Support for a College Student Grows After a Rape Complaint Is Dismissed

Abstract: With a new school year approaching, administrators, students and alumni at Hobart and William Smith Colleges in central New York are grappling with questions raised by a New York Times article examining the school’s handling of a sexual assault complaint filed by a female student last fall. In a broad show of support for the student, known publicly only as Anna, students and alumni last week organized meetings, issued policy statements, set up a Facebook page, collected 3,000 signatures through an online petition, and met with the school’s president to discuss ways to improve the administration’s handling of sexual assaults. The president, Mark D. Gearan, said the school was re-evaluating its sexual assault policies, a process begun during the last school year. In a letter to the Hobart and William Smith community, he called his meetings with students over the last week inspiring. “We have a moment of opportunity before us to make a difference in our community,” he wrote. Anna, a freshman, said she was assaulted by three football players last September, after two weeks on campus. The school’s disciplinary panel quickly cleared the athletes. Six months later, after Anna belatedly pursued a criminal complaint, the district attorney declined to bring charges, saying he believed the sexual encounter had been consensual. The examination by The Times , based in part on internal school documents and interviews with Anna and college officials, offered an inside look at Hobart and William Smith’s adjudication of the case and depicted a hearing panel struggling to evaluate an accusation of what would be a felony if tried in court. While defending his school’s handling of Anna’s case, Mr. Gearan said in an interview that as the father of two daughters he was “especially disheartened and sorrowful that our campus was the place of such tragedy and pain for one of our students.” And he added, “What is particularly important for readers to know, that from all this heartbreak and pain I spoke to, members of the community are focused now on how to make Hobart and William Smith an even better place.” Shortly after the article appeared in print, on July 13, 23 current and former students of the small liberal arts school in the Finger Lakes region began an online petition drive, stating that “the current state of affairs concerning sexual violence is a source of shame for the school and needs to be addressed immediately.” Most of the activism has since coalesced into a group called HWS Community for Change, consisting of what organizers say is about 250 students and alumni. Image Mark D. Gearan, president of the college, in Geneva, N.Y. Credit John Carl D'Annibale/Times Union On its new Facebook page , “William Smith Stands With Anna,” which has 1,300 supporters, the coalition posted five recommendations for Mr. Gearan, including more transparency and “new procedures and rules governing the adjudication process.” (William Smith confers degrees for women and Hobart for men, but both operate under the same administration, with students from both colleges sharing residence halls, classes and other functions.) Gretchen Sword, a spokeswoman for the coalition, said its members felt compelled to press for changes after reading about Anna’s case. “Our little school does a pretty good job of dealing with a lot of tough things, so there is a sense of wanting to help and to get things right, but also to be supportive of what is a pretty fine institution,” Ms. Sword said. As The Times reported, records showed that two of the accused football players cleared by the hearing panel had initially lied to the campus police, saying they had had no sexual contact with Anna. They subsequently admitted to engaging in oral sex with her, but denied having intercourse. Laboratory tests later found seminal fluid in the woman’s vagina and rectum. The Ontario County district attorney, R. Michael Tantillo, closed the case without testing whether that seminal fluid matched the DNA of any of the accused. In interviews with a local television station and a newspaper, Mr. Tantillo said that, based on his review of school and police records, he believed that The Times had given too much credence to Anna’s account. He declined to answer written questions from The Times about the case, saying, “I don’t want to debate you on this issue.” In the local interviews, the district attorney blamed Anna’s family for the failure to test the DNA because they initially chose to adjudicate her rape complaint through the school, rather than the criminal justice system. Anna’s lawyer, Inga L. Parsons, said she requested that the rape kit be tested by the police even though Anna was pursuing her case through the school, and offered to pay to have it expedited. Ms. Parsons eventually arranged to have the rape kit samples sent to a private lab, which identified the seminal fluid. Then in February, Ms. Parsons asked the police about getting DNA from one of the football players Anna had accused of repeatedly assaulting her. She said that it was warranted “given that we have extensive seminal fluids from the rape kit” and because the football player had denied having sexual intercourse with Anna. Even so, Mr. Tantillo decided not to test it. Anna’s case is the reason Hobart and William Smith is one of more than 50 schools being investigated for possibly violating federal rules intended to stop sexual harassment. In a letter to The Times, Maureen Collins Zupan, chairwoman of the school’s board of trustees, said that one of the country’s leading experts on the issue “affirmed the conclusions of this case and observed that our process meets or exceeds best practices for higher education.” That expert, Brett A. Sokolow, is a legal adviser to the school who also helped to train the school’s panelists, according to the school. One of the recommendations of HWS Community for Change, the newly formed advocacy group, is to “hire a new external and objective third party consultant to advise HWS leadership and to provide accountability.”

College
Rape
Hobart and William Smith Colleges
Mark D Gearan
Finger Lakes


Zito-Trained Long Shot Wins Florida Derby

Abstract: HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. — Beating his fellow long shot Pleasant Prince by a nose at the Florida Derby on Saturday, Ice Box has earned his way into the field for the May 1 Kentucky Derby . He now has the earnings to get into the race and the type of important win on his résumé that suggests he belongs among the elite of the 3-year-old division. But the horse that might have had the best day was not even in the race. Ice Box finished 12 lengths behind Eskendereya in the Fountain of Youth, the same race in which Pleasant Prince finished fourth, 10 ¼ lengths behind the winner. The results of the Florida Derby at Gulfstream Park suggest that Eskendereya is the class of his crop. Owned by Ahmed Zayat , Eskendereya was expected to run in the Florida Derby, but Zayat pulled him out of the race earlier in the week and said the colt would race instead in the Wood Memorial on April 3 at Aqueduct. “You can’t possibly say anything bad about Eskendereya,” the winning owner, Bob LaPenta, said. “What he did in the Fountain of Youth was amazing. We had another horse in the race, Jackson Bend, and he just left him in the dust.” Rule, the 9-5 favorite in the wagering, prompted the pace and took over in the stretch. But he tired on his way to a third-place finish and was beaten by one and a quarter lengths. Lentenor , the full brother to Barbaro , the 2006 Florida Derby and Kentucky Derby winner, finished fourth, five and three-quarter lengths back. His trainer, Michael Matz, said he had not yet decided what was next for Lentenor, but the colt may not have enough earnings to make into the Derby field. Only 20 horses are allowed in the race. “The jockey said he didn’t switch leads and ducked to the inside,” Matz said. “He had plenty of horse. This horse is just still green.” Trained by Nick Zito , a two-time Kentucky Derby winner, Ice Box was far back early under Jose Lezcano, dropping back to last in the 11-horse field. He was still last with just three furlongs left, but made his move as the field made its way into the stretch. Rule still had the lead with about 25 yards left to go, but he had little fight left when passed first by Pleasant Prince, whose lead lasted only an instant. Surging down the middle of the track, Ice Box stuck his nose in front of Pleasant Prince at the wire. “The plan was definitely to take him back, get to the fence, let them go at it up front and see what happens,” said Zito, who won his second Florida Derby. “Once he came with that run, I said, ‘Wow, here we go.’ ” The Florida Derby was moved back a week this year and is now six weeks before the Kentucky Derby. Zito has the option of running Ice Box again before the Derby, but said he was unlikely to do so. “I know it’s a hard thing to do, to win the Derby off six weeks,” he said. “Right now, it’s one step at a time. I’m just thankful he won this race. We’ll think about running back three weeks from now. We’ve got time to figure out what we’re going to do. You never say never, but he has had three tough races down here.” Pleasant Prince’s trainer, Wesley Ward, said his colt would run in the Derby and would not have another race between now and then. “I’m not surprised at all that this horse ran so well,” Ward said. “Not to sound cocky, but he had been training better than any horse I’ve ever trained at this point in the year. I’m really excited about him.” Rule will also go on to the Derby, the racing manager for WinStar Farm, Elliott Walden, said. Ice Box paid $43.40 on a $2 bet to win. He covered the mile-and-an-eighth run over a fast track in 1 minute 49.19 seconds. Four races earlier, the 3-year-old filly Devil May Care won the mile-and-an-eighth Bonnie Miss Stakes in a faster time. She covered the distance in 1:49.06

Horse Racing
Kentucky Derby
Zayat Ahmed
Matz Michael
Zito Nick
Walden Elliott
Florida


Diverging Fates of Two Veterans Encapsulate the Knicks’ Misfortune

Abstract: It was a night of imagery, not intrigue, at Madison Square Garden, beginning with Carmelo Anthony being ceremonially handed his All-Star jersey by those distinguished Knicks alumni, Walt Frazier, Allan Houston and John Starks. Then Anthony, in a handsome tapered suit, took a seat on the bench, where he should surely remain with his sore knee for the Knicks’ final 15 home games after he exhausts his right shoulder shooting jump shots in Sunday’s dunk-and-pony show at the self-proclaimed World’s Most Famous Arena. After Anthony was again treated like the Knicks legend he isn’t, Steve Kerr took his place on the Golden State Warriors’ bench and no doubt had a horrifying vision of being on the other side of the floor, or the inverse of 40-9, his team’s record after a sloppy 106-92 victory over the 10-41 Knicks on Saturday night. Kerr mentioned that he had emailed with the Knicks’ president, Phil Jackson, whose offer of a coaching job he rejected last spring, and said he was “indebted” to Jackson for most of what had happened in his career (including the suggestion that he take the coaching job he was most comfortable with). There was also a photogenic sighting of Amar’e Stoudemire posting up David Lee. They were once two power forwards passing in the night, in and out of New York, and are now bench players for their respective teams, with similar outlooks on veteran N.B.A. life. “I’ve had plenty of years averaging big numbers and being on a losing team,” Lee said after a tidy 10-point, 10-rebound, 5-assist effort in 22-plus minutes. “Right now it’s all about being on a winning team and winning that championship, which we have a shot at.” Stoudemire presumably feels the same way — play for a ring before his knees cry “No más” — except for the part about his current surroundings. With an expiring contract that was once supposed to signal an era of Knicks excellence, Stoudemire could land with a contender if Pharaoh Jackson will let the hard-luck student of all things Israel go with a buyout. “No comment,” Stoudemire said after accumulating 13 points, 6 rebounds and 3 assists, in almost 17 minutes, when asked whether conversations to that end had taken place. Translation: Help! In the Warriors’ locker room, a gracious Lee paid his respects to the memory of Stoudemire as a Knicks savior, saying, “That first year, I’m not sure there was anybody playing better in the league — an M.V.P. candidate.” Image The Golden State Warriors' record with Steve Kerr, right, as coach is 40-9, after a 106-92 victory over the 10-41 Knicks on Saturday night. Credit Peter Foley/European Pressphoto Agency Then Anthony arrived, courtesy of the ownership’s obsession to pacify price-gouged fans with the kind of quick fix that Jackson calls anathema to the team’s latest rebuilding. Stoudemire sustained various injuries, a couple of them self-inflicted, and at 32 has devolved into a role player who, when upright, can still power the ball to the rim and hit a midrange jumper. Injuries have also cost the ambidextrous and rebound-hungry Lee court time and his starting position with the emergence of the dynamic Draymond Green. “I’ll take whatever role I can get and try to make the most out of it,” Lee said, exactly the attitude that endeared him to Knicks fans when he was the last pick in the draft’s first round in 2005 and wound up five seasons later as the Knicks’ first All-Star since Houston and Latrell Sprewell in 2001. Lee had one special fan in those days: Mario M. Cuomo, the recently deceased former New York governor, who was notorious for throwing vengeful elbows in Albany pickup games. “He played center for you, he gave up his body and now he has to go?” Cuomo bellowed in a 2010 interview. “Why? To bet on some superstar to be your savior? How many times have we seen that before?” Lee smiled when told what the prescient Cuomo had said. He still runs a summer camp in the New York area and said he had heard such sentiments around town. “You know how much I loved it here,” he said. In a league trending toward deep and versatile teams, Lee, 31, would, unlike Stoudemire, still be an important rotation guy had the Knicks resisted the risk on Stoudemire’s knees and retained him. But Lee also knows that the story of the team’s subsequent misfortune is rife with complexity. And Stoudemire is too easy a scapegoat. Had Anthony placed winning as his No. 1 priority — as he claims it is now — he would have waited until after the 2011 labor dispute to sign with the Knicks as a free agent and would not have forced them to surrender the multiple players and draft picks they did. They might have survived Stoudemire’s misfortune. If Anthony wants to contribute something potentially meaningful this atrocious season, he should shut down the knee after next week, let the Knicks’ summer league roster scrap as it did Saturday night and continue to lose, and in doing so enhance the likelihood of landing the No. 1 pick in the 2015 draft. The fans will survive. If they had any basketball sense, they wouldn’t be there in the first place. So sophisticated is the current Knicks crowd that Kerr’s introduction did not even draw boos for his rejection of Jackson. But, hey, they celebrated Anthony’s tainted All-Star status, to which they had contributed with their votes, and were thrilled to see Baron Davis, a Knick for 29 games in 2011-12, flash on the big screen. As Lee said, “Once a Knick, always a Knick — there’s some truth to that.” Something of an intangible door prize for most of this season’s Knicks, on the way out.

Basketball
Amar'e Stoudemire
Phil Jackson
Steve Kerr
Carmelo Anthony
Golden State Warriors
Knicks
David Lee


Obama in Vietnam Will Focus on Future, Rather Than the Past

Abstract: WASHINGTON — The pictures will be unavoidable, and the flood of painful memories unstoppable. When President Obama lands next Sunday in Hanoi, his visit will be chronicled by photographers, cameramen and journalists who will track every public move of only the third presidential visit to Vietnam since the end of the American war there. Mr. Obama’s former defense secretary, Chuck Hagel, said he is already bracing for the onslaught of recollections those pictures and articles are likely to inspire. “I know those images will hit me,” said Mr. Hagel, whose 12 months as a soldier in Vietnam remain the defining period of his life, despite the subsequent years as both a senator and a cabinet secretary. “They’re going to make it all come back.” For Mr. Obama, the trip to Vietnam offers an opportunity to help solidify not only his promised pivot of American policy toward Asia, but also to deepen economic and security ties with an increasingly important regional player. But for the United States’ Vietnam War veterans, a presidential trip to the country where many of them lost their youth, innocence and some of their closest friends is weighted with powerful emotions and never-ending debates about that war’s consequences. “There are still a lot of ghosts around,” Mr. Hagel, 69, said in an interview. “There is still a great deal of debate about Vietnam and what it meant for this country.” “It still haunts us,” he added. “That terrible waste of lives, and the lessons we learned there, the terrible lessons that still hang over us.” Mr. Hagel said that every decision he made as defense secretary and every piece of advice he gave Mr. Obama was informed by his experience in Vietnam. He now finds himself thinking more and more about the year he spent there in the 1960s. And he said he is certain to closely study the pictures from Mr. Obama’s trip: the lush green background, the people and their iconic conical hats. One of the stumbling blocks between the two nations is the continuing belief by some in the United States that there may still be captive American soldiers held there, the kind of mythology that was fueled by 1980s movies like “Missing in Action” starring Chuck Norris and the “Rambo” series starring Sylvester Stallone. A black P.O.W./M.I.A. flag still flies above the Capitol and state capitols around the country, and the military and many lawmakers choose to focus on the retrieval of the remains of dead service members as fulfilling those concerns. But some leaders of veterans organizations insisted in a meeting on Friday at the White House that Mr. Obama ask Vietnamese leaders whether there are living prisoners, according to Frank Francois III, the chief executive of Service Disabled Veteran Enterprises, who attended the meeting. “One of the questions that has to be asked is whether there is anybody in jail or captivity or someone living in the area we need to know about,” Mr. Francois said. For other veterans, Mr. Obama’s trip will serve as a welcome reminder to two generations of Americans who have come of age since the war’s end, illustrating that conflict’s importance to the United States. For these men, the ghosts of the war should not have been so easily laid to rest. “Vietnam is a totally forgotten issue nowadays,” said Bobby Muller, a disabled veteran and antiwar activist whose life helped inspire the 1978 movie “Coming Home,” starring Jane Fonda. “To have gone through those times and have something as huge and powerful and affecting and tragic in our lifetimes wind up nonexistent in the consciousness of the country today is stunning.” Mr. Muller lives in Washington in an apartment that is filled with books on the war, and his anger at two wartime leaders — President Richard M. Nixon and his closest adviser, Henry Kissinger — remains undiminished. Mr. Obama is unlikely to focus as much on combat deaths during his trip as President Bill Clinton did when he visited in 2000 . Mr. Clinton took the two sons of a missing airman , Lt. Col. Lawrence G. Evert, to a rice paddy in a tiny town 17 miles northeast of Hanoi and searched, along with scores of villagers, for the remnants of an F-105D fighter-bomber that had crashed in 1967. Remarkably, they found Colonel Evert’s bones. Mr. Obama is more likely to hail cooperation between the two countries to clean up the remnants of Agent Orange, one of the wartime issues still important to Vietnam. But as a president who came of age after the war ended, he is unlikely to be a symbol of healing of the psychological wounds that some veterans suffered upon returning home, when many of their countrymen disdained them for fighting there. “That lack of a welcome home is still a national shame,” said Senator John McCain, a Vietnam veteran who, because he was a prisoner of war, did receive a hero’s welcome. “You had 18- or 19-year-old draftees who did their duties and were literally spat upon by their fellow citizenry when they returned.” Mr. McCain said the country has learned that lesson, and service members and veterans are routinely celebrated at sporting events and public occasions nowadays. But for some veterans, Mr. Obama’s visit is likely to stir bitter memories of their rejection, he said. Mr. McCain, a Republican of Arizona, said his efforts to help normalize relations between Vietnam and the United States were among the proudest accomplishments of his life, and he said he had been to Vietnam so often since the war’s end that “I’m recognized more in the streets of Hanoi than I am in Phoenix.” Those efforts long ago helped Mr. McCain put the worst of the war and his captivity behind him, so he is unlikely to be moved by the photos of Mr. Obama’s visits, he said. Mr. McCain said he had other ways of stirring his wartime memories. “To this day, I’ll get up real early sometimes and go down to the Vietnam Memorial just as the sun is coming up,” Mr. McCain said in an interview. “It’s always a great experience for me to think and remember.”

Barack Obama
Vietnam
Vietnam War
Veteran
US Foreign Policy
Chuck Hagel
John McCain
Missing in action


Stacy Robinson, Giants Receiver in the ’80s, Dies at 50

Abstract: Stacy Robinson, a wide receiver who won two Super Bowls with the New York Giants before working with the players union, has died. He was 50. The Giants co-owner John Mara announced the death Tuesday. The place of death was not given. Robinson learned he had multiple myeloma, a cancer of the blood, in 2009, according to a family statement. He underwent a bone-marrow transplant provided by his son Stacy and had entered hospice care. A slender 5 feet 11 inches with blazing speed, Robinson played all six of his N.F.L. seasons for the Giants after he was drafted 46th over all out of North Dakota State in 1985. His career totals were modest: 749 yards and 7 touchdowns in 43 games. Most of his 48 career receptions came in his second season, when he caught 29 passes for 494 yards. His most memorable game was Dec. 1, 1986, against the San Francisco 49ers on “Monday Night Football.” Trailing by 17-0 at halftime, the Giants scored three touchdowns in the third quarter to win, 21-17, on their way to the playoffs. Robinson caught a 34-yard pass from Phil Simms for the second touchdown, then set up the final score with a grab on a 49-yard pass to the 1-yard line. He finished with 5 catches for a career-high 116 yards. In the Giants’ Super Bowl win over the Denver Broncos in 1987, Robinson had 3 catches for 62 yards. His second Super Bowl title was in 1991, when the Giants beat the Buffalo Bills. Robinson retired six months later at 29, telling The New York Times that he did not want to go through the “apprehension” of training camp and that he wanted to finish his master’s degree in business from Fairleigh Dickinson University in New Jersey. In recent years, he worked for the N.F.L. Players Association, mainly overseeing drug issues. Born in St. Paul, he was on the North Dakota State team that won the 1983 Division II national championship. He caught 88 passes for 1,626 yards and scored 13 touchdowns for the Bisons. His survivors include his wife, Nadine, and three sons.

Robinson Stacy
National Football League
New York Giants
Deaths (Obituaries)


Poll Shows de Blasio With Big Lead

Abstract: After months in which his campaign struggled to find its footing, Bill de Blasio is now the front-runner in the Democratic primary for mayor of New York, according to a survey released on Wednesday. The survey by Quinnipiac University found 36 percent of likely Democratic voters backed Mr. de Blasio, the public advocate. Christine C. Quinn, the City Council speaker, who had long been the front-runner among Democrats, was backed by 21 percent, while William C. Thompson Jr., who in 2009 won the Democratic primary but lost the general election to Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, had 20 percent. The results confirm a remarkable surge in support for Mr. de Blasio among likely Democratic voters, who tend to be significantly more liberal than the general electorate. Mr. de Blasio has staked out liberal positions in several areas, pledging to raise taxes on the wealthy to finance early childhood education, railing against the Police Department’s stop-and-frisk practice and vowing to break with Mr. Bloomberg on multiple issues. Through much of the campaign, he was overshadowed by Ms. Quinn, who would be the city’s first female mayor, and Anthony D. Weiner, a former congressman seeking to return to elective office after resigning from Congress over sexually explicit online communications. The poll confirmed that support for Mr. Weiner collapsed when he acknowledged that he had continued to exchange sexually explicit messages with women a year after he resigned from the House. A month ago, he led in a Quinnipiac poll with 26 percent; now he is at 8 percent, barely ahead of another embattled candidate, John C. Liu, the current comptroller, who has been barred from receiving public money because of questions about his fund-raising practices. The survey of 602 likely Democratic voters was conducted from Aug. 22 to 27, and had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus four percentage points. The likely Democratic voters do not appear to be fully committed to their expressed preferences. Nearly one-third said there was a “good chance” they would change their minds by the primary, on Sept. 10. But some of the candidates provoke strong negative reactions. Almost half of those surveyed said they would not, under any circumstance, vote for Mr. Weiner, while 29 percent said the same about Ms. Quinn, and 17 percent about Mr. Liu. The race could be jolted by unexpected events on the campaign trail, or by a last-minute advertisement or a memorable gaffe in the final debate, scheduled for Tuesday. But the candidates are acting as if Mr. de Blasio is the candidate to beat. He was the focus of repeated attacks from his rivals in the debate last week. Ms. Quinn has unveiled a Web site, “ Tale of Two de Blasios ,” arguing that he flip-flops frequently on issues. Mr. Thompson released an ad accusing Mr. de Blasio of misrepresenting how his position on the stop-and-frisk practice differs from that of other candidates.

Mayoral races
Polls
Quinnipiac University
Bill de Blasio
William C Thompson Jr
Anthony Weiner
John C Liu
Christine C Quinn
NYC


Doctor Warns Against Some Uses of Surgical Device He Invented

Abstract: Dr. Scott D. Augustine, the inventor of a widely used piece of surgical equipment, now has a better idea — he wants hospitals to stop using the device during certain operations, asserting that it poses a danger to patients. Two decades ago, Dr. Augustine, an anesthesiologist in Minnesota, helped pioneer the idea of keeping a patient warm during surgery. Doing so, studies have shown, produces benefits like less bleeding and a faster recovery. Dr. Augustine’s invention, the Bair Hugger, changed surgical practices and made him a fortune. The device, which works like a forced-air heater, carries warmed air through a hose to a special blanket that is draped over a patient. These days, Dr. Augustine asserts that his invention is a danger to surgical patients receiving implant devices like artificial heart valves and joints. The forced air, he says, can spread bacteria associated with hospital-acquired infections. Coincidentally, Dr. Augustine, who no longer has a financial stake in the Bair Hugger, also says he has a safer alternative, a warming device that works more like an electric blanket and does not use forced air. “I am very proud of the old technology,” he said. “But I am also proud to spread the word that there is a problem.” It is not unusual for a developer or a company to assert that a new device is safer, more efficient or cheaper than an existing one. But Dr. Augustine’s campaign against his own creation is notable for several reasons. For one, some specialists in patient warming say that Dr. Augustine has yet to produce clear evidence that devices like the Bair Hugger pose a threat, a position that an independent testing laboratory sought out by Dr. Augustine also reached. But that has not stopped the inventor from lashing out against the Bair Hugger, the company that sells it, Arizant Inc., and even some researchers who do not share his views. His campaign also comes amid the backdrop of a long-running feud between him and Arizant. Dr. Augustine resigned in 2002 as chairman and chief executive of the company, which used to be known as Augustine Medical, after a dispute with other board members, court papers show. Arizant was acquired this fall by 3M for $810 million. Last year, Dr. Augustine and Arizant settled a court battle arising in part out of a Medicare fraud investigation involving a different device that Dr. Augustine invented. In 2004, the inventor pleaded guilty to a single misdemeanor charge stemming from that inquiry, paid a $2 million fine and was subsequently barred for five years from participating in federal health care programs. Dr. Augustine then sued Arizant in a Minnesota state court asserting that it owed him, under an indemnification agreement, that $2 million fine plus millions of dollars more in salary. Under a settlement, Dr. Augustine received about $5 million, the company and the doctor said. Dr. Augustine’s campaign against the Bair Hugger has taken various forms. He has spoken out against the device at professional medical meetings and has underwritten studies intended to show that it may pose a bacterial threat. Videos on a Web site promoting his new device, which is called the HotDog , suggests that heat generated by a Bair Hugger can redirect circulation in specialized rooms where joint implant surgeries are performed. That change in air flow can bring airborne contaminants in contact with patients, the videos assert. Last April, the inventor also wrote to Arizant executives, accusing the company of a cover-up of the device’s problems, according to a copy of that letter which Dr. Augustine provided to The New York Times. “The question for you to answer is the following; is Bair Hugger going to be replaced quickly and catastrophically by a mandatory recall, or do you survive a voluntary recall and live to fight another day?” he wrote. Arizant executives declined to be interviewed about their interactions with Dr. Augustine. However, Arizant has sued the inventor’s new company, Augustine Biomedical and Design, in Germany, charging it is distributing information there that falsely disparages the Bair Hugger. 3M, Arizant’s new owner, said in a statement: “We believe Mr. Augustine’s allegations against forced-air warming stem from a personal vendetta and are baseless.” Several researchers in the area of patient warming said they respected the contributions that Dr. Augustine, who has some 150 patents to his credit, had made. And they added that the HotDog, which acts like an electric blanket rather than an air blower, appears to work as well as the Bair Hugger. But they also said that there did not seem to be enough science to back his assertion that the Bair Hugger was dangerous. “He simply has a new device now and wants to promote it,” said Dr. Andrea Kurz, an anesthesiologist at the Cleveland Clinic, who has studied the HotDog. “And when you promote a new device by making something old look bad, it doesn’t work well in our community.” Not long ago, Dr. Augustine presented data to the ECRI Institute, a group in Plymouth Meeting, Pa., that evaluates medical devices, to support his contention that bacteria generated by the Bair Hugger might be linked to hospital infections, said Dr. Jeffrey Lerner, the group’s executive director. Dr. Lerner added that the group concluded that current data was inadequate to prove that link. Along with Arizant, Dr. Augustine has turned his sights on other experts. For example, he filed an ethics complaint this year with the Cleveland Clinic, charging that a leading specialist there on patient warming, Dr. Daniel Sessler, was biased against him. In an interview, Dr. Sessler said that Dr. Augustine, whom he has long known, approached him several years ago to be a consultant on the HotDog. Dr. Sessler said that he told the inventor he would need a sizable payment to consider the position because he would no longer be able to accept research financing from competitors like Arizant. The men did not reach an agreement and soon, Dr. Sessler said, Dr. Augustine turned on him. “He started getting on my case, sending me funny notes saying I was biased,” he said. For his part, Dr. Augustine said he filed his ethics complaint after Dr. Sessler made a speech at a recent professional meeting that discussed only forced-air warmers like the Bair Hugger and did not mention devices like the HotDog. A spokesman for the Cleveland Clinic said that its legal department had looked into Dr. Augustine’s charge that Dr. Sessler was biased and determined that it was unfounded. Dr. Jeffrey P. Gumprecht, an infectious disease expert in New York, said that he was hired by Dr. Augustine’s company to review its data. He said he found the inventor’s theory about the potential dangers of forced-air warming compelling, but added that proving such a link might be impossible because it would require mounting a huge clinical study.

Medical Devices
Inventions and Patents
Arizant Inc.
Augustine Biomedical and Design
Bair Hugger
HotDog
Augustine Scott D.
Surgery and Surgeons


Book on Sandy Alderson Set for Release as Mets Try to Turn Page

Abstract: In his first four seasons as the general manager of the Mets, Sandy Alderson put together a body of work that included a lot more losses than victories, a surprising number of quips and a steadfast ability to never point a finger at the team’s owners for repeatedly saddling him with payrolls that were meager by major-market standards. Now, as Alderson begins his fifth season in charge amid growing expectations that the Mets may finally become a winning team again, he is adding a new element to his New York résumé — a book. “ Baseball Maverick ,” written by Steve Kettmann in cooperation with Alderson, is scheduled to be published next month by Atlantic Monthly Press. It is a profile of Alderson’s life: college at Dartmouth, a stint as a Marine platoon commander in Vietnam, a long run as the general manager of the Oakland Athletics, a subsequent role as a top executive in Major League Baseball and, finally, his decision to try to resurrect the Mets just as they were being sideswiped by the Bernard L. Madoff financial scandal. About half the book is devoted to his tenure with the Mets, who remain a work in progress. A person in baseball familiar with the workings of the Mets said Alderson had kept the team’s ownership informed about the book project as it moved over the course of several years toward publication. And a reading of an uncorrected proof of the book that was sent to The New York Times did not reveal anything at which the team’s owners, Fred Wilpon and Saul Katz, and the chief operating officer, Jeff Wilpon, would presumably take offense. Most notably, Alderson told the author that he would have taken the Mets job even if he had fully grasped just how much the owners’ link to the Madoff scandal would affect the team’s finances in the years that followed. “It just added to the challenge,” Alderson said. Kettmann, in the book, added his own observation. Kettmann first met Alderson when he was an A’s beat writer in the 1990s, and he suggested that Alderson had a healthy sense of the absurd that allowed him to find humor in the mess he walked into with the Mets and to keep an even keel even as one losing season followed another. The most intriguing part of the book may be the recounting of the flirtation that took place between the Mets and Robinson Cano, the Yankees’ power-hitting second baseman who became a free agent after the 2013 season. Because Cano was said to be seeking a long-term deal worth as much as $300 million, it was widely assumed that the Mets, with their glaring payroll limitations, would not be suitors. But the book suggested that Alderson was interested in trying to get Cano to move from the Bronx, where he had played nine seasons and hit 204 home runs, to Queens, feeling it would be a game-changer that would quickly alter the lopsided relationship between the two New York teams. Alderson, Jeff Wilpon and an assistant general manager, John Ricco, had dinner with Cano and his agent, Jay Z, in November 2013. The book said Alderson even contemplated calling the Mets’ captain, David Wright, to discuss a possible deal for Cano. But according to the book, Alderson’s ceiling on a deal for Cano would have been $200 million, if that, and eventually, Cano got more — $240 million over 10 years from the Seattle Mariners. On Thursday, Alderson was asked about the book at the Mets’ training camp in Port St. Lucie, Fla., after several excerpts appeared online in an article by Howard Megdal, a writer for Capital New York. Speaking about the book’s section on Cano, Alderson said the pursuit of the player had been an “entertaining diversion for us.” “But I don’t think we ever expected that it was going to go anywhere,” he added. “Jeff and I had conversations about it. We decided to take a preliminary look at it, but I don’t think anybody had any expectations we were going to sign Robinson Cano. I certainly didn’t.” As for the continuing issue of the Mets’ finances — the 2015 payroll stands at $100 million, a $15 million increase from last season but still much smaller than those of many other big-market teams — Alderson reiterated that money was simply not an issue for him. “I never talked about the payroll as an unfortunate limitation to us,” he said. “I haven’t talked about it recently. I haven’t talked about in the past. I don’t intend to. It’s not relevant to me.” At one point in the book, Kettmann described Alderson as becoming agitated last August after the Mets were again steamrollered by the Washington Nationals at Citi Field. He upbraided Collins in private and told Kettmann that “something needs to change.” In the end, of course, Alderson calmed down, Collins stayed on as manager and the Mets moved into 2015 with a good deal more hope, much of it stemming from their young, talented pitching staff. If those pitchers can propel the Mets into the 2015 postseason, it will be a pretty good story. But that is six months away. For now, Mets fans can read Alderson’s story, soon available in bookstores.

Baseball
Mets
Sandy Alderson
Steve Kettmann
Fred Wilpon
Jeff Wilpon


Beltran Lifts Cardinals Past Dodgers in a Taut Game 1

Abstract: ST. LOUIS — The voices of the Cardinals fans at Busch Stadium had turned raspy, harsh and a little desperate by the eighth inning Friday night. St. Louis had not managed much against the Los Angeles Dodgers’ starter, Zack Greinke, an old antagonist, in Game 1 of the National League Championship Series, and the score remained tied going into the ninth. The night dragged on, with the Dodgers failing to deliver runners from scoring position in the 10th, 11th and 12th innings. The game sat there for the Cardinals to take until they finally did, in the 13th. Carlos Beltran, whose double in the third accounted for the only two runs Greinke allowed in his eight innings, singled to right to drive in Daniel Descalso from second, giving the Cardinals a 3-2 victory. The game was the third-longest in an N.L.C.S., behind Game 6 of the 1986 series (a 7-6 Mets victory over Houston in 16 innings) and Game 5 in 1999 (a 4-3 Mets victory over Atlanta in 15 innings). Still, most of the announced crowd of 46,691 was still there late Friday night to see Beltran continue his marvelous postseason. Beltran’s three runs batted in increased his total to nine in six games. And he also contributed a strong throw in the 10th, after calling off center fielder Jon Jay, to cut down Mark Ellis at the plate and prevent what would have been the go-ahead run. “One of the best postseason performances I’ve ever seen,” St. Louis Manager Mike Matheny said. The Dodgers finished 1 for 10 with runners in scoring position and left 11 men on base. They played the last five innings without Adrian Gonzalez, their 100-R.B.I. first baseman, who walked leading off the eighth inning but was taken out for pinch-runner Dee Gordon. Gordon was quickly forced out at second on a Yasiel Puig grounder. “You get a guy on in that inning, and you have to take a shot at scoring that run,” Dodgers Manager Don Mattingly said. Six Cardinals relievers combined for seven scoreless innings while permitting three hits. Each team squandered late chances to win. The Dodgers right-hander Brian Wilson, the bearded ex-San Francisco Giant, who has never allowed an earned run in 14 postseason appearances, struggled a bit in the ninth, walking Matt Adams and Yadier Molina with two outs before getting Jay to fly out on a full count. Molina, the Cardinals’ catcher, helped preserve the tie score after Michael Young hit a fly ball in the top of the 10th, holding onto Beltran’s one-hop throw and tagging out Ellis. Molina, his mask still in place after the tag, pumped his first three times. “I felt like I was going to have a better angle than Jon Jay,” Beltran said. “I called it five, six times. I saw Yadi crouch, waiting for the ball, and I thought we had a chance.” The Cardinals were familiar with Greinke — who was 8-1 in his last 10 regular-season appearances against them — and not just for his pitching. Two years ago, while Greinke was with Milwaukee, he criticized St. Louis’s Chris Carpenter before the teams met in the N.L.C.S. He said a lot of the Brewers disliked Carpenter and suggested Carpenter’s steely, stare-down presence was phony. Greinke won Game 1 but lost Game 5 as the Cardinals advanced to the World Series. On Friday, Greinke started out strongly, disposing of the first six Cardinals in order. He struck out 10 in eight innings and faltered only in the third. “Outside of those three batters, that was probably the best game I’ve ever caught from him,” Dodgers catcher A. J. Ellis said. In the top of the third inning, Matheny made a bold choice, bringing in the infield with one out and a man on third. But Cardinals starter Joe Kelly walked Hanley Ramirez and then walked Gonzalez on four pitches to load the bases. Kelly threw home for a force play on a comebacker from Puig for the second out. Juan Uribe followed with a single past Kelly, the ball hit so hard on the ground that the second-base umpire, Mike Everitt, had to dance out of the way. That put the Dodgers ahead, 2-0. The lead lasted half an inning. Greinke struck out the first two batters in the third before Kelly grounded a single to left. Matt Carpenter, who was 1 for 20 this postseason, walked, and Beltran tied the game with a double off the wall in right center. Andre Ethier, trying for a circus catch at the wall, leapt for the ball but missed. The hit put Beltran at 33 R.B.I. in the postseason for his career, well behind the record of 80, set by the former Yankee Bernie Williams. But Beltran ranks eighth in postseason homers, with 16; he is one ahead of Babe Ruth and one behind Jim Thome. “He’s a great player,” Matheny said of Beltran before the game. “Start throwing him in categories with Babe Ruth, that’s kind of uncharted territory. But what he’s been able to do, his stats speak for themselves.” INSIDE PITCH ANDRE ETHIER returned to center field for the Dodgers for the first time since injuring his left ankle Sept. 13. He told reporters he still felt a little pain running during workouts Wednesday in Los Angeles and Thursday at Busch Stadium, but not enough to prevent him from playing. Ethier had been limited to pinch-hitting during the division series against Atlanta. ... DON MATTINGLY confirmed that the Dodgers left-hander HYUN-JIN RYU would start Game 3 and RICKY NOLASCO Game 4 in Los Angeles. Mattingly bypassed Nolasco in Game 4 of the division series against Atlanta to start the team’s ace, Clayton Kershaw, on three days’ rest. The Cardinals had already announced that ADAM WAINWRIGHT would start Game 3, and Mike Matheny had said that either SHELBY MILLER or LANCE LYNN, who pitched two innings in relief for the win Friday, would pitch in Game 4. ... Mattingly also chose to go with only one left-hander, J. P. HOWELL, in the bullpen, leaving PACO RODRIGUEZ and CHRIS CAPUANO off the Dodgers’ roster.

Baseball
St. Louis Cardinals
Dodgers
Carlos Beltran
Playoffs


A Push by Palestinians for U.N. Status Continues

Abstract: The Palestinian president is moving forward with his plan to seek upgraded observer status at the United Nations next month, despite American and Israeli threats of financial or diplomatic retaliation, according to Palestinian officials. The decision sets the stage for a new showdown between Israel and the Palestinians at the world body, following last year’s attempt by the Palestinians to seek status as a full member state.

Palestinians
International Relations
United Nations
Middle East
Israel


EBay’s 4th-Quarter Earnings More Than Triple Last Year’s

Abstract: EBay earnings soared in the critical fourth quarter, fueled by growth in the PayPal business, the sale of Skype and success in luring more people to its shopping Web sites during the holiday season. EBay, which is based in San Jose, Calif., reported net income in the fourth quarter , which ended Dec. 31, was $1.4 billion, or $1.02 a share, up from $367 million in the same quarter a year ago. The quarter’s results include proceeds from the sale of its Skype Internet telephony business resulting in a net gain of $1.4 billion. The company said revenue climbed 16 percent, to $2.4 billion. “We’re pleased with the progress and buyers and sellers are noticing, but we still have a lot of work to do,” said John J. Donahoe, eBay ’s chief executive, in an interview. Analysts said that the fourth quarter was important for eBay because of the holiday shopping season. It marked two years since Mr. Donahoe started as chief executive and laid out a three-year plan to turn around the company’s struggling marketplaces business. “John Donahoe is in the early stage of regaining investor confidence and he could not afford to disappoint this quarter,” said Sandeep Aggarwal, an analyst at Collins Stewart. EBay’s online payments business continued to drive its growth, while its marketplace business stabilized. Revenue at the payments business, which consists of PayPal and Bill Me Later, grew 28 percent, to $795.6 million. Twelve thousand software developers signed up to use PayPal on their Web sites and applications after eBay opened its platform to them in November. For the first time, annual revenue from non-eBay sites using PayPal exceeded that from eBay’s own sites. Revenue on eBay’s e-commerce sites increased 15 percent, to $1.5 billion. Sixty percent of that revenue came from outside the United States. EBay has been charging lower fees for European merchants to list items on the site. The total of all transactions except for cars, a metric that eBay calls gross merchandise volume, increased 24 percent, to $14.2 billion, from the same quarter last year. EBay’s mobile sites and applications had $600 million of gross merchandise volume. EBay has been taking steps to improve its e-commerce business. It has ranked top-rated sellers, so buyers can be more confident about trusting them, and has given merchants discounts if they offer free shipping. EBay also started Fashion Vault, a site that sells deeply discounted designer goods for limited times, a model that has been popularized by sites like Gilt. It is trying to improve its search technology so shoppers can more easily find items. Still, though shoppers are spending more money than ever online, more of them are going to sites other than eBay. Amazon.com, which has long had fewer monthly unique visitors than eBay, had an average six million more in the holidays, according to comScore. Walmart.com and other offline store Web sites are attracting more shoppers.

eBay Inc
Company Reports
Computers and the Internet
Shopping and Retail


Knicks’ Chairman Complicit in the Chaos

Abstract: It has been four long years since James L. Dolan issued his “significant progress” edict to Isiah Thomas , with Thomas stewing alongside him, like a child being warned to make all gone with the veggies on his plate. “This is his team, he made his bed,” Dolan said in a rare forthright — albeit awkward — visit with reporters who covered the Knicks . In retrospect, that may have been the most revealing of all public moments about the relationship between Dolan, the Madison Square Garden chairman, and Thomas, whom he can’t seem to excise from the conversation or operation of his basketball team. That day in June 2006, as Dolan ordered Thomas out of his executive cocoon and onto the bench to coach, he seemed to go out of his way to embarrass him. The spell that many believed Thomas had put Dolan under must have worn off for an hour, if it ever existed at all. As we move on from the latest uproar involving these peculiar bedfellows, while dreading the next one, it is important to remember that the continuous story is less about the opportunistic Thomas than it is about the ever-embattled Dolan. He is the chairman wrapped in a conundrum, the man who controls the narrative and whose recent defiant behavior leaves us to wonder: Is Thomas really Dolan’s “good friend,” as Dolan referred to him in a statement last week after Thomas’s consulting gig was shelved, or is Thomas more his perfect destabilizing foil? Those who know Dolan are unanimous in their portrayal of him as a dedicated and prideful contrarian, forever looking to prove that the world has been wrong about him, or whatever. Causes are one thing. Crusades are another. There is a very thin line between contrarianism and chaos when you constantly run on high-octane emotion, as does Dolan. • In terms of his operating style, George Steinbrenner was no different, really. The fact that Billy Martin built a winning foundation as the Yankees’ manager in the mid-to-late 1970s was merely a prelude to what Steinbrenner later turned him into — a tool of agitation for whenever the Boss was bored and needed to set off fireworks just because he could, or couldn’t help himself. Steinbrenner, like Dolan, grew up with high paternal expectations and unsympathetic performance evaluations. He acted out because it was a behavioral pattern, a way of life. Around New York, Dolan is presumed to be as foolish as he can be contentious. But basketball I.Q. has little to do with the addiction to turmoil. Take Latrell Sprewell, one of the prize Knicks acquisitions of the Dolan years. Sprewell was bright, articulate and utterly unable to play by team rules, even after the incredibly good fortune he stepped into after the coach-choking debacle at Golden State. Organizational insiders insist that Dolan is not blinded by Thomas , or fooled by his plain-as-day machinations. It is clear that he admires Thomas’s combativeness, his willingness to fly head on into a storm. Most people with Thomas’s reputation around New York wouldn’t dream of getting within 50 miles of the Garden, much less working there again. Compared with Thomas and Dolan, Donnie Walsh is Nelson Mandela. When he replaced Thomas at the Knicks’ helm, Walsh resisted calls from Thomas’s critics for a prompt public execution of his predecessor. Nor did he do away with Thomas’s loyalists, believing the team was entering a transition stage, so why not save the boss some money? It was all done with the intention of creating a kinder, gentler workplace, which most owners would have demanded in the wake of the absurdly turbulent Thomas years. Not Dolan. When Walsh made known his intentions to bring Chris Mullin in as general manager, Dolan put up a resistance that has lasted for months. He ignored his top lieutenants when they recently advised him against hiring back Thomas as a part-time consultant because it would be perceived as a shot at Walsh while creating a news media firestorm. But Dolan’s pattern of demonstrating contempt for conciliation on most fronts has been steady and mostly self-destructive. When Allan Houston and Charlie Ward made comments in a 2001 New York Times Sunday Magazine article that were perceived to be anti-Semitic, Dave Checketts, the Garden’s president, was alarmed by the fallout and pushed for a strong public relations response. Dolan argued that the remarks were misconstrued and he didn’t see the point in giving credence to the critics. Checketts, who presided over a dynamic Knicks decade in the 1990s, was gone from the Garden by the next month. Six years later, Dolan was begged by the same lieutenants to pursue a settlement when the Knicks executive Anucha Browne Sanders was threatening a sexual harassment lawsuit against Thomas and the Garden. The belief was that it would cost about $750,000. Dolan refused and wound up paying $11.5 million plus lawyers’ fees after losing a civil court case. Months later, at an N.B.A. Board of Governors meeting, Dolan faced his ownership colleagues and, according to a person who attended the meeting, expressed no remorse for dragging his organization and the N.B.A. by extension through the judicial mud. But that’s Dolan. No matter how many times his stubbornness backfires, he just digs in deeper, certain he will win in the end. If Dolan were Thomas’s friend, he would have paid off Browne Sanders and spared him his reputation. If Thomas believes that the Garden is really the place for him to rebuild it, he may want to remember how being used as a foil worked out for Billy Martin. Significant progress for Thomas — and Dolan, for that matter — would be to lose each other’s number.

Dolan James L
Basketball
New York Knicks
Madison Square Garden
Thomas Isiah


Seth Farbman Seeks to Renew Gap as New Marketing Chief

Abstract: REMEMBER when Gap advertising was entertaining and effective, when everyone talked about Gap campaigns like “Khakis swing”? Yes, and remember the Clinton presidency? It may be an exaggeration that the Gap division of Gap Inc. has had no outstanding marketing since the 1990s. But Gap has been struggling for years to figure out how to attract younger consumers as well as win back those who have stopped shopping there. On Thursday, Gap Inc. said that sales last month for the Gap division at North American stores open at least a year — a crucial measure known as same-store sales — fell 9 percent compared with March 2010. By contrast, many other retailers posted strong March results that exceeded the estimates of analysts. Revenue for the Gap division last year totaled $5.8 billion — better than $5.6 billion in 2009, but still behind 2008 ($5.9 billion) and 2007 ($6.2 billion). Gap Inc. spent $70.5 million to advertise the Gap brand last year, according to the Kantar Media unit of WPP. The most recent efforts to narrow the chasm between previous and present results have been wide-ranging. They included changing the agency that produces Gap ads; naming a new president for North American operations; moving the responsibilities for creative tasks like marketing and design to New York from San Francisco; and hiring, for the first time, a chief global marketing officer for the Gap brand. • What made those shifts, announced in February, more intriguing was that the new marketing executive, Seth Farbman, was coming from the new ad agency, Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide in New York. Though he has not previously been a retail executive, Mr. Farbman, who is 44, has been a marketer, working for companies like AT&T Wireless. Mr. Farbman, in an interview, recalled that he has retail experience — at a Gap, no less. “My first real job was at Gap, at the King of Prussia Mall” in suburban Philadelphia, he said. “It was a summer, holiday job in the late ’80s. I folded sweaters, badly.” Mr. Farbman had most recently been a worldwide managing director at Ogilvy, handling accounts like Time Warner Cable and establishing OgilvyEarth, the agency’s sustainability-marketing practice. “Seth is a star,” said John Seifert, chairman for the North American operations of Ogilvy, who hired Mr. Farbman in 2005. “He’s a thinker and a doer, and you are not always able to have those together.” Hiring Ogilvy as the new creative agency for the Gap brand, replacing Laird & Partners, “wasn’t contingent at all” on Ogilvy’s agreeing to let Mr. Farbman leave to join Gap, Mr. Seifert said. The search by Gap for a new agency preceded the decision that Gap would hire someone to serve as a worldwide marketing executive, he added. “In the end,” Mr. Seifert said, he and Miles Young, chief executive of Ogilvy, “judged that we could accept losing Seth for a mission, an opportunity, of this scale.” “Here was a client that had to drive a change agenda,” he added, “and I knew I needed a partner there to work with me in a new way.” Mr. Seifert, in a separate interview, compared where the Gap brand stands today to the parlous state of I.B.M. in 1994, when it surprised Madison Avenue by consolidating its worldwide account at Ogilvy. “When we were talking to I.B.M., nobody thought I.B.M. should stay alive,” he said. As for Gap, the retailer has “sort of lost its story and lost its focus on what made it different and special,” Mr. Seifert said, and a turnaround is “a big challenge” because “this is a ruthless category to compete in; consumers are demanding on pricing, variety.” “There’s a value story at Gap waiting to come out,” he added, “and we want to help bring it out.” Mr. Farbman discussed what he described as his “opportunity to take the brand and bring it back, or move it forward.” “If you go back to ‘Khakis swing,’ which everyone remembers fondly,” Mr. Farbman said, referring to the television campaign from 1998, “it was fun.” But “when khakis are no longer the one big thing, what do you do?” he asked rhetorically, particularly when “this is not a world of ‘one big thing’ anymore.” What Gap needs to do is “set a clear point of view for the brand,” Mr. Farbman said, and soon. “This is not a five-year turnaround strategy,” he declared. “This is a right-now.” As “a people’s brand,” Mr. Farbman said, the attributes on which Gap’s marketing could be focused include fun, optimism and value for money. The Gap division also needs to start “talking to our customers again, talking about where they live instead of where we think they’ve been,” Mr. Farbman said. “The first step is to explain why Gap is relevant for today,” he added, because “this is not a world where you can allow people to guess what you’re for and against.” • Still, the right marketing moves will not work without the right merchandise in Gap stores. “We have always been able to, at our best, come out with a product that’s stylish, has quality and integrates for the customer all the confusing things that are happening in the fashion world,” Mr. Farbman said, citing the 1969 line of premium jeans as a recent success story. “We’re looking toward fall when everything comes together: product, the stores, marketing, operations, creating a clear sign things are different,” he added. In the meantime, changes are being tested at 10 stores. Mr. Farbman is already doing his part. For the interview, he wore a Gap sweater, shirt, pants and socks — “head to toe,” he explained, “except for the shoes.” “The last 20 years of my life has been a master plan to get back to Gap,” he said, laughing, “to get the discount.”

Gap Inc
Advertising and Marketing
Fashion and Apparel
Ogilvy & Mather


In Tokyo, a Crackdown on Sexual Images of Minors

Abstract: TOKYO — In a manga comic book that is well known here, “My Wife Is an Elementary School Student,” a 24-year-old teacher marries a 12-year-old girl as part of a top-secret social experiment. There is no depiction of actual sex. But the teacher’s steamy fantasies fill the comic’s pages in graphic detail, including a little naked girl with sexually suggestive props. Meanwhile, in a widely available new DVD, a real-life Japanese model poses in a tiny white bikini. She makes popcorn in a maid’s costume. She plays with a beach ball while being hosed down with water. The model, Akari Iinuma, is 13 years old. Japan , which has long been relatively tolerant of the open sale and consumption of sexually oriented material, lately has developed a brisk trade in works that in many other countries might be considered child pornography . But now some public officials want to place tighter restrictions on the provocative depictions of young girls — referred to as “junior idols”— that are prevalent in magazines, DVDs and Web videos. One particularly big target is manga comic books that depict pubescent girls in sexual acts. It a lucrative segment of the $5.5 billion industry for manga, illustrated books drawn in a characteristic Japanese comic-book style. A newly revised ordinance by Tokyo ’s metropolitan government, which restricts the sale of such material, has prompted a national debate between its publishers and critics inside and outside Japan, who say the fare exploits children and may even encourage pedophilia. Other local and regional governments, including the Osaka Prefecture, are considering similar restrictions. “These are for abnormal people, for perverts,” said Tokyo’s governor, Shintaro Ishihara, angrily throwing two comic books to the floor during an interview. Mr. Ishihara spearheaded the ordinance changes, which take effect in July. While the revised law applies to an area containing only about a tenth of Japan’s population, Tokyo is the nation’s media capital and a de facto arbiter of the country’s pop culture boundaries. “There’s no other country in the world that lets such crude works exist,” Mr. Ishihara said. To protest the ordinance, 10 of this country’s biggest publishers have said they will boycott the Tokyo International Anime Fair next month, Japan’s premier event for manga and animated films. The new law specifically bars only the sale to minors of the restricted comics and videos. But industry executives say it will essentially end publication of the material by discouraging risk-averse publishers and booksellers from handling it at all. “There are no victims in manga — we should be free to write what we want,” said Yasumasa Shimizu, vice president at Japan’s largest publishing company, Kodansha, which is participating in the boycott. “Creativity in Japanese manga thrives on an ‘anything goes’ mentality.” Manga taps into a history of erotica that dates at least as far back as the ukiyo-e prints of 17th- to 19th-century Japan, including Hokusai’s famous portrayal of a fisherwoman and octopi in a salacious encounter. But it was as recently as the 1980s that comic magazines like Lemon People introduced a wider audience to sexual manga featuring young girls. “There is a culture, an industry that worships youth and innocence,” said Mariko Katsuki, who published a book last year chronicling adults who are attracted to small children. “Much of the attraction is nonsexual, but sometimes it becomes a dangerous obsession.” The new Tokyo law, which applies to anyone under 18, bans the sale of comics and other works — including novels, DVDs and video games — that depict sexual or violent acts that would violate Japan’s national penal code, as well as sex involving anyone under age 18. The ordinance also requires guardians to prevent children younger than 13 from posing for magazines or videos that depict them in sexually suggestive ways. Legal experts say that Japan’s laws against child pornography are lax by international standards. Japan has banned the production or distribution of any sexually explicit, nude images of minors since 1999, when Parliament passed a law in response to international criticism of the wide availability of such works in the country. But even now, unlike the United States and most European countries, Japan does not ban the possession of child pornography. In recent cases in the United States and Sweden , authorities have made arrests over manga books imported from Japan depicting sexual abuse of children. An American manga collector, Christopher Handley, pleaded guilty in 2009 to violating the 2003 Protect Act, which outlawed cartoons or drawings that depict minors in sexually explicit ways. Japan’s 1999 law has also helped stamp out a formerly popular genre of photo books depicting nude under-age girls. One of the genre’s best-selling books, published in 1991, featured nude photos of the actress Rie Miyazawa, who was not yet 18 at the time of the photo shoot. But in the last five or six years, books and videos have emerged that sidestep the law by featuring girls, some as young as age 6, posing in swimsuits that stop short of full nudity. These models, who are paid about 200,000 yen ($2,400) a shoot, often dream of careers in acting or music , industry insiders say. Junior idol photo books and DVDs are widely available on Web sites like Amazon ’s site in Japan and in specialized bookstores. At least eight magazines are devoted to such photos, including Sho-Bo, which features girls of elementary school age. “I loved the white bikini,” Ms. Iinuma, the 13-year-old model, told the adult male fans who turned out at the Sofmap electronics store in Tokyo for an event to promote the release of her second DVD, “Developing Now.” It is a plotless 70 minutes of Ms. Iinuma in various costumes and poses. At the gathering, Ms. Iinuma performed a short dance, spoke about the video shoot, then posed as men approached her to snap photos, while her mother looked on from the back of the room. Hiromasa Nakai, a spokesman for the Japan Committee for Unicef , said the abundance of child pornography in Japan made it even easier for those who would normally not be considered as having clinical pedophilia, a psychiatric disorder characterized by a sexual obsession with young children, to develop a sexual interest in children. “To a degree, it has become socially accepted to lust over young girls in Japan,” Mr. Nakai said. “Condoning these works has meant more people have access to them and develop an interest in young girls.” There have been earlier moves to regulate pedophilic material in Japan, especially after the murders of four little girls in 1988-89 by a man police described as a pedophile. The case spurred local governments across Japan to adopt ordinances setting some limits to sales of pedophilic works, including a loose ratings system for explicit manga books imposed by the publishers themselves, and also set the stage for the 1999 anti-child pornography law. Already the Tokyo government checks for “unwholesome” manga publications and can order publishers to label them as for adults only. But supporters of more regulation say those efforts have been sporadic. “We believe that when the rights of adults or businesses violate children’s rights, children must come first,” said Tamae Shintani, head of Tokyo’s parent-teacher association for elementary schools. “But we also respect free speech, so the least we can ask is people keep their fetishes under wraps.” The industry’s defenders say comparing manga to pedophilia involving real children is absurd. “Depicting a crime and committing one are two different things; it’s like convicting a mystery writer for murder,” said Takashi Yamaguchi, a Tokyo lawyer and manga expert. Mr. Yamaguchi and others also contend that the Tokyo government pushed through the new regulations without ample debate. Some also worry that stronger regulations will harm an industry whose fortunes have already fallen in recent years; sales of comic magazines, in particular, have dropped by a third over the last decade, to $24.3 million in 2008. The manga artist Takeshi Nogami, whose best-known work features high school girls riding military tanks, says he senses a disdain among policy makers toward manga itself. “They think reading manga makes you dumb,” he said. In late December at the Comic Market, a self-published comic book fair that is held twice a year in Tokyo and attended by more than 500,000 people, manga titles depicting adults having sex with minors were on open display. And they were readily available to fans like Koki Yoshida, age 17. “I don’t even think about how old these girls are,” Mr. Yoshida said. “It’s a completely imaginary world, separate from real life.”

Comic strip
Japan
Pornography
Regulation and Deregulation


Viacom and NBC Universal Are Latest to Trim Jobs

Abstract: The downturn in the media industry got even deeper Thursday, as more than 1,300 people who work at Viacom and NBC Universal lost their jobs. Viacom, the big media company controlled by Sumner M. Redstone, said Thursday that it would cut nearly 7 percent of its work force, or 850 workers, and freeze salaries for its top managers. NBC Universal, meanwhile, said it was laying off 500 employees, including several longtime correspondents for NBC News. Viacom’s cuts are intended to save $200 million to $250 million in 2009. The cuts at NBC are a result of the company’s plan, announced in October, to shave $500 million, or roughly 3 percent, from the budget in 2009. “This kind of message is never easy, but it is the right step to make, and the right time to make it,” Jeffrey A. Zucker, chief executive of NBC Universal, wrote in a memo in October. “We have no choice but to respond quickly to the external economic forces that are affecting the entire world economy.” The cuts at Viacom and NBC Universal, which is owned by General Electric, are part of a swirl of cost reductions across the media industry, from magazines to newspapers to television, amid both the economic downturn and more fundamental shifts, as advertising flows from traditional media to the Internet. Executives at the Walt Disney Company, News Corporation and CBS have all said they are eyeing cost savings. Most employees who are losing their jobs at Viacom, which includes MTV, VH1 and the Paramount movie studio, were notified Thursday and will be paid for the rest of the year before severance payments begin, a Viacom spokesman said. At NBC News, the cuts included Mark Mullen, who served as the Beijing bureau chief during the Summer Olympics; John Larson, the West Coast correspondent for “Dateline NBC”; and the Dallas-based correspondent Don Teague. At Universal Pictures, the chairman, Marc Shmuger, and the co-chairman, David Linde, wrote in a memo sent Thursday that the head count would be reduced by about 3 percent. Additionally, the studios would be “scaling back on travel, overtime, consultants, premieres, conferences, newspaper marketing and general administrative costs.” Viacom said it would take a pretax charge of $400 million to $450 million to its fourth-quarter earnings. Philippe P. Dauman, Viacom’s chief executive, said in a statement on Thursday: “The changes we are making in our organization and process will better position Viacom to navigate the economic slowdown and generate sizable efficiencies that will help us to drive our businesses as the marketplace stabilizes and conditions improve.” Mr. Dauman and Thomas E. Dooley, the chief financial officer, are among the more than 1,000 senior managers who will not receive a salary increase in 2009. But they could still receive a bonus, which has been a larger part of their compensation. In 2007, Mr. Dauman received a salary of $2 million, which was raised to $2.5 million this year. His bonus last year was $7 million, and his target bonus for 2008, according to a regulatory filing, is $9.5 million. Mr. Dooley, who is also among the handful of executives whose salaries are disclosed, received $1.6 million in salary in 2007, which was raised to $2 million in 2008. His bonus last year was $5.6 million, and his target bonus for 2008 is $7.6 million. In a research note about Viacom published Thursday, Michael Nathanson, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein, said “the near-term advertising environment is fraught with risk in this weak macroeconomic environment and the company has repeatedly proven in the past six months that it has relatively little visibility into near-term advertising trends.” The cuts at NBC extended to CNBC, the business news network, which will cut several dozen positions. The network confirmed Thursday that “The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch,” hosted by the advertising executive, will be placed on hiatus. The program has struggled to find an audience for the last four years. Mr. Deutsch will remain at CNBC, where he will produce monthly specials and appear on CNBC and NBC programs, a spokesman said. In a move that was not related to Thursday’s cuts, CNBC’s vice president for long-form programming, Josh Howard, told employees on Wednesday that he was leaving. “Producing quality long-form programming is an expensive undertaking, and in this economic environment not all news organizations can continue to afford to do it,” Mr. Howard, who decided not to renew his contract when it expires this month, said in an e-mail message to staff members.

NBC Universal
Viacom Inc
Layoffs and Job Reductions


Dewey & LeBoeuf Trial Is Expected to Be Lengthy

Abstract: For the legal profession, the trial of three lawyers charged with concealing Dewey & LeBoeuf’s failing financial situation from investors in the once mighty New York law firm may well be the most closely watched trial in years. But the trial, which begins jury selection in State Supreme Court in Manhattan on Monday, will not be a fast-paced, riveting episode. Rather the trial of the three men — Steven Davis, Dewey’s former chairman; Stephen DiCarmine, the firm’s former executive director; and Joel Sanders, the former chief financial officer — promises to be a long legal slog with the proceedings expected to last about six months, meaning a verdict may not be reached until after Labor Day. The process of seating a jury could itself take several weeks. The judge presiding over the case, Justice Robert M. Stolz, has tentatively scheduled opening statements in the case to begin on May 26, leaving the lawyers plenty of time to find jurors who can make the commitment to a long trial. Jury selection is beginning a little more than a year after Cyrus R. Vance Jr. , the Manhattan district attorney, unsealed a lengthy indictment against the lawyers and a former junior employee of the law firm, which once employed 1,300 lawyers and whose historical roots stretched back a century. Mr. Vance charged the men with orchestrating a scheme to conceal Dewey’s poor finances from lenders and creditors, including insurers that invested in a debt offering to raise about $150 million. Dewey & LeBoeuf collapsed in bankruptcy in May 2012. The three former executives of the firm are each charged with dozens of criminal counts and could spend years in prison if convicted. It is one of the rare times that the top managers of a big United States law firm have been criminally charged. The trial of the fourth former Dewey employee, Zachary Warren, who worked as a client relations manager at the firm and is now a lawyer himself, is scheduled to begin after the trial of Mr. Davis, Mr. DiCarmine and Mr. Sanders is completed. The trial of the Dewey executives will be one of the most prominent cases involving white-collar defendants brought by Mr. Vance’s office. The trial will be getting underway as another state court jury enters its third day of deliberations in the criminal case against Sergey Aleynikov, a former Goldman Sachs programmer who was charged by Mr. Vance’s office with stealing some of the Wall Street bank’s high-frequency trading code. The trial of Mr. Aleynikov has been difficult at times for Mr. Vance’s office, as the judge has issued a number of unfavorable rulings for the prosecution. On Friday, after the jury completed its second day of deliberation, Justice Daniel P. Conviser indicated he still had reservations about some elements of the charges filed against Mr. Aleynikov and whether prosecutors had proved their case. If the jury finds Mr. Aleynikov not guilty or Justice Conviser decides to set aside a guilty verdict by the jury — something that seldom happens — it could raise the stakes for Mr. Vance’s team in the trial of the Dewey lawyers. Once testimony in the Dewey trial begins, prosecutors are expected to put on the stand some of the seven former employees of the law firm who have already pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with the investigation. The employees, most of whom once worked in Dewey’s finance and accounting departments, are expected to testify about the background to the potentially incriminating emails sent by the defendants that were cited in the indictment. Representatives for some of the insurers that invested in Dewey’s bond offering also are likely to testify as well, said several people briefed on the matter but not authorized to speak publicly because prosecutors have not publicly announced the witnesses. A major defense strategy for the defendants will be to argue that they did not intend to deceive investors and instead were doing everything possible to prevent the collapse of the once mighty law firm, whose revenues plummeted as work on big ticket corporate mergers dried up during the financial crisis. The defendants will also argue that the firm intended to pay all the investors back. In a ruling on March 31, Justice Stolz said he would permit the defendants to introduce evidence that “they acted in a good faith belief that Dewey would be able to right itself and pay its debts and that, but for the unexpected departure of income-producing partners and the publicity of the investigation, it would have.” It is possible the trial could also produce some surprises, such as revealing the identities of the lawyers at Dewey who went to prosecutors to complain about the actions of the defendants. It has been unclear precisely how the investigation that resulted in the charges against the defendants began.

Dewey & LeBoeuf
Stephen DiCarmine
Joel Sanders
Steve H Davis
Lawyers
Jury
Cyrus R Vance Jr
Zachary Warren
Manhattan


Nadal May Not Be the Best, but He Beats the Best Ever

Abstract: Roger Federer may be the best men’s tennis player in history. Or he may not be as good as his contemporary rival Rafael Nadal . Wimbledon, which begins Monday, will serve largely as fodder for that confounding debate. By winning the recent French Open , his fifth title in six years at Roland Garros, the 24-year-old Nadal wrestled the No. 1 ranking back from Federer. Now Federer, who turns 29 in August, is stuck one week short of Pete Sampras’s career mark of 286 weeks at the top, and will find it difficult to get back to No. 1 anytime soon. That is partly because of the way the rankings are calculated, and largely because Nadal stands in his way. Nadal has beaten Federer 14 of the 21 times they have met, including six of the last seven matches. Nadal won the last three matchups in Grand Slam finals, on three surfaces — at the 2009 Australian Open (hardcourt), 2008 Wimbledon (grass) and the 2008 French Open (clay). And while even Nadal points out that most of his head-to-head victories over Federer came on clay (where Nadal holds a 10-2 advantage), Nadal is 4-5 against his rival off it — a mark that can be evened should Nadal beat Federer in the Wimbledon final, as he did two years ago. Can Federer be declared the best ever if Nadal keeps beating him? “If somebody says I am better than Roger, I think this person don’t know nothing about tennis,” Nadal said during the French Open, before Federer lost in the quarterfinals to Robin Soderling and before Nadal beat Soderling in the final. The questioner wanted elaboration. “So you don’t know nothing about tennis,” Nadal continued. “You see the titles of him and you see the titles of me? It’s no comparison. So that’s the answer. It’s difficult to compare Roger with me now, because he has 16 Grand Slams. I have six.” It is seven now. And despite Wimbledon’s decision to grant Federer its top seed and make Nadal No. 2, the two will face each other in the final, if form holds. Theirs is a rivalry in need of refreshment. Federer and Nadal have not played against each other in any of the last five Grand Slam events. When Federer and Nadal met in the final at Madrid this spring (Nadal won, on clay, in two sets), it was their first meeting since Madrid a year earlier (when Federer won in two sets). “I hope we can play again in the future,” Federer said at the start of the French Open, “because a year away from each other was maybe a bit long.” Federer and Nadal have not met at a Grand Slam since the final of the Australian Open in 2009, which Nadal won. That came about seven months after their epic five-set final at Wimbledon in 2008, Nadal’s first major victory on something other than clay. “It’s always a big match regardless of where it is, how it is,” Federer said in Paris. “It’s one of the great rivalries in sports right now, and obviously, in our game, the biggest one. You try to live up to the expectations, try to win as many as you can. He’s got the better record against me, so every time I play him I try to improve on it.” What makes the Federer vs. Nadal debate so compelling is that two seemingly contradictory arguments — that Federer is the best in history, and that Nadal is better than Federer — have merit. No man can match the 16 Grand Slam singles victories of Federer, one of six men to have won each of the big four tournaments at least once. His more remarkable record could be the streak that ended in the quarterfinals at Roland Garros — 23 consecutive appearances in Grand Slam semifinals, dating to 2004. No other man has had more than 10. Federer looked unfamiliarly overpowered in his French Open loss to Soderling. His loss last weekend to Lleyton Hewitt in the final at Halle, a Wimbledon warmup, was similarly stunning, despite Federer’s assertion that “the loss here does not worry me in any way.” It was Federer’s second loss on grass in his last 78 matches — the other coming to Nadal at Wimbledon two years ago. But a statistic can always be found in support of either Federer or Nadal, which is why any argument about their relative merits is circular and fascinating. For those who see Federer’s recent losses as signs of his imminent decline, it is worth remembering that before the French Open, Federer reached the final of his previous eight Grand Slams. He won four of them. Of course, Nadal fans might note that none of those victories came against Nadal, though three of the four finals losses did. (The fourth was to Juan Martín del Potro at last year’s United States Open .) By contrast, Nadal beat Federer in all but the most recent of his Grand Slam victories — five times in the final, and once (the 2005 French Open) in a semifinal. Even Nadal’s recent French Open victory had head-to-head repercussions. The men flipped places in the rankings, leaving Federer holding at 285 weeks atop the rankings during his career. Passing Sampras could prove difficult, partly because the Association of Tennis Professionals calculates them using a revolving 52-week calendar. During the French Open, Federer had a large lead on Nadal, 10,030 points to 6,880. By tournament’s end, Nadal received the 2,000 points awarded to a Grand Slam winner. Federer received only 360 for reaching the quarterfinals. As those points were added, the results from the 2009 French Open — Federer won, and Nadal lost in the fourth round — were subtracted. Nadal emerged from Paris with 8,700 points, and Federer was second in the world rankings with 8,390. Catching Nadal will be tricky. Nadal did not play Wimbledon last year because of his sore knees and the breakup of his parents, so he did not accumulate any rankings points. Anything he does at Wimbledon this year will add to his total. Federer, on the other hand, won Wimbledon last year. Anything less than a seventh Wimbledon title, and his points will decrease. Nadal first reached No. 1 in the summer of 2008, and he spent 46 weeks there until his unexpectedly early exit at last year’s French Open and his decision not to defend his Wimbledon title. Last year, the revolving points system churned with the calendar. Nadal moved aside for Federer. Now the same thing is happening, but in reverse. Nadal is building points; Federer will struggle not to lose any. And, in a way, perhaps for the first time, it feels that way in their careers, too. Nadal is rising, again; Federer is holding on. If nothing else, Wimbledon could be where the rivalry renews itself on the court — and anywhere else tennis is debated.

Tennis
Nadal Rafael
Federer Roger
Wimbledon Tennis Tournament


Bush Proposes Broader Language Training

Abstract: WASHINGTON, Jan. 5 - The Bush administration on Thursday proposed spending $114 million on educational programs to expand the teaching of Arabic, Chinese, Farsi and other languages typically not taught in public schools. Speaking to more than 100 college and university presidents attending a two-day conference at the State Department, President Bush said the effort would play a critical role in national security and lead to American students' gaining a better understanding of foreign cultures. "In order to convince people we care about them, we've got to understand their culture and show them we care about their culture," Mr. Bush said. "You know, when somebody comes to me and speaks Texan, I know they appreciate the Texas culture. When somebody takes time to figure out how to speak Arabic, it means they're interested in somebody else's culture." The administration invited the presidents to discuss issues that affect American college students studying abroad, the number of whom has steadily increased each year, and foreign students attending American universities, whose numbers declined over the last two academic years after nearly five decades of steady gains. While the conference agenda calls for discussion of visa requirements and how to compete in a global economy, Mr. Bush focused on the need to produce more students capable of speaking foreign languages as a key component of national security. "We need intelligence officers who, when somebody says something in Arabic or Farsi or Urdu, know what they're talking about," he said. Robert Birgeneau, chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley, said he was among presidents in Washington last year discussing similar issues with the Central Intelligence Agency. He said he left that meeting with the understanding that "their needs are desperate." Mr. Birgeneau said that he appreciated the administration's efforts but that, for university presidents, language training for the government is "not our central focus." Mr. Bush said the administration was "recalibrating the proper balance" between national security and the eagerness of universities to increase the number of foreign students, one of his few points that drew hearty applause. Many school officials blame a tightening of restrictions after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, for driving away foreign students. Nina Powell, the assistant secretary of state for education and cultural affairs, told reporters that the process had improved and that 97 percent of applicants now get visas "within a couple of days." The administration's language proposal, known as the National Security Language Initiative, would create several new programs and build on others, including a Pentagon effort begun three years ago to increase the number of military personnel fluent in languages and familiar with customs in developing nations. Barry Lowenkron, the assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labor, said a few of the programs might include a commitment to work for the government or the military. "But it's not like a draft," he said, adding: "We're not setting goals to have X number of people in Y years. The goal is to start building capacity." He said that only 44 percent of American high school students were studying any foreign language and that 70 percent of those were learning Spanish. Ms. Powell said that by comparison, the nation had only 2,000 Chinese language grade-school teachers. Margaret Spellings, the education secretary, said in an interview that efforts to teach such languages as Chinese and Arabic to children as young as 5 were brand new. "We don't know how to do it. This whole notion is in its infancy. But our hope is this is a start, and we can build on it."

BUSH GEORGE W
EDUCATION AND SCHOOLS
POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT


Syracuse Punter Rob Long Inspires His Teammates

Abstract: A half-dozen husky Syracuse football players in gray sweatsuits strolled into a ballroom at the Grand Hyatt late Tuesday afternoon for a news conference. The punter, the only man in the group with a jagged red scar on the back of his shaved head, drew the most attention. Rob Long, a senior from Downingtown, Pa., averaged 44 yards a punt this season, but he will not play in the Pinstripe Bowl at Yankee Stadium against Kansas State on Thursday because he had a brain tumor removed Dec. 14. The tumor was later found to be malignant. As he prepares for postoperative treatment, Long, 22, says he plans to attend all of the team’s activities, even if he cannot play in the game. This has been a rough month for Long, a team captain and a second-team all Big East selection, but the last three days have been an escape. “To come here is like a little vacation,” a smiling Long said of being in New York. Syracuse (7-5) is playing in its first bowl game since 2004, and Kansas State (7-5) is expected to be a formidable opponent. This is the inaugural Pinstripe Bowl, and a lot would be riding on the game for the Orange even if Long had not fallen ill. Now they are playing for him. “If I’m thinking I’m too tired, I’ll see Rob, and I won’t be tired,” the senior linebacker Doug Hogue said. “He loves football like I love football, and it was taken away from him just like that.” Before practice Tuesday, Long said he picked up a football at the Jets’ training facility in Florham Park, N.J., and kicked it a few times, savoring the feeling, if for no other reason than it let him forget about cancer. He said he was undecided on the best form of treatment. He said he and his parents, Bob and Mary Jo, were gathering as much information and were leaning toward some form of radiation, which would begin in early January. But he will worry about that more after the game. He says he feels good physically, and his spirits are high. “It was good for me to see them, and it was good for them to see me,” Long said of his teammates. “I think a lot of people were surprised to see that I was up and walking around.” His teammates said they greeted him Sunday mostly with hugs. Long has been an integral part of the team — he had a 70-yard punt this season and pinned opponents inside their 20-yard line 19 times — and they missed him as they began to prepare for Kansas State. “Just to see how positive he is — how great he looks — is a big boost for the team,” the senior running back Delone Carter said. “I just know he’s going to come out on top. And the person Rob is, he won’t let you get too down.” Long was a hockey player at Downingtown West High School before he became an all-conference punter. He did not know he was interested in football until he kicked a ball while he waited for his friends to finish football practice. He has had a superb career at Syracuse, averaging more than 43 yards in his last three seasons. But late this season, he began complaining of headaches. He had a magnetic resonance imaging test Dec. 2. The doctor told him to see a specialist immediately. That same day, he said, his mother’s sister received a diagnosis of breast cancer. The two diagnoses started what Long called a roller-coaster ride. His tumor was removed, and on Dec. 20, it was found to be malignant. But his oncologist said it would not hurt him to go to New York. “At this point, there’s nothing I can do,” Long said. So there he was on Tuesday, at the New York Stock Exchange with Coach Doug Marrone and Syracuse’s other two captains — linebacker Derrell Smith and center Ryan Bartholomew — ringing the opening bell. He will pose for a team photograph Wednesday at Yankee Stadium. “We’re so happy to have him here,” Syracuse quarterback Ryan Nassib said. Six grueling weeks of treatment await Long, but he will be on the sideline Thursday, helping out in whatever way he can. Marrone does not like to have injured players cluttering the sideline, but Long is hoping that his coach will make an exception. Then he will move on. “I told them that because of my age — and I’m in good health otherwise — that I was going to attack this as aggressively as possible,” Long said, referring to his doctors. “I can handle it.” In the meantime, he sends out messages on his Twitter account like this one: “I am still convinced I am one of the luckiest people in the world.”

Long Rob
Syracuse University
Tumors
Football
College Athletics


Morning After Fatal Crash, Metro-North Riders Adjust to a New Commute

Abstract: NORTH WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. — The morning after a horrific Metro-North train accident , commuters in Westchester filed in and out of the North White Plains train station while Metro-North workers directed traffic and called out directions. There seemed to be no delays on Wednesday morning, as commuters who normally boarded at stations north of there instead hopped off shuttle buses carrying them from pickup points to North White Plains, where the trains were running direct to Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan. A Metro-North worker said that the trains were more crowded than usual. As commuters waited in the station or on the platform, they talked quietly about the crash. Several noted they had taken that train in the past, while others said they were glad they had not. Some worried about commuting delays for the next few days, but no one said the accident would make them give up their rail commutes. Investigating the Metro-North Crash Details from the preliminary report on what happened in the Metro-North crash that killed six people on Feb. 3. At the station, one stop south of Valhalla, Claire Meenagh, 23, and her friend Devin Smith, 23, waited for their train to the city just before 7:30 a.m. They take the same route every day and said they sometimes take the train that crashed, if they get out of work early enough. “I’m a little shaken up, but there’s nothing we can do about it,” said Ms. Meenagh, who lives in Somers, N.Y., and was up late watching news of the crash. “I thought it was a freak accident and it could happen to anybody.” She added: “It’s not in our hands, there’s nothing we can do about it. Being worried isn’t going to change anything.” Crash on the Tracks 6 Photos View Slide Show › Image Christopher Gregory for The New York Times Ms. Meenagh, who works in Manhattan for a radio network, said she had also been worried about possible delays and logistical challenges during her commute. She and Ms. Smith normally get on the train in Katonah and had to take the shuttle bus to North White Plains instead. “We have to get to work,” said Ms. Smith, who also lives in Somers and works in Manhattan as an advertising sales representative. “It’s not like you don’t feel safe on the train. It’s just one of those freak accidents.” Bobby Ferrari, who owns a newsstand at the station, said his morning was much busier than usual with all the extra commuters. He sold out of more than 100 newspapers that had reports of the crash by 8:30 and was fixing cups of coffee for a steady line of customers, many of whose faces were unfamiliar to him. Video Steven Lichtenthal, of Bedford Hills, N.Y., rode in the back of a middle car involved in the fatal Metro-North crash on Tuesday. He described how the accident unfolded. Credit Credit Richard Perry/The New York Times “There’s a lot more volume,” he said. “There are a lot of people I don’t know because they’re being transferred from other stations.” Gerald Tam, 36, who works as a real estate strategist in Manhattan and lives in Armonk, said that he was on a train two trains behind the one that crashed Tuesday night. He saw a news alert on his phone followed by onboard train announcements about the accident. His train came to a stop for about half an hour. Mr. Tam, who commutes every weekday from North White Plains, said he would not take the train any less often. “Accidents don’t happen that often,” he said. “The statistics are pretty good. It’s just disappointing it did happen.” But, he added, “I’m not going to sit in the first two cars or in the last two cars anymore.”

Metro North
Delays
Commuting
Train wreck
White Plains NY