Moscow Mayor Pokes Kremlin. (Cue Hornets.)

Abstract: MOSCOW — Of all the high priests of Russian officialdom, few have become more deeply entrenched in power than Moscow’s mayor, Yuri M. Luzhkov . He has ruled this city often like a fief for nearly two decades, transforming it from a Soviet wreck into a shimmering metropolis. Barrel-chested and bald, with a proletarian’s peaked cap, he has seemingly been above reproach for years, despite numerous allegations of corruption even as his wife, a real estate developer, has become Russia’s richest woman. But a slight jab at President, Dmitri A. Medvedev could now bring the mayor’s once inviolable authority to ruin. In a recent article, Mr. Luzhkov appeared to criticize the president for indecisiveness, while seeming to call for his predecessor, Vladimir V. Putin, now prime minister, to return to the presidency. The article touched off the biggest political quarrel Russia has seen in nearly a decade, raising new speculation about the relationship between Russia’s two leaders. It has also prompted an all-out attack by the Kremlin-controlled news media against the mayor, which many analysts here say could presage the end of his 18-year reign. “He intended to try to push a wedge between Medvedev and Putin,” said Gleb O. Pavlovsky, a political consultant who advises the Kremlin. “This is already an intolerable situation for the federal center, so I think Luzhkov will have to leave.” It is an unexpected battle in a country that has long appeared drained of public political life, pitting Russia’s young president — an avid blogger with a fondness for gadgets — against a man who has been a part of the political elite of Moscow since it was still the capital of the Soviet Union. The fight has at turns resembled an old-time Politburo power struggle and an election for student government. This week, Russian political pundits scrambled over the news that Mr. Medvedev, 45, had snubbed Mr. Luzhkov, offering no public congratulations to the mayor on the occasion of his 74th birthday. It could have been the latest sign that the mayor was on his way out. But who knows? Mr. Putin praised him in a birthday telegram as a “competent and experienced professional.” This is Russian politics, a game of interpreting winks and gestures, of listening for murmurs in the dark corridors of power. It is an art that today differs little from the days when Kremlinologists guessed the fortune or failure of a Soviet leader by his place at the May Day parade. What is more or less certain is that Mr. Medvedev wants Mr. Luzhkov gone. When asked about the mayor in a closed meeting with Russian newspaper editors this summer, Mr. Medvedev shocked attendees by referring to the mayor with a vulgarism, a person at the meeting said. Since becoming president in 2008, Mr. Medvedev has eliminated most of the old regional bosses, usually by offering them other jobs or retirement deals, but Mr. Luzhkov is different. “Here, we do not fire anyone, we simply buy them off,” said Georgi A. Satarov, the president of the Indem Foundation, a policy research group focusing on corruption. “But it is hard to buy off Luzhkov because he is very expensive.” Whatever has gone on behind closed doors over the past few weeks, if there was an attempt to make Mr. Luzhkov walk away quietly, experts say, it seems to have failed. In Mr. Luzhkov’s article , published in the official newspaper Rossiiskaya Gazeta, the mayor criticized Mr. Medvedev’s rare decision to bow to public pressure to halt construction of a highway between Moscow and St. Petersburg, suggesting that such hesitation to press ahead with development projects undermined trust in the government. He called for the return of “true meaning and authority to the Russian government.” The response was swift and brutal. Days after the article was published, the government-owned NTV television station broadcast “The Cap Affair,” named for the mayor’s trademark peaked hat. The film, crudely produced and set to ominous-sounding music, was extraordinary by the typically bland standards of official television here, raising uncomfortable questions about Moscow’s crumbling transportation infrastructure and the astounding wealth of Mr. Luzhkov’s billionaire wife, Yelena Baturina. It also criticized Mr. Luzhkov for taking a vacation in Austria this summer as Muscovites choked on noxious fumes from peat bog fires during a record heat wave, and said the mayor, an avid beekeeper, returned to Moscow only to save his hives. The documentary was followed by programs on other government channels, which accused Mr. Luzhkov of, among other things, complicity in the evictions of Muscovites from their homes to make way for his wife’s development projects. The accusations are nothing new. For years, opposition groups have made the same claims — and have faced lawsuits and even brief prison sentences for doing so. Mr. Luzhkov, who left for Austria once again this week, has vowed to file lawsuits against the government channels responsible for the recent documentaries and has refused to respond to allegations made in them. “To make justifications is the wrong way to defend yourself in Russia,” he told REN-TV television, a quasi-independent channel, last week. “If a person starts to justify himself it appears that he is nevertheless guilty.” Guilty or not, few here believe that corruption or other misdeeds prompted the recent attacks. None of the documentaries mention that Mr. Luzhkov is a leading member of Mr. Putin’s party or that the mayor serves at the pleasure of the president, who has the power to appoint and remove regional leaders at will. “In a democratic country there would just be elections,” said Viktor A. Shenderovich, a satirical political writer, who has criticized the mayor for years. “But all this is happening not in a democratic country, but in Byzantium. Luzhkov is being removed not because he stole or was corrupt, but because he has gotten caught between two clans.” Ms. Baturina, the mayor’s wife, explained the campaign against her husband as part of a conflict about whether Mr. Medvedev or Mr. Putin would run for president in elections scheduled for 2012. “As the elections approach, there are people in the presidential administration who are afraid that the mayor will support not President Medvedev, but Prime Minister Putin,” she said in an interview with the Russian news magazine, The New Times, published this week. There is little evidence to suggest any conflict between Russia’s two leaders, and both have consistently brushed aside questions about their plans for 2012. Even the conflict over the mayor has elicited nary a public word from the nation’s top two leaders. Mr. Medvedev has only hinted at his displeasure with Mr. Luzhkov, leaving anonymous Kremlin sources to whisper confirmation of the mayor’s impending demise in the ears of reporters.

Luzhkov Yuri M
Moscow (Russia)
Politics and Government
Medvedev Dmitri A


No Bluster as Christie Moves From Scandal to His Agenda

Abstract: Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, scrambling to regain his political footing, delivered a high-stakes State of the State address on Tuesday that mixed arms-length expressions of contrition, a defiant assertion that his troubles are no excuse for inaction and a jarringly timed demand for bipartisanship. But there was little sign that his administration’s widening scandal over lane closings at the George Washington Bridge was abating. Two new legislative committees readied plans to issue a fresh batch of subpoenas for Mr. Christie’s aides, a photo surfaced showing that the governor had been in close contact with an appointee at the center of the controversy, and state Democratic Party officials mocked him with a new video that asked: “The State of the State? Embarrassed.” The closely watched speech was a stark break, in content, tone and reaction, from the powerful and brash figure to which Trenton is accustomed. Just one year ago, Mr. Christie, a Republican, basked in adulation and gratitude for soothing residents of New Jersey’s hurricane-battered shoreline — even fist-bumping the Democratic State Senate president on his way in to the chamber. This time, Mr. Christie, known for his firm command over the state’s politics and an unrivaled agility on stage, seemed somewhat diminished. The applause was shorter and less rapturous. His boastful style was tamped down. And instead of marveling, over and over, at how the country was looking to New Jersey, he emphasized a long list of local meat-and-potato policy plans: improving schools, reducing crime and cutting pension costs. There was no fist-bumping. (Mr. Christie instead shook the Senate president’s hand.) State Senator Linda R. Greenstein, a Democrat, said afterward that she had detected a “lack of confidence, which you could never see before.” She called his performance “not as bold as usual.” Mr. Christie, 51, tackled the lane closing controversy in the first moments of his speech , falling back on a careful and familiar-sounding phrase, “mistakes were clearly made.” But he sought to assure state residents that, despite the many revelations of the past week, the conduct of those close to him “does not define us or our state.” The governor, whose resounding electoral victories in a largely Democratic state have made him a potential White House contender, repeatedly invoked a favored theme: the necessity of reaching across the political aisle to find legislative compromise. Image Gov. Chris Christie walked the aisles after he delivered his State of the State address in Trenton on Tuesday. Credit Damon Winter/The New York Times His voice rising, he ticked off a list of his accomplishments that had hinged on significant support from Democratic lawmakers (four balanced budgets, pension reform, private-sector job growth), affixing a favored slogan at the end of each. “Passed with bipartisan support,” he kept saying. “We acted, and we acted together,” Mr. Christie said. The governor, who has been teased for uttering the word I, or a variation of it, more than 800 times during a largely lauded news conference last Thursday, took pains to revise his self-referential vocabulary. In his State of the State address, he used the word “we” or “we’ve” 97 times. He called upon the Legislature to push for wide-ranging changes to the state’s education system, crime-fighting strategy and budgeting process, most in keeping with his moderate brand of Northeast Republicanism. He proposed longer school days and school years, proposals whose popularity has grown in urban school districts. “Life in 2014 demands something more for our students,” he said. In the kind of gesture that has long distinguished him from peers in his party, Mr. Christie pointedly reached out to two of the state’s most troubled cities, Newark and Camden, both bastions of Democratic politics. He reserved his greatest outrage for the poor showing among Camden’s high school seniors, bemoaning that, across the entire city, only three students graduated “college ready” last year. “That is obscene,” he said, “and a breaching of the faith between those families and every level of government responsible for their education.” Mr. Christie at times cast himself as a law-and-order governor. Evoking a deadly carjacking a few weeks ago at the Mall at Short Hills in Millburn, N.J., he called for the Legislature to revise laws so that criminals who are deemed a threat to the public safety can be held without bail, as is allowed in the federal system. But in a 45-minute speech that expounded on his plans for a second term, which starts next week, Mr. Christie devoted just a few minutes to the investigation that is buffeting his administration and increasingly complicating his role as a national Republican leader. Image During his speech, Mr. Christie hugged Craig Hanlon, a former teenage drug addict who got treatment and went on to receive a law degree before working for Mr. Christie when he was United States attorney. Credit Mel Evans/Associated Press On Tuesday, questions arose about a photo, published by The Wall Street Journal , that captured Mr. Christie standing with David Wildstein, a Christie loyalist and a key figure in the bridge scandal, on the third day of the lane closings that snarled traffic in Fort Lee, N.J., for four days in September. Mr. Christie, when previously asked about his relationship with Mr. Wildstein, said the two were rarely in contact. On Tuesday night, Mr. Christie’s office said the picture was from a Sept. 11 ceremony that Mr. Christie has attended each year since he took office. “They were all there for one reason — to pay tribute to the heroes of 9/11,” said Colin Reed, a spokesman for the governor. In the State House, there were growing signs of a changed political landscape. The two Democratic lawmakers who have heavily criticized the administration’s handling of the lane closings, Senator Loretta Weinberg and Assemblyman John Wisniewski, reveled in their newfound fame, posing for photographs before the State of the State speech. And as Mr. Christie spoke, the room was less than rapt at times: A few lawmakers took out their iPhones and BlackBerrys, apparently to check email, as he talked. Several in the audience took note of what they said was Mr. Christie’s chastened language, observing his mentions of rehabilitation, recovery and making choices, and wondering if they contained a double meaning for him and his staff. Mr. Christie may not have projected his usual swagger, but he did manage to deliver the kind of raw emotion that has defined his public life. Toward the end of his speech, as he laid out a plan for a new drug rehabilitation program, he asked a man in the audience to stand up. It was a former teenage addict who, after receiving treatment, sobered up, received a law degree and landed a job working for Mr. Christie when he was United States attorney for New Jersey. As the man, Craig Hanlon, rose, and Mr. Christie left the podium to embrace him, the crowd offered its biggest and fullest ovation of the afternoon. Mr. Christie concluded with a philosophical quotation about the future — his state’s, as well, it seemed, as his own. “ ‘Choice, not chance, determines your destiny,’ ” he said. “Our future is not set — it, too, is the product of the choices we make from this day forward. So let us choose wisely.”

Chris Christie
NJ State of the State
Fort Lee NJ
New Jersey
George Washington Bridge


Online Stores Are Weaning Shoppers Off Sales

Abstract: This holiday season, online sales are zooming, even as online retailers offer fewer discounts and turn picky about who shops at their sites. After two years of relative malaise, online sales grew 12 percent in the first 47 days of the holiday season, according to comScore , to $27.5 billion. That significantly outpaces the growth rate of retail sales over all, which analysts expect to rise 3 to 4 percent this holiday season. But online retailers are now protecting their margins with careful offers, dispensing with the promotions of the last two holiday seasons that were meant to drive sales and get rid of extra inventory. Gone are the coupons that give shoppers 40 percent off all purchases. Instead, offers go to selected customers, and are specialized: a discount on wool jackets, free hoop earrings when people spend $100, a “mystery” discount amount that is revealed only at checkout. The promotions try to get customers to behave in a certain way. A coupon may seem straightforward, like Drugstore.com offering $5 off a $30 purchase. In fact, it is encouraging one-time customers to browse through several pages of a site and get to know what a retailer offers as they decide what to buy. “The reason there’s these different promotions and not just the straight dollar-off or percent-off promotions all the time is there are different incentives,” said David Lonczak, chief marketing officer of Drugstore.com. “You may just need a sale, you may have a product you’re long on and you need to get rid of it, or you may be looking to acquire customers with a higher basket,” he said, referring to the transaction price. “You have to be thoughtful.” Discounting has declined; in November, retailers’ e-commerce revenue from sales of full-price items rose 52 percent versus November 2009, according to MyBuys , which works on personalization offers for retailers. But less discounting has not tamped down online sales. On Thanksgiving weekend , more than one-third of purchases were made online, versus about 28.5 percent last year, according to the National Retail Federation. That is because even staunch in-store shoppers are now comfortable buying online, said Fiona Dias, executive vice president for strategy and marketing for GSI Commerce, which provides e-commerce technology to retailers like Toys “R” Us. And the high demand means that online retailers do not have to slash prices to get customers. “If anything, we’re running tight on inventory because everyone has sold a lot more than they expected to,” Ms. Dias said of the sites she works with. “That’s why we’re not seeing 50-percent-off promotions.” Given their strong position, retailers are trying to get customers out of the price-wars mind-set that they adopted during the recession. “At some point, we have to stop and try to go back to where we were because if everyone continues to offer 20 percent, 50 percent off, it’s going to change the market on a long-term scale that it would be too hard to get back from,” said Melissa Joy Manning, who runs an online jewelry store bearing her name. She has stopped discounting, but is giving a pair of silver hoop earrings to customers who spend $100 or more. “We don’t have unlimited resources, so we do try to be as creative with them as we can,” she said. Like Ms. Manning, other retailers are getting creative with unusually specific offers. “It’s about margins,” said Andy Dunn, the chief executive and co-founder of Bonobos, a men’s clothing site. While last December, about a third of his revenue came from promotions, this year it’s down to about a quarter, even as he expects his revenue to nearly triple for the month. “There’s less of a need to be highly promotional,” he said. “At the same time, we feel we need to get better at the laser-beam promoting.” So he is whittling down offers, sending, for instance, a 20 percent offer on suit elements to people who have bought wool pants but not a jacket. “We don’t have to treat everyone the same,” he said. Drugstore.com also changes its approach depending on the customer. That offer for $5 off any purchase over $30 may prompt people to explore the site. “So if a new Drugstore.com customer doesn’t know I sell toys and games, would you think I’d sell a Razor scooter?” he said. “I have to incent you to shop around.” He would use a percent-off coupon, he said, when he wants to drive overall sales. And he tends to avoid offers like “$10 off your purchase,” because “I would get a whole bunch of people coming in, they would find the product that was 10 dollars and one cent, they would get it and I would never see them again,” he said. Other retailers are trying to stand out in crowded in-boxes. Bloomingdales.com had a “mystery savings” event last week, in which customers on its e-mail list were sent a code that called up discounts of between 10 and 40 percent at checkout. “People are going, ‘Well, maybe I’m going to be the one who hits the jackpot,’ ” said Bruce Berman, president of Bloomingdales.com and chief financial officer of Bloomingdale’s. “So they open it at a higher rate.” The tactic helped the store stand out, he said. The day after the Bloomingdale’s e-mail went out, Saks Fifth Avenue also sent one promoting a “mystery sale” online. Saks declined to comment on the promotion. For Bloomingdale’s, Mr. Berman said, “It worked out to our advantage because whoever shops both will say, ‘I already did that.’ ” Sometimes, a retailer can be too successful with an online sale, and have to shift tactics on the fly to keep profit up. At the Gap Inc. sites, which include Banana Republic and Old Navy, the plan was to do heavy discounts on the four days after Thanksgiving . But Friday sales “exceeded our forecast — it was too hot, it was too strong,” said Toby Lenk, the president of Gap Inc. Direct. “So we pulled back on our promotions for Cyber Monday.” And other retailers have had to devise new tactics after vendors instructed them to stop offering discounts on their brands. “With the discounting in the last years, the perception from our vendors is that we were discounting their products,” said Pete LaBore, director of customer retention at Backcountry.com . So the company came up with a new offer — “on our dime,” Mr. LaBore said — that gave $20 off on the site. “It’s totally free money,” the offer said. But customers did not seem to believe it, and Backcountry.com sent another e-mail two days later with the subject line, “Seriously — It’s Free.” The offer went only to people who had bought, in the past, certain brands or categories in which Backcountry.com now had too much stock, or to people who usually spent enough that “we weren’t just going to have somebody coming in buying a three-dollar pair of socks,” Mr. LaBore said. It seemed a smart approach; so far, the offer has been profitable, with most people spending much more than $20, Mr. LaBore said. “We’re trying to get away from the ‘sale, sale, sale’ message, and this is a different way to do that,” he said.

E-Commerce
Discount Selling
Sales
Drugstore.com
Bloomingdale's
Gap Inc


Otto Beisheim, German Retailing Pioneer, Dead at 89

Abstract: BERLIN — Otto Beisheim, who revolutionized retailing in postwar Germany by introducing the concept of selling wholesale goods directly to customers and the builder of the country’s largest retailer, Metro, was found dead on Monday at his home in Bavaria. He was 89. Mr. Beisheim, who had been suffering from an incurable illness, committed suicide, his foundation, the Otto-Beisheim Group, said. Mr. Beisheim, who was said to have amassed a fortune of $3.3 billion, was intensely private and rarely in the public eye. Even at his company’s shareholders’ meetings, he was reported to have shown up on occasion masquerading under the name Müller. Mr. Beisheim founded Metro in 1964 and continued to hold a 10 percent stake. It is now the third-largest retailer in Europe, behind Carrefour of France and Tesco of Britain. Like Sam’s Clubs and Costco in the United States, Metro stores sell only to members. But Metro members are mostly businesses or professionals. The son of a caretaker, Mr. Beisheim was born on Jan 3, 1924, near Essen, Germany. His family was too poor to pay for him to attend high school, so he became a leather tradesman. As a wealthy man, he later donated widely to schools and universities. The best known of these, a business school near Koblenz, carries his name: the WHU-Otto Beisheim School of Management. Image Otto Beisheim in 2004. Credit Tim Brakemeier/DPA, via Agence France-Presse — Getty Images During World War II Mr. Beisheim was a radio controller in the Waffen-SS, the armed wing of the Nazi Party. His military service became known publicly only in 2006, and some said a wish to hide his past may have contributed to his desire for privacy. After the war, Mr. Beisheim worked as an electronics wholesaler. While traveling in the United States he observed how goods were sold from warehouses to customers for cash. The idea differed from the German practice of placing orders on credit and having goods delivered to retailers or other institutional buyers. Returning to Germany, he founded Metro, the country’s first cash-and-carry retailer, in 1964 at Mülheim an der Ruhr, in West Germany’s industrial heartland. He later joined with the Haniel and Schmidt-Ruthenbeck families and expanded the company into Austria and France. It later moved into Denmark and Italy as well. The Metro Group, which today includes the Metro cash-and-carry stores, the electronics stores Saturn and Media Markt, Real hypermarkets and the Kaufhof line of department stores across Europe and Asia, was formed through a merger of several companies in 1996. One of Mr. Beisheim’s main accomplishments at Metro was the purchase in 2006 of 85 Walmart stores by the group’s Real division. Walmart had decided to withdraw from Germany after losing billions of dollars over a decade; the stores now operate under the name Real. Mr. Beisheim’s wife of nearly 50 years, Inge, died in 1999. They had no children. He is leaving his fortune to two foundations that carry his name, one in Munich and the other in Baar, Switzerland.

Otto Beisheim
Metro
Obituary
Retail
Germany


Ex-Red Army Faction Members Sought in Robbery in Germany

Abstract: BERLIN — The German police have intensified their decades-long search for three members of the Red Army Faction, believed to be on the run since their far-left guerrilla group disbanded in 1998, after prosecutors said on Tuesday that they had linked them to at least one botched robbery last year. For more than two decades, federal prosecutors have had an arrest warrant out for Ernst-Volker Staub, 61, Burkhard Garweg, 47, and Daniela Marie-Luise Klette, 57, on suspicion of involvement in actions by the Red Army Faction, or R.A.F. These include the 1993 bombing of a prison in Weiterstadt, near Frankfurt. The group emerged in the late 1970s and early 1980s when its members terrorized West Germany through a series of kidnappings, bombings and killings. Its members killed 34 people in an attempt to overthrow the capitalist government and fight what they saw as American imperialism. The last convicted R.A.F. member to have served time in jail, Birgit Hogefeld, was released in 2011 after serving 18 years of a life sentence for murder. Prosecutors in Verden, near the northern city of Bremen, said on Tuesday that they had begun a fresh investigation of the three fugitives on suspicion of attempted murder and robbery in conjunction with a bungled attempt in June to storm an armored security van stocked with cash. The group may also have been involved in another failed robbery of a similarly cash-laden transporter in December in Wolfsburg, also in northern Germany , but the authorities said evidence was still being evaluated. Marie-Louise Tartz, a spokeswoman for state prosecutors in Verden, said the group had been identified by analyzing DNA traces secured from two vehicles in the crime. Ms. Tartz said the forensic research could take several months in many cases, based on the quality of the evidence available. Federal and state prosecutors said that they did not believe the three suspects had been driven by terrorist motives, and that it appeared they had sought to carry out the robberies for purely financial reasons. “It is to be presumed that the crime was intended to finance a life lived underground,” state prosecutors in Verden said in a statement. The police used helicopters to search for the fugitives after they fled the scene of the attempted robbery in June, but found nothing. According to witnesses, the suspects, armed with automatic rifles, used a white Volkswagen van to block the armored carrier and opened fire, but failed to open the doors of the vehicle. No one was injured. The Red Army Faction, originally called the Baader-Meinhof gang, followed a Marxist-Leninist ideology and initially targeted American interests in West Germany. These included the United States Embassy in Bad Godesberg in 1991 and a bomb attack on an administrative building of the Deutsche Bank in 1990. Ms. Klette has been sought in both of those crimes. In 1999, more than a year after the group disbanded, Ms. Klette, Mr. Staub and Mr. Garweg threatened the driver of an armored vehicle with an automatic rifle and a rocket-propelled grenade. That time they made off with more than one million German marks.

Fugitive
Robbery
Murders and Homicides
Red Army Faction
Burkhard Garweg
Ernst-Volker Staub
Daniela Marie-Luise Klette
Germany


To Tulane, for English and Altruism

Abstract: Brightwaters A LONG ISLANDER to the core, or so he thought, Dave Cahill never intended to become pathologically — well, almost — fond of New Orleans. So fond that, after Hurricane Katrina pulverized the poorer, less mythical city quadrants, he found himself mired, with a handful of fellow students from Tulane University, knee deep in muck in the Ninth Ward, wielding a shovel and a crowbar and gutting the moldy innards of ruined houses until only their skeletons remained. That’s what passed for neighborhood recovery in the early going. Putrid work, being a human wrecking ball incongruously in pursuit, during school hours, of a well-regarded degree in English and history. The digging was occasionally gruesome. One day, as part of Student Advocacy for Equitable Recovery, or Safer, he and a few other volunteers were dismantling a house in hard-hit St. Bernard Parish when a displaced occupant happened by and shared an anecdote: He told them that when the waters that fed an adjacent swamp swelled and crested, he and his family watched their grandmother’s roof, with the attic still attached, float by before submerging. And how was he certain it was his grandmother’s attic, the students, naïvely and nosily, wanted to know? Because her corpse was inside, he informed them, shrugging off the macabre aspects of such a discovery. “He told us, ‘Hey, life is hard here; people live and people die,’ ” Mr. Cahill said. “We were freaked out; he wasn’t. But mostly when I’m working on a house, it isn’t a sad thing anymore because it’s more like the first step to coming home for the family that lived there.” Not a life lesson Mr. Cahill encountered in the classroom. His commitment to the New Orleans rebuilding effort led him to join AmeriCorps and, with some original Safer volunteers, establish the Phoenix of New Orleans , or Pnola, a nonprofit neighborhood recovery association focused on the Lower Mid-City area. Mr. Cahill, now 23 and a 2008 Tulane graduate, had never intended to apply to Tulane, an older sister’s alma mater. But when Tulane mailed him an application, he blithely filled in the essays (as a winner of the Ethnic Pen writing contest sponsored by Bay Shore High School and a participant in the mock United Nations program, his communications skill set was rote), sent it back and was surprised by the size of the scholarship the university dangled in front of him. It would have been rude to refuse it; not to mention it would have caused undeserved aggravation for his progressive parents — his father, Michael Cahill, is an environmental lawyer with a 1-0 record before the United States Supreme Court; his mother, Peggy Lambert, is a dean at St. George’s University School of Medicine in Grenada. So off he went and proceeded to be miserable until he experienced a life-shifting conversion that was meteorological, not religious, in nature. “I eventually changed my attitude on account of a giant hurricane that destroyed the heart of a city I hadn’t even known because it and our campus were like separate worlds,” he reflected last weekend, back on Long Island to organize his second Pnola fund-raiser; the first, in 2006, yielded $20,000 that translated, thanks to free student labor, to $750,000 worth of rebuilt homes. “We built three houses before the fund-raiser up here,” he said, mentioning an off-campus beer pong party as a major if irreverent revenue source, “and we’ve finished another 12 rebuilds since. Not bad for a little nonprofit company. It’s a tough sell, raising funds for a cause that dropped out of everyone’s consciousness three years ago.” Like many conversions, Mr. Cahill’s took time. It also required some strong-arming from a college friend, Jim Coningsby, the creator of Safer in 2005 and, coincidentally, another Bay Shore native, albeit one who relocated to Virginia in boyhood. “He told me that if I didn’t come back down there and find out how the gutting world works, I’d regret it,” Mr. Cahill said. “Jimmy, by the way, still hasn’t graduated. I can understand it; I mean, how can you sit around reading a book when you know there are people out there who really need help?” Freshman year had not endeared Mr. Cahill, who expects to attend law school after his second AmeriCorps term ends (“Pnola can use a lawyer”), to Tulane. He was homesick for Bay Shore, pondering an East Coast transfer, and didn’t hurry back for the opening day of sophomore semester. When Katrina encroached and Tulane shut down, he was still safe at home; then he was “relocated” for a semester to Boston University, which temporarily took in displaced Tulane students. “My friends had horror stories to tell, but all I lost was a semester of school,” he said in the midst of jazzing up his parents’ stately colonial-style home in Brightwaters for the fund-raiser. “But they say that if you stay in New Orleans more than five years, you’re never going to leave.” When the overload of blinking pink flamingo garlands, twinkling holiday lights and red-hot chili pepper lanterns blew a fuse, Mr. Cahill scurried down to the basement to restore full illumination. Also on his to-do roster: a side trip to the living room to patch an unsightly damp spot on the ceiling caused by a balky upstairs toilet; not a repair he would have been capable of making before his immersion in New Orleans-style gut-and-revive artisanship. But now? “A snap.” Charity begins at home. At least it did last weekend, but only until Monday morning, when Mr. Cahill made a beeline back to New Orleans. Five uninhabitable but remediable houses, and five anxious families, were waiting for him and his team to work some nonprofit magic by Christmas. The benefit raised $11,000. In Pnola arithmetic, that’s about $375,000. In other words, welcome home, folks.

Hurricane Katrina
New Orleans (La)
Volunteers


Liberal Feminists Ponder Friends, Foes and Carly Fiorina

Abstract: When the novelist Jennifer Weiner watched the second Republican presidential debate with her two daughters on Sept. 16, she felt a sense of pride at seeing the lone woman on stage, Carly Fiorina , hold her own against Donald J. Trump. Then Mrs. Fiorina denounced abortion and Planned Parenthood in a graphic monologue that thrilled many conservative Republican voters but left Ms. Weiner appalled. “It’s so weird — she looks like one of us, but she’s not,” said Ms. Weiner, who in addition to being a best-selling author is an influential feminist with a large social-media following. “You’re on the bus with her until she starts talking about Planned Parenthood.” As Mrs. Fiorina’s presidential campaign gains traction — and as the focus on her statements about Planned Parenthood intensifies — liberal women across the web are expressing conflicted feelings about her candidacy. At times, there is gratification at watching a woman forcefully take on Mr. Trump; at other times, horror at Mrs. Fiorina’s conservative policy positions, which these women see as anathema to the feminist cause. “Can you love a campaign but hate a candidate’s policies?” read the subtitle of Robin Marty’s Sept. 18 essay on Cosmopolitan.com titled “Carly Fiorina Is the Candidate I Wanted Hillary Clinton to Be.” Mrs. Fiorina has encouraged feminists to take her seriously. After Mr. Trump’s remarks about her looks — “Look at that face! Would anyone vote for that?” he told Rolling Stone magazine — her “ super PAC ,” Carly for America, released a video advertisement called “Faces,” in which she turned the insult to her advantage. In the ad, as the faces of women flash across the screen — young and old, black and white, all of them beaming — Mrs. Fiorina tells a heavily female audience: “We are not a special-interest group. We are the majority of the nation.” (It is a line she repeated in the Republican debate.) “This is the face of a 61-year-old woman,” she says later in the ad, as the audience whoops and whistles its approval. “I am proud of every year and every wrinkle.” Such shows of defiance and forcefulness by Mrs. Fiorina have impressed many liberal women. Tracy Clark-Flory, a senior staff writer for Vocativ.com who has written about sex and relationships for Salon and other outlets, said Mrs. Fiorina’s debate turn was a powerful moment that created some dissonance given her stands on the issues. “I think even as a lot of feminists cheered her on during that performance, we were loathing her actual policies,” she said. “There’s an excitement and a horror that those two can kind of coexist.” Left-leaning feminists have not been so conflicted by other Republican candidates for national office in recent years. Both Sarah Palin, the Republican vice-presidential nominee in 2008, and Michele Bachmann, a congresswoman who ran for the Republican nomination in 2012, went out of their way to attack traditional feminism. Mrs. Fiorina has spoken critically of traditional feminism, too: In June, when she still barely registered in national presidential polls, she declared in a speech that the liberal “version of feminism isn’t working” and said her definition of “a feminist is a woman who lives the life she chooses.” That differs from the definition that Mrs. Clinton gave in an interview with the actress and writer Lena Dunham, the creator and star of the HBO series “Girls,” for a website Ms. Dunham is starting. When Ms. Dunham asked Mrs. Clinton if she considered herself a feminist, she replied, “Yes, absolutely,” and expressed puzzlement at women who did not. “A feminist is by definition someone who believes in equal rights,” she said. Still, Mrs. Fiorina’s background as a former chief executive at Hewlett-Packard and her role in calling out Mr. Trump, whose remarks have offended women in both parties, have captured the attention of many writers, activists and other influential figures in the feminist movement, as reflected on social media and in news outlets targeted at young women. It was an irony first pointed out by the conservative blogger Michelle Malkin. “Carly Fiorina is an ice-cold shade queen debate princess and I’m in love with and terrified of her,” Erin Gloria Ryan, managing editor of the feminist blog Jezebel , wrote on Twitter on Sept. 16. In an interview, Ms. Ryan said that as a feminist she was of two minds about Mrs. Fiorina’s candidacy, at times drawn to her and at times repulsed by her positions and what many critics say were her exaggerated statements about a Planned Parenthood video. In addition to opposing abortion, Mrs. Fiorina opposes raising the minimum wage, federally mandated paid maternity leave and the Affordable Care Act, policies that disproportionately affect women. “I am constantly pivoting mentally with her,” Ms. Ryan said, adding that she had not at all been torn about opposing Mrs. Palin or Mrs. Bachmann. Mrs. Fiorina, she said, is “contrary to the conservative female narrative, the way she looks, the way she presents herself, the no-nonsense businesswoman thing.” In an interview, Ms. Marty, the Cosmopolitan writer, said she had been disappointed by the caution of Mrs. Clinton’s campaign so far and was intrigued by Mrs. Fiorina’s brassy candor and fearlessness. Still, she said that under no circumstance could she ever vote for someone who opposed abortion rights. Ms. Marty said that for liberal feminists, cheering on Mrs. Fiorina was like eating at McDonald’s. “You know, inherently, it’s not something you should be eating,” she said. “But when there’s nothing else around, it’s what you go and take.” Who’s Winning the Presidential Campaign? History suggests that each party’s eventual nominee will emerge from 2015 in one of the top two or three positions, as measured by endorsements, fund-raising and polling. Republican women say the feminist head-scratching about Mrs. Fiorina has brought to light a hypocritical aspect of the women’s movement. “They’re not really looking for equal representation — they’re looking for more Democratic women representation,” said Katie Packer, a Republican strategist. Yet the more that liberal feminist writers and activists — many of whom view abortion rights as the ultimate litmus test — hear from Mrs. Fiorina, the less conflicted they may become. In particular, Mrs. Fiorina is standing by her assertion in the Sept. 16 debate that she had viewed a video about Planned Parenthood showing “a fully formed fetus on the table, its heart beating, its legs kicking, while someone says, ‘We have to keep it alive to harvest its brain.’” Planned Parenthood and other abortion-rights advocacy groups have called Mrs. Fiorina’s assertion “completely false,” and many news organizations have concluded that she was describing a video that did not exist. On Thursday, Mrs. Fiorina visited an anti-abortion pregnancy center in Spartanburg, S.C., where she took journalists into an examination room as she observed an expectant mother’s ultrasound and remarked upon the fetal heartbeat and developing spine. “Liberals and progressives will spend inordinate amounts of time and money protecting fish, frogs and flies,” Mrs. Fiorina said outside afterward. “They do not think a 17-week-old, a 20-week-old, a 24-week-old is worth saving.” On Saturday, women wearing pink, some of whom were affiliated with Planned Parenthood, protested Mrs. Fiorina at a campaign appearance in Iowa, throwing condoms and chanting, “Women are watching, and we vote.” On Sunday, in an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Mrs. Fiorina insisted that the scene in the video she had described “absolutely does exist,” but offered no evidence to back up her contention. Anna Holmes, who founded Jezebel and now writes for Fusion.net , said Mrs. Fiorina had lied in her depiction of the video. “She’s tough and she’s very well spoken, but I just don’t think she speaks the truth,” she said. Acknowledging the early interest among some feminists in Mrs. Fiorina’s candidacy, none other than Gloria Steinem weighed in, calling Mrs. Fiorina’s claims about Planned Parenthood “a 100 percent lie.” “Trump’s greatest damage to women,” Ms. Steinem said in a Facebook post , “was to raise sympathy for Carly Fiorina by attacking her appearance.”

2016 Presidential Election
Carleton Fiorina,Carly Fiorina
Abortion
Planned Parenthood
Birth control
Women's rights,Feminism
Jezebel Blog
The Politico


5 European Nations Agree to Help U.S. Crack Down on Tax Evasion

Abstract: PARIS — Washington won important backing Wednesday for an effort to identify offshore accounts held by Americans, as key European allies agreed to help. In a joint statement, the United States, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Britain said they wanted “to intensify their cooperation in combating international tax evasion.” In return, Washington has agreed to “reciprocate in collecting and exchanging” information about U.S. accounts held by residents of those countries. The agreement concerns the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, known as Fatca, which became law as part of a 2010 jobs bill . Fatca is meant to help the U.S. Internal Revenue Service identify hidden accounts and other assets held overseas by Americans, but the law has caused an outcry among foreign financial institutions that fear the cost of compliance as well as what they have said are unrealistically tight implementation deadlines. There were also concerns that Fatca — which will require that virtually every financial institution in the world report any accounts held by Americans, with a withholding penalty for noncompliance — would put banks into a position of violating national secrecy laws to comply. The United States and the five European countries said Wednesday that they would get around the secrecy problem by having financial institutions share data with their own governments, which would then share with Washington. The European Commission, the executive arm of the European Union, welcomed the government-to-government approach, saying it would greatly reduce “the administrative burden, compliance costs and legal difficulties.” The U.S. Congress estimated that Fatca would raise up to $1 billion a year for 10 years after implementation, a cost that banks have argued will be dwarfed by the cost of compliance, which has been estimated at up to $100 million for each multinational bank, according to the European Commission. Algirdas Semeta, the E.U. tax commissioner, said he was confident that the information-sharing deal would help to accomplish the common goal of addressing international tax evasion “in a business-friendly manner.” U.S. Treasury officials say privately that they hope other countries that have raised objections to Fatca, including Canada, Switzerland, China and Japan, will see the benefits of the approach announced Wednesday and that the agreement is almost certain to expand. They say discussions with other countries are continuing. The necessity of getting China on board for any such global deal is evident, as evidenced by Beijing’s announcement this week that it had forbidden its airlines to participate in an E.U. carbon tax program. Li Xinghao, a spokesman for the China Banking Regulatory Commission, said last month of Fatca that “unless the law is modified, the China Banking Regulatory Commission has no right to mandate Chinese banks to disclose account information of U.S. clients to the U.S. taxing authorities.” The agreements with the European countries will not provide an exemption from Fatca for any jurisdiction, but if a country were to oblige all of its financial institutions to automatically hand over all account data related to Americans, then it could obtain blanket exemption for its banks to transfer funds between themselves without being subject to the so-called pass-through payment withholding requirement for transactions with noncompliant institutions. The pass-through payment measure has been one of the elements most hotly contested by the financial industry. The announcement Wednesday came as the I.R.S. proposed rules to implement the law in a 388-page document that addressed some of the criticisms. Douglas H. Shulman, the I.R.S. commissioner, acknowledged in a statement that compliance “creates a significant undertaking for financial institutions,” and said the proposed regulations “reflect our commitment to take into account the implementation challenges of affected financial institutions while allowing for a smooth and timely rollout of the law.” Denise Hintzke, head of the global tax compliance initiative at Deloitte in New York, said the rules included extending some compliance deadlines and allowing greater use of computerized searches of existing accounts for signs of American connections. Fatca has also been criticized by American expatriates because it imposes new reporting requirements. Some have said it makes Americans less attractive as clients for financial institutions, raising the cost of doing business overseas. Those criticisms were not addressed in the proposed rules. Brian Knowlton reported from Washington. Mia Li contributed from Beijing.

Tax Evasion
Europe
United States
Internal Revenue Service
France
Italy
Germany
Great Britain
Spain


Two Losses Put Illinois’s Dedication in Question

Abstract: Steam seemed to be rising from Coach Bruce Weber’s head as he assessed the unthinkable: a 57-54 beating his University of Illinois basketball team had just taken from its outmanned in-state rival Illinois-Chicago last Saturday at the United Center. Flaunting a 10-1 record, a seven-game winning streak and a No. 12 national ranking coming in, the Illini appeared listless and bored against the struggling Flames (4-7), a Horizon League midmajor under a first-year coach, Howard Moore, and lost to them for the first time in 20 years. “We froze down the stretch and didn’t make plays,” Weber said, visibly irritated. “We played like we were worried about losing rather than taking the game to them.” The effort, Weber conceded, just wasn’t there, and that was an affront to him. The Big Ten, regardless of what it calls its divisions in a planned realignment, is a grown-up’s league. Weber has logged 25 years in it, the first 18 as an assistant under gruff Gene Keady at blue-collar Purdue. He believes teams succeed by grinding down opponents, outworking, outthinking and outhustling them. “Our approach to practice finally caught up with us,” Weber said. Jerrance Howard, an assistant coach, had a more extreme reaction. “The most embarrassing loss in the history of Illinois basketball,” he declared . A tough opponent in a high-energy building provided an intriguing setting for a bounce-back game four nights later, but it proved less than ideal. Illinois took another step in the wrong direction Wednesday, falling to Missouri, 75-64, before a divided house of 21,906 at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis. So with a week off before the start of Big Ten play, Illinois finds itself with a 10-3 record, a two-game losing streak, and some doubt as to its capabilities. Weber was less critical of the Illini’s effort against Missouri than he was of a strange call that set up a six-point possession for the Tigers: An intentional foul against Mike Tisdale rewarded Lawrence Bowers with two free throws, plus the layup he made despite Tisdale’s half-hearted effort to impede him. Missouri retained possession, and Marcus Denmon converted a layup on the inbounds play. Weber then drew a technical foul as he continued to fume over the call on Tisdale. Denmon made two free throws to complete an eight-point, 14-second flurry that decided what had been a back-and-forth game. “Being a top 10 team by Christmas was one of our goals,” Weber said. “That’s obviously not going to happen. Leadership is always tested when things go bad.” Leadership should not be an issue for the Illini — seniors Demetri McCamey, Mike Davis and Tisdale are experienced hands who have appeared in 353 games and made 261 starts at Illinois. Weber has rounded out his roster with some of the biggest names from the Illinois high school ranks, dispelling talk-show grousing that he can’t recruit top-level homegrown talent. Derrick Rose, Jon Scheyer, Sherron Collins, Jacob Pullen and other Chicago-area prep stars made their college bones elsewhere, true. But current sophomore D. J. Richardson, from Peoria, and freshman Jereme Richmond, of Waukegan, were high school All-Americans. Richmond, the consensus player of the year in Illinois last season, committed to the Illini as a ninth-grader. Michael Shaw, a skilled power forward from Chicago’s De La Salle Institute, headlines a flashy incoming class for 2011-12. But young stars who have been fawned over, catered to and offered scholarships since adolescence don’t always function as role players. A sense of entitlement sometimes blinds them to the need to bring maximum effort every night in an environment as competitive as the Big Ten. McCamey, with his tendency to drift in and out of a dominant role at point guard, embodies the state of the team. Against Missouri, 8 of his 14 points came during a fast-paced second-half sequence that featured the most entertaining basketball of the night. Down the stretch he managed just two quiet points as the Tigers closed out the game with a 23-7 run. “We’ve lost our sense of urgency,” McCamey said. “We haven’t been pushing each other. We’ve been relaxed, a little soft. The seniors have to get it back on track. With the Big Ten season coming, we’ve got to get back to being hard-nosed.” Weber is a smart coach who always seemed at his best with tough-minded overachievers who competed every night, played hard and regarded losing as unacceptable. A star-packed roster is a departure for him. But missing the N.C.A.A. tournament will change a man’s thinking. It has happened to Illinois in two of the last three years. Illinois has beaten Gonzaga, Maryland and North Carolina while compiling 10 wins against a nonconference schedule that will look good on a tournament résumé. In the Big Ten, only Ohio State has separated itself from the pack, but there are enough teams at or close to Illinois’ level that it could finish anywhere from second to eighth. “We have talent, there’s no doubt,” Weber said. “But are we going to be a good team? It’s up to them. They’ve got to want it. If I want it more than they do, we’re in trouble.”

Weber Bruce (1956- )
College Athletics
Basketball
NCAA Basketball Tournament (Men)
University of Illinois
Chicago (Ill)


Panel Throws Out Suit by Man Who Fell on Track

Abstract: A jury said he deserved $2.3 million, but an appeals court panel on Tuesday threw out a lawsuit filed by a man who lost part of his leg after he fell into the path of a subway train while drunk. The jurors did not have enough evidence to conclude that the motorman could have stopped the train before it hit the man, Dustin Dibble, in April 2006, a state Appellate Division panel said. Mr. Dibble, 26, lost part of his right leg in the accident at Union Square station. He had been out with friends watching ice hockey at a bar, according to his lawyer, and said he was too drunk to remember how he ended up on the tracks or anything about the accident. Jurors last year found that Mr. Dibble bore some responsibility for his injury, but they put most of the blame on New York City Transit, which runs the city’s buses and subways. “The jury’s determination that the accident could have been avoided was based on nothing more than a series of estimated stopping distances,” the judges wrote in the ruling on Tuesday. The motorman died before the trial but had testified that he initially saw a lump that “looked like garbage,” and did not immediately stop because debris is common on the tracks. He said he stopped a few seconds later after seeing the object move. Mr. Dibble’s lawyer, Andrew Smiley, said the appeals court had intruded on a question it should have left to the jury. “The issue was whether or not he should have stopped upon seeing a mass on the tracks,” Mr. Smiley said. “That was an issue for the jury to decide, and they decided he shouldn’t have been mistaken for a piece of garbage.” He said that Mr. Dibble intended to appeal. The transit agency said it was pleased with the ruling. It said in a statement that the public should not have to compensate people who “place themselves in positions of obvious danger through their own reckless conduct.”

Accidents and Safety
Subways
Decisions and Verdicts
Union Square (NYC)


GTT ★

Abstract: Our quirky, discerning picks for the most interesting things to do around the state this week. LLANO Keep On Truckin’ In the mid 1990s, S. R. Bindler was at home in Longview during his summer break from film school in New York. After leaving a bar late one night, he stumbled upon a curious scene at the local Nissan dealership. People were crowded around a pickup truck, one hand pressed to its body, trying to maintain contact despite the exhaustion of having already stood there for a couple of days — yes, days. The scene became the basis of Mr. Bindler’s 1997 documentary “Hands on a Hardbody,” which follows 24 colorful Piney Woods contestants competing to win the truck in an endurance test to see who can keep his or her hand on the vehicle the longest. (The winner in his film lasted 77 hours.) “Some wanted the truck for the truck,” Mr. Bindler, known as Robb, said. “Some wanted the truck for what the truck could bring to them: just raw dollars. Some wanted to sell the truck and buy a different truck. And some wanted to sell the truck to pay bills.” The movie has spawned similar oddball contests and even a stage adaptation that recently opened on Broadway. To commemorate the release of a new DVD featuring 86 additional minutes of interviews with the contestants, a restored version of the film will be screened in various Texas cities. “The irony of the contest is that it concerns the American dream, win something for nothing,” Mr. Bindler said. “And yet it’s a Japanese truck.” Lantex Theater, April 12, 7 p.m., handsonahard bodythemovie.com . GRAND PRAIRIE Out of the Gates The Kentucky Derby, the first installment in the Triple Crown of thoroughbred racing, is just three weeks away. People know that the thing to do is dress in preppy springtime clothes and sip mint juleps, the Derby’s official drink. But many people know little to nothing about racing. Now they can get acquainted with the relationship between the horses and their jockeys at Lone Star Park, where the spring thoroughbred season opens this weekend with Texas-bred 3-year-olds and older. Learn racing terms like furlong and trifecta, and do it from the newly renovated dining terraces. . Outlandish hats optional. Lone Star Park, April 12-July 6, lonestarpark.com . DALLAS Preserve the Reserve A lot of people take water for granted. Unless the utility bill goes unpaid, there’s no reason to think that it won’t flow freely from your faucet. But the supply of this precious resource is dwindling as demand increases. While state leaders are proposing legislation to address water conservation and to allocate financing to build new reservoirs, individuals are being asked to scale back their personal use. “We’ve been in a drought for so long and entertaining a perpetual drought that could put us back in something like the Dust Bowl,” said Sahar Sea of the Trinity River Audubon Center, the host of “Water in Texas,” a town hall presentation featuring speakers from the Texas Conservation Alliance and Dallas Water Utilities. It will try to get to the bottom of Ms. Sea’s $64,000 question, “In 20 years, where’s the water going to come from?” Trinity River Audubon Center, April 18, 7 p.m., trinityriver audubon.org. AUSTIN Like Family The Old Settler’s Music Festival, four days of Americana bands including the Gourds, Son Volt and Carolina Chocolate Drops, fosters a community spirit hard to find in the era of megafestivals. When Sarah Jarosz, a singer and multi-instrumentalist from Wimberley, was just 10 and part of the band Spurs of the Moment, a spellbound audience embraced her. And she went on to become a Grammy-nominated solo act. Meanwhile, marquee musicians have been known to unlock the hidden musical talents of festivalgoers; Bill Kreutzmann of the Grateful Dead engaged in late-night jam sessions with his fans in the campgrounds. And one couple who met at Old Settler’s later returned to get married in front of 2,000 people. The Salt Lick BBQ Pavilion & Camp Ben McCulloch, April 18-21, oldsettlersmusicfest.org . IRVING Daddy’s Girl When Kelly Carlin, daughter of the comic George Carlin, goes onstage for “A Carlin Home Companion” and explains her complicated relationship with her outspoken father, she will draw on her insight as a Jungian psychotherapist to delve into her childhood memories. Irving Arts Center, April 18, 7:30 p.m., thekellycarlinsite.com . AUSTIN Capital C for Country Wayne Hancock, the Denton honky-tonk musician, will return to Austin, his former home, in support of “Ride,” a new album that glues together the old and new country (ripped apart recently by Blake Shelton), with rocking electric guitar to update a voice often compared to Hank Williams Sr.’s. The White Horse, April 13, 9 p.m., waynehancock.com .

Rock music
Documentaries
Horse racing
National Audubon Society
Kelly Carlin
George Carlin
Texas


9 Points, 4 Goals and Looking Ahead

Abstract: What a month. It’s truly hard to put into words how exciting and memorable June has been for me. The obvious thrill came three times over when my United States teammates and I pulled off huge victories against Jamaica, Panama and Honduras in World Cup qualifying. Getting those nine points and earning a spot alone atop the Hex was huge in our quest to make that coveted trip to Brazil next year. I think it’s safe to say — and obvious for those watching us — that we’ve really continued to develop a chemistry with one another and grown as a team with each match. I know I see and feel it, so hopefully the fans and soccer pundits have noticed the improvement from the start of camp to where we are currently as a team. It won’t be for another few months or so that we come together again, so hopefully we pick up where we left off in Utah and remember what helped us get such positive results. Personally, it goes without saying those games were extremely important. Scoring for my country in all three qualifiers, as well in the US Soccer Centennial friendly against Germany, was simply great and showed how well we are clicking as an offensive unit. At that level of play, we aren’t going to get an abundant amount of quality scoring opportunities. So finding the back of the next was satisfying and hopefully made the fans proud. As I finish this latest blog entry back home in Florida, I’m getting ready for my trip to New York City for a bunch of appearances, interviews and other events. I was set to participate in a special event, highlighted by a charity auction, at the Astor Center, which was held Wednesday, where athletes and some of the country’s most decorated chefs joined forces with the Partnership at Drugfree.org to raise awareness for the organization. I put together a great package for the auction with my New York Red Bulls family, so I’m excited to see how much money we can raise for the organization. On Thursday, I am doing something I truly love and that’s meeting fans. I will be at Upper 90 soccer store for an autograph-signing session from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. at its Upper West Side location. There will be a suggested donation for items being signed, with all the money raised going toward projects with the Jozy Altidore Foundation. Until then, it’s back to packing and getting in that “Empire State of Mind” (cue Jay-Z and Alicia Keys). As always, thank you for the continued support for me and my teammates. Our fans and supporters are truly amazing. I can’t wait to get back on the field later this summer wearing the red, white and blue. Striker Jozy Altidore scored more than 30 goals last season for AZ in the Netherlands. Follow him on Twitter .

United States Soccer Federation
2014 World Cup
Philanthropy


Spain Offers Citizenship to Exiles’ Kin

Abstract: ROME — The descendants of those exiled from Spain during the Spanish Civil War and the fascist dictatorship of Gen. Francisco Franco may claim Spanish citizenship under legislation that went into effect over the weekend. The Spanish government expects half a million people, many of them in Argentina, Venezuela, Cuba and elsewhere in Latin America, to file for citizenship under the new measure, the Spanish newspaper El País reported. A government spokesman was not immediately able to confirm the figure on Sunday. The citizenship law covers the period from July 18, 1936, to Dec. 31, 1955, which includes the Spanish Civil War from 1936 to 1939 and the first decades of the fascist dictatorship, which ended with Franco’s death in 1975. The act is part of the “law of historical memory,” a landmark and controversial piece of legislation passed last year by the Socialist government of Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero aimed at encouraging Spain to resolve issues from its bloody 20th-century history. The law also provides public financing to unearth the mass graves in which thousands of Spaniards were buried during the war. It also requires the removal of many symbols from the Franco dictatorship from state buildings and public spaces. Those applying for citizenship must present proof of their parents’ or grandparents’ place and date of birth, according to the Web site of the Spanish Justice Ministry . The government plans to accept applications until December 2010. Those deemed eligible would not have to renounce their other citizenship.

Spain
Spanish Civil War (1936-39)
Citizenship
Franco Francisco


Back-to-School Discounts Are Deeper, More Creative

Abstract: Parents shopping for back-to-school gear could be forgiven for walking into a store nowadays and thinking they have gone through a time warp. With 1930s prices for pens, glue, notebooks and even T-shirts, the season seems more “Back to the Future” than back to school. A penny these days buys eight No. 2 pencils at Staples or a wooden ruler at OfficeMax. Fifty cents buys a watercolor set at Target. A box of 24 Crayola crayons is the cost of a gumball — 25 cents. Or, as Sharon Hartley, vice president for United States marketing and sales for Crayola, put it: “Sixteen boxes of a 24-pack equals a gallon of gas.” Such pocket-change bargains, known as loss leaders, are not a novel strategy for retailers, of course. But in the first back-to-school season since the economy weakened considerably, the discounts are earlier, deeper and more creative than in previous years. Staples, for instance, has offered one-cent deals before, though this is the first year the retailer is giving away products, like Elmer’s glue. Thrift is the theme this back-to-school year: people are spending less, consolidating shopping trips, forgoing discretionary items and going without new wardrobes and backpacks. And stores are trying to play to the public mood. “I’ve seen a much higher prevalence of those types of big attention-grabber promotions this season,” said Stacy Janiak, an analyst with Deloitte. “The one-cent deals, the bundling of products or three-for-two deals. I’ve seen a lot of that, much more than in the past.” Loss leaders are called that because by selling items at a loss or even giving them away, stores can lure in shoppers who will buy other, more profitable items. Drawn by the prospect of free glue, Laura Janowski, 23, stocked up on school supplies for her siblings, 12 and 14, at a Staples store in Rolling Meadows, Ill., this week. “Now, I just need to find the 9-cent filler paper and 33-cent index cards,” she said. Even as consumers visit stores like Staples, lured in by the penny deals, they are doing much of their shopping at discount and off-price retailers. There they can buy everything from sneakers to paperclips, and prices are low throughout the store, not just on a few select items. “With the high price of gas and food this summer, it is absolutely necessary for me to try to save money on back-to-school shopping,” said Jennifer Lee, a mother of three, ages 9, 12 and 15, as she loaded her minivan with bags of folders and binders from a Wal-Mart in Rolling Meadows, Ill. “That means reusing last year’s scissors and markers, and even the old spiral notebooks that have only a few pages used.” Ms. Janiak of Deloitte said 71 percent of households would cut their spending on back-to-school items this year, with 48 percent planning to reduce spending by more than $100. Deborah Weinswig, an analyst with Citigroup, said 75 percent of consumers planned to spend less than $400 on back-to-school shopping, up from 45 percent last year. “Everyone is just much more price focused,” Ms. Weinswig said. It is perhaps no surprise, then, that Wal-Mart on Thursday announced record earnings for the three months ending in July and raised its full-year earnings forecast to $3.43 to $3.50 a share, up from $3.30 to $3.43. The bargain retailer’s profit rose to $3.4 billion, or 87 cents a share, up from $2.9 billion, or 72 cents a share, a year earlier. Sales at American stores open at least a year, known as same-store sales and a measure of retail health, rose to 4.5 percent (not including fuel) for the quarter, up from 1.9 percent last year. “Their sweet spot within the customer framework are items below $10 and items that customers are familiar with,” said Bill Dreher, an analyst with Deutsche Bank Securities. “It’s working.” Wal-Mart has been offering back-to-school deals like a week’s worth of children’s outfits (five tops and five bottoms) for $60, though it too is selling school supplies for pennies. “You have a series of wow items,” John Simley, a spokesman for Wal-Mart, said this week. “People are coming in expecting to buy a notebook. But 5 cents for a notebook? You can get 20 for a buck.” Andrew Schneider, director of global brand management for Staples, said compelling penny offers bring customers into stores. “And they then will discover the wide range of products we have,” he said. Analysts agree that in an economic downturn penny deals help retailers retain, if not gain, customers. More important, the eye-popping deals can keep a retailer at the top of consumers’ minds. “Can you afford to sell something for a penny?,” said Marshal Cohen, NPD Group’s chief industry analyst. “The answer is, you can’t afford not to.” In addition to price, a big appeal of discounters is that they offer one-stop shopping, saving consumers fuel. “I think everybody thinks twice about heading out,” said Debbie Pinciotto as she led a gaggle of teenage girls on a scavenger hunt through Westfield Sunrise mall in Massapequa, N.Y. She plans to do the bulk of her back-to-school clothing shopping in a few weeks, after her older daughter receives her birthday presents. “When she gets the gift cards, we’ll go,” Ms. Pinciotto said. Many consumers, not content with bargain school supplies, are planning to use discount cards being mailed out by the likes of Kohl’s and J. C. Penney, which this week announced a rewards a program that allows customers to earn points from purchases and receive members-only benefits. Analysts said apparel sales would suffer this season as parents send children back to school in last year’s clothes. Those that do buy new gear will use rewards cards and coupons in September, even October, when the weather cools and their children have determined what fashions are in vogue. Two department stores on Thursday released earnings reports for the three months ending Aug. 2, illustrating the disparity between discount retailers and department stores. Nordstrom, the luxury chain, reported a 21 percent decline in profit to $143 million, or 65 cents a share, down from $180 million, or 71 cents a share, a year earlier. Same-store sales decreased 6 percent for the quarter. The company’s lower-priced Nordstrom Rack stores fared well with same-store sales increasing 6.3 percent for the quarter. Its full-price stores struggled, however, with same-stores sales decreasing 9 percent in the quarter. Kohl’s profit decreased 12 percent to $236 million, or 77 cents a share, down from $269 million, or 83 cents a share, a year earlier. Same store sales for the quarter decreased 4.6 percent. In a conference call with investors, Wes McDonald, Kohl’s chief financial officer, said that of all the marketing areas the company was concentrating on, the most important was “emphasizing value in all our advertising.” While it is unlikely back-to-school clothes will be sold for pocket change, consumers should expect to see more sales and rewards programs as summer turns to fall. “The consumer knows they’re in the driver’s seat,” said Mr. Cohen of NPD Group. “The retailer’s going to blink first.”

Retail Stores and Trade
Consumer Behavior
Prices (Fares Fees and Rates)


Couple Who Ran Emperor’s Club VIP, Tied to Spitzer, Have New Venture

Abstract: An untold number of customers were willing to pay $5,000 an hour for an escort from Emperor’s Club VIP , the Internet prostitution ring run by a 62-year-old former Israeli tax official and his bubbly 20-something girlfriend that in 2008 helped end the political career of Eliot Spitzer, also known then as Client No. 9. But as yet it is unclear whether business will be as brisk for the latest Internet venture that this unusual couple — now both out of prison and married last summer — have undertaken: an empowerment seminar for which they will be asking $35,000 a person. The course and the book at its center, “The Science of Activating Your Supreme Power,” are written by Mark Brener and Cecil Suwal — once Internet procurers, then, in relatively short order, federal defendants, federal inmates, man and wife and now empowerment entrepreneurs. Their One World Initiative , billed as “the perspective that unifies the world’s diverse religions and beliefs,” is nothing if not ambitious. Its Web site's headings include “Supercharge Key Relationships,” “Rise Above the Competition,” “Be Rich Forever” and “Look and Feel Half your Age.” The book, published last month by CBN Media, according to Amazon, offers even more. “Transform your relationships into oases of bliss, love and emotional support,” the promotional copy on the Web site says. “Generate additional millions and billions in financial wealth; and have the mind-set that allows you to fully enjoy it.” Indeed, it seems there is little that the book does not offer, if you read the promotional copy. “Become immortal and adore every minute of it,” it continues. “Live the life of your dreams.” Ms. Suwal, who has a seemingly irrepressible giggle, acknowledged in a telephone interview on Monday night that some people might find it surprising that she and Mr. Brener, who were married in August 2010, had undertaken this new venture. “It may seem that way,” she said, “but like anyone else, Mark and I have many facets to our personalities, and this is something we’ve been into for years.” She pointed to the old Emperor’s VIP Web site, which she said even then reflected a measure of their philosophy, and quoted from some of the marketing copy that graced the gauzy photographs of women in lingerie: “Our goal is to make life more peaceful, balanced, beautiful and meaningful.” Mr. Brener, to whom she eventually passed the phone, said he did not expect to offer the empowerment seminar for six months or so, by which time, he said, he expected the book would be widely read and “people who can afford it will definitely contact us.” The underlying ideas, he said, were refined in prison — he was released in May 2010 and she in November 2009 — where he read a great deal, including meditations by Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson and the psychiatrist Viktor E. Frankl . “I was thinking about, basically, there is a pattern in this world if we start thinking about crossing the desert or being in the wilderness and we found ourselves — right? — in very similar situation, we were under enormous pressure,” he said. “Anxiety, depression, for a number of months, and after that we found ourselves time that we can think, analyze and basically the outcome from our perspective, it’s very positive,” he continued. “I would say it was like — because I was reading a lot when I was in prison — it is like diamonds; they’ve always been created under pressure and fire and heat.” Asked about the cost of the seminar, which appears to include a provision that participants will give 3 percent of the first $1 million they earn as a result of having taken the course to Ms. Suwal and Mr. Brener, Ms. Suwal said, “Well you know, it’s not really that far from a lot of industry standards.”

Science of Activating Your Supreme Power The (Book)


Cleveland Reaches Settlement With Justice Department Over Police Conduct

Abstract: CLEVELAND — Cleveland has reached a settlement with the Justice Department over what federal authorities said was a pattern of unconstitutional policing and excessive use of force, people briefed on the case said Monday. The settlement, which could be announced as early as Tuesday, comes days after a judge declared a Cleveland police officer not guilty of manslaughter in the fatal shooting of a car’s two unarmed occupants, both of them black. The verdict prompted a day and night of protests and reignited discussions about how police officers treat the city’s African-American residents. The details of the settlement were not immediately clear, but in similar talks in recent years, the Justice Department has required cities to allow independent monitors to oversee changes in police departments. Settlements are typically backed by court orders and often call for improved training and revised policies for the use of force. A spokeswoman for the Cleveland Division of Police referred questions to the mayor’s office, which would not comment on Monday. Dena Iverson, a spokeswoman for the Justice Department, also had no comment. The Justice Department opened an inquiry into the Cleveland police force months after the 2012 shooting of the unarmed occupants in a car, and issued its report in December. Cleveland is among several cities, including Ferguson, Mo., New York and Baltimore, that have become focal points of a national debate over policing and race. On Saturday, demonstrators spent hours marching through Cleveland after a judge acquitted Officer Michael Brelo of manslaughter for his role in the 2012 shooting, which began with a police chase of the car. While several officers fired a combined 137 shots, Officer Brelo was singled out for manslaughter charges because he climbed onto the hood of the car after the pursuit ended and fired 15 shots into the vehicle. Video A Cleveland police officer who climbed onto the hood of a car after a chase and fired repeatedly at its unarmed occupants in 2012 was acquitted of manslaughter on Saturday by an Ohio judge. Credit Credit Tony Dejak/Associated Press The occupants, Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams, died from gunshot wounds. The judge ruled that the actions of Officer Brelo, who is white, were lawful. Cleveland’s streets have stayed calm since Saturday, when the police reported 71 arrests, some on felony charges. Dozens of protesters appeared in court here Monday on misdemeanor charges. Some still wore T-shirts with messages like “I Can’t Breathe,” a reference to Eric Garner, who died after being put in a police chokehold in Staten Island last year, and “Black Lives Matter.” For Cleveland, a settlement with the Justice Department averts a long and costly court fight and the appearance that city leaders are resisting change. Mayor Frank Jackson faces a recall petition from city activists who say, among other grievances, that he has not done enough to prevent police abuses. The Justice Department has called Mr. Jackson a full partner in its effort to improve the police force. The Justice Department has opened nearly two dozen investigations into police departments under the Obama administration. Federal investigators found patterns of unconstitutional policing in cities including Seattle, Newark, Albuquerque and Ferguson. Federal authorities recently announced they would investigate the Baltimore police after Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old black man, died of injuries he suffered while in custody. In Seattle, the federal inquiry led local officials to overhaul training and focus on how officers can calm tense situations without using force. In Albuquerque, city officials agreed to change the way the police are trained, outfit officers with body cameras and improve how the department investigates officer-involved shootings. Officials in Ferguson are negotiating a possible settlement over accusations that officers routinely violated the Constitution. The Justice Department’s report on the Cleveland police was among its most scathing, finding that they engaged in a pattern of “unreasonable and unnecessary use of force.” Image Mayor Frank Jackson and Police Chief Calvin Williams held a news conference Sunday after Officer Michael Brelo’s acquittal. Credit Michael F. McElroy for The New York Times Investigators said officers unnecessarily used deadly force; used excessive force against mentally ill people; and inappropriately resorted to stun guns , chemical sprays and punches. It detailed tactical blunders, and said officers too often imperiled bystanders when they used force. The Justice Department also criticized a “structurally flawed” discipline policy that it said made it too hard to punish officers for improperly using force. The report highlighted one case in which officers kicked an African-American man in the head while he was handcuffed and on the ground, then did not report having used force during the arrest. “Supervisors throughout the chain of command endorse questionable and sometimes unlawful conduct by officers,” Vanita Gupta, the Justice Department’s top civil rights prosecutor, said in December. “Officers are not provided with adequate training, policy guidance and supervision to do their jobs safely and effectively.” The report was compiled too early to cover the death of 12-year-old Tamir Rice, who was playing with a replica gun in a Cleveland park in November when the police shot him. Prosecutors have yet to decide whether to charge officers in his death or in the case of Tanisha Anderson, 37, who died after she was restrained in a prone position on the pavement. Most of the protesters arraigned Monday were charged with refusal to disperse, and 35 pleaded no contest to an amended charge of disorderly conduct, which carries no jail time. Twenty people pleaded not guilty and will contest the charges. More protesters are expected to appear in court on Tuesday. Talis Gage, 31, a Cleveland native now living in a different part of Ohio, was among those who pleaded no contest and was released Monday morning. As with others who pleaded no contest, he was sentenced to time served and was not issued a fine. Mr. Gage said he joined the Saturday protest because he believed that Officer Brelo was guilty of a crime. “What happened was not justice,” Mr. Gage said outside the courthouse shortly after his release. “It was unfair for this man to walk away with no jail time at all.”

Police Brutality,Police Misconduct,Police Shootings


Flashes of Cards and of Brilliance as Suárez’s Barcelona Edges Torres’s Atlético

Abstract: BARCELONA Once upon a time, there was a mercurial forward who played for Liverpool. The forward, Fernando Torres, a Spanish scorer, arrived at that Merseyside club in 2007. He proceeded to score plenty of goals, help Liverpool get agonizingly close to glory and, also, prove to be maddeningly inconsistent from game to game. He left the club in 2011, and not long after, he found himself playing in Spain. Once upon (another) time, there was another mercurial forward who played for Liverpool. The forward, Luis Suárez, a Uruguayan scorer, arrived at the Merseyside club in 2011. He proceeded to score plenty of goals, help Liverpool get agonizingly close — really, really close — to glory and, also, prove to be maddeningly unpredictable in how he behaved on the field. He left the club in 2014, and not long after, he found himself playing in Spain. On Tuesday, in a remarkable display of soccer as mini-biography, Torres and Suárez offered compressed career compilations during the Champions League quarterfinal first leg between Barcelona and Atlético Madrid. First, there was Torres, who managed to look lethargic, brilliant and foolish in the space of just 10 minutes as he slumbered into the game, scored the opening goal and then was sent off well before halftime for a second yellow card. Then there was Suárez, who appeared petulant, threatening, opportunistic, petulant (again) and lethal throughout the match — all while somehow avoiding a red card of his own — before scoring both of his team’s goals as Barcelona beat Atlético, 2-1, at Camp Nou. The return leg is next week in Madrid, though Torres will not take part after he picked up yellow cards for two ill-advised fouls that left the German referee Felix Brych with little choice but to send him walking. English fans (of Liverpool, and Chelsea, too) will forever remember Torres’s fits of brilliance mixed with spells of invisibility, but his performance Tuesday was particularly bizarre: ■ 20th minute: Torres looks largely uninterested, failing to complete several passes and plodding around the field. ■ 25th minute: Torres runs on to a beautiful through pass from Koke and rifles a shot through the legs of Barcelona’s goalkeeper to give Atlético a surprise lead on the road. ■ 29th minute: Torres catches Neymar with his arm, largely unnecessarily, and draws a yellow card. ■ 32nd minute: Torres plays a great pass to Antoine Griezmann that nearly results in a second Atlético goal. ■ 35th minute: Torres runs through the back of Sergio Busquets, who is facing his own goal at the time, and is given a second yellow card and ejected. His departure forces Atlético to play nearly an hour down a man. Diego Simeone, the Atlético manager, was not especially subtle in defending Torres after the match — he hinted in his news conference that Brych had missed many other important decisions — but it was difficult to believe he didn’t understand why Torres was sent off. “I am not saying all that I could say,” Simeone said. Regardless, Torres left early and the game tipped toward Barcelona. Many in the crowd were surely hoping for a different home star to score a meaningful goal; Lionel Messi arrived at the match with 499 career goals for club and country and nearly scored No. 500 with a brilliant overhead kick in the second half. But instead the fans saw a vintage Suárez performance that showcased all of the striker’s risks and rewards. No, there was no biting; Suárez has not trod that path since his third such incident, at the World Cup in Brazil , led to a lengthy suspension. But there were, all the same, flashes of Suárez’s moodiness: He appeared to blatantly kick one Atlético player in the first half, and he put his hands on another in the second period with clear malice. On another night, with another referee, Suárez might have followed Torres up the tunnel early. Instead, he stayed on the field and produced two important goals as Barcelona seeks to become the first club to win consecutive Champions League trophies. In the 63rd minute, Suárez diverted Jordi Alba’s blasted volley — which was going wide — into the net from close range, then raced after the ball and carried it back to the center circle in an effort to get the game restarted as quickly as possible. Nine minutes later, his teammate Dani Alves curled in a sharp cross that Suárez headed powerfully and straight, the ball flying past goalkeeper Jan Oblak and giving Barcelona a deserved victory. “We knew there would be a little space, so I stayed close to the area to convert what I could,” Suárez said afterward. Then, referring to Torres’s red card, he said: “It’s a pity. I would have liked to come back against 11.” Barcelona pushed for another goal — much of the second half resembled a one-sided practice drill, with everyone clustered in front of Atlético’s net — but Simeone’s players held firm as best they could. After Tuesday’s result, they need only win by 1-0 at home next week to advance on the away-goals rule. That was why, at the final whistle, Barcelona’s players did not celebrate. They have the advantage, to be sure, but Atlético is far from beaten. Messi and Neymar pulled up at the final whistle, exhaling before slapping hands and heading toward the locker room. Suárez did the same, clapping toward the Barcelona fans along the way. Even after 90 minutes, he looked primed and focused, as if already thinking about what he might do in the return. Torres, of course, need not bother.

Soccer
Luis Suarez
Fernando Torres
Barcelona Soccer Team
Atletico Madrid Soccer Team


Purple, the Color of a Legal Conniption

Abstract: UNTIL last week, the urge to punch purple dinosaurs in the face was entirely passé — sort of like wanting to punt Cabbage Patch Dolls or step on Tickle Me Elmo’s windpipe. Such urges, after all, are excusable only when marketing is at its most shrill. (Let it go, man.) But the owners of the Barney character have only themselves to blame if Barney-bashing experiences a renaissance — particularly among denizens of the Internet, for whom the character has been an object of gleefully malevolent parody, off and on, since the early days of the Web. On Wednesday, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights group based in San Francisco, filed a lawsuit in Federal District Court in New York against Lyons Partnership of Allen, Tex., which owns the Barney brand. The group’s aim is to bring an end to what it characterizes as the partnership’s relentless harassment of Web site owners who parody the Barney character, chiefly through threatening cease-and-desist letters from Lyons’s law firm in New York, Gibney, Anthony & Flaherty. In this case, the foundation, along with the Aiken Gump law firm, is representing Stuart Frankel, a musicologist and freelance computer repair technician in New York who maintains a crude, obscure and inarguably minimalist site claiming that Barney is “the enemy” ( dustyfeet.com/evil/enemy.html ). There are, in sum, about 200 cryptic words on the entire page, and two small pictures: one of Barney as he normally appears, and another of Barney defaced, amateurishly, with scribbled-on horns and sharp teeth. •The site has been up, more or less unchanged, Mr. Frankel said, since 1998. And yet, Mr. Frankel has received at least four cease-and-desist notices — with intimations that his Internet service provider might be contacted, or that further “legal remedies” awaited if he did not remove the images — from one of the Gibney lawyers, Matthew W. Carlin, since 2002. The most recent letter came in June. The foundation has answered those letters on Mr. Frankel’s behalf, pointing out in one response to Mr. Carlin in 2002 that parody is “protected expression under the First Amendment and a recognized exception to both copyright and trademark law.” The group also suggested that “making baseless legal threats” was a no-no. A spokesman from Hit Entertainment, the parent company of Lyons Partnership, would say only that the company would not comment on pending litigation. But it’s clear that somewhere in the company’s chain of command, there is a failure to grasp the cultural tides that brought Barney and the Web together in the first place. After all, for all of its success — either as instructive idol or potent child opiate, depending on your point of view — the purple dinosaur exploded onto the American landscape around the same time that the Internet was beginning to permit unprecedented sorts of expression. So as Barney’s signature song “I love you, you love me” (itself, many critics have pointed out, blatantly ripping off the tune to the children’s standard “This Old Man”) reached an unnerving cultural crescendo, there was on hand a brand new medium in which to indulge the reaction — one that permitted crafty sorts to include not just words but defaced images, mocked-up songs, crude interactive games and other fare. Wikipedia, the community-edited online encyclopedia, maintains a useful history of anti-Barney Internet humor — from the “Jihad to Destroy Barney,” which has evolved into a role-playing game, to fictionalized stories and images documenting Barney’s womanizing and crack habit. Of course, the Web was also channeling animosity toward Barney in the offline culture, too. There was heated debate over whether the dinosaur was doling out sound values or peddling a glassy-eyed catechism that merely sedated children. And those without offspring often found the character at best treacly and at worst enraging. In a Massachusetts district court in Worcester in 1994, Deborah McRoy testified that she was wearing a Barney costume outside a local pharmacy when Derrick McMahan suddenly tackled her, knocked her giant dinosaur head off and punched her. The Boston Herald reported that when Ms. McRoy asked him why, she said he replied simply, “Because I hate Barney.” When the San Diego Chicken — another costumed creature — introduced a Barney-like character that he would pummel as part of his routine at sporting events, the Lyons company apparently decided that it had had enough, and sued for trademark violation. In 1998, however, a federal court called the routine a clear parody — and therefore, not only a protected form of speech, but one unlikely to confuse anyone into thinking this was the “real” trademarked Barney. Not long after this decision, Lyons appeared to turn its attention to Web sites that were making unflattering use of Barney’s likeness — once going so far as to send threatening letters to the Electronic Frontier Foundation itself for playing host to some Barney parodies. For his part, Mr. Frankel is unsure if it was the San Diego Chicken or news of some other random assault on Barney that spurred him to create his own Web page, but he insists that he has no malice toward the character — which only adds to the absurdity of the situation. “I was just practicing HTML coding,” Mr. Frankel said, referring to the computer scripting used to create Web pages. He was just learning at the time, he said, back in the late 1990’s, and he thought the reaction to Barney was funny. So he made his little page. By the time Mr. Carlin’s legal letters began arriving several years later, the hostility toward Barney had mostly vanished to the very fringes of the culture — and the Web — and Mr. Frankel said he hadn’t even visited his own site for a very long time. •Odds are, no one else had either. There wouldn’t have been much reason to go there. Now, should a court uphold Mr. Frankel’s rights to parody, the site will be forever enshrined as a victory for free speech, and Lyons will have cast a white hot spotlight onto this demon Barney — and what would otherwise have been a forgotten corner of Internet history — all by itself. Mr. Frankel said that if the company had simply asked nicely in the beginning, he would have just taken the site down. Instead, he suggested, they came at him like a bully. And Mr. Frankel, who said he was among many citizens beaten by overzealous police officers in New York City’s infamous Tompkins Square Park riot of 1988, said he was not about to be pushed around now by Barney’s bullies. “Barney teaches you to ask nicely,” he said. “So they don’t follow Barney’s rules.”

Computers and the Internet
Freedom of Speech and Expression
Suits and Litigation
Electronic Frontier Foundation
Trademarks and Trade Names
Copyrights


In Ads From Zappos and Others, the Employee Is Getting the Limelight

Abstract: A POPULAR new reality series on CBS, “Undercover Boss,” shows senior managers working incognito as everyday employees. As for employees who are not secretly C.E.O.’s, they have champions, too, in marketers that are devoting ad campaigns to workers. The latest marketer to join the trend is Zappos, the online retailer that was recently bought by Amazon. In a campaign scheduled to begin on Monday, Zappos will celebrate its customer service representatives, whom the company refers to as the customer loyalty team. The intent is to demonstrate to potential customers — and remind current ones — how the employees make it easy to order or return merchandise, either on Zappos.com or by calling a toll-free number. The campaign, by Mullen in Boston, part of the Interpublic Group of Companies , has a budget estimated at $7 million. The ads reiterate themes that have appeared in previous Zappos campaigns, which include “Powered by service” and “Happy to help. 24/7.” There will be television commercials, print advertisements and video and display ads on Web sites, along with a presence in social media like Facebook and YouTube and on Zappos.com . The ads will also appear in an unusual place where Zappos is already advertising: on the bottoms of plastic bins in airport security lines, reflecting the origins of Zappos as a seller of shoes. The campaign is centered on the interaction during phone calls between Zappos employees and customers. The employees are represented by puppetlike characters who are based on and styled after actual Zappos workers. The characters, called Zappets, resemble Muppets who have been to the theater several times to see “Avenue Q.” The idea is to evoke the offbeat company culture for which Zappos has become known. • The genesis of the campaign was in observations by Mullen executives who, while competing last year in a review for the Zappos account, visited the company’s headquarters in Henderson, Nev., to spend time with the customer service representatives. “We sat with them, and we had headphones on, and we listened to the calls and heard how much of the company’s culture seeped through,” said one of those visitors, Alex Leikikh, managing partner and director for account services at Mullen. Another visitor, Mark Wenneker, managing partner and executive creative director at Mullen, said of the employees: “They would stay on the line for as long as you wanted to talk. They would talk about anything.” According to Aaron Magness, director for brand marketing and business development at Zappos, the approach reflects that “our customer loyalty team is not scripted and is not measured on time of calls.” “The goal is when you see the ads, in TV, print or digital, you’ll say, ‘That’s the Zappos I know,’ ” Mr. Magness said, “or, ‘That’s a company I want to do business with.’ ” Some of the commercials use recordings of calls made to Zappos employees, whose voices are heard in the spots. The words “Actual call with Zappos” appear onscreen. The customer service representatives were not aware that the calls were potential fodder for an ad campaign. The calls heard in those commercials were made by actors or Mullen employees posing as customers, asking tough questions or making unusual requests. For instance, in one commercial, a caller tells a customer service representative that she wants to exchange the Nike workout clothes she previously ordered for another Zappos item. The employee looks up the item and says in a neutral, unruffled voice, “That’s a nice deep fryer.” In another commercial, a caller tells a customer service representative that the dress she ordered the day before has already arrived but that she is “not really emotionally ready for it yet” and has hidden it in the garage under a tarpaulin. When the caller asks if she can return the dress, the employee says yes, then adds gently, “You will have to touch the box, though.” Two other commercials feature the voices of actors playing Zappos employees. In both kinds of commercials, the Zappets onscreen are modeled after actual Zappos customer service representatives. The puppets were built by Randy Carfagno and designed by Lizzi Akana and Aaron Duffy. Mr. Duffy also directed the commercials for a production company in New York, Special Guest. Among the other marketers with employee-centric campaigns are Exxon Mobil, Ford Motor, Lowe’s, Nationwide Insurance, Toyota Motor Sales USA and Verizon. In some instances, like the campaigns for Lowe’s and Nationwide, the employees are portrayed by actors. Some, like Zappos, use a mix of employees and actors. Others use only real workers. • The review for the Zappos account, which ended in September when the company hired Mullen, was one of the strangest that Madison Avenue has witnessed recently. It began with 16 agencies, but after word leaked out about the review, “we ended up getting 190” requests to take part, Mr. Magness said. Of those agencies, 103 submitted material, he added, and about 20 made presentations. Mullen, which was among the 16 original participants, emerged the winner because “we felt a strong connection to Mullen,” Mr. Magness said. As for the scrumlike aspects of the review, Mr. Wenneker said: “The fact there were so many agencies inspired us and made us say, ‘What do we have to do to get this?’ It inspired us to go there, to Henderson.”

Interpublic Group of Companies Incorporated