U.C.L.A. Beats St. John’s in Coach Lavin’s Return

Abstract: LOS ANGELES — On Saturday, Steve Lavin returned to the scene of his crime, the same crime committed by seven others who have served as coach of the U.C.L.A. men’s basketball team. They failed to live up to the impossible standard set by John Wooden. The 10 championship banners Wooden’s teams won between 1964 and 1975 hang from the rafters inside Pauley Pavilion, constant reminders of the program’s past glory. Almost eight years after Lavin’s exit from U.C.L.A., he was back here as the coach of St. John’s, and the suspense crested long before the Bruins escaped with a 66-59 victory against the Red Storm. The much-anticipated moment came shortly before tip-off. Lavin stepped onto the court, walked alongside the scorer’s table and stopped to greet a few well-wishers. A handful of others approached from behind the St. John’s bench for handshakes, and one even wanted a hug. But then it was time for the official introductions and a chance for those less enamored of Lavin to be heard. The critics buried him with invective in 2003, when his tenure in Westwood ended with fans wearing paper bags over their heads, students wearing “Lose Lavin” T-shirts and his team finishing 10-19, the program’s first losing season since 1948. It was unclear if fans were ready to turn the page Saturday. One by one, St. John’s five starters were introduced and jogged onto the court. Then, in what appeared to be a glaring omission or an act of kindness, the P.A. announcer did not introduce Lavin, denying fans a chance to boo or cheer. Moments later, one of U.C.L.A.’s student yell leaders piped up. “You all know who’s back,” he shouted into a microphone. “Let’s remind Steve Lavin exactly what it feels like to lose at Pauley Pavilion.” Laughter rippled through the student section. By his admission, Lavin suffered some shame during his seven-year tenure as head coach. He also guided U.C.L.A. to the N.C.A.A. tournament six times — five times to the Round of 16 and once to the Round of 8 — and Saturday was no cause for embarrassment. In what Lavin called a slugfest, the Red Storm (13-9) pulled to 62-59 with a chance to tie the score in the final two minutes. Dwight Hardy, who led St. John’s with 32 points, said he and his teammates felt extra motivation to win the game for Lavin. “We all knew how important this game was,” he said. Hardy sounded more upset than Lavin, who emerged from the losing locker looking sanguine while surrounded by reporters. Returning waves from fans as he conducted interviews, Lavin said it felt “a bit surreal” walking into the visitors’ locker room before the game. He joked that his top assistant, Gene Keady, had to remind him they were sitting on the visitors’ side of the court when Lavin appeared to hesitate in front of the home end. Once the game started, Lavin said, he lost himself in the action. With a grin, he acknowledged hearing good-natured banter from fans behind the St. John’s bench. But nothing approaching the vile and vulgar insults he heard when his then-legion of critics was trying to run him out of a place he still calls home. “This was home for me for 12 years, and I’ve always felt comfortable at U.C.L.A. and in Pauley Pavilion,” he said. But Lavin said no coach should grow too comfortable here. Wooden died in June at the age of 99, but his legacy looms as large as ever. On Saturday, the Bruins committed 22 turnovers, missed five of six free throws down the stretch and turned in the kind of uneven performance U.C.L.A. fans have become all too accustomed to during the past two years. U.C.L.A. Coach Ben Howland says the four McDonald’s all-Americans on his roster are a sign of promise. But he also acknowledges that the Bruins failed to identify homegrown talent that could have averted a slide that included a 14-18 record last season. The 16-7 start this season has yet to electrify the Bruins fans. Before Saturday’s game, which drew 8,592, the Bruins were averaging 7,313 fans a game this season in an arena that seats almost 13,000. Meanwhile, Pauley Pavilion is undergoing a $200 million renovation, and victories are needed to drive paying fans through the turnstiles to help justify the investment. Though Lavin praised Howland’s accomplishment in eight seasons at U.C.L.A., he also might have foretold the future for Howland, and Howland’s successor, and whoever comes next. “You understand when you coach U.C.L.A., it’s for the short term,” Lavin said. “There’s only one pope, and that’s John Wooden. And the rest of us are cardinals coming through, and you have to be grateful to be in the Vatican of college basketball, and that’s U.C.L.A.”

College Athletics
Basketball
University of California Los Angeles
Lavin Steve


Chelsea Edges Liverpool in F.A. Cup; Di Matteo’s Future Unclear

Abstract: LONDON — Chelsea , the team that rebelled in midseason and got rid of its coach by failing to perform for him, won the English F.A. Cup at Wembley Stadium on Saturday. And it now stands two weeks away from the Champions League final in Munich. The 2-1 victory over Liverpool gives the owners of both clubs huge questions concerning their managers. Chelsea has turned their season around under the interim management of Roberto Di Matteo. Even in triumph, Chelsea’s owner, Roman Abramovich, has given no indication about whether he will stick with Di Matteo, a former player, or do as Abramovich does at least once a year, hire somebody new. The immediate future of Liverpool’s leadership may also be shrouded in doubt. The team’s owners, an American consortium headed by John Henry, answered the clarion call of fans last year by firing the team manager and rehiring an old legend, Kenny Dalglish, in his place. As new owners, the group, which also runs the Boston Red Sox, backed Dalglish by spending every cent they were willing to pump into the club on signing the players he wanted. As tight as the score from Wembley seemed, Liverpool has fallen short of its targets. It has neither qualified for the Champions League nor won the oldest and most significant cup competition in domestic soccer, the F.A. Cup. It isn’t easy competing in English soccer where there are billionaire paymasters from all parts of the world. And it isn’t easy being a referee in a Cup final in which a split second, a line judged in inches, can win or lose the trophy. Make no mistake, Chelsea dominated the first hour of Saturday’s big game. It led through a goal from the Brazilian Ramires on a breakaway in the 11th minute, and doubled that lead shortly after halftime when Didier Drogba did as he always has done in Wembley Cup finals: he scored the second goal. After that, Liverpool changed its lineup and brought on Andy Carroll, the central striker for whom it had spent more than $56 million soon after the new American owners arrived. Carroll is like Drogba, a man of huge physical presence in the goal mouth. Within 10 minutes of taking his place in the attack, Carroll gave Liverpool a lifeline. He swerved away from the cumbersome Chelsea captain, John Terry, turned and ripped the ball into the roof of the net. Carroll’s menace to Chelsea grew. Eight minutes from the end, he rose to a chipped cross from Luis Suarez, met the ball with his head with the power of a sledgehammer, and directed it toward goal from barely 12 feet. Petr Cech produced a reaction save, with his strong right hand deflecting the ball. It was an even better stop because Chelsea defender Branislav Ivanovic was right in front of the goalkeeper’s eye line, and making a frantic, high-kicking attempt to intercept. But from Cech’s glove, the ball ricocheted off the underside of the crossbar, down, and out. Goal, shouted the Liverpool players. No goal, pleaded the Chelsea defenders. And the linesman and referee gave Chelsea the benefit of the doubt. They ruled no goal, play on. And as usual in these tight calls, television tried to freeze frame the action from every angle, each one failing to determine conclusively whether the whole of the ball had crossed that white goal line. In that event, unless or until FIFA decides to introduce a computer chip on the goal line, we must all live with the oldest rule in the soccer book: that the referee’s decision is final. But we will never know if Liverpool was robbed, or Chelsea earned its moment of fortune. Beyond that, Chelsea won the Cup by taking the initiative early on. The goal by Ramires was born of his great athleticism when Juan Mata had preyed on an error on the halfway line by Jay Spearing. When Mata then released the ball forward, Ramires was sprinting like a greyhound, running past Jose Enrique and threading his shot between goalkeeper Pepe Reina and the near post. Drogba’s goal was proof that Drogba invariably crowns a Wembley appearance with a significant moment. He has scored every time he has represented Chelsea in this 90,000-capacity stadium outside London. And he scored again with just a hint of fortune when his shot went between the legs of defender Martin Skrtel on its way to the net. Chelsea at that point was full value for its lead, albeit in a tense first hour that was far from a distinguished show piece event. Both teams had gone to Wembley to play cat and mouse; caution was their watch word, dullness the consequence for millions of fans watching on TV. Only when Dalglish changed his tactics and brought on Carroll, his big attacking presence, did the final have cut and thrust. And that, by the width of the crossbar, proved too little too late to save the final. Where each team goes from here is uncertain. Dalglish acknowledged that his team appeared somewhat naïve against Chelsea’s know-how until it was too late. Chelsea’s interim manager, Di Matteo, said it was “quite special” to have played and won the Cup for Chelsea in 1997, and now to have coached the team to win it again. His players, he agreed, are feeling some physical strain through playing in domestic and foreign competition at the rate of seven games in 21 days. Di Matteo has no clue whether he will keep the job even if Chelsea carries on this momentum and, against all odds, beats Bayern Munich in Munich in the Champions League final on May 19. “The players have responded to the adversity,” he said. “I don’t know how many believed outside the club that we could win in the Cups, but we will try do this again in Munich.”

Chelsea (Soccer Team)
Liverpool (Soccer Team)
Football Association Cup (Soccer)
Di Matteo Roberto
Abramovich Roman A
Dalglish Kenny
Drogba Didier
Soccer


AARP Sends a Thank-You to Caregivers

Abstract: AARP and the Advertising Council are beginning a new advertising and social media campaign this week designed to illustrate the many roles caregivers play and to thank them for this assistance. Timed to coincide with November’s National Family Caregivers Month — an annual commemoration, sponsored by the Caregiver Action Network, to honor the 42 million Americans who care for a loved one with a chronic condition, disability or the frailties of old age — the campaign is the second time AARP and the Ad Council have collaborated on this issue. In August 2012, they introduced advertising directed at female baby boomer caregivers, aged 40 to 60, that illustrated the physical, emotional and mental strains they experience. The ads, by Butler, Shine, Stern and Partners, based in Sausalito, Calif., also directed caregivers to a website, www.aarp.org/caregiving, operated by AARP, that offers tools, advice and other assistance. The campaign reflects research conducted by AARP in June 2013 of people who consider themselves caregivers, which found that although 52 percent said they were “proud” to provide such assistance, almost three in 10 said their lives had changed from caregiving, while more than one in five said their weight, exercise or social life had suffered from it. AARP also found that one in three caregivers surveyed felt sad or depressed and 44 percent said they bottled up these feelings. Almost 40 percent said they slept less since becoming a caregiver, while one-third avoided making decisions or isolated themselves, and almost one-quarter ate more. “Family, friends and neighbors who support a loved one rarely see themselves as a caregiver, and they almost never ask for help. But at some point in their lives, most people will be a caregiver or need support. Our campaign is here to remind caregivers that they aren’t alone and there is help,” said Debra Whitman, AARP executive vice president for policy, strategy and international affairs. New advertising — which has been created in television, radio, print, outdoor and digital executions, in English and Spanish — is meant to “start a broader cultural conversation about the challenges” caregivers face, said David Jenkins, president of Taxi, a Toronto-based unit of WPP, whose New York office worked on the campaign. Distribution of the advertising will begin Thursday. Caregivers often are not “self-identifying,” he said. “We’re trying to provide a platform that will enable them to see themselves and the roles they play. We are viewing these people as unsung heroes.” Both print and TV ads illustrate a 50-year-old woman and her mother, and describe the many services the former provides for the latter. The print ad depicts the younger woman serving as her mother’s nurse, housekeeper and personal assistant. The ad says, “Caring for a loved one requires playing many roles you never expected. But you’re not alone.” A television spot, in 15- and 30-second versions, shows the younger woman entering a kitchen where her mother sits at a table reading a magazine. As the spot proceeds, the daughter organizes her mother’s pills, folds laundry, chops vegetables and pays bills; in the voice-over, she says, “When I started taking care of Mom, I didn’t realize the challenge of playing so many roles. But above all, I’m still her daughter.” Both the print and TV ads refer viewers to aarp.org/caregiving, while the print ad urges them to “connect with experts and other caregivers,” and also offers a toll-free number, operated by AARP, for assistance. An outdoor ad shows a younger and older woman, their arms entwined around each other. The ad says, “You’re there for Mom. We’re here for you. Caring for a loved one can be more than you expected. But you’re not alone.” And radio spots discuss the challenges faced by a daughter who has become her father’s caregiver. According to Amy Goyer, AARP’s home and family expert, the new campaign is aimed at the same group as last year’s advertising. Ms. Goyer said research by AARP in 2009 found that the average caregiver in the United States was a 49-year-old woman who worked outside the home and spent nearly 20 hours a week, for nearly five years, providing unpaid care to her mother. This research also estimated that in 2009, the economic value of family caregiving was $450 billion, based on 42.1 million caregivers 18 or older providing an average of 18.4 hours of care per week to care recipients 18 or older, at an average value of $11.16 per hour. Another initiative of the campaign, also created by Taxi, is the “Thanks Project,” www.thanksproject.org, that debuted on Tuesday and allows people to post messages of thanks to caregivers and upload related photos and videos; these messages can also be shared on Facebook and Twitter. Ms. Goyer said this effort would provide a way for family, friends and caregivers to engage, and for caregivers to be acknowledged, “to help them feel they are not alone.” She also said she hoped it would help connect all of these people to AARP’s caregiving resources, including the website, which has been upgraded since last year. Peggy Conlon, president and chief executive of the Ad Council, said the new advertising conveyed “a very empowering message. There are natural frustrations caregivers experience, but at the end of the day, there’s a reason they do it. It is love for the relative they’re caring for.” Ms. Goyer also called caregiving a “widespread issue people can connect with on a personal level. If they haven’t been a caregiver, they most likely will be or will receive care. It’s an issue that affects every person.”

advertising,marketing
Old age,elderly,senior citizens
AARP
Advertising Council
Social Media


Kesolowski Races to Nationwide Victory

Abstract: Brad Keselowski passed Joey Logano for the lead with 16 laps to go, then held off Sam Hornish Jr. to win the Nationwide Zippo 200 at Watkins Glen International in upstate New York. Keselowski won for the fourth straight time over five months in Nascar’s second-tier series.


Gym Grunter Not Assaulted by Silencer, a Jury Rules

Abstract: They are among the irritants who are an unfortunate part of the New York experience: the loud cellphone talker in the elevator, the picture-happy tourist blocking a crowded sidewalk, the testosterone -laced grunter who practically coughs up a parakeet with each biceps curl. For the suffering New Yorkers who have only dreamed of eliminating nuisances like these without having to be polite, Christopher Carter might be a hero. On Monday, a jury acquitted Mr. Carter of assault charges for manhandling the stationary bike of a fellow gym member, Stuart Sugarman, who was shouting and grunting during a spin class. Even though Mr. Carter’s defense lawyer acknowledged in court that his client had grabbed Mr. Sugarman’s bike by the handlebars, tilted it back and then released it, with Mr. Sugarman astride, the jury decided that he was not a criminal for having done so. After nearly 10 hours of deliberations, the six jurors agreed that they could not say beyond a reasonable doubt that Mr. Carter had caused the back and neck trouble that hospitalized Mr. Sugarman for nearly two weeks. “Probably, most likely, but not definitely,” said one juror, Marybeth Roman. It was hardly a landmark case. It will not be highlighted in lawbooks. But the verdict may provide many a New Yorker with the satisfaction of a “gotcha” moment. The jurors who heard the case in Manhattan Criminal Court, several of whom were interviewed afterward, certainly did not seem to be on the side of Mr. Sugarman, who had described his grunts in testimony as “expelling air.” “I was like, ‘Why must he be obnoxious and disrespectful to the others?’ ” said Ms. Roman, a 20-year-old sociology student who lives on the Lower East Side. Ms. Roman said she and the other jurors questioned the credibility of Mr. Sugarman, who testified that he had suffered chronic neck and back pain. The altercation occurred at an Equinox fitness club on the Upper East Side in August. Mr. Sugarman, a 49-year-old senior partner at an investment firm, was yelling things like “You go, girl!” and “Good burn!” in spin class, and Mr. Carter could not take it anymore. He twice asked the instructors to get Mr. Sugarman to quiet down, according to trial testimony. But after Mr. Sugarman continued, harsh words were exchanged. Mr. Carter, 45, a stockbroker, stormed over to Mr. Sugarman’s bike and lifted it, crashing the back of it into a wall, witnesses said. Mr. Sugarman said the force of the bike dropping to the ground caused a herniated disc in his neck. Although Mr. Carter was not proud of his actions, according to his lawyer, Michael C. Farkas, he maintained that he did not cause Mr. Sugarman’s injury. The verdict, Mr. Farkas said, proves what he and his client have been saying all along: Mr. Sugarman is not believable. “If you’re going to act in a manner that’s going to be completely inconsiderate of others, then great things aren’t going to happen for you,” Mr. Farkas said outside court. Mr. Carter, who was not claiming the mantle of everyday New York hero, was relieved to leave court a free man. “I had some long nights over the last nine and a half months,” he said. But the ordeal is hardly over. Samuel L. Davis, a New Jersey lawyer representing Mr. Sugarman, said his client planned to file a lawsuit Tuesday against Mr. Carter and Equinox. He said he hoped that New Yorkers would not view the verdict as a call to arms of sorts. “I don’t know if there’s going to be an uprising, but the short-term message is sometimes you can get away with assaulting somebody who’s annoying,” he said. Indeed, some of the annoyed sat on the jury. “I probably would’ve helped Carter with telling the instructors, ‘Look, this guy, he’s being a nuisance,’ ” Ms. Roman said. B. J. Tormon, a 21-year-old nursing student whose thick biceps indicate that he has spent some time working out, said confrontations in exercise class were common. “Stuff like that happens in the gym,” he said. Even Brigid Harrington, the assistant district attorney prosecuting the case, painted a less-than-sympathetic portrait of Mr. Sugarman. In her closing arguments on Friday, she told the jurors that Mr. Sugarman was probably not someone “you would want to hang out with regularly.” But that should not matter, she said. “I don’t want you to think that Stuart Sugarman had it coming,” Ms. Harrington said. “We know that society and the law does not work that way.”

Health Clubs
Decisions and Verdicts
Exercise
Assaults
Carter Christopher
Sugarman Stuart
Manhattan (NYC)


In Washington, It’s No Time to Stop the Train

Abstract: CONTRARY to what you may have heard from some doomsayers, 2009 is not 1930 redux. What we must guard against, instead, is 2010 or 2011 becoming another 1936. Realistically, there is little danger that the economy is heading toward a repeat performance of the Great Depression — when real gross domestic product in the United States declined 27 percent and unemployment soared to 25 percent. What we have is bad enough: our worst recession since the 1930s. But unless our leaders behave unbelievably foolishly, we will not repeat the tragic slide into the abyss of 1930 to 1933 — for two main reasons. First, our economy has many built-in safeguards that did not exist back then — like unemployment insurance, Social Security and federal deposit insurance, to name just three. These programs serve as safety nets that cushion the fall. And while they are certainly not strong enough to prevent recessions, they should be enough to prevent another depression. The more important reason is that Barack Obama, Timothy F. Geithner and Ben S. Bernanke are not Herbert Hoover, Andrew Mellon and Eugene Meyer. (Who’s that? Mr. Meyer was the Federal Reserve chairman from September 1930 to May 1933.) In stark contrast to the laissez-faire crowd that ruled the roost in 1930 and 1931, our current economic leaders are not waiting for the sagging economy to right itself. Rather, they have taken numerous extraordinary steps already — and stand ready to do more if necessary. That’s the good news. But even if another depression is next to impossible, there is still the danger that next year, or the year after, might turn into 1936. Let me explain. From its bottom in 1933 to 1936, the G.D.P. climbed spectacularly (albeit from a very low base), averaging gains of almost 11 percent a year. But then, both the Fed and the administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt reversed course. In the summer of 1936, the Fed looked at the large volume of excess reserves piled up in the banking system, concluded that this mountain of liquidity could be fodder for future inflation, and began to withdraw it. This tightening of monetary policy continued into 1937, in a weak economy that was ill-prepared for it. About the same time, President Roosevelt looked at what seemed to be enormous federal budget deficits, concluded that it was time to put the nation’s fiscal house in order and started raising taxes and reducing spending. This tightening of fiscal policy transformed the federal budget from a deficit of 3.8 percent of G.D.P. in 1936 to a surplus of 0.2 percent of G.D.P. in 1937 — a swing of four percentage points in a single year. (Today, a swing that large would be almost $600 billion.) Thus, both monetary and fiscal policies did an abrupt about-face in 1936 and 1937, and the consequences were as predictable as they were tragic. The United States economy, which had been rapidly climbing out of the cellar from 1933 to 1936, was kicked rudely down the stairs again, and America experienced the so-called recession within the depression. Real G.D.P. contracted 3.4 percent from 1937 to 1938; the total G.D.P. decline during the recession, which lasted from mid-1937 to mid-1938, was even larger. The moral of the story should be clear: Prematurely changing fiscal and monetary policies — from stepping hard on the accelerator to slamming on the brake — can be hazardous to the economy’s health. Wow, we’ve learned a lot since the ’30s, right? Well, maybe not. For the echoes of 1936 are being heard right now, even before the current recession hits bottom. If you’ve been paying attention, you know that a number of critics of the Fed are sounding alarms over the huge stockpile of excess reserves it has created — more than $775 billion at last count. What these critics are fretting about now is exactly what goaded the Fed into action in 1936: that the vast pool of loose money will ultimately be inflationary. The clear inference is that some of it should be withdrawn before it’s too late. On the fiscal side, many of President Obama’s critics are complaining vociferously about the huge federal budget deficits. Try to ignore, if you can, the sheer hypocrisy of many Congressional Republicans who, having never uttered a peep about the huge deficits under George W. Bush, are suddenly models of budget probity. But whatever the motives, the worries of today’s deficit hawks sound eerily reminiscent of Roosevelt in 1936 and 1937. FORTUNATELY, Mr. Bernanke is a keen student of the Great Depression who will not allow the Fed to repeat the errors of 1936-37. But his critics, both inside and outside the Fed, are already branding his policies as dangerously inflationary, and no Fed chairman wants to be called an inflationist. Similarly, I hope and believe that President Obama will not transform himself from the spendthrift Roosevelt of 1933 to the deficit-hawk Roosevelt of 1936 — at least not until the economy is back on solid ground. That said, a growing flock of budget hawks are already showing their talons. They will have their day — but please, not yet. To avoid a replay of the policy disasters of 1936-37, both the Fed and our elected officials must stay the course. Mark Twain once explained that, while history does not repeat itself, it often rhymes. We don’t want any rhymes just now.

United States Economy
Recession and Depression
Economic Conditions and Trends
Gross Domestic Product
Great Depression (1930's)


New Doubts About ‘Too Big to Fail’ Banks Rattle Foundation of Regulations

Abstract: Governments around the world have built over the last few years a vast new system of rules that would allow banking giants to fail and shield taxpayers from bailouts. Though this new regulatory architecture is eye-numbingly complex, its builders contend that it has made the financial system much safer without having to resort to measures like forcing a breakup of the largest banks. But that reassuring view has taken a beating of late. Recent turmoil in European debt markets pointed to a possible weakness in a crucial part of the new regulatory system. Shares of large banks have been under pressure, trading at valuations that indicate investors have little faith in the companies’ sprawling business models. Some mergers-and-acquisitions bankers on Wall Street are privately beginning to conclude that some of the largest banks may break up in the coming years. Then, last month, a new Federal Reserve official surprised many by declaring in his first speech on the job that the “too big to fail problem” had not been solved. The assertion was surprising because the official, Neel Kashkari, was at the Treasury Department in 2008 during the big bailouts. But having had time to survey the overhaul ushered in by the Dodd-Frank Act, he says that he believes more has to be done. “We need to act while we still remember how painful the crisis was,” Mr. Kashkari said in an interview. Those behind the financial overhaul might be forgiven for being taken aback by the skepticism. They have achieved many important goals, and there are signs that the new regulations are causing the banks to shrink and, over time, they may even break themselves up to satisfy their shareholders. The gradualism of the current overhaul has a steely edge that the banks and their lobbyists have, for the most part, not been able to resist, supporters of the new rules also point out. Still, the largest banks remain huge. For instance, four United States banks have more than $1 trillion of assets, and two have more than $2 trillion. And now, if the fresh doubts about the overhaul grow, and market turbulence continues to weigh on the banks, politicians and regulators may press for much more direct policies to reduce the size and complexity of the largest financial firms. Mr. Kashkari, who in January became president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, has also started an initiative aimed at developing a plan to address the too-big-to-fail issue. “It’s a hard question, and I give Neel a lot of credit for wanting to drill down,” said Phillip L. Swagel, a professor at the University of Maryland School of Public Policy, who was an assistant secretary for economic policy under Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. Officials at regional Fed banks do not write new banking regulations; that is the job of staff members of the Federal Reserve in Washington. Yet Mr. Kashkari’s intervention makes it more likely that the debate over the banks will continue through the presidential election, in which Wall Street may become a prominent issue. “The regulators should take very seriously the fact that the public is still overwhelmingly skeptical of whether these reforms have fundamentally changed anything,” said Sheila C. Bair, a former prominent banking regulator who is now president of Washington College. Proponents of the current overhaul contend that much has been done. Compared with 2008, the big banks have much higher levels of capital, which in practice means they use less debt to finance their loans and trades — a change that should make them more resilient to shocks and losses. Banks are also safer because they use far less of a type of borrowing that can evaporate in a crisis, causing a run. At Bank of America, for instance, this short-term borrowing was at the end of last year equivalent to just over 18 percent of the bank’s assets, compared with nearly 36 percent at the end of 2008. And the higher capital requirements — which rise in line with a bank’s size — appear to be pressing big banks to shrink. JPMorgan Chase, the nation’s largest bank by assets, trimmed $220 billion of assets last year, done, in part, in response to stiffer capital regulations. When given the leeway under Dodd-Frank, regulators have mostly gone for a stricter approach. The Volcker Rule, which aims to stop a bank’s traders from making risky wagers for its own profit , ended up being quite stringent, for example. And the Fed may not be done. It may, for instance, decide to use its annual regulatory stress tests to make capital rules more onerous. And big banks have to submit plans that would act as a road map for regulators if the banks collapsed. If the Fed and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, another bank regulator, conclude that these plans are not credible, they can require remedial actions that include making the bank unload some of its businesses. In the coming weeks, the Fed and the F.D.I.C. will announce the results of their latest assessments. Image Higher capital requirements — which rise in line with a bank’s size — appear to be pressing big banks to shrink. Credit Stan Honda/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images One of the most potent criticisms of the overhaul, however, is that it is too clever by half. This point is directed in particular at a very important part of the overhaul that is intended to make it possible to wind down a dying bank without using taxpayer backing. Under this part of the overhaul, banks have to issue debt that can be turned into equity capital when a bank fails. The idea is that the debt would act as a source of new capital for the seized bank, removing the need for taxpayer funds. But some banking experts say this part of the overhaul might spread panic, not contain it. Before the collapse, the price of this debt could start to plunge in the markets. Investors might then flee the ailing bank and stop lending to other banks, even those that are in better shape. Mr. Kashkari asserts that, to reduce the risk of such contagion, it may make sense to not rely on the debt component and instead just have banks hold a lot more equity capital at the outset. “Why not get rid of all this complexity and ambiguity and make it equity?” he asked. Such concerns gained some credibility after recent movements in the prices of special debt securities issued by large European banks. In a crunch, these securities can be transformed into pure equity capital. Those issued by Deutsche Bank fell steeply in price, prompting selling of similar securities issued by other banks. But making the banks finance themselves with more equity could cause their stock prices to fall even more than they have. To those who favor doing more, however, such a decline may underscore that banks still need to shrink in order to improve their profitability. Mr. Kashkari said he recognized that a stricter overhaul could add new costs to the banks, and he added that taxpayers might still need to bear some of the risks embedded in the banking sector. But he argued that voters had not yet been given a clear choice on that question. “I want to be candid with the American people about which piece we have solved, and which piece we have not solved,” he said. “And we as a country could decide that we have done enough.”

Banking and Finance
Regulation and Deregulation
Dodd Frank
Neel T Kashkari
Mergers and Acquisitions
Sheila C Bair
Phillip L Swagel
Federal Reserve
FDIC


Arkansas: Man Charged in Power Grid Attacks

Abstract: A 37-year-old man was indicted Wednesday in connection with a series of attacks on the power grid in Central Arkansas earlier this year. A federal grand jury charged Jason Woodring with eight counts, including a terrorist attack against a railroad carrier. Mr. Woodring was arrested last month after the authorities said he repeatedly sabotaged electrical equipment and caused at least $2.1 million in damage. In one instance, Mr. Woodring is alleged to have sought to use a moving train to down a support tower. No one was injured in the attacks, which began in August and led to brief power failures.

Blackouts
Jason Woodring
Arkansas
Terrorism


Bulls Edge Celtics in Final Seconds of Overtime

Abstract: Jimmy Butler scored 6 points in overtime and Marco Belinelli made the winning jumper with 3.1 seconds left as Chicago escaped the Boston Celtics, 101-99, and stayed unbeaten in Friday night road games (14-0) since April 2011. SPURS 95, WARRIORS 88 Tim Duncan had 24 points and 10 rebounds as San Antonio extended its home winning streak to 14 games. The Spurs (31-11) are a league-best 18-2 at home GRIZZLIES 85, KINGS 69 Mike Conley scored 19 points and Marc Gasol had 18 as the host Grizzlies snapped a three-game losing streak. PACERS 105, ROCKETS 95 Paul George scored 23 of his 31 points in the first half as Indiana (25-16) took control early and won its 11th straight home game. BOBCATS 106, MAGIC 100 Kemba Walker had 25 points and 8 rebounds as visiting Charlotte ended a five-game losing streak.

Basketball
Chicago Bulls
Celtics
Spurs
Golden State Warriors
Memphis Grizzlies
Los Angeles Kings
Pacers
Houston Rockets
Alvin Gentry


Morrison Says Error in H.I.V. Test Hurt Career

Abstract: Tommy Morrison had a seemingly boundless future in 1996. A former heavyweight boxing champion, he had had a starring role in “Rocky V” and was in line for his biggest payday, a showdown against Mike Tyson. All that came to an abrupt end, though, when he tested positive for H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS. These days, he is back in the ring. He fought in West Virginia in February, and his return has raised questions of just how a fighter whose blood tested positive for H.I.V. in 1996 could test clean today. This year, Morrison took two separate blood tests to support his assertion that he was not infected with H.I.V., West Virginia officials said last week. The test results provide new details on why they licensed him to return to the ring 11 years after he tested positive. Two nationally renowned H.I.V. experts reviewed those and a third blood test for The New York Times, and said they suggested Morrison had been knocked out of the ring by false positive tests — if, indeed, the new tests are his blood. However, five prominent ringside physicians remained skeptical of the assertion because Morrison tested positive for H.I.V. a number of times in Nevada in 1996. The virus is not curable. Morrison had not publicly challenged the 1996 findings until last year. The doctors all said the only way to resolve the issue was with new testing. “I seriously, seriously doubt he would pass any of this,” Dr. David Watson, the chief ringside physician in Nevada, said in a telephone interview. H.I.V. is of particular risk for boxers because of the wounds and flying blood sometimes associated with the sport. H.I.V. can be transmitted through cuts or mucous membranes in the eyes and nose, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says. Morrison, 38, who has often derided conventional views on H.I.V. and AIDS, said he was pleased to hear some experts supported his assertion of a false positive. “People are starting to wake up,” he said last week in a telephone interview. “There’s been a lot of careers destroyed along the way for no reason. Mine’s certainly been one of them.” The Times obtained copies of three documents, not previously made public, that purport to be tests of Morrison’s blood this year. One of them, negative for H.I.V. antibodies, was a report from LabCorp in Phoenix on blood drawn Feb. 6 and was released by Peter McKinn, Morrison’s promoter. The second, which did not detect H.I.V. in DNA, was a LabCorp report on blood drawn Feb. 14 and was released by West Virginia. The state used those tests to license Morrison to box, said Michele Duncan Bishop, general counsel for the West Virginia Department of Revenue, which oversees the athletics commission. A third test, from Specialty Laboratories of Valencia, Calif., on blood drawn Jan. 5, indicates Morrison tested positive for H.I.V. antibodies but negative for H.I.V. in RNA. That report was released by Randy D. Lang, Morrison’s former legal adviser, who said the antibody result showed Morrison was still infected. But the experts said the RNA result in the same report raised the possibility that the antibody result was a false positive, an event that studies say occurs in fewer than 1 in 100,000 cases. The mixed result in the Jan. 5 test makes it “likely that the antibody result is a false positive,” according to Dr. Daniel R. Kuritzkes, a Harvard professor who directs AIDS research at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and is chairman of the board of the H.I.V. Medicine Association. Kuritzkes reviewed the test for The Times. Without additional blood work, he added in an e-mail message, “it’s hard to know for sure what’s going on, but I suspect he was never H.I.V.-infected.” Dr. Michael P. Busch, director of the Blood Systems Research Institute and a professor of laboratory medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, said H.I.V. antibody screening was misinterpreted a small percentage of the time. He said the RNA and DNA tests, which measure the virus directly rather than through antibodies, would virtually prove that the person was not harboring even a latent infection. “If those results are really all from this person, I would tell you there is no way this person is infected, so something is wrong with those earlier results,” Busch said. Busch said there was a biological basis for some false positives on H.I.V. antibody tests, which makes some people repeatedly test false positive, although the reasons are not well understood. Experts agreed that if Morrison was not infected with H.I.V. today, then he never had been. “There has never been a documented case of an H.I.V.-infected person who clears the virus and is cured,” Dr. Timothy Mastro, deputy director of the C.D.C.’s Division of H.I.V./AIDS Prevention, said in a telephone interview. Mastro added that the quality of H.I.V. diagnosis is “extraordinarily high.” Several ringside physicians questioned whether all the 2007 blood work actually belonged to Morrison because of his multiple tests showing H.I.V. antibodies in 1996. Dr. Margaret Goodman, former chief ringside physician in Nevada, said the pathologist who conducted the 1996 tests for Quest Diagnostics in Las Vegas had told her they were unequivocally positive. That pathologist did not return calls for comment. Dr. William E. Lathan, the former medical director for the New York Athletic Commission, who reviewed the 2007 tests for The Times, said he would exercise extra caution to protect fighters and fans if there were even a question about a fighter’s being positive. “I’m not saying that Tommy is infectious; I’m saying that nobody can prove that he isn’t,” Lathan said. Morrison’s own physician confirmed Nevada’s results in 1996, according to news reports. It immediately halted a career in which Morrison was poised for million-dollar paydays in the ring. Instead, Morrison became a spokesman for AIDS awareness, created the KnockOut AIDS Foundation and spoke publicly about the importance of safe sex. He also spent 14 months in prison on drug and weapons charges in 2000 and 2001; it was there, Morrison said, that he first took H.I.V. medication and first tested negative. He said he remained quiet so he could do further research about the disease. The first time anyone publicly said Morrison did not have H.I.V. was last year. Morrison, who alternates between a raspy scream and a nonchalant monotone in interviews, has come to blame boxing authorities for what he said was an unjust ban from the sport. “They have no idea what’s going on,” he said. Morrison’s actions earlier this year raised questions about his health. He withdrew an application to fight in Arizona, saying he had hurt his hand in training, 10 days after taking the blood test Jan 5. He withdrew an application to fight in Texas in April after officials said they wanted more medical information. West Virginia, known for its lax medical rules, sanctioned Morrison to fight in February. Bishop, the state attorney, said West Virginia law required only that a boxer be “physically fit,” but that authorities could require additional tests if they thought someone might be a danger to himself or others. Bishop said Morrison’s promoter gave them the H.I.V.-negative test of antibodies from Feb. 7, but they had not seen the Jan. 5 test showing H.I.V. antibodies but no virus in his RNA. West Virginia required Morrison to take a test for H.I.V. in his cellular DNA. Dr. Michael B. Schwartz, a Connecticut physician and president of the American Association of Professional Ringside Physicians, consulted for West Virginia. In interviews, he said he advised them to have the tests done through Dr. Patricio Reyes, a Phoenix physician, to assure that it was Morrison’s blood. Reyes said that Morrison never showed up for a scheduled appointment. Instead, records show, Morrison went through Request A Test, Ltd., an Ohio company, to draw blood at LabCorp in Phoenix. It remains unclear whether anyone monitored the Feb. 14 blood draw. The lab order form shows Morrison’s driver’s license attached to verify identity. Schwartz said a driver’s license “should suffice.” Based on that result, Schwartz advised West Virginia on Feb. 20 that Morrison did not have H.I.V. Morrison knocked out John Castle in a sanctioned bout Feb. 22 in Arthur, W. Va. Since then, he has fought once in mixed martial arts. He says he plans to continue a comeback. Morrison said he hoped to vindicate himself with a public blood test in Nevada in the coming weeks. “Have Mr. Morrison visit an infectious disease specialist to perform a complete evaluation,” Schwartz wrote in an e-mail message. “Then you will have the answer as to whether he is positive or negative.”

Morrison Tommy
Boxing
Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome


At Rio Tinto Trial in China, Door Closes Tighter

Abstract: SHANGHAI — Prosecutors argued for a second day in court that four employees from the British-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto accepted millions of dollars in bribes and stole commercial secrets from Chinese companies, but the closed nature of the trial made it difficult to assess the nature of the evidence they presented in the high-profile case. The trial began Monday with guilty pleas by all four defendants, including Stern Hu, an Australian citizen who served as a high-level executive here for Rio Tinto, according to lawyers in the case. But the pleas — admitting to accepting bribes — conflicted with the widely publicized accounts of the case made over the past several months by Chinese officials and the state media. The second day of the trial was scheduled to deal with allegations of the theft of commercial secrets. Under Chinese rules, that meant the trial was even more closed on the second day than the first, and even consular officials from Australia were not permitted to attend. That made it difficult to determine what evidence had been presented, what executives at Rio Tinto knew about acts alleged to be corrupt and why the four employees, three of whom are Chinese citizens, were initially detained last July for espionage and harming the economic interests of China . Later, the charges were downgraded to bribery and theft of commercial secrets. “There must be a very tight lockdown on any disclosure,” said David Kelly, a China expert who teaches at the University of Technology in Sydney, Australia. “This is the way Chinese law has always operated. And they only take a case if they know they’re going to win it, so there’s no room for defense.” The case has alarmed some Western executives operating here because of the appearance that the Chinese authorities were punishing a global company that had found itself at odds with Chinese state-owned steel companies over multibillion-dollar iron-ore contracts. Rio Tinto is one of the leading suppliers of iron ore to Chinese steel mills. The guilty pleas on Monday complicated an already confusing case. “The charges of receiving bribes are a little puzzling,” said Donald C. Clarke, an expert on Chinese law at George Washington University. “If they’re stealing secrets normally, they’d be giving bribes. And why aren’t the bribers being charged?” A spokesman for Rio Tinto declined to comment Tuesday. Tom Connor, Australia’s consul general in Shanghai, said there was not much he could report about the trial, given that consular officials were excluded from attending the afternoon hearing on the secrets charge.

Rio Tinto PLC
China
Australia
Shanghai (China)


2 Dead in Shooting at Hazard, Ky., College

Abstract: LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — A gunman firing into a vehicle killed two people and wounded a teenager on Tuesday as they sat in the parking lot of an eastern Kentucky community college. The campus was locked down for more than an hour while the police searched the two buildings of Hazard Community and Technical College in Hazard, the police told a news conference broadcast live on WYMT-TV’s Web site. The college’s president, Stephen Greiner, said that at the time of the shooting, about 30 students were on campus, 90 miles southeast of Lexington, Ky. The police recovered a semiautomatic pistol at the scene, and a man who walked into an office of the Kentucky State Police in Hazard and said he knew something about the shooting was being questioned as a suspect, Chief Minor Allen of the Hazard Police Department said. A man and a woman were dead when the police arrived about 6 p.m., Chief Allen said. The teenager, a female, was taken to University of Kentucky Hospital, he said. He said a domestic dispute may have led to the shooting. Wednesday’s classes were called off.

School shooting
Murders
Kentucky
College


In California Budget Plan, Brown Wins Deal on Tuition Freeze for In-State Students

Abstract: LOS ANGELES — Ending a standoff over whether tuition at the University of California schools would rise, Gov. Jerry Brown said Thursday that he would send millions more dollars to the university system than he had proposed earlier this year, in exchange for a tuition freeze for in-state students in the 10-campus system. The proposal, part of the governor’s revised $115.3 billion budget plan, is the end of a monthslong battle between Mr. Brown, who did not want tuition to rise, and Janet Napolitano, the president of the University of California, who had threatened to raise tuition unless the state gave more money to the schools. The deal caps tuition for California residents over the next two years, while out-of-state tuition could increase by as much as 8 percent in each of the next two years and 5 percent in the third year. Under the new plan, if approved by the Legislature, the state would provide a 4 percent increase in spending for the system in each of the next four years and provide a $436 million infusion toward paying down the system’s pension obligations. Last fall, the University of California’s regents approved a plan to increase tuition for in-state students by as much as 5 percent over each of the next five years, over intense anger and campus protests. Mr. Brown, who sits on the Board of Regents and voted against the increase, said that the university should look closely for other ways to save money and later proposed a “committee of two” — himself and Ms. Napolitano — to find such measures. “We were very, very far apart when we started,” Ms. Napolitano said in a telephone interview Thursday. “There are already things that we are doing right that the governor and others plain didn’t know about.” Ms. Napolitano proved to be a particularly tenacious opponent, managing to get the governor, who generally gets his way in Sacramento, to back down. Helping her cause was the fact that the state is flooded with unexpected revenue, although Mr. Brown argues that the economy will face another downturn soon and should save money while it can. He is under pressure from fellow Democrats to increase spending in education and social services. Ms. Napolitano said she had made it clear that the system could not use massive online open courses as a way to save large sums of money, as the governor had suggested, but instead would look for ways to create “hybrid” classes that combined online work with labs and classroom discussions, particularly for the most popular courses. “We need to keep producing the kind of students we produce, and you can’t do that on the cheap,” she said. The deal also requires that university employees hired after July 2016 will have to choose between a pension with a defined contribution plan or a defined benefit plan capped at $117,000 per year, down sharply from the current cap of $265,000. California residents currently pay roughly $12,000 a year in tuition and fees, more than three times the rate in 2002. The figure does not including room and board or other additional charges on some campuses. The governor’s new budget proposal also calls for the creation of an earned-income tax credit to help low-income workers, a response to criticism that the original budget plan did not include enough help for the state’s poor. But Mr. Brown indicated that he was reluctant to spend more. “We have to learn from history,” he said at a news conference. “The idea that when you get a little money, or a lot of money, for a few years that you’ve reached utopia is so demonstrably false by the last 12 years.”

College
Tuition payments
Jerry Brown
California
Janet Napolitano
University of California


Extra Work Pays Off for Manuel and Mets

Abstract: Jerry Manuel , a week into his stint as the Mets ’ interim manager, continued searching Wednesday for some trick, some ploy to snap his sluggish team out of its funk. Three hours before the Mets tried to keep the Seattle Mariners , the worst team in baseball, from sweeping them at home, he ordered his players to take stretching exercises as a team. Defensive drills followed. And what followed batting practice were some much-needed signs of life — including a pair of home runs by David Wright — in an 8-2 victory for the Mets. “I’m trying to preach team unity as much as possible,” Manuel said. The pregame lesson appeared to carry over into the first inning, when the Mets (38-39) sent eight batters to the plate and did not need a hit to score their first run. José Reyes led off with a walk, stole second base, snatched third on a wild pitch by the right-hander Miguel Batista and scored when Luis Castillo grounded out to second. Wright then belted an 0-1 changeup into the left-field bleachers for a 2-0 lead. After Wright circled the bases, Reyes greeted him at the dugout steps with a hug — a sure sign of team unity. On Tuesday night, Manuel did something else that was unusual for the Mets. He rested Wright, who had played every inning of every game this season, to give him a day of physical and mental rest. If there was any doubt about that move, Wright erased it in the second inning by driving a two-out, 88-mile-an-hour fastball over the left-field fence for two more runs and a 4-0 lead. This time he was greeted by teammates who were even more exuberant, offering forceful high-fives that popped in the air. “I’m always trying to make Jerry look good,” Wright said. He added that his two-homer night would make him less hesitant about resting in the future, although Manuel has all the say in that department. “I have to be cognizant of when he’s getting fatigued,” Manuel said. Wright now has 14 home runs, his second multihomer game in four weeks and the 11th multihomer game of his career. He has hit three home runs in nine career at-bats against Batista. The rout continued in the third as the Mets scored four more runs and knocked Batista from the game. Three of the runs scored when Reyes sent an 84-mile-an-hour slider into the right-field seats with two outs, and suddenly Shea Stadium — from the field to the dugout to the stands — was full of good vibes again. A throwing error by third baseman Adrián Beltre made the Mets’ runs in the third possible, but Batista (3-10) brought plenty of the damage upon himself. He lasted just two and two-thirds innings, surrendering five hits, eight runs (four earned), five walks, three homers and a wild pitch. He also hit a batter. The Mets’ right-hander John Maine, meanwhile, made the Mariners look like the Mariners. He kept them hitless with a steady diet of well-placed fastballs through the first four innings as the Mets built an 8-0 advantage. Maine (8-5) lasted six innings and allowed five hits and two runs, both earned. “It makes it easier to pitch,” Maine said of the lead his teammates provided. “It takes the pressure off you.” Still, the series was a letdown as the Mets lost two of three to the Mariners (28-50) and scored a total of two runs in the losses. It was Manuel’s first series at Shea Stadium as manager and came against a team that fired its manager, John McLaren, last week. Manuel has emphasized his team’s need to improve at home and said that he and his players will be judged by their showings at Shea. Perhaps just as important will be how the Mets stack up against the Yankees. That will play out starting Friday, when the Mets and Yankees get together for four games. INSIDE PITCH Jerry Manuel and the umpire Brian Runge had a sharp dispute Tuesday night that led to Manuel’s ejection, but they shared an extended handshake and spoke before Wednesday’s game. “I talked to Jerry, and that is all I am going to say,” Runge said after Wednesday’s game. “I will let the commissioner’s office do the rest of the talking.” Manuel said that he did not want to see Runge disciplined, and that Runge apologized to him during their conversation. On Tuesday, Runge bumped Manuel with his shoulder. Right fielder Ryan Church, on the disabled list since June 10 with postconcussion syndrome, is scheduled to be in the lineup for the Class A Brooklyn Cylcones on Thursday as a designated hitter and will be re-evaluated from there. ... The left-handed pitcher Oliver PÉrez will remain in the starting rotation and pitch against the Yankees on Sunday despite another poor outing Tuesday against the Mariners. ... The Mets claimed the infielder and former Yankee Andy Phillips off waivers from the Cincinnati Reds on Wednesday.

New York Mets
Seattle Mariners
Manuel Jerry
Wright David
Reyes Jose
Martinez Pedro


European Union’s Leverage Over Cyprus Is Ephemeral

Abstract: PARIS — For the first time since Cyprus joined the European Union nearly a decade ago, its partners have the leverage to press for a settlement of the island’s division of almost 40 years. Yet there is no sign that Brussels is preparing to use its advantage to achieve a reunification that eluded negotiators when Cyprus joined the Union in 2004. Indeed, the most powerful member states, Germany and France, may be content to see the Cyprus stalemate continue rather than deal with the potential consequences of a resolution that would bring Turkey closer to E.U. membership. The Republic of Cyprus, with its 800,000 Greek Cypriots, is broke. The country, one of the smallest economies in the euro zone, applied for financial aid from the Union and the International Monetary Fund last June after its banks were badly hurt by an E.U.-sanctioned write-down of Greek debt held by private investors. The government says that without a bailout, it may run out of money in April. It needs about €17 billion, or $23 billion, from its euro zone partners, equivalent to the economic output of a whole year. That ought to give Brussels leverage to push the Greek Cypriots into cooperating with the Turkish Cypriots in the north of the island to join in a loose federation of the kind proposed in 2004 by Kofi Annan, then the U.N. secretary general. At the time, the Turkish Cypriots voted in favor of the Annan plan, encouraged by Turkey. Turkey invaded northern Cyprus in 1974 in response to a Greek-backed coup in Nicosia by Greek Cypriot hardliners seeking union with Athens. The island has been divided ever since. Turkey has about 30,000 troops in northern Cyprus. Under the Annan plan, most of them would have gone home by 2018. But safe in the knowledge that they would be admitted to the Union no matter what, the Greek Cypriots rejected the Annan plan, and a week later Cyprus became an E.U. state. European officials, and especially Günter Verheugen, the E.U. enlargement commissioner at the time, felt betrayed. “The understanding was quite clear when we gave Turkey candidate status in 1999 and even clearer when we concluded negotiations with Cyprus in 2002: The Greek Cypriots would not allow the peace plan to fail, and if it failed due to the Turkish Cypriots, then Cyprus could join,” Mr. Verheugen said. “We came very close. The problem was that in the end, we didn’t have any leverage over the Greek Cypriots anymore since they knew they would join anyway,” added Mr. Verheugen, who is now honorary professor of European governance at the European University Viadrina in Germany. The big losers were the Turkish Cypriots, who remain excluded from the Union and economically isolated. At the time, Brussels released some funds that had been pledged to the Turkish Cypriots for economic development and promised to allow them to export their produce directly to the Union. But the Greek Cypriots blocked direct trade with the Union. Turkey, in turn, refused to allow the Greek Cypriots direct access to its ports and airports. At the least, the Union could use a bailout for Nicosia to try to secure direct trade access for the Turkish Cypriots, which might prompt the Turks to lift their own restrictions. Yet some E.U. diplomats say it would be politically dangerous to apply diplomatic pressure by exploiting Cyprus’s economic plight. Any link could backfire and benefit hard-line nationalists on both sides, they warn. And skeptics say it suits Berlin and Paris just fine to keep the Cyprus problem in stalemate, because that prevents Turkey from advancing toward the Union’s door. “Europe itself is divided on the Cyprus issue. There are several countries that have no interest whatsoever in solving the problem because Turkish accession would be moved forward,” said a former mediator on the island, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is still involved in diplomacy. The United States used to be actively engaged in trying to settle the Cyprus dispute, which it saw as a potential flash point for instability in the eastern Mediterranean. But the United States’ interest in twisting arms seems to have waned since Cyprus found large amounts of natural gas beneath its waters and began working with Israel, Washington’s biggest regional ally, to tap the offshore wealth. The seabed bonanza may eventually help Nicosia out of its financial problems. One way of paying off any loans might be to borrow against future revenue from natural gas, which is due to start flowing in 2019. At that point, any incentive to reach a settlement with the Turkish Cypriots may evaporate in a haze of gas. So if European countries want to wield some influence, it is now or never. While Brussels may temporarily have more leverage over the Greek Cypriots, its sway over Turkey has shrunk, and the Turkish Cypriots elected a hard-liner, Dervis Eroglu, as president in 2010. He favors independence for the self-styled Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. “Turkey is in no way as willing to compromise as it was in 2004,” the former mediator said. That is partly because few Turks believe the Union will ever admit their country, and hence two-thirds now oppose membership, but also because Ankara has been so economically successful in the last decade that it has much less need to join the bloc. The Turkish deputy prime minister, Ali Babacan, says the E.U. accession process has helped his country implement democratic and economic reforms and strengthen the rule of law, underpinning a decade-long economic boom in which gross domestic product per capita has tripled. “E.U. membership is a strategic target for us,” Mr. Babacan told reporters at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, last month. “We have been working for this target since 1959. It seems we are still going to take a long time to reach it, if it happens.” In return for a bailout, E.U. officials are demanding that Cyprus shrink its banking sector, privatize state companies and make economic reforms. But so far, no one has linked a rescue to a diplomatic solution of the island’s division. Perhaps the last chance of a settlement may go to waste for lack of European interest. Paul Taylor is a Reuters correspondent.


Mexican Investigator of American’s Killing Is Beheaded

Abstract: HOUSTON — An investigation into a reported shooting of an American on a border reservoir took a bizarre turn this week when the Mexican police chief overseeing the search was murdered and his head was left in a suitcase outside a military base, the Zapata County Sheriff’s Office said. Mexican officials said it remained unclear on Wednesday whether the killing of Rolando Armando Flores Villegas, commander of the Tamaulipas State police in Ciudad Miguel Alemán, was related to the search for David M. Hartley, a manager with an oil well services company who, his wife reported, was fatally shot on Sept. 30 while touring Falcon Lake on a Jet Ski. Just before his death, Commander Flores had given the names of two suspects in Mr. Hartley’s case to a reporter at KRGV-TV in Brownsville, Tex., lending credence to the theory that the police commander’s killing was related to the inquiry. But Rubén Darío Ríos, a spokesman for the Tamaulipas State prosecutor, said Commander Flores was involved in several inquiries that might have given someone a motive to kill him. The chief was one of the senior police officials overseeing about 100 officers searching the lake for a trace of the missing man, Mr. Dario said. The search has proved fruitless so far, and hope has faded of finding Mr. Hartley, who was reportedly wearing a life vest when he was shot in the head, or his missing watercraft. Commander Flores told the Brownsville television station that the Mexican police were searching for two brothers, Juan Pedro Zaldívar Farias and José Manuel Zaldívar Farías, who are reputed members of the Zeta organized crime group. Another police official in Miguel Alemán, Juan Carlos Ballesteros, had given the same information to the newspaper El Universal on Saturday. Yet Mr. Darío denied Tuesday that state investigators were seeking anyone. “We have no suspects,” he said. Family members of Mr. Hartley said they met last week with Commander Flores to discuss the search, and for them, his killing appeared to be a message. “I’m pretty sure they are trying to make a statement that you guys better back off or else,” said Bob Young, the missing man’s father-in-law. Mr. Hartley was shot by a group of armed men in fishing boats after he and his wife crossed the lake on Jet Skis to photograph a half-submerged church near the Mexican town of Guerrero Viejo, according to his wife, Tiffany Hartley. She fled after trying unsuccessfully to retrieve her husband’s body. The region has seen years of gangland war between the Gulf cartel, the Zetas and the Sinaloan cartel, all vying for control of lucrative border crossings, among them the lake itself, with the Mexican Army intervening regularly. As the drug violence has dragged into its fourth year, lawlessness has risen generally, and cartel hit men now regularly single out officials who cross them.

Villegas Rolando Armando Flores
Mexico
Texas
Murders and Attempted Murders
Drug Cartels


With Aqueduct Casino, More Horse Racing Subsidies

Abstract: New York City ’s first casino may open as soon as next year, and for the state the timing could not be better: it is expected to generate as much as $1.5 million a day for the severely depleted state treasury, as well as an upfront payment to Albany of $380 million. But there will be another beneficiary of the great slot machine payout: the state’s foundering horse racing industry. The new casino authorized at Aqueduct Racetrack in Queens , which would feature 4,525 slot machines, will pump an estimated $30 million or more each year into New York’s racetracks and breeding operations. That is on top of $100 million a year the industry gets from the existing eight slot parlors across the state. Since the first parlor opened in 2006, the machines have produced about $400 million for the horses. New York is not the only state that uses one form of gambling to support another. But one of the first, New Jersey , is now considering ending the subsidies for horse racing from Atlantic City . Gov. Deval Patrick of Massachusetts recently rejected a proposal to put slot machines at a track near Boston , saying he preferred stand-alone casinos that sent a greater percentage of the revenues to the state. “For New York,” said William R. Eadington, director of the Institute for the Study of Gambling at the University of Nevada , “the public policy question comes down to this: Should we spend $400 million to save racetracks or to save education and other things that are also in great need?” New York is among 12 states that allow casinos to be installed at racetracks in an effort to revive the struggling sport. Horse owners and breeders in these states, which also include Delaware , Iowa , Maryland and Pennsylvania , say the casinos are vital to the economy: they contribute billions of dollars and, in New York, account for about 35,000 jobs, if the tally includes jockeys, trainers, grooms and the farm workers who produce hay and other food for the horses. The lush rolling hills of the horse farms provide green space and a hedge against overdevelopment, the owners and breeders say. “The racing industry makes a significant economic contribution to the state,” said Barry R. Ostrager, president of the New York Thoroughbred Breeders and a board member of the New York Racing Association , which would be a beneficiary of the slot machines at Aqueduct. “The revenue that horsemen and breeders receive from slots will enable them to upgrade facilities, to upgrade racing and to make racing more attractive.” The horse racing industry was a powerful force in Albany even before Joseph L. Bruno , who had close ties to the industry, became the majority leader in the State Senate in the mid-1990s. But Mr. Bruno, a Republican, was regarded as an exceptional ally. He rode his horse Apache in the annual Flag Day Parade in Saratoga Springs and owned a breeding operation, which eventually came under scrutiny by federal investigators and contributed to his stepping down in 2008. “The most valuable players in the horse racing industry have been their lobbyists,” Bennett Liebman, executive director of the Government Law Center at Albany Law School and Gov. David A. Paterson ’s appointee to the New York Racing Association, is fond of saying. When the State Legislature approved the creation of limited casinos — video slot machines were allowed, but not table games — at racetracks in 2001, it was partly to aid education and partly to help racing by fattening purses, in order to attract better horses and more fans. New York requires the casinos to pay out in winnings 91.5 cents of every dollar gambled. Of what is left, 44 percent is earmarked for education and 10 percent for racing: 8.75 percent for purses and 1.25 percent for breeders. Pennsylvania is more generous, providing 12 percent to horse racing, a total of $647 million since 2006. As slots have expanded in New York, so has the payout, for both education, which received more than $450 million last year, and horse racing, which collected $104 million. But that is not all the industry receives. Slot parlors make a profit after the fees and revenue sharing, and at the eight parlors in New York, the machines are operated by the track owners and now provide most of their income. “There should be little doubt,” Mr. Liebman said, “that without the slots every harness track in New York would be out of business.” The Aqueduct slots will be operated not by the track’s owner — the New York Racing Association, which also owns the Belmont and Saratoga tracks and is nearly insolvent — but by an independent company, Genting New York. Genting, part of a multinational conglomerate, has received approval from the governor and leaders of the Senate and the Assembly, and is waiting for the state attorney general and comptroller to sign off. Despite the introduction of slots, the revival of horse racing as a spectator sport has not come. The purses are bigger and the horses are considered better, but the cars in the parking lots at most tracks belong to patrons of the slot parlors. Gamblers wagered $2.2 billion on New York horse races last year, 30 percent less than in 2003, when inflation is taken into account, Mr. Liebman said. The slot machines took in $12 billion. “You’re propping up a dying industry,” said Richard McGowan, a Jesuit priest and an economics professor at Boston College who specializes in gambling. “The only thing that will revive horse racing is if you banned all other forms of gambling, and that’s not going to happen.” But the lifeline between the horse racing industry and gambling revenues is coming under greater scrutiny. In Massachusetts, Governor Patrick rejected a proposal to allow slots at the struggling Suffolk Downs in East Boston, saying it amounted to a no-bid contract for track owners. He favors full casinos that send a percentage of the revenues to the state coffers and none to racing. With New Jersey’s two state-run horse tracks, Meadowlands and Monmouth Park, set to lose $22 million this year, Gov. Chris Christie sent a shock wave through the industry in July when he proposed cutting off millions of dollars in racing subsidies from Atlantic City’s casinos, which are under siege from new casinos in neighboring states, and shutting down the Meadowlands track. The plan faces opposition in the Legislature from racing supporters, who favor bolstering the industry by adding slots to the gambling menu at the Meadowlands, a move that the governor’s advisers believe would undercut Atlantic City even further. “Governor Christie is making a decision: If I have to choose between helping casinos and the racing industry, I don’t see any reason to provide subsidies for the racing industry,” Mr. Liebman said. But Assemblyman J. Gary Pretlow of Mount Vernon, chairman of the New York Assembly’s Racing and Wagering Committee, said the issue was jobs. “The sport has lost a lot of its shine,” Mr. Pretlow, a Democrat, said. “But there are an awful lot of people in the industry, from the tracks to the breeders to the people who grow the food for the horses.” Jeff Gural, who owns horse farms in New York and Pennsylvania, revived two small, defunct harness tracks because of slot revenues, Tioga Downs and Vernon Downs. Under New York’s revenue-sharing program, about $5 million from the $50 million spent by gamblers at Tioga flowed to the horse industry. It was money well spent for the local economy, Mr. Gural said, with as many as 150 trainers and others renting houses and eating in restaurants as they tended to about 400 horses during the five-month racing season. At Yonkers Raceway, the closest casino to New York City, the slots pumped about $55 million last year into the racing industry. Bob Galterio, the general manager, said the revenue-sharing formula helped his track triple the average size of its purses, which in turn attracts better-quality horses. “While our on-track attendance and handle have not gone up tremendously,” Mr. Galterio said, “interest in the Yonkers Raceway product has doubled. The increased purse levels make it more attractive to gamblers.” Critics question the wisdom of a $55 million subsidy at a time when Yonkers is struggling to keep teachers and police officers on the payroll. Indeed, Frank Mauro, director of the Fiscal Policy Institute, said slot revenues might have soared to the point where the Legislature needed to alter the profit-sharing arrangement to cap the industry’s share at high-producing tracks like Yonkers and Aqueduct.

Horse racing
Gambling
Queens
Yonkers Raceway


Saudi Arabia Calls for Summit on Energy Costs

Abstract: Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest oil exporter, said on Monday that it wanted to convene an energy summit of producers and consumers to focus on “how to objectively deal” with high prices. After a cabinet meeting led by King Abdullah, the Saudi government said, “the increase in prices isn’t justified in terms of market fundamentals,” according to a statement from the official Saudi Press Agency. The proposal comes as gasoline prices are surging to record highs and political exasperation in Washington over high oil costs is mounting. No date was given for the energy summit. Iyad Madani, the kingdom’s information minister, said Saudi Arabia would also work with other OPEC members to “guarantee the availability of oil supplies, now and in the future.” Few analysts expect that a concerted effort by producers and consumers will push down prices. Still, the Saudi statement, while vague, helped prick the momentum of last week, when oil prices gained an unprecedented $16 a barrel over two days of trading. Oil futures fell $4.19 on Monday to close at $134.35 a barrel. The surge in fuel prices is turning into a major political issue with Democrats and Republicans competing to take action in Congress. One bill considered in the Senate would allow the Justice Department to bring antitrust lawsuits against members of OPEC, which include Saudi Arabia, for withholding oil supplies and pushing up prices. But even as oil declined, gasoline set a new high. The national average price of a gallon of gas rose 1.8 cents overnight to $4.023, according to AAA. The average gas price rose above $4 a gallon for the first time on Sunday. Saudi Arabia has been sending increasingly mixed signals in recent months, even as the run-up in oil prices has reached levels that would have seemed unimaginable just a few months ago. Earlier this year, the Saudi monarch signaled that the kingdom would slow down oil expansion to preserve its hydrocarbon resources for future generations. President Bush has visited Saudi Arabia twice this year and each time failed to secure a commitment from the Saudis to pump more oil into the market. But some experts say that the Saudis are concerned about the impact of high prices on the American economy, the world’s largest consumer of oil, and the growth in alternative fuels. “There really is no coincidence in timing, the Saudis are well attuned to what happens here politically,” said Steven A. Cook, a Middle East expert at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. “This is a public relations thing to show they care. It is also a real concern that should these prices be sustained in the long haul, this would not be in the interest of Saudi Arabia.” Meanwhile, the president of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, Chakib Khelil, said Monday that oil supplies were “largely sufficient.” “The economic crisis in the U.S. caused the dollar to drop sharply and the threats against Iran heightened geopolitical tensions,” Mr. Khelil said, according to Bloomberg News.

Oil (Petroleum) and Gasoline
Prices (Fares Fees and Rates)
Saudi Arabia
Summit Conferences


Duncan Gives Spurs Another Shot at the Heat

Abstract: OKLAHOMA CITY — The ball bounced on the rim once, then kissed off the backboard, trickled off the rim again and fell through the net. When it did, Tim Duncan, who had released it, allowed himself a look to the heavens. Finally, he seemed to be saying. It has been an especially long year in a lengthy career for Duncan, 38, who seemed to harbor the pain of last season’s loss in the N.B.A. finals more than the other San Antonio Spurs. Coach Gregg Popovich had removed Duncan from Game 6 of last year’s finals, leaving him to watch as Miami’s Chris Bosh grabbed a rebound that might have been Duncan’s and found Ray Allen for a game-tying 3-pointer that led to a Heat win. Two nights later, Duncan showed a rare display of emotion as he slammed his palms against the court after missing a shot near the basket — one he had made so many times — that all but sealed the defeat as the Heat eventually wrapped up their second straight title. But now Duncan and the Spurs are heading back to the finals in a rematch with the Heat. Duncan’s fadeaway jumper with 19.4 seconds left in overtime provided the distance they needed to turn back the Oklahoma City Thunder, 112-107, on Saturday night in Game 6 of the Western Conference finals. “I just tried to get it up and finally got a roll,” Duncan said of the shot. He added: “We’re happy that it’s the Heat again. We’ve got that bad taste in our mouths. We’re back now, and we want to get it done.” Image The Spurs’ Manu Ginobili, shooting against Russell Westbrook, had 15 points, 6 rebounds and 5 assists. Credit Larry W. Smith/European Pressphoto Agency This victory was also gratifying in the manner in which it was achieved, the Spurs stamping their return to the finals in typical Spurs fashion. Nobody in the N.B.A. is more admired for an adherence to team basketball than the Spurs, and they managed this one by rallying without their offensive spark, Tony Parker, who did not play in the second half because of an injured left ankle. Without Parker, the Spurs, who trailed by 49-42 at halftime, put together one of their best offensive quarters of the playoffs, scoring 37 points in the third and turning a 7-point deficit into a 10-point lead. Boris Diaw, the slow-a-foot forward with the slow paced game, who was picked up in 2012 after being released by Charlotte, was the unexpected star Saturday. He scored 26 points in 36 minutes off the bench. “It’s the most complete team in the league,” Diaw said. “Guys can come in, step up and play pretty much every way. I scored some points tonight, but it could be somebody else. I was open, and everybody’s ready to pass the ball to the open man.” In recent seasons, the Spurs have made full use of their roster, sometimes to rest their aging core, other times to tinker with different combinations. They had used 30 starting lineups this season, but the one that began the second half — which included the little-used Cory Joseph and Matt Bonner — had not played a single minute together all season. When Joseph, who replaced Parker, went to the bench after seven minutes, he received a rare handshake and a pat on the behind from Popovich. The Spurs defense, which seemed helpless to stop Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook at times in this series, soon began stripping the ball from them and deflecting passes. Oklahoma City turned the ball over 19 times, with Westbrook and Durant committing seven turnovers apiece, which helped offset Westbrook’s 34 points and Durant’s 31. Image Tim Duncan embracing Manu Ginobili after Ginobili sank a 3-pointer from the top of the key with 27.1 seconds remaining in the second half. Credit Ronald Martinez/Getty Images “Whatever defense you’re in is fine, but you’ve got to be active, making a play when you feel it, covering for a teammate,” Popovich said. “We did that really well, creating crowds for them.” In a series that had no shortage of plot twists and intrigue, it finally got the one thing it had been lacking: a tight game. The Thunder provided that when they roared back from a 12-point deficit in the fourth quarter to send the game into overtime. In the end, the Thunder’s reliance on their two stars was not enough. Durant and Westbrook carried the Thunder back, combining for 24 points in the fourth quarter. Durant put the Thunder ahead, 99-97, on a scooping drive with 32 seconds left. After Manu Ginobili erased that with a 3-pointer and added a free throw, Westbrook tied the score at 101-101 with two free throws with 9.3 seconds to play. After Ginobili missed a jumper from near the free-throw line at the buzzer, it seemed as if the younger Thunder would be best equipped to emerge with a win. The Thunder had showed the depth of their survival instincts during the playoffs. They had trailed Memphis, three games to two, in the first round and trailed the Clippers by 7 points with 49.2 seconds left in Game 5 of a conference semifinal series. And it seemed as if San Antonio, even with a Game 7 back on its home court, might rue the missed opportunity because of the uncertain status of Parker. Knowing that, the Spurs turned to Duncan, who scored 7 points in overtime. “Today, we were pretty tired in overtime,” Ginobili said. “They were very physical and it’s always hard to score against them. We just started to give him the ball and he gave us solutions.” And on this night, something else — an opportunity for redemption.

Basketball
Spurs
Oklahoma City Thunder
Tim Duncan
Manu Ginobili
Gregg Popovich
Russell Westbrook
Kevin Durant
Serge Ibaka
Playoffs


A Queens City Councilman Is Indicted in a Rape Case

Abstract: City Councilman Dennis P. Gallagher has been indicted by a Queens grand jury investigating rape allegations against him, the councilman and his lawyer confirmed yesterday. The indictment remained sealed yesterday and Mr. Gallagher, a Queens Republican, said he did not know what charges were handed up. The Queens district attorney is expected to hold a news conference today to announce the results of the grand jury’s deliberations. The indictment comes one day after Mr. Gallagher appeared before the grand jury, telling the 23-member panel that the sexual encounter at the center of the allegations was consensual, his lawyer said. He continued to assert his innocence yesterday. “The grand jury did not have all the information, nor did it hear all the witnesses,” he said in a telephone interview from his Middle Village home. “At the end, after the trial process when all the information can be heard, I strongly feel I will be vindicated of any charges.” The Queens district attorney, Richard A. Brown, would not discuss the indictment yesterday. “Any action that’s taken by the grand jury is sealed as a matter of law,” he said. Criminal charges contained in an indictment are unsealed when a defendant is arraigned. Council Speaker Christine C. Quinn commented on the allegations for the first time yesterday. “The Council and I take very seriously the deeply troubling allegations against council member Dennis Gallagher,” she said in a statement. “Therefore, the matter is being immediately referred to the City Council’s Standards and Ethics Committee, which will meet at the beginning of next week.” Mr. Gallagher is expected to surrender to the police this morning and then be arraigned. He is expected to plead not guilty to whatever charges are filed, his lawyer, Stephen R. Mahler said. Mr. Mahler was sharply critical of the grand jury proceedings, saying that a majority of the questions asked of his client were designed to prejudice jurors against him. He said he planned to immediately file a motion to dismiss the charges based on what he said was prosecutorial misconduct. “Well, this grand jury presentation was really stark evidence why lawyers almost always advise clients who are targets of an investigation not to testify,” he said. Mr. Gallagher chose to testify despite his advice, Mr. Mahler said, because he “felt he didn’t want to hide behind legal maneuvering and felt he owed it to his constituents to come forward and say he’d done nothing illegal.” Kevin R. Ryan, a spokesman for the Queens district attorney’s office, declined to comment on Mr. Mahler’s allegations. The investigation began after a woman told the police that Mr. Gallagher had raped her at his Council office in Middle Village on July 8, after the two had been drinking at a nearby bar. Mr. Gallagher, 43, is married with two children. Before being elected to the Council in 2001, he was a longtime chief of staff to Thomas V. Ognibene, the former Council minority leader. Mr. Ognibene said he was saddened by news of the indictment. “There was nothing in my relationship with him to indicate that he was capable of this kind of conduct, so it was shocking to hear of this indictment. But speaking as a lawyer, an indictment is nothing but an accusation, and people ought to allow him the presumption of innocence,” Mr. Ognibene said. The last council member indicted in a crime was Angel Rodriguez, a Brooklyn Democrat who resigned in 2002 before pleading guilty to federal bribery charges, according to Council officials.

Gallagher Dennis P
Sex Crimes
City Councils


T.S.A. Skips House Panel Hearing on Privatizing Airport Checkpoint Security

Abstract: Representative Reid Ribble fixed witnesses assembled at a House aviation subcommittee hearing last Thursday with a baleful stare. “I am very disappointed that the T.S.A. was unwilling to come,” said Mr. Ribble, a freshman Republican from Wisconsin. “I understand how uncomfortable these hearings can be for them, especially since we’re talking about a lot of complaints today. But part of their job is to let the American people know what they’re doing.” The director of the Transportation Security Administration , John S. Pistole, had declined to testify before this particular subcommittee on two previous occasions, despite angry criticism from some members who are longtime agency critics. The reason, the agency later explained, is that oversight for the T.S.A. resides in the House Homeland Security Committee — not the aviation subcommittee, which is a part of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. The agency noted that in the 112th Congress alone, officials had testified at 38 hearings and provided 425 individual briefings. So the T.S.A. sat out that one last week — and got lambasted for it, at both the hearing and in some media accounts. No one would argue that the T.S.A. should not be held closely accountable. There have been too many problems. Since the agency was created in the aftermath of Sept. 11, this column has regularly reported on many of them, like the outrage that began in 2004 over charges that some screeners were groping female travelers. More recently, the agency faced questions about its decision to replace metal detectors with those whole-body image machines, which the T.S.A. still has not adequately defended against claims that they are personally invasive, arguably unsafe and ultimately not as reliable as good old metal detectors. On the other hand, the hearing last Thursday seemed to have an agenda, which was that the T.S.A. should be replaced by private security companies — you know, like the ones that were accused of hiring poorly trained, underpaid screeners at airports before Sept. 11 brought a somewhat more intense focus to checkpoint security. One of the leaders of that charge is Representative John L. Mica, a Florida Republican who is chairman of the House Transportation Committee. At Thursday’s subcommittee hearing, Mr. Mica said that the T.S.A. was “out of control.” He said Mr. Pistole was defying the committee to protect “one of the biggest bureaucracies that has ever expanded in the history of our federal government.” Mr. Mica said, “We need to be closing down T.S.A. as we know it.” Representative Thomas Petri, a Wisconsin Republican who is the subcommittee chairman, was even more harsh in denouncing Mr. Pistole and his agency. “A fish,” Mr. Petri said, “rots from the head.” Underlying the issue is a Congressional provision that gives airports the option of replacing T.S.A. screeners with private security companies. Only about 16 of the nation’s 450 airports have done so, and a handful of mostly small airports have requests pending. Five witnesses testified at the sparsely attended hearing on Thursday. Several, including Stephen M. Lord, director of homeland security and justice issues at the Government Accountability Office, offered cogent suggestions and critiques for various T.S.A. initiatives, including the PreCheck program that allows expedited security for selected high-frequency passengers who undergo background checks. PreCheck will operate in 35 airports by the end of the year. Another, Charlie Leocha, the director of the Consumer Travel Alliance, offered some solid recommendations, most of them long familiar to critics of the T.S.A. Among them was rethinking the prohibited items list for carry-ons, which ties up screeners and annoys passengers at checkpoints, in an arguably useless search for small items that could never be used to hijack airplanes. Another was to get rid of those body-scanner machines. Mr. Leocha said that the agency had become the “butt of countless jokes.” But Mr. Leocha may have gone too far when he suggested that new checkpoint attire was a priority. “Dress T.S.A. security screeners in nonthreatening uniforms, perhaps pastel polo shirts,” Mr. Leocha said. To me, the best moments in the hearing belonged to Veda Shook, the international president of the Association of Flight Attendants union. Ms. Shook kept going off the message — if the committee message was to end the T.S.A. as we know it, as Mr. Mica had declared. “Today the skies are absolutely safer than they were before 9/11, before the onset of the T.S.A.,” Ms. Shook insisted. “I’m safer as a crew member. Our passengers are safer. Our country is safer.” Mr. Ribble frowned upon hearing that. “A lot of the changes would have happened anyway as a result of 9/11, outside of federalization,” he said. Given her support of a federal security force, “Should we not then federalize flight attendants?” he asked. Ms. Shook blinked and replied, “That’s a great question. So thank you for that.” Then, like the no-nonsense flight attendant she is, she calmly repeated herself for clarity. “We believe that any return to a bottom-line-driven system that puts security second to profits would be a reckless and unjustified regression from T.S.A.’s mission to protect our skies.”

Airport Security
Transportation Security Administration
House Committee on Transportation


Gazans Demonstrate at Border Against Israeli Blockade

Abstract: EREZ CROSSING, Israel — Several thousand Palestinians , many of them schoolchildren bused in from their classes, joined peaceful protests in the Gaza Strip along sections of the border with Israel for several hours on Monday, forming human chains in some locations as part of a public campaign against the Israeli blockade. But the turnout, estimated at about 5,000, was far smaller than had been expected, and fears in Israel that masses of Gaza residents might try to break through the Israeli-built barrier along the border, as they breached the border with Egypt last month, proved unfounded. Most protesters kept a safe distance from the barrier. The demonstrators dispersed around noon, and shortly after militants in Gaza fired a number of rockets at Israel. One landed outside an apartment block in the Israeli border town of Sderot. A boy, Yossi Yadlin Haimov, 10, was badly wounded in the shoulder by shrapnel and underwent surgery at a hospital in Ashkelon. In northern Gaza, some of the protesters started marching toward the Erez crossing, but they were stopped by a line of armed Hamas policemen. The police officers blocked the road about half a mile south of the crossing, seeking to prevent a confrontation with Israel. After the main protest ended, a group of Palestinian youths rioted at the crossing, throwing stones. When they tried to cross, Israeli troops fired shots into the air, an army spokeswoman said, speaking on condition of anonymity under army rules. She said an Israeli officer was slightly wounded in the clash. At least two Palestinians were wounded, according to Palestinian reports. The spokeswoman said 49 Palestinians had been arrested. Palestinian advocates had called for Gaza residents to form a human chain along the roughly 30-mile border with Israel from Rafah in the south to Beit Hanoun in the north to protest Israel’s closure of the main passages into Gaza since the Islamic militant group Hamas took control there last June. Israel recently tightened the blockade in response to intensified rocket fire from the strip. Despite the low numbers, the main organizer of the protest, Jamal el-Khoudary, declared the event a success. “It was peaceful, and that was what we were aiming for,” said Mr. Khoudary, an independent lawmaker in Gaza with ties to Hamas. Hamas leaders have been encouraged by recent calls by European officials for Israel to reopen the passages to Gaza and ease the conditions of the 1.5 million residents of the strip. On Monday, though, fear kept many Gazans at home: the Israeli Army made it clear that it was taking the threat of a border breach very seriously, and thousands of extra troops and police officers were deployed along the Israeli side of the barrier. A joint statement released by the offices of the Israeli foreign minister and defense minister on Sunday night said, “Israel does not interfere in demonstrations taking place inside the Gaza Strip, but Israel will protect its borders and will prevent any violations of its sovereign territory.” If the situation did deteriorate into violence, the statement warned, Israel would lay sole responsibility for the consequences on the shoulders of Hamas, which had placed Palestinian civilians “on the front lines.” Israel bolstered its artillery units along the border and occasionally fired smoke bombs, either to conceal troop movements or deter the protesters. Soldiers in full camouflage hid in the lush green wheat fields of Israeli farming communities near the border line. As the tension dissipated, the soldiers picnicked on army rations to the sound of a loud chorus of muezzins calling the faithful to midday prayers in mosques on the other side of the barrier. The deputy defense minister of Israel, Matan Vilnai, told Army Radio on Monday evening that the deployment of the security forces, led by the army, was the main factor that led the Palestinians “to rethink whatever they were doing.” But there was also a feeling on both sides that the event on Monday was an exercise or rehearsal for another time. A Hamas lawmaker, Ismail al-Ashqar, said at the protest in northern Gaza on Monday, “If the world does not respond and end the siege, then what is coming will be worse.” Another Hamas lawmaker, Yihya Musa, threatened that the human chain formed Monday could in the future turn into a series of “bombs ready to explode.” Separately, an American tourist drowned Monday in a flash flood while hiking in a riverbed near the Dead Sea, an Israeli police spokesman said. The spokesman, Micky Rosenfeld, identified the tourist as David Tauber, in his mid-30s, from New York. Rescue units searched for a woman who had been hiking with Mr. Tauber and found her alive, Mr. Rosenfeld said.

Gaza Strip
Palestinians
Demonstrations and Riots
Hamas