effective aid operation in place,” Mr. Holmes said.

War Crimes Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity


Lobbyist Accepts Plea Deal

Abstract: WASHINGTON, Jan. 3 - Jack Abramoff pleaded guilty to three felony counts on Tuesday as part of a settlement with federal prosecutors, instantly becoming the star witness in a sweeping federal investigation into public corruption in Washington. The inquiry could involve as many as a dozen lawmakers, people involved in the case said. Mr. Abramoff, 46, once a prominent Republican lobbyist, accepted a recommended reduced prison sentence of about 10 years in exchange for testifying against former associates in the influence-peddling case. The agreement also requires Mr. Abramoff to pay more than $26 million in tax penalties and restitution to former clients, although he has told associates he is broke. The corruption inquiry involving Mr. Abramoff, potentially one of the most explosive in Congressional history, has expanded in recent months to encompass dozens of political operatives, including former Congressional aides and lobbyists suspected of arranging bribes in exchange for legislative work, participants in the case said. His testimony, coupled with that of Michael Scanlon, a former Abramoff business associate who pleaded guilty in November, reaches into the executive and legislative branches and appears to be drawing an ever-tighter ring of evidence around the former House Republican majority leader, Tom DeLay, and other senior Congressional Republicans. Standing hunched in a dark suit in front of a Federal District Court judge, his eyes downcast as the plea deal was announced, Mr. Abramoff bore little resemblance to the brash operative who in hundreds of e-mails messages obtained by prosecutors once boasted about his financial kickbacks, referring to them as a "gimme five" scheme. Instead, in front of Judge Ellen Huvelle, Mr. Abramoff confessed to making "a multitude of mistakes" during a decade or so of lobbying work. In a soft, grainy voice, he pleaded guilty to defrauding at least four Indian tribes of tens of millions of dollars, enticing government officials with bribes and evading taxes. "All of my remaining days, I will feel tremendous sadness and regret for my conduct and for what I have done," Mr. Abramoff said. Emerging from the courthouse into a light drizzle wearing a black fedora, he slipped into a waiting car and was driven away. His next public appearance is scheduled for Wednesday in Florida, when he will plead guilty in a related case. Mr. DeLay, who has taken in thousands in campaign donations from Mr. Abramoff and accompanied the lobbyist on a lavish golf trip to Scotland in 2000, has denied any wrongdoing. Richard Cullen, a former United States attorney representing Mr. DeLay, said his client "is confident that when the Department of Justice completes its investigation and gets to the bottom of this that they will conclude that he did nothing wrong." No lawmaker has been charged in the case. Court documents filed Tuesday gave a snapshot of what Mr. Abramoff has been telling investigators during their plea negotiations over the last year and a half. In one instance cited in court documents, Mr. Abramoff directed favors to a senior DeLay staff member -- referred to in documents as "Staffer A," but identified by lawyers as Tony C. Rudy, now a Republican lobbyist. Those favors came in the form of payments to Mr. Rudy's wife, Lisa. Mr. Abramoff paid $50,000 to Lisa Rudy through a charity organization in exchange for her husband's "agreement to perform a series of official acts," the plea agreement said. "Abramoff, Scanlon and others engaged in a course of conduct through which one or both of them offered and provided a stream of things of value to public officials in exchange for a series of official acts and influence," the agreement states. Also mentioned in the plea agreement was a "Representative No. 1" who, along with members of his staff, accepted gifts, travel and free meals at Mr. Abramoff's restaurant, Signatures, in exchange for legislative help, including inserting a comment into the Congressional Record designed to help Mr. Abramoff with a business deal. Representative Bob Ney, Republican of Ohio, was identified as this figure after court documents were filed in connection with Mr. Scanlon's plea deal. Although Mr. Ney did not deny his association with Mr. Abramoff and Mr. Scanlon on Tuesday, he insisted, as he has in the past, that he was tricked by the two men into doing work on behalf of their lobbying clients. According to people involved in the case, Mr. Ney's former chief of staff, Neil Volz, is referred to in the documents as "Staffer B," and is accused in the paperwork of violating the one-year lobbying ban after leaving Mr. Ney's office before beginning to lobby his former boss again. Lawyers for Mr. Rudy and Mr. Volz did not return calls seeking comment. Mr. Abramoff helped funnel more than $1.5 million in campaign donations to hundreds of elected officials, more than half of them Republican, since 2000, according to analyses of his work. As prosecutors threatened to indict him -- and ultimately, late Monday night, worked out a negotiated settlement after weeks of intense wrangling -- the government's lawyers argued that Mr. Abramoff had gone past the routine business of campaign fund-raising and political glad-handing into the realm of bribery. Or, as Assistant Attorney General Alice S. Fisher put it on Tuesday, Mr. Abramoff "went far beyond lawful lobbying." "Government officials and government action are not for sale," Ms. Fisher said, flanked by senior law enforcement officials at a news conference at the Justice Department. As part of his all-encompassing settlement, Mr. Abramoff plans to plead guilty on Wednesday to two charges of conspiracy and fraud in a related case in Miami stemming from his purchase of a casino boat line, SunCruz Casinos, in 2000. He was scheduled to stand trial in that case next Monday. That plea provides that all other charges against Mr. Abramoff in the case will be dropped, people familiar with the plea agreement said. He may face up to about seven years of prison time for the Florida charges, but that sentence can be served concurrently with the Washington sentence under the terms of his deal with Justice Department prosecutors. How much time Mr. Abramoff will spend in prison will be determined later, after he has fulfilled most of his obligation to help investigators. Mr. Abramoff has been in talks with prosecutors for some 18 months, his lawyer in Washington, Abbe D. Lowell, said. According to people involved in the case, all of whom spoke on condition of anonymity because the broader investigation is continuing, Mr. Abramoff at times offered guidance to investigators as they pursued other targets. According to participants in the case, he has shared information about David H. Safavian, a former Bush administration official indicted last year, and Tim Flanigan, the Tyco executive who withdrew his nomination as the second-in-command at the Justice Department after his ties to Mr. Abramoff came into question. Tyco is also mentioned, although not by name, in the plea agreement. According to the court document, Mr. Abramoff sent a business proposal to "Company A," a manufacturing and services company identified by participants as Tyco. Mr. Abramoff "falsely advised" the company about the grass-roots company that he suggested they hire, and which in turn kicked back huge sums to Mr. Abramoff. Mr. Abramoff told Tyco "that he was negotiating on their behalf" to try to save them money "when in fact he was simply setting a high price on services that he controlled and from which he would profit." The publicly released court documents, followed by the Justice Department's news conference about the case, were designed as a "shot across the bow" to other potential suspects in the inquiry, a person involved said. "With most cases, the plea is the end, but with Abramoff, the plea is just the beginning," said an F.B.I. official who spoke on condition of anonymity, adding, "This one has legs."

REPUBLICAN PARTY
ABRAMOFF JACK
FRAUDS AND SWINDLING
SUITS AND LITIGATION
LOBBYING AND LOBBYISTS


Wind and Cold Are Blamed in Three Deaths

Abstract: A sudden wintry chill marked by harsh winds and icy snowfall descended on the New York region over the weekend, downing trees, causing power failures in tens of thousands of homes and apparently contributing to the deaths of three men found frozen outdoors. The storm, which began pounding the Northeast late Saturday, caught the area off guard, depositing up to six inches of snow in some areas. On Friday, many people, dressed in light layers, enjoyed balmy temperatures that were still as high as 57 degrees in Central Park at 4:30 a.m. Saturday. Yet as the day progressed, snow fell and temperatures began dropping steadily, and continued falling yesterday. By midnight last night, the temperature reached a low of 16 degrees, according to the National Weather Service. With the wind chill factored in, it felt close to zero across the region, Michael Silva, a Weather Service meteorologist, said. Tomorrow will be somewhat warmer, but another storm -- probably rain -- is possible tomorrow night, forecasters said. It was the sudden drop on Saturday that appeared to have claimed the lives of at least two men in Brooklyn, the police said. The bodies of the men, one in his 50's and the other in his 60's, were found yesterday afternoon, frozen solid, in a lot at Moultrie and Calyer Streets in Greenpoint, where a group of men often sought shelter. "They come in and sleep sometimes," said Antonio Hernandez, 52, a security guard at a nearby building. "Yesterday there were five sleeping right there, all men." The men were known to drink and to cook meals in the lot, neighbors said. They slept under an awning supported by four steel poles, though without walls they had little protection from the wind and frigid air. They had lived in a sturdier structure in the rear of the lot, but some teenagers burned it down, said Adam Zbiaowski, 15, who lives in the neighborhood. They had also lived in a vacant house a few blocks away that was demolished, Adam said. The body of a third man, covered in snow, was discovered yesterday afternoon on a sidewalk on Conduit Boulevard near Cross Bay Boulevard in Queens, the police said. The cause of death was not yet known, but officers said the man, Lennox Hunte, 59, of Brooklyn, appeared to have suffered from hypothermia. Across the region, the cold forced many to seek shelter, whether rich or poor. At homeless shelters in northern New Jersey, volunteers said they had a marked increase in the number of people seeking a warm bed. And in Connecticut, where a power failure left about 39,000 customers without electricity, mainly in Fairfield County and other southwest parts of the state, the 373 rooms at the Greenwich Hyatt Regency sold out last night as residents sought shelter. "Our typical Sunday night is not a busy night," Tom Delaney, the general manager of the Hyatt, said. "People are eating dinner, putting the kids to bed. It's a very comfortable scene in the hotel." In New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, the power failures were caused by wind gusts that surpassed 50 miles an hour, wreaking widespread damage and leaving more than 50,000 customers without power for some period of time from Saturday until early today, utilities said. But Connecticut was the hardest hit. Residents said many people were forced to rely on backup generators to heat their homes. "We have crews out there and they'll be working throughout the night until all the power is restored," said Mary B. Ingarra, a spokeswoman for Connecticut Light and Power. In New Jersey, about 1,500 people lost power statewide, according to officials with Public Service Electric and Gas. The extreme weather caused widespread power failures throughout Westchester and Queens, said Joseph Petta, a spokesman for Con Edison. About 12,700 customers lost power in Westchester and 1,300 in Flushing, Queens. And even though the cold had been around for a good 24 hours by 8:30 last night, when Rob Walker, 32, went out to walk his girlfriend's dog in Jersey City, it still caught him off guard, as he stood outside on Washington Street without a hat or scarf. "I figured that we'd only be out for a few minutes, but until she goes we don't go back in," he said grimacing against the wind. "At this point, I'd rather get back inside and deal with the mess there than stand out here frozen to the bone." In Greenpoint, Brooklyn, where the wind off the East River made it feel below zero, the bodies of the two men lay frozen under a blue plastic tarp as detectives combed the lot. "I've got three shirts on under my jacket -- it's real cold," said Mr. Hernandez, the security guard, as he made his rounds to check the doors of the building. He looked across the street at the lot where the men had lived. "Those people don't have much protection from the cold," he said.

NEW YORK CITY
HUNTE LENNOX
WEATHER
HOMELESS PERSONS
SNOW AND SNOWSTORMS
HYPOTHERMIA


Pennsylvania: Damage Claims Over Wayward Blimp

Abstract: The Army has begun taking claims for damage caused by a wayward blimp that broke loose in Maryland and came to rest in the Pennsylvania countryside near Muncy. Officials were preparing to remove the remaining section of the blimp over the weekend. The blimp has been stuck since Wednesday, when it escaped from Aberdeen Proving Ground and floated into Pennsylvania, knocking out power for tens of thousands of customers. Capt. Matthew Villa of the Army said helicopters would pull the craft’s hull out of the trees in rural Muncy on Saturday and military trucks would haul it away. The radar equipment will head back to the Aberdeen Proving Ground, but he said the blimp would go “wherever investigators want it to go.” The Army said people can ask about the claims process by calling 410-278-9849.

Military aircraft
Plane Crash
Blackouts
Pennsylvania
Maryland
US Army


Philippine Chief Justice Removed Over Finances

Abstract: MANILA — The chief justice of the Philippine Supreme Court, Renato C. Corona, was removed from office on Tuesday in a landmark conviction that could strengthen the president’s hand in cracking down on the endemic corruption that has long been a drag on the economy. Mr. Corona lost his job after it was disclosed in his impeachment trial that he had failed to declare $2.4 million in foreign currency deposits. Supporters of President Benigno S. Aquino III have said the chief justice needed to be removed because they feared he would be an obstacle to investigations of past corruption, especially those related to Mr. Corona’s patron, former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. The prosecution of Mrs. Arroyo and her allies has been central to Mr. Aquino’s anticorruption campaign and comes as the economy is improving and the nation is attracting more foreign investment. This was the first time that a high-level Philippine official had been removed from office after impeachment and conviction. Officials here are often removed through street protests. The case has been politically delicate from the start and is tied up with a feud between the Aquinos and Mrs. Arroyo, who is a member of the House of Representatives but did not support the impeachment. Mr. Corona was Mrs. Arroyo’s chief of staff before she appointed him to the Supreme Court in 2002. She named him chief justice just days after Mr. Aquino won the presidency. Mr. Aquino and his supporters argue the move was meant to squelch efforts to build corruption cases against Mrs. Arroyo and those in her administration. “Our people followed this trial closely, and in this exercise we have demonstrated to them, and to the international community, that our country adheres and subscribes to the democratic framework,” said Senator Jinggoy Ejercito Estrada, whose father, President Joseph Estrada, was forced out of office by popular protests after a failed impeachment trial on corruption charges. Mr. Corona was impeached in December by the House of Representatives with the support of Mr. Aquino’s allies. The Senate then acted as an impeachment court. Its hearings, which were televised live, had moments of high drama, including weeping and a walkout by the chief justice during testimony. Mr. Corona faced no criminal or civil charges, though cases could still be filed against him, and he is barred from ever holding public office. Although Mr. Corona faced an impeachment charge of making decisions that were biased in favor of Mrs. Arroyo and her supporters, the Senate never voted on it because after a conviction was obtained on the first charge, which involved hiding assets — the $2.4 million as well as 80 million pesos, worth about $1.8 million, that he had in bank accounts — the trial ended. The Senate then voted, 20 to 3, to remove Mr. Corona from office. “Bad politics prevailed,” Mr. Corona said in a statement in which he insisted he was innocent. “My conscience is clear.” Lawyers for the chief justice had said earlier that if he were convicted, they would appeal to the Supreme Court. But the Senate president, Juan Ponce Enrile, who acted as the presiding judge in the trial, said the ruling was “final and executory” and could not be appealed. Ronald Holmes, an assistant professor of political science at De La Salle University in Manila, agreed, saying, “The impeachment court has sole jurisdiction.” Mr. Corona’s supporters say that Mr. Aquino is trying to consolidate power by attacking the judiciary. The chief justice has also accused the president of favoring the impeachment in retaliation for court rulings that ordered the breakup of an Aquino family plantation, an accusation the president has denied. Senator Miriam Santiago, who voted for acquittal, mocked the seriousness of the allegations against Mr. Corona and noted that many officials in the Philippines were likely to have done what he did. “What a hypocritical accusation,” she said. In testimony on Friday, Mr. Corona insisted that under his interpretation of the law, he was not required to disclose the money. During testimony that was marked by breaks for medical checkups of Mr. Corona, the chief justice debated the legalities of reporting requirements for government officials. In the Philippines, senior officials are required to file a statement of assets, liabilities and net worth each year to verify that they are not enriching themselves from their positions. One of the impeachment articles against the chief justice states that he underdeclared his assets. Mr. Corona, a former corporate lawyer, testified that his foreign deposits came from more than three decades of savings. But most senators did not accept his explanation. “The failure to declare $2.4 million and some 80 million pesos is not minor,” said Senator Pia Cayetano, who voted to convict.

Corona Renato C
Philippines
Decisions and Verdicts
Impeachment
Corruption (Institutional)
Aquino Benigno S III


Juergen Homann, UBS Client, Pleads Guilty to Tax Evasion

Abstract: A wealthy UBS private banking client who owns a building material company in New Jersey pleaded guilty on Friday to tax evasion, the latest American caught in a widening investigation into the giant Swiss bank over its offshore services. Juergen Homann, 66, of Saddle River, N.J., pleaded guilty in Federal District Court in Newark to one count of failing to file a special tax form disclosing the foreign assets. Mr. Homann is a dual citizen of the United States and Germany. He pleaded guilty before Judge Stanley R. Chesler in exchange for agreeing to cooperate with a widening investigation into UBS and the law firms, accountants and advisers that prosecutors say helped scores of wealthy American clients of UBS evade taxes through secret private banking services. In court filings, federal prosecutors accused Mr. Homann of deliberately failing to submit a form known as an F-bar in 2007 disclosing his UBS accounts, and of using a foundation in Liechtenstein, a noted tax haven, to conceal the trail. The filings said that Mr. Homann concealed $5 million from United States tax authorities by shifting that amount from his UBS account to a sham corporation, ELM Finance, set up in Hong Kong in 2005. The court papers did not identify Mr. Homann’s private banker at UBS. But they said that Mr. Homann worked with a Swiss lawyer, Matthias Rickenbach, to set up sham corporations overseas to funnel his UBS money to accounts he could then access without alerting the Internal Revenue Service. Mr. Rickenbach, a partner of the Rickenbach & Partner law firm in Zurich and Geneva, was indicted in August by federal prosecutors who accused him of conspiring to defraud the United States. The Rickenbach indictment came after the indictment of another UBS client, Jeffrey Chernick, of Stanfordville, N.Y., in July. In his case, Mr. Rickenbach was accused of working with a Swiss banking executive to pay $45,000 to a “high-ranking Swiss government official” in 2008 to learn whether Mr. Chernick was on a list of 285 names to be disclosed to American authorities in February as part of a broad settlement with UBS. Mr. Chernick, who owns a company that does business with toy makers in Hong Kong, reimbursed the fee to Mr. Rickenbach and the banking executive. Mr. Homann’s plea comes as scores of wealthy clients of UBS and other foreign private banks are voluntarily disclosing their identities to the I.R.S. in hope of facing lesser penalties and avoiding prosecution. A written statement on Friday from the Justice Department said that “Mr. Rickenbach and an unnamed Swiss banker persuaded the defendant not to seek out and enter into the I.R.S.’s voluntary disclosure program.” The tax agency on Monday extended an amnesty program intended to identify those suspected of tax evasion through secret offshore accounts. American taxpayers now have until Oct. 15 to disclose their accounts. The voluntary disclosure program, which began in March, has attracted about 3,000 taxpayers so far, according to the I.R.S. UBS, in a significant blow to Swiss banking secrecy, is preparing to hand over 4,450 client names under a deal reached last month with the I.R.S. and the Justice Department, which is investigating the bank’s offshore services. In February, UBS admitted criminal wrongdoing and paid a $780 million fine. Mr. Homann’s name was on the list of 285 names that were turned over as part of the deal, according to a senior government official who spoke on the condition of anonymity. The Justice Department is conducting criminal investigations into about 100 UBS clients.


Editorial in Medical Journal Challenges Study

Abstract: Point. Counterpoint. An editorial in The New England Journal of Medicine on Wednesday took the unusual position of challenging a study published in the same issue. The exchange highlighted a growing debate in American medicine: how much should health care providers pay for expensive treatments that make relatively small improvements? The published study proved that a blood-thinning medicine could prevent problems from worsening in some people with a sometimes painful, usually short-term, blood clot near the surface of the leg, called superficial-vein thrombosis. But the editorial challenged the unreported cost of the treatment in the study — more than $180,000 for 88 patients to receive injections for 45 days — to prevent one of them from having a more dangerous, but rarely fatal, deep vein clot. The issue of cost-effectiveness is taking on new importance as more Americans become eligible for Medicare insurance, and some 30 million uninsured people are promised health coverage by 2019. The United States already spends more on health care than any other country, yet it does less than many countries to control the costs. That has also been an issue with biologic drugs — some that can cost $100,000 a year — that prolong life in late-stage cancer patients, as well as some expensive medical devices for heart patients. Dr. Stephen Resch, deputy director of the Center for Health Decision Science at the Harvard School of Public Health, said, “My feeling is resources are limited, and you have to ration care somehow because all of our money can’t be spent on health care.” Last year, Congress backed away from plans to limit health care spending after opponents claimed it would lead to so-called death panels. Lawmakers have also declined to give Medicare the authority to negotiate lower prices directly with drug makers. Congress did, however, authorize a Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute that can do cost-effectiveness studies and an Independent Medicare Advisory Board that could eventually press for lower prices. The reports on the blood thinner pitted Dr. Lee Goldman, dean of health sciences and medicine at Columbia and a critic of higher costs, against a team of European researchers financed by the drug maker GlaxoSmithKline. The study of 3,002 people with superficial-vein thrombosis showed that the condition worsened to deep vein thrombosis or pulmonary embolism in 1.3 percent of those who took a placebo for 45 days and 0.2 percent of those who took the drug Arixtra. It was an excellent, randomized, double-blind study that reported statistically significant results, Dr. Goldman and Dr. Jeffrey S. Ginsberg, a blood expert, wrote in the editorial. But the study did not talk about the costs, they wrote, which could range from $2,124 to $7,380 a person for 45 days of injections, or at least $186,000 for 88 people to avoid one new problem. “The paradox is, it’s effective, but for a condition that’s usually not considered an overwhelmingly serious medical problem,” Dr. Goldman said in an interview. “The fact that it’s a medicine that’s expensive really raises an issue, not just for this trial, but we tried to make the point more broadly.” Cost-effectiveness researchers in America have benchmarks that suggest that “good value for the money” is $50,000 per added year of high-quality life, Dr. Resch said. In some cases, where cheaper treatments are unavailable, up to $120,000 per added year have been suggested, he said. The editorial did not analyze long-term outcomes. Dr. Resch, who was not involved in either article, said it appeared the cost would not provide that value. But the drug is nearing approval for shallow-vein use in Europe, where costs are considered by regulators. GlaxoSmithKline is not seeking such approval by the Food and Drug Administration, which considers only safety and efficacy. The F.D.A. has already approved the drug to treat and prevent deep vein thrombosis and embolism. Sarah Alspach, a spokeswoman for GlaxoSmithKline, said the price of Arixtra was a good value for those conditions. She said the company would discuss pricing for the new treatment with individual countries in Europe. Karen P. Buckley, spokeswoman for the journal, said it published the study because it addresses an unmet medical need, and it published the editorial to point out the high cost of treatment to help one in 88 cases. Dr. Hervé Decousus, lead author of the study, said he thought that the editorial was unfair. “If we give this drug, we avoid a great number of surgical procedures, which are risky for patients and cost a lot of money,” he said in a telephone interview from Saint-Étienne, France. Further, he said, patients and doctors can see clots expand in the veins under skin toward deeper veins where they can also migrate to the lungs. “It’s painful, and you can see the clot in front of you,” he said. “Patients are frightened; physicians are frightened. We don’t want to wait for a fatal pulmonary embolism.”

New England Journal of Medicine
Drugs (Pharmaceuticals)
Medicine and Health


Governor, Don’t Torture Us With the Prom Song of Doom

Abstract: To: The Hon. David A. Paterson . From: A Fellow New Yorker. Dear Governor: You have been hearing all sorts of advice about who should be your pick to fill Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s shoes. Forgive us, but you seem more than a tad irritated with the full-court press under way to have you anoint, er, appoint Caroline Kennedy . We detected some peevishness the other day when you compared the intense speculation over the looming Senate vacancy to “a prelude to a high school prom.” As they never said in our old neighborhood in the Bronx, we don’t have a dog in this fight. But if you don’t mind an unsolicited word from the cheap seats, may we suggest that you throw the following consideration into the hopper. Think about whether you want to foist that syrupy Neil Diamond song on New Yorkers for the next two years and possibly well beyond. You know the one we mean: “Sweet Caroline.” Talk about high school proms. We bet that tune has been played at more of them since its release in 1969 than anything by Jay-Z, 50 Cent and Paul Anka put together. We also bet that with the mention of Neil Diamond, you’re now having trouble getting the song out of your head. It happens to everyone. “Sweet Caroline” overload is already being felt. A computer search shows that since Ms. Kennedy told you on Dec. 15 that she likes how “United States Senator” sounds in front of her name, she and the song have been coupled in news articles, headlines and letters to the editor (not ours, thank you, until now) at least 33 times. To lean on another treacly hit from the “Sweet Caroline” era, it’s only just begun. Of course, it’s your call. But is “sweet” really what New Yorkers look for in their senators? We have in mind the likes of Charles E. Schumer, Alfonse M. D’Amato, Daniel Patrick Moynihan and, yes, Mrs. Clinton. “Sweet” isn’t quite the right adjective for any of them, is it? Also, as big a hit as that song has been, there is something creepy about it. After decades of keeping his inspiration a secret, Mr. Diamond let it be known last year that he had Caroline Kennedy in mind. She was 11 years old at the time. Think about that when you next hear him go on about “hands, touchin’ hands, reachin’ out, touchin’ me, touchin’ you” and “how can I hurt when holding you?” As the Canadian newsweekly Maclean’s said last December, “Ick.” ANOTHER thing: The song has been adopted by the Boston Red Sox. They sing it at Fenway Park in the middle of the eighth inning — “Sweet Caroline, ba ba ba.” Should New York’s governor be fostering reference to a tune associated with a team that is the mortal enemy of this city’s own, the Yankees? (Then again, the Yankees themselves have become the enemy for some New Yorkers with their recent buying spree. In the last few weeks, they spent an astounding $423.5 million to hire three players. Yet despite having a bulging wallet, the team lays claim to hundreds of millions of dollars in city and state aid, through various tax breaks and taxpayer absorption of land, infrastructure and transit costs. And now it wants still more city help, in the form of $259 million in tax-exempt bonds to help finish its new stadium in the Bronx.) Governor, you have no doubt heard other points about a possible Kennedy appointment. Some people are troubled by an oligarchic spirit that they believe has infused New York politics. First, a bunch of super-wealthy New Yorkers cooked up the idea that the expressed will of the voters, imposing a two-term limit on important elected officials, should be nullified so that Michael R. Bloomberg might stay on as mayor. Now, many of the same people say that one of their own is entitled to the gift of a Senate seat from you, our unelected governor. We must say that you sounded miffed on your return from Iraq on Wednesday about this campaign to present the Kennedy appointment as a done deal. You’ve heard about the unseemly way in which Ms. Kennedy’s handlers whisked her away to keep her from nosy reporters while on an upstate visit last week. Did you love the Sarah Palin of it all? You’ve heard about how when she finally did take questions, they had to be in writing — a procedure that in our experience is more the style of foreign despots and potentates. Ah, but these are quibbles. What you really might want to think about is that Neil Diamond song and whether you want to encourage any more references to it. Just a thought. Respectfully submitted etc.

Kennedy Caroline
Paterson David A
Senate
Elections
Diamond Neil


Shopping Bargains Before the First Bite of Turkey

Abstract: Yes, the economic outlook is grim. But they call it the holiday shopping season for a reason. For all the dour predictions, Americans will still mob the malls in search of the right gift at the right price. Here is a guide to the five trends that are likely to dominate the gift-buying season that (officially, at least) begins next week. PRE-TURKEY SHOPPING Disregarding the last known boundaries between tradition and capitalism, retailers are trying to persuade Americans to start their Black Friday shopping before the first bite of Thanksgiving dinner. The biggest offender is CompUSA, the technology store. The chain — the first retailer to open at 12:01 a.m. on the Friday after Thanksgiving two years ago, then at 9 p.m. on Thanksgiving last year — is holding an online-only sale this year at 12:01 a.m. on Thanksgiving. “Before you pop the turkey into the oven, you can buy online,” said the chain’s spokeswoman, Jessica Nuñez, who added that the sale was not an intrusion into a national holiday, but “just another option” for time-starved, deal-hungry consumers. Remember when Black Friday, so-called because historically retailers become profitable that day, was actually on Friday? Well, we don’t either, and neither, it seems, do retailers. The rule breaking began with Wal-Mart, which has held miniature Black Friday sales every weekend of November, in a brazen attempt to rearrange the holiday shopping calendar — and, of course, to steal business from its competitors. Every Friday morning since Nov. 2, it has offered door-buster discounts starting at 6 a.m. Now, seemingly everyone is following suit. Toys “R” Us has held door-buster sales every Friday and Saturday this month (including one this morning, starting at 7 a.m.) Kmart will open at 7 a.m. on Thanksgiving this year and, on Black Friday, J. C. Penney is opening an hour earlier than last year, at 4 a.m. Stores will reward the early birds with food. CompUSA is offering pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving night and several malls are serving Maxwell House coffee at 6 a.m. on Black Friday. One retailer, Best Buy, is having none of it. The chain is closed on Thanksgiving and opening at the comparatively reasonable hour of 5 a.m. on Friday morning. Brian Lucas, a company spokesman, said the chain “believes this is the right thing to do for our customers, who have come to think of Black Friday morning as somewhat of a tradition to start the shopping season, and to our employees, who value having time with their families on Thanksgiving day.” BE YOUR OWN ROCK STAR The toy industry wants to turn every child under 10 into a self-made rock star, with a genuine guitar in one hand and a video game version in the other. As if in lock step, every major toy maker — like Hasbro and Mattel — has put a guitar-based game in its product lineup and every big retailer has put those products on its top 10 toy list. The companies say they are piggybacking on the runaway success of Guitar Hero, the video game guitar system; the popularity of Hannah Montana, the rock star television character; and the enduring strength of the reality show “American Idol.” “Whenever a trend is as hot as this, a lot of people come up with the same idea,” said Neil B. Friedman, the president of Mattel Brands. He should know. This holiday season, the Fisher-Price unit of Mattel is rolling out the I Can Play Guitar System ($100), for children 6 and older, a mock guitar that hooks up to a television. Users learn to play by matching color-coded hand positions on the screen to those on the toy guitar. Hasbro is introducing the Power Tour Electric Guitar ($70), which teaches users to play 12 preloaded songs or plug in an MP3 player and strum along to a favorite song. There are touch sensors in place of the strings, though. For the less dexterous, Tech2Go is marketing American Idol Talent Challenge ($50), a guitarless DVD-based game that resembles karaoke. Players can sing up to 12 preloaded songs on the game’s microphone, then wait for an unvarnished review from “American Idol’s” hosts: Simon Cowell, Randy Jackson and Paula Abdul. And, of course, there is the latest iteration of Guitar Hero, called Legends of Rock, for PlayStation, Xbox or Wii video game systems. The technology, from Red Octane, remains unchanged: users try to match notes on a guitar with those on the screen. The only downside to the new toys? Kids might actually want to grow up to be rock stars, with all the baggage that entails. The chief executive of Toys “R” Us, Gerald L. Storch, is unperturbed. “What could be more wholesome than music?” he said. THE ELECTRONIC COMPASS For five years, two electronics, the MP3 player and a flat-screen television, have owned the holiday shopping season, dominating the covers of brochures from big chains like Best Buy, Wal-Mart and Circuit City. This year, those technologies have met their match: portable G.P.S. systems, which can be used in cars, on bicycles and for hiking. “G.P.S. will be the technology of the holiday season,” Ronald Sargent, the chief executive of Staples, predicted in an interview. The reason is that prices for the units, which use three-dimensional screen images and verbal commands to direct users from one location to another, have fallen to $200 for the cheapest models, down from $1,000 several years ago. The once-bulky devices have also shrunk, to three to five inches in width. And now that cab drivers and rental car agencies have started using the systems, thousands of consumers are seeing the devices in action — and want one of their own. Major retailers are stocking a variety of models, but the brands may sound unfamiliar: Garmin, Mio, Tom-Tom and Magellan. (Sorry, Sony and Apple are not big players in the G.P.S. business.) The popular Garmin Nüvi 680 Personal Travel Assistant ($800) has a color screen that adjusts its brightness to sunlight and offers real-time information on weather conditions, traffic reports, gas prices, even local movie times. A more affordable version is made by Moi. The C230 Portable G.P.S. Navigator ($200) offers turn-by-turn directions, announced by the system, and warnings when the driver is speeding. Andre Sam, who manages a Best Buy store on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, said G.P.S. “has really picked up in popularity,” adding: “The flat-panel TVs have been done. This is the gift for the person who already has everything.” A MARTHA CHRISTMAS This year’s most highly anticipated retail face-off is Martha Stewart vs. Martha Stewart. The domestic diva turned law breaker turned rehabilitated talk- show host is the subject of dueling marketing campaigns at Kmart and Macy’s, where she has designed two strikingly similar home décor lines. And we mean similar. The names? The Martha Stewart Collection (at Macy’s) and Martha Stewart Everyday collection (at Kmart). The prices? A towel at Macy’s for $7.99 and a towel at Kmart for — you guessed it — $7.99. Kmart came first, of course, in 1997, with Martha Stewart Everyday, a best-selling line of sheets, towels and dishes. But troubles have befallen Kmart since it merged with Sears, and Ms. Stewart’s company, vexed with the chain’s poor performance, struck a deal for a higher-end line with Macy’s, much to Kmart’s regret. Macy’s print and television marketing blitz for the Martha Stewart Collection began this fall and, not to be outdone, Kmart reintroduced the Martha Stewart Everyday collection about the same time. Bill Stewart (no relation), the chief marketing officer at Kmart, said the chain needed to revamp the Martha line to “reclaim our rightful place as the leader for price and value in the home department.” A result is that Ms. Stewart’s face is plastered across newspaper circulars, TV screens and telephone booths across the country. Which line does Martha favor? Officially, she loves all her children equally. But in September, Ms. Stewart brought the audience from her TV show up to Macy’s Herald Square store in Manhattan for a tour of her new product line. She did not, however, make a similar pilgrimage across the avenue to the Kmart store on 34th Street. No matter, said Mr. Stewart. “What we see, from our consumer research, is that there is much more knowledge that Martha Stewart is at Kmart” than at Macy’s. MERRY MARKDOWNS What is bad for retailers — a tough economy — is good for bargain hunters, in stores and online. After the weakest fall shopping season in a decade, retail analysts predict the return of deep desperation discounts this holiday. The worse a store’s performance, the steeper the markdowns. Here are the chains with weak sales so far: Macy’s, Nordstrom, Abercrombie & Fitch, Chico’s, Ann Taylor, and Limited, the owner of Express and Victoria’s Secret. In a reversal from years past, reliable price slashers like Gap and Aéropostale have cut their orders, anticipating a slowdown, so discounts will be sparse. “But don’t kid yourself,” said John D. Morris, an analyst at Wachovia Securities, “it is still going to be a more promotional Christmas season.” Mr. Morris, who keeps a running tally on discounts, says markdowns are already up more than 7 percent this holiday season over last year, “and rising fast.” The big online discount this season is free shipping, with no conditions, for many Web sites the Monday after Thanksgiving, known as Cyber Monday, because consumers return to work from a weekend of mall browsing and buy online. This year, an estimated 25 percent of Web retailers will offer free shipping, no matter how small the order, on Nov. 26. Among them are Joann.com , the Web site of Jo-Ann Fabrics and Crafts; HSN.com , the home shopping network Web site; and Giftcertificates.com, a site that sells gift cards from hundreds of stores. Most retailers provide free shipping for orders $50 or higher. Doesn’t it seem that stores lose money on $10 online orders, shipped from New York to California? “The number of sales it generates more than offsets the cost of free shipping,” said Laura Thorpe, the e-commerce manager for marketing at Bealls, a department store offering no-condition free shipping next Monday on its Web site, www.Bealls.com

Retail Stores and Trade
Holidays and Special Occasions
Electronics
Stewart Martha
Discount Selling


German Mayor Convicted of Faking Attack on Himself

Abstract: BERLIN — He had received threatening letters, even a dead mouse in a package. His car had been vandalized. So when the mayor of the small Black Forest town of Rickenbach reported that he had been the victim of a criminal assault, it at first seemed plausible. The mayor, Norbert Moosmann, told the police that someone had thrown a Molotov cocktail through his office window, one that proved to be empty but sent him into a panic. He said that when he tried to flee, he found his door had been jammed shut. And Mr. Moosmann, who is gay, had his share of enemies around town. He had not worked in a year, instead collecting disability after receiving a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder. In famously industrious Germany , that did not sit well with some of the townspeople. But his story came apart once the police had a chance to examine the video from a security camera outside the town hall around the time of the assault. It showed a car stopping in front of the building and a not particularly menacing-looking man getting out — empty-handed. On Tuesday, a district court convicted Mr. Moosmann of staging the attack, which took place in July last year, and fined him nearly $23,000. “The mayor was convicted of fabricating a crime,” said the judge, Bernhard Seyffert. “We assume that he threw the bottle himself.” The court also found that an accomplice had wedged the door shut, and that one of the two even left a bogus threat letter. The accomplice turned out to be Mr. Moosmann’s boyfriend, who was fined $5,700 for his role in the episode. Spiegel Online , a news Web site, reported that Mr. Moosmann had a strained relationship with the town’s inhabitants , some of whom would like to see him resign from the office that he has held since 2007, even though his term is not scheduled to expire until 2015. Some residents had been immediately skeptical of Mr. Moosmann’s story, Spiegel reported, and suspected at least some of the previous attacks had been staged as well. They pointed to the dubious nature of the vandalism against the mayor’s car, noting that the words “Moosi Go Home” — referring to Mr. Moosmann — had been scrawled in washable paint. Judge Seyffert acknowledged the public’s skepticism but dismissed as speculation any accusations that the mayor had faked any threats other than the attack on his office. The judge added that Mr. Moosmann’s motive for staging the attack remains unclear, though some thought it was a play for sympathy and continued disability payments. After the trial, Mr. Moosmann expressed his disappointment to reporters. “I’m stunned,” a German news agency, dpa, quoted him as saying. “I’m innocent, and I had expected the court to finally put this intrigue against me to rest.”

Germany
Rickenbach (Germany)
Assaults
Moosmann Norbert


Yankee Stadium Seats With Everything, Except Fans

Abstract: The Yankees ’ campaign to market their unsold premium seats and luxury boxes at their new stadium continues. The Yankees want you to go premium. They’re tired of all this inventory of leftover (did we say cushioned?) seats, even if it’s a thousand or fewer. One full-page ad in The New York Times promoted next weekend’s Select-a-Seat event. Another in The New York Post cooed, “We’re Holding Your Seat,” with a line pointing to Section 123, one of 14 Between the Bases, where tickets cost $325 each. Last Sunday, a half-page ad in The Times was accompanied by a photograph of Derek Jeter in one of his leap-and-throw poses. It says, “Sit This Close to the Captain.” He looks darned close, as if his throw may hit me in the head before bouncing into Mark Teixeira’s glove. But even that conk on the bean may be the sort of “unforgettable experience” the ad suggests will be derived from sitting soveryclose. Two of the ads end with a come-on, “Own the Greatness.” Besides the philosophical question of whether you can actually own greatness, even at $2,500 a seat, ownership is the pitch for personal-seat licenses, like those the Giants and the Jets are selling for their new stadium in East Rutherford, N.J. The P.S.L. is actually a stock certificate that confers the right to buy season tickets, but you can also sell it on the open market. Every seat at the new Yankee Stadium is a rental, with no option to sell its rights. The stadium is the Yankees’ stimulus package, but the unsold seats are making them feel short of full stimulation. The ads make the Yankees look a bit desperate; the last thing they want is for these seats — the “greatest in the world” the team has called them, which will be seen prominently on television — to be empty on opening day and beyond. Will we next see a casting call in Backstage for seat fillers for these magnificent seats? The Yankees have reduced their hopes that all these seats will sell in full-season 81-game packages. So they’re settling for 41- and 20-game plans, too. On Select-a-Seat weekend — nine hours with eager pinstriped salesfolk, but we can always hope Joe Pepitone or Dooley Womack will show up — my question would be: will the so-called “greatest seats in the world” get the A-Rod torn-labrum discount? Will the proximity afforded by the lush life behind the bases in Sections 115 to 125, in the Legends Suite (the real estate nearest the field costing up to $2,500 a seat) and in the Delta Sky360 Suite (behind home plate) be incredible with Cody Ransom at third? Last week, I wrote about fans with partial season-ticket plans who felt angry and disenfranchised by the way the Yankees relocated them in the new stadium. A dozen more wrote to me with similar tales, some of them steamed by the Yankees’ business model. Jonathan Fox of Tenafly, N.J., said he rejected being moved from the upper deck, usually behind home plate, where he had a 20-game plan costing $60 a ticket, to $70 seats near the right-field foul pole in a 12-game plan. In an e-mail message, Fox wrote: “While cloaking the move to the new stadium in a lot of propaganda about doing it all in the interests of a better experience for fans and a boon to the Bronx, the move was really about selling slightly fewer seats at a gigantic price premium, geared to corporate wallets and hoping to capitalize on the ‘bubble years’ appetite for premium-priced tickets to sports events.” He added, “We’ll be watching from great seats in our living room.” How much for those seats, Mr. Fox? And what kind of amenities?

New York Yankees
Stadiums and Arenas
Yankee Stadium (NYC)