8 Years After Elián, a Cuban Custody Battle

Abstract: MIAMI, Sept. 1 — Almost eight years after the custody battle over Elián González took center stage here, a similar situation involving another Cuban child is playing out in a local courtroom. The dispute this time involves a 4-year-old girl who came to the United States from Cuba in 2005 with her mother and her 13-year-old half-brother. At issue is whether the girl’s father, a Cuban farmer who arrived in Miami in June with his wife and 7-year-old daughter to fight for his younger daughter’s custody, is fit to raise her. The father, Rafael Izquierdo, allowed the girl’s mother to take her to the United States, but several months after her arrival, the mother attempted suicide and the state Department of Children and Families took custody of the two children. The children, who have different fathers, were placed in foster care, and since April 2006 the girl has been in the care of Joe Cubas, a wealthy real estate developer and former sports agent, and his wife. The boy, whose father had surrendered parental rights, was formally adopted by the Cubases, who also want to adopt the girl. Mr. Cubas, who is well known in the Cuban-American community here for helping star baseball players defect to the United States in the 1990s, has the support of the Department of Children and Families in his effort. “The child is ecstatic living where she is,” said Alan Mishael, a lawyer for Mr. Cubas. Lawyers for the Department of Children and Families argue that Mr. Izquierdo, 32, is not a fit father because he acted irresponsibly by allowing his daughter to emigrate to the United States with her mother, Elena Pérez, whom they say he knew to be mentally unstable. His lawyers reject that claim. “We want to keep the focus on whether or not a dad has the right to have his child,” said Ira Kurzban, one of the father’s lawyers. “D.C.F. has not proven any neglect by our client Rafael.” Ms. Pérez, who has said she wants her daughter to return to Cuba with her father, has repeatedly given conflicting testimony and created chaos in court, driving Judge Jeri B. Cohen of Circuit Court in Miami-Dade County to take a recess to seek legal guidance. On Friday, the fifth day of the trial, Ms. Pérez told the judge that family photos she had testified to have sent to Mr. Izquierdo in Cuba were never sent. She said she gave the photos to one of Mr. Izquierdo’s lawyers who kept them to later show them as evidence in court. On Thursday, Ms. Pérez admitted lying to the judge, saying that letters from the girl’s father she had previously testified to having received were actually fabricated by one of the father’s lawyers. “I have tried to twist some things around to favor the father,” she said. But Judge Cohen said she was “very concerned” about her allegations. Mr. Kurzban adamantly denied anyone in his team had fabricated the letters, saying Ms. Pérez, 35, has “a serious mental problem.” The girl’s case evokes that of Elián González, who was 5 years old when he was found floating on an inner tube off Florida after the boat in which he and his mother tried to reach American soil capsized in 1999. His mother drowned, and Elián was placed in the care of his Miami relatives, stirring a custody fight between the relatives and the boy’s Cuban father who, like Mr. Izquierdo, traveled to the United States to claim custody. At the time, thousands of Cuban-Americans held daily protests outside the Little Havana home where Elián lived, and tens of thousands took to the streets in protest when the boy was reunited with his father in Cuba. This time, though, the Cuban-American community does not appear to be as emotionally involved in the outcome. Ramón Saul Sánchez, leader of the Democracy Movement, an anti-Castro group, said he believed this case should be decided by the judge. “In Elián’s case, the mother wanted to bring him here and died in the process,” said Mr. Sánchez, who led many of the protests surrounding that case. “In this case, both parents want her in Cuba.” Bernard Perlmutter, a family law professor at the University of Miami who has followed both cases, said there were some differences between them. “This matter is appropriately being adjudicated in a family court,” Mr. Perlmutter said of the girl’s case. “We don’t have all of the immigration issues that were so complicated and controversial in the Elián case.”

Child Custody and Support
Miami (Fla)
Cuba


Tennessee: Couple Win Back Daughter

Abstract: A Chinese couple regained legal custody of their 8-year-old daughter after a seven-year fight to win her back from what was supposed to be temporary foster care. Judge Curtis S. Person of Juvenile Court of Memphis signed an order returning custody of the girl, Anna Mae He, to her parents, Shaoqiang and Qin Luo He, Chinese citizens who came to the United States so Mr. He could attend college. In 1999, the Hes put the girl in what they thought was temporary foster care because of financial and legal difficulties. Judge Person’s order revoked the temporary guardianship held by Jerry and Louise Baker, former foster parents who had tried to adopt the girl over her parents’ objections. The Tennessee Supreme Court ruled in January that Anna Mae was to be reunited with her parents, and she began meeting with them in March.

Foster Care
Tennessee
Children and Youth


Officer Suspended After Encounter With Asthmatic Girl

Abstract: A New York City police officer was suspended without pay on Tuesday after an encounter with the mother of an 11-year-old girl who was suffering an asthma attack and later died, the authorities said. The officer, Alfonso Mendez, 30, who joined the force in 2005 and was assigned to the 84th Precinct, was expected to face administrative charges of failing to take proper police action, which could include failing to report to the department what had happened, said Paul J. Browne, the Police Department’s chief spokesman. Officer Mendez was stripped of his gun and shield, Mr. Browne said. The officer was flagged down on Henry Street in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn, on Friday evening by Carmen Ojeda as she tried to rush her daughter, Briana, to Long Island College Hospital after the girl had an asthma attack while playing in Carroll Park with other children, according to officials and the girl’s father, Michael Ojeda. “She’s begging for help,” said Mr. Ojeda about his wife. “She said, ‘Please, my daughter, she can’t breathe.’ She says, ‘Please, give her mouth to mouth.’ He put a smirk on his face. He says, ‘I don’t know CPR.’ ” All city police officers are trained in CPR, said Mr. Browne, who confirmed that Officer Mendez did not perform CPR but escorted the woman and her daughter to the hospital. The officer drove his marked patrol car behind Ms. Ojeda as she drove, arriving there at 5:45 p.m., said Mr. Browne. He said the girl died there 65 minutes later. For days, the Ojeda family insisted they had run into a city police officer, but the identity of the officer was a mystery. As the Internal Affairs Bureau began its inquiry, it ruled out the involvement of all officers within the 76th Precinct, where the encounter took place. Then, in checking the gas records for the 76th Precinct, it discovered that Officer Mendez stopped there to fill up his car after appearing in traffic court but before arriving at his post at the entrance to the Brooklyn Bridge. That Officer Mendez never made a record of his actions is what led to his suspension, Mr. Browne said. “A police officer would be required,” he said, “to radio in the fact he had this pickup job.”

Police
Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR)


Hewlett-Packard’s Results Help Drag Down Dow

Abstract: A lower earnings forecast by the personal computer maker Hewlett-Packard and concerns about the economy’s strength dragged the Dow Jones industrial average down nearly 70 points Tuesday. Gains in bank and utilities stocks limited the market’s overall losses. H.P. fell more than 7 percent. The company lowered its earnings outlook for the rest of the year, partly because of weaker sales of personal computers. The company’s shares fell to $36.91, near the lowest price in 12 months. Concerns about the economy’s strength helped pull down industrial companies like Caterpillar and Boeing. The Federal Reserve said the nation’s factories produced fewer goods in April for the first time in 10 months. If the decline continues, it could cut into the earnings of companies that make industrial equipment. The Commerce Department also reported that construction of new homes plunged in April. The two reports drove traders into the relative safety of government bonds, pushing yields to their lowest level this year. “There’s a high degree of caution right now,” said Jack Ablin, chief investment officer at Harris Private Bank in Chicago. “People are worried about big picture issues that need to be resolved.” The Dow Jones industrial average fell 68.79 points, or 0.55 percent, to 12,479.58. The Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index lost 0.49, or .04 percent, to 1,328.98. The Nasdaq rose .90, or 0.03 percent, to 2,783.21. Even with a majority of companies reporting stronger earnings, the stock market has lost some of its momentum in the last few weeks. Concerns are growing that high gas prices will weigh on the economy, pinch consumer spending and cut into corporate profits. Companies reported mixed results Tuesday. Wal-Mart Stores said its income rose 3 percent in the first quarter, but sales fell at stores open at least a year for the eighth quarter in a row. Wal-Mart’s stock fell nearly 1 percent. Sales also slipped in the first quarter at Home Depot, but the retailer’s income jumped 12 percent and beat analysts’ expectations. The stock rose 1.2 percent. The Treasury’s 10-year note rose 8/32, to 100 2/32. The yield fell to 3.12 percent, from 3.15 percent late Monday.

Stocks and Bonds
Company Reports
Housing Starts
Hewlett-Packard Company


Court Backs Cable Competition

Abstract: CINCINNATI (AP) — A federal appeals court on Friday upheld the Federal Communications Commission ’s authority to set rules meant to make it easier for new cable television competitors to gain local franchises. Local governments across the country filed legal challenges to agency rules that the F.C.C. said would speed the approval process for new competitors, cap fees paid by new entrants to local governments and ease requirements that competitors build systems that reach every home. In a series of lawsuits that were consolidated in the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, in Cincinnati, the local governments contended that the F.C.C. had overstepped its authority. To offer cable television service, a company must negotiate a franchise agreement with the local government. Some companies contended that local governments made unreasonable demands during negotiations and held up applications. A three-judge panel ruled unanimously Friday for the F.C.C., which it said provided evidence that the local franchising process was “unreasonably impeding competitive entry into the cable television market.” The commission’s chairman, Kevin J. Martin, said the court ruling vindicated the agency’s action and would help consumers. “Cable rates are continuing to rise, year after year,” he said. “Over the last 10 years, they’ve more than doubled. And I think it’s critical that we find a way to give consumers some additional choice and some more competition to help control soaring cable prices.” Plaintiffs’ lawyers were studying the opinion and there was no immediate word on whether they would appeal. They could ask for review by the full appeals court or go to the Supreme Court.

Federal Communications Commission
Cable Television
Decisions and Verdicts
Suits and Litigation
Franchises


Report Faults Treatment of Women Held at Immigration Centers

Abstract: Some 300 women held at immigration detention centers in Arizona face dangerous delays in health care and widespread mistreatment, according to a new study by the University of Arizona, the latest report to criticize conditions at such centers throughout the United States. The study, which federal immigration officials criticized as narrow and unsubstantiated, was conducted from August 2007 to August 2008 by the Southwest Institute of Research on Women and the James E. Rogers College of Law, both at the University of Arizona. It was released Jan. 13. Researchers examined the conditions facing women in the process of deportation proceedings at three federal immigration centers in Arizona. An estimated 3,000 women are being held nationwide. The study concluded that immigration authorities were too aggressive in detaining the women, who rarely posed a flight risk, and that as a result, they experienced severe hardships, including a lack of prenatal care, treatment for cancer, ovarian cysts and other serious medical conditions, and, in some cases, being mixed in with federal prisoners. Katrina S. Kane, who directs Arizona detention and removal operations for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, dismissed the study as unsubstantiated accounts from a limited number of detainees and their advocates. “Reports such as this, while alleging to be unbiased, do great harm to the public’s understanding of the complex issues involved in immigration law enforcement,” Ms. Kane said. The director of border research for the institute on women, Nina Rabin, an immigration lawyer who led the study, countered that interviews with detainees, former detainees and their lawyers corroborated a pattern of endemic mistreatment. And Ms. Rabin said she had spoken with immigrant advocacy groups around the United States, many of whom stated that mistreatment of women at the centers was not unusual. “We were pretty shocked to learn about all the ways in which life is made endlessly difficult for these women,” Ms. Rabin said, especially those who were pregnant or had recently given birth. The immigration department has been under increasing pressure to improve conditions at its detention centers. The federal Government Accountability Office and the inspector general’s office at the Department of Homeland Security have each released reports in the last three years criticizing standards at such centers, many of which are operated by private contractors. Last September, the immigration department announced plans to improve conditions at its detention centers, but the new rules will not fully take effect until 2010. Meanwhile, Congress has been weighing whether to impose its own requirements on the department after a New York Times article on immigrants who died in federal custody. The three centers that the study focused on are not run by the immigration department but by the Pinal County Sheriff’s Department and the Corrections Corporation of America. “We strictly enforce all national ICE standards,” Ms. Kane said, “and if we find those standards are not being met and we feel the deficiencies are not being corrected, we locate our detainees to other facilities.” In one of several cases documented in the study, a woman being held at the Central Arizona Detention Center in Florence who experienced excruciating abdominal pain for months after she had been forced to undergo female genital mutilation in West Africa was told by the center’s staff to “exercise and watch her diet,” her lawyer at the time, Raha Jorjani, said. After nearly six months, the woman, who had been convicted of a nonviolent crime, was taken to a hospital where an ultrasound revealed a cyst the size of a five-month-old fetus, Ms. Jorjani said. Immigration officials then suddenly released the woman with no money or health insurance to treat the cyst, Ms. Jorjani said. “That she had to remain in detention at all during this period is egregious,” Ms. Jorjani said. “She shouldn’t have had to get that sick for immigration to consider her request for release.” Ms. Kane, the department spokeswoman, said that this was the first the agency had heard of the case and that it took accusations of mistreatment seriously. In one case the study described, an illegal immigrant identified as Ana, who had come to the United States from Mexico as a baby and served a brief stint in jail for using a fake credit card, was being held at the Central Arizona Detention Center. Although Ana was six months pregnant and had an ovarian cyst, she was ordered to use a top bunk and denied a sonogram and prenatal vitamins during the five weeks she was held, the study said. Three women also told a local immigrant rights group that they had suffered miscarriages while in detention in the last three years, according to the study. Ms. Kane said that while her department could not corroborate any of the report’s accusations, it had found that a detainee’s contention that she had not received treatment for cervical cancer had proved false.

Immigration Detention
Women
Immigration and Refugees
Health Insurance and Managed Care
Arizona


Chaos and Crime Predicted With Barclays Center Have Not Materialized

Abstract: It is perhaps telling that the worst commotion the neighborhood has experienced since the Barclays Center opened in Brooklyn has not been stirred up by rowdy Nets fans or hip-hop devotees, but by teenage girls milling for hours outside a Justin Bieber concert in November. At one point, scores of devoted Bieber fans, echoing those who mobbed Frank Sinatra in the 1940s and the Beatles in the 1960s, chased a bus down Dean Street because they thought the 18-year-old pop singer was inside, their high-pitched screams shattering the nighttime quiet of a sedate residential block. No, the apocalyptic predictions of crime, chaos and an entire way of life suddenly and irreversibly ruined have not come to pass. In the nearly five months since the Barclays Center opened in September, in spite of years of vitriolic opposition from many residents in the surrounding brownstone neighborhoods, the 19,000-seat arena at the heart of the borough has enjoyed a remarkably smooth debut. “I thought it was going to turn this neighborhood into Manhattan,” said Noemi Feliz, 30, who has lived on Dean Street practically all of her life. “But the crowds are not as bad as I thought they would be. There’s a surge, but they clear out fast.” Most basketball fans and concertgoers visiting the arena, it has turned out, really do come and leave quickly by one of the 11 subway lines that stop at Barclays or by the Long Island Rail Road. In the three months after the arena opened, the four subway stations in the area had 6,400 more riders on average after Nets games and concerts than on nonevent days, according to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. The railroad has reported that on an event night, an average of 3,300 more riders arrive and depart at the Atlantic Terminal than before Barclays existed, a 334 percent increase. As a result, residents say, the traffic flows as smoothly — or as sluggishly — as ever, with extra traffic agents posted to prevent gridlock. Image The presence of the busy arena has made the neighborhood feel safer at night, Athalie Laguerre, a writer, says. Credit Michael Nagle for The New York Times A surge in crime that some had anticipated has also not materialized. More than one million people have visited the arena since it opened, attending 93 events, but the number of crimes has turned out to be negligible, possibly because of a heavy police presence augmented by Barclays security guards. Detective Cheryl Crispin, a Police Department spokeswoman, said the 78th Precinct registered just six felony episodes connected to the arena since it opened: an assault and four thefts inside the arena, and a cellphone snatching, classified as a robbery, outside the arena. The indoor thefts were mostly of cellphones and credit cards from employee locker rooms. A total of 36 misdemeanors were also reported. While there have been complaints of public urination, the posting of guards on streets along which fans stream to their parked cars seems to have curbed that somewhat. “I haven’t witnessed anybody screaming during game nights, and I am outside all the time,” said Richard Polo, 41, a real estate appraiser who lives on Dean Street. “People may tell you that during game night there’s disorderly conduct, and mostly it’s completely false.” The long-simmering resentments regarding the controversial development project have not dissipated, of course, with some critics still swearing never to set foot inside the arena. But the continuing complaints from residents of the blocks around the new arena, an area where Park Slope, Prospect Heights, Boerum Hill and Fort Greene converge, have shifted from warnings of existential threats to gripes about everyday irritants. Many car owners say that when they return from work on basketball game or concert nights, it is almost impossible to find a parking space. Another nuisance has been the double-parked or illegally parked chauffeured town cars that idle around the neighborhood during high-end events like a Barbra Streisand concert . And some residents say they are upset by thrumming bass sounds that seem to escape from the arena. During some performances, like Jay- Z’s , residents a block or two away say they can hear or feel the vibrations. Barclays Center received a $3,200 summons for noise violations during a Sensation dance-music event after inspectors from the city’s Environmental Protection Department recorded excessive decibel levels in a loft-building apartment on Pacific Street. “It’s like having a subway go underneath your apartment,” said David Stevens, 47, a history teacher at St. Ann’s School who lives in the same building. Image Residents say that on event nights, finding parking is almost impossible. Cheryl Mann switched to a garage farther from the arena. Credit Michael Nagle for The New York Times Despite his continued opposition to the project, Mr. Stevens allowed that the arrival of the arena was “not worse than I anticipated.” Ashley Cotton, a spokesman for Forest City Ratner, the arena’s developer, said the company was talking to engineers to see what could be done about muffling the noise. She said the company had tried to address the problem of so-called black cars by designating a parking area for them on Atlantic Avenue south of the arena. Even enduring critics like N. Wayne Bailey, a resident of the Newswalk building on Dean Street, said he had to give Barclays and city agencies credit for sweeping up arena trash thrown on the streets. (Paradoxically, some residents complain that the noise from mechanical street sweepers wakes them up.) Mr. Bailey, however, gives most of the credit for any improvement to a watchful network of community advocates who have confronted Forest City Ratner and city agencies and have prodded them to make improvements. “One of the reasons people say it’s not as bad as anticipated is the community made it a priority,” Mr. Bailey said. There is no doubt that the neighborhood’s ambience has been transformed. And more significant changes are coming: the first of 14 apartment towers that will make up the Atlantic Yards complex is rising; and residents on Pacific Street are bracing to have their lives further disrupted by the widening of the Long Island Rail Road rail yards, with 20 trees scheduled to be cut down, more parking spaces eliminated and sidewalks occupied by construction vehicles. But businesses in the area, particularly restaurants, say the arena has been great for sales. Some residents also say it has made the area more vibrant. Athalie Laguerre, 29, a writer who lives in a fourth-floor condominium in the Newswalk building, bought a small share of a spectator suite in the arena so she could go to many Nets games and concerts. The presence of the busy arena in what was a quiet mix of factories and brownstone-lined blocks has made the neighborhood feel safer at night, she said. “I have less tolerance for the neighbors who complain about the noise than I do for the noise,” she said. “I’m proud of Brooklyn and excited about the Barclays arena.”

Barclays Center NYC
Atlantic Yards
Brooklyn
Forest City Ratner Companies
Stadiums Arenas


Candidates Speculate on Results of Iraq Vote

Abstract: BAGHDAD — Even before the votes were tallied, Iraq ’s candidates and coalitions began positioning themselves in an evolving political landscape on Monday. Some claimed victory, and a few conceded defeat in an election on Sunday that the top American officials here called a milestone that kept the withdrawal of American troops on pace. Iraq’s election commission announced that 62 percent of Iraqis voted, though only 53 percent cast ballots in Baghdad, which was struck by a wave of violence as polls opened. While lower than the 76 percent that turned out in the country’s last parliamentary election in December 2005, the national turnout was higher than last year’s showing in provincial elections, suggesting higher stakes. Some of the largest turnout occurred in regions, like Kirkuk and Nineveh, which include disputed territories. “It was really a good day for Iraqi democracy,” the American ambassador to Iraq, Christopher R. Hill , told reporters. “And I believe it will be a foundation point, a new beginning for the U.S. relationship with Iraq that we hope will stretch for decades to come.” With even preliminary results not expected for another day or longer, Iraq’s political leaders, like American officials, sought to portray the election according to their own political objectives. “I think we’ll be neck and neck with Maliki,” said Maysoon al-Damluji, a candidate and spokeswoman for the coalition led by a former interim prime minister, Ayad Allawi , referring to the incumbent prime minister, Nuri Kamal al-Maliki . “I think we’ll beat him by a couple of seats or he might beat us by a couple of seats.” The two men emerged from Sunday’s votes as the seeming front-runners to be prime minister, after campaigning as secular, nonsectarian leaders promising to unite all Iraqis. While that message appeared to have resonated with voters, neither man’s coalition won enough to control a majority of seats in a new 325-member Council of Representatives. For the Americans, even the uncertainty of the outcome and the likelihood of protracted negotiations over forming a coalition did not diminish the optimism of what they described as a “very quiet and very orderly” election, as Mr. Hill put it. General Odierno challenged the characterization in some news reports that Sunday’s election was significantly marred by violence, particularly in Baghdad. He said only three polling stations, in the northern province of Nineveh — out of nearly 50,000 across the country — closed, and those for only 15 minutes. While he acknowledged that there had been blasts around Baghdad, which reverberated through the capital for more three hours before tapering off, he attributed most of them to explosives rigged in water bottles, which he said caused significant noise but little damage. The general said that the American military had recorded not a single mortar or rocket attack in Baghdad. His statement was at odds with those by Iraqi officials, as well as a senior Pentagon official in Washington and even one of his own battalion commanders, who on Sunday night reported eight rocket or mortar attacks in his area in northeast Baghdad. General Odierno also would not confirm a death toll from Sunday’s violence, which Iraqi security and hospital officials and witnesses said killed at least 38 in Baghdad and wounded dozens more. He said that Iraqi commanders had told him that two apartment buildings destroyed Sunday by bombs set off within them were abandoned and unoccupied. They were not. In the rubble of one of the buildings, in the Ur neighborhood of northeast Baghdad, the familiar human toll of the country’s violence overshadowed the celebration of Iraqi democracy heard elsewhere. “There are probably still bodies buried here,” said Emad Aziz, 45, as rescue workers ended a second day of searching through the collapsed building. Mr. Aziz said he lived there for four years with his wife and children. He was in a welding shop across the street when the blast occurred. His wife and two daughters, ages 5 and 7, died. So did his stepsister. In all, 22 people died in the building, according to officials and neighbors. “What can I say?” he asked with resignation. “I have lost my family.” The second apartment complex, a few blocks away in the same neighborhood, was destroyed only minutes after the first. Ahmed Sagheer, that building’s owner as well as a resident, said he had heard the whizzing sound of a rocket before an explosion devastated the structure as he was walking to a polling station to vote. A police officer on Sunday also attributed the damage to a rocket. A group of neighbors, however, said that the damage was caused by explosives stored or put there by a stranger who had rented a shop on the building’s ground floor. A third building, in the Huriya neighborhood of Baghdad, was badly damaged by an explosion whose cause was uncertain. At least seven people were killed, including a woman and her two young sons. In the fog of Iraq’s conflict, accounts often conflict. The motives of attacks are debated, the significance disputed. Only the tragedy of loss is unambiguous. Outside one of the buildings in Ur, grieving mourners have already strung up a black banner honoring one of the families killed: “The people here went to God the Most Merciful on March 7, 2010.” Many Iraqi voters said they had gone to the polls in defiance of the attacks, so that, while still deadly, the violence was unable to disrupt the political process. Already some candidates were conceding defeat, a part of the democratic process that is still a novelty here. In Anbar, one of the leading tribal figures, Sheik Ahmed Abu Risha, acknowledged that the coalition he had joined was behind that led by Mr. Allawi, a secular Shiite who appears to have rallied significant Sunni support. Mr. Allawi’s coalition, Iraqiya, “got what it lusted for,” he said, pledging to work with his bloc “for Iraq and its unity.” Qassim Daoud, a Shiite lawmaker, said he learned Monday from his coalition’s observers that he had failed to win a seat in Najaf. Mr. Daoud ran as a candidate on the Iraqi National Alliance , a coalition that challenged Mr. Maliki’s bloc for primacy among the country’s Shiite majority and appeared to have fallen behind, according to Iraqi political officials. “We have to face the reality that this is the opinion of the public,” he said. “The society made their choice, and we have to respect that decision.”


Dangers Abound for Thousands Taking to the Ocean in Search of Safety

Abstract: GENEVA — The United Nations refugee agency sounded the alarm on Friday over tens of thousands of people, many of them Muslim Rohingyas from Myanmar, who are fleeing by boat across the Indian Ocean in search of asylum and in the process facing death, malnutrition and brutal treatment at the hands of traffickers, and often ending in detention in South East Asian countries or Australia. The agency said it was aware of over 20,000 people, including thousands of unaccompanied children, who took to boats in the first half of this year , most having fled persecution in Myanmar and Bangladesh. Given the clandestine nature of the people-trafficking trade, “we definitely believe the number is much higher,” Adrian Edwards, a spokesman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees , said in Geneva. An estimated 53,000 people tried to cross the Bay of Bengal by boat from July 2013 to this June, the agency said, a more than 60 percent increase over the previous 12 months, continuing an exodus that appears to have taken off after intercommunal violence erupted in Myanmar in 2012, driving tens of thousands of Rohingyas into primitive camps. Some 40 percent of the boat passengers interviewed by United Nations staff members after reaching Thailand and Malaysia were under the age of 18. Myanmar’s Persecuted Minority A collection of stories from a recent trip focusing on a Muslim minority who are confined to camps and villages. UPDATED June 20: Nicholas Kristof responds to readers’ questions. An unknown number died when their boats foundered at sea, but survivors interviewed by the United Nations also reported deaths from illness, the heat, a lack of food and water and ferocious beatings meted out by crew members. Some went missing after being forced by traffickers to jump into the sea as they neared the coast of Thailand. For many, reaching land brought new peril. Those arriving in Thailand reported being packed in pickup trucks at night, sitting or lying on maybe 20 people, and being ferried to rough camps concealed in jungles or plantations where they were kept, sometimes for months, behind wooden fences and left to sleep on plastic sheeting. Some faced demands for even more money, in addition to what they already had spent on the boat journey. “Those who could not pay would be beaten and detained for long periods,” Mr. Edwards said, citing information collected by a new office the refugee agency has set up for monitoring “irregular maritime movements.” Some camp dwellers lost sensory abilities and mobility as a result of beriberi caused by malnutrition. The state of those Rohingyas who reached Malaysia from the camps attested to the harsh conditions, the refugee agency said. Two people died in a hospital within a week of making contact with agency staff members, and another 144 showed symptoms of beriberi in the first half of the year. More than 7,000 people are known to be in detention, including more than 5,000 in Australia or the camps it set up in Nauru and Papua New Guinea as part of a policy to deter asylum seekers. Australian authorities intercepted nine boats with a total of more than 400 people aboard in the first half of the year, returning seven of the boats to Indonesia and one back to Sri Lanka.


Volvo Introduces Its First S.U.V. Made Under Chinese Ownership

Abstract: STOCKHOLM — Volvo on Tuesday introduced its first vehicle designed and built under Chinese ownership. But the influence, if any, of the new owners from Hangzhou has been carefully hidden by many layers of Swedish aesthetic. The vehicle, a seven-seat sport utility vehicle known as the XC90 that will go on sale in April, is probably a make-or-break model for Volvo. It must succeed for the company to regain stature in America, where a few decades ago — before the advent of S.U.V.s — the Volvo station wagon was a suburban status symbol. It will be sold in Europe and Asia, too, but Volvo expects the United States to account for at least a third of sales. The carmaker wants to replace BMW, Mercedes and Audi S.U.V.s in the driveways of the well-to-do. Since Zhejiang Geely Holding bought the company from Ford Motor in 2010, China has become Volvo Cars’ largest market. But that is partly because sales in other markets have been poor. Sales in the United States fell 10 percent during the same period, and Volvo’s American market share has shrunk to a nearly irrelevant 0.35 percent. Still, the car company, separate from the Volvo Group, a truck maker, has returned to profit after losses in late 2012 and early 2013, and sales rose 10 percent in the first half of this year, to 229,000 cars. To achieve its goal of doubling global sales to 800,000 vehicles a year, Volvo is promoting its traditional emphasis on passenger safety while pumping up the elegance, albeit in a restrained Swedish way. Along with a shock-absorbing seat meant to protect a passenger’s spine in a crash, and automatic braking to avoid collisions with people or other cars, the XC90 has a shift lever inlaid with Swedish-made glass crystal. Volvo said its goal was to ensure that, by 2020, no one would be killed or seriously injured in a Volvo car. Volvo is also putting more emphasis on fuel economy and emissions than in the past, addressing anxiety among some buyers that a big S.U.V. makes them look insensitive to climate change. The top-of-the-line model will be a plug-in hybrid capable of traveling about 25 miles solely on battery power. Yet, according to Volvo, the combination of a gasoline engine in front and electric motor in the rear will deliver a hefty 400 horsepower and allow the hybrid XC90 to accelerate to 62 miles an hour in 6.4 seconds. It has an interior designed to evoke an elegant Swedish living room and an optional sound system that supposedly replicates the acoustics of the concert hall in Gothenburg, the hometown of Volvo Cars. “We think it’s absolutely necessary to come back to that territory,” Hakan Samuelsson, the chief executive of Volvo Cars, told reporters in Stockholm on Tuesday. “With this car, we will take a big step.” Volvo has not yet named a price for the top-tier model, but said a reasonably well-equipped conventionally powered version with all-wheel drive would sell for less than $50,000 in the United States. That is more than the starting price of $39,000 for an Audi Q5 but less than a BMW X5, which starts at $55,000. Volvo is to begin taking online orders on Sept. 3 for a conventionally powered special edition of the XC90 for $65,900. The XC90 is the first model built on a platform, or collection of common components, which Volvo calls scalable product architecture. The same chassis, seats, wheels and steering assembly can be used in sedans and stations wagons, and Volvo promises the process will lead to a complete renewal of its product line within four years. The platform also allows different models to be manufactured on the same assembly line, which saves costs and would bring Volvo more in line with German standards of automaking efficiency. At least initially, the XC90 will be made solely in Sweden. But other Volvo models are already being produced in China and Mr. Samuelsson said on Tuesday that some Chinese-made vehicles, like the S60 sedan, could be exported to the United States as soon as next year. Whether American consumers will buy a Chinese-made car is a largely untested prospect. But, judging from the introduction of the XC90 at a waterside venue outside Stockholm on Tuesday, marketing for the new model will play up the Swedish connection. “We are emphasizing our determination to build the future of our brand on our Swedish heritage,” Mr. Samuelsson said at the event, standing in front of a large screen projected with images including that of a pebbly Baltic beach. Dennis Nobelius, a Volvo Cars vice president, said that the design team in Sweden was given a free hand and there was no micromanaging by the Chinese owners. While Geely managers have “a burning passion” for cars, Mr. Samuelsson said during a question-and-answer session with about a dozen reporters, “they are not sending in experts and controllers.” “They have given us a new role as a stand-alone company,” Mr. Samuelsson said of Geely. In an implicit dig at Ford, the previous owners from America, he added, “We are not a sort of division executing commands from some center.”

SUVs
AB Volvo
Zhejiang Geely Holding Group
China


Enabling of Ad Blocking in Apple’s iOS 9 Prompts Backlash

Abstract: For years, people have longed for ways to stop advertising from popping up on their iPhones and iPads. Now, software to block ads on these gadgets has arrived — and the harsh realities of the practice are causing second thoughts. Just two days after Apple enabled ad-blocking apps through its new mobile operating system , iOS 9, users are embracing the new technology after long complaining that the ads track them, slow down web browsers and are just plain annoying. In less than 48 hours, several ad-blocking apps with names like Peace, Purify and Crystal soared to the top of Apple’s App Store chart. Yet some web publishers are now fretting that ads on their sites can’t be viewed because of the blockers, which could threaten these publishers’ livelihoods. On Friday, the maker of the $3 ad-blocking app Peace, Marco Arment, removed his program from the App Store and offered refunds, saying that while stopping ads does “benefit a ton of people in major ways, they also hurt some, including many who don’t deserve to be hit.” This about-face highlights the complexities around the ethics of ad blocking . Advertising underlies much of the Internet, making it possible for people to make a living off the Internet and create the content that users consume. By limiting ads, that implicit contract was violated, some publishers and advertisers said. More distinctions now need to be made around what qualifies as “good” online advertising versus “bad” ads that should be blocked, they said — though they were less clear on who would decide what constitutes a good or bad ad. “When ad blockers became the most downloaded apps in the App Store, it forced publishers and advertisers to rethink the role that advertising plays on the web,” said David Carroll, an associate professor of media design at the Parsons School of Design. An Apple spokeswoman said that Apple enabled ad blocking in the new version of its mobile software to give customers the option to block content “for an improved mobile browsing experience.” Ad blocking is not new; people have been able to use ad-blockers on their desktop web browsers for some time. But the number of people installing ad blockers has increased with the arrival of blockers on mobile devices because so much computing has now moved to those devices. That means the potential for ad blocking to dent revenue for websites and advertisers is increasing. About 16 percent of those who use the Internet in the United States, or 45 million people, have already installed an ad blocker, up 48 percent over the last 12 months, said Sean Blanchfield, who runs PageFair, an Irish start-up that tracks ad blocking. In a report last month, Adobe and PageFair calculated that blockers would cost publishers nearly $22 billion in revenue in 2015. The potential toll of ad blocking has become particularly apparent over the last few days, when several website publishers got caught in the dragnet after Apple enabled ad-blocking apps. John Gruber, a technology blogger who publishes on his site Daring Fireball, posted on Twitter that “it’s wrong” if an ad blocker stops all types of ads. "The ad network I’m a part of, the Deck, only serves ads that are fast to load and don’t track you," Mr. Gruber said. “In my opinion, they’re good-looking ads for high-quality products and services. Why block that?" Michael Macher, publisher of the online publication The Awl, said in an article that ran on his site that 75 to 85 percent of the site’s revenue could be blocked by ad blockers. Mr. Macher did not respond to requests for comment. “This will be hard on small publishers,” said David Jacobs, chief executive of 29th Street Publishing, which helps publishers create apps. “There are definitely some small publishers out there that make 50 percent to 75 percent of their revenue from ads, and they have margins of about 10 percent.” He added that some “publishers will really need another way to make money” and that readers should think about what’s happening and how they get a lot of content free. “I think that people have also underestimated how much has to change between the reader and publishers,” he said. The reaction by publishers has created blowback for some makers of ad-blocking software. Mr. Arment’s app Peace, for instance, faced criticism because it treated all ads the same by blocking all of them. Blocking all ads is an approach that “is too blunt,” Mr. Arment wrote in a blog post. “Peace required that all ads be treated the same — all-or-nothing enforcement for decisions that aren’t black and white. If we’re going to effect positive change over all, a more nuanced, complex approach is required.” Mr. Arment did not respond to a request for comment. Over time, the kinds of ad blockers on mobile devices may change, said Mr. Carroll of the Parsons School of Design. While many ad-blocking apps are now basically cudgels that obstruct all ads, he said he expected there would later be “customizable, free ad blockers with a feature that offers a whitelist for some ads.” Whitelists are a list of approved ads that could get past the blocker. Others in the online ad industry say they see the explosion of ad blocking as an opportunity to fix a broken system of intrusive, data-heavy ads that slow down the browsing experience. “It’s the beginning of a new conversation about creating a quality environment for consumers, particularly on mobile devices,” said John Montgomery, chairman of WPP’s GroupM Connect in North America. “I think we should all look at it as an area of concern and deep interest.” Ad-technology companies like Rubicon Project said they were now working to make the technology behind ads better and less burdensome. “In ad tech, we tend to look at this as an opportunity to address the core issue, which is making the user experience better,” Neal Richter, Rubicon’s chief technology officer, said in a recent interview.

Apple
Mobile Apps
advertising,marketing
Software
Online advertising


Stephen Curry Brings Hope to Beleaguered Warriors

Abstract: OAKLAND, Calif. — In the semi-charmed life of Golden State’s golden rookie, the television serves as both ego amplifier and modesty meter. Stephen Curry might hear his name linked with Michael Jordan and smile a little. Or he might see a tiny, high-definition image of himself flailing on the court and go scrambling for the remote control. Wednesday night fell into the latter category. The Golden State Warriors were humiliated by the Utah Jazz. Curry, the dazzling rookie guard, was stripped bare by Deron Williams. Afterward, he returned home to find the TV still flickering, and Mark Jackson, the ESPN analyst, lavishing praise on the Jazz. “I walked in and it was back on,” Curry said, sounding mildly horrified at the late-night replay. “I quickly heard that and then turned it off.” He had already had his point-guard tutorial for the evening. He didn’t need a review. “Nahhh,” Curry said with a slight chuckle. The lessons this season have come rapid-fire, with the relentlessness of a Deron Williams drive and the ferocity of a Dwight Howard rejection at the rim. In the last six months, Curry has learned to cope with an ungracious teammate, a fickle coach, disgruntled veterans, a pending ownership change and, not insignificantly, 53 losses in 74 games. The 22-year-old Curry has handled it all with the same grace that he showed in leading tiny Davidson College to the Round of 8 in the 2008 N.C.A.A. tournament. Along the way, he has emerged as a favorite for the rookie of the year award. Heading into Friday’s game against the Knicks, Curry was averaging 16.5 points, 5.7 assists and 4.2 rebounds, placing him in a tight three-way battle with two other point guards, Sacramento’s Tyreke Evans and Milwaukee’s Brandon Jennings. Among rookies, Curry is second to Evans in scoring and ranks just behind Evans and Jennings in assists. Curry leads all rookies in steals per game (1.85), 3-point percentage (.433) and free-throw accuracy (.887). His production has steadily increased each month, along with his playing time, responsibility and confidence. “He’s right on schedule,” said Coach Don Nelson, who has not always been so supportive. Last November, Nelson mysteriously removed Curry from the starting lineup and cut his minutes for a period. It was a generally uncomfortable time. Stephen Jackson, the veteran swingman, came to training camp pining for a trade (which was granted on Nov. 16). On media day, the Warriors’ Monta Ellis wondered aloud whether he and Curry — two smallish scoring guards — could coexist in the backcourt. He sounded as if he had no desire to try. “Us, together? No,” Ellis said then. Suddenly, Curry was being briefed by a team employee to prepare him for the coming storm. It was his welcome-to-the-Warriors moment. “It kind of shocked me a little bit,” Curry said in an interview at his lakeside condominium. “There was a little transition time to opening that communication between us.” Curry and Ellis have since become friends, although justifiable doubts persist about their ability to be an effective backcourt. Ellis, who had been the starting point guard, is a dazzling scorer and a natural at shooting guard. Curry has grown into the point-guard role and is a much better (and more willing) passer than Ellis. But both are 6 feet 3 inches, which leaves the Warriors vulnerable against full-sized guards. “I think it can work,” Curry said. These are the sort of challenges no one can prepare for — not even the son of a well-respected former N.B.A. guard. Dell Curry played 16 years in the league, mostly with the Charlotte Hornets, becoming one of the best 3-point shooters in the league. Father and son speak at least twice a week on the phone, although they try to keep the basketball talk to a minimum. “His speech before I came out here for training camp was: ‘Just go do what you do. Stay the guy that got you to where you are now, and that’ll take you wherever you want to go,’ ” Curry said. “He also told me he’s never seen a season like this.” He meant the chaos and the injuries, which have both been in abundance. The Warriors, who were awkwardly constructed anyway, have lost 449 player-games due to injury. Brandan Wright, their promising young power forward, has been out all year because of shoulder surgery. Andris Biedrins, Anthony Randolph, Kelenna Azuibuike and Ronny Turiaf have all missed significant chunks of the schedule. The team has used five players from the Developmental League, an N.B.A. record. So in addition to trying to run the offense, please his eccentric coach and win games, Curry is charged with keeping hope alive in the Bay Area. He has provided his share of thrills. He has had five games with at least 30 points and 10 assists, tying him with Jordan for the second most 30-10 games by a rookie. (Oscar Robertson holds the record, with 25). Only LeBron James and Dwyane Wade have posted more 30-10 games this season. On Feb. 10, Curry joined another elite group, finishing with 36 points, 13 assists and 10 rebounds against the Los Angeles Clippers. Only five other rookies have had a 35-10-10 game. All are either in the Hall of Fame or heading there: Jordan, Robertson, Jason Kidd, Jerry West and Elgin Baylor. “The year he’s had has been phenomenal for a rookie,” said Dell Curry, who is now a broadcaster with the Charlotte Bobcats. “The team didn’t win a lot of games, but the experience that he gained throughout the course of the years is invaluable.” Nelson is, as ever, under fire from fans and commentators and could be fired this summer. The owner Chris Cohan, who is also wildly unpopular, has put the team up for sale. The roster is messy. The calm in this storm, and perhaps the Warriors’ best hope, is Curry. He is steady, thoughtful, gracious and perhaps even more N.B.A.-ready than anyone knew last June, when the Warriors made him the seventh pick of the draft. All he has to do now is lift one of the league’s most beleaguered, controversy-riddled franchises out of the muck. “It can only get better from here,” Curry said.

Basketball
Curry Stephen
Golden State Warriors
Davidson College


The Best of Week 8 in the N.F.L.

Abstract: Even with linebacker Jadeveon Clowney sidelined — he injured his back in the first quarter and left for good in the second — the Texans turned in a dominating defensive performance, forcing three Titans turnovers and tying a franchise record with seven sacks to rebound from a 44-26 loss to the Dolphins last week. Whitney Mercilus accounted for three and a half of those sacks, a career high, and J. J. Watt had two and a half, forcing a fumble on one early in the fourth quarter. Watt, who tied a career high with nine quarterback hits, said, “That’s the type of defense we expect to be.” The Rams’ Todd Gurley ran for 133 yards on 20 carries, becoming the first rookie to open his career with four straight 100-yard games, according to Stats L.L.C., with data available since 1991. Gurley, who had a 71-yard scoring run in the win over the 49ers, has 566 rushing yards, the most in a player’s first four starts in the Super Bowl era, according to the N.F.L. The Browns’ Josh McCown , playing with a sore right shoulder and ribs, threw three touchdown passes in the first half. But he had to play much of the second half in even more pain after taking a shot to the ribs. (At one point, he waved off Cleveland’s coaches and his backup Johnny Manziel, who finally came in with 2 minutes 16 seconds left.) That helped provide an opening for the Cardinals and Carson Palmer , who threw three of his four touchdown passes in the second half in helping Arizona score 27 straight points for the victory. Palmer finished with 374 passing yards. Drew Brees : seven touchdowns and 511 passing yards in a Saints victory. What more needs to be said? Injury Report Ravens receiver Steve Smith Sr. tore his Achilles’ tendon and will miss the rest of the season. ... Lions receiver Calvin Johnson injured his ankle. ... Steelers running back Le’Veon Bell hurt his knee. ... Reggie Bush , a 49ers running back starting for Carlos Hyde, hurt his knee when he slipped on concrete at the end of a punt return. ... Bears running back Matt Forte injured his knee. ... Browns defensive backs Joe Haden and Donte Whitner sustained concussions. Information from The Associated Press


Waiting to Helm South Africa: President or Convict? Or Both?

Abstract: JOHANNESBURG — If all goes as expected, South Africa will soon be led by a president who is also the defendant in a criminal case, a man accused of fraud and racketeering, legally empowered to select officials who could either drop his prosecution or push it forward. However one feels about the presumptive next president, Jacob Zuma — and most of the feelings here align toward extremes — his ascension to the top job will test the rule of law in a country often regarded as the democratic anchor of the continent. Virtually every South African has long wondered what will happen if and when a Zuma prosecution and a Zuma presidency meet at the crossroads. Ticklish days lie ahead. “It’s hard to see a solution that doesn’t somehow weaken our institutions, not only in the eyes of the country but in the eyes of the world,” said Adam Habib, a political analyst. Parliamentary elections are scheduled for April 22, and the governing African National Congress will almost surely end up in the majority. Parliament would then elect Mr. Zuma, the A.N.C.’s leader and a man accused of accepting 783 payments from a convicted briber, as president. Many here are expecting some sort of expedient political stratagem to keep the nation’s leader from the demeaning spectacle of a trial. Will a newly selected chief of prosecution abruptly decide the case has no merit? Will an A.N.C.-dominated Parliament pass a measure that outlaws the trial of a sitting president — sometimes referred to as the “Berlusconi solution,” named for the immunity granted Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi of Italy? Of late, Mr. Zuma has spoken of his forthcoming trial not as a dreadful burden but as a welcome opportunity to prove his innocence and provide a civics lesson. “We are going to once again do something that is unprecedented in the country, wherein the president is going to go to court and answer questions and test the allegations against him,” he told Al Jazeera last month. Mr. Zuma dismissed the notion that he would use his powers to spare himself a courtroom showdown and insisted that if convicted, he would genially hand over the presidency to a qualified A.N.C. colleague. “And it will be smooth,” he promised. Not everyone was reassured. South Africa is a nation with enormous problems, among them that familiar medley of poverty, unemployment and abysmal schools. And yet it is the alleged criminality of Mr. Zuma — and the twists and turns of his protracted case — that dominates public discussion. This discourse is often uncivil and, some would say, pernicious. Last year, when pretrial decisions went against Mr. Zuma, judges were derided by some A.N.C. loyalists as drunks and counterrevolutionaries. One prominent judge, John Hlophe, faces possible censure for allegations that he tried to influence justices of the Constitutional Court, the nation’s highest judicial forum, in Mr. Zuma’s favor. Many Zuma supporters consider the case against their leader a political frame-up, or at least an instance of selective prosecution. “If you arrest him, he will lead us from prison,” said Julius Malema, the head of the A.N.C. Youth League. “We are not afraid to be led by a president in orange clothes.” He has said he would “kill” for Mr. Zuma. For the suspicious who believe something shadowy will eventually spare Mr. Zuma, additional evidence seemed to arrive last week. Schabir Shaik , the wealthy businessman convicted of bribing Mr. Zuma, was released on a medical parole after serving only 28 months of a 15-year sentence. This leniency is reserved for the terminally ill, but those who are skeptical suppose the new parolee will now somehow handspring back to health. Through a spokesman, Mr. Zuma denied playing any role in the release, but just days earlier he said that as president he would use medical grounds to pardon Mr. Shaik, his close friend from the liberation struggle and his financial adviser thereafter. In 2005, a judge ruled that the businessman had made inappropriate payments to the well-connected Mr. Zuma in return for his smoothing the way into various deals, including a lucrative arms contract. According to the book “The Arms Deal in Your Pocket” by Paul Holden, if government documents prove correct, Mr. Shaik paid Mr. Zuma more than $600,000 over a decade’s time, much of it doled out in modest portions for items like family vacations, medical costs, children’s allowances and even traffic fines. It seemed that Mr. Shaik “was, in many ways, running Zuma’s financial life and supporting his lifestyle,” Mr. Holden wrote. Unless it is perhaps more cursed to give than receive, the A.N.C. leader would have to explain this arrangement at trial more satisfactorily than his friend did. The Shaik verdict was confirmed on appeal in 2006. A Zuma trial would most likely occur next year at the earliest in KwaZulu Natal, far from the seats of government, and if it followed the pace of the Shaik proceedings, it would last about eight months. The president would not be required to attend every day. “In theory, an accused can say, ‘I am willing to absent myself,’ but that would be unwise,” said Geoff Budlender, one of the nation’s leading lawyers. “You’d want to be present to hear the evidence.” The case is being pursued by the National Prosecuting Authority, but its leadership is now in limbo. The agency’s director was suspended in late 2007 after discord with Thabo Mbeki, the president at the time. A commission later concluded that the head prosecutor was a man of “unimpeachable integrity” who ought to be reinstated, but South Africa’s interim president, Kgalema Motlanthe, fired him anyway. The dismissal is being challenged in court. Mr. Motlanthe, who also is the A.N.C.’s deputy president, seems to realize that naming a new director is kindling for a political firestorm, saying the law should be changed so that the selection comes from a list submitted by an independent body. In the meantime, however, the choice remains either his or, soon, Mr. Zuma’s. “Whoever becomes director, if they drop the Zuma case, there’d have to be an enormously convincing account of why the prosecution did such a U-turn,” said David Unterhalter, a law professor at the University of the Witwatersrand . With an election coming, the A.N.C. hired Carl Niehaus as a spokesman late last year. He began a campaign to buff the recent smudges off the party’s image, writing opinion pieces that adoringly described Mr. Zuma as a man deserving of unwavering loyalty. But the new spokesman turned out to be a bad choice to champion the innocent. Last month, newspaper accounts portrayed him as a man addicted to extravagant living who held off creditors with artful lies. In one alleged instance, he talked his way into a family holiday at a resort in Mauritius by fibbing about being ill with leukemia to an unwitting travel agent. “What I did was terrible,” Mr. Niehaus told The Mail and Guardian , a South African newspaper, confessing to forging signatures on checks. He has since quit as a party frontman, leaving the orchestrated praise of Mr. Zuma to others.

Zuma Jacob G
South Africa
African National Congress
Bribery


Zenyatta, Horse for Ages, Should Be Horse of the Year

Abstract: It’s a match race, a fiercely contested one, for Horse of the Year: the great racemare Zenyatta versus the talented colt Blame, the only rival ever to finish in front of her. A noisy debate over who is more deserving has raged on. One side or another is going to be bitterly disappointed when the results are announced Monday night at the Eclipse Awards in Miami. The award is voted on by members of the National Thoroughbred Racing Association, the National Turf Writers Association and The Daily Racing Form. The New York Times has a policy of not allowing reporters to vote for awards, but I’ve made it known across social networks and in old-fashioned newspaper columns that I would have voted for Zenyatta. There are no hard-and-fast criteria for how to weigh one horse against another, and that is one of the reasons passions have been so inflamed. Essentially, two schools of thought have emerged — vote with your head or your heart. Al Stall Jr., the trainer of Blame, summed up the first approach. “I’m kind of a strength-of-schedule, and head-to-head kind of guy,” he said. “That’s why I believe Blame should be Horse of the Year.” That’s reasonable, but hardly bulletproof. Blame beat Zenyatta fair and square by a half head in a race for the ages in the Breeders’ Cup Classic. But his strength of schedule is underwhelming — four wins, three of them in Grade I races. Blame was carrying five pounds less than Quality Road, however, when he caught that colt at the wire to win the Whitney Handicap by a head. In the Jockey Club Gold Cup, Haynesfield beat Blame soundly by four lengths. In the Classic, Quality Road finished 12th and last, and Haynesfield crossed the wire in 11th place. Zenyatta’s owner Jerry Moss speaks to the more expansive view. “To me, that is the most important racehorse campaigned in North America for the past 12 months,” he said. “It means who is the horse that people look for when they look on TV or in The Racing Form? Who is the year about?” No one can deny that Zenyatta single-handedly made horse racing respectable and fun again, if not quite fashionable. She put the sport back on national television with a “60 Minutes” segment, and with articles in W and Oprah magazines. She is approaching 60,000 followers on Facebook. For the second year in a row, she finished second in voting for the Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year, this time to the gold medal skier Lindsey Vonn. Zenyatta also beat all but one comer over a spectacular three-year racing career. “She won five Grade I’s this year,” Moss said, “and carried 19 in a row, and 13 Grade I’s, into that Breeders’ Cup race.” I know the traditionalists argue time and again that induction into racing’s Hall of Fame rewards a career while Horse of the Year means just that. So what logic is at work saying Zenyatta is a first-ballot Hall of Famer — an honor that Blame will never earn — but she is only the second-best horse of 2011? Horse of the Year voting should not be like filling out a Pick 6 ticket where speed figures and track surfaces and pace are sliced and diced in hopes of a successful trip to the windows. It is more important than that. It should take the measure of greatness. Celebrate it. Zenyatta is one of horse racing’s greats. She should be honored as one.

Zenyatta (Race Horse)
Blame (Race Horse)
Horse Racing
Awards Decorations and Honors
Horses


Israel: ‘Loyalty Oath’ Bill to Change to Include Jews, Netanyahu Says

Abstract: The government will amend a bill to require that all immigrants, not just non-Jews, take a loyalty pledge, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday. Opposition lawmakers had denounced the bill, whose original language was directed only at non-Jewish immigrants, saying it undermined the rights of Israel ’s minority Arab community. Thousands have protested the bill, which calls for an oath of loyalty to a “Jewish and democratic” Israel.

Israel
Jews and Judaism
Netanyahu Benjamin


A Year After American Pharoah’s Triumph, an Exciting Belmont Is a Letdown

Abstract: It was hard during Saturday’s Belmont Stakes not to think about American Pharoah, the colt who a year ago delivered a historic performance at the race in becoming just the 12th Triple Crown winner ever and horse racing’s first in 37 years. When the jockey Victor Espinoza and American Pharoah turned for home, they transformed this grand old racetrack on Long Island into a soul-quaking monument to pandemonium. The colt had pulled into Belmont Park promising greatness, and over the mile-and-a-half marathon fittingly known as the Test of the Champion, he delivered it. His five-and-a-half-length victory was simply a masterpiece. American Pharoah had packed the place. He made the $11 beers that the New York Racing Association was selling taste like Dom Pérignon at Pabst Blue Ribbon prices. He sent strangers into one another’s arms. That is worth remembering because odds are that it will be an equally long time before we see another horse with enough talent and magic to sweep the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness Stakes and the Belmont Stakes. Image Mario Gutierrez aboard Nyquist, the Kentucky Derby winner, after they lost the Preakness Stakes on a rainy day last month. Nyquist then developed a fever and missed the Belmont. Credit Patrick Smith/Getty Images We were reminded of — no, bludgeoned with — that likelihood over the last five weeks as the owners and trainers of the current crop of 3-year-olds measured their horses against American Pharoah and Triple Crown history. On paper at least, the most formidable challenger was Nyquist. He rolled into the first Saturday in May as the reigning 2-year-old champion and was undefeated over seven races. He easily won the Kentucky Derby and had a résumé far more impressive than American Pharoah’s at that point in his career. Nyquist was missing something, however. He is a smallish colt who, while consistently doing enough to win, never gave anyone the sense that he was a dominant competitor. He did not possess the wow factor that American Pharoah had. Even as a weanling — a mere child, called the Littleprincessemma colt after his mother — American Pharoah took away the breath of Frances Rellihan, a seasoned horsewoman who had had her hands on thousands of colts over her career but to that point had never seen one so perfectly engineered, with an intricate mind to match his physical gifts. It was a combination that bowled over seasoned horse people at every point of American Pharoah’s development and still makes his Hall of Fame trainer, Bob Baffert, wish he had him for one, two, six more races. Image Kent Desormeaux aboard Exaggerator before the Belmont on Saturday. The colt finished 11th. Credit Mike Stobe/Getty Images “I never got to the bottom of him,” Baffert said. “He was still getting better.” Nyquist, on the other hand, although recognized as a nice horse in his formative years, was treated as a commodity rather than a gift from the heavens. He was sold three times before reaching the racetrack, finally fetching a modest $400,000 in a 2-year-old-in-training sale in Florida. Luck and magic took their turn along American Pharoah’s career. Early on, his owner, Ahmed Zayat, tried to sell the colt, needing cash to help settle his stable’s bankruptcy. Lucky for him, the colt banged his ankle in the days before a yearling sale at Saratoga. Zayat had thought he might get millions in the auction ring; instead, no one wanted the modestly bred colt with the unsightly leg. Magic was bestowed on American Pharoah when Espinoza got on his back. He was not the first choice to ride the colt, nor was he the second or third. Martin Garcia had ridden American Pharoah in his debut, a loss, and did not get along with him. Baffert had hoped to get Gary Stevens or Mike Smith, two Hall of Famers, but they were not available. He settled on Espinoza, whose happy-go-lucky nature and intuitive riding style fit American Pharoah perfectly. For Nyquist, however, bad luck and black magic landed on him like an anvil in the Preakness. A wet week in Baltimore and a misty, rainy race day served up a soupy track at Pimlico Race Course, one that he had never seen before. His chief rival, Exaggerator, was a proven mudder and took to the surface, which gripped hooves like peanut butter gliding over a sandwich. He emphatically dispatched Nyquist, who developed a fever in the days afterward, persuading his connections to skip the Belmont and let the colt catch his breath for a second-season campaign into the Breeders’ Cup Classic. Exaggerator, a hard-trying colt, was out of gas in the Belmont Stakes. He is somewhere between a nice horse and a very good one but looked like neither in finishing 11th. So the 148th running of Belmont Stakes turned into an entertaining race without a great deal of consequence. Instead of American Pharoah’s historic stretch drive with a capacity crowd on hand to witness, about half as many people cheered on three gray horses, all of them long shots, as they raced home in a photo finish. Creator had a nose ahead of Destin, and Lani finished third behind them. Those who had the three on their betting tickets left Belmont Park with more money than they came with and a smile on their faces. Congratulations to them. It is one of the most rewarding parts of a good day at the racetrack. Last year, though, while American Pharoah sent some people home with less dough, he pushed all of us out of the racetrack with a priceless feeling of elation. Great horses do that, and they are rare. So appreciate what American Pharoah accomplished, and be patient until another comes along.

Horse racing
Triple Crown Horse Racing
Belmont Stakes


Rattner Drops Bid to Return to Investment Banking

Abstract: Remember Steven L. Rattner’s return to investment banking ? Never mind. The former financier, who in 2010 was barred from the business for two years and sought re-entry in 2013, withdrew his long-stalled request for reinstatement, according to an April 8 letter informing regulators of the decision. The withdrawal occurred within weeks of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s order that cleared his path to affiliate with the advisory firm Guggenheim Securities. Representatives of Mr. Rattner said Wednesday that the S.E.C.’s March 14 order approving his application to affiliate with Guggenheim had been stayed while the agency’s commissioners reviewed the work of the trading and markets division staff, which had approved the March order. Because Guggenheim and Mr. Rattner withdrew the application, that review never took place, the representatives said. The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday that the S.E.C. was planning to reverse its earlier decision. A spokeswoman for the S.E.C. said the agency declined to comment. Davidson Goldin, a spokesman for Mr. Rattner, disputed The Wall Street Journal’s report and issued a statement Wednesday. “There was no reversal by the S.E.C.,” it said. “The commissioners decided to review the staff decision to approve Steve’s application, which automatically put a temporary stay on the staff approval order pending review.” Steve Severinghaus, a spokesman for The Wall Street Journal, said in a statement, “We stand by our story, and nothing in the statement released by Mr. Rattner’s reps contradicts our reporting.” Since 2010, Mr. Rattner’s day job has been managing the family fortune and philanthropic assets of Michael R. Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York, at Willett Advisors, where he intends to continue working, Mr. Goldin said in the statement Wednesday. “Steve no longer has any interest in what he first applied for more than three years ago.” The S.E.C.’s order clearing his return surprised many, possibly because it had been so long since the scandal that ensnared the prominent media banker. He was barred from certain Wall Street jobs for two years after settling civil claims stemming from an investigation in 2010 into kickbacks involving the New York State Common Retirement Fund while he was an executive at Quadrangle Group, a private equity firm he founded. He did not admit or deny wrongdoing. In March, when the S.E.C. issued its approval for Mr. Rattner’s return to the securities business, Mr. Goldin said, “Should he choose in the future, this enables Steve to engage in investment banking activities.” But he added that Mr. Rattner “anticipates remaining fully committed to his position as chairman of Willett Advisors.” In being able to affiliate with Guggenheim Securities, the investment banking arm of Guggenheim Partners, Mr. Rattner had a way back into the business if he decided to go there. The New York firm is led by Mark R. Walter, who is also the managing partner of Guggenheim Baseball Management, one of the owners of the Los Angeles Dodgers, and Alan Schwartz, the former head of Bear Stearns. A spokesman for Guggenheim Securities declined to comment on Wednesday. The reinstatement application was actually made by Guggenheim Securities, which filed it with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority in April 2013. The decision to withdraw it was a joint one, according to an April 8 letter to the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority and the staff of the S.E.C.’s division of trading and markets. “Mr. Rattner is now fully engaged with his responsibilities as Chairman of Willett Advisors LLC and intends to remain so for the foreseeable future,” the letter said. “Accordingly, Guggenheim and Mr. Rattner together decided that withdrawal of the application was therefore appropriate.” Mr. Rattner led the Obama administration’s auto industry overhaul. Until his regulatory troubles, he was viewed as a star banker to powerful media and communications companies at Morgan Stanley, Lazard Frères & Company and Lehman Brothers. He began his career as a reporter for The New York Times, and now contributes to its opinion pages. He went on to found Quadrangle, a private equity firm, which is now led by Michael Huber.

Steven L Rattner
Guggenheim Securities
SEC
Banking and Finance
Quadrangle Group


Sheriff, Wife and Another Are Indicted

Abstract: LOS ANGELES, Oct. 30 — The high-profile sheriff of Orange County, Michael S. Carona, his wife and a woman described in court papers as his “longtime mistress” were indicted Tuesday on federal charges that they conspired to elect Mr. Carona and then used his office for financial gain and to reward friends and political supporters. Plea agreements with two men charged as co-conspirators in the alleged corruption scheme were also unsealed Tuesday. Mr. Carona had appointed the men, George H. Jaramillo, a lawyer, and Donald Haidl, a businessman, assistant sheriffs. Mr. Jaramillo admitted that he had illegally accepted money from Mr. Haidl from 1998 through 2002. Mr. Haidl pleaded guilty to filing a false 2002 tax return and admitted paying Mr. Carona and Mr. Jaramillo for years. In court papers, prosecutors said Mr. Haidl paid Mr. Carona and Mr. Jaramillo as much as $2,000 each per month at one point, as well as giving them gifts that included use of a private plane and a yacht, a vacation to Lake Tahoe and, for Mr. Jaramillo, a lease on a Mercedes-Benz. Mr. Haidl is also alleged to have given Mr. Jaramillo and Mr. Carona’s “mistress,” Debra Victoria Hoffman, also a lawyer, $110,000 in 1998, just before Mr. Carona was elected sheriff. The money was said to have been used to re-open their law firm, Jaramillo, Hoffman and Associates. In all, the five received more than $350,000 in gifts, cash and loans, prosecutors said. Mr. Carona, 52, is charged with three counts of conspiracy and one each of mail fraud and witness tampering. The witness-tampering charge stems from an August conversation that was recorded in which he is said to urge Mr. Haidl to mislead the grand jury. Mr. Carona’s wife, Deborah Carona, is accused of conspiracy, and Ms. Hoffman is charged with conspiracy, mail fraud and bankruptcy fraud. In return for his money, prosecutors say, Mr. Haidl, who had no law-enforcement background, was named an assistant sheriff and given a “Get Out of Jail Free” card, a special understanding between Mr. Haidl and Mr. Carona that prosecutors would not elaborate on. California law requires disclosure of sources of income by public officials, including sheriffs. The indictment alleges that Ms. Hoffman was also subject to that rule, as a member of the California Council on Criminal Justice and the State Advisory Group on Juvenile Justice Delinquency Prevention, as was Deborah Carona, who was on the Orange County Fair board of directors. Defendants’ lawyers did not return calls seeking comment.

Frauds and Swindling
Police
California
Decisions and Verdicts
Finances
Crime and Criminals


ISIS Displaying a Deft Command of Varied Media

Abstract: The extremists who have seized large parts of Syria and Iraq have riveted the world’s attention with their military prowess and unrestrained brutality. But Western intelligence services are also worried about their extraordinary command of seemingly less lethal weapons: state-of-the-art videos, ground images shot from drones and multilingual Twitter messages. ISIS, the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, is using every contemporary mode of messaging to recruit fighters, intimidate enemies and promote its claim to have established a caliphate, a unified Muslim state run according to a strict interpretation of Islamic law. If its bigotry and beheadings seem to come from a distant century, its use of media is up to the moment. A review of its prodigious output in print and online reveals a number of surprises. ISIS propaganda, for instance, has strikingly few calls for attacks on the West, even though its most notorious video, among Americans, released 12 days ago, showed the beheading of the American journalist James Foley, threatened another American hostage, and said that American attacks on ISIS “would result in the bloodshed” of Americans. This diverged from nearly all of ISIS’s varied output, which promotes its paramount goal: to secure and expand the Islamic state. Experts say that could change overnight, but for now it sharply distinguishes ISIS from Al Qaeda, which has long made attacks on the West its top priority. And while ISIS may be built on bloodshed, it seems intent on demonstrating the bureaucratic acumen of the state that it claims to be building. Its two annual reports so far are replete with a sort of jihadist-style bookkeeping, tracking statistics on everything from “cities taken over” and “knife murders” committed by ISIS forces to “checkpoints set up” and even “apostates repented.” ISIS media frames its campaign in epochal terms, mounting a frontal assault on the national divisions and boundaries in the Middle East drawn by Western powers after World War I. These “Crusader partitions” and their modern Arab leaders, ISIS argues in its English-language magazine , were a divide-and-conquer strategy intended to prevent Muslims from unifying “under one imam carrying the banner of truth.” Image An image posted on Twitter Friday by ISIS supporters shows a suicide bomb attack. That sense of historical grievance is an old theme for Al Qaeda and more moderate Islamist groups. The difference is that by capturing expansive territory and heavy weaponry, and flush with wealth from kidnappings, oil piracy, bank robbery and extortion, ISIS claims to have taken a major first step toward righting what it sees as this ancient wrong, creating a unified Muslim state that will subsume existing nations. ISIS carefully tailors its recruiting pitch, sending starkly different messages to Muslims in the West and to those closer to home. But the image of unstoppable, implacable power animates all of its messaging. The pitch is effective. The militant rebellion in Syria and Iraq has drawn as many as 2,000 Westerners, including perhaps 100 Americans, and many thousands more from the Middle East and elsewhere, though some have returned home. Experts believe most of those remaining today are fighting with ISIS. “The overriding point is that success breeds success,” said Emile Nakhleh, a former C.I.A. analyst. “The perception of quick victories and territory and weapons and bases means they don’t need to try hard to recruit.” For two decades, Mr. Nakhleh said, Osama bin Laden talked about re-establishing the caliphate, but he never claimed to have done it. “Young people look at ISIS and say, ‘By gosh, they’re doing it!’ They see the videos with fighters riding on big tanks. They see that ISIS has money,” he said. Video Background on ISIS, the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. Credit Credit Reuters Before ISIS captured the Iraqi city of Mosul in June, other factions fighting in Syria were attracting European recruits, said Thomas Schmidinger, a political scientist from Vienna University. “But since the fall of Mosul, nearly everyone is going to” ISIS, he said. In the evolution of modern jihadist propaganda, Bin Laden, addressing a single static camera with long-winded rhetoric in highly formal Arabic, represented the first generation. (His videos had to be smuggled to Al Jazeera or another television network to be aired.) The most prominent figure of the second generation was the YouTube star Anwar al-Awlaki, the American-born cleric killed in a drone strike in Yemen in 2011, who addressed Westerners in colloquial English, had a blog and Facebook page and helped produce a full-color, English-language magazine called Inspire. ISIS is online jihad 3.0. Dozens of Twitter accounts spread its message, and it has posted some major speeches in seven languages. Its videos borrow from Madison Avenue and Hollywood, from combat video games and cable television dramas, and its sensational dispatches are echoed and amplified on social media . When its accounts are blocked, new ones appear immediately. It also uses services like JustPaste to publish battle summaries, SoundCloud to release audio reports, Instagram to share images and WhatsApp to spread graphics and videos. “They are very adept at targeting a young audience,” said John G. Horgan, a psychologist at the University of Massachusetts at Lowell who has long studied terrorism. “There’s an urgency: ‘Be part of something that’s bigger than yourself and be part of it now.’ ” Fawaz A. Gerges, a professor at the London School of Economics and the author of “The Far Enemy: Why Jihad Went Global,” said ISIS had so far consistently focused on what militants call “the near enemy” — leaders of Muslim countries like Bashar al-Assad of Syria — and not “the far enemy” of the United States and Europe. “The struggle against the Americans and the Israelis is distant, not a priority,” he said. “It has to await liberation at home.” Video Al-Hayat Media Center, an affiliate of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria that offers mostly non-Arabic material geared toward Westerners, released a video featuring a “martyred” Canadian. Al Qaeda has often stressed the advantage to the terrorist network of supporters who hold Western passports and can attack in their countries. But a common public rite of passage for new recruits to ISIS is tearing up or burning their passports, signifying a no-going-back commitment to the Islamic state. One polished ISIS video features a Canadian recruit named Andre Poulin urging North American Muslims to follow him — and even to bring their families. “You’d be very well taken care of here,” he said in the video . “Your families would live here in safety, just like how it is back home. You know we have expanses of territory here in Syria.” In another English-language video pitch , a British fighter identified as Brother Abu Bara al-Hindi poses the call to jihad as a test for comfortable Westerners. “Are you willing to sacrifice the fat job you’ve got, the big car, the family?” he asks. Despite such luxuries, he says, “Living in the West, I know how you feel — in the heart you feel depressed.” The Prophet Muhammad, he declares, said, “The cure for depression is jihad.” Such appeals provoke curiosity, and British fighters have answered hundreds of questions about joining ISIS on Ask.fm, a website, including what type of shoes to bring and whether toothbrushes are available. When asked what to do upon arriving in Turkey or Syria, the fighters often casually reply, “Kik me,” referring to the instant messenger for smartphones, and continue the discussion in private. The English-language videos do not soft-pedal the dangers of the fight; the video of Mr. Poulin, for instance, shows and celebrates his death in battle. But the message to English speakers is nonetheless far softer than the Arabic-language videos, which linger on enemy corpses and show handcuffed prisoners casually machine-gunned. Image The most recent cover of an ISIS magazine, which includes coverage of James Foley, the murdered American journalist. The message, said Mr. Gerges, is blunt: “Get out of the way or you will be crushed; join our caravan and make history.” Instead of emphasizing jihad as a means of personal fulfillment, the Arabic media production portrays it as duty for all Muslims. It flaunts violence toward its foes, especially Shiites and the Iraqi and Syrian security services, while portraying the killing as just vengeance. A recent hourlong ISIS documentary opens with video shot from a drone over Falluja in Iraq and then over a convoy of ISIS gun trucks heading off to battle. A voice-over says that the Islamic state is expanding and that Jerusalem’s Aqsa mosque is “only a stone’s throw away.” In a later scene, a fighter holding a rifle and his passport mocks his home country, Bahrain, for threatening to withdraw citizenship from those who fight jihad abroad. “Don’t you know that you, your citizenship, your laws, your constitutions and your threats are under our feet?” the fighter says. “Don’t you know that we are the soldiers of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria and that our state will expand until it removes the thrones that you sold your religion for?” Image A graphic from an ISIS annual report that details its military attacks by type, part of the group’s varied media strategy. Nowhere in the hourlong production — full of threats, drive-by shootings, explosions and gunfights — does an ISIS fighter mention the United States or directly mention or threaten Israel, apart from the allusion to the Aqsa mosque. Hassan Hassan, a Syrian analyst with the Delma Institute in Abu Dhabi, said that ISIS portrays itself as restoring idealized eras of earlier Islamic history in a way that resonates with many of the region’s Muslims. “ISIS tries to reflect an image of being the continuation of the system of the caliphate,” he said. “In people’s minds, the caliphate is about victory and dignity of Muslims. A caliph is a defender of Muslims against the enemies from within and without.” ISIS’ emphasis on strict implementation of Islamic law also draws support, he said, as does its portrayal of its battle in staunchly sectarian terms. Many of the region’s Sunnis have deep sympathy for any force that can challenge the Iraqi or Syrian governments, which they feel have oppressed Sunnis. ISIS “is the group that is capable of hitting these governments’ security forces and loyalists,” and that has “massive appeal,” Mr. Hassan said. The State Department’s Center for Strategic Counterterrorism Communications has stepped up its efforts to counter ISIS propaganda, publishing a steady stream of ISIS horror tales on Facebook and Twitter , using the hashtag #ThinkAgainTurnAway. For now, it seems an uphill climb. Last week, an ISIS fighter calling himself Abu Turaab wrote on Twitter, “For those who want to come but are facing obstacles, be patient and keep the desire for Jihad alive within you always.” The State Department account replied, “ISIS recruits’ 2 choices: commit atrocities & die as criminals, get nabbed and waste lives in prison.” As of Friday, Abu Turaab’s comment had been named as a “favorite” 32 times . The count for the State Department’s response : Zero.

ISIS,ISIL,Islamic State
Social Media
Mass media
Propaganda
Al Qaeda
Video Recordings
Downloads and Streaming
Terrorism
Iraq
Syria


Cuomo Sweetens Pre-K Deal: ‘Whatever’ Mayor Needs

Abstract: A day after Mayor Bill de Blasio rebuffed his proposal to set aside $1.5 billion to pay for prekindergarten classes, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo came back on Wednesday with a new offer: a blank check. “Whatever he needs,” Mr. Cuomo promised. “As fast as he can phase in, we’ll fund it.” Long accustomed to deference from fellow New York Democrats, the governor is suddenly adjusting to a fresh and frustrating reality. As Mr. de Blasio begins his fourth week in office, he is sticking by his signature campaign plan to raise taxes on New York City’s highest earners to pay for expanded prekindergarten. So Mr. Cuomo, facing a mayor unmoved by his opening offer, sharpened his argument, suggesting Mr. de Blasio’s position was motivated by politics and would be unfair to smaller cities in the state that are not magnets for millionaires. In a 90-minute interview with reporters and editors at The New York Times, Mr. Cuomo committed himself to covering all of the costs for universal full-day prekindergarten as soon as New York City or any other school system in the state can prepare itself to spend the money, declaring, “We’re very good at writing checks.” He made clear that he did not expect the Legislature to approve Mr. de Blasio’s tax increase. Mr. Cuomo seemed perplexed at why, a day after his $1.5 billion proposal, the mayor’s revenue proposal was still relevant, asking, “Why do you need a tax for a service we’re going to fully fund?” And as Mr. de Blasio’s allies prepare to mount a campaign-style effort to lean on Albany lawmakers, Mr. Cuomo suggested that the mayor’s interest in raising taxes was a matter of political symbolism, not revenue collection. “He’s saying part of what he ran on is income inequality, and part of the answer to income inequality is taxing rich people,” the governor said. “That’s what he’s saying, and that’s a political position — I understand that. I’m saying something else, which is when it comes to pre-K, we will pay for pre-K.” Indeed, Mr. Cuomo predicted that even if New York City’s prekindergarten program is awash in cash, Mr. de Blasio will keep asking for permission to raise taxes on the rich. “If it’s not pre-K,” Mr. Cuomo said, “it’ll be something else.” Told of the governor’s comments, a spokeswoman for Mr. de Blasio affirmed the mayor’s insistence on a special city tax for prekindergarten. “While we commend the governor for his proposal, we continue to believe that the fairest way to secure a dedicated, full five years of funding — that is not subject to the whims of Albany politics — is a modest tax on the wealthiest New Yorkers,” the spokeswoman, Marti Adams, said in an email. Mr. Cuomo and Mr. de Blasio are Democrats who know each other well. Mr. Cuomo was Mr. de Blasio’s boss for a time in the Clinton administration. On Wednesday, the governor said, “I don’t have a better political friend than Bill de Blasio.” But their political philosophies are now clashing with each other in the most public of ways. Mr. Cuomo, who will seek a second term in November, presented a package of tax cuts on Tuesday tailor-made for an election year, drawing accolades from business allies but dismay from liberal activists eager to spend more money on schools and other services. No one would have suspected Mr. de Blasio was at the lectern: In his budget address, Mr. Cuomo did not say the words “inequality” or “poverty.” The words did not come up in his State of the State address either. The $1.5 billion that Mr. Cuomo proposed setting aside for expanding prekindergarten would be spread over five years, with $100 million available in the first year. His proposal immediately prompted questions about whether the money would be sufficient . Mr. de Blasio projected that his plan to expand full-day prekindergarten classes in New York City would cost about $340 million a year; a report last year by the Citizens Budget Commission estimated that the cost statewide would be $1.4 billion a year. In the interview, Mr. Cuomo seemed to borrow an issue from his rival in making the case against the proposed tax increase: inequality. Arguing that the state was the best source of money for expanding prekindergarten, the governor said he did not want to risk widening the gap between wealthy communities and poor ones by asking them to come up with their own revenue to pay for the expansion. “We want to do it statewide,” Mr. Cuomo said. “I don’t want this just for New York City. I don’t want just rich people, or rich cities, to be able to do it.”

Andrew Cuomo
Bill de Blasio
Preschool
Tax
NYC
New York
Income tax


Host Cities Forbidden to Discriminate

Abstract: The International Olympic Committee will require future Olympic host cities to abide by rules that forbid any kind of discrimination, a move prompted by the outcry caused by Russia’s adoption of a law banning so-called gay propaganda before the Sochi Winter Games. The I.O.C. has sent a letter to the three candidates for the 2022 Winter Games — Almaty, Kazakhstan; Beijing; and Oslo, Norway — specifying that the host city contract will include new wording on nondiscrimination.

Olympics
Discrimination
International Olympic Committee
2014 Winter Olympics
Kazakhstan
Beijing
Oslo
Russia


P.G.A. Championship 2014: Tiger Woods Out After Second Round

Abstract: LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Whether Tiger Woods would, or even should, play in this week’s P.G.A. Championship generated a great deal of debate, given the state of his back. But the poor state of his game over 36 holes at Valhalla Golf Club, the site of one of his most notable victories, left little doubt that 2014 would go down as another lost season for him. Spraying shots and missing short putts, wincing in both pain and frustration, Woods shot a 74 in Friday’s second round to miss the cut for only the fourth time in 66 major championships as a professional. A 14-time major winner, he has finished in the top five in majors 17 other times. But with his body aching and his swing limited by injury, this Woods, playing in only his seventh PGA Tour event this season, is not that Woods. Woods, who had microdiscectomy surgery on March 31 to alleviate a pinched nerve, said that while warming up before his round Friday, he aggravated the injury that forced him out of last week’s Bridgestone Invitational. “It was telling me on the range that it probably wasn’t a good idea” to play, Woods said. “But I’m not exactly a nonstubborn-type person.” It did not take long for the second round to unfold as an exercise in frustration for Woods, who as a dynamic 24-year-old won the 2000 P.G.A. Championship at Valhalla for the third of four straight victories in major championships. The spectacular golf he played in the final round 14 years ago to defeat Bob May in a playoff seemed a distant memory as he struggled around a course where he once stood so tall. Woods was forced to get up and down for pars on the first two holes. Then, after a wonderful tee shot on the 196-yard fourth hole, Woods missed a 3-foot birdie putt. Trying to save par with a 6-footer on No. 4 after landing in a bunker off the tee, he missed that putt, too, setting in motion an hour or so of ugly golf that erased any hope he would play the final 36 holes. His total of 148 was five strokes too many to qualify for the weekend. Image Woods on the third green Friday. He missed the cut for only the fourth time in 66 majors as a professional. Credit Luke Sharrett for The New York Times He pulled his 3-wood tee shot badly on the 488-yard, par-4 sixth hole, and he had to play his approach with a fairway metal from a steep lie on the side of a hill, the ball far above his feet. He lashed the shot into the rough, well short of the green. A spectator shouted, “Best ever,” after Woods’s swing — not an appraisal of the shot, but an echo of the greatness Woods is seeking to rediscover. He reached the green on his next shot but three-putted from 18 feet for a double bogey. After hitting a wild drive to the left on the par-5 seventh hole, Woods grimaced and grabbed his back. A bogey put him at seven over par. As Woods completed the front nine, it seemed as if his back was giving him so much discomfort that he would be forced to withdraw, as he did in the final round last week. He played on, however, recording a string of pars but failing to produce anything approaching the caliber of golf for which he is known. “He’s not even limping properly,” David Feherty quipped on the TNT broadcast as Woods played the 13th hole, where he hit a pitching wedge within 4 feet but missed the birdie putt. Woods finally made his first birdie of the day, from 10 feet, on No. 15. After a bogey on the 16th hole, he finished his tournament with a birdie on the par-5 18th hole, and this year’s P.G.A. Championship joined the 2006 United States Open, the 2009 British Open and the 2011 P.G.A. as the only majors he has played as a professional in which he missed the cut. “I don’t know,” Woods said afterward when asked when he would play again. He said he needed to strengthen his core muscles to regain his form. “I need to get my glutes strong again, my abs and my core back to where I used to have them,” he said. “I just can’t get the club back. I can’t get anywhere near the positions I’m accustomed to getting to. It’s very frustrating.” There was no uncertainty when Woods was asked if he felt old. “I felt old a long time ago,” he said. “Darn near 20 years out here.”