Train Line Across the Balkans Restitches a Region

Abstract: SARAJEVO, Bosnia and Herzegovina — The siege of Sarajevo had just begun the last time Vera Bagur, now 68, took the famous train line from Sarajevo to Belgrade. It was one of the few physical links that bound Muslims, Serbs and Croats. That unity was cracking into violence as she peered, against the conductor’s orders, out the window as tanks rolled past in the dry, unpicked cornfields. “That was the time I realized it was going to be serious,” she said. Now, after 18 years, the line is running again, one small reason the mood of Ms. Bagur, once again traveling from Sarajevo to Belgrade, was more, if not entirely, hopeful. “I think we’re going to overcome this,” Ms. Bagur said. For the chain-smoking Serbs, Croats and Bosnians toasting one another in the cafe car, the revived passenger line was certainly a sign that their forced isolation from the rest of Europe and the world beyond could be on the verge of ending. Starting on Dec. 19, citizens of Serbia, Montenegro and Macedonia could travel to European Union countries without visas for the first time since the collapse of Yugoslavia. Serbia, until recently an international pariah, applied for European Union membership a few days later. Reacceptance into the Western fold looks closer for the region than it has in years. But the region — like the train line itself — is by no means normal or fully integrated. In the fragmented territory of the former Yugoslavia, the train journey now requires four different locomotives from four separate railway companies, two passport checks and more than eight hours to journey about 300 miles. That fragmentation plays out politically: the unresolved issue of gaining worldwide recognition of Kosovo ’s independence remains both an impediment and a source of agitation, while the rise of nationalism ahead of this fall’s general election in Bosnia and Herzegovina has meant increasing divisiveness and even fear of renewed violence here. “What is of the most concern for me is that for the first time in years, this political tension seems to be influencing and affecting the general public,” said Srecko Latal, an analyst on Bosnia and Herzegovina with the International Crisis Group , a nonprofit organization that aims to prevent deadly conflicts. “It’s a good thing that this choo-choo train is running between Sarajevo and Belgrade again, but I’m not sure very many passengers will be on it until the issues in the Balkans are resolved.” But travelers flocked to the train last week to visit friends and relatives over the Orthodox Christmas holiday, and hope was high as the journey began at the Sarajevo train station, which was repaired after being badly damaged during the war. Rajko Zeljaja, 56, a telecommunications engineer and Orthodox Serb who is married to a Roman Catholic, took the bus from his home in Mostar to begin his journey. “I celebrated one Christmas in Mostar,” Mr. Zeljaja said. “Now I go to my mother in Serbia to celebrate another Christmas. They can change locomotives all they want, but I guess they can’t change us.” The station agent did not accept credit cards and wrote out each ticket by hand. A round-trip ticket to Belgrade, the Serbian capital, cost around $45, a bargain compared with a plane ticket, which often costs six times as much. The train hugged riverbanks as flocks of ducks bobbed in icy, green water for much of the early part of the journey, stopping at small stations still prominently displaying the red star of Communist times. It chugged past houses with snowy rooftops or, telling for a country still recovering from war, gutted houses with no roofs at all. Practically the entire railway network in Bosnia was rendered unusable during the war, which raged from 1992 to 1995. The war damaged tracks and facilities, but the nearly 10 miles of railway bridges were the most difficult to replace, said Narcis Dzumhur, general manager of the railway company in Sarajevo. His father worked for the railroad, and Mr. Dzumhur himself began in 1967 and was manager of the Sarajevo train station during the Winter Olympics in 1984. Sasa Mehmedagic, 21, boarded the train with two friends, at the town of Doboj, during the first engine change after the train passed the boundary within Bosnia between the Muslim-Croat Federation and the Serb Republic. The town suffered through both ethnic killings and military clashes during the war, and Mr. Mehmedagic lived as a refugee in Sweden for more than two years before returning home. “I think young people realize that nationalism and racism are wrong because we are all from the same flesh,” Mr. Mehmedagic said. “I am half-Muslim and half-Serb and I’m proud of it.” The three young men said they no longer wanted to be defined along ethnic or religious lines but viewed themselves simply as Bosnians. They believed that their people were ready to move beyond the ethnic divisions that led their parents’ generation to war, they said, if their leaders stopped agitating for political gain. More than anything, they said, they want economic opportunities and the freedom to travel. “We are like in a prison,” said Predrag Bozanovic, 20, one of Mr. Mehmedagic’s best friends even though his father was killed fighting on the Bosnian Serb side during the war. Mr. Bozanovic said that during Yugoslav times his mother could travel to Trieste, Italy, on a whim just to buy bluejeans, while he and his friends had the most contact with the outside world through an online science-fiction game. Older passengers recalled the party atmosphere aboard the upscale Olympic Express during the successful Winter Games in Sarajevo. But the new train is hardly luxurious, with mismatched rail cars belonging to three different railway companies. (Croatia provided a locomotive through its territory, but not yet a passenger car.) Smoking is allowed in the Serbian-operated cafe car in Bosnia and Serbia, but not during the middle part of the trip through Croatian territory. Technical and economic problems were harder to overcome than political divisions, said Slobodan Rosic, director of the Serbian Railways Directorate, but in the last two years there were intensive negotiations and discussions among the parties to get the trains moving again, even though they were not expected to be profitable right away. “Psychologically, this is a very good thing,” Mr. Rosic said. The mood aboard the train reflected that sentiment. Zeljko Bilanovic, 59, described fond memories of the train before the war, of drinking and singing songs in the restaurant car, forming friendships and watching people fall in love. Mr. Bilanovic, an economist and publisher, followed his wife and three children to Paris from Sarajevo in 1993, where he became a house painter as a refugee. Back in Sarajevo for a visit, he and his wife decided to go to Belgrade as well, and they called the resumption of service a good sign in a time of stalemate and even setbacks. “It’s the train called hope,” Mr. Bilanovic said.

International Relations
Balkan States
Sarajevo (Bosnia and Herzegovina)
Belgrade (Serbia)
Railroads
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Montenegro
Macedonia
Kosovo


The Road to Vegas: $55 and 70 Years

Abstract: Before she retires as chief executive on March 1, Marilyn Carlson Nelson will preside over a 70th anniversary celebration in Las Vegas this week for Carlson, the travel, lodging, restaurant and marketing business that began as the Gold Bond Stamp Company in 1938. Ms. Nelson’s father, Curtis L. Carlson, started the company in Minneapolis with a $55 loan, according to the Carlson Web site. In 2006, the company, which is still based in Minnesota, had sales of $37.1 billion; it employs almost 200,000 people under operations that include T.G.I. Friday’s and Radisson Hotels. In 1998, Ms. Nelson took over the chief executive post from her father, who died the next year. Last month, the company named Hubert Joly, head of Carlson Wagonlit Travel, to succeed Ms. Nelson as chief executive; she will remain chairwoman. That announcement came after a legal battle began between Ms. Nelson and her son, Curtis Carlson Nelson , former president and chief operating officer. Mr. Nelson left the company in 2006 and contended that he had been led to believe he would become chief executive. The company and a spokesman for Mr. Nelson both said that all legal issues had been resolved. The company would not comment further. In a phone interview last week, Ms. Nelson, 68, said she was disappointed that a family member would not be running Carlson. She said she expected that over time, the job would be held at various times by “family candidates and external candidates, whoever can best lead what has become a very large company.” The Las Vegas celebration will include speeches by Peter Brabeck-Letmathe , the departing chief executive of Nestlé; Christine Lagarde , the French finance minister; and Klaus Schwab , founder of the World Economic Forum . An evening gala will feature entertainment by Tony Bennett and the appropriately Minnesotan Garrison Keillor . JANE L. LEVERE A CHARITY REMEMBERED When chief executives resign, their severance agreements usually reflect a concern for them and only them. But Peter van Stolk , the founder and departing chief executive of Jones Soda, appears to have considered people less fortunate than himself when he negotiated the terms of his departure this month. Along with $450,000 in severance, Jones agreed to pay $100,000 to Mr. van Stolk to give to Vitamin Angels, a charity focused on the nutritional health of children in underdeveloped countries. He has supported Vitamin Angels through Jones for years. Last year, the company posted a video on YouTube and pledged to give 25 cents to the charity every time somebody watched the video, up to a limit of one million viewings. PATRICK McGEEHAN RUSSIAN TYCOONS TANGLE Alisher Usmano v , a Russian billionaire who made a fortune in distressed assets of mines and steel mills, has entered a takeover struggle for Norilsk Nickel, one of the world’s largest producers of nickel and platinum group metals. It is the most ambitious maneuver yet for Mr. Usmanov, who rose from inside Gazprom in the 1990s and survived a purge at the company after President Vladimir V. Putin came to power in Russia. Now, Mr. Usmanov’s ties to Gazprom are seen as auspicious in Moscow, where reliable connections to the Kremlin are essential for business survival and success. Mr. Usmanov’s entry threatens the ambitions of another of Russia’s richest men, the aluminum tycoon Oleg Deripaska, who is trying to gain control of Norilsk. The two longtime owners of Norilsk, Vladimir Potanin and Mikhail D. Prokhorov (each worth about $21 billion, according to Finans magazine in Russia) said last year that they would divide their assets, setting off the current struggle. Mr. Prokhorov subsequently sold most of his stake to Mr. Deripaska. Norilsk, which is based in Siberia, began as a gulag slave labor camp. Today it has a market capitalization of $57 billion. ANDREW E. KRAMER PAY DELAY Many corporations allow their senior executives to defer the receipt of some of their pay and collect it later, plus interest. For Ara K. Hovnanian , the chief executive of Hovnanian Enterprises, the company’s deferred-compensation program has not been a can’t-lose proposition. The value of Mr. Hovnanian’s deferred-pay account dropped more than $13 million last year, according to the company’s proxy statement. To some degree, he suffered with the shareholders as the battering of the home-building industry took more than 75 percent off the price of Hovnanian’s stock in 2007. But unlike the rest of them, Mr. Hovnanian was able to cushion the blow with a gain of $4.6 million from exercising options on the company’s stock. PATRICK McGEEHAN

Appointments and Executive Changes
Suspensions Dismissals and Resignations
Retirement
TGI Friday's
Carlson Wagonlit Travel
Nestle SA
World Economic Forum


Ryan Zinke of Montana Brings Lessons From Navy SEALs to Washington

Abstract: WASHINGTON — Being the only member of the House of Representatives from Montana has its advantages. “We’re at least a unified voice,” said Representative Ryan Zinke, a freshman Republican. Mr. Zinke and Senators Jon Tester, a Democrat, and Steve Daines, a Republican, make up the state’s congressional delegation. Before his political career, Mr. Zinke served with the Navy SEALs until 2008, including a position as a commander at SEAL Team 6, the unit best known for killing Osama bin Laden in 2011. He earned two Bronze Stars for combat along the way. Mr. Zinke, 53, a father of three and a grandfather, said he was hyperaware of the volatile mix of politics and war, having lost his friends Tyrone S. Woods and Glen A. Doherty , both of whom were serving as C.I.A. contractors during the 2012 attacks on the diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya. Opting for cowboy boots over dress shoes, Mr. Zinke started his interview — which has been condensed here — talking about the knife collection he keeps neatly lined up in his Capitol Hill office. “It’s actually knives that were issued to me during the SEAL teams. It’s an interesting story because in 23 years with the SEALs, the start and finish are almost exactly the same knife,” he said. “They go through a period of having all the SEALs put in their own requirements that comes together in a knife that doesn’t work because it’s a trade-off. Sometimes the first idea, the simplest, is the best solution.” Is there anything you learned while a member of the Navy SEALs that applies to your time in Congress? It’s fixable. When you go out on the field, when you’re in battle, then you have to operate as a team and understand you’re doing it for a higher purpose. I think we should re-establish what the higher purpose is. We were all sent here, Republican or Democrat, to represent our district and also look at what’s in the best interest of this country. When you were campaigning, you once called Hillary Rodham Clinton “the real enemy.” That’s not really true. I was at a small fund-raiser in Bigfork, Mont. You give your little speech, and at the end of it they said, “What are the candidates that you think are going to be on the Republican side?” And they said, “What about Hillary?” I said, “You mean the Antichrist?” I had just read Bob Gates’s book, and I’m sensitive to it because I lost two friends in Benghazi. What I didn’t like about it was that in Bob Gates’s book — who I respect and served under a Democrat and a Republican president — the decision on the surge was, from Hillary’s own words, political. My daughter is a Navy diver. My son-in-law is a Navy SEAL. Whether you’re a secretary of state or a senator or potentially president of the United States, you can’t put politics first when it comes to our troops. Did the reaction to your comment teach you anything about national politics? Because people look at you differently, either you’re a candidate or a congressman, I think you have to be disciplined in what you say because people take things out of context sometimes. I’m a believer that you do need a sense of humor, that we take ourselves a little too seriously. What do you think about the Benghazi investigation? I think we deserve the truth. There’s a lot of reasons the ambassador chose not to have a military security force around him. I understand putting troops on the ground may have been a bridge too far that quickly, but we certainly had the assets available to make some show of force, and we did not. Seven hours is a long, long time. What that message tells me is that if you’re going to attack us anywhere in the world, for seven hours-plus, we can’t respond. That’s not an appropriate message. Is that what motivated you to run for Congress? As a kid who grew up in Montana, I resent regulation being formulated and forced in Washington from bureaucrats that have never been to Montana. I think it’s a reasonable request to ask if you’re going to write a piece of regulation that affects Montana, I think you should know the difference between Butte and Bozeman. Do you have any Democratic friends you have made so far? Yeah. There’s no assigned seats in the House. I spent the first couple months just getting to know my Congress. So I kind of wander around. Every Wednesday at 8:15, the Montana delegation, the Senate and myself, we have Montana coffee that includes Senator Tester, Senator Daines and myself. Senator Tester and I don’t agree on every policy. I would rather have that policy set by two guys that are from Montana rather than a policy from somebody who doesn’t know the state. Do you ever think about jumping over to the Senate? I get asked that question a lot. I just want to be a really good congressman. You should look at what you are today and be the very best you can. There’s a lot of room to improve the House side.

Ryan Zinke
Montana
US
House of Representatives
Congress
Republicans
Navy Seals


Car Bomb Kills at Least 4 in Libya

Abstract: BENGHAZI, Libya — A car explosion on a busy street killed at least four people and injured more than a dozen on Monday, stirring new anger at the failure of the transitional government to fill the security vacuum left by the ouster of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi. There was no apparent target. The blast, which took place about two blocks from a hospital, may have been set off by a car full of explosives intended for other locations. Over the last week unidentified assailants have bombed at least four empty police stations here in the early hours of the morning, in a new burst of violence after months of sporadic attacks. This was the first of the recent blasts to cause casualties and the first attack in recent memory to hit civilians. Speculation about responsibility has focused on Islamists or others seeking retribution against security forces who previously worked for Colonel Qaddafi, but some have suggested that the attacks may be the work of criminal gangs or Qaddafi loyalists. A Facebook page for a group calling itself the Islamist Front of Derna sought to claim responsibility for Monday’s bombing, but its authorship or credibility could not be confirmed. Derna is a nearby city known for its militant fervor. The recent flurry of attacks has taken place against the backdrop of a power struggle as Islamists and militia leaders have demanded the ouster of the current transitional government and civilian activists in Benghazi have responded with counterdemonstrations. Under pressure from militias and Islamists, the transitional Parliament recently passed a law barring those who worked in government under Colonel Qaddafi from holding office; among many other expulsions, the law would force out the Parliament’s elected president, Mohamed Magarief. He briefly served as an ambassador under the Qaddafi government before spending three decades in opposition in exile. The blast took place at mid-afternoon, hurling large fragments of blackened metal as far as fifty yards. A scrap about five feet long crashed through the windshield of another car, and about a dozen vehicles were damaged or destroyed. Hospital officials said in the immediate aftermath that at least three people had died but the count was tentative because some victims had been dismembered beyond recognition. By evening, Libyan news reports put the death count at four, including a thirteen-year-old. Dozens gathered in front of the courthouse to vent their anger at Libya’s feeble government. “Our demands are simple: just police and an army,” said Kamal Shuehdi, 60. “We don’t want to talk about political games.” “The people have been silent about the attacks on police stations and security forces, but now the attack is against civilians,” he said. “Benghazi should rise up for another revolution, to cleanse the first one.”

Libya
Benghazi
Bombs
Fatalities,casualties
Muammar Kaddafi


A Literary Legend Fights for a Ventura County Library

Abstract: VENTURA, Calif. — When you are pushing 90, have written scores of famous novels, short stories and screenplays, and have fulfilled the goal of taking a simulated ride to Mars, what’s left? “Bo Derek is a really good friend of mine and I’d like to spend more time with her,” said Ray Bradbury , peering up from behind an old television tray in his den. An unlikely answer, but Mr. Bradbury, the science fiction writer, is very specific in his eccentric list of interests, and his pursuit of them in his advancing age and state of relative immobility. This is a lucky thing for the Ventura County Public Libraries — because among Mr. Bradbury’s passions, none burn quite as hot as his lifelong enthusiasm for halls of books. His most famous novel, “Fahrenheit 451,” which concerns book burning, was written on a pay typewriter in the basement of the University of California, Los Angeles, library; his novel “Something Wicked This Way Comes” contains a seminal library scene. Mr. Bradbury frequently speaks at libraries across the state, and on Saturday he will make his way here for a benefit for the H. P. Wright Library, which like many others in the state’s public system is in danger of shutting its doors because of budget cuts. “Libraries raised me,” Mr. Bradbury said. “I don’t believe in colleges and universities. I believe in libraries because most students don’t have any money. When I graduated from high school, it was during the Depression and we had no money. I couldn’t go to college, so I went to the library three days a week for 10 years.” Property tax dollars, which provide most of the financing for libraries in Ventura County, have fallen precipitously, putting the library system roughly $650,000 in the hole. Almost half of that amount is attributed to the H. P. Wright Library, which serves roughly two-thirds of this coastal city about 50 miles northwest of Los Angeles. In January the branch was told that unless it came up with $280,000 it would close. The branch’s private fund-raising group, San Buenaventura Friends of the Library, has until March to reach its goal; so far it has raised $80,000. Enter Mr. Bradbury. While at a meeting concerning the library, Berta Steele, vice president of the friends group, ran into Michael Kelly, a local artist who runs the Ray Bradbury Theater and Film Foundation, a group dedicated to arts and literacy advocacy. Mr. Kelly told Ms. Steele that he could get Mr. Bradbury up to Ventura to help the library’s cause. On Saturday, the two organizations will host a $25-a-head discussion with Mr. Bradbury and present a screening of “The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit,” a film based on his short story of the same name. The fund-raiser’s financial goal is not a long-term fix. That would come only if property taxes crawl back up or voters approve a proposed half-cent increase in the local sales tax in November, some of which would go to libraries. Fiscal threats to libraries deeply unnerve Mr. Bradbury, who spends as much time as he can talking to children in libraries and encouraging them to read. The Internet? Don’t get him started. “The Internet is a big distraction,” Mr. Bradbury barked from his perch in his house in Los Angeles, which is jammed with enormous stuffed animals, videos, DVDs, wooden toys, photographs and books, with things like the National Medal of Arts sort of tossed on a table. “Yahoo called me eight weeks ago,” he said, voice rising. “They wanted to put a book of mine on Yahoo! You know what I told them? ‘To hell with you. To hell with you and to hell with the Internet.’ “It’s distracting,” he continued. “It’s meaningless; it’s not real. It’s in the air somewhere.” A Yahoo spokeswoman said it was impossible to verify Mr. Bradbury’s account without more details. Mr. Bradbury has long been known for his clear memory of some of life’s events, and that remains the case, he said. “I have total recall,” he said. “I remember being born. I remember being in the womb, I remember being inside. Coming out was great.” He also recalled watching the film “Pumping Iron,” which features Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in his body-building days, and how his personal recommendation of the film for an Academy Award helped spark Mr. Schwarzenegger’s Hollywood career. He remembers lining his four daughters’ cribs with Golden Books when they were tiny. And he remembers meeting Ms. Derek on a train in France years ago. “She said, ‘Mr. Bradbury.’ I said, ‘Yes.’ She said: ‘I love you! My name is Bo Derek.’ ” Ms. Derek’s spokeswoman, Rona Menashe, said the story was true. She said her client would like to see some more of Mr. Bradbury, too. Mr. Bradbury’s wife, Maggie, to whom he was married for over five decades, died in 2003. He turns 89 in August. When he is not raising money for libraries, Mr. Bradbury still writes for a few hours every morning (“I can’t tell you,” is the answer to any questions on his latest book); reads George Bernard Shaw; receives visitors including reporters, filmmakers, friends and children of friends; and watches movies on his giant flat-screen television. He can still be found regularly at the Los Angeles Public Library branch in Koreatown, which he visited often as a teenager. “The children ask me, ‘How can I live forever, too?’ ” he said. “I tell them do what you love and love what you do. That’s the story on my life.”

Bradbury Ray
Books and Literature
Libraries and Librarians
Writing and Writers
California


Finger-Pointing Abounds in Failed Pfizer Deal

Abstract: Pfizer’s abandoned deal leaves all sides tainted. The United States Treasury looks bad for changing the rules on Monday to kill the $152 billion merger with Allergan. Lawmakers’ inaction encouraged such tax-driven transactions. But Pfizer and its chief executive, Ian C. Read, bear the most responsibility for wasting time and resources pushing an overpriced, risky deal. Treasury has now several times tried to close various loopholes that have allowed companies to change their home turf from the United States to countries with more favorable tax regimes. The standards announced on Monday directly aimed at Pfizer’s deal, as they disregard United States assets acquired in the last three years. That eliminates Allergan and its low Irish tax rate as a target. It is unclear if the Treasury Department has overstepped its authority. But rapidly shifting laws, especially when applied retroactively, are bad for business and legal authority. Lawmakers emerge covered in tar, too. They could have stopped inversions cold by adopting a territorial tax system. This would have stopped American companies having to pay an extra levy to Washington on cash earned overseas if local taxes are lower than the statutory rate in the United States. Their fecklessness encouraged Pfizer and other firms to pursue complicated deals where the main payoff is tax avoidance. Most of the finger-pointing should be directed at Pfizer and Mr. Read. This is the second failed mega-deal, after its pursuit of AstraZeneca fell apart in 2014. The Allergan combination was no slam dunk to start with. The net present value of the $2 billion in annual cuts that Mr. Read proclaimed the deal would generate, and the $1.2 billion or so of tax savings, struggled to match the premium offered last November. Perhaps Pfizer could have found more tax loopholes or costs to cut. But big pharmaceutical deals tend to promise much on paper and deliver little in reality. The minuscule $150 million Pfizer is paying as a fee to Allergan indicates that it knew the odds were high that the deal might be abandoned. Engaging in such a high-risk venture for little obvious benefit makes a good case for shareholders to question Mr. Read’s – and the board’s - decision making.

Pfizer
Allergan
Treasury Department
Ian Read
Mergers and Acquisitions
Tax


Yankees Betrayed by Their Bats

Abstract: They played baseball for 11 innings Wednesday night at Yankee Stadium, or about two too many as far as the Yankees were concerned. In their minds, there never should have been a 10th inning. Or an 11th. Instead of answering questions about another well-pitched victory, the Yankees were left to deal with a staggering defeat, 4-3 to the Kansas City Royals , after their offense betrayed them. Hits were not their problem — they had 12 — but hits with runners in scoring position were. “When you let those opportunities pass by, you don’t know how many more you’re going to get,” Mark Teixeira said. Buddy Carlyle was the losing pitcher, and Luis Ayala, the team’s fifth reliever, allowed the go-ahead run to score on a sacrifice fly, but they probably should not have been in position to pitch in the first place. In all, the Yankees went 2 for 16 with runners in scoring position and stranded 15 runners, including Curtis Granderson, whose two-out single tied the score, to end the 10th. “It’s pretty tough, unless they’re three-run homers,” Manager Joe Girardi said. “We had a ton of opportunities. We just never cashed in.” The Royals were slightly more efficient, turning 4 hits and 11 walks into their four runs. There was nobody left — no pitchers, no bullpen coach, no one — in the Yankees’ bullpen when Ayala shut the door behind him, coming in after Carlyle walked Chris Getz to begin the 11th. A bunt pushed Getz to second, and after Jarrod Dyson reached on an infield single and stole second, the Yankees intentionally walked Melky Cabrera to pitch to Eric Hosmer, whose flyout to center drove in the winning run. The Royals, held to one hit over seven innings by A. J. Burnett , tied the score in the eighth against Dave Robertson, who assumed setup duties because Rafael Soriano (inflamed right elbow) and Joba Chamberlain (excessive use) were unavailable. Robertson alternated walks with outs, and with two on, two out and two strikes, Wilson Betemit yanked a curveball into right-center field to score Cabrera. “I didn’t want it there,” Robertson said. “I wanted it further down.” Burnett allowed only a fourth-inning homer to Hosmer, the first of his career, but walked five. He also hit a batter, which came a few minutes after the game nearly took a frightening turn. In the bottom of the fifth, an errant 93-mile-an-hour fastball from Travis Adcock drilled Robinson Cano on the right side of the helmet, knocking him to the dirt. Girardi and the assistant trainer Steve Donohue rushed to Cano, who sat up almost immediately, but they erred on the side of caution and removed him from the game as he walked toward first base. His C.T. scan was negative. Baseball’s unwritten rules call for retaliation, and that might have been on Burnett’s mind in the top of the sixth, when he nailed Jeff Francoeur on the back of his left shoulder. “I don’t think anybody wants to hit a guy with one out and a one-run lead,” Burnett said. After the umpire Ed Rapuano warned both teams, Burnett regrouped. A precarious situation beckoned — two on, one out, 2-1 game — and he recovered to retire Betemit and Brayan Pena. A week after carrying a no-hit bid into the sixth inning, Burnett held the Royals hitless through three until his shutout was snapped, too. Leading off the fourth, Hosmer, a 21-year-old first baseman and one of the top prospects in baseball, slugged a full-count fastball into the second deck in right field. When fans tossed the ball back onto the field, Derek Jeter retrieved it and tossed it toward the Royals’ dugout for a keepsake. Burnett set down the next five hitters before his maddening side appeared in the fifth, escaping after issuing consecutive two-out walks to the Nos. 9 and 1 hitters, Alcides Escobar and Dyson, who began the day hitting .233 and .188, with no home runs.Over the last two years, the Yankees have grown accustomed to thrashing a pitcher who grew up as one of their biggest fans. In three previous starts, Vin Mazzaro of Rutherford, N.J., held a 9.69 earned run average against them. He lasted four innings Wednesday, this time victimized by a high pitch count, 94. The Yankees reached base in every inning against Mazzaro but scored only twice, on a second-inning single by Jorge Posada, who drove in his first run since May 2, and on another home run by Granderson, who assumed the major league lead with 12. The Yankees were relieved after a magnetic resonance imaging exam revealed only inflammation in Soriano’s right elbow. He will miss the final two games of the Kansas City series in hopes of being available Friday against the Boston Red Sox. Soriano was limited to 14 appearances for Atlanta in 2008 because of elbow problems, but Girardi said he was led to believe that the current occurrence was not severe. “Right now it isn’t, but if it reoccurs, then you start to get more concerned,” Girardi said. “Hopefully just a few days off will knock it out.” INSIDE PITCH In the spring of 1962, Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris and Whitey Ford trained in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., where a high school senior named Gene Monahan served as a Yankees bat boy and clubhouse attendant. So began 49 years of continuous service for Monahan, the team’s head trainer since 1973, who choked back tears Wednesday as he announced his retirement, effective at the end of the season. “I knew this day was coming,” said Monahan, 66, “but I didn’t realize it was coming this soon.”... The Yankees lost a game in which they had at least eight more hits than their opponent for the first time since July 4, 2004, against the Mets, and only the third time since 1958. ... The Yankees optioned the right-hander Lance Pendleton to Class AAA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre to clear roster space for Luis Ayala.

Baseball
New York Yankees
Kansas City Royals
Burnett A J


N.C.A.A. Sanctions Will Take Toll on Southern California

Abstract: At the W hotel on Lexington Avenue in Midtown Manhattan on Tuesday night, the Pac-10 unveiled its new logo, philosophy and direction. Years of apathy about marketing disappeared in a literal cloud of smoke: at a cocktail reception, the Pac-10’s new logo was projected on a wall of smoke piped into the Whiskey Blue lounge. Well-known guests mingled, with the name tags ranging from Chase Carey, News Corporation’s chief operating officer, to ESPN’s Kirk Herbstreit. But amid the optimism, uncertainty hung in the air. All the revamped branding cannot change the league’s new on-field reality — it will have to thrive this season and beyond with a watered-down version of its flagship program, sanction-riddled Southern California. The new U.S.C. football media guide perhaps summed that up best, showing a picture of Lane Kiffin, the Trojans’ first-year coach, staring at a cloudy horizon. On the inside, a flurry of asterisks — about 100 over all — tried to erase many of the accomplishments of the Pete Carroll era. As the Pac-10 tries a bold makeover, U.S.C. is lurching into a meek new era. Seemingly doomed to a long period of mediocrity in the wake of a two-year bowl ban, the loss of 30 scholarships and a flurry of attrition from the ranks of its recruits, the once-mighty Trojans are contemplating life as one of college football’s have-nots. “They have an us-versus-the-world mentality right now,” Kiffin said about his players. “Everyone is counting S.C. out a little bit.” Until recently, considering U.S.C. an underdog would have been like lumping the Yankees with the Kansas City Royals or worrying that LeBron James was being hindered by a lack of exposure. The Trojans had cornered the market on sideline celebrities and national cachet, and had become one of football’s premier pipelines of talent to the N.F.L. But t he N.C.A.A.’s scathing report about U.S.C. has raised suspicions that the university’s success could be tied to its lack of compliance with N.C.A.A. rules. As Kiffin tries to lead the program out of its probationary wilderness, he is likely to be held to the unrealistic standards set by Carroll in an era when the Trojans seemed to have engaged in widespread cheating. “No one likes to see sanctions, especially the magnitude that have been handed down,” said Pac-10 Commissioner Larry Scott, who along with Kiffin made sure to point out that the sanctions are under appeal. “In the long term, U.S.C. is still U.S.C.” The immediate future does not look awful for the Trojans, Washington Coach Steve Sarkisian said. U.S.C.’s talent level is clearly the highest in the conference, and the Trojans have one of the country’s top quarterbacks in the sophomore Matt Barkley. “You can trade the bottom 20 guys or 25 guys on your roster for a great quarterback,” Kiffin said. “It’s more important.” Kiffin may come to regret that remark because his depleted roster may be his biggest obstacle. It fell to 70 scholarship players Wednesday when the university gave a full release to the junior college linebacker Glen Stanley. Four reserves and two signees have bolted the program. U.S.C. was already 15 scholarships short of the N.C.A.A. maximum of 85 before the reduction of 30 scholarships began. Kiffin said U.S.C. will be unable to exceed 75 scholarships in the next three years. Kiffin said that U.S.C. had brought in just three offensive linemen in its past two recruiting classes. Eight to 10 would have been ideal, and he is feeling the numbers crunch. “The margin for error is very, very small for me,” Kiffin said. “If we’re going to sign classes of 15 guys and other people are signing 25, the last thing we can do is sign three guys who don’t make it academically or two guys who end up getting kicked out of school.” There are other signs that Kiffin’s tenure at U.S.C. could be more of a blip than a reign. He said Tuesday that the Trojans’ new athletic director , Pat Haden, has not mentioned anything about extending his contract to help him survive the sanctions. That is a common practice when a coach has to deal with the sins of a previous regime. Haden’s tolerance for nonsense is limited. He ordered Reggie Bush’s Heisman Trophy taken out of Heritage Hall soon after taking over for Mike Garrett. Bush, a running back for the Trojans, and his family members received gifts from two off-campus agents, the N.C.A.A. report said. The days of Garrett issuing video releases instead of answering questions from members of the news media are over. Kiffin, once an assistant under Carroll, will have to function in a culture of accountability, but he was known in his single year as the coach at Tennessee for breaking secondary N.C.A.A. rules and garnering unwanted publicity. From antagonizing Florida Coach Urban Meyer to the N.C.A.A. looking into the Vols’ use of hostesses in recruiting, Kiffin’s ability to make headlines resonated more than his coaching. Kiffin said he has tried to tone things down at U.S.C., and he said his stunts at Tennessee were publicity ploys for a program in need of a jump start. When Tennessee Titans Coach Jeff Fisher publicly scolded and later sued Kiffin and U.S.C. in a flap over the hiring of Kennedy Pola , a Titans assistant coach, Kiffin could only say, “Definitely, that was not done on purpose.” U.S.C. still has tradition, a fertile recruiting base and plenty of recent success on its side. But as Kiffin’s first Trojans training camp starts next week, the long-term prognosis is not good as he stares at an emaciated roster and impending sanctions.

University of Southern California
College Athletics
Pacific-10 Conference
Football
Basketball


Dispute Over Sign in White Plains

Abstract: WHITE PLAINS IN the past several months, the longstanding and mostly harmonious relationship between the City Council here and Louis R. Cappelli , a developer who has spent more than $1 billion to transform the once-faded downtown, has showed signs of fraying. But matters have taken a noticeable turn for the worse in recent weeks and, Mr. Cappelli says, what once seemed like a perfect marriage of mutual interests is about to unravel. After seven years during which the developer built, among other things, the 1.1 million-square-foot City Center with a 35-story Trump Tower and a Ritz-Carlton hotel with two condominium wings, the two parties are squabbling over a small granite slab and one new tree that the developer installed on a 300-square-foot, city-owned traffic island. There, in the middle of Main Street, one of the city’s busiest thoroughfares, the slab — four feet high and 5 ½ feet wide — reads, “Ritz-Carlton,” noting the hotel entrance on a street built by Mr. Cappelli and named Renaissance Square at his request. On April 7, all six Democrats on the City Council rejected Mr. Cappelli’s offer to buy the traffic island for $18,000 and take responsibility for any dangers it might pose to motorists. Several council members say they think developers have been given too much, and they want to be more cautious about how development proceeds. Only Joseph M. Delfino, the mayor and lone Republican on the council, was sympathetic to Mr. Cappelli and to the hotel that opened several months ago. Mr. Delfino said the sign should stay. If the city’s Department of Public Works removes the slab because the developer refuses to. and then charges him for it, Mr. Cappelli has vowed to send a film crew to videotape the process and circulate the images to prospective builders. It will serve as a warning, Mr. Cappelli said last week through Geoff Thompson, a spokesman, that White Plains is hostile to developers. Mr. Thompson said that while White Plains is chafing about Mr. Cappelli’s use of municipal property for his sign, the city is using part of the developer’s property for an electronic sign that advertises its parking garage adjacent to City Center. Why all the furor now between two parties who have long shared a goal of rebuilding White Plains? According to Councilman Glen Hockley, it may be a matter of colliding egos. “No developer can come in here high-handed and just because of what he’s done and accomplished for the city expect to get special treatment,” he said. Mr. Hockley said that even though Mr. Cappelli was willing to buy the traffic island, the city was under no obligation to sell the property. “No one can tell us what to do,” he said. Councilman Dennis J. Power, who ran for mayor unsuccessfully against Mr. Delfino three years ago, objected to Mr. Cappelli’s use of city land to advertise his project. He said the dispute had “nothing to do with political differences” between council members and the mayor over how fast development should proceed. Mr. Delfino is widely credited for leading the push in the past decade to redevelop the city, and Mr. Power is an advocate for moderate growth. Mr. Power supported the council’s decision to delay approval of Mr. Cappelli’s application last year seeking exclusive development rights for construction of a $1 billion mixed-use development that would include a new Metro-North station and 1.5 million square feet of office space. Angry and frustrated at the council’s decision to consider other proposals for the site, Mr. Cappelli withdrew his request altogether. It was one of the first signs that his relationship with the city was wearing thin. Some, though, are optimistic that the differences over the granite slab will be resolved and that Mr. Cappelli will continue to build in downtown. “This has all created quite a stir, but maybe it can be worked out through some kind of licensing agreement,” suggested Paul S. Wood, White Plains’s executive officer, saying that the issue had taken on larger proportions than it merited. “It really is a bit of a tempest in a teapot,” Mr. Wood said.

Cappelli Louis R
White Plains (NY)
Roads and Traffic


Reports of Prison Abuse and Deaths Anger Iranians

Abstract: DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Some prisoners say they watched fellow detainees being beaten to death by guards in overcrowded, stinking holding pens. Others say they had their fingernails ripped off or were forced to lick filthy toilet bowls. The accounts of prison abuse in Iran ’s postelection crackdown — relayed by relatives and on opposition Web sites — have set off growing outrage among Iranians, including some prominent conservatives. More bruised corpses have been returned to families in recent days, and some hospital officials have told human rights workers that they have seen evidence that well over 100 protesters have died since the vote. On Tuesday, the government released 140 prisoners in one of several conciliatory gestures aimed at deflecting further criticism. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad issued a letter urging the head of the judiciary to show “Islamic mercy” to the detainees, and on Monday Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, personally intervened and closed an especially notorious detention center. But there are signs that widespread public anger persists, and that it is not confined to those who took to the streets crying fraud after Mr. Ahmadinejad’s landslide victory last month. Several conservatives have said the abuse suggests a troubling lack of accountability, and they have hinted at a link with Mr. Ahmadinejad’s recent willingness to defy even the venerated Ayatollah Khamenei. “Why did things have to go so far as to require the personal intervention of the supreme leader?” said Ali Mottahari, a conservative Parliament member. “If we are satisfied just to close one detention center, these people will continue to do what they have done elsewhere and nothing will change.” Although the government has played down the scale of the prison abuses, some detainees’ relatives have come forward recently to confirm them, mostly to opposition-linked Web sites that have provided credible information in the past, including roozonline.com and gooya.com . Some deaths have been further documented with photographs or videotapes. Hospital officials have described receiving bodies of those killed in protests, with the total far in excess of 20, the government’s initial figure. It is difficult to confirm such reports independently, given the restrictions on reporting in Iran. The anger has spread from opposition supporters into Iran’s hard-line camp in part because of the case of Mohsen Ruholamini, the son of an adviser to the conservative presidential candidate Mohsen Rezai, who died in prison after a severe beating. A bitter political dispute among conservatives over Mr. Ahmadinejad’s cabinet decisions may also have helped fuel the issue. The prison abuses have also galvanized the opposition movement, whose leaders asked for permission to hold a mass mourning ceremony on Thursday in honor of those killed since the election. The Interior Ministry on Tuesday refused permission for the gathering, but the main opposition leaders, Mir Hussein Moussavi and Mehdi Karroubi, said they would hold a public ceremony anyway, several Web sites reported. Thursday is a day of unusual symbolic importance because it will be 40 days since the shooting of Neda Agha-Soltan, a young woman whose death during a demonstration was captured on video and ignited outrage across the globe. The 40th day marks an important Shiite mourning ritual; similar commemorations for dead protesters fueled the demonstrations that led to the Islamic Revolution in 1979. Questions about the prison abuse have gained more importance in recent days, not only because of the opposition’s public protests but also because the stories have multiplied. One young man posted an account on Tuesday of his ordeal at the Kahrizak camp, which was ordered closed on Monday by Ayatollah Khamenei. “We were all standing so close to each other that no one could move,” he wrote in a narrative posted online. “The plainclothes guards came into the room and broke all the light bulbs, and in the pitch dark started beating us, whoever they could.” By morning, at least four detainees were dead, he added. In another account posted online, a former detainee describes being made to lie facedown on the floor of a police station bathroom, where an officer would step on his neck and force him to lick the toilet bowl as the officer cursed reformist politicians. A woman described having her hair pulled as interrogators demanded that she confess to having sex with political figures. When she was finally released, she was forced — like many others — to sign a paper saying she had never been mistreated. Mr. Moussavi spoke out Monday in unusually strong and angry terms, accusing the government of brutality and irreligion, and warning that its conduct toward the detainees could set off a much greater reaction. “They cannot turn this nation into a prison of 70 million people,” Mr. Moussavi said, adding later that “the more people they arrest, the more widespread the movement will become.” The prisoner release on Tuesday appeared to be the act of a government desperate to defuse the issue, coming just one day after the head of Iran’s judiciary promised that the detainees’ cases would be expedited. Government officials say that of at least 2,500 people arrested in the postelection crackdown, about 150 remain in prison. In announcing the release, Saeed Jalili, the secretary of the National Security Council of Iran, sounded a defensive note, saying that those still in jail “are people for whom there are documents stating they were in possession of firebombs and weapons, including firearms, and who had caused serious damage to public property.” But Mr. Mottahari, the lawmaker, said Tuesday that those responsible for the deaths of detainees must also be identified and punished. Others have gone further, saying the prison abuses suggest a government lurching dangerously out of control. “Those who have turned this society into a police state and have ordered the use of force have to be held accountable,” said Hamid-Reza Katouzian, a hard-line member of Parliament. “The police and the Ministry of Intelligence have told us that they are on the sidelines, and we do not know who is responsible or accountable.” Mr. Katouzian is a close friend of Mr. Ruholamini’s family, and his comments appeared to reflect personal outrage over that case. But his remarks also echoed a broader, longstanding concern about the Revolutionary Guards and the Basij militia taking over law enforcement functions and acting beyond the knowledge of legislators. Senior clerics have also weighed in, warning that tolerating such injustices could endanger Iran’s theocracy. “The shameful recent events have distressed everyone and been a source of worry for all those who love their country and the Islamic republic,” said Grand Ayatollah Abdul-Karim Mousavi Ardebili , adding a plea for the government to release detainees. The number of those killed since the election is impossible to determine, and it includes at least a few members of the Basij militia as well as protesters. One human rights group, International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran , said it spoke to doctors in three Tehran hospitals who registered the bodies of 34 protesters on June 20 alone. Other doctors have provided similar accounts and have estimated a death toll of at least 150 based on corpses they saw. Earlier this month, family members of missing demonstrators were taken to a morgue in southwest Tehran where they reported seeing “hundreds of corpses” and were not allowed to retrieve bodies unless they certified that the deaths were of natural causes, according to accounts relayed on Web sites and to human rights workers.


Marketing a Drink, but Never by Name

Abstract: COMMERCIALS for Coca-Cola are sometimes so completely shrouded by storytelling that viewers can make a game of brand-spotting. The game — let’s call it “Spot the Coke Can” — takes a particularly long time during the cinematic spots in movie theaters. In the global advertising campaign called Open Happiness that was introduced in January, the Coca Cola Company takes the game to a logical last step by omitting any reference to the brand in a catchy song it created and sold last winter. With the title “Open Happiness,” the song is an advertisement by association.  Coca-Cola signed a crew of well-known band members and performers to record the single. It also produced several different language versions for other countries. On Thursday morning, the song will take another promotional step forward when MTV is expected to show the premiere of the music video for “Open Happiness.” Coca-Cola said it did not pay MTV for the showing. As is the case with the song, viewers of the video will be hard-pressed to spot the Coca-Cola brand. “I studied the video like the Zapruder film,” said a Coke spokesman, Petro Kacur, and the Coke reference “is so super-fast that you really have to be looking for it.” Umut Ozaydinli, the global music marketing manager for the Coca-Cola Company, said the upbeat song pulled consumers into the Open Happiness campaign, rather than pushing it on them like traditional advertising. “Coca-Cola is such a strong and magical brand that we can come out with something with no branding or very little branding,” he said in a telephone interview from Turkey on Wednesday, where the company plans to release a Turkish-language version of the song. “All the communications we are doing around the song enable consumers to connect the song with the brand.” While Coca-Cola has produced songs in the past — before the Summer Olympics in Beijing last year, the company released eight song remixes by D.J.’s — “Open Happiness” stands out because the company is charging for the single on iTunes and Amazon.com . The musical strategy may remind some of “I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing,” the jingle-turned-pop-hit that was first featured as a part of Coca-Cola’s classic 1971 commercial known as “Hilltop.” In the commercial, young people sang about wanting to “buy the world a Coke.” “I think they have been looking for something that has that kind of impact,” said John Rudolph, the chief executive of Bug Music, which licenses songs for commercial uses. Music is, of course, an important part of many advertisers’ messages. Last year, for instance, the R&B singer Chris Brown released a hit song, “Forever,” that doubled as a jingle for the Doublemint brand of gum. The song even incorporated the product’s slogan, “double your pleasure, double your fun,” into the lyrics. Mr. Rudolph noted that few companies are able to afford the production of an original song that doesn’t even mention the brand. But if any company can, it’s Coca-Cola. For “Open Happiness,” the company collaborated with Atlantic Records and signed Cee-Lo Green of Gnarls Barkley, Patrick Stump of Fall Out Boy, Brendon Urie of Panic at the Disco, Travis McCoy of Gym Class Heroes, and Janelle Monae to lend their voices to the song. Ms. Monae, a Grammy -nominated singer and songwriter, said it “was promoting a good cause,” happiness, that all people could agree on. Being able to work with fellow artists and “write the words and lyrics that we like without feeling like the company was saying, ‘Sing about Coca-Cola,’ it made it more true to my core values,” she said.  The lyrics for the “Open Happiness” song are as sweet and bubbly as the soft drink. “C’mon and lift me up, it’s a brand new day, open up a lil’ happiness today, so I can be someone new,” goes the chorus. The single was released in the United States in March. Tying the music video to the Coke commercials for the campaign is the same five-note melody. Mr. Ozaydinli speculated that the lack of an in-your-face Coke message is “one of the key reasons” consumers have shown interest in the song. On MySpace, it has been streamed more than 600,000 times. According to Coca-Cola, the single reached the No. 1 spot on the top 100 music download chart of Baidu.com, a leading Chinese Web site. But it has not found as many fans in the United States: it reached No. 37 on Apple iTunes pop chart for a short period of time, the company said, and no longer appears on the iTunes lists. Mr. Ozaydinli acknowledged that the song did not perform as well in the United States, but said that “chart success is only one element of the equation.” Mr. Ozaydinli said Coca-Cola may sell copies of the single in some markets. Coca-Cola said it would consider producing future songs for the Open Happiness campaign in the coming months. A half-French, half-English-language version of the tune will be released in time for the Winter Olympics in Vancouver next year.

Coca-Cola Co
Advertising and Marketing
Soft Drinks
Online Advertising


Outcome of Sri Lanka’s Long War May Hang on Fate of Insurgent Leader

Abstract: COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Will he kill himself? This is a practical military question now as the Sri Lankan Army closes in on Velupillai Prabhakaran and the stubborn core of his Tamil separatist insurgency. There is always the possibility that Mr. Prabhakaran, 54, is already dead or that he has fled the military offensive, and those questions, too, are critical as the army seeks a final victory and plans ahead for the aftermath of the 25-year civil war. Mr. Prabhakaran is the founder and driving force of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam , a separatist insurgency that is known for its resourcefulness, its brutality and its suicide attacks. His determination and refusal to compromise have kept the insurgency alive, rescuing it at various points over the years from what had seemed to be approaching defeat. Which is why the question of Mr. Prabhakaran’s fate now looms so large. The insurgency may well be vanquished with or without him. But the chances that it could regroup as a guerrilla force, and continue to fight with the same savage determination, are far greater if he remains its leader. A pioneer in the tactic of suicide bombings, Mr. Prabhakaran created a squad called the Black Tigers — up to 40 percent of its members women — that carried out scores of attacks over the years, both targeted assassinations and mass terrorist killings. Many of his regular fighters have taken their own lives as well rather than surrender, biting into cyanide tablets that they often carry on strings like small memento mori around their necks. This dedication is part of a cult-like devotion to Mr. Prabhakaran — a chubby man with a thick mustache whose charisma is not always evident to outsiders — and nobody knows what will come of his mission once he is gone. Without Mr. Prabhakaran, some analysts say, his rebellion may collapse. Or perhaps he might be seen as a martyr and a rallying cry for further insurgency. Just as Mr. Prabhakaran’s fate dominates questions about the end of the war , his remorselessness and ruthlessness have made him the dominant figure in Sri Lanka for the past quarter century. His insurgency has held the country hostage to terrorism. It has held back social and economic development, heightened violent ethnic divisions and pushed the government toward a more repressive posture. There have been cease-fires and negotiations over the years; all have failed because Mr. Prabhakaran would not give up the war. Presidents have come and gone, their policies shaded by harder or softer lines toward his insurgency. Mr. Prabhakaran has mostly remained constant, a man who is ready “to take any method, however repulsive, as long as it furthered his struggle,” according to a biography, “Inside an Elusive Mind: Prabhakaran,” by M. R. Narayan Swamy. Though they rarely claim responsibility for their missions, his suicide bombers are suspected in the deaths of two national leaders — former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi of India in 1991 and President Ranasinghe Premadasa of Sri Lanka in 1993. “Our methods of warfare are unacceptable to various people,” S. Subramaniam, a longtime associate of Mr. Prabhakaran, is quoted as saying in Mr. Swamy’s book. “But Prabhakaran as well as our movement have survived precisely because of them.” A high school dropout from a middle-class family, Mr. Prabhakaran ignited the insurgency by assassinating a governor of Jaffna in 1975, walking up to him at a Hindu temple and shooting him point-blank. Jaffna, where Mr. Prabhakaran was born, is the center of what separatists call Eelam, a region in which the rebels want to create a separate state for the mostly Hindu Tamils, who make up 12 percent of Sri Lanka’s population of 21 million. Since Sri Lanka became independent from Britain in 1948, Buddhist Sinhalese, who form a majority, have pushed Tamils into the margins, declaring Sinhala the national language and Buddhism the principal religion, and securing privileges for Sinhalese in education and government jobs. Mr. Prabhakaran, who is fascinated by guns, meticulous in military planning and more ruthless than his rivals, built a fanatical armed movement while reaching out to a wealthy Tamil diaspora to finance his well-armed insurgency. A master of escape and concealment, he has only rarely given interviews, emerging each year in November for an annual address. “No sane voice is being raised,” he said in his address last year, “either to abandon war or to seek a peaceful solution to the conflict.” His quiet demeanor has puzzled outsiders, who have found him neat, polished and soft-spoken to the point of shyness. “The quietest man I have come across,” said Sadanand Menon, a veteran Indian journalist, who met him in the early 1980s. “He was so soft-spoken that you could not hear him under his breath. It made you wonder, even if momentarily, if he really led the Tamil Tigers.” Anita Pratap, another prominent Indian journalist who met him around the same time, put it this way: “My first impression was that of utter disappointment. He looked stunningly ordinary. Dressed in a light blue shirt and gray trousers, he could have easily been mistaken for a petty Tamil businessman.” Since last August, the military has driven the Tigers out of strongholds in the north and cornered them by the northeastern shore, on a spit of land just 7.5 miles long and 1.3 miles wide. Trapped with them are tens of thousands of Tamil civilians who had fled the fighting elsewhere. The Tigers have been accused of kidnapping the civilians en masse, shooting some who tried to leave and dragooning many others, including children, to take up arms and join them. The Sri Lankan military appears determined to end the war now, but the separatist fighters show no sign of backing down. If Mr. Prabhakaran is killed in a final offensive — or if he kills himself — thousands of civilians could die with him.

Sri Lanka
Prabhakaran Velupillai
Civil War and Guerrilla Warfare
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam
Politics and Government
Sinhalese (Ethnic Group)


House Passes Domestic Violence Bill

Abstract: WASHINGTON — After a fierce fight, full of gender politics, the House passed a Republican bill on Wednesday to combat violence against women, over objections from President Obama and other Democrats, who said it would reduce protections for many battered women, including lesbians, American Indians and illegal immigrants. The 222-to-205 vote clears the way for negotiations with the Senate, which passed a more expansive version last month by a vote of 68 to 31. Some version of the legislation is likely to become law before elections this fall. But first, Democrats said, they want to force the likely Republican presidential nominee, Mitt Romney, to choose between the House bill and the Senate measure, which was approved with support from 15 Republicans. Mr. Obama threatened to veto the House bill. But it passed, with support from 216 Republicans and 6 Democrats. Twenty-three Republicans joined 182 Democrats in voting against the bill. The bill would reauthorize programs operated under the Violence Against Women Act of 1994, which has provided lifesaving assistance to hundreds of thousands of women. In the past, it was renewed with bipartisan support. Representatives Sandy Adams, Republican of Florida, and Gwen Moore, Democrat of Wisconsin, both said they had experienced domestic violence, but they took radically different positions. Mrs. Adams, a former deputy sheriff in Orange County, is the chief sponsor of the House bill, while Ms. Moore was one of the most outspoken critics. Mrs. Adams said Democrats had “created a phony war on women to score political points.” “Turning this reauthorization into a political issue is not only wrong,” she said. “It is dangerous. We can’t allow domestic violence to become a campaign issue.” Ms. Moore said that under the bill “abusers’ rights prevail over the rights of the victim,” and she assailed the measure as “a direct assault on women’s lives.” Representative Lamar Smith, Republican of Texas and chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said Democrats were exploiting the legislation for political gain, “instead of working with Republicans to protect women from domestic violence, rape and stalking.” But Democrats said major provisions were opposed by groups representing women, law enforcement officers and churches. The American Bar Association also opposed the House bill, calling it “a retreat from the battle against domestic and sexual violence.” Democrats said they were dismayed by the House bill, but delighted at the prospect that Republicans would alienate female voters by pushing the legislation in this election year — after battles over contraception and other issues of concern to women. The House bill omits three provisions of the Senate measure. One would allow Indian tribal courts to try certain non-Indians accused of committing crimes of domestic violence on reservations. Another would expand the number of temporary visas for illegal immigrant victims of domestic violence. The last would extend protections to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender victims of domestic violence. Representative Zoe Lofgren, Democrat of California, said: “The House bill rolls back protections for battered spouses and victims of serious crimes such as rape and sexual assault. It does so by weakening or repealing provisions that have had near-unanimous support of Democrats and Republicans in years past.” Representative Rubén Hinojosa, Democrat of Texas, said the bill “shifts power into the hands of abusers.” But Representative Virginia Foxx, Republican of North Carolina, said “it really pains me” to hear Democrats assert that Republicans do not care about domestic violence. “We are strengthening the Violence Against Women Act, not weakening it,” Ms. Foxx said. “We want to see women served better and money spent better. Our goal is to ensure that more money is spent on direct services and less on administrative bureaucracy.” Representative Lynn Jenkins, Republican of Kansas, said, “Any attempt to exploit this bill as a partisan political issue is contemptible.” Representative John Conyers Jr. of Michigan, the senior Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, said that the bill — even with last-minute changes by House Republican leaders — was “worse than current law.” It would, he said, make it more difficult for immigrants to obtain visas so they could help law enforcement officials investigate and prosecute domestic violence and similar crimes. Leaders of 31 religious groups, including the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, the National Association of Evangelicals and the Episcopal Church, opposed immigration provisions of the House bill. These provisions “would actually roll back protections in current law for battered noncitizens, making them more vulnerable and, in some cases, endangering their lives,” the groups said in a letter to House leaders. Democrats tried unsuccessfully to expand protections for gays and lesbians. “Studies show that lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender victims experience domestic violence at roughly the same rate as the general population,” but they are less likely to receive help, said Representative Jared Polis, Democrat of Colorado.

Domestic Violence
Women and Girls
Republican Party
House of Representatives
Democratic Party
Obama Barack
United States Politics and Government
Law and Legislation


A Diminutive Cellphone Shows Signs of Intelligence

Abstract: The Cingular 3125, better known in phone-geek circles as the Star Trek because of its similarity to the communicators on the Starship Enterprise, is a full-featured smartphone in a cellphone’s body. The four-ounce 3125 is the first clamshell-style phone to run Windows Mobile 5.0 for Smartphones and features a 1.3-megapixel camera. While it does not have a full keyboard, it can be used to send e-mail, browse the Internet and listen to music. It also has Bluetooth wireless networking and a Micro SD memory expansion slot. Clad in black plastic and featuring music buttons on the front, the 3125 is fairly austere. A 1.2-inch screen lights up to display a song name or identify a caller. Opening the phone reveals punched metal keys much like the Motorola Razr ’s and a 2.2-inch color display. The software has contact management tools and a calendar that synchronizes with a Windows PC. The phone is available online and in Cingular stores for about $150 with a new contract. While you can’t use the 3125 to ask Scotty to beam you up, you can check your e-mail, then call Mom to pick you up from soccer practice. JOHN BIGGS

Cellular Telephones
Wireless Communications


N.B.A.’s Opening Games Bring High TV Ratings

Abstract: Four of the N.B.A. ’s five Christmas games generated higher viewership this year over last year, perhaps not a surprise because they opened the lockout-shortened season. The Chicago Bulls’ victory over the Los Angeles Lakers, on ABC at 5 p.m., generated the most average viewership (11 million) but fewer than the Miami Heat-Lakers game (13 million) in the comparable time period last year. The other games had higher ratings than those in the comparable time slots last year: Miami’s easy win over Dallas, which began at 2:30 p.m. on ABC; the noon game, the Knicks’ 106-104 win over the Boston Celtics on TNT; Oklahoma City’s 97-89 victory over Orlando on ESPN; and the finale, the Los Angeles Clippers’ 105-86 win over Golden State at 10:30 p.m. on ESPN. More on nytimes.com/offthedribble .

National Basketball Assn
Television
Basketball
Lockouts


Grocers’ Lobby Faces Lawsuit Over Donors

Abstract: A lobbying group for major American food manufacturers has violated campaign finance laws in its attempt to block a measure that would require labeling of genetically modified foods in Washington State, according to a lawsuit filed on Wednesday by the state’s attorney general. The attorney general, Bob Ferguson, says that the group, the Grocery Manufacturers Association, illegally collected and spent more than $7 million while shielding the identity of its contributors. The Grocery Manufacturers Association, which represents some of the largest food and beverage companies in the world, has been heavily lobbying against ballot initiative 522, set for a public vote on Nov. 5. The measure requires labels of goods containing ingredients made from genetically engineered crops as well as labeling of genetically engineered seeds and seed products sold in the state. “Truly fair elections demand all sides follow the rules by disclosing who their donors are and how much they are spending to advocate their views,” Mr. Ferguson said. The association is the largest donor to a “No on I-522” campaign, and the attorney general’s office said the group set up a “Defense of Brands Strategic Account” within its organization and asked members to pay assessments that would be used to oppose the labeling initiative. The association then financed opposition efforts while shielding contributors’ names from public disclosure, the attorney general said. The attorney general’s office said it would seek a temporary restraining order asking for a court order requiring the association to immediately comply with state disclosure laws and said it would seek civil penalties. The group said in a statement that it was surprised by the lawsuit. “G.M.A. takes great care to understand and comply with all state election and campaign finance laws,” the group said. “G.M.A. will review its actions in Washington state and relevant statutes and continue to cooperate with state authorities to fully resolve the issue as promptly as possible.”

Lawsuits
Genetic engineering
Grocery Manufacturers Assn
Supermarkets
Washington
Campaign finance
Lobbying
Label


Disease Threatens New Zealand Kiwi Industry

Abstract: TE PUKE, NEW ZEALAND — Traffic heading east into this small town in northern New Zealand is greeted by a monolithic, circular slice of kiwi — one side bright green, the other golden yellow — a monument to the heart of the local economy. Visitors can climb to a viewing platform inside the icon and look down at the verdant canopy of a kiwi orchard. But in the past few days, the orchard has been surrounded by a jarring addition: red-and-white tape that carries a warning, “Danger — keep out.” At ground level, a typed notice warns people not to enter the orchard since the discovery of a destructive canker, found in New Zealand for the first time last Monday. What the notice does not say is that pseudomonas syringae pv actinidae, usually known as PSA, has the country’s kiwi industry, worth 1.5 billion New Zealand dollars, or $1.2 billion, in a crisis mode. The bacterial disease was first discovered in Japan 25 years ago and has four known strains with varying levels of virulence. Growers were awaiting test results on Sunday to find out which strain they were dealing with. One thing they do know: The golden variety of the fruit, introduced 10 years ago and trademarked by Zespri International, the New Zealand grower-owned kiwi-marketing company, has proved to be especially susceptible. New Zealand officials have urged the public to stay away from kiwi orchards to avoid transferring the disease, which can be spread by humans and other agents, including animals, rain splashes and pollen. PSA affects the vine, not the fruit, which is safe for consumers, and its effects on vines vary, depending on the strain and the local climate. In Italy, damages to recent harvests have been estimated at about €2 million, or $2.7 million. In Te Puke, a town of about 7,000 residents that calls itself the “kiwi fruit capital of the world,” 11 orchards had been quarantined by Sunday evening, and there were eight confirmed cases of PSA. Many local people who rely on the orchard industry for their livelihoods are concerned. “My whole life earnings is tied up in this property and this is my sole source of income,” said Leo Whittle, a 68-year-old grower who has been tending the same orchard since 1985. “So I would hate to lose everything I’ve spent a lifetime building, I suppose. “But we’re nowhere near that stage, and I’d rather we didn’t talk that way.” Mr. Whittle’s orchard in Te Puke is on the Bay of Plenty, on the east coast of New Zealand’s North Island. The surrounding region contains about 77 percent of the country’s kiwi orchards. The familiar motif of the furry fruit is found throughout the township. Cartoon kiwis with wheels present billboard safety messages to drivers. There is an annual kiwi festival that culminates in the crowning of a kiwi queen. And when a new church started in the area five years ago, it was named The Orchard. “Care and nurturing,” said Des Langdon, one of the church elders. “That’s part of a church. That’s what needs to go in an orchard.” Mr. Langdon said the kiwi fruit formed a big part of Te Puke’s “psyche.” He believed the orchard metaphor was a perfect fit for the congregation. “Everybody understands what has to happen in an orchard to make it work, and so that same principle is carried through,” Mr. Langdon said. In Te Puke, the talk is that PSA was carried into New Zealand in imported pollen, which is manually applied in many orchards because it is cheaper than pollen purchased in the country. But government experts have emphasized that the origin is still unknown and that the disease may have been in the country, undetected, for years. Mr. Whittle did not put much stock in local speculation and said his experience gave him confidence that the industry could survive. He grew kiwi throughout a price crash caused by oversupply in the 1980s, threats of litigation from Italian retailers in the 1990s and various diseases and infections over the years. Sitting in his conservatory, looking out at rows of certified-organic kiwi fruit vines, he said that many people were concerned about PSA, and he “would be one, in due course, if it did prove to be a real big problem.” Like those of two-thirds of New Zealand kiwi growers, Mr. Whittle’s orchard is smaller than five hectares, or about 12 acres. His vines cover four and a half hectares. He and his wife chose to grow only the green variety — known as Hayward’s cultivar — because they liked the taste more than that of the gold fruit. While Mr. Whittle acknowledged there was a lot at stake, he worried that sensationalizing the issue could lead export markets to believe, mistakenly, that New Zealand fruit was tainted: “We don’t want to destroy that wonderful image that we have out there.” Indeed, the image of the kiwifruit has become a familiar cultural icon in New Zealand, appearing on stamps and souvenirs, even though it is not a native plant. The New Zealand fruit-packing company Turners & Growers started using the name "kiwifruit" in 1959. The word "kiwi" originally comes from a species of flightless bird that is native to New Zealand. It evokes a sense of national identity, as New Zealanders are colloquially known at home and abroad as Kiwis. The first seeds were carried to New Zealand from China by a schoolteacher in 1904. Initially known as the Chinese gooseberry, the fruit was reported to have grown in popularity after finding favor with visiting U.S. troops during World War II. In 1952, Te Puke sent out the country’s first exports. Since then, the fruit has grown to become the country’s highest-earning horticultural crop, accounting for almost a third of horticultural export earnings. In 2009, New Zealand exported 378 million kilograms, or about 415,000 tons, of the fruit, worth 1.07 billion dollars. The country is the world’s second-biggest producer of kiwi, behind Italy, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization, an arm of the United Nations. New Zealand also has significant interests in the Italian industry; Zespri International licenses growers in Italy to produce its golden fruit to ensure year-round supplies. The company said more than half its Italian vines had been affected by PSA in recent seasons. Now the disease threatens to damage the New Zealand industry just as the national economy has started to recover, albeit slowly, from the global downturn. It grew by 0.2 percent in the quarter that ended last June. This month, the government announced the unemployment rate had fallen by half a percentage point to 6.4 percent in the July-to-September quarter. The kiwi industry employs more than 20,000 people, and any disruption could put more people out of work. But the industry has reacted swiftly to problems in the past. In the early 1990s, after Italian retailers threatened legal action over pesticide residue on New Zealand kiwi fruit, a new set of quality standards was implemented, and by 1997 every export grower had complied. In 1994 and 1995, orchards were hit with Botrytis cinerea, a fungal disease that caused 31.5 million dollars in damages. A number of changes to growing and storage processes were established, cutting infection levels to a negligible level. New Zealand has tight border controls and issues stiff penalties for any infringements. The opposition Labor Party has used the discovery of PSA to point to a government decision to cut 54 bio-security jobs in 2009, an action that Mr. Whittle said he remembered with frustration. “I was disappointed to see the numbers reduced,” he said. “I challenged my local M.P. about that,” he said referring to the local member of Parliament. “And I still think we should have been going the other way, not this way. “Maybe something like this may alert the politicians to the seriousness of this sort of thing, and maybe they will have another think about that. I’d like to think so, anyway.”

New Zealand
Kiwi (Fruit)
Farmers
Agriculture


Japan Strives to Balance Growth and Job Stability

Abstract: TOKYO — Every day, the impeccably dressed “elevator girls” of Tokyo’s Odakyu department store greet customers, ushering them in and out of the cars. During breaks, they practice their greetings and meticulously reapply their makeup. Critics see the women as the embodiment of this country’s productivity problem — squandering of one of the world’s best educated labor forces on banal jobs that do little to make the economy grow. But others, including the Democrats, Japan ’s new ruling party, see them as beneficiaries of a more humane capitalism, a capitalism that values employment and stability over growth. Japanese manufacturers taught the world to be competitive — reshaping the landscape in industries like cars and electronics, and introducing a vocabulary of quality and efficiency that became a mantra on business school campuses and shop floors. But productivity growth in Japan’s service sector has slowed in recent years, weighing on the labor productivity of the entire economy, which ranks only 18th among the 30 countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and just 70 percent of levels in the United States . With the service industry making up 70 percent of Japan’s economy, and manufacturers battered by the global slowdown, economists say Japan’s ability to emerge from the worst recession since World War II will depend partly on its ability to make its service sector more productive. “Structural reforms have absolutely no popularity in the current climate,” Yorio Ota, a strategist at the Mitsubishi UFJ Trust and Banking Corporation, said in a recent report. “But what is needed for a true recovery are reforms of the Japanese economy.” But Yukio Hatoyama , the leader of the ruling Democratic Party, bases his political philosophy on what he calls “fraternity,” meaning empathy with workers, rather than concern for corporate profits. Hirohisa Fujii, a leading contender for finance minister when Mr. Hatoyama announces his cabinet this week, has criticized even some of the moderate changes made by the departing Liberal Democratic Party. “Market economics is supposed to make a lot of people happy by letting skilled people fully utilize their skills,” Mr. Fujii, an elder statesman and former finance minister, wrote in a newspaper column last year. But recent pro-market changes in Japan “did not make everybody happy,” he said. “ That must be corrected, and we must build a politics led by the people.” Evidence of low productivity in the service sector is everywhere: office workers still pour over paper files; a veritable receiving line of security guards and receptionists greets visitors at building entrances; and Japanese retailers employ twice the average number of workers per outlet as their peers in other Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development countries. Odakyu does not consider its “elevator girls” a wasteful extravagance. The store says the 14 full-time workers it employs to operate fully automated elevators provide a benefit. “These girls are the first employees our customers see,” said Tatsuo Iwasaki, manager for customer services. “We take training them very seriously.” Mr. Hatoyama is especially critical of changes championed by the former prime minister, the pro-American, free-market Junichiro Koizumi . Among other things, Mr. Koizumi took aim at Japan’s stagnant labor market, lifting a ban on the use of temporary laborers at factories. He hoped to increase flexibility in hiring at Japanese companies, many of which are saddled with more employees-for-life than they need, protected by labor laws and social norms. The inability to fire these redundant workers even in lean times keeps productivity at ailing companies low, while hurting upstarts that could use experienced workers. But critics blamed those changes for a widening income gap between lifetime workers and their poorer “temp” colleagues. The number of temporary workers, with low pay, few benefits and little job security, has surged in the last decade, reaching a third of the work force of 67 million. The plight of temporary workers let go en masse in the fallout from the global financial crisis has prompted a public outcry. “People started to see high levels of economic inequality. The quality of jobs started going down, and there was a growing number of temporary workers,” said Steven K. Vogel, a professor of political science at the University of California, Berkeley . “They associated that with Mr. Koizumi’s reforms. From an economic standpoint, it was wrong. But there was a big backlash.” The Democrats’ economic platform centers on consumer relief, including cash allowances for families rearing children and lower gasoline taxes . Economists say such policies could stimulate Japan’s flagging consumer spending and help spur a modest recovery. But with wages in decline, it is unclear how much consumers can be expected to increase spending in the long term. To generate lasting growth, Japan needs to change old rules and dictates that have guarded a sclerotic establishment with heavy-handed government protection and squashed entrepreneurship with cumbersome barriers, some economists say. A cautionary tale, repeated by market proponents and opponents, is about QB Net, a start-up that took on Japan’s highly regulated barber market 10 years ago. QB Net’s string of super-efficient shops took the market by storm by offering quick haircuts for 1,000 yen, or about $10. Last fiscal year, the company logged sales of 6.73 billion yen, while the rest of the industry slumped. Threatened, a nationwide association for barbershops called for more regulation. Among other things, the association argued that it was unclean for QB Net to offer haircuts to clients without first washing their hair; soon, ordinances were passed across the country requiring all barbershops to install shampooing facilities, an expensive investment that slowed QB’s growth. “It’s not right to be penalized for being successful,” said Kazutaka Iwai, chief executive at QB Net. “We simply came up with a way to be more productive.” Others, however, argue that Japan’s traditional barbershops, though outdated, are worth saving. These tiny salons have consistently employed about 250,000 barbers for three decades, and the shopkeepers are often central figures in a kind of community life that many Japanese fear is being lost. “There are many structural factors that may influence the relationship between productivity and social welfare,” said David J. Brunner, a Japan specialist and research associate at Harvard Business School. “So firms should fire their excess employees and leave them feeling betrayed and worthless, and without income? That certainly would not contribute to economic growth or the general welfare.” Even the Liberal Democrats have spoken out in recent years against the pro-market changes introduced by Mr. Koizumi, one of their own. The most fervently antichange Liberal Democrats — who left the party to form their own after opposing a proposal to privatize the postal service — will join in a coalition government with the new prime minister-elect, Mr. Hatoyama. The Democrats’ other coalition partners are the Social Democrats. “We will fight with all our might to rebuild the livelihoods the public so sorely misses,” the Social Democratic leader, Mizuho Fukushima, said this week. “We will build a politics that values life, and corrects widening inequalities.”


Suburban New York Region’s Wineries Plan Spring Events

Abstract: The weather is warming, and vineyards and tasting rooms in the region are preparing to greet wine-lovers with events in April and May. “The snow is gone. A lot of people want to get out and do something,” said Hilary H. Criollo, the president of Hopkins Vineyard in Warren, Conn. Ms. Criollo said there was some worry that the recession would reduce traffic to her tasting room but she was optimistic that economic conditions would send people to local wineries. For many winemakers, spring is a time to sample from barrels to gauge quality. “As a winemaker, it’s an exciting time, “said Michael J. Migliore, president of the Hudson Valley Wine and Grape Growers Association. “You start seeing the results of last year.” At the new Laurita Winery in New Egypt, N.J., the owners said their first spring would be full of local music and art. “Now with the weather warming up, we have to figure out a way to take care of two crowds — one inside and one outside,” said Raymond F. Shea, a Laurita co-owner. For those who are simply curious about wine, early spring is a good time to learn more about winemaking because smaller crowds mean workers have more time to talk with visitors, owners said. Here are some wine events in the region in the coming weeks. More events can be found at the Web sites provided under each area. Long Island Each Saturday in April, Long Island wineries will be offering visitors the opportunity to taste a range of wines from the 2007 red vintage directly from the barrel. A sunny, dry season had growers excited for that year’s reds. The tastings will allow wine lovers to preview the wines before they are available to the public in 2010. Some wineries will offer special tours and dining events. In May, a similar promotion will focus on rosés from 2008. Details on participating wineries and other offers, including hotel and bed and breakfast participation, are available at the Web site for the Long Island Wine Council, liwines.com . Hudson River Region Wineries along the Shawangunk Wine Trail, on the western side of the Hudson, will celebrate spring and bud-break by pairing wines with pasta dishes on April 18 and 19 during their Pasta Primo-Vino! event. Tickets are $20 in advance and $25 during the event. Taxes are extra. The price of a ticket includes tastes of up to five wines per winery and pasta sampling. The trail’s 10 family-owned wineries will participate, and some will offer newly released wines to accompany the food. Details on those wineries are available at shawangunkwinetrail.com . The Web site hudsonvalleywinecountry.org promotes the region’s wine, history, culture and dining and has an interactive map of the valley’s more than 25 wineries. New Jersey Most New Jersey wineries feature weekend music year-round and in early spring focus on May events, starting with Mother’s Day and especially Memorial Day , said Rich Small, the marketing administrator for the Garden State Wine Growers Association. In New Egypt, Laurita Winery, which opened last summer, is featuring Stringzville, an acoustic jazz band on April 19. Tickets are $15 each and can be purchased on the winery’s Web site, lauritawinery.com , which lists other events, too. On May 23 and 24, wineries will be at the New Jersey Blues and Wine Festival in Natirar Park in Somerset County. Tickets are $18 and can be bought online starting in May at newjerseywines.com or at the festival for $20, Mr. Small said. That Web site is also the site for the wine growers association, which regularly posts events for member wineries. Connecticut Many Connecticut wineries plan to offer barrel tastings in April and May, said Jamie Jones, president of the Connecticut Vineyard and Winery Association. Events for various wineries can be found by going to the association’s Web site, ctwine.com , which is also the Web site for the Connecticut Wine Trail. At Hopkins Vineyard in Warren, the owners are preparing for their 30th annual barrel tasting on May 16 and 17. It will feature samples from the latest vintages, along with food and music. Admission at the door is $25 a person or $22 with a discount postcard, obtainable through the winery’s Web site, hopkinsvineyard.com . Tickets bought directly through the Web site are $20 a person. The Connecticut Farm Wine Development Council is holding a “passport” promotion beginning in May for a trip to tour wineries in Spain. Under the program, visitors get a booklet stamped at participating wineries along the Connecticut Wine Trail. Mr. Jones, of the winery association, said 14 stamps are needed to participate in the December drawing for the trip, which includes round-trip airfare for two and one-room double occupancy. Details are available at ctwine.com.

Wines
Fish Farming
Long Island (NY)
Connecticut
New Jersey
Westchester County (NY)


Medicaid’s New Tug of War – Economic View

Abstract: THE new health care law ’s individual mandate — the provision pushing people to buy insurance, and upheld last month by the Supreme Court — has garnered huge attention. But about half the planned expansion of insurance coverage under the new law comes from another source entirely: growth of the Medicaid program . Yet Medicaid has never been especially popular, and when its expanded role becomes more widely understood, it is likely to become less popular still. Medicaid beneficiaries have limited means, and their low incomes usually translate into below-average political influence. The joint federal-state financing of Medicaid reflects its lack of broad support among the more affluent. Neither the federal government nor the states wish to pick up the entire tab, and many state governments — and not just Republican administrations — would prefer to spend more on education, roads and other programs. Yet the federal subsidy for Medicaid expenditures keeps many states locked in — the Feds usually pick up at least half the cost — at levels they would not have chosen on their own. Those are signs of a program ripe for cuts, and yet the law is bringing a major Medicaid expansion. Will it stick? The additional federal subsidy is probably high enough to induce most states to expand Medicaid in the short run. (Under the Supreme Court decision, states can back out of the Medicaid expansion and lose only the new federal subsidy rather than all of their Medicaid funds.) The greater likelihood is that, over time, American voters will rebel against Medicaid and dismantle the subsidies that keep the states locked in, and will prefer instead to spend the money on other programs. Change might come soon. If Mitt Romney wins the presidential election, and if Republicans control both houses of Congress, they could turn Medicaid into a block grant program, where states can spend the money as they wish. Even if President Obama is re-elected, some state governments will work hard to reduce the number of people covered by Medicaid. State officials know that limiting Medicaid will place more individuals in the new, subsidized health care exchanges, and that those bills will be paid by the federal government. The basic dynamic is that state and federal governments have opposite incentives as to how many people should be kept in Medicaid. Of course, we don’t know who will win this tug of war. Along the way, we can expect state governments to threaten and bluff their way toward a smaller Medicaid obligation. The current state-level threats not to accept federal dollars to expand Medicaid are arguably part of that game. In any case, as the Medicaid expansion receives more publicity, voters may realize that they want to spend less money on it. There are several potential outcomes. Along one possible path, Medicaid survives this added scrutiny and grows anyway, perhaps because the federal government takes over more of its funding or federalizes it altogether. Unfortunately, Medicaid has some of the worst features of single-payer systems. Typically, a single-payer system will bargain down medical prices, thus adding to affordability, but at the risk of having long lines of patients waiting for care. As it stands now, though, the low reimbursement rates of Medicaid already lead to long lines, or an inability to find a good doctor altogether, while the higher reimbursement rates of Medicare and private insurance keep health care costs high. Along another possible path, the subsidized private insurance market — a central feature of the new law — will gradually displace Medicaid. And, eventually, another feature of the law will grow more important: the excise tax on employer-supplied health insurance , which will cover increasing numbers of employer-based plans over time. This could be accompanied by a gradual migration out of workplace-based coverage. Over time, the system might evolve toward means-tested private insurance vouchers, with the insurance sold on exchanges rather than tied to employment. That would have the unfortunate effect of channeling people into what will be the most expensive segment of health care coverage. That’s because the new law offers insurance subsidies to eligible incomes up to 400 percent of the current poverty line, a fiscal burden that would be unsustainable if it replaced Medicaid, which, with all its problems, is now the cheapest way to provide basic insurance coverage. There is one way this might work: by limiting the subsidies for insurance. Note that the law itself mandates cuts if those subsidies exceed a certain percentage of gross domestic product by 2018. Most likely, the reform could not stop there, because the insurance cost burden for many Americans would feel intolerably high without the subsidies. The next step, therefore, would lower costs by limiting the mandate to covering catastrophic conditions. Yet a further step would remove the mandate for noncatastrophic coverage, thus giving people more control over how much they want to spend on health care versus other priorities. We would then have government-subsidized and mandated catastrophic insurance, and a freer market for other health care expenditures. We might even return to a health savings account approach on the noncatastrophic side. That’s far from a perfect outcome, but it’s probably the most positive path that can be achieved. One problem is that mandates often don’t stay modest. Insurance mandates at the state level, for instance, have grown consistently, as various groups push to have their medical priorities reflected in law. A second problem is that voters may ask Congress to remove the subsidy limits planned for 2018, thus allowing costs to escalate. Still, we can hope for the best. Over all, the new law is a carefully calibrated compromise between Medicaid extensions and subsidies for private insurance. Looking ahead, however, the chosen balance will tip one way or the other. Most of the paths forward are likely to prove unworkable, but one tenable option does exist, albeit very different from what was voted into law.

Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (2010)


India: Floods In North Kill 17 and Force Evacuations

Abstract: Floodwaters set off by heavy rain in northern India have killed at least 17 people, washed away thousands of homes and forced some two million people to evacuate in a 24-hour period, officials said Thursday. A large section of Uttar Pradesh State has been covered by floodwaters that have spilled over the banks of several rivers, a state spokesman said. Soldiers and paramilitary troops were working to evacuate people from marooned villages and move them to relief camps in safer areas.

India
Floods
Weather
Uttar Pradesh (In.)