With His Speakership Safe, Straus’s Next Challenge Is G.O.P.

Abstract: With the latest threat to his leadership easily dispatched, the speaker of the House, Joe Straus, Republican of San Antonio, has proved once again that he can hold onto the third most powerful post in state government despite a vocal contingent of critics in his party’s conservative wing. But as he heads into the state’s 83rd legislative session, he faces what may be a greater challenge — tackling issues that have been thorny for Republicans in the past, including public education and plans for water and transportation infrastructure, without alienating the far right. In a recent interview in his Capitol office, Mr. Straus said that addressing those basic needs was essential, not just for the state but also for the Republican Party. He said that if the party did not seek to attract anyone beyond its traditional primary voters, it would have to face the possibility that its statewide dominance could come to an end. "I’m somebody who wants to build the party, to see the Republican Party grow and not just be satisfied because you got 50 percent plus one,” he said. On Tuesday, during his acceptance speech for the speaker’s chair, he called on lawmakers from both parties to work together to make what he called the “core responsibilities of government” a priority. He said the state’s biggest challenges were “not fiscal in nature,” pointing to Texas’ rapidly growing population and changing demographics, with increasing numbers of children in public schools who have limited English skills and economically disadvantaged backgrounds. The remark contrasted with Gov. Rick Perry’s speech that day, which focused heavily on the need to keep spending down. But Mr. Straus has stopped short of saying whether any of the $5.4 billion sliced from public schools during the last legislative session should be restored — a position that would put him directly at odds with the governor, who said recently that the state’s financing for public education has been “pretty phenomenal.” Mr. Straus’s political resilience so far is in part because of the makeup of his district, which includes the affluent Alamo Heights neighborhood. His constituents, while conservative, tend toward mainstream Republicanism. He has also learned to wield the power of his position while earning a reputation among his House colleagues as a largely fair and reasonable leader. But that has not prevented his facing the indignation of conservative grass-roots activists, whose opposition presents a serious roadblock to statewide primary candidates. They have targeted him since he came to power in 2009 by defeating Tom Craddick of Midland, the current dean of the House, who was the first Republican to lead the lower chamber in more than a century. This session, Mr. Straus faced a challenge to his speakership from David Simpson, a Republican of Longview who is just beginning his second term. It was the latest in a series of attempts to undercut Mr. Straus from the right that included a May primary opponent backed by FreedomWorks, the deep-pocketed national Tea Party organization. Mr. Simpson, the second candidate to vie for the spot in advance of the 2013 session, withdrew his bid on the first day. Michael Quinn Sullivan, the president of Empower Texans, a conservative group active in state politics that opposes Mr. Straus, attributed the speaker’s staying power to the inside-baseball dynamics of the speakership, which he said meant candidates were responsible to other lawmakers rather than to the electorate. Image The voting board in the House before the 83rd session began. Credit Tamir Kalifa for The Texas Tribune The antagonism some of the Republican Party faithful feel toward Mr. Straus was apparent in June at the biennial state Republican convention of roughly 10,000 people in Fort Worth — the same gathering at which he drew jeers in 2010. Stickers bearing his likeness with the slogan “Oust Straus,” provided by several regional Tea Party organizations, were worn on numerous lapels and blouses in the convention hall. “It’s a question of his record, and until now he and his leadership team as often as not have been obstacles to reform,” Mr. Sullivan said. The causes of their lack of affection can be difficult to pin down. During a challenge to Mr. Straus’s speakership ahead of the 2011 legislative session, party activists circulated e-mails emphasizing the Christian faith of his opponents. But the same theme did not emerge during the latest bid to unseat Mr. Straus, who is Jewish. Before this session, his critics instead accused him of obstructing pet legislation for conservatives — like stricter immigration laws — and they questioned his commitment to issues like reducing government spending and ending abortion. But those attacks struggled to gain traction. Under Mr. Straus’s leadership in the last session, the lower chamber passed a long-struggling voter ID bill, an abortion sonogram law and an austere budget that drastically cut financing for public education. Mr. Straus said he was aware of his detractors, who he said were “the same people who say no to everything.” “There are some ugly voices out there,” Mr. Straus said, “and there are some people around the state who seem to have made a very small cottage industry out of opposing me, but they haven’t gotten very far.” While many of those voices are on the right, Mr. Straus also has some opponents on the left. Representative Trey Martinez Fischer, a San Antonio Democrat who has supported Mr. Straus in the past, has become a loud critic. Mr. Martinez Fischer said he wanted to give the speaker the benefit of the doubt on his plans to rise above partisan battles to take on major state needs, but that it was difficult after the 2011 session, when he led a bitterly divided chamber that passed major budget cuts to government services. “It appears to me that Joe Straus is going to spend a lot of time looking over his shoulder,” Mr. Martinez Fischer said. “There is a lot of extreme conservative ideology surrounding this Capitol, and it appears for now Joe wants to be the adult in the room. I don’t know how long that will last.” Now a seasoned leader with a robust campaign war chest, Mr. Straus should have ample possibilities for his next political act. But what is next for him may instead be a waiting game — and could depend on whether he can outlast conservative activists’ control of the state Republican Party. For now, Mr. Straus is careful to keep the exact nature of his future ambitions obscure, and he said he remained committed to his current position. “I’m one who does believe that doing the best job you can do in the job you are elected to do is the best way to have options down the road,” he said.

Texas
Joseph R Straus III
State legislature
Republicans
Conservatism in the United States
Tea Party movement
US Politics


For ‘Reinvented’ Toyota Camry, Readiness Is All

Abstract: MAYBE the Boy Scouts were on to something all those years ago when they urged youngsters to “be prepared.” Toyota Motor Sales USA is spending an estimated $175 million, in what it is calling its largest-ever marketing campaign, to promote the 2012 version of the Toyota Camry. The ads — in digital, social and mobile media as well as traditional outlets like television, print and outdoor — will declare: “It’s ready. Are you?” The campaign, scheduled to start on Sunday, arrives five months after the New York Lottery introduced a campaign for instant games that carries the theme “Be ready” and features a catchy tune called “Are You Ready?” So, as Yoda asked in “The Empire Strikes Back”: “Ready are you? What know you of ready?” For Toyota Motor Sales USA, part of Toyota Motor of Japan, “It’s ready” is a way to signal that the company is recovering after difficulties that included recalls and disruptions in production. Camry — a safe-bet kind of model, known for its reliability more than its looks — is an important part of those efforts because it has been the best-selling car in the United States for nine consecutive years. The theme is also a way to let drivers know that Camry has been redesigned for 2012, or “reinvented,” as the campaign proclaims, and offers features like 10 air bags, a blind-spot monitor and a new Entune entertainment and information system that competes against the likes of the Sync system from Ford Motor. “The competition’s much better, but we have what we feel is a great car,” said William Fay, group vice president for marketing at Toyota Motor Sales USA in Torrance, Calif. “One thing about today’s drivers, their expectations in a vehicle are much higher,” he added, and the 2012 Camry is “made to be a much better car.” The initial elements of the campaign include commercials that will run in programs like “Modern Family,” “Sunday Night Football,” “Two and a Half Men” and the World Series. In one spot , after the pit crew of the Nascar driver Kyle Busch transforms his racecar into a 2012 Camry, he selects the Pandora application on the Entune system and drives off, singing along with Loverboy on “Working for the Weekend.” There are also plans for a Camry commercial during Super Bowl XLVI on Feb. 5. It would be the first Super Bowl spot for the brand since 2006, and it adds Toyota to a lengthening list of advertisers that intend to appear during the game; others include Anheuser-Busch, InBev, Cars.com , Century 21, Chevrolet and Pepsi-Cola. Among the online aspects of the Camry campaign is a social initiative called the Camry Effect, at toyota.com/camryeffect , which includes a video that can also be watched on YouTube. The initiative encourages “the 6.8 million Camry drivers out there,” as an announcer puts it, to share memories about “the effect Camry has had on you,” offering as examples stories about “first dates, first kisses, road trips.” The campaign is from the longtime Toyota Motor Sales USA agency, which is the Torrance office of Saatchi & Saatchi, known as Saatchi & Saatchi Los Angeles; it is part of the Publicis Groupe. Competitive models are “getting close enough to Toyota where we have to go a little further” in selling Camry, said Chris Adams, executive creative director at Saatchi & Saatchi Los Angeles, beyond past pitches that concentrated on “the quality, the durability, the safety.” “There are a lot of new kids on the block, and that forced us into elevating our game,” he added, by presenting the Camry as “a car that’s also desirable, a sexy, beautiful car people are going to want.” The “It’s ready. Are you?” theme is intended to display “a bit of attitude that was not there before for the Camry nameplate,” Mr. Adams said. The hope, he added, is that consumers will respond this way: “They must think this car is special if they’re challenging me.” As “a statement followed by a question,” the theme is a “provocation,” Mr. Adams said, asking potential Camry buyers if they are “ready to see what it can do for you.” A major part of that readiness relates to the high-tech aspects of the car, he added, because consumers are now “ready for technology in a lot of places in their lives.” “But it’s not that we jammed a bunch in there,” Mr. Adams said. “It’s done in a very Toyota way, the right approach.” Asked if there was a nascent trend in the arrival of the Camry campaign after the “Be ready” ads for the New York Lottery, Mr. Adams replied, “That just might be a happy coincidence.” The lottery is not the first advertiser to center a campaign on readiness. Delta Air Lines declared, “Delta is ready when you are” in ads that ran from 1968 through 1984. And the Remington brand of personal care products introduced a campaign in October 2010 that carries the theme “How the world gets ready” and features the Temptations song “Get Ready.” Spending in the last four years on Camry ads has ranged from a low of $119.4 million in 2009 to a high of $193 million last year, according to the Kantar Media unit of WPP. (The figure for 2010 includes paid search advertising, which was not tracked in previous years.) In the first half of this year, Kantar Media reported, spending for Camry ads totaled $99.5 million, compared with $60.1 million in the same period a year ago. (Both totals include paid search.)

Automobiles
Advertising and Marketing
Online Advertising
Toyota Motor Corp


Polls Cause Campaigns to Change Their Itineraries

Abstract: Confronting an increasingly bleak electoral map, top aides to Senator John McCain said Thursday that they were searching for a “narrow-victory scenario” and would focus in the final weeks on a dwindling number of states, using mailings, telephone calls and television advertisements to try to tear away support from Senator Barack Obama . Mr. Obama’s advisers said they would use the remaining 19 days of the campaign to focus mainly on capturing states that President Bush won in 2004; he is going to Missouri, North Carolina and Virginia, over the next three days and spending two days in Florida next week. In a sign of the differing fortunes of the candidates, advisers to Mr. Obama said he was escalating his effort in West Virginia, which Mr. Bush won by 13 points in 2004, with a surge in advertising spending and a campaign swing there in the coming days by Mr. Obama or his running mate, Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. “West Virginia is real,” said Mr. Obama’s campaign manager, David Plouffe. “We have been watching it for a long time.” By contrast, Mr. McCain is spending the next three days campaigning in states that Mr. Bush won in 2004 and that earlier this year Republicans had considered relatively safe: he will visit Florida on Friday, followed by North Carolina, Virginia and Ohio. Republicans said their hopes of capturing any state the Democrats won in 2004 appeared to be dwindling, though they said they held out hope for Pennsylvania, where Mr. McCain campaigned on Thursday but where he has recently slipped far behind Mr. Obama in some polls. The emerging strategies were described by top aides to the candidates as the long campaign turned to the final chapter, following the last presidential debate Wednesday night. By every indication, Mr. Obama entered this post-debate period in a significantly stronger position than Mr. McCain, with broader support in polls, more options for an Electoral College victory and voters increasingly fixated on the economic crisis, to the decided advantage of Mr. Obama. Mr. McCain’s advisers said that in his speeches, television advertisements and mailings, he would seize on a remark Mr. Obama made in an encounter with an Ohio voter, Joe Wurzelbacher, who had pressed him to explain his support for a tax increase for upper-income filers. Mr. Obama responded by saying he wanted to “spread the wealth.” Mr. McCain repeatedly invoked that encounter with the man, whom he called “Joe the Plumber,” during the debate on Wednesday. “Spread the wealth around: We will focus acutely on that,” said Steve Schmidt, Mr. McCain’s chief strategist. “Spread the wealth around is a big mistake.” With a sense of anxiety rising among Republicans, many were urging the McCain campaign to abandon its effort to win back the four Democratic states where Mr. McCain is still competing but is behind in polls —Minnesota, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — and instead put all its resources into holding on to the states Mr. Bush won in 2004. In one sign of this, the Republican National Committee, which operates independently of the McCain campaign, pulled its advertisements out of Wisconsin, a state where polls show Mr. Obama pulling away. But Mr. McCain’s advisers made clear that their candidate would continue to campaign aggressively in those states, even as they acknowledged that their options were limited. “The scenario for winning for us is a narrow-victory scenario,” Mr. Schmidt said. “The fact that we’re in the race at all — within striking distance with a 5 percent right track — is a miracle. Because the environment is so bad and the head wind is so strong.” Mr. Plouffe said he viewed Colorado and Virginia as the two states that Mr. Obama had the best chance of pulling from the Republican column. Mr. Obama outspent Mr. McCain on television by four-to-one nationally last week, displaying a financial advantage that Mr. McCain’s advisers described as smothering. Still, the Republican National Committee and Mr. McCain by all appearances have retained a significant amount of money to pay for a late surge of television advertisements, get-out-the-vote calls and mailings. On Thursday, an independent unit of the party began an $18 million advertising campaign that will run until Election Day and started with a commercial questioning Mr. Obama’s qualifications to lead. Called “The Chair” and running in eight states — including Indiana, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Virginia — the spot shows the president’s desk in the Oval Office as an announcer says of the current financial crisis, “This crisis would be Obama’s first crisis — in this chair.” The effort also includes what Republicans said would be an ambitious automated telephone get-out-the-vote operation, with calls already going out in 10 states. Some appeals invoke Mr. Obama’s passing dealings in Chicago with William Ayers, a member of the Weather Underground radical group in the 1960s. In Colorado, New Mexico, Ohio, Pennsylvania and several other states, the party was running a robotic call in which a man says he is calling because “you need to know that Barack Obama has worked closely with domestic terrorist Bill Ayers, whose organization bombed the U.S. Capitol, the Pentagon, a judge’s home and killed Americans.” (It does not say that Mr. Obama, in fact, worked with Mr. Ayers, now a professor of education, on two nonprofit boards.) Mr. Obama is preparing to announce his September fund-raising figures in the next three days, with several top contributors saying the tally is estimated at more than $100 million. The campaign is already so heavily invested in television advertising that it is having serious problems finding open spots to place more commercials. The fund-raising has so exceeded its projections, aides said, that the campaign decided to take the rare step of buying time on network television, including a half-hour informercial in prime time across several networks later this month. For Mr. Obama, complacency has become a critical worry. E-mail alerts and text messages will be sent in the coming days to re-energize supporters. With that in mind, he intensified on Thursday his criticism of Mr. McCain, amplifying the arguments that he had made in the debate instead of simply ignoring his rival. “We don’t take anything for granted,” said Mr. Obama’s chief strategist, David Axelrod. “We’ve been up and down and sideways over these past two years. We have to be ready for anything. We’re not going to let up for one week.” Mr. Obama admonished his supporters on Thursday not to grow overconfident about his recent surge in crucial electoral battlegrounds and national polls, making public a worry he has privately been raising for more than a week with his circle of advisers. “For those of you who are feeling giddy or cocky or think this is all set, I just have two words for you: New Hampshire,” he told top contributors at a fund-raising breakfast in Manhattan. “I’ve been in these positions before, when we were favored and the press starts getting carried away and we end up getting spanked.”

McCain John
Obama Barack
Presidential Election of 2008


Obama Health Care Law Gets Support in First Appellate Review

Abstract: The Obama administration prevailed Wednesday in the first appellate review of the 2010 health care law as a three-judge panel from the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit held that it was constitutional for Congress to require that Americans buy health insurance . The ruling by the Cincinnati court is the first of three opinions to be delivered by separate courts of appeal that heard arguments in the health care litigation in May and June. Opinions are expected soon from panels in the Fourth Circuit in Richmond , Va., and the 11th Circuit in Atlanta . Lawyers on both sides of the case widely expect the Supreme Court to take one or more of the cases, perhaps as soon as its coming term, which starts in October. The speed of the Sixth Circuit ruling could help ensure that timing. The opinion was the first not to break down strictly along seemingly partisan lines. In the 2-to-1 ruling, a judge appointed by a Republican president joined one named by a Democrat to write the majority opinion. In various cases at the lower District Court level, five judges have divided on the question, with three Democratic appointees backing the law and two Republican appointees rejecting it. As they look ahead to the Supreme Court, the law’s defenders can take encouragement from the concurring opinion written by Judge Jeffrey S. Sutton, an appointee of President George W. Bush , a Republican. Judge Sutton is typically considered conservative on questions of constitutional reach. After acknowledging the difficulty of pinpointing the limits on Congress’s power to regulate interstate commerce, Judge Sutton wrote, “In my opinion, the government has the better of the arguments.” He added, “Not every intrusive law is an unconstitutionally intrusive law.” Joining Judge Sutton was Judge Boyce F. Martin Jr., an appointee of President Jimmy Carter , a Democrat. Dissenting on the central issues was Judge James L. Graham, a District Court judge appointed by President Ronald Reagan who is on temporary assignment to the Sixth Circuit. The appeal, which was heard by the panel on June 1, came in a challenge filed by the Thomas More Law Center, a conservative public interest firm in Ann Arbor , Mich. In its 69-page ruling, the panel upheld Judge George C. Steeh of Federal District Court in Detroit , who concluded that choosing not to buy health insurance was a consequential commercial decision that could be regulated by Congress under the Commerce Clause of the Constitution. Starting in 2014, the Affordable Care Act will require most Americans to buy health insurance or pay an income tax penalty. The administration argues that without the insurance mandate it is not reasonable to require insurers to cover all applicants regardless of their health status. The Sixth Circuit majority held that the mandate was “facially constitutional under the Commerce Clause” for two reasons. “First, the provision regulates economic activity that Congress had a rational basis to believe has substantial effects on interstate commerce,” Judge Martin wrote. “In addition, Congress had a rational basis to believe that the provision was essential to its larger economic scheme reforming the interstate markets in health care and health insurance.” The court directly addressed whether a choice to go without health insurance qualifies as an “activity” that substantially affects interstate commerce, which is the standard set in prior Supreme Court decisions on the breadth of the Commerce Clause. “The activity of foregoing health insurance and attempting to cover the cost of health care needs by self-insuring is no less economic than the activity of purchasing an insurance plan,” the opinion stated. The majority emphasized that the case should not hang on distinctions about whether the failure to buy insurance should be defined as activity or inactivity, a question the Supreme Court has never considered. “The constitutionality of the minimum coverage provision cannot be resolved with a myopic focus on a malleable label,” the judges said. In his concurrence, Judge Sutton added, “Inaction is action, sometimes for better, sometimes for worse, when it comes to financial risk.” Whether an individual buys an insurance policy or not, the judge wrote, “each requires affirmative choices; one is no less active than the other; and both affect commerce.” Judge Graham countered in his dissent that if the mandate was allowed, “it is difficult to see what the limits on Congress’s Commerce Clause authority would be.” But the majority agreed with Neal K. Katyal, the acting United States solicitor general, who argued that individual choices not to buy insurance, when taken in aggregate, have clear commercial effects because they shift the cost of caring for the uninsured to other payers. The judges adopted Mr. Katyal’s argument that because the need for health care is unpredictable, it is impossible for individuals to opt out of the market. And they agreed that cost-shifting was inevitable as long as the federal government required hospitals to treat those who show up with life-threatening conditions.

Health Insurance
Obamacare,Affordable Care Act
Decisions and Verdicts
Cincinnati
Barack Obama


Car Bombs at Nigerian Military Church Kill at Least 11

Abstract: KADUNA, Nigeria (AP) — At least 11 people were killed and about 30 were wounded when twin car bombs hit a Protestant church in a major military compound in northern Nigeria, officials said on Sunday, a month after a deadly church bombing in the same state. A bus laden with explosives rammed into the St. Andrew Military Protestant Church in the military barracks in Jaji in Kaduna State about noon, said the director of army public relations, Brig. Gen. Bola Koleoso. Ten minutes later, a car parked just outside the church exploded as people fled the first blast, he said. Jaji is home to the Armed Forces Command and Staff College, one of the country’s most important military colleges. It trains Nigerian and foreign navy, air force and army officers. There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but a radical Islamist sect known as Boko Haram has previously attacked Nigerian military institutions. The blasts came a month after a church was attacked in the city of Kaduna, about 25 miles from Jaji. In that attack, on Oct. 28, a suicide bomber rammed a sport utility vehicle loaded with explosives into St. Rita’s Roman Catholic Church, killing at least seven people and wounding more than 100 others, the authorities said. No one has claimed responsibility for the October attack.

Defense and Military Forces
Terrorism
Kaduna (Nigeria)
Bombs and Explosives
Nigeria
Protestant Churches
Boko Haram
Christians and Christianity


Republican Senators Criticize Holder Over Response to Leaks

Abstract: WASHINGTON — Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday strongly criticized the recent decision by Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. to appoint two United States attorneys to investigate recent disclosures of classified national security information, saying that the move was not enough and that he should appoint a special prosecutor. At a committee hearing, the Republican senators — led by Lindsey Graham of South Carolina — accused the administration of leaking the information and said Mr. Holder was trying to shield the Obama administration from the scrutiny of a prosecutor who would be completely independent of the Justice Department. Mr. Graham said an excerpt recently published by The New York Times from the book “Confront and Conceal” by David E. Sanger, a Times correspondent, about cyberattacks by United States against Iran had convinced him that “there are clearly people around the president who are leaking stories that involve highly classified information.” “The concern we have is that you’ve got one program, Fast and Furious, that has been an embarrassment for the administration, and it’s been like pulling teeth to get information about Fast and Furious, who did what and when, ” he said, referring to Operation Fast and Furious, a bungled gun trafficking case . “But when you have programs on the national security front that seem to show the president as a strong leader, you read about it in the paper. So my concern, I think, is that a lot of us believe if there was ever a need for an outside special counsel, it is now. What do you say?” Mr. Holder said the two United States attorneys he appointed — Ronald C. Machen, the United States attorney for the District of Columbia, and Rod J. Rosenstein, his counterpart in Maryland — were exemplary prosecutors and, like all federal authorities, had the freedom to pursue the evidence wherever it led. “I think you are missing something here,” Mr. Holder said, but was interrupted by Mr. Graham. “I think you are missing something here,” Mr. Graham said in a stern tone. “I think you are missing the fact that this is a very big deal, and you are handling it in a way that creates suspicion where there should not be. “And all I’m asking for is for you to find a lawyer in this country that we all of could say — virtually all of us — could say that is the right person to do this job, rather than you picking two people and telling us how great they are. I don’t know these people from Adam’s house cat.” Senator John Cornyn, Republican of Texas, was particularly critical of Mr. Holder and called on him to resign over his handling of Operation Fast and Furious, the leak investigations and lack of leadership. Mr. Holder said he would not resign. Earlier in the hearing, Mr. Holder said he was willing to make “compromises” with members of Congress about information they have subpoenaed about Fast and Furious. Mr. Holder said that such a compromise would avoid “an impending constitutional crisis” if the House oversight committee votes on June 20 to recommend that the full House hold Mr. Holder in contempt. Also Tuesday, Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, introduced a Congressional resolution calling on Mr. Holder to appoint an outside special counsel to investigate the disclosures. All 18 of the resolution’s co-sponsors were Republicans.

Special Prosecutors (Independent Counsel)

Classified Information and State Secrets


Sixers’ Brand Is Playing With Hand Fracture

Abstract: Elton Brand , who is experiencing a resurgent season with the surprising Philadelphia 76ers , has played nearly a month with a fracture in his left hand. The fracture was originally disclosed as an injury that would not prohibit Brand from playing, apparently out of concern that some opposing players might target the hand if they knew it was fractured. Brand has continued to play through the injury with the 76ers still vying for playoff positioning. “It still bothers him,” Rod Thorn, Philadelphia’s president, said in a telephone call Monday night. “He’s had trouble for the last month trying to catch balls. There’s no complaints about it from him. He keeps playing. His confidence, his leadership, have been invaluable to our team.” The Knicks (38-38) and Philadelphia (40-37) will meet Wednesday night in a game that will help determine the Eastern Conference playoff seedings. They are separated by a game and a half in the conference standings, with the 76ers sixth and the Knicks seventh and both teams in action Tuesday night. In the first round of the playoffs, the two teams will match up with Miami (54-23) and Boston (53-23), but who will play whom has yet to be determined. The 6-foot-8 Brand is Philadelphia’s leading scorer and rebounder. On Feb. 27 he dislocated the pinkie finger on his right hand in a game against Cleveland and began playing with a splint. He sustained the fracture in his left hand in a game 10 days later against the Oklahoma City Thunder. He finished the game, playing 41 minutes. In the 13 games since the injury to his left hand, Brand’s scoring average dipped to 13.3 points and his team went 7-6. But Brand scored 20 and 21 points in his last two games, which Philadelphia split. Thorn said the 76ers would consider resting Brand if their playoff seeding is decided before the regular season ends. “He is a pro’s pro,” Thorn said. “He comes to play every day and he hasn’t missed anything despite having a broken hand.” Brand was limited by injuries and underwent season-ending shoulder surgery in February 2009 after signing with the 76ers as a free agent in the summer of 2008. He has not been in the postseason with the 76ers and, in fact, has been in only two playoff series in his 12-year career, both with the Los Angeles Clippers in 2006. Brand, his teammates Thaddeus Young and Andre Iguodala and Coach Doug Collins are considered the main catalysts in Philadelphia’s revitalization. The 76ers are closing in on their first winning season since 2004-5. After starting the season with 10 losses in 13 games, they are tied for the league’s ninth-best winning percentage (.607) since Nov. 27. “We were 3-13, and it felt like, ‘Here we go again,’ ” Brand recently told The Philadelphia Inquirer. “We lost close games; it was disappointing. But we were able to fight out of it.” Collins, who was an analyst for TNT before taking the 76ers job this season, replaced Eddie Jordan as head coach. Thorn joined the organization as president last summer after spending the previous decade with the Nets. “He’s gotten guys to buy into playing with each other and to be accountable to each other,” Thorn said of Collins, who previously was a head coach in Chicago, Detroit and Washington. “We’ve got a team that plays hard every night and I give him tremendous credit for an incredible job.” For the season, Brand is averaging 14.9 points, 8.4 rebounds and 1.25 blocks a game. He has started every game for Philadelphia this season, except for missing one game for a suspension for a flagrant foul against the Washington Wizards. His numbers are better against the Knicks. In three games against them this season, Brand has averaged 27 points and 9.3 rebounds. Philadelphia is 2-1 in those games. NETS 107, TIMBERWOLVES 105 Deron Williams capped a career-tying 21-assist performance by hitting the winning jumper with 1.7 seconds to play to lead the host Nets. Williams finished with 18 points as the Nets snapped a six-game losing streak and extended Minnesota’s slide to a season-high 11 games. Brook Lopez had a game-high 30 points for the Nets, who won their 24th game, doubling their total of a year ago when they were the N.B.A.’s worst team. (AP) BULLS 97, SUNS 94 Derrick Rose finished with 19 points and host Chicago continued to close in on the top seed in the East. The Bulls lead Miami and Boston by three games. (AP) MAGIC 78, BUCKS 72 Dwight Howard had 18 points and 17 rebounds, and Jameer Nelson scored 17 for host Orlando . The win, coupled with Atlanta’s loss to San Antonio, gave the Magic the No. 4 seed for the Eastern Conference playoffs. (AP) CAVALIERS 99, BOBCATS 89 Ramon Sessions scored 18 points to pace seven players in double figures, leading host Cleveland past Charlotte , a loss that hurt the Bobcats’ playoff chances. Charlotte, in ninth place, trails Indiana by two and a half games for the final playoff spot. (AP) SPURS 97, HAWKS 90 Tony Parker scored 26 points and San Antonio moved closer to home-court advantage in the playoffs by ending a four-game road losing streak with a win at Atlanta. The Spurs began Tuesday two and a half games ahead of the Los Angeles Lakers in the race for the top seed in the Western Conference playoffs. (AP) THUNDER 101, NUGGETS 94 Kevin Durant scored 32 points for visiting Oklahoma City in a possible first-round playoff preview. The Thunder all but secured home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs, building a four-game lead over fifth-place Denver with five games left. (AP) CLIPPERS 82, GRIZZLIES 81 The Los Angeles Clippers ended host Memphis’s four-game winning streak. The eighth-place Grizzlies did not lose ground in the playoff race, though, maintaining their three-game edge over ninth-place Houston. (AP) KINGS 104, ROCKETS 101 Marcus Thornton and Samuel Dalembert each scored 21 points, and Dalembert and DeMarcus Cousins each had 15 rebounds for visiting Sacramento. (AP)

Philadelphia 76ers
Brand Elton
New York Knicks
Basketball
Sports Injuries


Enjoying Life Outside the Bubble

Abstract: THE last time I talked to Kevin Landis was over lunch at Le Bernardin, the haute French restaurant in Manhattan, back in the fall of 2000. At the time, the air hadn’t yet gone out of the Internet bubble, and as manager of the tech-focused Firsthand family of mutual funds, Mr. Landis was feeling pretty good about the fact that assets under management had gone from $2 billion to more than $6 billion in a matter of months. In fact, he was more than a little cocky. (So was I — reporters don’t eat at Le Bernardin anymore, at least if their publisher is paying.) So with the 16 percent rise in the Nasdaq this year, not to mention the meteoric rise of stocks like Google, which recently passed $600 a share for the first time, Mr. Landis is again feeling good. His flagship Technology Value fund is up 27 percent this year and has had an average annual return of 26 percent over the last five years. But he’s no longer so cocky — that got knocked out of Mr. Landis the hard way, when Firsthand suffered huge losses as the bubble finally burst early in the decade. “You don’t want to ask for those numbers,” he jokes. “It’s still painful and it always will be, and not because my mom’s in the fund. It goes on your permanent record, like in school.” In 2001, the Technology Value fund dropped 44 percent, and then plunged 56 percent in 2002. Firsthand’s total assets under management, now about $750 million, are still a small fraction of what they were in 2000. With the fund’s record of being up, down and up again, it seemed like a good time to ask Mr. Landis if tech investors are enjoying Web 2.0 or Bubble 2.0, as many commentators put it. He says that while individual names like Research in Motion and Apple have begun to get pricey, the broader tech sector “has got plenty of room to keep running.” And unlike 2000, when the likes of Dr.Koop.com and Webvan went through the roof, no longer can just about any dot-com stock win investor enthusiasm. As for Google, he says “it’s pricey, but not hugely so.” Google is “a one-trick pony,” he says, referring to the fact that most of its revenue is from search-related advertising. “But it’s a hell of a pony.” More established tech names like Intel and Cisco — both of which still trade well below their bubble-era peaks but are up more than 20 percent this year — have become mature, almost old-fashioned blue chips, with steady, if not exceptional returns, he says. That other tech giant, Microsoft, has a cloudier future, he predicts. It’s flat for the year, and Mr. Landis says “they’re going to have a hard time generating much more growth.” “Microsoft conquered the desktop and then the server room,” he adds, “but what the heck else is out there for them?” Back in the fall of 2000, Mr. Landis was excited about the tax-cut plans of George W. Bush, then running for president, and less than enthralled by Al Gore. Today, though, he says he has a new appreciation for Mr. Gore, who just won the Nobel Peace Prize, and his green agenda, at least when it comes to alternative-energy companies that might gain from development of solar power . One favorite is SunPower, which makes solar panels that are much more energy-efficient than their predecessors. SunPower’s shares have doubled this year, but Mr. Landis’s preferred way of playing it is by holding Cypress Semiconductor, which owns 53 percent of SunPower but trades at a more reasonable price-to-earnings multiple. Another pick on this theme is Applied Materials, a semiconductor play. “These new solar panels are an offshoot of semiconductors,” he says. OF course, this sector has enjoyed a spectacular run already, with First Solar now at $136, up from $30 at the beginning of the year. But Mr. Landis is hopeful. “Alternative energy isn’t where the Internet was in 1999,” he assures me, with a touch of the exuberance that made him a regular on CNBC years ago. “It’s where the Internet was in 1980.” Old ways die hard, I guess, and in Silicon Valley, where Mr. Landis grew up, the next big thing is always just around the corner.

Landis Kevin
Mutual Funds
Stocks and Bonds


In Germany, Answers Are Elusive as E. Coli Outbreak Rages

Abstract: HAMBURG — Except for the hum of the elevator, there was hardly a sound in the intensive care unit of the University Medical Center of Hamburg-Eppendorf. Two hospital attendants were wheeling a stretcher, as quickly and as carefully as possible, along the wide corridor. The woman on the stretcher lay motionless, her eyes closed. There was a grimace on her face and her skin was a pale yellow-gray. Inside one room, a young man, dressed in a green hospital gown, sat completely still beside a bed, his hand resting on the side. He looked at the woman lying in the bed. She had same color as the woman on the stretcher, the same listlessness. This solemn scene on Tuesday afternoon at the hospital, north of the city center, is just one part of a food contamination crisis unfolding in northern Germany and beyond, as health officials continue to scramble to find the source of a deadly E.co li outbreak and doctors struggle to keep alive the most vulnerable of the victims. “These people are very, very sick,” said Dr. Jörg F. Debatin, the medical director and chief executive of the huge clinic, where doctors are fighting to save the lives of the 20 people in the intensive care unit. Hamburg is the center of a crisis that broke out nearly three weeks ago. As of Tuesday, 15 people had died, according to the German state authorities, and more than 1,100 are suffering from the effects of the bacteria. Scores are in intensive care units like the one here. As medical officials deal with the illnesses, a mystery remains about the precise source. Despite earlier statements by the regional authorities that the E. coli could be traced to cucumbers from facilities in Spain — a stance that continued to prompt angry denials from Spanish officials — officials in Berlin admitted on Tuesday that there was no certainty this was the case. There was still a “very difficult situation in Germany,” Agriculture Minister Robert Kloos said in Hungary. “We’re not yet able to establish exactly where and how the infection has arisen.” The Robert Koch Institute, Germany’s disease control authority, is monitoring the spread of the infections, which can cause a disease called hemolytic uremic syndrome, or H.U.S., which can in turn lead to kidney failure and death. Meanwhile, one woman in Sweden died in the first fatality outside Germany linked to the outbreak, The Associated Press reported, but officials noted that she had recently visited Germany. The suggestions that the outbreak is linked to Spanish produce has ignited tensions between Spain and Germany, as farmers were forced to dump produce. Tensions are also rising with Russia, which blocked some imports and threatened to extend that ban. Germany, Denmark, the Czech Republic, Luxembourg, Hungary, Sweden, Belgium and Russia were blocking entry of Spanish cucumbers, according to news reports from Spain. In addition, some Dutch exports of cucumbers had also been halted. Over the weekend, Spanish officials underlined that there had been no outbreak of the illness in Spain, and they said that this suggested that the vegetables were contaminated elsewhere. While one case was recorded in Spain on Tuesday, officials noted that the patient, a man hospitalized in the Basque country, had recently visited Germany. “We are by now talking about hundreds of millions of euros of loss,” Armando García López, the chief of staff of the regional agriculture department of Andalusia, said by telephone. “Germany has tabled an accusation without any proof, which is something totally illegal and in gross violation of the E.U.’s common agricultural policy.” Carlos Rojas, the mayor of Motril, one of the Andalusian towns that is a major producer of cucumbers, said over the phone that the situation for local farmers was “a complete disaster.” Mr. Rojas said farmers had been forced to abandon their production and leave it to rot on the ground because of canceled orders from Germany, Austria and other countries. “There is a reluctance on the part of consumers to purchase vegetables,” said Mr. Kloos, the German minister. “All vegetables in the European Union are affected,” he said, specifically mentioning Spain, The Netherlands, Germany and Belgium. Mr. Kloos was speaking after a meeting of agriculture ministers as efforts also got underway on Tuesday to compensate producers who were losing business. The European Union’s agriculture commissioner, Dacian Ciolos, also speaking in Hungary, said he was coordinating efforts to compensate farmers for losses incurred on produce they had been obliged to take off the market. Mr. Ciolos said that safety came first, but he also warned of an overreaction that could affect the range of products available and their prices. “Ultimately, this could turn against consumers if large parts of fruit and vegetables disappear,” he said. Gregory Hartl, a spokesman for the World Health Organization, said the most serious prior E. coli outbreak was in Japan in 1996. Mr. Hartl said that in case, contaminated radish sprouts in school lunches caused 9,451 illnesses. He could not say how many of those led to deaths. The European Union operates as a single market but nations zealously guard powers over certain areas of national policy, including health policy and disease control. Even so, European efforts to track the source of the bacteria were far more effective than in other parts of the world, including the United States, one E.U. official said Tuesday. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he did not want to be seen criticizing other health and food authorities around the world, said high standards of traceability meant that E.U. experts would soon pinpoint the origins of the outbreak. On Tuesday, the office of the agricultural minister of Andalusia said the Germans had raised questions about two companies, Costa de Almeria and Frunet, that own 13 different production centers in the region. Although Spanish authorities said over the weekend that no productions sites had been closed, the ministry in Andalusia said Tuesday that all 13 had been temporarily shut down to carry out tests on water, soil and produce. Samples from all the sites were being sent to a national lab in Galicia, in northern Spain, with preliminary results expected Thursday. But back in Hamburg, the emphasis remained on treatment. The impact of the infections at the University Medical Center has been so intense that the hospital staff, though accustomed to dealing with a clinic that has a special cancer unit, say they have been unusually upset by the magnitude of the crisis. Relatives are receiving psychological help. Dr. Debatin, 49, said in an interview Tuesday afternoon in the hospital that while he hoped patients would recover, 20 and 30 percent of affected people get complications. The illness, which is common among children and treatable, has in this case affected adults, as well. It cuts across gender and age. But, said Dr. Debatin, “two-thirds of the patients are women. They tend to be young.” During the afternoon, a young man, probably in his mid-20s, was leaving the intensive care unit. Hospital staff asked how he was doing. He said little. His fiancée was inside. James Kanter reported from Brussels. Raphael Minder contributed reporting from Granada, Spain.

E Coli (Bacteria)
Germany
Hamburg (Germany)
Medicine and Health


Greece Passes Economic Measures, Clearing the Way for Bailout Money

Abstract: ATHENS — The Greek Parliament voted narrowly early Monday to back a bitterly contested package of economic changes, clearing the way for the release of further funding considered crucial for a financial rescue, despite a last-minute attempt by the political opposition to postpone the vote. The package passed by a wafer-thin majority in Parliament a day before euro zone finance ministers are scheduled to meet in Athens, where they are expected to discuss Greece’s reform progress and the question of rescue funding. In a statement after the vote, Prime Minister Antonis Samaras described it as “a huge step toward the Greece of tomorrow, for young Greeks, for the Greek people.” But the vote led to the ejection of a member of Parliament from the conservative New Democracy party, which leads the country’s fragile coalition, reducing its majority in Parliament to just two seats in the 300-seat House. The passage of the economic measures, which interest groups ranging from dairy producers to pharmacists opposed, opened the way for the release of up to 10 billion euros in loans, or $13.8 billion, that Greece needs to pay down bonds. Greece’s so-called troika of international lenders — the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund — has extended the country two bailouts worth €240 billion. The bailout money has been given out in installments in exchange for austerity measures, chiefly tax increases and cuts to salaries and pensions, that have slashed living standards and led to record unemployment of close to 28 percent. The latest measures include steps to lift barriers to competition and a new framework for the continuing recapitalization of Greek banks. The bill also includes a pledge to distribute €527 million to Greeks on low incomes. The bill was passed into law after a day of high tension and drama in the Greek Parliament. Earlier in the day, the main leftist opposition party, Syriza, which opposes the terms of Greece’s international bailouts, called for a censure motion against Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras. The leftist leader Alexis Tsipras described him as “the key administrator of a death contract against the Greek people.” After several hours of vehement exchanges and argument, the speaker of Parliament rejected the leftists’ motion as unconstitutional because it came less than six months after a similar initiative by Syriza. Mr. Stournaras, who has coordinated tough negotiations with the troika and is to head the euro zone meeting in Athens on Tuesday, accused Mr. Tsipras of attempting what he called an “unprecedented parliamentary coup” aimed at upsetting the government’s efforts to clinch rescue funding without delay. Public opposition to an overhaul remains strong in Greece, though the violent protests that once accompanied austerity rallies in Athens have become rare after more than three years of economic changes imposed by the troika. Outside the Parliament building on Sunday night, about 12,000 Greeks peacefully protested the measures. Labor unions are planning a strike for April 9, the 36th since Greece signed its first international bailout in 2010.

Legislature
Greece
Yannis Stournaras
Alexis Tsipras


In His Place of Serenity, Tiger Woods Watches His Comeback Fall Short

Abstract: SAN DIEGO — What his blanket is to Linus Van Pelt, Torrey Pines Golf Course is to Tiger Woods. The North and South layouts have been quilted courses of calm for Woods, who has won seven PGA Tour titles, a United States Open and a junior championship on them. Woods’s comfort level with Torrey Pines factored into his decision to make the Farmers Insurance Open, rather than a European Tour stop next week in the Middle East, his first full-field event after a 17-month, injury-induced layoff. Only once in 15 previous starts in this event as a professional had Woods missed the cut when he played two rounds. But his familiarity with the place could not save him from the unknowns in his latest comeback. With an even-par 72 on the North course, Woods improved by four shots on his Thursday score on the South, but his 36-hole total of four over par left him on the wrong side of the cut. In his misery, Woods had plenty of illustrious company: The world No. 1, Jason Day; the reigning PGA Tour player of the year, Dustin Johnson; and the 2016 United States Ryder Cup members Rickie Fowler and Jimmy Walker. The leader at the halfway point is Justin Rose, at eight under. As Woods proved during his low-key return to competition in a limited-field event in the Bahamas in December, making birdies is not a problem. He had 24 in four rounds there. In his two rounds this week, Woods had five birdies, one more than Billy Horschel, who made the even-par cut on the number. Mental mistakes and a few bad swings were Woods’s downfall, contributing to the seven bogeys and one double bogey on his scorecard. In the first round, Woods got to one under with back-to-back birdies to begin his second nine, but he then had to lean on his play from inside 100 yards to save himself from a score higher than 79. In the second round, Woods’s course management, usually so polished, showed some tarnish. On the par-3 third, his 12th hole, Woods chose the wrong club for the 245-yard tee shot into the wind. His effort using his 3-iron landed several yards short of the green, and he walked off with a bogey. On the drivable par-4 seventh, which was playing downwind, he chose to lay up and ended up with a disappointing par. “I hit it much better today, which was nice,” said Woods, who hit 10 of 14 fairways. He opened with a birdie at the par-5 10th, but despite a few close calls on nice rolls, he failed to record another birdie until his 14th hole, another par-5. Woods acknowledged that he needed to cut down on the “dumb mistakes” and said: “Playing tournament golf is a little bit different than playing with your buddies at home in a cart. I need to get more rounds under my belt, more playing time, and that’s what I’m trying to do.” Woods, 41, will play in next week’s European Tour event in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, and after a week off, he will make consecutive starts in the Genesis Open at Riviera Country Club in Los Angeles and the Honda Classic in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. In his practice rounds at his home in Florida, Woods did not face cold weather and a biting wind that required playing in four layers. He did not have to endure stop-and-start rounds that took upward of five hours. And he did not have to hit out of thick rough. In facing all those challenges and more at Torrey Pines, Woods learned much about the state of his game that could prove valuable moving forward. “He’s got to take things in stride,” said Horschel, who was in the group with Woods two years ago when Woods withdrew during the first round of this event after his back tightened up. “If anyone else came back after a year and a half, everyone would be patient and give him time.” The added challenge for Woods, a 79-time winner on the tour, is that he is not just playing against fields full of old rivals and young and hungry up-and-comers — he is also competing against the player he was in his prime. “The thing is that you can’t hold Tiger to the standards that he always talked about in his early 20s and 30s, when he talked about having his C-game,” Horschel said, adding, “He’s a changed man, and he’s a different golfer.” Hunter Mahan does not know what it is like to be sidelined from competitive golf for more than 500 days. But he has missed a lot of weekends. Since last year’s Masters, Mahan had made only two cuts in 16 starts. With a second-round 70 on the North course, Mahan (three under) made his first cut of this wraparound season. In describing his struggles, he supplied a glimpse of what Woods must be facing. “You can practice all you want at home,” Mahan said. “When you get out here, all of the sudden, things move a lot faster. Your body’s moving faster, your clubs might not be moving as fast as you want them to. It’s amazing the difference, and there’s nothing that can replicate it.” Mahan added, “You just have to get out here, keep working on it and keep your emotions in check.” It also helps to be patient, which Woods acknowledged is not his strength. “I’m not that kind of guy,” he said. He smiled as he spoke, which was perhaps the best sign of all.


Clashes Between Militants and Army Spread in Iraq

Abstract: BAGHDAD — A confrontation between Iraqi insurgents and government forces in the western city of Falluja edged closer to the capital on Sunday, after clashes between militants and the army left at least 14 people dead in the Abu Ghraib district in Baghdad Province, according to security officials. Separately, in Ramadi, another battleground in the western Anbar Province, militants captured and executed four members of an elite military unit, an official said. And in Baghdad, two car bombs exploded near bus stations, killing at least 14 civilians. The violence posed a further challenge to Iraq’s prime minister, Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, whose government has struggled for a response after Sunni insurgents, including fighters linked to Al Qaeda, captured Falluja and parts of Ramadi almost two weeks ago. On Sunday, Mr. Maliki seemed to back away from earlier promises to mount an all-out military assault on Falluja, saying in an interview with the Reuters news agency that he wanted to “end the presence of those militants without any bloodshed.” Instead of using the military, Mr. Maliki appeared to be leaning on Sunni tribal leaders to expel the militants themselves, and has been providing them with weapons and money for that purpose. The strategy appeared to reflect the pressure on Mr. Maliki from Iraqi political figures as well as American officials to avoid further inflaming sectarian tensions in Anbar, a region that has long complained of authoritarianism and unfair treatment by the Shiite-led government. At the same time, he suggested that the conflict might not end anytime soon. “We do not care how long this takes,” he said. Iraq’s foreign minister, Hoshyar Zebari, said in an interview that the standoff could last months, given that Sunni militants who had been fighting in the Syrian civil war had joined the battle in western Iraq. “We will be in this for the long haul,” Mr. Zebari said. “Probably as long as Syria is going on.” American military, intelligence and embassy officials had been unusually engaged in trying to defuse the crisis, including by mediating with Sunni leaders in Anbar Province, Mr. Zebari said. The Obama administration “feels that if this is not contained, it’s moving toward an all-out sectarian confrontation,” he said. The fighting has left more than a hundred people dead and forced thousands of Falluja’s residents to flee the city, to Baghdad, northern Iraq and the southern city of Karbala, where Shiite leaders are hosting the displaced families in housing built for religious pilgrims. Several of the refugees in Karbala said Sunday that they had little hope of returning home soon, and no clear notion of the identities of the gunmen fighting in their city — said to be a mix of tribesmen, Qaeda militants and others. “We are caught in the middle,” said a resident who asked to be called Umm Abdullah, one of several who said they feared that Sunni militants would retaliate against them because they had fled to Karbala, a Shiite holy city. Another refugee said militants burned down his house two days ago, after he was interviewed on television from Karbala. Later on Sunday, gunmen attacked an army patrol in the Abu Ghraib district, as the fighting spilled beyond the borders of Anbar Province toward Baghdad. In heavy clashes that included military airstrikes, at least four soldiers and 10 civilians were killed, according to security and hospital officials. The executions in Ramadi of the officers of the elite unit, the Special Operations Forces, apparently in retaliation to the government’s arrest of a Sunni lawmaker last month, threatened to touch off a new round of tit-for-tat violence. In a statement, Fadhel al-Barwari, a commander in the Special Operations Forces, pledged to “kill a thousand Al Qaeda members” for each of the soldiers.

Al Qaeda
Nuri Kamal al-Maliki
Civilian casualties
Ramadi
Baghdad
Fallujah
Anbar Province


A Good Start for Mario Monti

Abstract: Mario Monti ’s ability to take a crisis and turn it into an opportunity may one day be taught as a case study in political economy. When Italy’s technocratic premier succeeded Silvio Berlusconi last November, the country’s 10-year bond yield was above the 7 percent level that had driven Greece, Ireland and Portugal to seek bailouts. Now it is 5.6 percent — still high but moving in the right direction. Countries with high debt levels like Italy — its borrowing is 120 percent of G.D.P. — are prone to self-fulfilling prophecies on both the upside and the downside. If investors think a government will go bust, borrowing costs rise, which in turn makes bankruptcy more likely. But if markets think it is solvent, borrowing costs fall and that means it is unlikely to fail. In Italy, where I spent much of last week, there have been spirals within spirals. One has been in domestic politics. Mr. Monti has so much credibility that he has been able to overhaul the pension system, liberalize a raft of monopolistic industries and begin a high-profile crackdown on tax evasion. That has helped cut Italian bond yields, further improving his credibility. Another spiral has been in international politics. The prime minister’s credibility was an important factor in persuading the European Central Bank to let euro zone banks borrow €500 billion, or $660 billion, before Christmas. Italy was the biggest beneficiary. Its banks are no longer staring into the abyss, with the result that the credit crunch that threatened to suffocate Italian industry is going to be less severe. Moreover, some of the E.C.B. money is finding its way into government bonds, lowering Rome’s borrowing costs. Mr. Monti’s credibility has also helped persuade Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany to ease up a bit on her austerity mantra. One consequence is that if Italy misses its target of a balanced budget next year, it is unlikely to be forced to tighten fiscal policy again — something that would risk sucking Italy into a Greek-style austerity spiral. President Barack Obama even complimented Mr. Monti during an audience last week, saying he had restored faith in Italy and generated confidence in Europe. The contrast with the end of the Berlusconi era is stark. The then prime minister had little credibility at home and so was unable to push through changes. He was considered a naughty boy abroad and so was cut no slack. He was shunned by Mr. Obama, being left to hang around with the likes of Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi of Libya. And rising bond yields pushed the country and its banking system to the brink, while tipping the economy into its current recession . But Mr. Monti cannot declare victory. Yields are still high. The economy is forecast by the International Monetary Fund to shrink 2.2 percent this year. And the debt has not gone away. This makes the country vulnerable to shocks like a blow-up in Greece. While there is little Mr. Monti can do about short-term growth, he can get yields down further with three more measures: labor changes; a structural overhaul in taxes and spending; and privatization. Such measures will not have an immediate effect on productivity. But they would further enhance credibility and so cut Italy’s borrowing costs, giving further rapid twists to the virtuous spiral. Mr. Monti is well on the way to tackling the labor market, with measures to make it easier to hire and fire people. He should also find it surprisingly easy to push these through, given that his trust rating with the electorate is at an extremely high 57 percent, according to the Italian pollsters SWG. Even the radical pension overhaul, which increased retirement ages and cut benefits, provoked only a three-hour strike. The new government has been more circumspect about fiscal changes. Here what is required is to cut waste and recycle the savings into lower taxes on employment. Similarly, Mr. Monti has not committed himself to privatization. Given that the state has assets worth more than €1 trillion, it should be possible to sell off large chunks in a multiyear program to cut the country’s debt well below 100 percent of G.D.P. But the most fundamental change Mr. Monti could help engineer is in Italy’s self-serving culture, where rules are not observed and cheating is given a nod and a wink. Mr. Berlusconi made that worse by going soft on tax evasion (which is estimated to cost €120 billion, or nearly 8 percent of G.D.P., each year), by using Parliament as a tool of his personal interests and through his long-running battles with the judiciary. Mr. Monti, by contrast, has started to change the discourse of politics. He is sober, not flamboyant — and comes across as honest. His crackdown on tax cheats has also created a stir. But he has pledged to resign after the general election next year, meaning he has little time to bring about cultural changes. The good news is that the people are thoroughly fed up with the current crop of politicians, who have an extraordinarily low trust rating of 12 percent, according to SWG. That means there is a chance that new politicians could come in to fill the vacuum. The bankrupt electoral system, which allows party bosses rather than the electorate to pick the MPs, may be altered. But there is no guarantee of a clean sweep. What is more, it seems unlikely that Mr. Monti’s successor will be as good as he is — and it would be hard for the prime minister to stand for election himself without going back on his word and so undermining what he stands for. Still, he has made a remarkable start. Hugo Dixon is the founder and editor of Reuters Breakingviews.

European Sovereign Debt Crisis (2010- )
Banking and Financial Institutions
Credit and Debt
Monti Mario
Italy


The Winners and Losers as Europe Tries to Erase Borders for TV and Films

Abstract: Siim Teller is a big fan of the British Broadcasting Corporation. A 37-year-old Estonian, he got hooked on the documentaries, period dramas and other programs after living in London for four years. But when he moved to Berlin 18 months ago with his family, Mr. Teller could no longer watch British television because of strict copyright rules that stopped at national borders. “How can they just decide that content is only available in one country when everyone now moves around so much?” asked Mr. Teller, who also subscribes to the online streaming services Netflix and Amazon Prime and who regularly tunes into Estonian news programs. “I understand the commercial reasons, but for the viewer, it’s just annoying.” Like Mr. Teller, many Europeans complain that they cannot view digital content from across the region. But that may soon change. New proposals published on Wednesday aim to give the European Union’s 500 million consumers greater choice of digital streaming content. Image Big budget studios currently make money selling the rights to the likes of Marvel’s “Avengers” and other blockbusters to each European country individually. Credit Zade Rosenthal/Marvel Studios and Paramount Pictures Under the revamp, so-called video-on-demand services from national broadcasters, like the BBC iPlayer ; digital players like Netflix; as well as potentially premium movies offered by Hollywood studios, among others, may become more readily available across the European Union. (British broadcasters may eventually not be subject to the rules, once Britain leaves the 28-member bloc). The goal is to allow people from Portugal to Poland to stream shows online and give national broadcasters a Continent-size possible audience as part of efforts to create a unified digital market across the European Union. The copyright proposals will now be debated for two years before becoming law. Not everyone, though, is happy. Here is a primer on who would benefit and who would most likely lose from the proposal. The Winners Europeans like Mr. Teller could suddenly be able to view streaming content from across the region, giving them access to a huge catalog of movies and television programs that have so far been off limits. They may also be able to buy premium content, like pay-TV movies, from other European countries where prices are lower than in their home countries. National broadcasters would still be able to decide whether to offer content outside their home countries. Streaming services like Netflix and Wuaki, a Barcelona-based rival whose offerings are already available across the Continent, could tap into a broader range of content to offer to their subscribers. Currently, these companies must pen licensing deals in individual countries, so Netflix’s service in Germany, for example, has different content than what is available in France. The copyright changes could end such restrictions. The Losers Hollywood studios and smaller European distributors could see a drop in how much money they can generate if they can no longer sell their content on a country-by-country basis. Big budget studios currently make money selling the rights to the likes of Marvel’s “Avengers” and other blockbusters to each European country individually. But smaller content distributors have balked, claiming that less money may be set aside to support art-house cinema and television programs if Europe’s media industry became one-size-fits-all. These companies may, as a result, have fewer resources to invest in local European material, forgoing a French or German comedy that would have limited appeal in favor of American-style blockbusters that reach a mass audience. National broadcasters and some premium rights holders are likely to face mixed fortunes as Europeans search for the cheapest or most attractive options. While these companies will now have access to a much bigger market, analysts warn that only the largest national broadcasters — with the deepest pockets — are likely to attract the biggest followings. Premium rights holders in one country may also be undercut by those in another that can offer the same movie content at a lower price, though Europe’s policy makers say they would still have control over how people watch their content online.

Movies
Copyrights
TV
Video Recordings
Downloads and Streaming
EU
Europe


South Koreans Suspect That North Plans Nuclear Test

Abstract: SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea appears to be preparing for its third underground nuclear test even as it presses ahead with assembling a long-range rocket for its planned launching of a satellite this month, a South Korean government spokesman said Sunday. Unconfirmed South Korean news reports in the past two years have claimed that North Korea was digging new tunnels at its Punggye-ri nuclear test site in Kilju, near the northeastern tip of the country, to follow up on two underground tests it conducted there in 2006 and 2009 . On Sunday, the government spokesman, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he said he could not talk on the record on intelligence matters, said satellite images showed a growing pile of earth near the entrance of one tunnel, and government analysts said they considered it a potential sign of preparations for a test. A large amount of earth is needed to seal a tunnel before detonating a nuclear device inside. The spokesman was confirming reports carried Sunday by the South Korean national news agency, Yonhap , and other national news outlets. The domestic news media reports were identical in their wording and details. South Korean television stations also carried satellite images showing the pile but did not reveal who had provided them. The main opposition Democratic United Party accused the government’s National Intelligence Service of leaking the information to the domestic news media ahead of Wednesday’s parliamentary elections. Party officials said they suspected that the spy agency was trying to help the conservative governing party by emphasizing the North’s nuclear threat. “North Korea has been hinting at a possible nuclear test for a month,” said Park Yong-jin, a spokesman for the opposition party. “We wonder why the National Intelligence Service was highlighting this to the people and news media now, only three days before the election.” During a campaign speech on Sunday, Park Geun-hye, the leader of the governing New Frontier Party, sought to consolidate conservative support by mentioning the news reports about a possible North Korean nuclear test and the planned satellite launching. The spy agency, which denies meddling in domestic politics, declined to comment on the opposition’s claim. North Korea’s planned satellite launching, scheduled for sometime between Thursday and next Monday, had already deepened international tensions. The United States and its allies have warned that launching a missile would further isolate the North by prompting more severe enforcement of international sanctions. North Korea has repeatedly signaled its determination to launch the satellite. The South Korean government spokesman also confirmed that the latest satellite images showed all three stages of a rocket placed on the North’s launching pad. In a dispatch from the Tongchang-ri launching site, The Associated Press also confirmed that the rocket was in position. The A.P.’s journalists were among the foreign reporters invited to observe the launching. Last month, North Korea’s Foreign Ministry warned Washington that the cancellation of promised food aid in retaliation for the launching would automatically kill a Feb. 29 deal in which North Korea agreed to a moratorium on uranium enrichment and long-range missile and nuclear tests. North Korea’s two previous nuclear tests involved plutonium devices. If the country attempts a third test, analysts have said, it may use a nuclear device fueled by highly enriched uranium. North Korea revealed an advanced, industrial-scale uranium enrichment plant in 2010, though it is unclear how much highly enriched uranium it has acquired. North Korea says it has been planning its satellite launching for several years to coincide with national celebrations of the 100th birthday this year of Kim Il-sung, its revered national founder and the grandfather of its new leader, Kim Jong-un. But American officials say they believe that North Korea’s satellite program is a cover for developing intercontinental ballistic missiles that might someday be able to deliver nuclear warheads. North Korea conducted its two previous nuclear tests after the United Nations Security Council imposed more sanctions to punish it for a long-range missile test in 2006 and its Kwangmyongsong-2 satellite launching in 2009. Many analysts have feared a repeat of the cycle of confrontation if North Korea launches a new satellite this month. After the 2009 nuclear test, the Security Council adopted a resolution demanding that North Korea not launch any rockets using ballistic missile technology, like the one it now plans. The Chinese foreign minister has told his Japanese and South Korean counterparts that Beijing is worried about the situation on the Korean Peninsula, the Chinese state-run news agency, Xinhua, reported Sunday. The foreign minister, Yang Jiechi, held separate meetings with the envoys from Seoul and Tokyo in the eastern Chinese city of Ningbo on Saturday. Without specifically mentioning the planned North Korean launching, Xinhua said Mr. Yang had expressed concerns over the “latest development on the Korean Peninsula.” He was also quoted as urging “all sides” to keep calm and exercise restraint. The United States, South Korea and Japan have been calling on China to become more aggressive in curbing provocative behavior by North Korea, which relies on the Chinese for aid and support.

North Korea
Nuclear Tests
Missiles and Missile Defense Systems
South Korea
Nuclear Weapons


Opening Victory Takes Toll, Leaving Knicks Seeking Short-Term Help

Abstract: GREENBURGH, N.Y. — One game into the truncated 66-game season, with the Knicks already hampered by injuries, Coach Mike D’Antoni was asked Monday about the possibility of Nate Robinson’s return to the team to help out at the guard spot. D’Antoni paused and issued a diplomatic answer about how Glen Grunwald, the Knicks’ interim general manager, is exploring possible short-term opportunities. And then D’Antoni flashed a smile that all but said there was no chance of a return for the diminutive, talented but sometimes exasperating Robinson, whom Oklahoma City waived on Saturday. Still, with three games in four days beckoning on a West Coast trip that begins Wednesday against Golden State and its new coach, the former Knick Mark Jackson, the Knicks need help. They should get some from Mike Bibby, who after sitting out nearly a week with a back injury is expected to make his Knicks debut Wednesday. Bibby is particularly needed because the rookie point guard Iman Shumpert is expected to miss two to four weeks with a sprained right knee sustained in Sunday’s victory over the Celtics. In addition, Jared Jeffries is expected to miss one to two weeks with a groin injury. That leaves the offense in the hands of Toney Douglas, with Bibby behind him. And it is not much better at the other backcourt spot, where starter Landry Fields does not have a healthy natural shooting guard to back him up. And there will be times when Carmelo Anthony initiates the offense, as he did for most of his 17-point fourth quarter Sunday. Anthony said he did not do much of that the past three seasons playing alongside Chauncey Billups in Denver and in New York. But because D’Antoni says that Douglas is not “the classic playmaker,” Anthony is needed. As for the 33-year-old Bibby, he will give the Knicks a different look, D’Antoni said, because “Mike’s been in the league for 58 years.” D’Antoni added, “He’s got experience, he knows how to run a team and he’ll make open shots.” SPURS 95, GRIZZLIES 82 Manu Ginobili scored 24 points and San Antonio got some payback after a stunning playoff collapse last season, beating visiting Memphis. (AP) MAGIC 104, ROCKETS 95 Hedo Turkoglu scored 23 points to lead five Magic players in double figures as Orlando earned its first victory of the season with a win over visiting Houston. (AP) RAPTORS 104, CAVALIERS 96 The rookie Kyrie Irving scored 6 points and hardly played like the No. 1 overall pick as visiting Toronto spoiled the Cleveland guard’s N.B.A. debut. (AP) PACERS 91, PISTONS 79 Roy Hibbert had 16 points and 14 rebounds to help host Indiana top Detroit in the season opener for both teams at the renamed Bankers Life Fieldhouse. (AP) BOBCATS 96, BUCKS 95 D. J. Augustin scored 19 points, the rookie Kemba Walker added 13, including two free throws with 9.9 seconds remaining, and Charlotte erased a 14-point deficit to beat visiting Milwaukee in the teams’ season opener. (AP) THUNDER 104, T’WOLVES 100 Kevin Durant scored 33 points to lead Oklahoma City, which has started off a season loaded with expectations at 2-0, to a win at Minnesota. (AP) NUGGETS 115, MAVERICKS 93 Ty Lawson scored 20 of his 27 points in the first half for visiting Denver as Dallas was drubbed for a second straight game, routinely giving up easy baskets in both. (AP) HORNETS 85, SUNS 84 Eric Gordon made a 20-footer from the top of the key with 4.2 seconds to play in his Hornets debut to give New Orleans a victory at Phoenix. (AP)

New York Knicks
Sports Injuries
Robinson Nate
Bibby Mike
D'Antoni Mike
Basketball


Seeing Gold in Target’s Real Estate

Abstract: Financial engineering may have fallen into ill repute in Washington and much of the country, but let no one imagine that Wall Street has given up. William Ackman, the activist investor and hedge-fund manager, proffered an idea on Wednesday that he claimed was worth billions. He wants Target Corporation , the large discount chain, to sell the land underneath its stores to a new unit set up for the purpose. Target , he proposes, would pay rent to the spinoff, with existing Target shareholders gaining stakes in the new real estate business. The supposed benefit? Mr. Ackman foresees a big increase in the total value the stock market would attach to a sliced-up Target, as much as 74 percent by his reckoning. That would include a payday of several billion dollars for Mr. Ackman’s hedge fund, Pershing Square Capital Management, which owns nearly 10 percent of Target. The potential cost? According to several analysts and Target itself, the complicated new setup would hurt Target’s credit rating and thereby raise its cost of borrowing, perhaps undermining the company’s ability to survive the economic downturn. And the company believes a sliced-and-diced Target would ultimately have less control over its stores, the lifeblood of the business. The plan might lead to transitory gains in the short run, but in the long run, “the retailer would be on much shakier ground, so to speak,” wrote Carol Levenson, director of research for Gimme Credit, a bond research firm. In an e-mail message, she added that “with overleveraged retailers going under right and left, and inhospitable lending and commercial paper markets,” the timing of such a transaction could not be worse. Maneuvers like the one Mr. Ackman suggested Wednesday are the latest variation on the Wall Street notion that the parts of a company may be worth more than the whole. Wall Street sees chopping such a company up as “unlocking value.” But in some recent cases, activist investors who pushed such deals through have been accused of wrecking the companies. For example, Mervyn’s, the bankrupt department store chain, is suing its onetime private equity owners on grounds that they crippled the company by separating the chain’s valuable real estate from its retail operations. Mr. Ackman has included features in his plan meant to avoid some of the worst problems of previous deals. In particular, he proposed that Target spin off only the land on which its stores sit, retaining long-term leases on the stores themselves. But several analysts were left scratching their heads after he presented his proposal to investors in Manhattan on Wednesday. They could not figure out if he had come up with a truly novel idea or just some financial manipulation that would end badly. Deborah Weinswig, a retail equity analyst with Citigroup, said Mr. Ackman’s presentation answered a fundamental concern that retailers always had when they contemplate a real estate spinoff: Will the company retain adequate control of its buildings? But, she added: “In this kind of environment, I don’t know if anyone wants to tamper with or wants to risk a credit-rating downgrade.” Target, which operates 1,684 stores, owns the majority of its real estate and considers it a significant asset that strengthens its balance sheet and financing options in difficult economic times. “For a retailer to have more control of their destiny in today’s environment is critical,” said Marshal Cohen, chief industry analyst for NPD Group. Mr. Ackman said his proposal was in the interest of all Target shareholders. Noting that Target owns the highest percentage of its real estate compared with other big-box retailers, he said the transaction would unlock the value of that real estate, which he said he thought had not been reflected in the company’s stock price. In Mr. Ackman’s proposal, Target would retain control of the buildings through 75-year leases. He argued that the long leases offer “bondlike stability.” “It’s a very creative and innovative way to do this,” said David Bassuk, managing director in the retail performance improvement practice of AlixPartners. Indeed, industry experts in reorganization and in mergers and acquisitions said financial engineering was likely to happen even more now, given the gloomy economy. “These conversations are going on in every single board room in every single C.E.O. suite in this country,” said Claire Gruppo, managing director of Gruppo, Levey & Company. “ People are scrambling to be as creative as possible, to look at ways that they can generate cash.” “Believe me,” she added, “this is all anyone is thinking about.” Target, along with an outside adviser, Goldman Sachs, has been listening to Mr. Ackman’s ideas since May, and has put several of them into effect, such as selling part of Target’s credit card business to JPMorgan Chase for $3.6 billion. The retailer said that it would evaluate Mr. Ackman’s proposal. Target has not been faring as well in the downturn as its competitors, Wal-Mart Stores and BJ’s Wholesale Club. But many analysts say they think it is a well-managed company whose problems are a reflection of the overall retail environment — in which consumers are not buying the sorts of cheap-chic, discretionary items Target is known for. “I think that they’ll weather the tough retail environment,” Jason Asaeda, an analyst with Standard & Poor’s equity research, said. “The company’s still growing and they are investing in new brands.” Ms. Weinswig, who has a sell rating on the company’s shares, said she had been worried about Target’s credit card operations, uninspiring women’s clothing in the stores and the economic climate, which favors a low-price retailer like Wal-Mart. Whether Target or its investors will embrace Mr. Ackman’s proposal remains to be seen. Either way, he has perhaps already accomplished his goal. Over the last two days, as buzz about Mr. Ackman’s plan focused Wall Street’s attention on the company, its shares rose by 25 percent (closing Wednesday at $40.72), and the total market value of Target increased by more than $6 billion. The short-run gain to Mr. Ackman’s hedge fund just for presenting his idea? Roughly $600 million.

Target Corp
Ackman William A
Real Estate
Retail Stores and Trade
Stocks and Bonds
Mergers Acquisitions and Divestitures