Obama Backs Easing Health Law Rules for States

Abstract: WASHINGTON — President Obama , who has stood by his landmark health care law through court attacks and legislative efforts to repeal it, told the nation’s governors on Monday that he was willing to amend the measure to give states the ability to opt out of its most controversial requirements right from the start, including the mandate that most people buy insurance . In remarks to the National Governors Association , Mr. Obama said he supported legislation that would allow states to obtain waivers from the mandate as soon as it took effect in 2014, as long as they could find another way to expand coverage without driving up health care costs. Under the current law, states must wait until 2017 to obtain waivers. The announcement is the first time Mr. Obama has called for altering a central component of his signature health care law, although he has backed removing a specific tax provision that both parties regard as onerous on business. But the prospects for the proposal appear dim. Congress would have to approve the change through legislation, and House Republican leaders said Monday that they were committed to repealing the law, not amending it. Even if the change were approved, it could be difficult for states to meet the federal requirements for the waivers. The White House described the proposal, based on a bipartisan bill recently introduced in the Senate, as a common-sense date change that would give states the freedom to innovate and act as laboratories. Mr. Obama called it “a reasonable proposal,” telling the governors, “It will give you flexibility more quickly while still guaranteeing the American people reform.” Political calculations, as much as policy ones, were at work in the president’s announcement. The shift comes as the health care law — and the mandate in particular — is under fierce attack in the courts, where federal judges have issued conflicting opinions on its constitutionality. The mandate is also a rallying cry for conservatives and Tea Party supporters, who regard it as a prime example of overreaching by the federal government. Mr. Obama has been trying to reposition himself in the political center on some issues in the wake of the drubbing his party took in the November midterm elections; dropping his insistence on the mandate is one way to do that. And with governors pressing the administration to allow them to cut Medicaid rolls to ease their fiscal distress — a step Mr. Obama does not want to take — the president is trying to look flexible in other ways. But Mr. Obama’s flexibility goes only so far. “I am not open to refighting the battles of the last two years,” he said, “or undoing the progress that we’ve made.” Mr. Obama’s announcement did not appear to appease his Republican critics. The House majority leader, Representative Eric Cantor of Virginia , told reporters that the health law was “an impediment to job growth” and that Republicans remained committed to its repeal. And while some Republican governors praised Mr. Obama for reaching out, they said the move did not address their underlying discomfort with the law or the major structural flaws facing state budgets. In meeting with the governors, Mr. Obama also asked them to come up with a bipartisan group to find ways to reduce Medicaid costs. “I was disappointed,” said Gov. Rick Perry of Texas , chairman of the Republican Governors Association. “Pretty much all he did was to reset the clock on what many of us consider a ticking time bomb that is absolutely going to crush our state budgets. The states need more than that.” Some Democrats also reacted warily. Many are convinced that it is not possible to expand health care coverage and achieve deficit reductions without the federal mandate, and they worry that amending the law would be tantamount to weakening it. Senator Max Baucus , a Montana Democrat who as chairman of the Senate Finance Committee wrote a bill that included an idea similar to the one Mr. Obama proposed, issued a tepid statement saying he would consider it. “We want to give states as much flexibility as possible,” Mr. Baucus said, “but that flexibility shouldn’t fail to ensure that Americans in every state have access to quality, affordable health care.” The White House said the proposal was unrelated to the challenges to the constitutionality of the mandate. But encouraging states to pursue alternative ways of expanding coverage could prove useful should the Supreme Court ultimately rule that the mandate is unconstitutional. At the same time, the mandate, and the health care law more generally, is sure to be an issue in the president’s 2012 re-election campaign, which may be a reason he is offering the proposal now. “It’s to his advantage to show that he wants to be more moderate on this,” said Dan Mendelson, a health policy expert who worked in the Clinton administration, “because the mandate is terribly unpopular politically and he doesn’t want to be saddled with that going into the next election.” The bipartisan legislation that Mr. Obama is now embracing was first proposed in November, eight months after the enactment of the Affordable Care Act, by Senators Ron Wyden , Democrat of Oregon , and Scott Brown , Republican of Massachusetts . Senator Mary L. Landrieu of Louisiana , a Democrat, is now a co-sponsor. The legislation would allow states to opt out earlier from a range of requirements, including the mandate, if they could demonstrate that other methods would allow them to cover as many people, with insurance that is as comprehensive and affordable, as provided by the new law. The changes must also not increase the federal deficit. If states can meet those standards, they can ask to circumvent minimum benefit levels, structural requirements for insurance exchanges and the mandates that most individuals obtain coverage and that employers provide it. Washington would then help finance a state’s individualized health care system with federal money that would otherwise be spent there on insurance subsidies and tax credits. Representative Peter Welch, Democrat of Vermont , has proposed similar legislation in the House, but he said in an interview Monday that his bill had no Republican co-sponsors, making its prospects for passage uncertain at best. Still, Mr. Welch called Mr. Obama’s announcement “extremely significant,” adding that the waivers were “an act of empowerment for the states.” In Vermont, Gov. Peter Shumlin, a Democrat, is exploring the idea of using a waiver to create a so-called single-payer system, a government-run health care plan. Such a plan, dubbed the public option in last year’s health care debate, would never have passed Congress. But Mr. Welch said he saw no reason Vermont should not get a waiver to establish one. “My Republican friends argue that you should drive power and responsibility for implementation to the local level, and they’re right,” Mr. Welch said. Health economists have mixed views on how difficult it would be to expand coverage and hold down costs in the absence of a mandate. Jon Gruber of M.I.T. published a recent analysis arguing that eliminating the mandate would “significantly erode the gains in public health and insurance affordability” made possible by the health care law. But David Cutler of Harvard said that “given the uncertainty generated by the mandate, it was reasonable” to let states experiment with other ways to achieve the law’s broad goals “and let the evidence decide” if the mandate is necessary. When the health measure was moving through Congress last year, its authors set 2017 as the date that such experimentation could begin, based on an analysis by the Congressional Budget Office , which said it would take three years of experience to determine how much a state should receive in unrestricted block grants if it opted out of aspects of the law. Otherwise, the budget analysts advised last year, the legislation’s 10-year cost estimate would be about $4 billion higher because Washington would probably have to make higher than needed payments to states. Senior administration officials said they had not discussed where to find the additional $4 billion, but described it as “not a lot of money” compared with the estimated $1 trillion, 10-year cost of the law.

Barack Obama
Obamacare,Affordable Care Act
US states


Knicks’ Rasheed Wallace to Have Season-Ending Surgery

Abstract: GREENBURGH, N.Y. — When Rasheed Wallace came out of retirement, he was everything the Knicks expected: a 6-foot-11 savvy defender who provided veteran leadership and helped spread the floor with long 3-pointers. As the season progressed, though, Wallace showed why it was risky to sign a 38-year-old player who had been out of the league for two years. A nagging left foot injury never healed, and on Wednesday the Knicks announced that Wallace, one of the oldest Knicks on a team filled with veterans, would have season-ending surgery later in the week. A new X-ray examination found that Wallace had a fractured fifth metatarsal. He is expected to be out for eight weeks, the rest of the regular season. Although Wallace could return in the playoffs, it is unlikely he will play again after such a long layoff. Wallace sustained what was originally called a stress fracture in a win over the Los Angeles Lakers on Dec. 13, and he has not played since. The Knicks won 11 games in November, and Wallace played in 14 of their 15 games that month. After his last game, the Knicks were 17-5 and in first place in the Eastern Conference. Wallace averaged 7.2 points and 4.2 rebounds in 20 games. “It’s somewhat of a blow because he’s gone through so much work to try to get back out on the floor, and now this happens,” Coach Mike Woodson said. “The only thing we can do now is think positive in terms of how the surgery is going to turn out.” Image Rasheed Wallace, during a game against the Bucks on Feb. 1, has a fractured bone in his left foot. Credit Adam Hunger/Reuters JACKSON’S RETURN TO GARDEN Mark Jackson, the coach of the Golden State Warriors, said he did not think a lot about his first game as an N.B.A. coach at Madison Square Garden. But when Jackson entered the Garden before the Warriors’ game against the Knicks, he said he was reminded of how special the arena was and how significant this moment was. Jackson was born in Brooklyn and raised in Queens. He played at Bishop Loughlin Memorial High in Brooklyn and went on to have a stellar career at St. John’s. Jackson was the Knicks’ point guard for seven seasons — and was the rookie of the year in 1988 — while averaging 11.1 points a game in New York. “I really didn’t know how it was going to hit me,” Jackson said before the game. “That being said, this is something that I’ve dreamed about, so it’s special.” Jackson was met by plenty of familiar faces at the Garden. He was able to talk to his former teammates Allan Houston and John Starks. He hugged a number of people on the Knicks’ staff and was greeted with smiles from workers who have spent decades at the Garden. Jackson wanted to be the Knicks’ coach in 2008, but he was passed over by the Garden’s chairman, James L. Dolan. The Knicks instead hired Mike D’Antoni. At the time, Jackson was not disappointed. He remained confident that he would get his opportunity for his first head coaching job in the league. “It was never a side of me that was shaking my head because a lot of times God knows what’s better for you than what you know,” Jackson said. “I truly am thankful an organization and a front office was willing to take a chance on me.” Jackson, named the Warriors’ coach last season, has led them to a 33-25 record this season.

Basketball
Knicks
Rasheed Wallace
Sports injury


Task Force Created to Regulate Legalized Marijuana in Colorado

Abstract: GOLDEN, Colo. — It has been a little over a month since Coloradans approved a groundbreaking law legalizing small amounts of marijuana for recreational use. Now that the celebratory haze has settled, state officials and marijuana advocates on Monday began sifting through the thorny regulatory questions that go beyond merely lighting up. Among them: Who can sell marijuana? How should consumer safety be accounted for? How might employers and employees be affected by the new law? At a packed meeting at a state building in this suburb west of Denver, a task force convened by Gov. John W. Hickenlooper began wrestling with some of these questions in an effort to forge a framework for how the law should work. The task force, made up of designees from an array of state offices as well as various marijuana advocates, weighed in on matters including the identification of marijuana revenue sources and the prospect of the federal government cracking down on the drug. “We’re not here to have a discussion on whether legalizing marijuana was the right thing to do,” said Jack Finlaw, Mr. Hickenlooper’s chief legal counsel and a co-chairman of the task force. “Our job is to find ways of efficiently and effectively implementing it.” Colorado’s Amendment 64 sets the stage for marijuana to be regulated much like alcohol. But the state will have a whole new set of variables to consider, like licensing retail facilities and determining what sort of security measures stores should have. And Mr. Finlaw said he was not sure that alcohol could be used as a model for marijuana, given the inevitable differences in how it would be sold. Aside from the regulatory challenges of moving from a black market to a legitimate one, there are also health issues to be considered. Dr. Chris Urbina, the executive director of Colorado’s Department of Public Health and Environment, raised the prospect that marijuana should be regulated differently depending on whether it is smoked or eaten. “We expect this to be challenging,” said Mark Couch, a spokesman for Colorado’s Department of Revenue, which will be largely responsible for regulating the sale and use of marijuana. “The department does have some experience with licensing and regulating products that have certain restrictions,” Mr. Couch said. “Obviously, that is complicated by the fact that federal law makes this product illegal.” In an interview last week with Barbara Walters, President Obama assuaged the fears of marijuana proponents, saying the federal government would not pursue marijuana users in states where the drug is now legal. But it was still unclear whether the Justice Department would permit stores in Colorado and Washington, which also legalized marijuana in November , to sell the drug, leaving it in a regulatory netherworld when it comes to federal law. Barbara Brohl, the executive director of the state’s Department of Revenue and a co-chairwoman of the task force, said Colorado was consulting with officials in Washington State as it moved through its own process. Christian Sederberg, a Denver lawyer who is on the task force and whose law firm helped draft Amendment 64, said he thought Colorado was well positioned to settle on new regulations, given that medical marijuana was already legal here. Still, Mr. Sederberg said that medical marijuana rules were undergoing substantial revisions in Colorado and that there was clearly a need for distinct regulations for recreational use. “I’m of the opinion that we have a very good base to work with on the policies Amendment 64 intended to push forward and how those policies fit in with regulations already in place,” he said. The task force has until the end of February to make recommendations to Mr. Hickenlooper; the state attorney general, John W. Suthers; and the General Assembly. The regulations must be completed by July 1.

Marijuana
Medical Marijuana
Colorado
Hickenlooper John W
Justice Department


LeBron James Embraces Olympic Leadership Role

Abstract: LAS VEGAS — LeBron James has entered a new phase in his career as a superstar athlete, a transformation that even James’s teammates on the United States men’s basketball team can see. They watched him go through his biggest professional rite of passage in June, when he won his first N.B.A. championship. Now most of his teammates get to watch James grow as a leader as the national team prepares for the Olympics. James has smiled a lot these past few weeks as he has embraced his newest label: champion. James also knows the spoils that come with an N.B.A. championship. He’s now the leader on a team full of leaders. “I want to be one of the leaders on this team,” James said, “and I feel I am.” Leadership usually falls to a player who is not only accomplished but has also played long enough to share lessons with younger players. James, who is 27 and in his prime, fits both prerequisites. It also helps that this United States team has plenty of young players. James is older than half of his teammates. “I’m trying to lead this team in the right direction,” he said. “I’m going to try to help these guys win the gold medal.” For James and his teammates, that process began in full after Saturday’s announcement of the United States’ Olympic roster. Although James was a member of the 2008 Olympic team that won the gold medal in Beijing, he was learning under players like Kobe Bryant, Jason Kidd and Dwyane Wade. Most of James’s older teammates on this 2012 team say that he is not only a different, more talented player than he was four years ago, but also that he is ready to teach others how to win. Tyson Chandler, 29, won an N.B.A. title after the 2010-11 season with the Dallas Mavericks. Since then, he said his confidence — and level of play — had risen to a level that earned him defensive player of the year honors this past season and prepared him for his first Olympics. Chandler said he expected James to have the same experience, and added that he realized James had the potential to exceed even the lofty expectations that perpetually accompany him. “LeBron is already an incredible player,” Chandler said. “He’s going to be a different player now.” Mike Krzyzewski , the national team coach, watched what James accomplished during the N.B.A. finals and is excited about what he will bring to the American team. In Miami’s series-clinching Game 5 win over the Oklahoma City Thunder, James finished with 26 points, 13 assists and 11 rebounds. He was the 10th player to be named the most valuable player of the regular season and the finals in the same year. “I felt really good for him,” Krzyzewski said. “He earned it. He’s taken such criticism for so many things. He was a great player in 2008, but he’s exceptional right now.” James has already impressed Krzyzewski in the few practices the United States team had over the weekend. Krzyzewski, who will head his second Olympic team, knows that these highly talented N.B.A. players have great knowledge of how to play. When the players come together for the Olympics, that awareness increases, Krzyzewski said. In practice, Krzyzewski said James made a number of terrific plays, including some extraordinary passes that Krzyzewski said James might not have even attempted with the Heat. James said that he believed the best examples he could set for his Olympic teammates were on defense. James, after all, guarded 3 of the top 15 scorers in the league during the playoffs in the Knicks’ Carmelo Anthony, the Celtics’ Paul Pierce and the Thunder’s Kevin Durant. Expect James to do the same against the best offensive players around the world. “You can put me on anybody, and I’m going to guard them,” he said. “I love playing defense. I love taking on challenges from the best players of the opposing teams.” Throughout his career, James has used the off-season to add skills to an already long list of abilities. James will use this experience — scrimmaging against Anthony, Bryant and Durant — to get better. Bryant knows what the experience of the Olympics can do for a player, a leader. After the 2008 Olympics, Bryant won two N.B.A. titles with the Los Angeles Lakers. Could James do the same with the Heat? Bryant knows it is possible. He has an idea of what James is thinking after winning his first ring. “When I and Shaquille O’Neal won one, it was a different kind of feeling,” Bryant said. “It was like Michael Jordan had six and Magic Johnson had five. Me and Shaq were both like: ‘We have to get more. One is not going to cut it.’ ” James understands this, too. He says he is ready to wear a new label: as a champion of multiple titles. “I want to win again,” he said. “I want that feeling again. I have another goal now.” James could have a similar feeling in early August if the United States wins the gold medal.

Basketball
James LeBron
Krzyzewski Mike
Olympic Games (2012)
Chandler Tyson
Olympic Games
London (England)


Murdoch and Dow Jones Pick 5 to Safeguard Wall St. Journal

Abstract: Five people just signed on for what may be the most thankless task in journalism: making sure that Rupert Murdoch plays fair with his new acquisition, The Wall Street Journal. Early yesterday, Mr. Murdoch’s News Corporation and Dow Jones & Company , The Journal’s publisher, named the members of a committee that is intended to prevent the News Corporation from dictating what goes into The Journal, after News Corporation buys Dow Jones. They are Louis D. Boccardi, former executive editor, and then a president and chief executive, of The Associated Press; Thomas Bray, a columnist and former editorial page editor of The Detroit News; Jennifer Dunn, a former Republican congresswoman from Washington State; Jack Fuller, former president of Tribune Publishing and editorial page editor of The Chicago Tribune; and Nicholas Negroponte, former chairman of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Media Lab and a founder of Wired magazine. “I think that at least on paper, this is a good step toward building a firewall around the content of The Journal,” said Michael X. Delli Carpini, dean of the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania. “I’d have liked to see more experience on the news side, in addition to the editorial side, but we’ll just have to wait and see what its impact will be.” People briefed on the process said that top Journal editors and members of the Bancroft family, who own a controlling stake in Dow Jones, played a significant role in making the choices. They said that four of the five committee members were first proposed by Dow Jones, while Mr. Negroponte was proposed by the News Corporation. The News Corporation has agreed to retain the managing editor and editorial page editors of The Journal, and the managing editor of Dow Jones Newswires, and to remove or replace any of them only with the consent of the new committee. The deal also gives the committee the authority to mediate disputes and go to court to enforce the agreement. If they are called on to resolve any disputes, the actions and motives of the committee members are sure to be scrutinized as carefully as those of any cabinet nominee. Mr. Boccardi is the only member with a background primarily in news, rather than opinion. Mr. Bray, a former contributor to The Journal online, is very much in tune with the free-market philosophy of The Journal’s editorial page. Ms. Dunn was considered a moderately conservative member of the Republican caucus. Mr. Fuller won a Pulitzer Prize in 1986 for his editorials on constitutional issues, which included some liberal positions. Mr. Negroponte has gained attention recently for promoting a low-cost computer for the developing world.

Wall Street Journal
Dow Jones & Co
News Corporation Limited
Newspapers
Murdoch Rupert
Negroponte Nicholas
Bancroft Family
Fuller Jack
Dunn Jennifer
Boccardi Louis D


City's New Small Schools Are Focus of a Bias Inquiry

Abstract: The federal government is examining whether the New York City school system may have discriminated against special education students and those who are not proficient in English, by denying them spots in the city's new small middle schools and high schools, according to a letter released yesterday. The letter, from the United States Education Department's Office of Civil Rights, was dated June 7. It responded to a complaint against the city lodged three months ago by David C. Bloomfield, a member of the Citywide Council on High Schools, who released the letter. It called the complaint "appropriate" for review. Mr. Bloomfield, a lawyer who teaches educational policy at Brooklyn College, told the federal agency that the chief executive of the City Education Department's Office of New Schools, Garth Harries, had described to the council, an elected advisory panel, "a deliberate policy to exclude otherwise eligible students with disabilities from the small schools, at least during the first three years of each school's existence." "Implied in these remarks," Mr. Bloomfield said, "was similar discrimination against students with limited English proficiency." The creation of dozens of small schools has been a hallmark of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's education policy. Proponents say the schools, which will ultimately grow to 500 students at most, permit the sorts of close relationships they hope will improve the city's 53 percent high school graduation rate. Many of the small schools are supplanting the city's largest high schools, where graduation rates were much lower than the citywide average. Mr. Bloomfield has been among critics of the new schools, who often say the initiative hurts the larger schools. Bloomberg administration officials said yesterday that while the schools generally have fewer special education students and so-called English Language Learners in their first two years, they catch up later — and are more successful with the special needs students they do enroll. The officials said that the situation was temporary and that they were making strides with the numbers. "Brand-new small schools typically open with only five to six teachers, a limited budget, a new principal and complex organizational and structural challenges," said Michele Cahill, who is Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein's senior counselor for education policy. She said the city department expected that all new small schools will serve special education students and students with limited English "at a level reflective of the citywide average by at least their third year." Critics of the small schools say that Mr. Bloomberg created too many schools too quickly, and that even though the vast majority of such schools do not screen students for grades or test scores, they have more subtle ways of "skimming." Many small schools, for example, may filter out the most unruly students, and those whose parents are least involved, by requiring students to wear uniforms and by giving admissions preference to those who attended information sessions. Ms. Cahill said that in the 2004-5 school year, 5.6 percent of students at small schools, and 10.3 percent of students at other city high schools, were eligible for special education services. In 2005-6, she said, 7.5 percent of small-school students, and 10.7 percent of students at other high schools, were eligible for special education services. In 2004-5, Ms. Cahill said, 10.8 percent of small-school students and 12.6 percent of students at other city high schools were considered to have limited English proficiency. This year, 10.4 percent of small-school students and 11.3 percent of students at other high schools fell into that category. Robert Hughes, the president of New Visions for Public Schools, a nonprofit group that has helped shape many of the city's small schools, said that while there was "no formal exclusionary policy," small schools did not have enough resources in their early years to fully serve students with special needs. "We are working hard to ensure that schools that start with ninth grades and develop ultimately serve a proportionate share" of students with special needs, Mr. Hughes said. "I think we have made real progress in closing the gap," he said. Once the federal government evaluates a complaint of discrimination, it can seek to resolve it through negotiation, or it can move forward with a formal investigation that can lead to sanctions.


In North Carolina, Obama Talks of Improving Economy

Abstract: CHARLOTTE, N.C. — President Obama declared on Friday that “we are beginning to turn the corner” after a deep recession that nearly threw the economy into another Great Depression. He hailed a new government report showing stronger job growth and credited his policies with helping businesses rebuild. Visiting a plant that received federal money from his economic stimulus package and that is now creating new jobs, Mr. Obama said “today is an encouraging day” because the fruits of his programs were becoming visible. But he cautioned that more difficult times were still ahead before the country reclaimed the economic ground lost in the past few years. “This has been a harrowing time for our country, and it’s easy to grow cynical and wonder whether America’s best days are behind us, especially after such a crisis,” Mr. Obama told a crowd of workers in a hangarlike building, surrounded by racks of battery material. “What we can see here at this plant is, the worst of the storm is over, that brighter days are still ahead.” At the same time, Mr. Obama said, “While we’ve come a long way, we’ve still got a ways to go.” He added: “Government can’t reverse the toll of this recession overnight. And government on its own can’t replace the eight million jobs that have been lost.” Mr. Obama was responding to a Labor Department report indicating that the economy added 162,000 nonfarm jobs in March, the most in three years. He noted that a year ago, the economy was losing as many as 700,000 jobs a month. To an extent, the growth in March was exaggerated by the government’s hiring of 48,000 census workers to conduct the once-a-decade national head count, jobs that will mainly last only a few months. Moreover, the unemployment rate remained steady at 9.7 percent in March, and economists expect it to rise later in the year as discouraged workers resume looking for jobs. Republicans pointed out that though Mr. Obama was emphasizing the payroll numbers, unemployment still remained significantly higher than the White House initially forecast it would be at this point even if Congress had not enacted the $787 billion stimulus package last year. What then, they asked, had the stimulus actually achieved? Still, the new figures provided a political boost for the president less than a week after he signed the final elements of his landmark health care overhaul into law and finished an arms control treaty with Russia. After months on the defensive — with his poll numbers falling, his legislative program stalled and the economy still fallow — Mr. Obama now appears to feel reinvigorated. To highlight his economic agenda, he flew to Charlotte to visit Celgard , a firm that produces material for lithium batteries and has received $49 million from the stimulus program. The company is expanding its Charlotte plant and building a new facility in nearby Concord. Mr. Obama said the stimulus money was helping Celgard create 300 new jobs directly and as many as 1,000 new jobs for suppliers and contractors. But The Charlotte Observer, citing the Energy Department, reported that Celgard had not yet begun spending any of the stimulus money. And at least some residents of the area were not satisfied, as they gathered along Mr. Obama’s motorcade route holding up signs like “You Lie,” “Vote Them Out” and “Stop Spending My Future.” North Carolina is the fourth swing state Mr. Obama has visited in the past week or so, following Iowa, Virginia and Maine. He won all four of them in 2008, but the White House is carefully tending to all of them given the flight of independents from Mr. Obama recorded in recent polls. Taking questions from Celgard workers, Mr. Obama fielded mostly friendly inquiries. But when a woman asked why he was raising taxes in the health care program, “because we’re overtaxed as it is,” Mr. Obama bemoaned what he called “a whole lot of misinformation” and talked for a long time about the virtues of the overhaul before actually addressing taxes. When he did respond to her question, he said that the health care program was financed in part by “some additional taxes that we think are fair,” and he cited a provision imposing Medicare taxes on capital gains and dividend income, which will affect primarily wealthier Americans.

American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (2009)


An Inexpensive Digital Edge on the Golf Course

Abstract: Some people golf in a straight line, with maybe an occasional detour into the sand trap. I, for one, prefer to spray the ball in different directions, or ZIP codes, lest the walk become boring. But this also raises significant challenges, since golf course markers don’t indicate your distance to the green when you’re standing in someone else’s fairway. Now, when I’m in someone else’s fairway, I can just pull out my cellphone. The latest technological boon for golfers involves a device that can inspire more golf rage than a four-minute waggle. Enterprising software developers are furiously pumping out mobile apps that use GPS technology to show your distance to the green, among many other things, for a fraction of what you would pay for traditional range-finder gizmos. The upshot: These apps are far from perfect, but given that they cost about half as much as a good set of balls, they’re well worth the money. I tested View Ti Golf and GreenFinder, which work on smartphones like the iPhone and BlackBerry, and GPSGolfShot, which works on more old-school Verizon devices like the LG Chocolate and the Motorola Razr , as well as newer smartphones. All three helped speed up my round of golf and gave mostly accurate distance readings. View Ti Golf ($35) offered features the others painfully lacked, but it was a battery hog. GreenFinder ($35 annually) was simple to use but limited in features, and GPSGolfShot ($35 annually, $4 monthly or $2 a round) offered a good option for smartphone holdouts. Each company relies on satellite images to map a course. When you’re on a fairway, for instance, your phone pings the GPS satellite and compares your location with the location of the green, which the software stores in your phone. This bit of wizardry can actually happen faster than on dedicated GPS range finders, because mobile phones use cell towers to quickly get a fix on nearby satellites. Each of these apps gives you big, reader-friendly yardage readings to the front, center and back of the green, so you can quickly choose a club. Well, sometimes. The apps show an as-the-crow-flies distance to the green, so if you have GreenFinder or GPSGolfShot, and the hole is a dogleg, it’s no help. What you need, of course, is a way to determine how far to hit the ball so you can turn the corner. View Ti gives you that, since it shows the image of the hole, and offers a cursor you can control with a fingertip. Drag the cursor where you want to hit the ball on that dogleg, for instance, and it tells you the distance. One drawback is that the image does not rotate, compass-style, in sync with where you happen to be standing on the hole. Last week I played at Pine Orchard Yacht and Country Club, in Branford, Conn., with Philip Johnson, a longtime club member with an eight handicap and a tendency to hit the ball in tediously straight lines. As familiar as he is with the course, even he struggled to figure out which way to orient the device. Had I been flying solo, I’d never have figured out which way to point the thing. Michael Phung, a founder of View Ti, said the company would fix that problem in a new version of the app, due out this autumn, along with other improvements. The software works with about 15,000 of the roughly 18,000 courses in the United States, with the weakest coverage in places like Texas, Oklahoma and other locations where satellite images are not yet sharp enough to rely on, Mr. Phung said. View Ti also includes about 2,000 courses in the United Kingdom (including British Open courses), hundreds more in Canada and Australia and dozens scattered in more remote global locations. The company adds new courses each week, in response to user requests. Aside from complaints of users who, because of satellite-image limitations, cannot get their home courses listed, Mr. Phung said users were most often bothered by the application’s tendency to sap battery life from an iPhone. Users should expect to get at least four hours, he said, from a fully charged iPhone. But Mr. Johnson, my playing partner, ran his iPhone into the red zone after three hours of constant use, and the comments on View Ti’s iTunes page suggested that many users had trouble keeping the app running through an entire round of golf. Mr. Phung said part of the problem is relying on the service too much. “We envisioned people would use it five or six times during a round, for the tough shots,” he said. The problem is, that’s not the way many people want to use it. Between the tee and the green, the app can save time on nearly every club selection, unless your ball lands close to a yardage marker. One solution: Mr. Johnson said he puts his iPhone to sleep after checking for yardage. It takes a few seconds to activate the app again, but it keeps the battery alive longer. Then there’s the bigger philosophical problem of using a cellphone on a golf course. The United States Golf Association’s rules do not ban cellphones, saying only that “players should ensure that any electronic device taken onto the course does not distract other players.” But some courses will eject players for using one, so it makes sense to clear it with the club’s pro before investing. GreenFinder’s big advantage is that, unlike most other iPhone apps, it also works on BlackBerrys, some Windows Mobile phones and, within a week, Android phones like T-Mobile’s G1. One of the company’s founders, Trevor Timbeck, said that the application relies on more refined satellite imagery to map distances, but in limited testing, I found no meaningful difference between GreenFinder’s readings and those of the other two apps. Verizon’s GPSGolfShot, meanwhile, will soon get an upgrade, with bird’s-eye images of the hole and even flyover movies. One can imagine a day when someone gives that option a spin while he is waiting patiently for an intruder to get off his fairway. Perhaps the aggrieved player will then pull his cellphone out, too, and measure the distance to the other player’s head. Quick Calls The BlackBerry Tour went on sale last week on Verizon Wireless and Sprint, and Curve fans should take notice, since the device is similar in form but offers more features. Among them are an ultrasharp display, a versatile media player and GSM technology, which allows you to make calls while in other countries. Still no Wi-Fi, however. ($199 after a mail-in rebate and two-year contract.) ... AT&T on Sunday will release its second Nokia smartphone in recent months, the Surge. It features a slide-out Qwerty keyboard, a 2.4-inch screen, GPS function and a two-megapixel camera. ($80 with a two-year contract.) ... Sprint this week also brought out a new device, the LG LX290, a slider phone with a camera, Bluetooth and voice-dialing, but its most notable feature is its $30 price tag (after $50 mail-in rebate and two-year contract) ... The app called Postage ($2) makes it easy to create and send e-cards from the iPhone. Now Hazel Mail lets you design postcards using pictures on your phone. The service prints, stamps and mails the postcards for you, for $1.50 apiece. The iPhone app is free.

Smartphones
Golf
Computers and the Internet
Blackberry (Handheld Device)


Spain Warns Argentina About YPF Takeover

Abstract: MADRID — The Spanish government warned on Friday that it would take unspecified retaliatory measures against Argentina if it proceeded with plans to take back control of YPF, the large oil and gas producer, from Repsol, its Spanish parent. The warning came as José Manuel Garcia-Margallo, the Spanish foreign minister, also announced that Spain had called on the European Commission, the United States Treasury and other governments in Latin America to support Spain in its efforts to prevent the nationalization of YPF. Meanwhile, Iñigo Mendez de Vigo, the Spanish secretary of state for European affairs, warned in a radio interview that Argentina could become “an international pariah” if such a nationalization went ahead. The dispute with Argentina could not have come at a worse time for Repsol and the government in Madrid, which is already struggling with Spain’s second recession in three years, as well as facing soaring borrowing costs amid concerns among investors about whether Spain will be the next euro economy to require a bailout. For Repsol, meanwhile, YPF has come to account for a third of its profits and 42 percent of its estimated reserves of crude oil. Repsol took control of YPF in 1999 and owns 57 percent of its equity. The YPF takeover was one of several forays by Spain’s largest banks and industrial companies into Latin America. These investments have recently helped soften the blow of crumbling earnings at home. Independent of what measures the Spanish government might take against Argentina, a nationalization would also push Repsol shareholders to start “an intense judicial battle in Madrid, Brussels, Buenos Aires and New York to defend themselves against an attack on their property,” said Javier Cremades, who has been a lawyer for Repsol shareholders and has also worked for the company. Mr. Cremades is chairman of Cremades & Calvo-Sotelo, a Madrid law firm. Shares of Repsol YPF fell 49 euro cents on Friday, or 2.73 percent, to 17.47 euros. The stock has been tumbling since the start of the year, in large part reflecting concerns among investors about the future of YPF, as the government in Buenos Aires gradually intensified its criticism of Repsol, accusing the company of not investing enough in Argentina and instead paying too much of its profits in dividends. Mr. Garcia-Margallo, the foreign minister, suggested Friday that any nationalization would be seen as “an aggression” against the Spanish government as well. Still, he said that Argentina’s ambassador, whom he had summoned for a meeting, had not made clear whether such a nationalization plan would go ahead, amid conflicting reports from Buenos Aires. “We are in a moment of uncertainty which we want to use to call again for dialogue and negotiation,” he said.

Spain
Argentina
Nationalization of Industry
Oil (Petroleum) and Gasoline
Politics and Government
YPF S.A
Repsol YPF S.A


Soldiers in Madagascar Occupy Vacant Palace in a Show of Force

Abstract: ANTANANARIVO, Madagascar (AP) — Soldiers broke into an unoccupied presidential palace on Monday and took it over in a symbolic show of force after Madagascar’s opposition leader called on the army to arrest the president. President Marc Ravalomanana has been in a different palace in the capital in recent days, with civilian supporters and presidential guards protecting him. Soldiers told the president’s supporters on Monday to take down barriers they had erected near the palace where he was staying. It was not clear if the troops intended to try to enter the palace. Mr. Ravalomanana has been accused of misspending public money and undermining democracy in Madagascar , a nation on an Indian Ocean island off the African coast known both for its natural beauty and its history of political instability. The opposition leader, Andry Rajoelina, declared himself president of a transitional government on Saturday and promised new presidential elections within two years. President Ravalomanana has accused Mr. Rajoelina of seeking power by unconstitutional means, and he has said he will not surrender power. The breakaway army faction that took over the unoccupied palace on Monday has not explicitly backed Mr. Rajoelina, but the split in the military has greatly weakened the president. Soldiers drove an armored vehicle through the gates of the palace, a 19th-century French mansion used primarily for state ceremonies. The soldiers set off two explosions, fired shots and broke windows and doors. The building, which appeared to be deserted, was the site of deadly clashes between antigovernment protesters and the army this year. The army faction that withdrew its support for Mr. Ravalomanana did so largely because of the deaths of civilians in those clashes. A colonel leading the soldiers said that the operation was not an attack on the president. He said the troops simply wanted to control the building. He did not elaborate, and would not give his name.

Madagascar
Coups D'Etat and Attempted Coups D'Etat
Ravalomanana Marc
Rajoelina Andry


‘Energy Shots’ Stimulate Power Drink Sales

Abstract: COLLEGE PARK, Md. — The power drink of the moment costs 20 times as much per ounce as Coca-Cola , comes in a tiny bottle and tastes so bad that most people hold their noses and down it in a single gulp. Despite all that, sales of “energy shots” are soaring in the middle of a recession. The two-ounce drinks, which give people a concentrated dose of caffeine, B vitamins and amino acids, were all but unheard-of four years ago. Today they are the hottest drink category in the country, with sales expected to almost double this year from last, to about $700 million. The shots are meant for people who want a jolt of caffeine without having to drink a big cup of coffee or one of the 16-ounce energy drinks that have become ubiquitous. They go down fast, more like medicine than a beverage. That is part of the appeal to their most devoted consumers: students cramming for exams or partying into the night, construction workers looking for a lift and drivers trying to stay awake. Near the University of Maryland the other day, students thought nothing of paying $3 or more for a shot. That is $1.50 an ounce; at that price, a 20-ounce bottle of Coca-Cola would sell for $30. “It helps me stay up all night when I have work to do,” said Matt Sporre, 20, a sophomore chemical engineering major who said he drank shots three or four nights a week when school was in session. “Those things are going to be the death of my generation,” he added. “Too much caffeine.” Mr. Sporre and several others students said the shots worked well in combination with Adderall, a prescription drug for attention deficit disorder that is popular on college campuses. The Adderall helps them focus, they said, and the shot keeps them awake. Several students said they sometimes downed an energy shot before going out drinking. Others said the shots helped them stay awake during long drives home from school. Two members of the university’s wrestling team said some of their teammates drank the shots before matches to get an energy lift. A 7-Eleven store on Knox Road, just off the Maryland campus in College Park, has become one of the top sellers of energy shots among the 5,700 United States stores in the 7-Eleven chain. The store’s owner, Million Mekonen, said that sales spiked during finals in May, when the store sold close to 400 shots in a week. But students are not the only users. Steve Cisko, 26, a construction worker renovating a dormitory, stopped in at the 7-Eleven and bought a shot made by AriZona Beverage for $3.99. “I do demolition; it wears you out,” he said. “Sometimes I’ll take two at a time in the afternoon. Every guy I work with uses them.” Sales of the shots are rising even as sales of traditional energy drinks like Red Bull have flattened out. Bill Pecoriello, chief executive of Consumer Edge Research, estimated that shot sales could reach $700 million this year, nearly double last year’s $370 million, not counting sales by Wal-Mart Stores . The estimate was based on sales data collected by Information Resources, a market research firm. The market is dominated by a tiny company in suburban Detroit called Living Essentials, which began test sales in late 2004 of a product called 5-Hour Energy, packaged in small plastic bottles. Today, 5-Hour Energy accounts for about 80 percent of the rapidly expanding market, according to Mr. Pecoriello. The company’s unlikely success — it has only one other product, an antihangover pill called Chaser — has forced the big beverage makers to play catch-up. Last month, Red Bull introduced a two-ounce shot, and Dr Pepper Snapple began test-marketing a three-ounce version of its Venom energy drink, called Venom Bite. Coca-Cola introduced a shot last year based on its NOS energy drink. Many smaller companies have jumped in too, often offering products with similar names, like 6 Hour Power, Fuel 7 Hour Energy and Mr. Energy 8-Hour Energy. Living Essentials has spent heavily on advertising to build the market and hold its position against newcomers. It expects to spend $60 million this year on television advertising for 5-Hour Energy. It has also gone after several of its competitors in court, challenging labels or product names it said were too close to its own. The most vigorous legal battle pits Living Essentials against a Texas company called Custom Nutrition Laboratories and includes accusations of betrayal, stolen secrets and other skullduggery. The two companies worked closely together from 2004 through 2007. At Living Essentials’ request, Custom Nutrition developed the formula for 5-Hour Energy and then manufactured and bottled it. Living Essentials handled the marketing, distribution and sales. Then, in late 2007, Living Essentials fired Custom Nutrition and replaced it with another manufacturer. Now both companies claim ownership of the product’s secret recipe, although only Living Essentials continues to produce it. Last month a federal magistrate judge ordered the two sides to try to mediate their dispute. “We invented the product,” said Baxter W. Banowsky, a lawyer in Dallas for Custom Nutrition. “Whatever profits they’ve made from the sale of the product encompassing our formula, they should be turned over to us.” Carl F. Sperber, a spokesman for Living Essentials, said the company would not comment on the litigation, which involves cases in state and federal courts in Texas. Unlike older energy drinks, 5-Hour Energy and most other shots do not contain sugar. Their crucial ingredient is caffeine. But Living Essentials and many of its competitors will not reveal exactly how much of it is in the products, saying only that it is about as much caffeine as in a cup of coffee. The caffeine in coffee can vary widely, from about 80 to 175 milligrams in an eight-ounce cup. Living Essentials makes broad claims for 5-Hour Energy, saying that it is “packed with B vitamins for energy and amino acids for alertness and focus.” Nutritionists were skeptical of such claims, however. Marion Nestle, a nutrition professor at New York University , said that while some of the nutrients in 5-Hour Energy were known to play a role in the body’s metabolism, most people got enough of those nutrients in their regular diet and that ingesting elevated amounts had not been shown to have any beneficial effect. “It sounds like a great placebo to me,” she said. “You can gulp this down and you feel like you’re doing something. And I’ll bet you ask people and they say they feel better. It’s got caffeine — why not?” One thing is certain: people are not buying the shots for the taste. “Terrible!” said Barry Ray, a 21-year-old from Hyattsville, Md., as he sampled a Red Bull shot. “But it’s good. It wakes you up.” Joe Gere, a New Jersey entrepreneur who produces a shot called Xfuel, said there was not enough water in a two-ounce shot to dilute the bitter taste of the caffeine and nutrients. But shot makers concede that a medicinal flavor and the small, pill-bottle size are all part of a shot’s appeal. “Five-Hour Energy’s not supposed to taste fantastic,” said Mr. Sperber, the Living Essentials spokesman. “This is supposed to be a functional product, not something for flavor or something for refreshment.”

Caffeine
Drink
Advertising Marketing
Coca Cola
Red Bull


Amid Illinois Festivities, an Off Note

Abstract: SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Talk about an awkward party guest. Here, surrounded by some of Illinois ’s most powerful politicians, many of whom have also been the loudest critics of the state’s beleaguered governor, Rod R. Blagojevich , stood Mr. Blagojevich himself on Wednesday, presiding over a stately swearing-in ceremony for senators as a new legislative session opened. Mr. Blagojevich, who in a normal year might have been escorted from the ornate chambers by a group of lawmakers assigned to that honorary duty, left alone through a back door. And the new Senate quickly moved on to its next piece of business: being sworn in as the jury in Mr. Blagojevich’s imminent impeachment trial. So it went in the Capitol on Wednesday, just another day in the upended world of Illinois politics. Until now, Mr. Blagojevich, a two-term Democrat whose party firmly controls both chambers of the legislature, had not come here since his arrest Dec. 9 on corruption charges, including an accusation that he schemed to sell the United States Senate seat of President-elect Barack Obama, who also once worked in these marbled halls. Mr. Blagojevich’s appearance to open the Senate was required by the State Constitution. Still, some had predicted he might not show up. (If the Senate was never convened, that logic went, how could it hold an impeachment trial?) But the governor’s spokesman said Mr. Blagojevich, who says he is innocent of the accusations against him, had always intended to carry out his duty. For much of Mr. Blagojevich’s six years in office, lawmakers grumbled that he never moved from his Chicago home to spend more time here. But none seemed eager to see him here now. “This is a time usually of great celebration and a new beginning,” said Senator Jeffrey M. Schoenberg, Democrat of Evanston, “but, unfortunately, it’s also tempered by a feeling and flavor that most members would prefer not to experience.” “The unprecedented impeachment trial that will begin immediately after the inaugural is sobering to say the least,” Mr. Schoenberg said. People in the packed chamber — which included a former governor; former Senate presidents; Thomas R. Fitzgerald, the State Supreme Court chief justice who is to preside over the impeachment trial; and Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn, who will replace Mr. Blagojevich if he is removed — broke with tradition by failing to stand and cheer the governor’s arrival. No one rushed over to greet him. His name appeared nowhere on the lavish program. It was a day of oddly discordant imagery. Senators’ children dressed in velvet crammed into the bouquet-filled chambers to pose for smiley snapshots at their parents’ desks. Yet there were tense moments, too. Even as the governor stood watching from the lectern, some lawmakers made speeches that touched on the impeachment, the state’s woes, the need to clean things up and start over. At one point, Mr. Blagojevich congratulated the senators, asked that people offer a prayer to Mr. Obama, and noted the coming 200th birthday of Abraham Lincoln with roots in this downstate city as an inspiration for solving problems in Illinois. “Let us be inspired by him,” he told the silent group. Much of Mr. Blagojevich’s role here was routine, announcing the Pledge of Allegiance and asking people to note the arriving color guard, but even some perfunctory matters took on a special strangeness given the circumstances. Mr. Blagojevich cheerily handed off the gavel to John J. Cullerton, the new Senate president whose first order of business will be to guide the impeachment trial, and then embraced Mr. Cullerton’s wife. “Awkward would be a word for it,” Mr. Cullerton, a fellow Democrat who lives two block from Mr. Blagojevich on Chicago’s North Side, said of the day’s events. In a unanimous vote, the Senate approved rules (modeled largely on those used in President Bill Clinton’s impeachment) for Mr. Blagojevich’s trial, which is to start on Jan. 26 and could be done as early as Feb. 4, some officials here said. State law gives little guidance for how or what standards should be used, and never before has a governor here faced such a trial. Meanwhile, the new House of Representatives, which was also sworn in on Wednesday, had to take up the question of impeachment once more for technical reasons. The chamber voted last week to impeach the governor, but for the issue to carry over into a new session, the incoming House had to vote on it again. On Wednesday, impeachment was approved 117 to 1, with the lone dissenting vote coming from Deb Mell, a newly elected representative and Mr. Blagojevich’s sister-in-law. By day’s end, the Senate’s sergeant-at-arms and assistant sergeant-at-arms walked down a flight of stairs to the governor’s office. Behind closed doors, they delivered a summons from the Senate to his lawyers, notifying Mr. Blagojevich of the coming trial.

Blagojevich Rod R
Impeachment
Legislatures and Parliaments
Illinois
United States Politics and Government


Last Starter Standing, Mets’ Gee Beats the Nationals

Abstract: WASHINGTON — To be a Mets starting pitcher this season has been to put oneself into harm’s way. To review: Johan Santana was pictured to be the club’s opening day starter, but a balky shoulder ruled him out for the entire year before he threw a single official pitch in spring training. Three starters who did begin the season as planned — Shaun Marcum, Jeremy Hefner and Matt Harvey — succumbed at various times to season-ending injuries, while a fourth — Jon Niese — missed two months this summer. Add to them Jenrry Mejia, who started five games before his own elbow problems, and there crystallizes a forbidding job description. But one pitcher has resisted the trend toward fragility. Against long odds, the right-hander Dillon Gee — knock on wood — has maintained his place within the Mets’ rotation and avoided the disabled list, week after perilous week. Somehow, he has become the club’s most reliable starter. “He’s been a huge savior for us,” Manager Terry Collins said on Friday afternoon, a few hours before Gee pitched into the eighth inning to lead the Mets to a 3-2 victory over the Washington Nationals. Gee has become so important that Collins was “gasping for breath,” as he put it after the game, when he saw his pitcher walk off the mound and wince after one seventh-inning pitch. But when Collins ran out to check on him, Gee said he was not hurt at all. Gee thought he had struck out Ian Desmond, even though there were only two strikes, and he turned his back, assuming the infielders were tossing the ball around the diamond. When he realized his mistake, he panicked, and rolled his shoulder. He regretted his poor acting job once he saw his manager, pitching coach and trainer run to the mound looking deeply concerned. “It was a disaster,” Gee said, sheepishly. Luckily for the Mets, Gee’s dramatic performances have been the only ones lacking these days. The outing improved Gee’s record to 10-9 and dropped his earned run average to 3.63. Before the game, Collins expressed a hope — albeit a very optimistic one — that Gee could reach 15 victories this year. Either way, a player who entered this season as a major question mark appears poised to begin the next one as a staff linchpin. Image Ike Davis hit his ninth home run of the year as the Mets beat the Nationals, 3-2. Credit Alex Brandon/Associated Press As the Mets left spring training earlier this year, Gee would not have been anyone’s choice to become the team’s last-standing starter this season. He finished last year on the disabled list after having a blood clot removed from his shoulder, and though he entered the 2013 season healthy, there was work needed to get his touch back. While pitching through the opening months, he developed tendinitis around his forearm, leading his manager to speculate that he, too, might go to the disabled list. But, unlike the others, Gee never did. Instead, he nestled himself into a prosperous groove, producing a 2.48 E.R.A. from May 30 to Aug. 25, baseball’s fifth-lowest mark during that span. “Missing essentially half the year last year, my main goal coming into this was to make every start and try to get to 200 innings,” Gee said. “If I do that by the end of the year, if I can finish strong, I’ll feel good about the year.” Gee moved closer to the goal on Friday. Before the game, Collins praised Gee’s ability to change speeds and garner ground balls, and he did just that against the Nationals, pitching seven and two-thirds innings, allowing two runs, six hits and one walk while striking out three. Wilson Ramos notched the Nationals’ first hit off Gee midway through the third, and it was a big one: a solo home run into the left-field bullpen. The next half inning, Ike Davis lifted a ball to the same spot, a two-run home run that gave the Mets a 2-1 lead. Andrew Brown’s eighth-inning single scored another Mets run, and it proved important, as Gee allowed a solo home run to Steve Lombardozzi during the bottom of the inning. But that was the only damage Gee incurred, and when the night was done, he further solidified his stature on the Mets’ pitching staff. He has accomplished this through honing his slider command, working aggressively to both sides of the strike zone, and, just as important, staying healthy. “The best pitching staff is the healthiest pitching staff,” Collins said. “It’s not always the most talented.” INSIDE PITCH Manager Terry Collins said shortstop Ruben Tejada would play “quite a bit” when he was called back up to the majors next month — although he did not know when the promotion would occur. Tejada has not played for the Mets since May 30, when he went on the disabled list amid a hugely disappointing start at the plate. On July 7, when he was healthy enough to play, he was optioned to the minor leagues. Collins said, “We’ve got to find out what’s going on, and we’d like to see how he handles some things right now, too, because I know he’s probably saying to himself, ‘I’ve got something to prove.’ ”

Baseball
Washington Nationals
Mets
Dillon Gee
Ike Davis
Wilson Ramos


Mets Squander Mejia’s Strong Start in Loss to Dodgers

Abstract: LOS ANGELES — Jenrry Mejia’s pitches dipped and darted while he defanged the Los Angeles Dodgers — baseball’s best team the past month and a half — through the first five innings on Monday night. But like one of Mejia’s cut fastballs, the game took a sharp, swift turn as the Mets’ defense fell apart during a sloppy sixth. The game’s momentum shifted as the Mets’ two-run lead slipped away, and they went on to fall, 4-2 , at Dodger Stadium. The Dodgers have now gone 38-8 since June 22 — the franchise’s best 46-game run during the modern era and baseball’s best since 2001, when the Oakland Athletics produced the same record from early August to late September. The Mets, then, are only the Dodgers’ latest victims. And despite the result, Manager Terry Collins gushed about his starter after the game. “He threw the ball very well tonight — very, very well,” Collins said of Mejia (1-2). “Nobody really centered the ball too much on him. I thought he threw the ball great, kept the ball down in the zone.” From the start, Mejia breezed through the daunting Dodgers lineup, retiring the first eight batters he faced before giving up a flared single to Ricky Nolasco, the opposing starter. Mejia’s success thus far has been attributable to his varied and lively pitch collection, and his pitches were moving this way and that on Monday night. He lasted six innings, gave up six hits and did not walk a batter. He struck out six batters, using a much-improved changeup to accompany his cutter and slider. His earned run average after four starts sits at 2.22. Image Jenrry Mejia lasted six innings, gave up six hits and did not walk a batter in the Mets' loss on Monday. Credit Harry How/Getty Images “He’s on the attack,” catcher John Buck said. “He’s not trying to nibble at the edges.” Mejia kept attacking through the sixth, but his defense could not back him up. The Dodgers opened the inning with two base hits, one on a ground ball that rattled from Daniel Murphy’s glove as he knelt to his backhand side, the other on a soft floater that bounced off Murphy’s glove while he leapt attempting to grab it. They were two makeable outs, missed. “That’s going to happen,” Mejia said. “It’s a weird game. Something happens like that, and the only thing I can do is keep doing my job and keep throwing strikes.” The trouble continued, though. Adrian Gonzalez came up next and drilled a ball to center field, and as the lead runner galloped toward home, the Mets’ Juan Lagares fired a throw to try to catch the trailing runner at third base. But the ball bounced well short and skipped to the Dodgers’ dugout for an error. Two runs scored on the play while Gonzalez cruised to third. Yasiel Puig followed with a sacrifice fly to deep left field, giving the Dodgers a 3-2 lead. The next inning, the Mets loaded the bases with two outs. Up to the plate stepped Murphy, with a chance to atone. He ripped a ball into the right-center field gap, but Puig bounded under it, gold chain flopping out of his shirt, to make the inning-ending catch. “That’s all you can do right there, just try to center it, and I did, and Puig made a great play on it,” Murphy said. “The whole inning, I was hoping to get an A.B. right there after having a tough defensive go when they got the three-spot. I really wanted to hit.” The Dodgers padded their lead in their half of the seventh, when Nick Punto sent a towering bases-empty home run to right field off Carlos Torres. The Mets afterward rued their inability to produce runs. They went ahead during the second inning off Nolasco, producing four straight singles. But Mejia struck out while trying to bunt, and Nolasco then induced an inning-ending double play from Eric Young. There were some aspects for the Mets to be encouraged about. Ike Davis went 1 for 3 with a walk, and he has now reached base at least twice in each of his last 12 starts, matching a franchise-best run compiled by John Olerud in 1998. Third baseman Wilmer Flores, who is trying to overcome the notion that he is a defensive liability, made a nifty diving stop to his backhand side during the fourth, two innings after he sustained a minor ankle sprain that will be re-evaluated Tuesday.


Cathedral Renamed

Abstract: There is no more Crystal Cathedral. The glass-paned church in Garden Grove, Calif., where the televangelist Rev. Robert H. Schuller, and later his children, preached for decades is now known as Christ Cathedral. The Catholic Diocese of Orange, which acquired the Crystal Cathedral campus in February, renamed the church on Saturday, the first step toward transitioning the church to a Roman Catholic place of worship. Crystal Cathedral Ministries, which sold the building to the Diocese of Orange to emerge from bankruptcy, will remain in Christ Cathedral until next year, when its congregation will move to nearby St. Callistus Catholic Church. The Roman Catholic congregation will then move into Christ Cathedral.

Crystal Cathedral
Roman Catholic Church
Schuller Robert H
Garden Grove (Calif)


St. John’s Star Wins Over His Coach on Opening Night

Abstract: D’Angelo Harrison, who spent two exhibition games in Coach Steve Lavin’s doghouse, broke out in the Red Storm’s season opener, scoring 22 points as St. John’s rallied to beat visiting Detroit, 77-74. In the preseason, Harrison had been kicked out of practice, played limited minutes in the first exhibition game and none in the second for not showing the leadership qualities that Lavin says he needs from the sophomore guard, the most experienced player on the youngest team in Division I. Chris Obekpa, a member of Lavin’s highly regarded recruiting class, had 7 points, 11 rebounds and a team-record 8 blocked shots. It was not a perfect opening day for the Red Storm, who trailed by 37-29 at halftime and by 60-53 with 9 minutes 20 seconds left. The Red Storm finished with a 24-14 run but wavered late as Detroit (1-1) took advantage of a couple of last-minute turnovers to make it a 3-point game. Juwan Howard Jr.’s 3-point try at the buzzer was short. UCONN 67, VERMONT 49 Shabazz Napier scored 13 points and the freshman Omar Calhoun added 12 for No. 23 Connecticut (2-0), which was playing its home opener after returning from Germany and an upset win over Michigan State. The Huskies held Vermont (1-1) to 30 percent shooting and 15 field goals. DUKE 75, KENTUCKY 68 Seth Curry scored 23 points and No. 9 Duke held off a late comeback by No. 3 Kentucky in Atlanta, beating the defending national champions in the first matchup between the programs since 2001. MICHIGAN 77, CLEVELAND ST. 47 Tim Hardaway Jr. had 17 points and 6 rebounds as No. 5 Michigan (3-0) advanced to the semifinals of the N.I.T. Season Tip-Off with its third straight 30-point victory. MICHIGAN ST. 67, KANSAS 64 Keith Appling scored 19 points, including a brilliant drive with 13.5 seconds left, and No. 21 Michigan State rebounded from a season-opening loss by beating No. 7 Kansas in Atlanta. MISSOURI 91, ALCORN ST. 54 Phil Pressey scored 21 points and Laurence Bowers added 14 — all in the second half — as No. 14 Missouri cruised at home. CINCINNATI 102, MISS. VALLEY ST. 60 Sean Kilpatrick scored 13 of his 20 points in the second half and Cheikh Mbodj had four of No. 24 Cincinnati’s seven blocks. IN OTHER GAMES Derek Needham scored 14 points as Fairfield edged Pennsylvania, 62-53, in the second round of the N.I.T. Season Tip-Off in Charlottesville, Va. ... Velton Jones led four players in double figures with 18 points and Robert Morris made 26 free throws en route to a 74-58 win over Fordham in Pittsburgh. ... Reggie Spencer’s layup with two seconds to play capped an 8-0 run as Northeastern won at Princeton, 67-66. Women BAYLOR 85, KENTUCKY 51 Brittney Griner scored 27 points as No. 1 Baylor overwhelmed sixth-ranked Kentucky. After unfurling their 2012 national championship banner before the game, the Lady Bears (2-0) built a 46-19 halftime lead against the Wildcats (2-0), who won the Southeastern Conference last season and returned four starters.

University of Detroit Mercy
Harrison D'Angelo
College Athletics
Basketball
Basketball (College)
St John's University
Harrison D'Angelo


Reporting on Life, Death and Corruption in Southeast Asia

Abstract: BANGKOK — The protesters built what looked like medieval ramparts topped with sharpened wooden stakes in the heart of Bangkok. The military was preparing to sweep them out. As the sun was setting, I spotted Maj. Gen. Khattiya Sawatdiphol, a renegade who had defected to the protesters, and asked him what he would do next. His “people’s army” would not back down, he said. “The military cannot get in here.” Then came a loud crack, the sound of a sniper’s bullet breaking the sound barrier. General Khattiya collapsed at my feet . One blink earlier he was answering my questions. Now he was slumped on the ground, his vacant eyes still open, as blood spilled onto his camouflage uniform. The world around me went into slow motion as I watched the general being dragged away by his supporters. I have covered life and death in Southeast Asia for the past decade, a job that has entailed puzzling over a missing Malaysian plane one day (two years later, it’s still missing) and interviewing former C.I.A. mercenaries who were being hunted by the government in the jungles of Laos another. I seemed to spend almost as much time dodging the authorities as interviewing them. Image Maj. Gen. Khattiya Sawatdiphol was carried to an ambulance after being shot in the head in Bangkok on May 13, 2010. Credit Steve Pace/Reuters The bullet that felled General Khattiya in 2010 missed my head by inches. It is hard to speak collectively about a region of so many different languages, ethnicities, religions and political traditions. But as I start a new assignment in a part of the world that may as well be a different cosmos — Northern California — I have been trying to make sense of what I have seen in Southeast Asia. I come back to one theme again and again: impunity. In the killing of General Khattiya, who never regained consciousness and died several days later, a report by an independent body concluded that the assassin had probably fired from a building controlled by the military. Yet no one has ever been charged. The general who helped lead the deadly military crackdown that ensued, killing 58 civilians, is now Thailand ’s prime minister. “Unfortunately, some people died,” said the prime minister at the time, Abhisit Vejjajiva. A murder case against him was dismissed. It is often no secret who is committing abuses in Southeast Asia, whether they are illegally cutting down forests, trafficking drugs, skimming a percentage from government transactions or shooting protesters. Unusual wealth, the euphemism for suspected graft, is everywhere. The general now running Thailand, Prayuth Chan-ocha, is a career soldier from a modest background. Yet he declared a net worth of $4 million , nearly half of it in cash, soon after seizing power in a coup two years ago. (In an odd remnant of the country’s democratic past, the members of the junta were required to declare their assets.) Image A Thai antigovernment protester taking cover in Bangkok in 2010. The general who helped lead the crackdown is now the prime minister. Credit Agnes Dherbeys for The New York Times He has never explained how he amassed this tidy sum on his annual army salary of $40,000. “Do not judge people based on your perceptions,” he said in a television address after he and other top-ranking army officers and police officers revealed their fortunes. Even in countries with tight controls on the news media, like Vietnam or Malaysia , there are brave journalists and armies of bloggers and Facebook commenters who try to expose wrongdoing. But the problem in Southeast Asia seems not so much exposing the truth as doing anything about it. Watching the rise of Asia during my time here, I have wondered whether there can be continued prosperity without justice. Can societies so thoroughly riddled with corruption carry through with the remarkable economic advances made over recent decades? To see wrongdoing here, sometimes all you have to do is knock. Across the Mekong River, in Laos, at the edge of a forest, I found the walled compound of Vixay Keosavang, a Laotian businessman who has been described as the Pablo Escobar of wildlife trafficking. After I banged on the compound’s heavy metal gate, a security guard rolled it open. Yes, the guard said, there were live tigers, bears and many other endangered species inside. Neighbors said trucks regularly left Mr. Vixay’s compound loaded with lizards and pangolins, an anteater-like animal that is rapidly disappearing because it is eaten for supposed medicinal qualities. Mr. Vixay had been so nonchalant in his trafficking business that he used commercial courier services to send rhino horns and ivory tusks directly to his company’s office in Laos. Image General Khattiya, a renegade officer who had allied himself with protesters, was shot minutes after he was photographed talking with supporters in Bangkok. Credit Thomas Fuller/The New York Times Prompted by my article , the United States State Department offered a reward of $1 million for information leading to the dismantling of Mr. Vixay’s business, the first such reward of its kind. No one has come forward to claim it. Mr. Vixay has never been charged. The Laotian authorities say they have no evidence against him. After telling me about the animals inside, the guard called Mr. Vixay on a cellphone and handed it to my interpreter. “There’s nothing there,” Mr. Vixay said. “Who told you about it?” Laos, ruled by an authoritarian Communist party, has also constructed a wall of silence over the disappearance of Sombath Somphone , a civic leader who had called for more public participation and decision-making in society. Security cameras showed him being stopped at a police checkpoint and led away in December 2012. Yet the government has repeatedly said it has no information on his whereabouts. The authorities in Southeast Asia have access to many of the same tools as their counterparts in wealthier countries. What seems to be lacking is not technology but political will to investigate powerfully connected people. Tony Pua, an opposition leader in Malaysia, calls it a culture of “forget it and move on.” When a boat filled with refugees from Myanmar was abandoned by its crew, adrift in the Andaman Sea without adequate food or fuel last May, I obtained the number of someone on board and asked the phone company to track the phone’s location. Image Rohingya migrants passing food supplies dropped by a Thai Army helicopter to others on a boat drifting in Thai waters last May off the southern island of Koh Lipe in the Andaman Sea. Credit Christophe Archambault/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images The phone company balked, so I contacted a friendly naval officer, Lt. Cmdr. Veerapong Nakprasit, who persuaded the company to give me the phone’s location on humanitarian grounds. The navy, aware that the refugees could die without help, presumably could have made the request and found the boat on its own. We rented a speedboat and followed the coordinates until we found the stranded boat . Upon seeing us, several hundred rail-thin refugees, many of them women and children, called out for help. I dictated a story by phone to the newsroom in Hong Kong, and soon readers around the world were aware of the refugees’ plight. We had brought bottles of water, and we tossed them to the grateful passengers. That evening, out of sight of journalists, the Thai Navy pushed the boat back out into the open sea. The refugee crisis in Southeast Asia last year spiraled into a regional embarrassment that forced governments to admit that their own officials were complicit in trafficking desperate migrants from Myanmar. Yet in Thailand, amid a supposed crackdown on trafficking by the military junta, the head of the investigation fled to Australia and applied for political asylum, saying he had been threatened by powerful people. The Thai junta has not set a firm timetable for leaving power, but its members are taking no chances. Soon after the May 2014 coup, they issued a decree that put them above the law for “all acts,” including the seizure of power and any “punishments” they meted out. The last words of the Constitution they wrote for themselves call for blanket immunity. The junta members are “entirely discharged” for their acts. Lawyers representing the victims of the crackdown in 2010 say they see little hope for justice now that the military is in power. One of the key witnesses in the crackdown, Nattatida Meewangpla, is a paramedic who says she saw six people shot by soldiers. For the past year, she has been held in detention on the orders of a military court, charged with participating in a social media chat group that opposed the military takeover. Her lawyers say the military is trying to silence her. “People were chased and killed,” she wrote to me from prison last month. “I am the only witness still breathing.” My decade here has been a time of intense ambivalence. I was enchanted by people’s warmth, congeniality and politeness. When I interviewed protesters on torrid summer days, they would often fan my face as we spoke. I learned from my Thai friends how to laugh away life’s disappointments and annoyances. I relished the food and marveled at the hospitality. But I despaired at the venality of the elites and the corruption that engulfed the lives of so many people I interviewed. I came to see Southeast Asia as a land of great people and bad governments, of remarkable graciousness but distressing levels of impunity.

Asia
Corruption
Thailand
Myanmar,Burma
Laos
Malaysia
Military
Coups D'Etat
Khattiya Sawatdiphol


To Bolster Confidence, Abbott Plans to Buy Back Shares

Abstract: Abbott Laboratories said Monday that it would buy back as much as $5 billion in shares, helping drive the stock to its biggest gain in more than six years. The purchases by Abbott, the maker of drugs, medical devices and infant formula, will be made “from time to time as market conditions warrant,” the company said in a statement. The authorization to repurchase shares “has no time limit and may be discontinued at any time.” The company, based in Abbott Park, Ill., had fallen 12 percent this year before Monday’s surge on the New York Stock Exchange and closed last week at its lowest price since Jan. 3, 2007. Health care stocks rallied the most in at least 19 years on Monday, part of a broader market rebound. Abbott was also helped by favorable studies at a meeting of heart surgeons who implant stents , the mesh sleeves used to prop open clogged arteries. The share repurchases were announced “to instill confidence,” Jan Wald, an analyst at the Stanford Group in Boston, said by telephone. “The company says: ‘We believe in our stock even in these troubled times.’ They feel like their stock is trading lower than it should be. We had the same sense.” Abbott had about $5.18 billion in cash and short-term assets at the end of the second quarter and a market value of $76.2 billion at the end of last week. The plan announced on Monday includes the remaining $400 million in authorized share purchases from a $2.5 billion buyback program announced in October 2006. Shares of Abbott rose $4.76, or 9.6 percent, to $54.21.


Slowdown in China Bruises Economy in Latin America

Abstract: SANTIAGO, Chile — Few people are as intensely worried about the slowing Chinese economy as Latin Americans. Not only does China buy nearly 40 percent of Chile’s copper, but its once-insatiable demand helped push copper prices from $1 to $4 a pound. Meanwhile, Beijing plowed billions into Peruvian mines and fisheries and spent billions more buying soybeans from Argentina and Brazil. And it propped up the Venezuelan government to the tune of $50 billion in loans, to be paid in shipments of oil. China’s voracious hunger for Latin America’s raw materials fueled the region’s most prosperous decade since the 1970s. It filled government coffers and helped halve the region’s poverty rate. That era is over. For policy makers gathered here last week for the International Monetary Fund’s conference on challenges to Latin America’s prosperity, there seemed to be no more clear and present danger than China’s slowdown. “The commodity boom allowed governments and companies to avoid hard choices,” Andrés Velasco, Chile’s finance minister from 2006 to 2010, told me. “For goodness’ sake even Argentina grew by 5 to 6 percent per year for almost a decade.” Copper is back under $3. As commodity prices continue to swoon, driven in large part by China’s weaker demand, the going will get much tougher. That’s especially true of the major oil exporters, clobbered by a collapse in oil prices driven by faltering global demand and increased supplies from the United States and elsewhere. Venezuela, notably, is in free fall. The I.M.F. expects the Venezuelan economy to contract both this year and next. And it has been forced to limit its promised oil shipments to China, in effect defaulting on its Chinese debt. But the commodity decline isn’t sparing many. “Growth in Latin America should move back to pre-commodity boom rates,” said Alejandro Werner, who leads the Western hemisphere division at the I.M.F. Indeed, the fund expects the region to grow barely 1.3 percent in 2014, a third of its pace just three years ago. The bust underlines how Latin American economies have failed to overcome the existential weakness that has plagued them throughout history: a dependence on raw materials that has shackled the region’s development to an incessant sequence of booms and busts. From Brazil and Argentina in the southern tip of the region to Mexico in the north, officials across Latin America fretted for years that China undermined their decades-long efforts to build the manufacturing industries that, they hoped, would provide a ticket into the developed world. Not only did China’s cheap labor outcompete Latin American industry and draw the lion’s share of global manufacturing investment, but its appetite for Latin America’s minerals, oil and agricultural products also raised the value of currencies around the region, making their manufactured goods even less competitive. Manufacturing’s share in Latin America’s economic output has declined steadily for more than a decade, ever since China inserted itself aggressively into the global economy by entering the World Trade Organization. At the same time, the share of raw materials in Latin America’s exports, which had fallen to a low of 27 percent in the late 1990s, from about 52 percent in the early 1980s, surged back to more than 50 percent on the eve of the global financial crisis. China’s footprint on Latin America is contributing to what the Harvard development expert Dani Rodrik would call its “ premature de-industrialization ,” shutting off the standard path of economic development followed by pretty much everybody since the industrial revolution. Mr. Velasco, 54, recalled when a 23-year-old student in Antofagasta asked him what the Chilean government would do with the nation’s copper riches. By the time the student was his age, Mr. Velasco responded, Chile would have no more copper. “The question,” he said, “isn’t what should we do with copper but what will we do without it.” China’s diplomats emphasize that it is a developing country, not an advanced, “imperialist” power like the United States or the European colonial powers who ruled for centuries and served as the first foreign exploiters of Latin America’s mineral wealth. To many in Latin America, the difference hardly seems relevant. Take San Juan de Marcona, a remote village on the edge of the Pacific Ocean in the Nazca region of Peru. Built in the 1950s to house workers at the vast open-top American-owned iron mine, the town no longer houses managers from the United States. In the 1970s, General Juan Velasco Alvarado, then Peru’s military dictator, pushed them out. Today, Marcona’s managers come from Shougang, of China, which bought it from the Peruvian government in the 1990s. “A growing China was very important to bring Peru along in the last 10 years,” said Cynthia Sanborn, who leads the Research Center at the Universidad del Pacífico in Lima. North of Marcona, Chinalco built a town to relocate 5,000 inhabitants of Morococha, where it will blast open a copper mine. This year, China’s MMG, Guoxin International Investment and Citic Metal bought the Las Bambas copper mine from the Anglo-Swiss conglomerate Glencore. Chinese companies are interested not only in raw materials but also in vast public works to transport the raw materials, including rail links across Brazil and a proposed $50 billion, 171-mile canal across Nicaragua. In 2010, Chinese lending to Latin America roughly equaled that of the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank and the United States Ex-Im Bank combined. (It has since slowed.) Carmen Reinhart of Harvard forecasts that China could become Latin America’s main source of financing. Perhaps Latin America should just count its blessings. “The concerns of dependency are there, but if China weren’t there, Peru would be seeking other markets for its minerals,” Ms. Sanborn told me. Mr. Werner of the I.M.F. argues that the case for deindustrialization is overblown. “From a medium-term perspective, China is a plus, plus, plus for Latin America,” he said. In agriculture, for instance, exports to China are leading to lots of innovation and efficiency improvements. Demand for Brazil and Argentina’s soy — a principal source of animal feed — is unlikely to wane as the Chinese become richer and eat more meat. “Don’t bet against nature,” Mr. Werner urged policy makers in the region. “Play to your comparative advantage.” In some of the region, however, China has inspired a nostalgic reinterpretation of its economic history and a re-examination of the policy choices of its past. Remember Dependency Theory? The doctrine, which spread across Latin America from the 1950s through the 1970s, proposed that the region, or any developing country, could never advance simply by selling natural resources to the rich North, using the money to import the North’s industrial goods. Import substitution, behind a wall of trade barriers, was the path to prosperity. The theory fell into disrepute during Latin America’s “lost decade” of the 1980s — blamed by a new crop of market-oriented, United States-trained leaders in the 1990s for turning the region into an uncompetitive backwater. Courtesy of China, it’s back, fine-tuned to adapt to a more integrated global economy. “We’re not calling for more protectionism , but to substitute imports within competitive open economies,” said Alicia Bárcena, who leads the United Nations’ Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean. “We must think of creating regional production chains to serve regional markets.” She suggests that China should still be invited to participate in Latin America’s development, but on different terms: “You want our commodities? O.K. But also invest in solar panels here,” she proposed. Yet for all the hopes in Latin America that a new kind of deal can be had, the symbiotic relationship between the largest importer of commodities and one of the biggest commodity-exporting regions of the world is unlikely to change in any substantial way. “Without this complementarity, the Chinese don’t have much to go on,” said Matt Ferchen, who runs the China and the Developing World program at the Carnegie-Tsinghua Center for Global Policy in Beijing. “It’s working out quite well for China.” And the symbiosis could survive for a long time. As Huang Haizhou, the managing director of the China International Capital Corporation, told the nervous Latin Americans at the I.M.F.’s conference here, despite any slowdown in growth, China’s long-term demand for commodities remained voracious. China’s income per person is still only about one-third that of Chile. Every year for the next 30 years, it plans to move 1.3 percent of its population from the countryside to cities. That will require a lot of construction. “China’s demand for commodities is more important for Latin American growth than exports to the United States,” Mr. Huang said, “and it will be more important for many years to come.” This may come as a relief to the worried finance ministers here, struggling to recrunch their budgets to fit lower growth and scarcer tax revenue. But it also poses a challenge to the region’s leaders: maybe the traditional development strategy based on manufacturing needs to be recast in Latin America for a new era.

Latin America
China
Economy
International trade
Chile
Argentina
Venezuela
Commodity