‘To Catch a Predator’ Is Falling Prey to Advertisers’ Sensibilities

Abstract: In the last 18 months, NBC’s investigative segment “To Catch a Predator” has received wide attention, rejuvenating ratings for the network’s “Dateline NBC” newsmagazine and making a celebrity of Chris Hansen, the show’s host, who confronts men trolling online chat rooms hoping to meet teenagers for sex. So why does NBC seem to be scaling back its commitment to “To Catch a Predator”? The network has filmed only one sting operation so far this year, compared with seven in 2006. In several ways, the high ratings for “Predator” have come at a high price for NBC. Some advertisers say they are wary of being associated with the show’s content, in which men lured to a house by the promise of a sexual encounter are instead surprised by Mr. Hansen and then arrested. Critics have also raised ethics questions about the series because NBC coordinates the investigations with a private watchdog group and local police departments. And two lawsuits are pending against the network, one by a former producer and another by the sister of a man who committed suicide as police officers approached his house, accompanied by NBC camera crews. But the show’s success underlines a growing problem for television executives looking to push the envelope of good taste in search of hits: how to pursue high ratings without alienating advertisers or provoking negative public opinion. In 2005, similar concerns prompted ABC to cancel a reality show called “Welcome to the Neighborhood,” in which conservative couples selected new neighbors from a pool of diverse contestants. The criticism and lawsuits directed at “To Catch a Predator” have led to negative news coverage of the show, online and in magazines like Esquire and Rolling Stone. ABC News recently confirmed that its prime-time newsmagazine program “20/20” is preparing a report about “To Catch a Predator.” An NBC producer denied that the network was trying to distance itself from “Predator.” “We’re really proud of it,” David Corvo, executive producer of “Dateline,” said in a telephone interview. “We’re not running away from it.” Officially, the network said it is “discussing future investigations” and declined to comment further. Some media buyers were hesitant about buying ads on the series even before the recent spate of bad press reports. Andy Donchin, director for national broadcast for the advertising agency Carat USA, said advertisers could be wary of the show’s unsavory theme. “We’re all concerned with what content we’re associating ourselves with,” he said. The most recent “Predator” episode, on July 25, included six national spot ads, significantly fewer than at other hours during NBC’s prime-time periods. “NBC’s probably thinking about what their return on investment is, and might be thinking it’s better to move on,” said Brad Adgate, senior vice president for research at the ad-buying agency Horizon Media. “Dateline” first explored the idea of Internet predators in 2004. “There was a time not long ago when stories about Internet crimes were a tough sell for TV newsmagazines,” Mr. Hansen said. “Executive producers were wary because images of people typing on keyboards and video of computer monitors did not make especially compelling TV, even when combined with emotional interviews with victims.” But the network discovered that face-to-face conversations with would-be predators did make compelling television. The program’s producers work with a pedophile watchdog group, Perverted Justice. Members of the group pose as underage Web surfers and chat with adults and, if the conversation turns sexual, agree to meet in person. When the adults arrive at the meeting place, they are confronted by Mr. Hansen and then arrested. The first sting, filmed on Long Island in 2004, was startlingly successful, as 18 men came to the decoy house. NBC almost immediately began planning additional investigations, Mr. Hansen said. The third sting, in February 2006, was the first to involve a local police force. That year, “Dateline” produced a total of eight multiday stakeout shows in Ohio, Georgia, Texas, Florida and California. The 2006-7 television season’s 11 episodes of “Predator” have attracted an average of 7 million viewers, compared with 6.2 million for other “Dateline” programs. The series has also been a boon for MSNBC, NBC’s cable news channel, which replays episodes in prime time and on weekends. In July, 19 of MSNBC’s 25 highest-rated hours were late-night “Predator” reruns. The confrontations and arrests made for dramatic television and “Predator” quickly became a favorite water cooler topic of conversation. The format — Mr. Hansen waiting with a crew as the unsuspecting man approaches — has been parodied endlessly on late-night television and on YouTube. But after the cameras stopped rolling, the men charged with felonies made their appearances in court — and those were often decidedly less dramatic. As a result of three-day sting last September in Long Beach, Calif., for example, 38 men were arrested on camera — the most of any sting that year. Judge Bradford Andrews in Superior Court, who heard 30 of the cases, said most of the men entered a plea and were placed on probation. “Most of them had no prior criminal record whatsoever, not even traffic citations,” he said. Under California law, they are now registered as sex offenders. Over all, 256 men have been arrested in the operations, NBC said. Slightly fewer than half have been convicted of a crime. A four-day sting in Texas last November led to 25 arrests and involved one death. Louis Conradt, a local prosecutor, Perverted Justice alleges, engaged in sexual conversations with minors online but did not show up to the decoy house, so the police obtained a warrant for his arrest. As officers and camera crews approached Mr. Conradt’s home in Terrell, Tex., he shot himself in the head. Last month, his sister, disputing the Perverted Justice transcripts, filed suit against NBC, seeking $105 million in damages. None of the men arrested in the investigation have been prosecuted. “Dateline” has participated in two stings since the Texas one, most recently in New Jersey in March. The investigation was broadcast in July and averaged 7.1 million viewers. While remaining popular, the program is also expensive to produce. NBC spent tens of thousands of dollars on each sting, installing hidden cameras and microphones. It has also paid Perverted Justice a consulting fee of roughly $70,000 for each episode. Questions about the network’s relationship with Perverted Justice are raised in a lawsuit filed in May by a former “Dateline” producer, Marsha Bartel, who contends that she was fired because she opposed what she called the program’s unethical production practices. Her suit said that Perverted Justice did not keep accurate, verifiable transcripts of conversations with potential predators. Lawyers for some of the men arrested in the stings have focused on this point, claiming entrapment. Ms. Bartel’s lead lawyer, Roger Simmons, said NBC had violated “one of the fundamental canons of journalism. “The line between what journalists do and what law enforcement officers do got fuzzy,” Mr. Simmons said. “The difference between what these reality shows do and what ‘To Catch a Predator’ does got fuzzy, too.” NBC has said it will defend itself vigorously in both suits. Perhaps hoping to capitalize on the distinctive “To Catch a Predator” format while softening the show’s unpleasant edge, “Dateline” producers are applying the show’s hidden camera style to a variety of other topics. In March, Mr. Hansen investigated e-mail swindles in “To Catch a Con Man.” In April and again in July, he hunted for criminals who exploit personal data in “To Catch an ID Thief.” The most recent iteration, titled “To Catch an iJacker” and broadcast Aug. 1, tracked down missing iPods. Mr. Corvo said “Dateline” has an unofficial unit working with Mr. Hansen on other projects incorporating the “To Catch” concept. Half a dozen investigative pieces are in the pipeline, exploring adoption, insurance ploys and financial fraud. “We feel like we’ve raised awareness of this issue a lot,” he said. “We want to make sure that, going forward, we complement what we’ve done in the past, not just repeat it.” NBC viewers, meanwhile, are beginning to see other takes on Mr. Hansen’s investigations. Two weeks ago, the late-night host Conan O’Brien imagined the evolution of the brand: he presented mock commercials for “To Catch a Soda Refiller” and “To Catch a Cold.”

Television
Dateline (TV Program)
Advertising and Marketing
Computers and the Internet
National Broadcasting Co
Sex Crimes


Luster of New York’s Plaza Hotel Dims as Economy Pinches the Rich

Abstract: When an Israeli billionaire bought New York’s storied Plaza Hotel for $675 million, he envisioned turning the plucky grande dame with the globally recognized name into mainly a luxury condo tower that would cater to the world’s wealthiest buyers and offer stores to satisfy their every desire. But now, six years later, with the city in an acute recession, the grandest aims of the new owner, Isaac Tshuva, and the excitement of the new Plaza’s first residents seem to have dimmed, according to sales data. The last 11 owners to sell their luxury condos at the Plaza Hotel sold them at a loss, including the owner of Apartment 409, which sold for $8.5 million less than it cost 16 months before. The Plaza’s underground luxury stores are struggling to attract shoppers, and one expert broker is consequently advising clients not to take space there. And this spring, steps below where F. Scott Fitzgerald found his muse for “The Great Gatsby,” the hotel is opening an upscale food court offering burgers and pizza. The Palm Court, the Plaza’s famous restaurant, has been closed. “It’s gone from being a landmark to being just a building,” Clark Wolf, an independent restaurant consultant, said of the situation. “In an era without a Tavern on the Green or a Cafe des Artistes, we need something. New York City is screaming for a landmark.” But the 102-year-old Plaza still has cachet. To many New Yorkers and tourists, the Plaza is still the place where Eloise, the fictional 6-year-old, treats the hotel as her playground, and Clint Eastwood and Morgan Freeman share late-afternoon drinks at the Oak Bar. And the Plaza’s overall financial picture means little to prospective brides: The Grand Ballroom is still booked every Saturday night in May. In the heady first couple of years after Mr. Tshuva acquired the Plaza in 2004, he reaped the rewards of a real estate boom. After a $450 million makeover was complete, Mr. Tshuva’s real estate firm sold all 181 units sight unseen for a total of more than $1.3 billion. The prices for these apartments were so high that real estate brokerage firms started separating the Plaza’s sales figures from their overall data reporting because they distorted the market. But Mr. Tshuva would also fight with the hotel union, battle with the owners of the rights to Eloise’s image and even endure cries of protest about the possible loss of the Plaza. The actress Sarah Jessica Parker held her 40th birthday party there in a show of support for the hotel. According to data tracked by Streeteasy.com , Earl McEvoy, a mutual fund manager who paid $4.79 million for an apartment in October 2007, sold it last summer for $4 million. Guy Wildenstein, president of the Wildenstein & Company gallery on the Upper East Side and owner of a large private art collection, sold Apartment 409, and another unit he bought in August 2008 for $9.6 million went for $6 million 15 months later. Then there was Oscar S. Schafer, a managing partner at the hedge fund O.S.S. Capital Management, who took a hit on No. 1709. He bought the three-bedroom unit for $14.6 million in May 2008 and sold it for $8.5 million in July 2009. And 9 of the 28 apartments in the building on the market have slashed their asking prices. Some context: Lawyers and brokers say that 15 Central Park West, a new property whose condos were sold at roughly at the same time as the Plaza’s, had its last 10 transactions sell for well over their asking price. Edward Mermelstein, a real estate lawyer who represented more than two dozen buyers of apartments at the Plaza and 15 Central Park West, said that since both properties opened, his clients preferred 15 Central Park West apartments for its bigger windows and bigger-name residents. It is possible, then, that his buyers want to live near the chief executive of Goldman Sachs at 15 Central Park West, not the former chief executive of Bear Stearns at the Plaza. “You have the perception at this point that 15 Central Park West is very much a private club,” Mr. Mermelstein said. “The Plaza has very much of a feeling of a hotel.” But even the most serious skeptics of the relative value of the Plaza condos say that once the residential real estate slowdown passes, the building will be desirable to some buyers. “With its uniqueness in the world, and its name in the world, it’s going to be a sought-after address,” said Noel Berk, a real estate broker who lives in and has sold apartments at 15 Central Park West. “The Plaza is the Plaza.” One of the central struggles at the Plaza involves the shopping center Mr. Tshuva’s firm, Elad Properties, created in the hotel’s basement. It now includes several luxury retailers like the Viennese pâtisserie Demel, Maurice Fine Jewelry and Krigler perfumes. But a shirt maker, Eton of Sweden, has closed. Alan Victor, president of the retail brokerage firm Lansco, said that while two of his brokers made deals there, he was advising clients not to set up shop there because of the location off Fifth Avenue and the recession. “It’s just too risky to put our tenants there,” he said. Plaza executives responsible for the hotel and events divisions say that while the market has been tough, it is slowly getting better. Business for events booked in the Grand Ballroom dropped 20 percent in 2009, from 2008, said Liz Neumark, principal of CPS Events, which has a 25-year lease to manage the hotel’s event spaces. She credits the drop to a decline in corporate meetings and the tighter budgets of nonprofit organizations. Shane Krige, general manager of the 282-room hotel that still operates at the Plaza, said that occupancy for hotel rooms followed similar trends. But Plaza executives also see some hopeful signs. Ms. Neumark predicts a 30 percent jump in wedding bookings this year. The hotel’s occupancy rate rose to 90 percent in December, according to Mr. Krige. The hotel also just received its first five-diamond rating from AAA, and several princes and princesses stayed there last week. It remains to be seen whether the mix of restaurants in the building will meet the standards of truly highbrow guests. The Edwardian Room remains closed except for private events. The Palm Court, which reopened briefly, closed again in December 2008. Mr. Krige said that Fairmont, which manages the hotel, plans to reopen the Palm Court this spring, and he is posting job openings there. The Oak Bar, the Oak Room, the Champagne Bar and the Rose Club remain open. The celebrity chef Todd English is sorting out construction details for a 5,400-square-foot food hall next to the basement stores. Mr. English’s spokeswoman on this project, Willie Norkin, dismissed any questions that the market’s food offerings — they will range from sushi to dumplings to pizza — may not be up to the Plaza’s reputation. “I don’t think the goal here is to have offerings that are going to be exclusive,” she said. “It’s going to have offerings that are inclusive and appealing.” Joey Allaham, a part owner in the Oak Room and owner of three other restaurants, said that even in the face of the recession, there is a history about the Plaza that still draws customers. He described a 97-year-old man who recently visited the Oak Bar. He ordered a Macallan Scotch and gazed at the newly restored murals around him. “His wife passed away,” Mr. Allaham said. “He came in to remember their first date.”

Plaza Hotel
Hotels and Motels
Manhattan (NYC)
Housing and Real Estate


Masters — Sergio García and Marc Leishman Share Lead at 66

Abstract: AUGUSTA, Ga. — Last year, the mere sight of the Augusta National Golf Club left Sergio García disconsolate and wondering if he would ever win a major championship. On Thursday, Garcia was tied for the Masters first-round lead with the Australian Marc Leishman. Another year, another Sergio, who at 33 remains golf’s dark prince, a mercurial talent haunted by recurring self-doubt while being simultaneously buoyed by innate and nurtured skill. “Obviously, it’s not my most favorite place,” García said after he shot a six-under par 66 and was asked about his complaints last year about Augusta National. “But, you know, sometimes it comes out better than others. And let’s enjoy it while it lasts.” García had also declared last year at Augusta that he did not have the capacity to win a major. “Those were my words,” he said Thursday. “It was a frustrating few hours.” Augusta National on Thursday was not just kind to the impulsive and sensitive García. Moments of frustration were more rare than usual throughout the field, and the result was a powerhouse congregation of the world’s best players at the top of the leader board. The weather forecast was for rain; instead, a moist haze enveloped Augusta National, softening greens and creating benign course conditions that had most everyone firing at pins and putting with relative courage. It is said that no one wins the Masters on the first day, but some lose their chance to win. The first round played to that maxim and then some, as players positioned themselves for the weekend and only a couple of notable players slipped from contention. Twenty-one of the top 30 players in the world golf rankings, including Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy, were within six strokes of García and Leishman. Eleven major champions were within five strokes. “The goal is to stay alive until the back nine on Sunday,” said Dustin Johnson, who was one stroke behind the leaders. “We all know that.” Johnson, who grew up about an hour from Augusta, has long been considered a player with a game well suited to the Masters competition. But he has never placed higher than a tie for 30th in three Masters appearances. Thursday was just his second Masters round in the 60s. “There are things you need to know here,” Johnson said, “and it takes a little while to learn them.” Among those at four under par and two strokes back was the 53-year-old Fred Couples, who has finished no worse than tied for 15th at the Masters since he turned 50. The 1992 Masters champion, Couples has played his last 13 rounds at Augusta National in 19 under par. Now playing his 29th Masters, he has had five top five finishes and 11 top 10 finishes. Round 1: Masters Replay 13 Photos View Slide Show › Image Charlie Riedel/Associated Press “I know where to miss here,” Couples said, “and I know where not to miss.” Couples was tied with five others, including the Georgia Tech graduate and local favorite Matt Kuchar, the former Masters champion Trevor Immelman, Rickie Fowler, David Lynn and Gonzalo Fernández-Castaño. Fernández-Castaño played recent practice rounds with his countryman from Spain, José María Olazábal, who has won the Masters twice. “He knows this place like his backyard,” Fernández-Castaño said. Olazábal is also responsible for the unusual putting stance used by Fernández-Castaño, who keeps his feet pressed together. “He suggested it, and it worked,” Fernández-Castaño said. “I will listen to anything a two-time Masters champ says.” Leishman is a 29-year-old Australian who was little known in the United States until he shot a final-round 62 to win last year’s Travelers Championship. He had been in 20th place after the third round of the event. On Thursday, Leishman bogeyed the first hole before running off a string of 7 birdies and 10 pars, including a stretch of four consecutive birdies from the par-5 13th hole to the par-3 16th, where he sank a putt of more than 50 feet. “That was a bomb,” Leishman said. “I don’t know how far that putt was, but it was in a different ZIP code.” Woods played his first competitive round in the company of his girlfriend, the Olympic skiing champion Lindsey Vonn. He played cautiously but finished at two under par. “It was a good, solid day,” Woods said. “I’m pleased. You keep the ball in play on the first day and get yourself ready for the rest of the tournament. I’m still right there.” It is the fifth time Woods has shot 70 in the first round of the Masters; three of the other times he won the tournament. Woods was one of 10 players at two under. McIlroy was two shots back with a 72. The youngest player in the history of the Masters, the 14-year-old Guan Tianlang, charged back from a two-over 38 in his first nine holes to shoot one under par on the back nine, finishing at one over par. There were a couple of notable players who posted somewhat high scores, like Bubba Watson, the defending champion, who shot 75. Nick Watney shot 78, as did Padraig Harrington. But in the end, it was García’s brilliant play that caused the biggest stir, when expectations for him at Augusta National could not have been lower. “I hope for the best, and if I manage to do that I will have a chance at winning,” García said with an odd, off-kilter smile. “If my best is not that good, then, you know, I’ll struggle a little bit. Today my best was pretty good, and I’m looking forward to doing the same thing the next three days. But we’ll see.”

Golf
Masters Golf,Masters
Augusta National Golf Club
Marc Leishman
Sergio Garcia


A Monster of the Dunk Shows Finesse as a Playmaker

Abstract: After the Los Angeles Clippers’ 109-95 destruction of the Knicks on Friday night, a reporter was moving through the visiting locker room, asking each Clippers player for his favorite Blake Griffin dunk. The variety of answers testified to Griffin’s inescapable reputation as the N.B.A.’s most formidable dunker. But as fearsome as Griffin is in midair, it is not the highlight-fodder dunks that have kept the Clippers’ offense humming in the absence of the N.B.A.’s leading assist man, Chris Paul, who injured his shoulder on Jan. 3. With Paul out of the lineup, the Clippers are 5-2 and have actually elevated the efficiency of their already top-five offense. Griffin, who scored 32 points against the Knicks, has been on a rampage during this stretch. He has done more, and done it better, increasing his scoring and assist averages while also shooting a higher percentage from the field. His play has refuted the oft-repeated belief that Griffin is solely an athletic freak, incapable of doing more than finishing, albeit with thunder, what Paul starts. Paul is something of a contradiction as an elite pass-first point guard. According to the N.B.A.’s SportVu database, which uses cameras in the rafters to track player movement, only one player makes more passes than Paul each game. But only three players touch the ball more, too. And there is a paradox: Paul is at once immensely controlling of possessions and one of the great sharers of the ball. With Paul sidelined, the Clippers’ offense naturally becomes a more equal-opportunity affair. Darren Collison has stepped in admirably as the nominal point guard, but Griffin, who is 6 feet 10 inches, has assumed a substantial share of Paul’s duties. “You can’t replace him,” Griffin said of Paul. “We just need to elevate our game a little bit.” Antawn Jamison, a Clippers veteran who has seen a lot in 15 seasons, said Griffin’s skills were unlike anyone else’s. “I’ve never see a guy with so much athleticism and so much power be so finesse as far as being smart about delivering the ball,” Jamison said. Because Griffin has a power forward’s frame and appetite for contact, how he runs the offense looks quite different from that of a typical playmaker. Griffin makes the smart pass out of the low post, but without Paul, he also takes more responsibility for general maintenance of the offense. He sets screen after screen to free shooters, and moves the ball swiftly and with purpose, a task far less flashy than a behind-the-back pass, but no less valuable to an offense. Now in his fourth season (he sat out 2009-10 with a knee injury), Griffin understands how to handle a double team. If there is not a quick outlet, Griffin patiently absorbs pressure from the second defender, all the while reading the back line of the defense to determine where to pass. “We have certain spots we got to be at if they double-team,” Jamison said. Like a quarterback eluding the pass rush, Griffin hangs in the pocket before zipping the ball across the court, or to a cutter flashing down the middle of the lane. For all the work Griffin has done to become a better half-court player, the fast break is still where he best displays his rare combination of athleticism and skill. “On the break, he’s a second point guard,” his teammate Jared Dudley said. Indeed, without Paul calling for the outlet pass, Griffin often forgoes the outlet, opting to push the ball with his head up and the ball on a string. His most impressive ball-handling display Friday came in the first half, when he faked a lob pass while simultaneously sidestepping a defender on his way to the rim. Putting so much mustard on the hot dog can occasionally get Griffin into trouble, as when he tried a tricky pass that missed J. J. Redick when a simple chest pass would have sufficed. But Griffin on the break is still the Clippers’ best option, even if it is an impossible play to draw up. “You watch some of these games, he’s going behind his back,” Jamison said. “And Coach said, ‘As long as you don’t turn it over, I have no problem with it.’ He’s real confident as far as being able to do those things that technically a guard or a passing forward would do.” With more license to handle the ball, Griffin has taken the opportunity to exhibit the breadth of his talent. As if for good measure, he tossed in a rare 3-point shot as the Clippers put the game out of reach in the second half. The numbers indicate that the Clippers have not missed Paul, though that is not the same as saying they are better without him. Their recent competition has been relatively weak; the Clippers have beaten only one team with a winning record since Paul was injured. “He’s an M.V.P. candidate,” Jamal Crawford said of Paul, “so we understand that everybody has to step up and continue to trust each other and lean on each other. That’s when we’re at our best.” As long as he retains his spectacular leaping ability, Griffin will always be known as a dunker. When you do something better than anyone in the world, that thing will inevitably define you. Griffin nourished that reputation Friday with a monster two-handed alley-oop slam that also drew a foul. It was a play no one else could make, but it was everything else he did Friday that made him a superstar.

Blake Griffin
Clippers
Knicks
Basketball
Chris Paul


On the Road (and in the Water) With Richter

Abstract: One weekend during the 1994-95 N.H.L. lockout, Mike Richter — who helped the Rangers win the Stanley Cup the season before — put his goaltending gear on ice, slipped on his running shoes and participated in a half-marathon in Duluth, Minn. In early summer 1996, weeks before Richter led the United States to a gold medal in the World Cup of Hockey, he and defenseman Brian Leetch participated in a sprint triathlon on Cape Cod in Massachusetts. “We really didn’t know what we were doing,” Richter said at the Midtown Manhattan offices of Environmental Capital Partners, the private equity firm in which he is a partner. “But Brian and I were having a great time anyway.” Richter, 40, has been a fan of endurance sports long before a career with the Rangers that began in the 1989 playoffs and ended in November 2002, after he learned that he had fractured his skull. Richter said he has always had respect and admiration for endurance athletes like Paula Newby-Fraser, an eight-time winner of the Ironman Triathlon, and Lance Armstrong, a seven-time winner of the Tour de France. He ranks Tegla Loroupe, who won consecutive New York City Marathons in the mid-1990s, as one of his favorites. “I’ve always been into fitness, and so I’ve kept a close eye on all these runners and bikers and swimmers who put their bodies through these amazing training regimens and participate in these incredible races,” Richter said. Richter, who lives with his wife, Veronica, and their three young sons in Guilford, Conn., is close to completing a bachelor’s degree in ethics, politics and economics at Yale. He began training seriously the last few years to compete in “a different kind of physical and emotional arena I knew as a hockey player.” Richter said the training was slow at first, especially in the months after his official retirement in September 2003, while he was still recovering from his head injuries and reconstructive surgery on his knees. “The knees didn’t hurt when I played,” he said. “And they don’t hurt when I run.” Last summer, Richter competed in his first half-Ironman. Last month in Lake Placid, N.Y., he took part in his first Ironman: He swam 2.4 miles, cycled 112 miles and ran 26.2 miles in 12 hours 49 minutes 10 seconds. To help prepare for the grueling event, Richter sent an e-mail message to Newby-Fraser, who lives and trains in San Diego. Newby-Fraser said: “It said something like: Hi, my name is Mike Richter and I used to be a hockey player. I would like to do the race in Lake Placid this year. Would you help me out? “It was quite a humbling e-mail,” she said, “especially from a player as great as Mike Richter was.” The two got together for a few days in Lake Placid, where Richter owns a home. “The goal was to turn a hare into a tortoise,” Newby-Fraser said. “Part of it was to chip away at all that muscle and get Mike chiseled down to the point where he looks like one of those skinny Kenyans.” Richter said he would run in the New York City Marathon on Nov. 4 as a spokesman for ING’s Run for Something Better program, which encourages boys and girls to participate in physical activities as a way of fighting obesity. “Sports, in its best light, is about challenging yourself and improving yourself as a person,” Richter said. “It’s not about looking for a medal at the end of an event; it’s about a journey in which your physical and mental well-being improves through physical activity.”

Richter Mike
Hockey Ice
Running
New York Rangers
New York City Marathon


Supreme Court Allows Same-Sex Marriage in Idaho

Abstract: WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Friday allowed same-sex marriages to proceed in Idaho , lifting a temporary stay issued two days earlier by Justice Anthony M. Kennedy . The developments capped a busy week for gay rights. It started with the court’s refusal on Monday to hear appeals from decisions striking down same-sex marriage bans in Indiana, Oklahoma, Utah, Virginia and Wisconsin. The next day, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, in San Francisco, struck down bans in Idaho and Nevada. The Supreme Court’s orders this week allowed same-sex marriages to proceed in all seven states, raising the number of states in which such unions are lawful to 26, along with the District of Columbia. The legal ripple effects from the various appeals court rulings the Supreme Court tacitly sustained should soon raise that number to 35. Those ripples reached Colorado and West Virginia this week, where same-sex marriages have already started, and North Carolina, where a federal judge on Friday struck down the state’s ban based on one of the appeals court decisions that the Supreme Court had let stand on Monday. Justice Kennedy, the member of the court responsible for hearing emergency applications from the Ninth Circuit, entered a temporary stay on Wednesday morning on very short notice after a last-minute request from officials in Idaho. He acted so quickly that he included Nevada in his order. A few hours later, Justice Kennedy issued a revised order, limiting the stay to Idaho. In seeking the emergency stay, Idaho officials argued that the Supreme Court should block the Ninth Circuit’s decision because there was “a very strong likelihood that four justices will consider the issue presented here sufficiently meritorious to warrant this court’s review.” That assertion was hard to reconcile with Monday’s developments, according to lawyers for the gay couples who had brought the suit. Every recent appeals court to rule on the question in the past year found that the Constitution protects a right to same-sex marriage, they said, and the Supreme Court turned away seven petitions seeking review of the question just days before. The couples’ lawyers added that a stay would inflict deep harm. “If a stay issues,” they said, the couples “will continue to be denied the right to enter into or have recognized the most important relation in life; they will continue to lack critical legal protections for their families, such as spousal-visitation and medical-decision-making rights in hospitals, that different-sex couples have long enjoyed; and their children will continue to be deprived of the security of knowing that their parents’ relationships are recognized by the state where they live.” In a response on Friday morning, the Idaho officials said that a denial of their application would send a message. “If the court wishes to signal that its recent denials of various marriage-related petitions was intended to finally and conclusively resolve the constitutionality of state laws defining marriage as a union of man and a woman,” they wrote, “the court should deny Idaho’s application.” The court’s denial of the application was two sentences long and contained no reasoning.

Same-Sex Marriage,Gay Marriage
Idaho
Supreme Court,SCOTUS
Anthony M Kennedy


Flooding Cripples South Carolina Where Some Areas See Over a Foot of Rain

Abstract: NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. — Flooding from days of relentless, saturating rains paralyzed much of South Carolina on Sunday, as vehicles were submerged, dams were pushed to their limits, electricity was cut off to thousands and emergency officials staged hundreds of swift-water rescues. Officials attributed at least five deaths in South Carolina to the flooding. The menacing weather, an agonizingly powerful blend of a low-pressure system and some of the moisture from Hurricane Joaquin as it spun over the Atlantic Ocean toward Bermuda, was expected to last into the week, raising fears that conditions could worsen. In a response that evolved and expanded by the hour, the authorities deployed the National Guard, opened shelters, imposed curfews, closed schools and shut major thoroughfares, including more than 70 miles of Interstate 95. Image Vehicles detoured around downed power lines in Columbia. Thousands in South Carolina lost electricity. Credit Sean Rayford/Getty Images “This is not going to clear up until at least Tuesday or Wednesday,” Gov. Nikki R. Haley said at a Sunday afternoon news conference at the state’s emergency operations center near Columbia, South Carolina’s flooded capital. “Give us the space we need.” Although other states along the Eastern Seaboard — including Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, North Carolina and Virginia — faced weather-related troubles on Sunday and had emergency declarations in effect for at least part of the day, none of their problems rivaled what unfolded here. The crisis, the governor said, stemmed from a weather event that might happen only every 1,000 years. In a single weekend, many cities in the state recorded more than a foot of rain, and some gauges showed higher totals. In the Bahamas on Sunday, the Coast Guard continued to search for El Faro, a 790-foot cargo ship missing since Thursday morning. Thirty-three people were aboard the American-flagged ship when its crew said Thursday that it had partly flooded and lost propulsion as Hurricane Joaquin pounded the region and its seas. On Sunday, the Coast Guard said search crews had found an oil sheen, containers and life preservers, but officials cautioned that the items had not been definitively linked to El Faro. The Air Force and the Navy were assisting in the search, which has covered more than 70,000 square nautical miles and which the Coast Guard expected to continue overnight. Video Gov. Nikki R. Haley of South Carolina confirmed that nine people had died in the extreme weather in the state and urged residents to be careful. Credit Credit Gerry Broome/Associated Press Rescuers were locked in a similar scramble here, where by Sunday morning the floodwaters had already overwhelmed some nearby neighborhoods and fishing villages. State officials were warning residents not to travel. But Brian Hinton, the deputy chief of the Charleston County Volunteer Rescue Squad, waited outside a fire station and tried to determine how he and his colleagues could go to the besieged neighborhoods and towns by truck and boat — and how they would get back. Two or three feet of water covered a stretch of highway that led to Awendaw, one of the fishing villages. High tide was coming. He feared he would get stuck. “I’ll put it this way: For us, this is a biblical event,” said Mr. Hinton, 32, a big man in an orange wet suit. “This is a historical-type deal.” Mr. Hinton’s team of about three dozen volunteers had been conducting rescues through the night, sleeping only in brief shifts. Image Residents and emergency workers launched rescue boats on Sunday as flooding trapped people in their homes in Columbia, S.C. Credit Sean Rayford/Getty Images Their work was dangerous and often disgusting. Mr. Hinton said he and his men had waded through raw sewage from busted septic tanks, and through floating clumps of fire ants. The water had been fast-moving in some areas and still in others. And the rescuers had been called out to help people who found themselves stranded through no fault of their own, as well as others who had put themselves at risk. But the crisis that enveloped the state extended beyond dramatic rescues, some of which the National Guard conducted from the air. The toll and wear of the storm quickly found their way into Midtown Charleston, a low-income neighborhood of one of the state’s most regal cities, where the Gadsden Green apartment complex sometimes felt cut off from the world on Sunday afternoon. Pools of floodwaters, some of them knee-deep, blocked main roads. Few cars were on the streets, but there were people holed up in some of the tiny apartments on Norman Street. Demetrius Scott, 26, a restaurant worker, was sweeping — and sweeping — the tile floor of his home with a bright red broom. As much as three inches of water had seeped in since 10 p.m. Saturday. “It got through the cracks in the walls,” he said. Image Waves crashed onto the shore along Stingray Point in Deltaville, Va., on Sunday. Credit Steve Helber/Associated Press A few doors down, Nikita Heyward, a stay-at-home mother, hoped a portable fan would dry out the moisture. Her big sofa, soaked through at the base, was propped up against a back wall, and an N.F.L. game played on a small television. She hoped to stay with relatives who had a dry place across the Ashley River. But she said she was not sure if she was even allowed to leave. In Columbia, too, conditions were dire. At one point on Sunday, the city’s Police Department said it had 200 pending calls for rescues. Street signs were nearly covered by floodwaters. Interstates in the area were closed. But on a day when Mayor Steve Benjamin used Twitter to plead with residents to stay in their homes , he also wrote, “This flood is something unlike anything we’ve ever dealt with before, but we will get through it.” Image Charlene Stennis and her son, Christian Hoo-Fong, who had been stranded in a vehicle by flood water in Columbia, S.C., on Sunday. Credit Sean Rayford/Getty Images President Obama signed a federal disaster declaration for the state on Saturday. By late Sunday, North Carolina had agreed to send helicopters to its southern neighbor, and the Virginia Department of Emergency Management warned that travel through South Carolina could be dangerous. But as South Carolina grappled with floodwaters on Sunday, conditions were stable enough in other states that some were able to regard the weather as a source of fascination, not fear. In Virginia Beach, some people took selfies as large, white-capped waves crashed into the shore. But as high tide approached and the sea’s mist became more of a splash, many retreated to nearby homes and restaurants. “I’ve never seen the bay like this before; this is insane,” Matthew Story, a visitor from North Carolina, said as he stood yards from the Chesapeake Bay. “If I had a house out here, I’d probably be a little concerned.” Image A house that collapsed into an inlet during overnight storms on Sunday in North Wildwood, N.J. Credit Jessica Kourkounis/Getty Images In New Jersey, the authorities said a driver died in Colts Neck Township when a falling tree struck a Mustang convertible on a day of strong winds and rain. And North Carolina officials said they had recorded a second weather-related death in their state, pushing the nationwide total in recent days to at least eight. Here in North Charleston, where the mayor described the flooding as “astronomical,” Mr. Hinton was dispatched late in the afternoon to a subdivision street called Peppercorn Lane, which had been overtaken by water. He walked an inflatable rescue boat down the road, deeper and deeper into the standing water, accompanied by an amphibious vehicle and a huge, khaki-colored military troop truck. The residents soon emerged. Some walked out of the muck, and some left on the amphibious vehicle. Nine others gripped luggage and boarded the troop truck. As a group, they were alternately grateful and annoyed. Someone asked Valerie Pearson, who said the water was knee-deep in her house, whether she was O.K. “No,” she replied. A police officer responded, “Do you have everything out of your place?” “I don’t have anything out of my place,” she said.


Lagging in New Mexico

Abstract: They are still counting ballots in New Mexico to determine the winner of Tuesday’s Democratic caucuses. According to preliminary results posted on the party’s Web site, with all precincts reporting, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton was leading Senator Barack Obama by fewer than 1,100 votes. But more than 17,000 provisional ballots had yet to be counted. Brian S. Colon, chairman of the state Democratic Party, said that he did not know how soon those ballots would be counted but that the party had until Feb. 15 to certify the election. Provisional ballots are given to people who show up at the wrong site or are not on the registration rolls. New Mexico is the only state of the 22 that held Democratic contests on Tuesday where the outcome remains in doubt. At stake are 26 delegates, who are to be allocated proportionately; the state has an additional 12 so-called superdelegates who are not bound by the caucus results. On Tuesday, Mrs. Clinton won 67,011 votes, or 43.4 percent of those cast, compared with Mr. Obama’s 65,945 votes, or 42.7 percent. There were reports Tuesday of chaos at some caucus sites, with some voters waiting in line for more than three hours as more than three times the normal number showed up to vote. Some sites also ran out of ballots. (Although the process is a caucus, it uses paper ballots.) But Mr. Colon said in an interview Thursday that the problems on Tuesday were unrelated to the counting of the provisional ballots and the undetermined outcome. As part of the certification process of the election, all ballots cast — more than 150,000 in this case — are being put through a scanner and essentially recounted, but this is not the same thing as a legal “recount.” Once the results are certified, someone could demand a recount, but Mr. Colon said that at this point, neither campaign had signaled its intentions. KATHARINE Q. SEELYE

New Mexico
Voter Registration and Requirements
Primaries


Free Music, at Least While It Lasts

Abstract: Late last Thursday, I stopped at the fruit stand and some big, vivid red grapes caught my eye. The vendor said a two-pound bunch would be $6, which seemed steep. I was about to tell him as much, and then came to my senses and gave him the money. I wondered why I hesitated when it came time to pony up and realized that, as just one more participant in the Something for Nothing economy, I’d grown accustomed to getting all sorts of lusciousness for the price of zero. Throughout that day, I used a suite of services from Google — email, contacts, documents — for a price of nothing. I deployed a free app called HopStop to plot my subway route to Brooklyn to meet my daughter for dinner, then used free mapping built into my iPhone to navigate to the restaurant. Along the way, I listened to song after song on the free version of Spotify. There were some nominal charges for the data services, but in general, I was free-riding. The outbreak of free is being felt all over the economy, but music is an industry that has produced the soundtrack of contemporary American life. Artists are singing the blues about the crippling effects of streaming, and no one wants to be part of the day the music died. Music has been free for decades through the miracle of ad-supported radio, but streaming services feel different because I can listen to what I want, whenever I want. The implicit promise of radio has been that consumers will hear a song they love and buy it. But when I love something on Spotify, my response is to listen to it some more on Spotify. I could pay $10 a month for the premium version and have done so in the past, but for now, I’m sticking with the free service and put up with an occasional commercial. With scarcity now gone, songs are in the air, a mist we move through like so much department store perfume. We are no longer collecting music; it is collecting us on various platforms. Spotify has doubled its number of subscribers, paid and unpaid, in the last 18 months and reached a milestone of 10 million paid subscribers worldwide last month. In May, Pandora served up 1.73 billion hours of music, up 28 percent over the previous year. The two services have important differences, but they both have premium pay options as well as ad-supported free models. And Amazon, Apple and YouTube are all moving swiftly into the streaming space. It is a very new world with behemoths crashing in, looking for a place to profit in a regulatory environment that hasn’t evolved much since before the Rolling Stones made a good record. On Wednesday, the Justice Department announced that it would review the 73-year-old agreements that govern Ascap and BMI, which oversee licensing for radio stations, public spaces and websites. The agencies collect close to $2 billion a year in royalties, but operate under consent decrees that they say do not give them the flexibility to negotiate workable deals in an age of streaming. Many labels and the musicians and songwriters they work with say streaming outfits risk wiping them out by paying tiny royalties, but the people who make all that yummy music are actually being loved to death by fans who expect it to be free. And it’s only going to become worse. Hand a music CD to a 10-year-old and ask her what it’s for. Most will never see a song as something that was imprisoned on a disc or a download that you had to pay for. And it’s not just tweens. A few weeks ago, we had a garage sale at our house and I was willing to part with only about half my books. But when I looked over my collection of CDs and thought about what I wanted to keep, my answer was, um, nothing. There were hundreds of them, carefully collected for more than a decade, some of them gifts, some of them even recorded by friends or bands I had written about, but they’ve been idle for years. I priced them at a quarter each and then some guy offered $35 for the whole bunch and we caved. We even threw in the rack. Books have retained some value in an evolving personal media ecosystem, partly because the physical artifact is more attractive than the plastic CD case (which can be opened only with a crowbar). CD collections no longer signify cultural identity. (LPs, which are making a niche comeback, are a different matter.) Music’s jailbreak began almost as soon as songs could be rendered in ones and zeros. When Steve Jobs of Apple decided that the price for a song was 99 cents, he “saved” a record industry besieged by piracy by burning about half of it down. People ceased buying albums and bought only the songs they wanted, a disaggregation that wiped out inefficiency — which is profit by another name. Between what I bought and what I burned, I ended up with about 7,000 songs. But guess what? I don’t listen to those, either. Why would I when I can mindlessly push a single button? I wrote a profile of Neil Young a while ago in which he railed about the loss of sound quality, but as Clay Shirky, a professor at New York University’s Interactive Telecommunications Program, has said, “good enough is good enough.” The convenience of pushing a button on a handheld device that streams wirelessly to a speaker is always going to trump hunting down a CD with marginally better sound and plopping it into a player. Think I’m the only lazy one? Sales of digital downloads dropped a whopping 13 percent in the first quarter of this year after falling 5 percent in 2013, which was the first year since the debut of iTunes that sales of digital music dropped. Apple has certainly noticed; Less than two weeks ago, it announced it would buy Beats Electronics in a $3 billion deal that includes a fledgling streaming music service. The acquisition also included the expensive Beats headphones — $300 and up in a variety of colors so they also serve as fashion accessory. People will still pay large money for devices, and this weekend, thousands of people will spend at least $250 for three-day access to the Governor’s Ball Music Festival in New York. It’s a curious disconnect: Fans will pay top dollar for a music accessory or a music event. They just won’t pay for, oh yeah, music. Writing in The Daily Beast last week, the musician Van Dyke Parks said that in the good old days, a song he recently wrote with Ringo Starr would have provided him “with a house and a pool.” But at current royalty rates, he estimated that he and the former Beatle would make less than $80, which means he will have to choose between a dollhouse and a kiddie pool and then share it with Mr. Starr. Superstars like Beyoncé can drop an unannounced bomb on iTunes and sell a million copies in under two weeks, but most artists are having trouble treading water in the stream. Streaming services argue that as their subscriber base grows, musicians will be able to survive on many small slices of a very big pie. On the bus ride home from dinner last week, I streamed most of the wonderful new album from Parquet Courts, courtesy of the Something for Nothing paradox. The $6 grapes were delicious, by the way, but I consumed them slowly and consciously, each one carrying not only lusciousness, but the knowledge that I had paid for them.

Music
Audio Recordings
Downloads and Streaming
Price
Compact Disc
Royalties
Pandora Media
Google
Spotify
Beats Electronics


Rise in Sales of New Homes Surprises Economists

Abstract: WASHINGTON — Sales of new single-family homes unexpectedly rose in September, pointing to sustained demand for housing even as data for the previous three months were revised with lower figures. Other reports suggested a stronger pickup in economic growth in the third quarter than is currently anticipated. The goods trade deficit narrowed sharply, while wholesale and retail inventories increased in September. “A lot of the pieces of the puzzle have come back together in a positive direction, with a pickup in the export of goods to the rest of the world and new-home sales,” said Chris Rupkey, chief economist at MUFG Union Bank in New York. The Commerce Department said new-home sales increased 3.1 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 593,000 units last month, pulling them closer to a nine-year high reached in July. However, the pace for the previous three months was revised down by a total of 85,000 units from past estimates. New-home sales, which are derived from building permits, are volatile and subject to large revisions. Economists had forecast single-family home sales, which account for about 9.8 percent of overall home sales, falling to a rate of 600,000 units last month. “The housing market may not be booming but it is clearly moving forward at a steady pace,” said Joel Naroff, chief economist at Naroff Economic Advisors in Holland, Pa. “But the big problem is still the lack of inventory.”

Real Estate
Housing
GDP
Economics
Commerce Department
US Economy


3 Palestinians Executed in Gaza Soon After Call by Hamas to Resume Death Penalty

Abstract: JERUSALEM — Three Palestinians convicted of murder were executed in the Hamas-controlled coastal territory of Gaza on Tuesday, less than a week after Hamas lawmakers called for the resumption of capital punishment. The three men had exhausted their appeals, and the families of the victims refused a last-minute request to spare the men, who were executed at police headquarters in Gaza City, according to Alresalah, a pro-Hamas website, and Maan, a Palestinian news agency. The executions, the first approved by a court in nearly two years, were “meant to deter those who may think of committing such crimes,” the Gaza general prosecutor’s office said in a statement, according to a translation published in Maan. No one at the office was immediately available for comment. Two men were hanged, one after being found guilty of beating another man to death with a hammer in August, Alresalah reported, and the other on a murder conviction. A third man was executed by a firing squad after he shot and killed a man in 2014 who was trying to collect a debt. “No one should be put to death, certainly not as a part of a legal system in which torture and coercion are common,” Sari Bashi, the Human Rights Watch director for Israeli and Palestinian issues, said in a statement. Hamas officials have carried out the death penalty at least 67 times since taking control of the territory in 2007, according to the Gaza-based Palestinian Center for Human Rights. That figure does not include extrajudicial killings by Hamas of people suspected of collaborating with Israel during the three wars of the past decade. Most Palestinians approve of the death penalty for those convicted of spying for Israel, a crime that is viewed as deeply shameful in a society long under the shadow of a military occupation. “The Palestinian people want this, and we are doing what they asked for,” said Mushir al-Masri, a Hamas lawmaker. Long-established tribal laws among Palestinians in Gaza allow a family to accept compensation for the killing of a loved one, to pardon the killer or to demand retribution. Hamas leaders had halted the use of the death penalty for convicted collaborators and murderers in June 2014, but lawmakers argued that it should be revived to help address concerns about rising crime.

Hamas
Gaza Strip
Capital punishment
Palestinians


Bob Crow, Firebrand at Helm of British Union, Dies at 52

Abstract: LONDON — He called his dog Castro and quit the Communist Party because it was “too moderate.” Bob Crow, a confrontational and charismatic British trade union leader, died here on Tuesday. He was 52. His death was announced by the union he led for the last 12 years, the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers. It did not specify a cause, though newspaper reports said he might have had a heart attack. Mr. Crow, the left’s favorite firebrand and the right’s favorite villain, was that rare thing in post-Thatcher Britain: a working-class hero. His union exasperated many London commuters with its strikes, including a 48-hour walkout by subway workers in February that forced management to halt planned job cuts. But at a time when other unions were losing members and salaries were stagnant or declining, Mr. Crow increased his membership to 78,000 from 59,000. Subway engineers have been given raises regularly and will soon see their pay increase to £52,000 (roughly $86,000), nearly twice the national average. As a former mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, put it, “The only working-class people who still have well-paid jobs in London are his members.” Even his enemies grudgingly respected his gritted-teeth militancy and East London wit. Boris Johnson, the current mayor of London, who sparred with Mr. Crow over the recent strikes and once called him “demented,” paid tribute to him this week, calling him “a fighter and a man of character.” Robert Crow was born on June 13, 1961, in East London. He left school at 16 and became a track worker, then rose through the ranks of the National Union of Railwaymen, which later merged with the National Union of Seamen to form the Rail, Maritime and Transport union. He was proud of his working-class heritage: his cockney accent, his life in public housing and the lessons he learned from his father, a dockworker who told him to read The Financial Times as a boy and believe the opposite of everything it said. Later, during tense salary negotiations, he would become known for his quick mental arithmetic, calculating percentages in an instant — and usually rejecting offers out of hand. Survivors include his partner, Nicola Hoarau; their three children; and a daughter from his marriage to Geraldine Horan, which ended in divorce. If he was sharp and shrewd, sensitive he was not. As one commentator in The Independent said, “He was straight out of a P.R. textbook: the bit on how not to do it.” When Margaret Thatcher, the former prime minister who broke union power in the 1980s, died last year, Mr. Crow was typically undiplomatic: “As far as I’m concerned she can rot in hell,” he said. In the run-up to last month’s strike, he went on a cruise from Barbados to Brazil and was photographed by tabloid paparazzi on Copacabana Beach. On his return, a sun-tanned Mr. Crow was unrepentant. “What do you want me to do?” he asked. “Sit under a tree and read Karl Marx all day?”

Bob Crow
Labor Unions
Great Britain
Obituary


Obama Expected to Ban Offshore Drilling in Some Federal Waters

Abstract: WASHINGTON — President Obama is expected to announce as soon as Tuesday that he will use his executive authority to permanently ban new offshore drilling in parts of federally owned waters off the Atlantic coast and in the Arctic Ocean, according to people familiar with the decision. Mr. Obama, who is searching for ways to bolster his environmental legacy in the last days of his administration, is expected to use a provision in the 1953 Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act to ban the drilling, according to those people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because plans for the announcement were not yet final. The 1953 law, which governs how the executive branch uses and leases federal waters for offshore energy exploration, includes a provision that allows presidents to put those waters off-limits to oil and gas drilling. Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower, Richard M. Nixon and Bill Clinton used the law to protect sections of the Atlantic, Pacific and Arctic Oceans, but those protections came with time limits, usually one to two decades. It is possible that Mr. Obama could use the law to try to permanently protect far wider areas from drilling, said people familiar with his plans, but they stressed that his plans were not yet final. The use of his executive authority would come as President-elect Donald J. Trump speaks of aiming to undo much of Mr. Obama’s environmental legacy, particularly Environmental Protection Agency rules to combat climate change and Interior Department rules to slow or more heavily regulate drilling, mining and hydraulic fracturing on public lands. Mr. Trump could easily roll back executive orders and a handful of new environmental regulations, but some protections will be far more difficult to undo. Environmental advocates have urged Mr. Obama to use the existing authority of the 1953 offshore drilling law to create new environmental protections in federal waters, saying that it would come with the weight and authority of law, rather than an easily reversible executive action. Under that law, every president puts forth periodic five-year plans laying out how the waters of the nation’s outer continental shelf may be leased for drilling or protected. Mr. Obama’s most recent five-year plan put the entire Atlantic and portions of the Arctic coast off-limits to drilling. But Mr. Trump could easily open them up in his five-year plan. Using a separate provision of the law to block drilling for far longer would be subject to lawsuits.

Offshore drilling
Barack Obama
Executive Orders
Arctic Ocean
Atlantic Ocean
Donald Trump
Oceans and Seas


Move to Limit Cantonese on Chinese TV Is Assailed

Abstract: BEIJING — Protests over land grabs, industrial pollution and poor work conditions often rattle the Chinese authorities. Now add to that outrage over language policy. More than 1,000 people gathered Sunday in Guangzhou, in southern China , to demonstrate against a local politician’s proposal to force a major local television network to stop broadcasting in Cantonese and switch to the country’s official language, Mandarin. The protest, which was raucous and impassioned, ended peacefully after the police broke up the crowd. But any mention of the demonstration was wiped from many Internet forums on Monday, and only one national newspaper carried a detailed report, indicating that the pro-Cantonese groundswell had become a politically delicate matter. Cantonese is widely spoken in Hong Kong, Guangdong Province — whose capital is Guangzhou — and neighboring areas. Some call it a dialect of Mandarin, a language spoken commonly in the north, but a growing number of linguists say Cantonese is a separate language. Northerners generally do not understand it, but are used to its strongly pitched sounds because of the ubiquity of Hong Kong movies and Cantonese pop songs. Concern over the loss of languages and dialects in China is growing. In Tibet and Xinjiang, some ethnic Tibetans and Uighurs say the use of Mandarin as the official teaching language in schools has weakened the fluency of the local languages among many young people. Officials say mastering Mandarin is important for students to compete for jobs and university slots. Two weeks ago, notices began popping up online telling people to gather at 5:30 p.m. on July 25 at the Jiangnanxi subway station in Guangzhou to oppose a proposal that was presented this month by the local politician, Ji Kekuang. Mr. Ji, a member of the local committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, suggested that the programs on Guangzhou Television’s news and satellite channels start using Mandarin instead of Cantonese. He said the change would help accommodate tourists and athletes visiting for the Asian Games in November. The protesters on Sunday gave passionate speeches to cheering crowds about the worth of Cantonese and sang Cantonese songs, one news report said. Young people wore T-shirts with “I Love Guangzhou” written in characters common to Cantonese script but absent from Mandarin script. (Most characters overlap between the languages, but there are notable exceptions.) The English-language edition of Global Times, aimed at foreigners living in China, carried the one detailed report . It quoted Su Zhijia, a deputy party secretary of Guangzhou, as he rebutted rumors that the government planned to completely reject the use of Cantonese. “The city government has never had such a plan to abandon or weaken Cantonese,” Mr. Su said. Most of the protesters appeared to be in their 20s or 30s. The owner of a restaurant by the demonstration site said in a telephone interview that the protesters had yelled out “Support Cantonese!” and “Protest!” The protesters clogged the roads and stopped traffic, said the restaurant owner, who gave his name only as Mr. Liao because of sensitivities about discussing protests in China. “I couldn’t do business at all,” he said. “They all blocked up my door.” Lines of police officers formed human barricades to try to keep the crowd from swelling, witnesses said. The Cantonese-versus-Mandarin debate is fierce even in Chinatowns in the United States, where many residents traditionally spoke Cantonese or a related dialect, Taishanese, because their families came from Guangdong Province. But in recent years, the number of immigrants from other parts of China has grown, and Mandarin is now becoming the dominant language.

China
Chinese Language
Demonstrations and Riots


MySpace and Skype to Announce Partnership

Abstract: SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 16 — In a deal that will connect two of the largest Internet services, MySpace , the social network owned by the News Corporation, will announce on Wednesday that it is teaming up with Skype, the Internet telephone service owned by eBay. In November, MySpace will add the Skype features and brand to its instant-messenger software, which allows MySpace users to conduct text chats with each other. MySpace users who download the newest version of that software will also be able to make free calls from their computers to each other, and to anyone else on the Skype network. “We are interconnecting the world’s largest voice network and the world’s largest video and social network,” said Michael van Swaaij, interim chief executive of Skype. “It feels like an obvious fit.” The companies hope that the combination will accelerate the growth of two already robust online networks. MySpace has 110 million active users around the world, but its members are mostly concentrated in the United States. Skype has 220 million users, most of them outside of this country. There is little overlap, particularly in the United States, where, according to Nielsen NetRatings, only 6.7 percent of Skype users are also users of MySpace’s instant-messenger software. The two companies say they will split the revenue when MySpace members use Skype’s pay features, like voice mail boxes and calling to and from Skype accounts and regular landlines and mobile phones. They have not disclosed the exact ratio of that split. The deal could be beneficial to both companies. MySpace’s instant- messenger software, used by about 25 million people, trails rival services from AOL, Yahoo and Microsoft in popularity and features. Those services already let people make voice calls in addition to conducting text chats. MySpace says the Skype deal helps it catch up. The partnership gives Skype increased exposure at a difficult time. EBay recently acknowledged that it overpaid by more than a billion dollars in its $3.1 billion acquisition of Skype in 2005.

Computers and the Internet
MySpace.com
Skype Technologies
San Francisco (Calif)
Software


Astros the Most Frugal

Abstract: While the Yankees set another salary record, the Houston Astros had the lowest average in the major leagues in 14 years. The overall big-league average rose 5.4 percent last season to a record $3.39 million, according to the annual report released by the Major League Baseball Players Association. The Yankees had the highest average for the 15th consecutive season at $8.17 million, breaking the mark of $7.66 million when they won the World Series in 2009. Houston’s average of $549,603 was the smallest since the 1999 Kansas City Royals at $534,460. ■ Pitcher Roberto Hernandez and the Phillies agreed to a one-year, $4.5 million deal. Hernandez, 33, formerly known as Fausto Carmona, was arrested in January 2012 on charges of falsifying his identity, which were later dropped. He was 6-13 with a 4.89 earned run average for the Rays last season. (AP)

Baseball
Yankees
Astros
Wages and salaries


South Korea Agrees to Visit by North

Abstract: HONG KONG — The South Korean government has agreed to allow North Korean diplomats to travel to Seoul on Friday to bring a funeral wreath for the former South Korean president Kim Dae-jung . Several North Korean envoys are due to fly to Seoul on Friday and depart on Saturday, according to Seon Mi-kim, a press official with South Korea ’s Unification Ministry. The timing of the trip suggests the North Koreans will not attend the state funeral, which has been scheduled for Sunday afternoon. Instead, they are expected to meet with Mr. Kim’s widow, Lee Hee-ho, and other relatives, and perhaps visit a memorial altar at the National Assembly. Following a series of recent conciliatory gestures, including a personal message of condolence from the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-il, the North floated the idea of a cross-border trip on Wednesday. The South agreed to the proposal on Thursday. Kim Dae-jung, who died Tuesday at age 85, had traveled to North Korea for a landmark summit meeting in 2000 — including a now-famous handshake with Kim Jong-il. As president from 1998-2003, his “sunshine policy” achieved a rare rapprochement with the North. Those policies have essentially been reversed by the current South Korean president, Lee Myung-bak. South Korea canceled the first satellite launching from its own territory on Wednesday only seven minutes before the planned liftoff, momentarily averting new friction with North Korea. The North, which was widely denounced for launching a rocket this year, was angered by subsequent United Nations sanctions and has said the same punitive standards should be applied to the South. But North Korea has taken steps in recent weeks, including releasing two American journalists and a South Korean worker, that have calmed tensions somewhat with the United States and on the Korean Peninsula. In the last several days, North Korea declared its intention to reopen its highly militarized border to groups of tourists and to pursue possible new business ventures with the South. In the latest sign of a thaw, two diplomats from North Korea met Wednesday with Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico, who twice went to North Korea in the 1990s to secure the release of Americans. Mr. Richardson declined to comment on the substance of the talks or say why North Korea requested the meeting, but he called it a “hopeful sign” of improving relations, The Associated Press reported.

North Korea
South Korea
Kim Dae Jung
International Relations


Chronicling the Hamptons, Even on His Day Off

Abstract: Dan Rattiner, 70, the Hamptons’ most prolific Boswell, is the founder, executive editor and lead writer of the free weekly Dan’s Papers and the author of a dozen books. In his newest, “In the Hamptons Too,” his second memoir, each chapter recreates an encounter with a notable Hamptonite. Mr. Rattiner lives in East Hampton with his wife, Chris Wasserstein, a psychotherapist. They have a wheaten terrier, Moo; a turtle, Dribble; and a city cat, Hank, who house-sits full time at their Upper East Side apartment. ROBIN FINN NO ALARM I’m up around 6 a.m., no alarm clock. First thing I do is check to see if it’s a beach morning; if it is, and I’m feeling wide awake and mobile, I try to get to Main Beach in East Hampton for dawn. I take Moo with me, and I stop at Hampton Bagels on North Main for a hot plain bagel with nothing on it. PARK ON THE BEACH I drive on the beach via the employee parking lot, go about 200 or 300 yards west and park on the beach in front of Mort Zuckerman’s home. I drive a Tahoe with a fishing pole on the roof; nobody ever bothers me on the beach. I write sitting in a folding chair midway between the truck and the water. Around 8:45, I go back home. BREAKFAST, WORKOUT By 9, my wife is up and she’s already exercised, so we eat breakfast together out on the deck under a trellis. I have grapefruit juice and Special K with 2 percent milk, and either bananas or blueberries. After that I go up to the exercise room and work out for 20 minutes while watching a movie; the last one was “The Day the Earth Stood Still.” I exercise three times a week, always on Sundays. A BREAK FROM GOLF I usually go play nine holes of golf, but this June I hurt my back lifting a box of books — yeah, they were my books, a work-related injury. So Chris goes to the Atlantic in Bridgehampton without me. She’s a member there; I’m just related by marriage. I plan to return to active golfing duty within a couple of weeks. EDITING BY THE POOL I actually love being around the house in the afternoon. I’ll go out by the pool and sit under the jet of water that arches out from the second floor of the house and edit whatever story I wrote on the beach that morning. NAP AND A WALK If I was out late on Saturday, I’ll set the app on my iPhone and take a 20-minute nap. And then I take the dog for a walk down at the docks. There’s a lot of boat action. Chris takes care of bathing the turtle. We have a special trough for him. Then he goes and wanders around the front lawn, which is fenced. ONE DRINK, DINNER OUT We go out to dinner around 7. Depending on what month it is, we may stay home and watch the sunset first. And I will have one drink: rum and Coke with fruit. This summer we’ve been going to this new place, Rugosa, or we go down the road to East Hampton Point or to Nick & Toni’s. We might go to see something at Guild Hall; if not, we’re home by 10. BOXING, MAYBE NPR Chris will go up to bed and I’ll usually stay downstairs for 20 minutes or so and watch something I’ve TiVo’d, like a piece of a boxing match. I like boxing. She does not. Then I’ll go upstairs, and maybe we’ll listen to NPR for a bit. Almost always, everyone’s asleep by 11:30.

Dan's Papers
Rattiner Dan
Writing and Writers
Hamptons (NY)


Emails Deepen Criminal Cases in Flint, but Charges May Be Tough to Prove

Abstract: As Bill Schuette, the attorney general of Michigan, announced criminal charges against three government workers in Flint’s water crisis, he pledged there would be more charges soon, saying, “We’ll go wherever the truth takes us — and, in this case, wherever the emails take us.” Thousands of email messages, which were made public in the months since state authorities acknowledged lead contamination in the city’s water last fall, are at the center of the state’s case, and more messages may yet come to light as prosecutors appear likely to weigh possible charges against higher-level officials. But even with an array of written evidence, legal experts and environmental lawyers say the 13 criminal charges announced last week in Flint are extremely rare, and some said prosecutors may face significant challenges proving them in court. The charges — which include accusations of conspiring to manipulate water monitoring reports, tampering with reports on lead in the water, and misleading local and federal authorities about the safety of the water — are highly unusual because they were filed not only against a city employee who worked at Flint’s water plant but also against state water regulators who were assigned to keep track of what Flint was doing. “In 40 years of working in this field, I cannot think of another time when a regulator was charged in this way — they are prosecuting the people who are supposed to be the watchdogs,” said Jane F. Barrett, a professor and director of the environmental law clinic at the University of Maryland, who has previously worked as a state and federal prosecutor on environmental cases. Image Michael Glasgow, at his lab in 2013, is the only Flint employee charged in the crisis. Mr. Glasgow, the water quality supervisor, is accused of evidence tampering and willful neglect of duty. Credit Jake May/The Flint Journal-MLive.com, via Associated Press “It’s one thing to say they were sloppy or negligent. But in terms of proving the conspiracy count, they have to have evidence that the defendants deliberately agreed to cover-up the seriousness of the problems with the drinking water supply,” she said. Some legal experts suggested that the charges may have an effect beyond Flint or Michigan, raising a specter of criminal charges for regulators. “People are going to sit up straighter in their chairs,” said Mark N. Templeton, an associate clinical professor of law and director of the Abrams Environmental Law Clinic at the University of Chicago Law School. “They may need additional resources and training as well,” he added. Some of the emails would appear to lay out a stark case. They include assurances that the water in Flint was being treated with an anti-corrosion chemical, when it was not. The failure to add that chemical allowed lead to leach from the pipes, resulting in dangerously high levels of lead in the water that led officials to finally advise residents to stop drinking it last fall. Officials said unfiltered water was still not safe to drink, and the long-term effects of drinking the tainted water for more than a year remain a worry, particularly for parents of small children. The only city worker charged so far in the Flint crisis is Michael Glasgow, the city’s laboratory and water quality supervisor, who is accused of tampering with evidence — lead testing reports — and willfully neglecting his duty. The arrest of Mr. Glasgow, 40, came as a surprise to some, largely because he had cooperated with authorities, and had personally sought water samples last year from a home that was reporting high levels of lead. Mr. Glasgow also had voiced early concerns about switching the city’s drinking water away from Detroit’s water system to a new source in 2014, the event that set off the crisis that left residents drinking odd-smelling, foul-looking, lead-tainted water for months. Robert Harrison, a lawyer for Mr. Glasgow, said he could not comment on the specific charges, but described his client as “an honest, decent person” who had spent years working for the city of Flint and had worked his way up from the bottom. “Criminal charges against Mike are difficult to understand, given what Mike did in this case,” Mr. Harrison said. “Not only was Mike strongly and publicly opposed to the transfer of the water system away from the Detroit system, but Mike voluntarily met with, and spoke with, numerous investigators from the attorney general’s office and the Genesee prosecutor’s office on several occasions.” In an email Mr. Glasgow sent to state regulators a little more than a week before Flint was to switch from its water supply to a new source, the Flint River, he expressed doubts about the monitoring of water safety and the training of workers at the Flint water plant. Michael Glasgow Expresses Concerns on Water Source Switch This April 2014 email, sent by Michael Glasgow just days before Flint made the switch to a new water source, suggests that the system was not ready and that he had concerns. (Source: Michigan Senate Democrats) Days after Mr. Glasgow’s 2014 warnings about switching sources, the city went ahead with its plans, and Mr. Glasgow was quoted reassuring residents in a news release, drafts of which were emailed around the city and state. In the draft release, Michael Prysby, a state worker charged in the Flint case, promised that whatever doubts residents had about the river — seen among residents historically as a grimy dumping place for Flint industries — the state had deemed its water safe to drink. Draft of Press Release on Flint Water Source Switch This draft of a Flint press release, about the switch to a new water source, is dated several days after Michael Glasgow's note of concern. No signs of concern are noted in the release. (Source: Michigan Senate Democrats) Mr. Prysby, a water engineer with the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, has entered a not guilty plea in the case, as has Stephen Busch, a water supervisor with the state environmental quality department. Lawyers for both men did not return phone messages. Charges against Mr. Prysby, 53, and Mr. Busch, 40, include misconduct in office, accusing them of knowingly misleading federal and county officials about whether the water was safe, as well as conspiring to tamper with evidence and tampering with reports on lead. The pair also are charged with failing to require the city of Flint to add chemicals to its new water supply to prevent lead from leaching from service lines, which is standard protocol for dealing with aged water systems; with improperly manipulating water-testing samples by directing residents to “pre-flush” their taps, which would decrease lead levels; and with failing to collect enough samples from homes that were known to have lead service lines. Records show that lead tests were sometimes conducted on homes that were described on reports as having lead service lines — the lines most vulnerable to contamination and the best test of a system’s safety — but that actually had service lines made of materials other than lead. Such testing could have given other authorities and residents a false sense of security about lead levels. As residents and some authorities were voicing alarm about the water supply in early to mid-2015, emails from Mr. Busch and Mr. Prysby suggested they were assuring others that all was well. In February 2015, Mr. Busch told a concerned Environmental Protection Agency official, who was asking about some high lead findings, that Flint was indeed using chemicals to prevent leaching from the pipes, a process known as corrosion control, though the state now acknowledges that no such controls were in place at the time. Stephen Busch Email Responding to E.P.A. Concerns on Corrosion Control Here is an email from February 2015 in which Stephen Busch is responding to worries from the Environmental Protection Agency and stating that the city had a corrosion control program, or added chemicals that prevent leaching of dangerous metals like lead, in place. This turned out to be false. (Source: FlintWaterStudy.org) A day earlier, Mr. Prysby seemed to play down high levels found at one Flint house, which belongs to LeeAnne Walters, offering explanations for why the alarming results may not have reflected a broader, Flint-wide problem, and suggesting that Ms. Walters flush her taps before retesting, a move that would temporarily lessen lead levels. Michael Prysby Email on Lead Levels at LeeAnne Walters's Home Michael Prysby seems to play down federal concerns about some high lead readings at the home of LeeAnne Walters, suggesting that the sample was an outlier and that the tap should be flushed -- a method that lowers the appearance of lead -- before retesting. (Source: FlintWaterStudy.org)

Flint Michigan
Water
Lead
Michael Glasgow
Michael Prysby
Stephen Busch
Civil service
Ethics Misconduct Malfeasance
Water pollution
Bill Schuette


Airbus Warns of Speed Problems Before Crash of Air France Jet

Abstract: WASHINGTON — In the first hint that malfunctioning airspeed indicators might have played an important role in the crash of an Air France jet bound for Paris early this week, Airbus issued a warning on Thursday to all its customers to follow established procedures when pilots suspect the devices are not working right. The message, approved by French investigators, said that the reminder had been sent “without prejudging the final outcome of the investigation,” but clearly it pointed to the possibility that mismanaging the plane’s speed had been one step in a cascade of on-board failures, leading to the crash northeast of Brazil on Monday and the death of all 228 people on board. The message noted that “there was inconsistency between the different measured airspeeds” in the Airbus 330 that crashed, one of several error messages that were sent by the plane’s automatic systems to an Air France maintenance base. The Brazilian military said early Thursday that it had recovered the first piece of floating debris from the plane, a structural support piece about eight feet long that might have come from the jet’s cargo hold. But on Thursday evening, the military said that information had been incorrect, and that the debris had probably come from a ship or another source. Based on the initial reports from the military, experts postulated that the plane had broken up in flight, an idea for which there is now less evidence. Airspeed on jets is measured by the combination of a tube that faces forward, called a Pitot tube, and an opening on the side of the plane known as a static port. The plane’s speed is determined by comparing the pressure in the Pitot tube that is created by the oncoming wind with the pressure from the static port. The model that crashed, an A330, has three pairs of tubes and static ports. But other instruments can also be involved in calculating air speed, and the notice to airlines, called an Accident Information Telex, did not specify the nature of the inconsistency. The message went to airlines that operate all Airbus models, from narrow-body A318 models to the double-decker jumbo A380. Failure to manage an inconsistency properly has been cited in several crashes of big jets from various manufacturers. In 1996, a Boeing 757 taking off from the Dominican Republic crashed because the airspeed indicators of the captain and the first officer disagreed, and the crew mismanaged the problem. Mud wasps had nested in one of the Pitot tubes. A plane that flies too slow can lose lift and crash; too fast and it can break up in the air. The Airbus notice referred to the Quick Reference Handbook and the Flight Crew Operating Manual, which is a more detailed volume that is also kept in the cockpit. For all the models, however, the advice is the same: keep the plane level and keep the throttle setting in place while troubleshooting. The ability to fix the problem in flight would depend, of course, on its source. With only limited information available, and without the flight data recorder or cockpit voice recorder, experts around the world could not do much more than speculate. A series of system failures could be set off by an on-board fire, by a failure that allowed ice buildup on a critical instrument, or by a variety of other causes, experts said. The Airbus notice pointed out that the airplane was crossing an area of multiple thunderstorms at the time of the accident early Monday. Severe thunderstorms can cause crashes, although it is not clear whether the conditions that the flight encountered, on its planned route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris, were unusual. At AccuWeather.com , a commercial weather service, forecasters calculated that thunderstorms in the region of the crash could have generated updrafts in the range of 100 miles per hour, although Daniel G. Kottlowski, a senior meteorologist, conceded that this was not unusual weather. He noted that one message sent out automatically by the plane indicated the cabin had depressurized, and he suggested perhaps this had forced the crew to descend into breathable air — and a more intense part of the storm.

Airlines and Airplanes
Accidents and Safety
Airbus Industrie
Air France-KLM
Brazil
France


Scientists Weigh Stem Cells’ Role as Cancer Cause

Abstract: Within the next few months, researchers at three medical centers expect to start the first test in patients of one of the most promising — and contentious — ideas about the cause and treatment of cancer . The idea is to take aim at what some scientists say are cancerous stem cells — aberrant cells that maintain and propagate malignant tumors . Although many scientists have assumed that cancer cells are immortal — that they divide and grow indefinitely — most can only divide a certain number of times before dying. The stem-cell hypothesis says that cancers themselves may not die because they are fed by cancerous stem cells, a small and particularly dangerous kind of cell that can renew by dividing even as it spews out more cells that form the bulk of a tumor . Worse, stem cells may be impervious to most standard cancer therapies. Not everyone accepts the hypothesis of cancerous stem cells. Skeptics say proponents are so in love with the idea that they dismiss or ignore evidence against it. Dr. Scott E. Kern, for instance, a leading pancreatic cancer researcher at Johns Hopkins University, said the hypothesis was more akin to religion than to science. At stake in the debate is the direction of cancer research. If proponents of the stem-cell hypothesis are correct, it will usher in an era of hope for curing once-incurable cancers. If the critics are right, the stem-cell enthusiasts are heading down a blind alley that will serve as just another cautionary tale in the history of medical research. In the meantime, though, proponents are looking for ways to kill the stem cells, and say that certain new drugs may be the solution. “Within the next year, we will see medical centers targeting stem cells in almost every cancer,” said Dr. Max S. Wicha, director of the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center, one of the sites for the preliminary study that begins in the next few months (the other participating institutions are Baylor College of Medicine in Houston and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston). “We are so excited about this,” Dr. Wicha said. “It has become a major thrust of our cancer center.” At the National Cancer Institute , administrators seem excited, too. “If this is real, it could have almost immediate impact,” said Dr. R. Allan Mufson, chief of the institute’s Cancer Immunology and Hematology Branch. The cancer institute is financing the research, he said, and has authorized Dr. Mufson to put out a request for proposals, soliciting investigators to apply for cancer institute money to study cancer stem cells and ways to bring the research to cancer patients. The institute has agreed to contribute $5.4 million. “Given the current fiscal situation, which is terrible, it’s a surprising amount,” Dr. Mufson said. “We actually asked for less,” he added, but the cancer institute’s executive committee asked that the amount be increased. Proponents of the hypothesis like to use the analogy of a lawn dotted with dandelions: Mowing the lawn makes it look like the weeds are gone, but the roots are intact and the dandelions come back. So it is with cancer, they say. Chemotherapy and radiation often destroy most of a tumor, but if they do not kill the stem cells, which are the cancer’s roots, it can grow back. Cancerous stem cells are not the same as embryonic stem cells, the cells present early in development that can turn into any cell of the body. Cancerous stem cells are different. They can turn into tumor cells, and they are characterized by distinctive molecular markers. The stem-cell hypothesis answered a longstanding question: does each cell in a tumor have the same ability to keep a cancer going? By one test the answer was no. When researchers transplanted tumor cells into a mouse that had no immune system, they found that not all of the cells could form tumors. To take the work to the next step, researchers needed a good way to isolate the cancer-forming cells. Until recently, “the whole thing languished,” said Dr. John E. Dick, director of the stem cell biology program at the University of Toronto, because scientists did not have the molecular tools to investigate. But when those tools emerged in the early 1990s, Dr. Dick found stem cells in acute myelogenous leukemia, a blood cancer. He reported that such cells made up just 1 percent of the leukemia cells and that those were the only ones that could form tumors in mice. Yet Dr. Dick’s research, Dr. Wicha said, “was pretty much ignored.” Cancer researchers, he said, were not persuaded — and even if they had accepted the research — doubted that the results would hold for solid tumors, like those of the breast, colon, prostate or brain. That changed in 1994, when Dr. Wicha and a colleague, Dr. Michael Clarke, who is now at Stanford, reported finding cancerous stem cells in breast cancer patients. “The paper hit me like a bombshell,” said Robert Weinberg, a professor of biology at M.I.T. and a leader in cancer research. “To my mind, that is conceptually the most important paper in cancer over the past decade.” Dr. Weinberg and others began pursuing the stem-cell hypothesis, and researchers now say they have found cancerous stem cells in cancers of the colon, head and neck, lung, prostate, brain, and pancreas. Symposiums were held. Leading journals published paper after paper. But difficult questions persisted. One problem, critics say, is that the math does not add up. The hypothesis only makes sense if a tiny fraction of cells in a tumor are stem cells, said Dr. Bert Vogelstein, a colon cancer researcher at Johns Hopkins who said he had not made up his mind on the validity of the hypothesis. But some studies suggest that stem cells make up 10 percent or even 40 percent or 50 percent of tumor cells, at least by the molecular-marker criterion. If a treatment shrinks a tumor by 99 percent, as is often the case, and 10 percent of the tumor was stem cells, then the stem cells too must have been susceptible, Dr. Vogelstein says. Critics also question the research on mice. The same cells that can give rise to a tumor if transplanted into one part of a mouse may not form a tumor elsewhere. “A lot of things affect transplants,” Dr. Kern, the Johns Hopkins researcher, said, explaining that transplanting tumors into mice did not necessarily reveal whether there were stem cells. Other doubts have been raised by Dr. Kornelia Polyak, a researcher at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Dr. Polyak asked whether breast cancer cells remain true to type, that is, whether stem cells remain stem cells and whether others remain non-stem cells? The answer, she has found, is “not necessarily.” Cancer cells instead appear to be moving targets, changing from stem cells to non-stem cells and back again. The discovery was unexpected because it had been thought that cell development went one way — from stem cell to tumor cell — and there was no going back. “You want to kill all the cells in a tumor,” Dr. Polyak said. “Everyone assumes that currently-used drugs are not targeting stem cell populations, but that has not been proven.” “To say you just have to kill the cancer stem cell is oversimplified,” she added. “It’s giving false hope.” The criticisms make sense, Dr. Weinberg said. But he said he remained swayed by the stem cell hypothesis. “There are a lot of unanswered questions, mind you,” he said. “Most believe cancer stem cells exist, but that doesn’t mean they exist. We believe it on the basis of rather fragmentary evidence, which I happen to believe in the aggregate is rather convincing.” Dr. Wicha said he was convinced that the hypothesis was correct, and said it explained better than any other hypothesis what doctors and patients already know. “Not only are some of the approaches we are using not getting us anywhere, but even the way we approve drugs is a bad model,” he said. Anti-cancer drugs, he noted, are approved if they shrink tumors even if they do not prolong life. It is the medical equivalent, he said, of mowing a dandelion field. He said the moment of truth would come soon, with studies like the one planned for women with breast cancer. The drug to be tested was developed by Merck to treat Alzheimer’s disease . It did not work on Alzheimer’s but it kills breast cancer stem cells in laboratory studies, Dr. Wicha says. The study will start with a safety test on 30 women who have advanced breast cancer. Hopes are that it will be expanded to find out if the drug can prolong lives. “Patient survival,” Dr. Wicha said, “is the ultimate endpoint.”

Cancer
Stem Cells
Tumors
Science and Technology
Research
Drugs (Pharmaceuticals)
National Cancer Institute


State in India Plans to Help Gay Youth ‘Get Over Same-Sex Feelings’

Abstract: NEW DELHI — The government of Goa, on India’s western coast, is setting up a program to get young gay people to lead “a normal life,” according to the state’s minister for sports and youth affairs. “We will tell them what to do and how to get over same-sex feelings,” the minister, Ramesh Tawadkar, said on Tuesday in a telephone interview. Mr. Tawadkar called homosexuality a “big problem” in Indian society, where same-sex relations are illegal. Mr. Tawadkar revealed the plans on Monday in Panjim, the state capital, as he announced Goa’s state youth policy for 2015. The new policy treats gay youths as a problem group to be addressed with government action, along with drug addicts, dropouts, migrants and others. Mr. Tawadkar confirmed in the interview Tuesday that the state government, run by the Bharatiya Janata Party, intended to set up “camps” to treat gay, bisexual and transgender young people. He gave few specifics, but said that the program would include counseling. “They are that part of our society who have not yet experienced the true pleasures and bliss of life,” Mr. Tawadkar said. “What does a normal life feel like? Do they know? No.” The first step, he said, would be to identify such young people through a statewide survey. But it was not clear how candidly people might respond, given that gay sex has been a crime in India since colonial times; the Supreme Court upheld the law in 2013 . Mr. Tawadkar did not say whether any young people identified as gay would be prosecuted, but he did say, “We will definitely use law as a tool to teach them what is right and what is wrong.” Secretary General Ban Ki-moon of the United Nations, on a visit to India on Monday, condemned the criminalization of homosexuality. “I speak out because laws criminalizing consensual, adult same-sex relationships violate basic rights to privacy and to freedom from discrimination,” he said at a United Nations event on Monday in New Delhi. “Even if they are not enforced, these laws breed intolerance.” Claims that homosexuality is a disease that can be “cured” or that people can be “reprogrammed” to change their sexual orientation have received no scientific support, and supposed methods for doing so, known as reparative therapy, have been widely discredited, especially in the West. Even so, taboos against homosexuality remain widespread in India, and conservative political and religious figures continue to call for government action against homosexuality. A prominent yoga guru, Baba Ramdev , will apparently be involved in the Goa state program. Baba Ramdev spoke out in 2013 in support of the Supreme Court decision, saying that homosexuality was a “bad habit,” and he invited gay people to his yoga institute, where “they will be free from this habit most definitely.” Mr. Tawadkar, the youth minister, said that Baba Ramdev’s “expertise” in yoga instruction would be used to counsel gay people and drug addicts. According to Indian news reports, Mr. Ramdev will also be involved in a government program announced last year to expand the teaching of yoga in schools in Goa.

Goa
Gay and Lesbian LGBT
India
Bharatiya Janata Party
Ramdev