How Bronson van Wyck, Event Planner, Spends Sundays

Abstract: Asked to describe his typical Sunday, Bronson van Wyck began, “If I’m lucky enough to wake up Sunday morning in my own bed...” Aren’t you glad we asked? Mr. van Wyck, 39, an event planner , meant that his work often takes him out of town on weekends, but still, a party is a party. These lucky mornings begin in his apartment on Madison Square Park, with his boyfriend of six years, Andrew Fry, 33, a fashion publicist, and his companion of 19 years, Maggie the Cat. Besides planning parties — a craft he honed as a protocol aide to Ambassador Pamela Harriman in Paris — he recently opened a holiday pop-up shop at Overbey & Dunn on Christopher Street, where his already-trimmed Christmas trees start at $1,800. RISE ... I wake up at quarter to 9. During the week, I pretty reliably wake up at quarter to 7. If I tell myself when I go to bed that I’m not going to wake myself up, I get up between 8:30 and 9. ...AND SWEAT I’ll probably make some eggs and then go do a hard workout. I can just blow it out on a Sunday, and not worry about how I’ll feel later. That means I’ll go to Equinox, and it might be the only workout I get all week. If I don’t do that, I have DVDs called Insanity by this guy Shaun T. It’s like a cousin to P90X. COMIC BOOKS I usually will wander down to Forbidden Planet , which is one of the great comic book stores in the world. I like anything that’s got the word X in it, and all the great old DC Comics , like Justice League, Aquaman, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman. Those are my favorites. I go in and out of Avengers. I’m not loving Avengers right now. SERIOUS BOOKS After Forbidden Planet I almost always will go to the Strand . I’ll go to the British history section and go through naval battles, or I’ll go to the military section and look at all the World War I books. And I’ll usually walk out with a bag I can hardly carry. Also, I’ll go upstairs to the design section and look at the architecture books, books on lighting. That store is part of what living in New York is about. STRETCHING There’s a guy named Mohammed Kraish who I used to work out with at Equinox, and he left to become a physical therapist, and he will come over and we will stretch for at least an hour and a half. Sometimes two hours. CLIP FILE At some point on Sunday I will tear sheets out of my magazines for ideas for clients or events. I have to tear it, then sleep on it, then file it another day. GAMES WITH FRIENDS I have a running game going of Axis and Allies . It’s a board game. It’s basically an elevated form of Risk. That’s a three-hour commitment, in which case we probably order pizza from Otto . There’s a bit of a return to childhood in that that requires the food of childhood. They’re all friends of long standing. You wouldn’t ask someone you didn’t know for a long time if they were interested in playing Axis and Allies with you. SHOPTALK I’m dying to hear about other people’s parties. If someone says, “You wouldn’t believe the party I was at last night,” I’ll say, “Tell me; I have to know.” CALMING RITUAL As it gets later at night, I will start feeling the week ahead. So at some point I will have to sit down by myself and do my to-do list for the week. The act of doing that, just putting it on paper, calms me and allows me to go to bed. BEDTIME READING I have to read before I can go to sleep. I’m reading a book called “ To Lose a Battle ,” about the Battle of France. I just finished rereading “ Dorian Gray ,” because I want to create a party in a 19th-century-London theme. THE GOAL I try to have the light off by 11 o’clock on a Sunday. That succeeds maybe 50 percent of the time.

Van Wyck Bronson
Parties (Social)
Madison Square Park (NYC)


Joshua Komisarjevsky Gets Death for Cheshire Killings

Abstract: One of Connecticut’s most agonizing courtroom dramas came to an end on Friday as a jury voted to impose the death penalty on the second of two killers of three family members after an ordeal of violence and sexual assault that challenged suburban ideals of safety. Lawyers for the second convicted killer, Joshua Komisarjevsky, 31, had waged an aggressive fight to avoid a capital sentence since Oct. 13, when he was convicted of the crimes, which drew national attention in 2007. But the jury in New Haven unanimously voted for capital punishment on each of the six capital counts he faced. Mr. Komisarjevsky’s trial in Superior Court followed the trial of his co-defendant, Steven J. Hayes, who was sentenced to death last year. The two men burst into the home of the Petits in Cheshire, Conn., beat and tied up the father, Dr. William A. Petit Jr., and wreaked havoc for hours before setting the house on fire with the family’s two girls tied to their beds. The crime and the long court proceedings, attended by Dr. Petit, the lone survivor, brought legal reforms, played a central role in the failure of an effort to repeal the death penalty and seemed to rivet the state until, in recent months, a kind of mass fatigue with the depressing details of the crime and its punishment appeared to set in. “I believe God’s will has been done,” Dr. Petit said to a crowd outside the courthouse just after the verdict. But, he added, “The pain is there forever.” One juror, Timothy Anderson, said jurors were sobbing on Friday as they reached the verdict. Mr. Anderson said he was the last to decide to vote for death, “but when you look at the whole thing, it’s so horrific.” The defense lawyers presented a series of misfortunes that they said Mr. Komisarjevsky had suffered in his life as they worked to change perceptions of him that had been forged by revulsion at the killing of Jennifer Hawke-Petit, and her daughters, Hayley, 17, and Michaela, 11. Mr. Hayes was convicted of raping and strangling Ms. Hawke-Petit and killing the daughters, who died of smoke inhalation. At his separate trial, Mr. Komisarjevsky was convicted of the killings and a host of other crimes, including sexually assaulting the 11-year-old and making prurient photographs of her on his cellphone. In weeks of testimony, the defense lawyers worked to cast Mr. Komisarjevsky as a damaged person worthy of life, though one that would certainly be lived behind prison bars. The lawyers said that Mr. Komisarjevsky was sexually abused as a child, suffered mood disorders and head injuries, abused drugs and cut himself with glass, knives and razors, and that his evangelical Christian adoptive parents denied him proper care, relying instead on religion. On Friday night, Mr. Komisarjevsky’s family issued a statement: “From the very beginning, we have spoken out about the horror of the crime and taken the position that whatever verdict the jury reached was the right verdict. With today’s jury decision, our view is the same. The crime was monstrous and beyond comprehension. There are no excuses.” The killings dominated the state’s front pages and airwaves for so long that some in Connecticut said they had grown weary of Mr. Komisarjevsky’s trial.. Colin McEnroe, one of the state’s best-known columnists and commentators, wrote during the trial that he avoided articles about it because he felt he already knew what he needed to know about the case. “It is not possible to have lived in this state since 2007 and not know the Petit case,” Mr. McEnroe said. “It enters our night dreams and day musings. There is no vaccine against it.”

Cheshire (Conn)
Petit Family
Komisarjevsky Joshua
Capital Punishment
Decisions and Verdicts
Murders and Attempted Murders
Connecticut


In California, Louder Calls to Prepare for Quakes

Abstract: SAN FRANCISCO — As residents on both sides of the Mexican border cleaned up after Sunday’s earthquake, the authorities warned that many Californians remained unprepared for a serious quake, and emergency officials said that budget cuts have strained their ability to handle a disaster. The budget challenges faced by firefighters and other first responders have probably affected preparedness, fire officials say, particularly in remote or lightly populated areas that often depend on larger cities or agencies for help in emergencies. Sunday’s quake registered 7.2 and centered in a largely unpopulated area of northern Mexico. “We know that there’s going to be an earthquake, and we know it’s going to be a major natural disaster,” said Lou Paulson, president of the California Professional Firefighters and a captain in the Contra Costa County fire protection district. “And I don’t want to be one of the people who stands in front of the state of California and says, ‘We told you so.’ ” Seismologists say a major earthquake is almost a certainty in coming decades, given the region’s seismic history. But a recent study by the California Emergency Management Agency found the majority of the state’s households failing to meet recommendations for many basic emergency needs, like stockpiling water (a minimum of three gallons per person), reinforcing their homes and making disaster plans. Such warnings had increased in urgency even before Sunday’s earthquake, which caused aftershocks on Monday in Mexico as well as in the California counties on the border. In a statement issued with its March 5 report, Mathew Bettenhausen, secretary of the Emergency Management Agency, said the recent deadly quakes in Haiti and Chile were “unwelcome reminders” of what could happen in California. On Monday, Kelly Huston, a spokesman for the agency, added that the continuing failure of Californians to fully prepare was frustrating, but that Sunday’s quake was “a teachable moment.” “It’s tough trying to get people to think about something bad,” Mr. Huston said. “The only time we can get them to think about it is when the earth moves. Well, 20 million people felt that quake. So there’s 20 million people who now realize that earthquakes can affect them.” Two people have been confirmed dead as a result of the earthquake, which struck at 3:30 p.m. Sunday outside Mexicali. It also damaged homes and buildings and knocked out power for thousands. But fire officials say the damage could have been staggering if the quake had struck closer to population centers north of the border. Mr. Paulson said an equivalent quake in Los Angeles could have sparked about 1,500 fires, each of which requiring 20 or more fire personnel to control. And while fire teams in California are used to helping each other, particularly during fierce wildfire seasons like 2008, cutbacks and furloughs have some departments rethinking voluntary mutual aid agreements. “People are not going to saddle up as much as they used to,” he said. State Senator Christine Kehoe, a Democrat from San Diego and the chairwoman of a joint legislative committee on emergency management, said California’s earthquake response was still “the finest in the world,” citing up-to-date communications equipment, regular multi-agency drills and ample experience in dealing with natural disasters. (California officials like to say the state has four seasons: flood, fire, mudslide and earthquake.) But Ms. Kehoe admitted that budget reductions had “put a dent in our public safety response,” and that future financing was always questionable in a state facing a $20 billion deficit. “One of our challenges and shortcomings is we don’t plan ahead for expenses we know we’re going to incur,” she said. In the private sector, companies — particularly those reliant on communication — seem to be more adept at preparation. The Los Angeles Times, for example, has a downtown printing plant that can withstand a 9.0 quake, which would expend 500 times the energy of Sunday’s quake. But the newspaper also keeps a plant in Costa Mesa, in neighboring Orange County, which “can also be reactivated almost immediately,” said Nancy Sullivan, a spokeswoman for the paper. California utility companies use satellite phones and social media sites to stay in contact with customers and employees in case of a quake, and keep helicopters on call in case roads are blocked. At Southern California Edison, which provides power to some 14 million customers in the tremor-prone region, the company went through its emergency protocol on Sunday after the Mexico quake, checking facilities like its nuclear plant and power generation facilities. And over the next week the company will do what it calls a “Lessons Learned” assessment. “We’ll take a look at our response and ask, ‘Who was doing what?’ ” said Steven Conroy, a company spokesman. The state fire agency, Cal Fire , used the quake as an opportunity to practice for the big one, moving fire trucks into the street — to avoid them being trapped inside station houses — and rolling through neighborhoods in two southern counties looking for damage. The state budget for emergency management services was $1.4 billion in the current fiscal year, trimmed slightly from the year before. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has proposed a 4.8 percent surcharge on property insurance to provide more than $478 million annually in new financing for emergency preparedness. But that proposal, backed by Senator Kehoe, faces uncertain prospects in a Legislature in which Republicans often block anything resembling a tax. For some, Sunday’s quake was a boon. In Burbank, north of Los Angeles, the warehouse for earthquakestore.com , which sells preparedness gear and gadgets, was buzzing, with good sales of survival kits and quake alarms, which purport to pick up seismic waves.

Earthquakes
California
Budgets and Budgeting
Disasters and Emergencies


A Prolonged Execution in Arizona Leads to a Temporary Halt

Abstract: PHOENIX — The Arizona attorney general on Thursday called a temporary halt to executions in the state, a day after the convicted killer Joseph R. Wood III died one hour and 57 minutes after his execution began. Death penalty experts said it was one of the longest times it has taken in the United States for drugs to kill a condemned man. But Charles L. Ryan, the director of the state’s Department of Corrections rejected the notion that the execution was botched, despite the fact that the procedure of death by lethal injection usually takes about 15 minutes. He said in a statement that an autopsy by the Pima County medical examiner, concluded on Thursday, found that the intravenous lines were “perfectly placed,” “the catheters in each arm were completely within the veins” and “there was no leakage of any kind.” “I am committed to a thorough, transparent and comprehensive review process,” Mr. Ryan said. The execution of Mr. Wood was, by all accounts, an unusual one: Once a vein had been tapped, it took one hour and 52 minutes for the drugs pumped into him to do their work; the process dragged on long enough for Mr. Wood’s lawyers to file an emergency appeal to a Federal District Court to stop the execution. Some witnesses to Mr. Wood’s execution said that he gasped, seemingly for air, more than 600 times as he died. “The movement was like a piston: The mouth opened, the chest rose, the stomach convulsed,” wrote one witness, Michael Kiefer, a reporter for The Arizona Republic . Others — a representative of the attorney general’s office, plus relatives of the two people Mr. Wood killed — characterized what they saw as more like snoring. At an emergency hearing via conference call in Federal District Court, lawyers and a judge discussed Mr. Wood’s brain activity and whether he was suffering, according to a transcript. Mr. Wood died before the hearing ended. Image The prison in Florence, Ariz., where an execution took nearly two hours; the procedure usually takes about 15 minutes. Credit Associated Press The episode has once again stoked the debate over the kinds and source of the drugs used in executions and led the state to promise an investigation. Mr. Wood’s execution was the fourth troubled one this year, and his injection was a two-drug combination — hydromorphone, an opioid painkiller that suppresses breathing, and midazolam, a sedative — that was used in a prolonged execution in Ohio in January. In the case of Mr. Wood, “Irrespective of whether there was suffering, just given the description, an execution is not supposed to take this long — it went on far longer than it was supposed to,” said Deborah W. Denno, a law professor at Fordham University and a death penalty opponent who has studied execution methods. And the reactions of Mr. Wood during the process, she said, “are atypical of an execution that’s supposed to be performed properly.” Dr. Mark J. Heath, an anesthesiologist at Columbia University and an expert on lethal injection, said that based on the information available, it was impossible so far to say exactly what happened. One possibility, he said, is that “the drugs don’t behave in a way that we would expect when given in high dosage.” Because they have never been used in such high dosages in any context other than lethal injections, their effects cannot be tested, “so everyone is working in the dark,” he said. Indeed, the amount of the drug midazolam given in different states varies widely. Florida uses 500 milligrams, while Ohio initially said it would use 10 milligrams and moved up to 50 after the troubled execution in January of Dennis B. McGuire, who appeared to gasp and snort in the 26 minutes it took him to die. Oklahoma uses 100 milligrams; Arizona used 50 milligrams. A second possible explanation is that the intravenous lines were improperly placed and the drugs did not flow properly into the bloodstream, but that mistake would most likely have left Mr. Wood awake on the gurney for a longer time than reports suggest. “I don’t think that happened, but it’s definitely possible,” Dr. Heath said. Still another possibility, and one that might be more likely, he said, is the problem known as retrograde injection, which occurs when proper safeguards are not taken and drugs injected into an intravenous line flow backward into the I.V. bag. Those precautions against backflow would be harder to notice in the sometimes-dim light of the room where the execution workers do their jobs. A third potential problem for the execution is that “we don’t know the chain of custody of the drugs” and how they were kept, Dr. Heath said. After the execution of Clayton D. Lockett in Oklahoma in April, in which the inept administration of drugs prompted Mr. Lockett to writhe in pain, President Obama directed the Justice Department to review how executions are conducted, calling the episode “deeply troubling.” A Justice Department spokeswoman said Thursday that the investigation was “underway and ongoing.” Image Jeanne Brown and her husband, Richard Brown, after the execution of the man who killed Mrs. Brown’s sister and father. Credit Associated Press Some argue the debate over drugs misses the point. In a legal opinion that preceded the execution, Chief Judge Alex Kozinski of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, dissenting from the court’s decision to deny a full hearing over a panel’s granting of a temporary stay of execution for Mr. Wood, said that death by lethal injection should be replaced by more “foolproof” methods, preferably firing squads. Judge Kozinski referred to drug-induced deaths as a “misguided effort to mask the brutality of executions by making them look serene and peaceful.” In a telephone interview on Thursday, Judge Kozinski declined to talk directly about the Wood execution, but said that in general, “bodies are different, and people react differently to the medicine” in lethal injections. “I think mishaps are inevitable” with drugs, he added, “unlike bullets.” Besides, he said, “These medicines are not made to kill people — they are made to heal.” As manufacturers refused to sell to states the barbiturates traditionally used in executions, supplies dried up and the states had to improvise. They looked for other drugs to replace the old three-drug protocol, which included medication that acted directly to stop the heart, and also other sources, like compounding pharmacies, which are lightly regulated by the Food and Drug Administration. In Arizona, the federal public defender’s office, which represented Mr. Wood, sued the state to get it to reveal the source of the drugs and won a fleeting victory when the appellate court granted a temporary stay. But then, on Tuesday, the Supreme Court allowed the execution to proceed. Mr. Wood was convicted of fatally shooting his estranged girlfriend, Debra Dietz, and her father, Eugene Dietz, at their auto repair shop in Tucson in 1989. After the execution on Wednesday, Ms. Dietz’s brother-in-law, Richard Brown, scolded reporters, saying that Mr. Wood “smiled and laughed at us, and then went to sleep.” He added: “So all you people who think that these drugs are bad? Well, to hell with you guys. You guys need to look at the big picture.” Gov. Jan Brewer has ordered the State Corrections Department to review the process in the execution, even as support for the death penalty remains strong there. Meanwhile, Stephanie Grisham, a spokeswoman for Attorney General Tom Horne of Arizona, said that Mr. Horne would not issue any warrants of execution until the review was complete, “as a matter of caution.” Dale A. Baich, an assistant federal public defender representing Mr. Wood, also called for an investigation, but he insisted that it be carried out independently. “There is far too much that we don’t know at this point,” like the choice of drugs and amounts, as well as the “qualifications of the execution team,” Mr. Baich said Thursday. “Only an independent investigation can provide the transparency needed following an execution cloaked in secrecy that went wrong.”

Arizona
Capital punishment
Joseph R. Wood III
Pharmaceuticals
Dennis B McGuire
Clayton Darrell Lockett
Tom Horne


Michael Pineda Battered in His Shortest Outing of Season

Abstract: Michael Pineda pitched brilliantly in his last start, throwing six hitless innings on the way to his eighth win of the season. Monday’s matchup provided him a prime opportunity to continue the run. He would face a team that arrived at Yankee Stadium with the lowest run total in the major leagues and, over the last week, had lost games in which it allowed 19, 12 and 10 runs. Instead of turning in another dominating performance, though, Pineda imploded, coughing up eight earned runs and 11 hits — both career highs — in his shortest outing of the season as the Philadelphia Phillies walloped the Yankees, 11-8. “It wasn’t anything we were expecting tonight,” Manager Joe Girardi said. Pineda’s shelling came a day after Masahiro Tanaka was torched for seven runs and 10 hits in a 12-4 loss to the Detroit Tigers. It was only the second time in Pineda’s career that he did not record a strikeout — the other occurrence came April 23, 2014, against the Boston Red Sox, when he left after one and two-thirds innings and missed the next four months with a back injury. Pineda (8-4) said he was in fine health but lacked the acuity he had displayed last week against the Miami Marlins. Maikel Franco homered in the first, erasing the threat of another no-hit bid. The Yankees responded with two runs in the bottom of the inning, but Pineda’s inability to close out batters in the third proved costly. Ben Revere led off with a bloop single on a 1-2 pitch. Three batters later, with the bases loaded, Ryan Howard lifted a two-strike single into center field, scoring two runs, and Pineda gave up another run before finishing the inning. Pineda fell apart in the fourth. The Phillies led off with three singles on three pitches, the last coming on a bunt by Freddy Galvis that came to rest just inside the third-base line. Cesar Hernandez drove in two runs with a double to right field, and Franco followed with a two-run single, sending Pineda to an early departure after three and a third innings. “His slider wasn’t very good, location of his fastball was spotty,” Girardi said. “He just struggled tonight.” The Yankees rebounded with a three-run homer by Brett Gardner in the fourth and brought the tying run to the plate in the fifth, to no avail. While Pineda set records he would rather forget, Franco’s first game at the Stadium was memorable. He hit a two-run homer in the sixth for the first multiple-homer game of his career and finished with a career-best four hits and five R.B.I. Franco also showed off his defensive prowess, robbing Chris Young of an extra-base hit with a diving stop and subsequent throw in the sixth that induced respectful applause from the home crowd. “I’m as impressed by the play that he made on Chris Young as the hits that he had,” Girardi said. “There’s a ton of arm strength there, and it was great range. He’s obviously a very talented kid, and we got to witness it firsthand today.” For the Yankees, Gardner went 4 for 4 with three R.B.I. and two runs scored, and Diego Moreno made his major league debut in the seventh, hitting the first batter he faced, Cameron Rupp, before regrouping to toss a scoreless inning. Garrett Jones doubled home Alex Rodriguez and Carlos Beltran in the ninth, but Didi Gregorius and Young each popped out to end the game. INSIDE PITCH Mark Teixeira was not in the lineup because of a stiff neck that had been bothering him for about the last 10 days, Joe Girardi said. Teixeira had a magnetic resonance imaging scan that showed nothing alarming, Girardi said after the game. ... Ivan Nova will make his return from Tommy John surgery Wednesday, in what will be his first start since April 19, 2014.

Baseball
Michael Pineda
Yankees
Phillies


Postcard From Saratoga Springs: In the Paddock, Horseflesh and High Society

Abstract: SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. — They started descending from the clubhouse 20 minutes or so before post time, owners and breeders and racing officials and whoever else secured a much-coveted pass. They parted gamblers and picnickers and strode purposefully into one of the most venerable enclosures in American sports, the paddock at the Spa. They have ostensibly come to watch the horses saddled for the ninth race here Wednesday, but the $3,000 suits on the men and the hats and high heels of the women tip off that there is a whole lot more going on. The bronze statue of Sea Hero, the 1993 Kentucky Derby and Travers Stakes winner, in its grassy center is a nod not only to the history of this racetrack, but to its aristocracy as well. Sea Hero was owned by Paul Mellon, a man of letters, a philanthropist, an art connoisseur and a sportsman of the kind that are rare these days. In 1971, his colt Mill Reef had captured the Epsom Derby and the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe , and Sea Hero made him the first owner to conquer horse racing’s three most prestigious races. “I have been an amateur in every phase of my life; an amateur poet, an amateur scholar, an amateur horseman, an amateur farmer, an amateur soldier, an amateur connoisseur of art, an amateur publisher, and an amateur museum executive,” he wrote in his wryly titled autobiography “ Reflections in a Silver Spoon .” “The root of the word ‘amateur’ is the Latin word for love, and I can honestly say that I’ve thoroughly enjoyed all the roles I’ve played.” There were plenty of folks enjoying themselves before the ninth race and one of them, Cot Campbell, the managing partner of Dogwood Stable, was a gentleman who, indeed, had relished the many parts he has played over 84 years. He wore seersucker and a smile as bright as his pastel tie. He has been a water ski show master of ceremonies, a sportswriter, an apprentice mortician, an advertising copywriter and an author, as well as one of the pioneers of syndicated ownership, selling pieces of horses to various owners. His autobiography is wryly and reflectively titled as well: “ Memoirs of a Longshot .” Now, Campbell greeted his partners and competitors as his colt, Mine Train, circled the tree with a slightly askew white and red board hammered in its bark and No. 1 painted in red. With 17 minutes to post, a bell echoed from the winner’s circle, a nod to the time before public address systems existed and reminding horsemen and horseplayers a race was nearing. Three minutes later, 10 small men in a rainbow of Day-Glo silks and goggles hanging from their necks paraded in and fanned out to the various numbered trees to meet their trainers and owners. Campbell threw an arm around his jockey Ramon Dominguez, who was wearing the green and gold colors of Dogwood. “Riders up,” the paddock judge Neal Cutrone called in the voice of a high school principal. Dominguez and his brethren were launched into their saddles. Ten horses with 10 smiling jockeys on their backs circled the paddock once and headed to the track. “You on the winner today, Ramon?” a horseplayer shouted from the other side of the rail. Dominguez, rocking atop his colt, smiled. Campbell and the other owners and their camps followed them. They could not see the bugler Sam Grossman, but they heard him blow the call to post. There were smiles and shivers and a transcendent moment enjoyed. Hope, as they say, sprang eternal with seven minutes left to post time. No one had yet lost.

Horse Racing
Horses
Saratoga Springs (NY)
Campbell Cot
Dominguez Ramon


U.S. Economy Is Doing Well Compared With Other Nations

Abstract: With financial markets careening around the world, in January 2009 a newly inaugurated President Obama acknowledged he had to fix the problem pretty fast. “If I don’t have this done in three years,” he told NBC’s Matt Lauer , “then there’s gonna be a one-term proposition.” Today, Republicans around the country are largely campaigning on the president’s words . Conservative economists like Michael Bordo of Rutgers and John B. Taylor of Stanford have written columns for op-ed pages and blogs arguing that by the standard of previous American recessions, the economy should have rebounded much more strongly. Running with this argument, Glenn Hubbard and Kevin Hassett, economic advisers to the Republican challenger, Mitt Romney, have accused the administration of providing a misguided short-term fiscal stimulus that ultimately contributed to a long period of below-par growth. And Mr. Romney has borrowed a tactic used by Ronald Reagan to defeat Jimmy Carter in 1980, using his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention to intone “this president cannot tell us that YOU are better off today than when he took office.” Whether you are better off today than in 2009 may not be the most useful question to ask about an economy emerging from its most severe downturn in 80 years. A more illuminating question is how we have done relative to other countries that were caught in the global financial cataclysm. By that standard, economic growth in the United States has done surprisingly well. The president’s early assessment of our economic troubles was wildly optimistic. By the administration’s early forecast the economy would be growing by 4.6 percent this year . Instead, it is probably going to expand just over 2 percent this year and next. Economic production per person has not recovered to its level before the recession. Unemployment is still painfully high, at 7.8 percent. The share of the population with a job remains near its lowest in 30 years. But glance across the Atlantic. The economy of the European Union will shrink by 0.2 percent this year, according to the International Monetary Fund. It is smaller than it was five years ago, while the American economy is 2.9 percent bigger. Even Europe’s most competitive countries are slipping. The Dutch economy is shrinking. Germany and Austria are expected to grow at half the rate of the United States this year and next. Some will argue that Europe makes for an easy comparison. The European Central Bank held the economy back for many months by refusing to slash interest rates aggressively or pump money into the economy. Germany’s insistence that indebted Mediterranean countries cut government spending deepened recessions in those nations. And some other developed countries are growing faster than the United States: Canada, which didn’t have a banking crisis to begin with; Australia, a big exporter of raw materials that benefited greatly from China’s growth; the oil exporter Norway. Yet the United States has recovered more quickly than other countries that don’t use the euro — including Japan, New Zealand, Denmark and Britain. The performance is all the more remarkable considering that the financial crisis that sent much of the world into recession was set off by American homeowners defaulting on their mortgages, taking down a big chunk of the nation’s banking sector. The one crucial area in which the United States has performed worse than its peers is in jobs. Joblessness is at record highs in countries like Spain and Greece. But many European countries have done a much better job of protecting employment than the United States. In Austria, Germany and Belgium, the governments paid companies to put workers on short-time work rather than lay them off. Sweden also has a longstanding wage subsidy. Alongside stronger unions and stiffer employment regulations that make it tougher to fire workers, these countries managed to prevent soaring unemployment. Total employment in Britain, Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, France and even Italy has recovered more since the financial crisis than it has in the United States. Though the United States has grown faster than France since 2007, the unemployment rate has risen higher here. Yet the president’s critics are not suggesting the government should have subsidized wages or financed more public works. Rather, they have championed the type of budget-cutting policies that have played such a large role in thwarting economic growth in Europe. Federal Reserve officials today concede they were too slow to respond to the crisis. The Fed was nonetheless far more aggressive than the European Central Bank, quicker to drop interest rates to zero and pump money into the economy, buying government debt and other bonds. Fiscal stimulus — an initial $800 billion package in 2009 followed by about $600 billion in payroll tax cuts and other efforts — was bigger and more sustained than in other advanced countries. Banks in the United States were forced to raise billions in new capital, which allowed them to cope with the turbulent financial markets better than their European peers. Every step was an uphill battle. The Republicans who took control of the House of Representatives in 2010 argued that fiscal stimulus was wasted and counterproductive, and pressed for German-style austerity. During the Republican primaries, the Texas governor, Rick Perry, accused the Federal Reserve chairman, Ben S. Bernanke, of treason for debasing the currency by printing money to buy debt. Today, most economists say they believe that these policies provided vital support to the economy. In its most recent World Economic Outlook, published this month, the I.M.F. acknowledged that the fiscal stimulus was probably much more effective at bolstering growth than it had previously allowed. So where does this leave President Obama’s record? The Harvard economists Carmen M. Reinhart and Kenneth S. Rogoff, whose 2009 book “This Time Is Different” is the most comprehensive study of financial crises and their aftermath, contend that the comparison by Mr. Hubbard, Mr. Bordo and others is flawed . It mixes relatively mild recessions with deep financial crises that blew up the banking system. Recovering from the latter, they say, is painfully slow and difficult. By Ms. Reinhart’s and Mr. Rogoff’s accounting, the Obama administration’s record on economic growth is pretty good: “If one really wants to focus just on United States systemic financial crises, then the recent recovery looks positively brisk,” they conclude. Among countries that suffered as deep a financial crisis as we did since 2008 — from Greece and Iceland to Germany and Britain — “the United States’ output performance is, in fact, among the best.” Even the American jobs market looks brighter when compared with other big financial crises in history . Charles Dumas, chairman of the economic consulting firm Lombard Street Research in London, sees an American economy poised to rebound in the next presidential term. Household debt has fallen from its peak, and rock-bottom interest rates mean homeowners are spending only 14 percent of their disposable income on debt payments, the lowest level since 1992. The budget deficit is already down to 8.7 percent of economic output, from 13.3 percent in 2009. Even China is less of a problem, as high inflation has mostly eliminated its currency undervaluation. According to most polls, President Obama is still the favorite to lead the country through such a rebound. If he loses in November, it won’t be because he provided too much fiscal stimulus. It will more likely be because on arguably the most important economic variable for American voters, jobs, he didn’t try hard enough.

United States Economy
European Sovereign Debt Crisis (2010- )
Labor and Jobs
Obama Barack
Presidential Election of 2012


Comments on TV Are Issue in Police Captain's Conduct

Abstract: Correction Appended One of the most serious charges the Police Department has leveled against Capt. Eric Adams, a senior commander whose departmental trial began yesterday, is that he gave the public wrong information during a television interview after a terror alert last fall. In the interview, taped on Oct. 14 and broadcast two days later on WCBS-TV, Captain Adams said the police learned of a terrorist threat against the transit system as early as Oct. 3, but did not announce it until Oct. 6, and then did not flood the transit system with extra officers until the next day. "I was the captain that was assigned to safeguarding Manhattan location subway stations," said Captain Adams to the program's host, Marcia Kramer. Captain Adams, a probationary captain who is one of two executive officers at the Sixth Precinct in Greenwich Village, added: "The announcement came down on Thursday, when the mayor made the announcement. The deployment took place on Friday, regardless of what's been stated." An attorney for the Police Department, Debbie Coleman, played a videotaped recording of the interview in the opening moments of the trial on the fourth floor of Police Headquarters in Lower Manhattan. Through the day, the details of the department's response to the terror alert -- how many officers were deployed, when they were sent and from which commands -- dominated the court proceedings as Ms. Coleman sought to disprove Captain Adams's timeline. Testimony in the case is set to continue on Thursday, and a decision is not expected until March 17, said Norman Siegel, one of the lawyers representing Captain Adams. The case is fraught with political overtones from the last election and is resurrecting an issue that has receded from the public eye. On Thursday, Oct. 7, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly, along with the chief of the F.B.I. office in New York, announced the terror threat about an hour before a mayoral debate in Harlem that the mayor had already chosen not to attend.. There is little dispute that the city waited to alert the public about the threat. City officials have said Washington asked them to hold back while federal authorities pursued leads overseas. The issue in Captain Adams's trial is whether he was out of line in criticizing the city's response and incorrect in his chronology. Days after the alert was made public, Captain Adams, who had endorsed the mayor's Democratic challenger, Fernando Ferrer, said he suspected Mr. Bloomberg had timed the announcement to divert attention from his decision to skip the debate, a notion the Bloomberg administration dismissed. Captain Adams, who is set to retire on March 17 after a 22-year career and plans to run for a seat in the State Senate, was served with departmental charges in December. He is charged with appearing on the TV program as a representative of the Police department and speaking without permission on official department business. He has also been accused of conduct "prejudicial to the good order, efficiency or discipline of the department by disseminating misinformation to the public regarding this N.Y.P.D. operation." If the charges are upheld, Captain Adams will face discipline, possibly suspension, demotion or firing, which would jeopardize his pension. But in opening arguments before Michael D. Sarner, assistant deputy commissioner of trials, Mr. Siegel said that Captain Adams did not need permission from the Police Department to appear on the show. "The comments are First Amendment protected," he said, adding that the issue of free speech was at the "core" of the case. Mr. Siegel, one of Captain Adams's lawyers, said that Captain Adams was speaking as accurately as he could on the television show. The testimony of one witness for the department was embraced by Captain Adams and his defense team. The witness, Deputy Inspector Theresa J. Shortell, commanding officer of the Sixth Precinct, said her commanders did not brief her about the specifics of the threat. She also said that on the night of the alert, a platoon of about 15 officers was held over on overtime for about two hours in the precinct but not deployed. But Capt. Andrew D'Amora, the commanding officer of the operations unit, testified that hundreds of additional police officers were sent to subway stations on Oct. 6, the day of the announcement, but acknowledged on cross-examination that most of those officers had been sent to stations in Lower Manhattan. In the television interview, Captain Adams was introduced as a leader of 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care, and Mr. Siegel said it was clear he was speaking as a critic of the department. But during the interview, Captain Adams portrayed himself as a captain who had information about the department's response and believed it to be wrong. "When we first found out about this incident on Monday, we should have immediately deployed police to the transit location," he said during the interview. Correction: February 24, 2006, Friday An article on Wednesday about charges against Capt. Eric Adams, a police commander on departmental trial for criticism of New York City's response to a terrorist threat last fall, referred incorrectly at one point to the date the city announced the threat. It was Oct. 6, as noted elsewhere in the article, not Oct. 7.

NEW YORK CITY
POLICE DEPARTMENT
ADAMS ERIC
BLOOMBERG MICHAEL R
TRANSIT SYSTEMS
POLICE
TERRORISM


A.I.G. Secures $150 Billion Assistance Package

Abstract: The American International Group said on Monday that it lost almost $25 billion in the third quarter and had secured a new $150 billion government assistance package intended to stem the bleeding from its complex financial contracts. A central component of the new package will be to get the most tainted assets out of the company, in an effort to stop the collateral calls that have been rapidly draining A.I.G.’s cash. A.I.G.’s trading partners in these financial contracts will largely be made whole in the process. Since mid-September, when A.I.G. suddenly came to the brink of collapse, its problems have become steadily bigger and costlier to fix. Originally, the Federal Reserve rushed in with an $85 billion line of credit. When that proved inadequate, the Fed added a $38 billion supplementary lending facility, and A.I.G. recently qualified to sell $21 billion of commercial paper to the Fed. “These terms are not sustainable,” Edward M. Liddy, the insurance executive brought in to lead A.I.G. through the crisis, told securities analysts in a conference call Monday, referring to the high interest rates on the original loans. The company has reported $38 billion in losses this year, wiping out the company’s total reported earnings for the preceding three years. The new assistance package reduces the original $85 billion loan to about $60 billion, lowers the interest rate and gives A.I.G. five years, instead of two, to pay it off. The government will also use money from its Troubled Asset Relief Program to buy $40 billion of preferred shares in A.I.G. Another important feature will be government investments of about $50 billion to create special-purpose entities to relieve the company of its most tainted assets. About $30 billion of the government money will be used to buy complex debt securities that were insured by A.I.G. and about $20 billion more will be used to buy securities backed by home loans. A.I.G.’s counterparties — financial institutions in the United States and Europe — have not borne significant losses on the financial contracts that led A.I.G. to the brink, and the new program suggests they will not. “We’re funding somebody on the other side” of A.I.G.’s derivatives contracts, said Lynn E. Turner, a former chief accountant with the Securities and Exchange Commission who has been critical of the way the insurer’s crisis has been handled. Even though a large amount of public money is being extended, neither A.I.G. nor the federal government has been willing to provide the names of the company’s biggest counterparties, or their amount of exposure. “We’ve had way too many things here that nobody knows anything about,” said Mr. Turner, who is on the Treasury’s Advisory Committee on the Auditing Profession. “That’s why no one has faith in the capital markets.” Another critic said that A.I.G. would still have to contend with other financial contracts that were not addressed in the rescue but that might deteriorate in the future. “I think it will help, but I don’t think it will solve the whole problem,” Donn Vickrey, founder of Gradient Analytics, an independent securities research firm, said of the latest plan. Mr. Vickrey noted that A.I.G. had insured several different types of debt securities, and the type now being dealt with was the first to go bad because it was linked to subprime debt. “As the economy deteriorates, I would expect the other debt lines to incur more losses,” he said. The Treasury official overseeing the government’s financial relief said that revising the A.I.G. rescue plan was a one-shot deal that would be accompanied by stringent conditions to protect taxpayers. Neel Kashkari, assistant secretary of the Treasury, said the move was “necessary to maintain the stability of the financial system.” At the heart of A.I.G.’s troubles are a type of derivative called credit-default swaps . They are essentially a kind of insurance that A.I.G. wrote on complex securities, known as collateralized debt obligations, sold in recent years to financial institutions. By issuing the swaps, A.I.G. was promising to pay these institutions — A.I.G.’s counterparties — if the debt securities defaulted. A.I.G. wrote a large book of business on the thinking that such defaults were unlikely. As the economy has soured, though, some of the securities have weakened and shown signs of failure. The insurance contracts have also proved crushingly expensive for A.I.G. because they included provisions requiring it to post collateral under certain circumstances, showing that it could afford to keep its promises. For instance, a downgrading of A.I.G.’s own creditworthiness could prompt a big collateral call. That is what happened to A.I.G. in mid-September. It was suddenly required to come up with more than $10 billion in collateral, pushing the company to the brink. Much of the original $85 billion line of credit from the Fed has been spent fulfilling collateral calls. Although A.I.G. wrote its insurance contracts on more than $400 billion of various types of complex debt securities, only about $70 billion worth of the securities are thought to be at imminent peril of default. A.I.G. refers to this batch of securities as multisector C.D.O.’s, because they combine a number of different types of debt. Under the new plan, A.I.G. and the government will together create a new special-purpose entity to buy up the multisector C.D.O.’s. The C.D.O.’s will be quarantined in a place where it no longer matters much whether their value rises or falls, because A.I.G.’s own balance sheet will not be affected. Also, because A.I.G.’s counterparties will no longer own the multisector C.D.O.’s, the company will not have to provide insurance coverage against default anymore. When the insurer cancels the troublesome insurance contracts, it will put an end to the collateral calls that have depleted its cash so severely. The special-purpose entity will be financed with $5 billion from A.I.G. and $30 billion from the federal government. The entity will buy securities with a fair value of about $70 billion. The counterparties, which in aggregate had already pried about half that amount out of A.I.G., will be allowed to keep the collateral as well, people familiar with the planning said. That will leave A.I.G. with losses of about $30 billion that it has already taken on its multisector C.D.O. insurance program, said Andrew Kligerman, a securities analyst at UBS. “That’s permanent,” Mr. Kligerman said. “They’re never going to get that $30 billion back,” because the assets are being sent into quarantine. But because A.I.G. and the government will be jointly holding the tainted assets in the special-purpose entity, he said, A.I.G. will share any income with the government. The government is the senior partner in the special purpose entity and will receive an interest rate of the three-month Libor plus 1 percentage point and will be entitled to be repaid for its investment first. A.I.G. will receive Libor plus 3 percentage points. In exchange for the emergency loan, the Fed has received a warrant entitling it to a 79.9 percent stake in A.I.G. The new package does not change that. Mr. Liddy said he believed that A.I.G. was “on the road to recovery,” although the turnaround would still take time, he said. Even with the help of the government, he said, A.I.G.’s success would still depend on whether world financial markets came back to normal. He declined to say how long the process would take, or how long it would take the special-purpose entity to be formed and make its purchases. While A.I.G. recovers, Mr. Liddy said, it will be paying market rates of interest on all loans from the federal government. “It is not exactly a bailout,” he said. A.I.G.’s third-quarter report suggested that its core insurance business was also coming under pressure as the economy weakened. While about $7 billion of its quarterly losses, on a pretax basis, were connected with the insurance coverage A.I.G. sold on other institutions’ assets, a bigger share of the losses, about $18 billion, were incurred because the assets in A.I.G.’s investment portfolios had fallen in value. Of that total amount, losses of a little less than $12 billion were on investments made under A.I.G.’s securities lending program, which is handled mostly by its life insurance subsidiaries. A.I.G. had previously been given a $38 billion credit facility from the Fed to support its securities lending activity, but said on Monday that that facility would be extinguished under the new program. Instead, the government will invest $20 billion in A.I.G. to create a second special-purpose entity to hold other tainted investments, often backed by residential home loans, from its securities lending program. A.I.G. will invest $1 billion in that entity. Mr. Liddy also said that A.I.G. had experienced a loss in its property and casualty business because of claims from Hurricanes Gustav and Ike, but said A.I.G.’s exposure was in line with that of the rest of the industry.

Emergency Economic Stabilization Act (2008)


Rise in Consumer Borrowing Is the Smallest Since 2013

Abstract: United States consumers increased their borrowing in January at the slowest pace in nearly three years, as outstanding revolving debt, like credit cards, fell from December. The Federal Reserve saidon Monday that borrowing rose $10.5 billion in January, an annual increase of just 3.58 percent. That is the smallest annual percentage gain since February 2013. Total borrowing was $3.54 trillion. Borrowing in the revolving category that covers credit cards dropped $1.1 billion, after a strong increase in December that corresponded with holiday shopping. Borrowing in the category thatincludes auto and student loans increased $11.6 billion last month.


China Prepares for Party Congress and Leadership Transition

Abstract: BEIJING — China ’s Communist Party leader, Hu Jintao , defended his decade in power on Thursday and warned that the country faced stark challenges at home and abroad. He spoke at the start of a congress that will culminate in his retirement and the appointment of a new generation of leaders after a transition marked by scandal and anxiety about the party’s future. Mr. Hu told the ranks of party-picked delegates assembled in the Great Hall of the People that China faced a period of major change and “complicated domestic and international circumstances.” Seated near him was his presumed successor, Xi Jinping , who is all but certain to take over as party chief after the congress ends next week and to take the reins as president in March. Mr. Xi has privately signaled that he is aware of increasingly urgent calls from economists, intellectuals and some party insiders for a new round of market liberalization and even measured political relaxation to cure what they see as a deepening economic and social malaise. Mr. Hu acknowledged the problems facing the party, including corruption, but avoided specific mention of the scandals that have blighted his final year in power. “Currently, the conditions of the world, the country and the party are continuing to undergo profound changes,” he said, reading from excerpts from his report to the party congress, which convenes every five years. “We are confronting unprecedented development opportunities and challenges,” he said, adding, “The gap between rich and poor is growing.” While acknowledging that China’s wealth remains unbalanced among regions and unequally distributed, Mr. Hu told the congress that his decade as top leader had brought robust economic growth and the makings of a “moderately prosperous society.” “Over the past five years, there have been major achievements in every aspect of work,” he said. “Reform and opening up have gained major advances, and the people’s standard of living has clearly risen.” Mr. Hu’s congress report is a major part of the public ceremony that accompanies China’s leadership transitions. But the real decisions about who will succeed him and his cohorts have been made in secretive negotiations involving senior officials and party elders. In a show of unity, Mr. Hu earlier entered the assembly hall accompanied by the dominant party elder, former President Jiang Zemin, who shuffled gingerly to his seat. But party insiders have said Mr. Jiang, 86, played a major role in shaping the next leadership circle and voiced frustration with the record of Mr. Hu and Prime Minister Wen Jiabao. Contrary to some observers’ predictions, Mr. Hu did not play down the founder of the People’s Republic of China, Mao Zedong, whose revolutionary heritage sits increasingly awkwardly with urban middle-class wealth and values. Mr. Hu also repeatedly mentioned the phrases “scientific development” and a “harmonious society,” which he has used to sum up his goals of a stable society under firm party control. Officially, the new leadership team is to be selected in the coming week by the 2,268 delegates to this congress, the 18th in the party’s 91-year history. In fact, much of what will go on during the congress has already been decided. The delegates are voted on by lower-ranking members but based on guidance provided by higher-ups, a process known as “democratic centralism.” Mr. Hu repeated vows of “political system reform” in his report to the congress. But officials have made clear that the party’s notions of political change do not embrace any idea of full-fledged electoral democracy. On the contrary, at a news conference on Wednesday, the congress’s spokesman and deputy head of Communist Party propaganda, Cai Mingzhao, defended China’s current system. “The leading position of the Communist Party in China is a decision made by history and by the people,” Mr. Cai said. Still uncertain is who will be standing next to Mr. Xi when the top leadership is presented in a week. This group, known as the Politburo’s Standing Committee, essentially runs China. According to plan, it will include Mr. Xi and Li Keqiang, who is expected to take over as head of the government bureaucracy next year. Both men are current members of the Standing Committee. It is also unclear how many members the committee will have. It now has nine posts and is expected to be cut to seven. Nor has Mr. Hu indicated when he will give up his post as chairman of the Central Military Commission, which gives him continued influence over Mr. Xi’s policies and personnel choices. In his report, Mr. Hu lauded China’s growing military strength, promising to continue modernizing the People’s Liberation Army forces, and calling them a defender of peace, a point sure to be questioned by regional neighbors, including Japan, that are embroiled in territorial disputes with Beijing. Mr. Cai, the spokesman, also said the party had learned from the scandals surrounding two high-ranking officials: Bo Xilai, the former Politburo member, and Liu Zhijun, the former railway minister. Both have been accused of corruption, and Mr. Bo is also accused of covering up the murder of a British businessman. Mr. Hu did not refer explicitly to Mr. Bo in his report, but said corrupt officials should be punished “no matter how high or low in rank.”

China
Communist Party of China
Xi Jinping
Li Keqiang
Hu Jintao


Zambian Editor Is Arrested Over Photos of a Birth

Abstract: JOHANNESBURG — The photographs were shocking. People flinched when they saw them. The editors of The Post , an independent daily in Zambia , decided such gruesome pictures were simply not publishable. And yet the images also seemed extremely important. The nation’s health workers were on strike, and the woman in the photo was giving birth outside of a hospital where she had been unable to get medical attention. The baby was shown emerging feet first from the naked mother. Soon the child was dead. On June 10, Chansa Kabwela, the paper’s news editor, sent the distressing photos to Zambia’s vice president, George Kunda, asking him “to take quick action and end this strike.” Copies were delivered to the health minister, the secretary to the cabinet, the archbishop of Lusaka, the capital, and two women’s groups. On Monday, the police arrested Ms. Kabwela, charging her under Section 177 [1A] of the penal code: distributing obscene materials in order to corrupt the morals of society. She was fingerprinted, taken to a jail cell and then finally released on a surety bond of about $1,000. She faces five years in prison. “The government deliberately decided to misunderstand my intention,” Ms. Kabwela, 29, said in a phone interview. “I wanted them to see the suffering of the mother. Instead they called it pornography.” Of some possible relevance to Monday’s arrest is the fact that The Post and the government of President Rupiah Banda are hardly the best of friends. Zambia is a poor, landlocked country of nearly 12 million people in southern Africa, and the newspaper has regularly accused the government of corruption. Mr. Banda was not sent the photographs, but they nevertheless came to his attention. At a news conference on June 24, he called them pornography and said, “I hope those responsible for the law of this country will pursue this matter.” The more he spoke, the closer he came to rage: “Shame on you, photographer, who took pictures of our mothers naked. I couldn’t look at it. When I looked at it, I threw it away.” The president’s anger was mirrored by the two prominent women’s groups that had also been on Ms. Kabwela’s mailing list. “We have been extremely shocked and disgusted at the pictures you have circulated of a woman in childbirth,” read a letter from Marian Munyinda, the chairwoman of the Non-Governmental Organizations Coordinating Council . “Not only is it a gross violation of the woman’s privacy and dignity but more so of the sanctity of human life.” In a written response, Ms. Kabwela explained that the photos were taken by the woman’s husband. He tearfully brought them to the newspaper in hope that their publication might avert more tragedies, she said. Ms. Kabwela objected to the word “circulated” in Ms. Munyinda’s letter. She answered, “We circulate whatever we want to circulate by publishing it in The Post. Our intention in sending those pictures to a few selected people” was to urge them “to help the women bearing the worst brunt of this strike.” She apologized. “We actually know very little about women’s issues,” Ms. Kabwela wrote. “Our intention was not to violate the rights of that woman or to offend yourselves as your letter indicates. And for that we are extremely sorry. We have learnt our lesson, and we will know how to conduct ourselves in the future over issues of this nature. Please excuse and forgive our ignorance, we are not polymaths.” But during the past few days, with Ms. Kabwela’s arrest impending, The Post seems to have forgone its remorse. Editorials refer to the women’s groups as “treacherous and opportunistic.” As usual, those same broadsides refer to Mr. Banda as corrupt, though this time the accusation of corruption relates to “the abuse of power, arrogance and the lack of humility.” Neither Vice President Kunda nor others contacted in the government would publicly comment on the case, saying it was now in the courts. As for the strike, it ended on June 29 after the government threatened to replace the health workers.

Newspapers
Zambia
Freedom of the Press
Pregnancy and Obstetrics
Banda Rupiah


Brewers Beat the Red Sox

Abstract: Rickie Weeks and Corey Hart homered on consecutive pitches in the first inning Saturday night to help the Milwaukee Brewers spoil Jon Lester’s bid to become the majors’ first 10-game winner in a 4-2 victory over the Red Sox in Boston. Randy Wolf (5-4) battled through seven innings for Milwaukee, which won for just the second time in its last six games. The Red Sox had won 12 of 13. Wolf scattered nine hits, walked one and struck out three, ending a string of four no-decisions. John Axford got the final three outs for his 19th save in 21 chances. Lester (9-3) allowed four runs — three earned — and matched his career high of three home runs allowed, the other time coming on opening day in Texas. Before the game, the Red Sox placed left fielder Carl Crawford on the 15-day disabled list with a left hamstring strain, sustained Friday as he beat out an infield hit, and recalled outfielder Josh Reddick from Class AAA Pawtucket. NATIONALS 4, ORIOLES 2 Michael Morse’s 13th home run, a two-run shot, broke a 1-1 tie in the sixth, sending host Washington to its eighth straight victory. Last week, the Nationals were stumbling along in last place with a 27-36 record; now they are a victory from .500 (35-36) and in third place in the National League East behind Philadelphia and Atlanta.The Nationals’ Ryan Zimmerman homered and doubled in his fifth game off the disabled list. Baltimore, which has lost six of seven, designated reliever Jeremy Accardo for assignment. Accardo, who has a 5.29 earned run average, was the losing pitcher on Friday against Washington. RAYS 7, MARLINS 4 The rookie Alex Cobb (2-0), who has been filling in for the injured Jeff Niemann, pitched into the seventh inning for host Tampa Bay. Florida lost its ninth straight and is 1-17 in June. The Rays’ Johnny Damon hit his 500th double in the first inning. He is the 11th player to have 500 doubles, 100 triples, 200 homers, and 2,500 hits; the other 10 are in the Hall of Fame. CARDINALS 5, ROYALS 4 Matt Holliday’s two-run homer rallied host St. Louis from a 4-3 deficit in the eighth inning, helping the Cardinals break a seven-game losing streak. Holliday is 5 for 9 with two home runs since his return from a quadriceps injury June 16. RANGERS 5, BRAVES 4 Adrian Beltre drove in the go-ahead run with a single in the 10th inning for visiting Texas. After a rain delay of 2 hours 16 minutes in the fifth inning, Rangers starter Matt Harrison returned and pitched into the seventh. “I was able to stay loose,” said Harrison, who was drafted by Atlanta eight years ago. TWINS 1, PADRES 0 Scott Baker (5-4) struck out 10 batters in eight innings and Danny Valencia homered for host Minnesota, which won its sixth straight game and its 13th in 15. That surge has cut the Twins’ deficit in the American League Central to eight games from 16 ½. ROCKIES 5, TIGERS 4 Ubaldo Jimenez (2-7) pitched five solid innings before leaving with a cramp in his right calf and had a two-run single for his first hit of the season, helping host Colorado to its fourth straight victory. Jimenez’s earned run average is 4.58; by this time last season, he was 13-1 with a 1.15 ERA. Phil Coke (1-7) has not won since April 14. WHITE SOX 6, DIAMONDBACKS 2 John Danks came up smiling after taking a line drive to the head in the fourth inning, remained in the game and pitched Chicago to a victory at Arizona. Danks (3-8) won his third straight after an 0-8 start. Paul Konerko went 3 for 4 with a homerun, two runs batted in and two runs. BLUE JAYS 4, REDS 0 Jose Molina doubled and homered as Toronto dropped host Cincinnati to 0-5 in interleague play. The Blue Jays’ Brandon Morrow (3-4), who allowed a career-high nine runs in a loss to Boston last week, held the Reds to five hits in six and two-thirds innings. INDIANS 5, PIRATES 1 Carlos Carrasco (7-3) took a no-hitter into the sixth inning and won his third straight start for host Cleveland, which has won four of six games after losing 9 of 10. Orlando Cabrera hit a solo home run and Grady Sizemore scored two runs and drove in another off Paul Maholm (3-8). SURGERY FOR PADILLA Los Angeles Dodgers reliever Vicente Padilla had surgery Thursday to fuse vertebrae in his neck and is expected to miss the rest of the season, MLB.com reported on the Dodgers’ Web site. Padilla, who turns 34 in September, has three saves in nine appearances this season. ... Florida outfielder Mike Stanton, who has 16 homers and 41 R.B.I., was scratched from the lineup against Tampa Bay because of an eye infection. ... The Cleveland Indians placed first baseman Matt LaPorta on the 15-day disabled list with a sprained right ankle, sustained Friday, and recalled outfielder Travis Buck, who had been optioned to Class AAA Columbus on Friday.

Baseball
Washington Nationals
Baltimore Orioles
Milwaukee Brewers
Boston Red Sox


Stepfather Recalls Beatings: 'This Is for Your Own Good'

Abstract: Cesar Rodriguez clenched his right hand into a loose fist and reached over his left shoulder to demonstrate how he routinely would strike his stepdaughter, Nixzmary Brown, 7, on the upper back to discipline her. "I probably used all my force," he said yesterday in an interview in jail on Rikers Island. Mr. Rodriguez detailed an approach to discipline that involved hitting the girl, locking her in a room and binding her to a chair all night to keep her from misbehaving. "I told her, 'This is for your own good,' " he recalled. Nixzmary was found beaten to death in her family's home in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, on Jan. 11. Mr. Rodriguez, 27, and the girl's mother, Nixzaliz Santiago, also 27, are charged with second-degree murder. In an hourlong interview with three newspaper reporters who were prohibited by jail officials from taking notes, Mr. Rodriguez, in a gray jumpsuit and slumped in a chair, stopped short of admitting that he had beaten his stepdaughter to death, saying, "It's a fragile situation." But he repeatedly apologized for her death and said he was racked with guilt. He agreed to the interview, he said, to give his side of the story. He said he had been beaten up in jail by other inmates who had heard about the girl's death. "I'm sorry what happened," he said. "I have a lot of guilt. I have a problem with my emotions. It all built up, and I emotionally just burst." He calmly and methodically outlined the weeks leading to her death and described his hard-line approach to child rearing that included hitting the children for misdeeds, however minor. He said that he loved Nixzmary as his own daughter, but she was mischievous, stubborn and disobedient. He tried to run a tight ship at home: For example, the children were forbidden to touch any food in the kitchen without permission. He learned this approach from his mother, who used a belt to strike him and "would beat me till she could not feel her arm anymore." He listed events that led to a crescendo of a rage at the girl. He said that Nixzmary could not stop breaking her siblings' toys and parents' belongings. She would cut her sister's hair, steal money from her parents, and steal milk from the baby, he said, and she would also "attack" her siblings while they slept. "This child was a handful," he said. He said that she recently admitted to burning his 6-month-old son, Gabriel, with a cigarette lighter. Mr. Rodriguez recalled beating her for it and asking her, "How could you do this to a helpless little child?" He said he would lock Nixzmary in her room at night, where she used a litter box to urinate. Sometimes he would bind her to a chair with twine and duct tape. Mr. Rodriguez said that often after a beating, he would hold her up to a mirror and urge her that it was easier to just behave. "I would say: 'Talk to yourself, how do you feel about yourself now? Do you really want to live like this?' " he said. "She would say no." Nixzmary was losing weight in recent months, he said, because she refused to eat most foods. She weighed 36 pounds when she died. Mr. Rodriguez said his frustration at her misbehavior continued to grow. Then, in mid-December, he said, his wife had a miscarriage. And three days before Christmas, Mr. Rodriguez said, he was fired from his job as a security guard and could not buy the children presents. Broke, and with bills piling up, he would stay home with the children. "I just felt like everything was closing in," he said. As for Nixzmary, the only way to curb her behavior, he said, was to continually follow her around the house. "I just wanted it all to stop," he said about her misbehavior. Mr. Rodriguez said that he and his wife asked city social workers for help with Nixzmary's waning appetite and her behavior, but got none. He said he asked his wife to let Nixzmary live with her grandmother in Puerto Rico, explaining that, "It's better for all of us." A city caseworker advised against this, he claimed. "She said: 'No, don't do it. You're going to regret it,' " he said. Mr. Rodriguez added, "If I had to do it all over, I would pressure myself to take her to the precinct and just leave her there." The last night of Nixzmary's life, there was tension in the home, he said. Groceries were brought home, and Mr. Rodriguez said he began doling out cups of vanilla-strawberry yogurt, but an extra yogurt remained unaccounted for. After an extensive interrogation of the children, he concluded that Nixzmary had eaten it without permission. He calmed himself by using his computer but found that his printer was jammed. Nixzmary had jammed it with toys, he said. Mr. Rodriguez refused to say what he did next. He began sobbing and said that he sees Nixzmary in his mind. "I ask her why she had to put me through so much trouble."

NEW YORK CITY
BROWN NIXZMARY
RODRIGUEZ CESAR
MURDERS AND ATTEMPTED MURDERS
CHILD ABUSE AND NEGLECT


Arizona: Giffords and Husband Start Campaign Against Gun Violence

Abstract: Former Representative Gabrielle Giffords and her husband, Mark E. Kelly, unveiled a campaign against gun violence on Tuesday, the second anniversary of the shooting in a Tuscon shopping center that killed six people and left Ms. Giffords critically injured. In an op-ed article published in USA Today, Ms. Giffords, a Democrat, and Mr. Kelly, a former astronaut, explained that the effort, called Americans for Responsible Solutions, was intended to counter the influence of the powerful gun lobby. They said they wanted to encourage elected officials “to prevent gun violence and protect responsible gun ownership by communicating directly with the constituents that elect them.” They emphasized that they are strong supporters of the Second Amendment. “We don’t want to take away your guns any more than we want to give up the two guns we have locked in a safe at home,” the couple wrote.

Gabrielle Giffords
Mark E Kelly
Gun Control
2011 Tucson shooting
Murders
Arizona
USA Today


The Name of the Game Is Now Sports for Carville

Abstract: James Carville, the former campaign manager and Democratic talking head, has often been criticized for turning politics into sports. Now he will get a shot at the real thing. XM Satellite Radio will announce today that, beginning in March, Mr. Carville will be the co-host of a one-hour sports talk show, trading his thoughts and barbs with Luke Russert, a Boston College student and son of Tim Russert, the NBC television commentator. The Carville and Russert families decamp near each other at Washington Nationals baseball games and Washington Wizards basketball games, and the men began a sports debate that evolved into a suggestion for a show. "I've always had the idea for a sports show," Mr. Carville said. The opinionated give-and-take (mostly give) that Mr. Carville honed as the former co-host on CNN's "Crossfire" will carry over into the weekly, as-yet-unnamed program. "There's a generational thing to sports, like the N.B.A. dress code. I want to go into the social aspects of the games," Mr. Carville said. "We may do a story on people who don't give a damn if the Redskins won" (which itself qualifies as a kind of inside-the-beltway statement). The two plan to concentrate on baseball, basketball and football. "I'm a real horse degenerate. I still have a real passion going to the track, getting a cold beer and a pencil," Mr. Carville said. "I love horse racing and boxing, but we won't talk as much about that." ERIC A. TAUB

XM SATELLITE RADIO HOLDINGS INC
CARVILLE JAMES
ATHLETICS AND SPORTS


Next for the Big City Book Club: Russell Shorto’s ‘The Island at the Center of the World’

Abstract: Recently we asked readers to suggest new titles for the next meeting of the Big City Book Club. We were flooded with ideas and from your suggestions drafted a short list of three titles. The final contestants were Edith Wharton’s “The Age of Innocence,” Teju Cole’s “Open City,” and Russell Shorto’s “The Island at the Center of the World: The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Forgotten Colony That Shaped America.” More than 300 votes were cast and the race was tight. But the winner is ... “The Island at the Center of the World.” The book, published a decade ago, offers a vivid narrative of early America, chronicling the development of what was and remains the ultimate melting pot. Smugglers, money men and prostitutes? Check. Epic power struggles? Check. Will you gain a better understanding of how New York became the global ground zero of outrageous fortune? Naturally. Join us for the online discussion on Tuesday, April 28, at 6:30 p.m. Eastern time on the City Room Blog (nytimes.com/cityroom). To join the club and receive regular email updates: nytimes.com/marketing/bigcitybookclub .


Clash Over Peru Irrigation Project Kills One

Abstract: LIMA, Peru (Reuters) — The police and demonstrators opposed to an irrigation project in the south of the country clashed Thursday, killing one man and injuring 18, as President Alan García faced a new conflict over natural resources in Peru ’s surging economy. The skirmish occurred before dawn in the town of Espinar, 400 miles south of Lima, officials in Peru’s human rights office said. Police officers fought with protesters who contended that the Majes-Siguas II irrigation project would leave Espinar without water, said Silvio Campana of the human rights office, which tries to mediate conflicts. The man who died was a bystander, officials said. The irrigation project calls for a dam and water system capable of irrigating 95,000 acres of agricultural land in the region of Arequipa. Peru’s government has encouraged the growth of the petroleum industry and of export-oriented agricultural farms to diversify the economy, which has traditionally depended on mining. The economy is forecast to grow by about 7 percent a year. But conflicts over natural resources have weighed on Mr. García, whose disapproval rating is nearly 60 percent. Last year, three dozen people died in a clash over land in the Amazon jungle where indigenous tribes oppose oil exploration. Water is a sensitive issue in Peru, because desert covers its Pacific coast, where most of the population lives, and its Andean glaciers are melting because of climate change . While the government has issued a decree guaranteeing the population’s water supply, residents of Espinar were upset that the state investment agency awarded a concession on Monday for the irrigation project to a private consortium called Angostura-Siguas without taking into account their concerns. “The Province of Espinar has its own needs that have never been considered,” said Néstor Cuti, who leads the group of protesters and wants Mr. Garcia’s prime minister to open negotiations to end the standoff. “With this concession we are condemned to have a lack of water for life,” Mr. Cuti said. Prime Minister José Chang said the protests must stop for the government to agree to begin negotiating. Mr. Chang said protesters had tried but failed to take over the nearby Tintaya copper mine, which is owned by the global metals firm Xstrata. Tintaya is an important mine in Peru, which is the world’s No. 2 copper-producing nation. “We are sure we will be able to reach a solution that will be just for the town of Espinar,” Mr. Chang told reporters. Finance Minister Ismael Benavides, who was sworn in Tuesday by Mr. García, represented the government’s investment agency as the head of its water projects at a ceremony on Monday when the contract was awarded. “I understand the worries about water among the people,” Mr. Benavides said Thursday on RPP radio. But he added, “This project is going to generate 150,000 or 200,000 jobs, and I’m sure much of them will go to Espinar.”

Peru
Garcia Alan
Water
Demonstrations Protests and Riots
Police


Kansas: Law Bans the Use of Foreign Legal Codes

Abstract: Gov. Sam Brownback has signed a law intended to prevent the state’s courts or agencies from basing decisions on foreign legal codes, and a national Muslim group’s spokesman said on Friday that a court challenge was likely. The law does not specifically mention Shariah , which broadly refers to codes within the Islamic legal system. It says courts, administrative agencies and state tribunals cannot base rulings on any foreign law or legal system that would not grant the same rights guaranteed by the state and federal constitutions. But supporters have worried specifically about Shariah, and the American Public Policy Alliance, a Michigan group promoting legislation similar to the Kansas law, says on its Web site that it wants to protect Americans’ freedoms from “infiltration” by foreign laws and legal doctrines, “especially Islamic Shariah law.” Muslim groups say the law promotes discrimination. Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said a court challenge was likely because supporters of the measure frequently expressed concern about Shariah. There are no known cases in which a Kansas judge has based a ruling on Islamic law. But the new law’s supporters have cited a pending divorce case in Sedgwick County in which a man has asked for property to be divided in line with Shariah.

Kansas
Law and Legislation
Muslims and Islam
Shariah (Islamic Law)
Brownback Sam
Courts and the Judiciary


Kuroda Signs One-Year Deal With Yankees

Abstract: Hiroki Kuroda turns 38 years old on Feb. 10, right around the time he will report to spring training for his 17th professional season. Most of those were spent in Japan, where he might finish his career someday. For now, he is staying with the Yankees , with a one-year, $15 million contract that helps them in two ways. Kuroda went 16-11 with a 3.32 earned run average last season, his first with the Yankees. He seems to be taking his career year to year, which is perfect for Yankees, who are trying to lower their payroll. “It fits how we’ve operated here in the last number of years, to do short-term circumstances on high-end players,” General Manager Brian Cashman said. “And this is a very accomplished pitcher.” If the Yankees keep their payroll below $189 million for 2014, their tax rate will fall substantially in future seasons, under terms of the collective bargaining agreement. Thus, one-year contracts like Kuroda’s are ideal. The Yankees are also trying to reach one-year agreements with Andy Pettitte, 40, and Mariano Rivera, who turns 43 next week. Cashman said he had nothing to report about Rivera, who should be fully recovered from knee surgery by opening day. Cashman is waiting to hear Pettitte’s plans. “Andy is deciding whether he wants to play, so as of right now, he hasn’t put himself in play,” Cashman said. “There is really nothing to discuss at this point, until he goes through that process.” Pettitte has expressed no desire to pitch elsewhere, and if he returns, he will give the Yankees three solid veterans at the top of their rotation, with C. C. Sabathia and Kuroda. That would give them depth at the bottom of the rotation, with Phil Hughes, Ivan Nova and David Phelps competing for two spots as the right-hander Michael Pineda recovers from shoulder surgery. Cashman said Pineda would not be ready for games until May or June. Kuroda made a smooth transition to the American League last season after spending the previous four seasons with the Los Angeles Dodgers. He was the Yankees’ Game 2 starter in the American League Championship Series against Detroit, working seven and two-thirds innings, allowing five hits and three runs, with 11 strikeouts and no walks. But the Yankees did not score, and Kuroda lost. “I am very happy and excited to re-sign with the Yankees,” Kuroda said in a statement. “I am very grateful for all of the interest and all of the offers that I received from the various teams that courted me. It was a tough decision for me to make, but at the end of the day, I wanted to try to win a championship with the teammates that I went to battle with last season.”


Doctors Seek Test for Deploying New Life-Extending Cancer Drugs

Abstract: CHICAGO — New drugs that boost the immune system’s ability to fight tumors may be one of the greatest medical advances in years, cancer doctors say, pulling some patients from death’s door and keeping them in remission for years. But the truth is that this happens for only a minority of patients. Now, doctors say, there is a new imperative to develop a test that will identify in advance which patients will benefit, sparing others the cost and possible side effects. The drugs currently cost about $150,000 a year per patient — even more for higher doses used in some cases — and the health system is eventually expected to spend billions or even tens of billions of dollars on the drugs each year. “We don’t want to give these to 100 percent of the patients if only 59 percent or 20 percent will benefit,” said Dr. David R. Gandara, a professor and lung cancer specialist at the University of California, Davis. Being able to test for a biomarker that could predict the drugs’ efficacy “would make this new class of drugs easier on the wallet, the national health wallet,” he said. But developing such a test has proved tricky so far, for ethical as well as scientific reasons. Some doctors said it would be unfair to withhold the new drugs from patients based on a test if there were still even a slight chance that the drugs would help. “We don’t want to be wrong, because these medicines have an effect that, in some cases, is durable for years,” said Dr. Jedd D. Wolchok, chief of the melanoma and immunotherapeutics service at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. “We don’t want to have an imperfect biomarker.” The need for such biomarkers is illustrated in a study led by Dr. Wolchok, which he presented on Sunday in Chicago at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology. The study is published online by the New England Journal of Medicine. The 945-patient study shows that the combination of two immune-boosting drugs from Bristol-Myers Squibb — Opdivo and Yervoy — is more effective than either drug alone in treating advanced melanoma. Patients treated with both drugs went a median of 11.5 months before their disease worsened, a longer reprieve than the 6.9 months for those who received only Opdivo and 2.9 months for those who took Yervoy. But the combination also caused serious side effects like diarrhea and colitis in 55 percent of patients, compared with only 16.3 percent for Opdivo alone and 27.3 percent for Yervoy alone. Dr. Antoni Ribas, a melanoma specialist at the University of California, Los Angeles, who was not involved in the study, said Opdivo alone might be just as good as the combination for many patients, with far fewer side effects, but that a biomarker test was needed. “The combination is outstanding, but we have to figure out who needs the combination as opposed to the single agent,” he said. The main test being explored is for PD-L1, a protein produced by cancer cells that, in effect, orders the immune system to stand down and not attack. The Merck drug Keytruda, Opdivo and other similar treatments work by keeping this “stand down” order from being received by the immune cells. So it makes sense that the drugs work best against tumors that are issuing such an order and that they may not work at all against tumors that are not issuing the order. Studies by Bristol-Myers and Merck, as well as Roche, which is also developing such a drug, have shown that there was a much greater success rate using the drugs to treat tumors that were positive for PD-L1. Still, at least a small number of patients whose tumors do not produce meaningful amounts of PD-L1 also seem to benefit from these drugs. So some doctors say it is wrong to withhold the drugs from patients whose tumors test negative for PD-L1. In the melanoma study, patients whose tumors were positive for PD-L1 did as well on Opdivo alone as with the combination, as measured by the delay before their cancer worsened. One implication might be that those patients should get only Opdivo, while others should get the combination. But Dr. Michael B. Atkins, deputy director of the Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center in Washington, said that even for PD-L1-positive tumors, the combination was better at shrinking the abnormalities. “The biomarker isn’t good enough to make any decisions on it,” said Dr. Atkins, who was not involved in the study. PD-L1 is not the only possible biomarker. Scientists are finding that the drugs work best against tumors with lots of mutations. Researchers reported on Friday that a genetic signature could identify a small subset of patients with colorectal and other types of cancer who would be likely to benefit from Keytruda. Dr. Ribas and colleagues suggest examining tumor samples to see if immune cells are present. The drugs appear to work best when immune cells are already in or near the tumor, ready to attack when the “stand down” order is lifted by a drug. If the immune cells are not present, then merely lifting the order may not be enough. Merck is working with a diagnostic company, NanoString Technologies, to develop a test that measures activity levels in genes associated with immune response . A downside for drug companies is that a test can narrow the market for a drug. Shares of Bristol-Myers fell nearly 7 percent on Friday based on what would seem to be positive clinical trial results showing that Opdivo could prolong the lives of patients with the most common form of lung cancer. But there was a big survival difference in patients with PD-L1-positive tumors and patients whose tumors test negative for the protein. For those with PD-L1-negative tumors, there was no real difference between Opdivo and the generic chemotherapy drug docetaxel. This information dashed investors’ hopes that Opdivo might be used by all patients with that form of lung cancer. Opdivo did cause fewer side effects than docetaxel, but insurers might not be willing to pay so much more for that reason alone. Docetaxel costs $6,000 for six cycles of treatment; Opdivo used for the same length of time costs about $60,000, said Dr. Patrick W. Cobb, an oncologist in Billings, Mont. “The cost of treating these patients will be far higher than in the past,” Dr. Cobb said on a webinar sponsored by Kantar Health, a consulting firm. “We really need a way of determining which patients are likely to benefit from these agents.”

Pharmaceuticals
Immunotherapy
Cancer
Medical test
The New England Journal of Medicine
Lung cancer
Immune system
Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
Tumor
Melanoma


Obama Outspending Romney on TV Ads

Abstract: DENVER — For every five commercials Mitt Romney and his allies ran here in this vital swing state in the last two weeks of September, President Obama and Democrats ran seven, accusing Mr. Romney of having a “tough luck” attitude toward the middle class and asserting that Mr. Obama has brought the economy back from the brink. In Florida, the disparity was greater. The number of pro-Obama ads outnumbered pro-Romney ads by almost 50 percent — some 13,000 of them accusing Mr. Romney of outsourcing jobs to China, trying to gut Medicare and hiding his tax returns from the public. The story was the same in most of most of the other battlegrounds. In Ohio and in Iowa, in Norfolk, Va., and on the Boston stations that feed New Hampshire, Mr. Obama out-advertised his rival after the parties’ nominating conventions, according to data compiled by the political advertising monitoring firm Kantar Media/CMAG. Mr. Obama’s continued advantage on the airwaves, which counters Democratic predictions that he would be far outgunned by Mr. Romney and his allied “super PACS” by now, may help explain why polls in most of the competitive states have shifted in his direction over the last month. On top of the problems Mr. Romney created for himself with his “47 percent” comments, Mr. Obama’s ad onslaught appears to have helped the president gain an advantage on issues like Medicare while eating into what had seemed be Mr. Romney’s advantage on the economy. It also drove home the image of Mr. Romney as out of touch with the middle class that Democrats spent all summer advancing. While pressing his advantage on broadcast television, Mr. Obama has spent large amounts to put his message in front of women who watch soap operas and talk shows like “The View,” and in front of the young viewers who watch shows like “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.” And on cable, where Mr. Obama ran commercials unopposed for most of the year — and where even now he is regularly on twice the number of channels as Mr. Romney — he has put his commercials in front of the men who watch ESPN and the African-Americans who watch BET. The dynamic in the political air wars has led to worry among Republican strategists outside the campaign that Mr. Romney’s team has simply been outmatched by Mr. Obama’s in its approach to advertising and the way it goes about buying ad time on television. Unlike the Obama campaign, which uses a large outside time-buying firm with about two dozen people working on the account, the Romney campaign, in an effort to save money, buys time with what is effectively an in-house operation that has at times seemed to rest on the shoulders of a single deputy, several people who have dealt with it say. Mr. Romney’s aides dismissed the notion, saying that they have the people they need but that many of their advertising decisions were forced by a temporary lack of money. It is unclear is how lasting Mr. Obama’s advantage will be. Mr. Romney’s campaign has bet heavily on the idea that it can sway voters in the closing weeks of the race. After holding back after its convention at the end of August, it is now planning much heavier spending after the first debate on Wednesday. Already, the campaign has been quietly increasing its ad spending, with a new $1 million advertising purchase in Iowa, a $2 million purchase in Nevada and several new reservations on cable. “With the money that Governor Romney’s been able to raise — with Ryan raising it too — we’re able to get a more even footing with them in terms of ad buys, and that will help in the long term,” said Ed Gillespie, a senior adviser to Mr. Romney. To further help, the conservative group American Crossroads said on Tuesday it would put an additional $11 million into ads in swing states in coming weeks. But, members of both parties said, the question will be whether the late surge in Republican advertising will be enough to undo the damage to Mr. Romney’s standing from the early barrage of commercials from Mr. Obama and his supporting super PAC , Priorities USA Action. Mr. Obama’s campaign believed all along that it was essential to try to define Mr. Romney early, in part because early voting means many voters will cast their ballots weeks before the campaign concludes. “The cash advantage over the summer was huge — it had a huge impact for them,” Mr. Gillespie said of Mr. Obama’s team. All told, from the moment Mr. Romney emerged as the likely Republican nominee in April through most of September, Mr. Obama ran nearly triple the number of commercials he did, according to Kantar, about 347,000, nearly 270,000 negative. Mr. Romney ran about 121,000, more than 99,000 of them negative. Outside groups have gone a long way toward making up the difference. When those groups are taken into account, the Democrats ran 35,000 more commercials than Republicans. The two exceptions for Mr. Romney have been North Carolina, the swing state where Mr. Romney has performed best, and Wisconsin, which several outside groups hope to turn in Mr. Romney’s favor. Commercial counts are a better guide to the advertising war than sheer dollars. Democrats say that Republicans have spent more on advertisements than they have since April 1, $351 million to $303 million. But presidential campaigns can buy ads at lower rates than outside political groups can. The Obama campaign also saved money by reserving time far in advance, securing lower rates. Still, not all ads have the same impact. A single Super Bowl ad can reach more people than dozens of late-night commercials. But a look at the advertising purchases of the campaigns and the super PACS shows that Mr. Obama and the Democrats outstripping their opponents at various times of day, including in prime time, in various markets.

Presidential Election of 2012
Political Advertising
Romney Mitt
Obama Barack