Adjusting Vision of Waterfront Arts District to Include High Rises

Abstract: JERSEY CITY Across the street from the hulking remains of the Hudson & Manhattan Powerhouse, which once provided electricity for what is now the PATH rail system, is a mountain of bricks and rubble in the middle of a sprawling vacant lot. Once it was the site of the Lorillard Tobacco and Snuff Manufactory, the largest tobacco factory in the country. Later it was a thoroughly magical warren for hundreds of artists, and the inspiration for an arts district envisioned as a way to revive a decrepit, forgotten warehouse district near the Jersey City waterfront. Current plans call for it to become a 52-story residential tower designed to look like a precarious stack of blocks. Whether or not you care to see Jersey City as New York’s sixth borough, you could write a pretty interesting urban history centered on the 12 or so blocks now designated as its Powerhouse Arts District. But before you did, you would have to sort through two distinct story lines about how the tale has evolved. One is a story of betrayal, how almost two decades of hard work and advocacy that produced a visionary plan for a low-rise arts district that preserved the area’s past was shunted aside in favor of plans for megatowers and cookie-cutter urban development. The second is a story about the malleability of urban life, how neighborhoods always evolve and how no planning document can ever be exempt from the vagaries of market forces and social trends. It’s probably appropriate that either narrative culminates at the same point: a shootout over an abandoned matzo factory. In this case, it was a bitterly contested decision by the City Council last month to approve a proposal by the giant home builder Toll Brothers to construct three residential towers of 30 stories or more. Two would be on the site of an old Manischewitz factory; one would be across the street. It came after a heated meeting at which nearly all the 45 or so people who spoke opposed changes in the plan. Nearby residents have threatened lawsuits to stop the project. “We’re insulted by this scheme,” said Jill Edelman, president of the neighborhood association in the area. “It’s not only not in keeping with the vision of the redevelopment plan, but it goes counter to it and it destroys it.” The current chapter of this saga dates back to the early 1980s, when Jersey City’s real estate boom seemed a contradiction in terms. Led by a painter named Charles Kessler and inspired by a burgeoning downtown art scene, residents and officials began thinking of redeveloping some of the most hopeless real estate in the city as an arts district with galleries and housing for artists. After various iterations and much high-level study, including an enthusiastic report by the Urban Land Institute, the result in 2004 was designation as the Powerhouse Arts District, with a plan designed to maintain the district’s historic character, low-rise feel and mix of art and housing. In retrospect, that plan probably died with the pile of rubble at the old tobacco factory when the city — facing lawsuits from the developer who owned the building, which had since been converted into artists’ studios — allowed him to knock down the building and build a high rise instead. “That was the first domino,” said Mr. Kessler. “So now we have Toll Brothers.” But city officials say that in truth, the plan, however romantic it seemed, was flawed from the start. It didn’t provide enough critical mass for a successful district, it couldn’t generate enough revenue to support retail projects envisioned for the area, it didn’t support renovation of the one truly iconic building — the powerhouse — and it didn’t provide enough density for the rail service now in place. “The idea of keeping density extremely low on a PATH stop is a luxury the city can’t afford,” said Robert Antonicello, executive director of the Jersey City Redevelopment Agency. “It’s not consistent with smart growth, and it’s not what’s best for the whole city. What’s disappointing to me is that instead of embracing what’s best for the entire city you’ve got a group that instead has taken a more myopic Nimby approach.” AND so it will go. The city talks about a broader district, covering 25 blocks instead of 12, an arts district with entertainment space, not just visual arts. Critics point out that the city isn’t hurting for high-rise development, it’s drowning in it. What it almost had, they said, was something distinctive, something based in the city’s old industrial past — not a substitute for high-rise development, but a bit of diversity that’s an alternative to it. In the Kabuki world of development fights, it’s hard to be too surprised at how this chapter played out, but Mr. Kessler said he was still disappointed. “We have plenty of high rises, we have an entire waterfront that’s suitable for high rises,” he said. “I expect a developer to try to make as much profit as he can. But here we had an incredible resource that speaks to Jersey City’s history like nothing else — railway history, industrial history — and rather than fight to save it, the city just folded.”


Sudan: Woman Is Sentenced to Death by Stoning for Adultery

Abstract: A woman convicted of adultery has been sentenced to death by stoning and is being held with her 6-month-old baby in jail, activists said Wednesday, in the second such sentence in the past few months in the country. President Omar Hassan al-Bashir said last month that Sudan would adopt a “100 percent” Islamic constitution, prompting concerns that the country would apply Islamic law more strictly after the secession a year ago of South Sudan, which is mostly non-Muslim. A court in the capital, Khartoum, sentenced the woman, Laila Ibrahim Issa Jamool, 23, on July 10 to death by stoning for adultery, according to a Sudanese human rights activist, Fahima Hashim. The Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa , a women’s rights group, said it had assigned lawyers who had appealed the conviction and sentence. Amnesty International said that Ms. Jamool “was convicted solely on the basis of her confession and did not have access to a lawyer.” Floggings are a common punishment in Sudan for crimes like drinking alcohol and adultery, but sentences of stoning are rare.

Sudan
Sentences (Criminal)
Adultery
Bashir Omar Hassan Al-
Muslims and Islam
Shariah (Islamic Law)
Capital Punishment


Police Killing in Delaware Brings Calls for Inquiry

Abstract: What is clear, from police accounts and from a shaky video taken by a bystander, is that Jeremy McDole, 28, was fatally shot in his wheelchair by officers in Wilmington, Del., shortly after the police said he shot himself. But nearly a week later, few additional details have emerged, even as officials from the city police and the state conduct separate investigations into the shooting. Citing tension and distrust among residents, some political and community leaders are calling for a federal investigation into Mr. McDole’s death. The killing is the latest shooting of an African-American by the police that has been captured on widely circulated video amid a national conversation on the use of force by law enforcement. “The footage from the video is more horrific than the footage from other jurisdictions where police have used deadly force and the Department of Justice has found it necessary to intervene and investigate,” wrote Jea P. Street, a councilman for New Castle County who represents the part of Wilmington where Mr. McDole was shot, in a letter dated Monday that urged federal officials to review the case. “The level of tension in the African-American community is potentially explosive,” he said. Peaceful vigils and demonstrations have taken place in the city since Mr. McDole’s death last Wednesday, and there have been tense interactions between residents and the police. And Mr. McDole’s mother, Phyllis, turned herself in on Monday after she was accused of assaulting someone who she believed — mistakenly, the police said — made a 911 call that led officers to approach Mr. McDole. The Wilmington Police Department said the encounter began when officers received a report of a man with a “possible self-inflicted gunshot wound” in the Hilltop neighborhood, and found him “armed with a handgun.” At a news conference on Thursday, Chief Bobby L. Cummings said, “When Mr. McDole began to remove the weapon from his waist, the officers engaged him, and as a result of the injuries Mr. McDole sustained, he lost his life.” Black Lives Upended by Policing: The Raw Videos Sparking Outrage This is a collection of the viral footage that has prompted a national conversation about race and policing. Mr. McDole’s mother interrupted the news conference to dispute that account. “This is unjust — he was in a wheelchair,” adding, “There’s video showing that he didn’t pull a weapon, he had his hands on his lap.” The video, which was posted online, shows a man slumped in a wheelchair, as one officer approaches with a shoulder-fired gun. The officer urges the man to show his hands, and a gunshot is heard. The man is then told to “drop the gun.” Soon, two more officers approach with pistols, and the man is again told to raise his hands. He can be seen shifting his weight in his wheelchair. He slides his hand from his waist to his thigh, and multiple gunshots are heard. The man’s body seems to freeze, and he then falls to the ground. The video was shot from across the street and does not show detailed close-ups, but a gun is not visible during the moments shown in the footage. The police said they recovered a .38-caliber handgun, and they released audio from a segment of a 911 call in response to questions about what brought the police to the scene. “A man just shot himself in the AutoZone parking lot,” said a fearful female voice. She added, “The man still has a weapon in his hand.” The police have declined to comment further on the shooting itself, and said the investigation continued. The four officers involved have been placed on administrative duty, a department spokeswoman said. Many have questioned why an apparently suicidal man was approached by the police with their weapons raised, and why they fired when they did. “What those officers should have did was stand down and wait until the negotiating team got there,” said Robert Bovell, 48, a bail bondsman who has previously run for city office and who is close to the McDole family. Richard Smith, the president of Delaware’s N.A.A.C.P. chapter and a resident of the neighborhood, has called for an independent investigation. On Sunday, he said, there had been tense encounters between residents and the police, including one in which objects were thrown at officers responding to a shooting. Mr. Street, the councilman, said he hoped a federal investigation would calm nerves. “There’s anger, there’s grief and there’s fear,” he said. “And I believe that if the federal authorities agree to intervene, it will help in a great way.”

Police Brutality,Police Misconduct,Police Shootings


$350 Million Investment Needed to Open Casino Closest to New York City, Panel Says

Abstract: ALBANY — A state gambling panel declared on Monday that business interests seeking to build a casino in Orange County, just an hour from New York City, would be required to invest a minimum of $350 million in capital. Casino industry experts say it is a surprisingly low buy-in for what could be a billion-dollar franchise, and one that could cause serious problems for casino proponents in the Catskills to the north. In recent weeks, lawmakers in Sullivan and Ulster Counties, centers of the long-faded borscht belt, have said they hoped the state would set a sky-high minimum investment in Orange County — perhaps as much as $1 billion — to discourage developers there and aid those promoting farther-flung locations. The disappointment was palpable on Monday among those hoping for a Catskill revival fueled by casino revenue. “I think it shows that they are rushing through this and that this has clearly not been thought out,” said Mitchell Grossinger Etess, the chief executive of the Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority, which has plans for a casino near Monticello. “The premium spot, and they are only asking $350 million? It doesn’t speak to creating economic development.” The state panel, called the New York Gaming Facility Location Board, announced capital requirements less than three weeks after 22 entities submitted applications fees of $1 million to be considered as a full-scale casino operator. The next step in the already speedy licensing process: To receive a full refund of the $1 million fee, potential bidders will have to withdraw within five business days. The new capital-investment thresholds will require casino proponents in more remote parts of New York State to spend $70 million to $135 million, depending on their region and proximity to other new casinos. But locations closer to Manhattan and its rich vein of tourists and other consumers are the most prized by developers, and on Monday, it seemed unlikely that the required investments would cause any bidders to fold in Orange County. Several deep-pocketed international companies, including Caesars Entertainment and the Genting Group, have announced plans for Orange casinos. Both indicated that a minimum investment of $350 million would not be an impediment. Even lesser-known companies, such as Greenetrack, an Alabama dog-track operator that has proposed a $500 million casino in New Windsor, N.Y., seemed unfazed by the minimum investment, saying on Monday that its project would “yield billions in economic development for Orange County and New York State.” Those sentiments were unlikely to soothe nerves in the Catskills, where full-scale Las Vegas casinos have long been envisioned as a potential economic lifeline — a belief also espoused by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, who successfully pushed for the legalization of up to seven New York casinos as an economic-development strategy. The presence of an Orange County casino could also make securing financing for a Catskill casino more difficult, according to experts. “I’m not sure if someone wins a license in the Catskills they are going to be thrilled with the news that one is opening in Orange,” said John D. Sabini, the former chairman of the New York State Racing and Wagering Board. “They might want to keep the receipt and go to the returns windows, because their investment just got a lot more dubious.” State Senator John J. Bonacic, a Republican whose district includes parts of Orange County and the Catskills, was more diplomatic, saying he was pleased that the county’s minimum was higher than the Catskill area, where the capital requirement was set at $100 million to $130 million. But Mr. Bonacic said he was “concerned that the level they set is still too low” for Orange County. The board said the minimum capital investments would include building “at least one hotel and other amenities,” as well as related expenses like environmental remediation, infrastructure construction and the purchase of furniture and gambling equipment. But the board also said that casino projects would entail up to hundreds of millions of dollars in additional costs that it did not include in the capital requirements — things like land acquisition, legal work and marketing. Those expenses could swell the investment in a hypothetical Orange County project, for example, to nearly $500 million, it said. New York is already home to five upstate Indian casinos and nine racetracks with electronic slot-machine parlors, but voters in a 2013 referendum allowed up to seven new casinos, complete with table games like craps and roulette. Formal bids on the casinos are due on June 30, with the board expected to make final decisions by early fall.

Orange County NY
Casino
Gambling
Andrew Cuomo
New York
New York Gaming Facility Location Board


What About Us, Nagasaki Asks, as Obama’s Hiroshima Trip Nears

Abstract: NAGASAKI, Japan — When Miyako Jodai was 6 years old, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on her hometown, the port city of Nagasaki. She was knocked unconscious, and her home was destroyed. She spent the next several days huddling with dozens of others in a cave on the side of a mountain. “I was so scared,” she said. “I was crying and I stepped on some of the bodies of the injured people, because there was no room to walk.” When she finally ventured out, the city was still ablaze with towering flames. Ms. Jodai was one of the fortunate ones. The bomb dropped on Nagasaki the morning of Aug. 9, 1945, killed about 74,000 people, about half as many as those who died in the bombing of Hiroshima three days earlier. On Friday, President Obama will become the first sitting American president since the end of World War II to visit Hiroshima. Nagasaki is not on the itinerary. Image Students walked past a display about modern nuclear weapons during a visit to the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum on Sunday. Credit Adam Dean for The New York Times While invoking Hiroshima has become a universal shorthand for the horrors of nuclear war, Nagasaki, on the southwestern island of Kyushu , has mostly lived in the other city’s shadow. “We know that the very highest mountain in Japan is Mount Fuji,” said Tomihisa Taue, the mayor of Nagasaki, in an interview in his office. “But we don’t know the second-highest mountain.” Yet many in Nagasaki recognize that Hiroshima, in some ways, stands in for both cities. They say the message they want the world to take from Mr. Obama’s visit — that nuclear weapons must never again be used — does not require that he set foot in their city. Mr. Taue suggested that Nagasaki could also serve as a potent coda to Hiroshima’s opening of the nuclear age. “I would like the president to say, from Nagasaki to the world, that this site should be the last place on earth to experience the atomic bombing,” he said. That Nagasaki was bombed second has made it an afterthought in the history of and debate over nuclear weapons, even though many historians argue that the bombing was harder to justify precisely because it was a repeated act. If one accepts President Harry S. Truman’s rationale that the Hiroshima bombing was necessary to force Japan’s surrender and end the war, the moral calculus for dropping a second bomb on a civilian population three days later is more contentious. Close to 700,000 people a year visit the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum , compared with nearly 1.5 million at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial , where Mr. Obama will lay a wreath on Friday. Even in the office of the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Survivors’ Council, a sticker on a cabinet illustrates the city’s secondary status — “No More Hiroshimas: End the Arms Race Now.” Ms. Jodai, now 76 and a retired schoolteacher, said she admired the president’s decision to visit Hiroshima and understood that his schedule did not allow him to visit both cities. Still, she said, the Nagasaki survivors should at least be invited to the ceremony in Hiroshima. “I feel like Nagasaki has been abandoned and thrown away,” she said. As Japan wrestles with its own history of wartime atrocities , and as scholars and politicians here and in the United States continue to debate the use of the atomic bomb, Nagasaki, in many ways, offers a more complex narrative than Hiroshima does. Image The rebuilt Urakami Cathedral in Nagasaki. The original, then the largest cathedral in East Asia, was destroyed by an American atomic bomb in 1945. About 8,000 Christians died in the attack on the city. Credit Adam Dean for The New York Times One of the earliest Japanese cities to have contact with traders from the West, including Portuguese and Dutch explorers, Nagasaki is also the oldest and densest stronghold of Roman Catholicism in Japan. When American pilots dropped the bomb, the devastation swept across Urakami Cathedral, then the largest cathedral in East Asia. About 8,000 Catholics in the area were killed. For the Nagasaki Christians, long ostracized in Japan over their faith, it was a bitter truth that their community was destroyed by a predominantly Christian nation, in a mission blessed by a Roman Catholic chaplain. Nagasaki’s Catholic heritage, combined with Hiroshima’s vocal role as a center of antinuclear activities, helped give rise to the Japanese saying “Ikari no Hiroshima, inori no Nagasaki,” or “Hiroshima rages, Nagasaki prays.” At a 6 a.m. Mass on Monday morning, about 100 parishioners sat in long wooden pews in the cathedral, rebuilt not far from its original site. The Rev. Ritsuo Hisashi, the head priest, said he was less concerned about whether Nagasaki was commemorated as a global symbol than about the call for the elimination of nuclear weapons. Nagasaki’s archdiocese, along with 15 others in Japan, also opposes efforts by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to overhaul the country’s pacifist Constitution, imposed by the United States after the war. Image An early morning Mass at the rebuilt Urakami Cathedral in Nagasaki on Monday. The Japanese saying “Ikari no Hiroshima, inori no Nagasaki,” which translates as “Hiroshima rages, Nagasaki prays,” reflects the cities’ different reputations. Credit Adam Dean for The New York Times Nagasaki’s leaders have also been forthright in their reckonings with Japan’s wartime actions before the United States dropped the bombs. In 1990, Hitoshi Motoshima , then Nagasaki’s mayor, was shot and wounded by a right-wing nationalist after he suggested that Emperor Hirohito bore some responsibility for World War II. Around the same time, a city assemblyman, Masaharu Oka, founded a museum to commemorate the Korean laborers who were conscripted to work in wartime factories in Nagasaki and who were either killed or wounded by the atomic bomb. Housed in a former Chinese restaurant up a steep hill, the museum has a decidedly handmade feel. In addition to photographs of Korean survivors and a replica of the cramped quarters where Korean laborers lived, the museum displays a gallery of graphic photos from the Rape of Nanjing in China and of Unit 731 , the biological and chemical warfare research facility where Japanese scientists experimented on humans in China. Toshiaki Shibata, the former secretary general of the Masaharu Oka museum and the son of two bomb survivors, said he was glad Mr. Obama would not visit Nagasaki. Mr. Shibata, 65, whose dyed lavender hair gives him an impish air, contends that Mr. Obama’s visit is aimed at bolstering Mr. Abe’s efforts to change the Constitution and draw Japan into war. “It would be better if he doesn’t come here,” Mr. Shibata said. Yoshitoshi Fukahori, 87, a bomb survivor, said he did not quite understand the fuss about the president’s visit. While he welcomes it, and hopes Mr. Obama will speak of a nuclear-free world, he said he was not expecting much. A visit to Nagasaki, he said, is not necessary. “After long experience, I see people get their hopes up, and then are disappointed,” he said. “So I don’t want to put too much stock in words.”

Nagasaki
Hiroshima
Nuclear weapon
Barack Obama
Japan
World War II


Ethel Person, Who Studied Sexual Fantasies, Dies at 77

Abstract: Ethel Person, a Columbia University psychiatrist who did pioneering research on sexuality, visiting sex shops and drag dance clubs to help herself understand what motivates transsexuals and transvestites, and conducting broad-based clinical studies on the role of sexual fantasy in people’s lives, died on Tuesday at her home in Manhattan. She was 77. The cause was complications of Alzheimer’s disease, her son Lloyd Sherman said. Dr. Person wrote frequently on love and sexuality for general-interest publications and was the author of four books, the best known of which is “By Force of Fantasy: How We Make Our Lives” (1995), in which she argued that people shaped their lives by trying consciously or unconsciously to live out their fantasies. Eric Marcus, a former student of Dr. Person’s and now the director of the Columbia University Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research , which Dr. Person led from 1981 to 1991, said she was the first to do an “epidemiological study of sexual fantasy,” in contrast to the scientist Alfred C. Kinsey’s studies of sexual acts. “She was one of the early ones to say even human sexuality is not a biological occurrence,” Dr. Marcus said in an interview. “Freud wrote that we are born with drives, but she said, ‘Yes, but they are malleable over time.’ ” A few years after joining the staff of the psychoanalytic center, Dr. Person teamed with Dr. Lionel Ovesey, who would become a well-known authority on male homosexuality, to examine the largely unstudied question of how transsexuality and transvestitism develop. She ventured far beyond the clinical setting to pornography shops and underground clubs. “I remember the first time a guy dressed as a woman asked me to dance,” she recalled in a 2003 interview with The New York Times. “I felt his breasts poking me through his dress. That was a moment of truth for me. I wasn’t put off or frightened. That’s not ever something you know ahead of time — you can only find out when you do it.” Her work, upsetting the conventional thinking, found that many transsexuals and transvestites did not perceive themselves as homosexuals but rather saw themselves in many different lights — sometimes, for example, as a woman trapped in a man’s body, and sometimes as a heterosexual who preferred a feminine demeanor. Her theories have come to be widely accepted, said Kenneth J. Zucker, who leads the child and adolescent gender identity clinic at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto. “Her work suggested there were subtypes or different pathways,” he said, “and that has absolutely been confirmed by other researchers.” Dr. Person translated her academic work on sexuality into formats accessible to the general reader. In an article in 1988 in The Atlantic Monthly, she examined love triangles; in an interview in Oprah Winfrey’s magazine, O, in 2004, she discussed what it takes to love. She was an early advocate of teaching women about how their sexual needs can be separate from those of their partners. Ethel Jane Spector was born in Louisville, Ky., on Dec. 16, 1934, to Louis Spector and the former Anna Zimmerman. Her home life provided some grounding for her future work: her father owned a speakeasy, where she spent many hours watching uninhibited, alcohol-fueled, sexually charged behavior; her mother, unusually for her time, was a mathematician with a master’s degree; and her maternal grandfather owned a bookstore, which was a gathering place for the local intellectuals. Her father died when she was 12. After high school, she attended the University of Chicago, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in 1956. She received her medical degree in 1960 from the New York University College of Medicine. Dr. Person’s first marriage, to Allen Person, an engineer, ended in divorce after 10 years. In 1968 she married Barry Sherman, a psychiatrist, with whom she had two sons. He died in 1976. Two years later she married Stanley Diamond, a lawyer, who died in 2009. Dr. Person long held that no relationship was a failure if you learned something about yourself from it. In that spirit she kept every husband’s name, her son Lloyd said. At her death she was officially Ethel Jane Spector Person Sherman Diamond, although she continued to use Person professionally. In addition to Lloyd Sherman, she is survived by another son, Louis Sherman; two stepdaughters from her third marriage, Nancy and Jessica Diamond; a grandchild; and three step-grandchildren.

Person Ethel
Psychiatry and Psychiatrists
Transgender and Transsexual
Deaths (Obituaries)


Mamdouha Bobst, Philanthropist and Public Health Advocate, Dies at 90

Abstract: Mamdouha Bobst, a philanthropist and public health advocate whose donations benefited universities, hospitals and clinics for animals, died on Sept. 10 in Manhattan. She was 90. Her death was confirmed by her nephew, Dr. Mazen Kamen. A Lebanese delegate to the United Nations in the early 1960s, she married the pharmaceutical executive Elmer Holmes Bobst and became a benefactor of New York University, NYU Langone Medical Center, Princeton University, the Animal Medical Center, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, the American Cancer Society, the American University of Beirut and its medical center, and the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, among other institutions and organizations. Mamdouha El-Sayed was born in Tripoli, Lebanon, on July 8, 1925. She graduated in 1947 from the American University of Beirut, where she majored in Arabic; studied at the University of Birmingham in England; and earned a master’s degree in public heath from the University of California, Berkeley. Image Mrs. Bobst in an undated photo. Mrs. Bobst worked for the World Health Organization as an adviser to the Libyan government and for Unicef, and served for three years as Lebanon’s United Nations delegate when women at that rank in the world organization were a rarity. She met Mr. Bobst through a mutual friend, the philanthropist Mary Woodward Lasker ; they married in 1961. The couple established the Bobst Foundation in 1968. In 1973, they donated $11 million toward the completion of N.Y.U.’s new library on Washington Square, which bears Elmer Bobst’s name. When he died in 1978, she became president of the foundation, continuing his commitment to cancer research and other causes and donating $10 million to create the Mamdouha S. Bobst Center for Peace and Justice at Princeton University. She is survived by a brother and three sisters in Lebanon. Mrs. Bobst never had a pet as a child, but fell in love with Tricia Nixon’s dog during a Thanksgiving visit with the Nixons in the 1960s. Richard M. Nixon, a friend of Mr. Bobst, gave Mrs. Bobst a white Yorkshire terrier that Christmas. In 1993, she donated $5 million to start a fund-raising campaign for the nonprofit Animal Medical Center in Manhattan. “I have been happy to give other grants,” she said. “But this is special because it is helping creatures who cannot say, ‘I am sick.’ ”


String of Attacks in Europe Fuels a Summer of Anxiety

Abstract: LONDON — Nearly every day seems to bring a new horror to the streets of Western Europe, leaving innocent men, women and children dead or broken, fueling political and social tensions and creating what some are already calling the summer of anxiety. Death and injury have been dealt out by truck , ax , handgun , kebab knife and bomb . The victims have included families out for a night of fireworks on the glittering French Riviera, teenagers hanging out at a McDonald’s, tourists on a train and pop music fans at a Sunday night concert. Three of five attackers in less than two weeks professed loyalty to the Islamic State, but none appear to have been directed by the radical group, and all of the assaults seemed to blur the line between ideological terrorism and violence driven by anger, grudge or mental instability. That very murkiness — the absence of a centrally organized plot or a singular villain to blame — has made it all the more difficult for France , Germany and the rest of Europe to know how to respond. Image Police officers in Munich after an 18-year-old gunman killed nine people on Friday. Credit Joerg Koch/Getty Images The lack of straightforward answers has made things trickier at a time of political flux in Europe. Even before the latest string of attacks, the Continent was seeing a rise in nationalist and anti-immigrant sentiment, and far-right parties were using the atmosphere to try to gain new legitimacy and power. Populist, anti-immigration sentiment was a powerful factor in Britain’s vote last month to leave the European Union. The recent surge in high-profile violence has only given further opportunities to those who advocate taking a tougher line on immigration by Muslims, in many ways echoing the platform being promoted by Donald J. Trump in his presidential campaign in the United States. Over the weekend, Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary spoke highly of Mr. Trump , saying the Republican nominee’s proposals for fighting terrorism were just what Europe needs. In France, which displayed remarkable unity after two terrorist attacks in 2015, there has been growing political infighting and finger-pointing since the July 14 attack in Nice that killed 84 people. In Germany, the latest attacks have further strained ties between Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative party and its ally in the southern state of Bavaria, where there has long been simmering opposition to her decision last year to admit one million asylum seekers. Concern about the security and social ramifications of a new surge in migrants coming to Europe from Syria, Afghanistan and other poor and war-torn countries has left the European Union with reduced leverage in dealing with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey as he cracks down on opponents in the wake of a failed coup this month. Mr. Erdogan had agreed to a deal with the European Union to hold back the tide of asylum seekers, a deal that Europe is deeply reluctant to endanger, especially with new security concerns attached to the migrants. The same sorts of attacks have occurred elsewhere, including last month in Florida . But the concentration of attacks over less than two weeks in Europe has given the issue particular resonance on the Continent. Image In Germany, the latest attacks have further strained ties between Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative party and its ally in the southern state of Bavaria. Credit Tobias Schwarz/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images Finding answers is in part a familiar security and intelligence challenge. But it is also in some cases a problem of immigration, assimilation and tolerance. And it is a reminder of the lure of the burst of fame, or infamy, available to troubled, violence-prone people in an age of social media and instant global communication. “If you turn every individual into a self-contained agent, some will take unpleasant initiatives and act out their fantasies in real time, but they still feel the need for an anchoring identity,” said François Heisbourg, chairman of the International Institute for Strategic Studies. For some, he said, that is jihad. “It can happen in Orlando and Nice,” he said, “and without a lot of prior consultation or structure or networking.” Ali Sonboly , the 18-year-old who killed nine people in Munich on Friday, may have been Iranian-German, but he took his inspiration in part from Anders Behring Breivik’s massacre five years ago in Oslo, Norway, which was driven by the hatred of a white supremacist. Mr. Sonboly “wanted to make his mark as an individual” by hacking into Facebook to entice people to McDonald’s, “the intertwining of complete barbarity and utter modernism,” Mr. Heisbourg said. Mr. Sonboly was acting not as a state or an organization but as an individual, and individual actors are extremely hard for security services to stop. Yet their individual acts, captured on smartphones and sent around the world, can resonate louder than any gunshot or explosion. Image Michael Flynn, a retired Army lieutenant general, spoke at the Republican National Convention last week in front of images of the aftermath of the terrorist attack in Nice, France. “Our way of life is in jeopardy,” he said. Credit Damon Winter/The New York Times The attack in Nice, France, was carried out by a Tunisian-born man with a rented truck. It has set off a new battle over blame and added another volatile element to the early stages of a presidential campaign where the governing Socialists, led by President François Hollande, are falling further behind the right and far-right. The fierce and open debates over security and accountability are a sharp contrast to the reaction in France to last year’s attacks , when there was an effort to create a sense of political and national solidarity in the face of terrorism. There is vivid anger at what appears to be the inability of the government to keep people safe. The local government in Nice, which leans right, issued a blunt broadside against the Socialist government and specifically the interior minister, Bernard Cazeneuve, for failing to have adequate security in place on Bastille Day. Mr. Cazeneuve was also accused of pressuring the local government to massage the numbers to make it appear that there were more safety provisions in place. Mr. Cazeneuve called the allegations part of a “vile” and “calumnious” campaign to defame him and his ministry, but his job may be on the line. In Germany, three of the four recent attacks have been carried out by recent immigrants, two of them Syrian, and all of them Muslims. Three of the four were in Bavaria, which was the first reception center for more than a million migrants last year seeking asylum, and where the governing Christian Socialists have been an early and persistent opponent to Ms. Merkel’s open-door policy, despite their close alignment to her Christian Democrats. Europe’s Rising Far Right: A Guide to the Most Prominent Parties Amid a migrant crisis and discontent with the European Union, many far-right parties have achieved electoral success. Here are eight of the most noteworthy. With elections next year, Ms. Merkel remains largely popular. But the attacks by migrants — however disturbed or unbalanced the attackers may have been — added to the continuing ramifications of the sexual assault allegations against migrants on New Year’s Eve in Cologne, have raised the risk of increased anti-Muslim prejudice and increased doubts about the efficiency of the police and security services. The German far-right party, Alternative for Germany, has been divided, but this spate of attacks could help the party, which under a new leader, Frauke Petry, has shifted to emphasize issues like opposition to Islam and immigration. With seats in eight state parliaments, the party is expected to gain seats in the Bundestag, or national parliament, next year. The national political reactions are playing out against a backdrop of global change in which terrorism is only one element. “The world has been changing and we see that manifested in many ways, with new power centers, the power of the individual and the corporation, the disenfranchised finding a new voice and a sense that the governing infrastructure is no longer fit for purpose in today’s world,” said Xenia Wickett of Chatham House, a London foreign-policy research institution. Institutions, she said, are struggling to deal with new challenges from Islam, inequality, terrorism and globalization. “We’re trying to manage that change and people don’t like change,” she said. “That’s the new normal, and it makes us very anxious until we can find a new one.”

Immigration
Terrorism
Refugees,Internally Displaced People
Nice Attack
EU
Europe


After Long Careers, Hill and Kidd Are on Different Paths This Season

Abstract: Grant Hill celebrated his 41st birthday last month, and on that day he was on the Duke campus, appearing at an event to mark the 50th anniversary of black students attending the university. As it turned out, the Nets were holding training camp on campus that week, so Hill stopped by practice with plans to tape a segment for his new gig. Hill has begun work this fall as an analyst for Turner Sports and NBA TV. “Honestly, I had not missed playing,” said Hill, who retired this year after an 18-year playing career. “I had not even thought about it.” But he stood inside the gym and saw Jason Kidd, with whom he shared the 1995 rookie of the year award, coaching from the sideline. He watched Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett, with whom he battled so many years as a player, run the floor. The old feelings came back. “It was the first time I was like, ‘Man, I miss this,’ ” he said, laughing. “I wanted to be out there with them.” Besides the occasional nostalgia, Hill has embraced his new role. He joked that he “prolonged his adolescence a little too long” while playing as many seasons as he did. As a broadcaster, he said he was enjoying learning a new craft and adopting a new routine. He kidded that his new co-workers, like Steve Smith and Chris Webber, were hazing him, making him buy coffee and doughnuts and carry a pink backpack. “I’m a rookie again,” he said. As he moved toward retirement, Hill heard from a few teams about possible assistant coaching positions. Front-office jobs were discussed, too. But he felt that he needed to step away from the game, to let his mind and body decompress, so he never considered those routes. This summer, then, represented the moment that he and Kidd diverged on their parallel professional paths. Almost two decades after sharing the rookie award, the two announced their separate retirements within days of each other. “We were forever joined at the hip,” Hill said. While Hill could not imagine coaching so quickly after retiring, he said he thought Kidd would thrive. “I was a little shocked it happened so fast, but I think he’s ready,” he said about Kidd. “He brings credibility. He’s not far removed from the game. To be able to connect, to motivate, to inspire today’s modern athlete, he knows what it takes.” Kidd does not represent Hill’s only link to the Nets. Hill and Billy King, the Nets’ general manager, grew up in neighboring towns in Virginia. King, now 47, played at Park View High School in Sterling, Va. Hill starred at nearby South Lakes High School. “I was like 10 years old, and Billy was the man in town,” Hill said, laughing. Hill made his first official visit to Duke when he was a high school junior, and King and Tommy Amaker, who now coaches Harvard, showed him around the campus. Discussing the trade King orchestrated to bring Pierce and Garnett to the Nets, Hill said: “He pulled this rabbit out of his hat. He’s been creative. He’s made bold moves. And I think he’s assembled an amazing team. It’ll be fun to watch.” Hill said he believed the Nets and the Indiana Pacers were the two teams from the Eastern Conference best equipped to dethrone the Miami Heat. Traits like physicality, size and length, he said, could trouble the Heat, whose interior game could be a weakness. But, Hill added, “it seems like, as the wind blows, my predictions change.” Hill’s first major assignment will be hosting “NBA Inside Stuff,” which has been off the air since 2005 after a 15-year run. The show returns Saturday on NBA TV, and Hill’s first interview subject will be Garnett, a player he never knew well during his playing career but respected from afar. “We’ve had some battles,” Hill said about Garnett. “We’ve had exchanges that probably can’t be repeated.” Hill said that Garnett would be better this year than last — the Nets’ depth should allow him to rest when necessary — and that his intensity and team-first stance could put the Nets over the top. “He plays every moment like it’s all or nothing,” Hill said. “Every guy who’s played with him thinks the world of him.”


Upset of No. 9 Utah Bolsters Oregon’s N.C.A.A. Prospects

Abstract: Dillon Brooks scored 11 straight points for Oregon late in the second half and finished with 19 on Sunday to help the host Ducks knock off No. 9 Utah, 69-58. Joseph Young added 14 points and Elgin Cook had 12 for Oregon (20-8, 10-5 Pacific-12 Conference). The Ducks improved their N.C.A.A. tournament chances with their first victory over a top-10 team since they beat then-No. 3 Arizona last year in the regular-season finale. Delon Wright scored 20 points for the Utes (21-5, 11-3). Utah dropped a game behind Arizona in the conference race, with a showdown against the No. 7 Wildcats set for next Saturday in Salt Lake City. Brooks, a freshman, scored 7 consecutive points to put the Ducks up by 10 with 4 minutes 58 seconds to play. After Utah went on a 5-0 run to pull within 3, Brooks added 4 more points — the final 2 on a driving dunk — to give the Ducks a 59-52 lead. Oregon sealed it by hitting 7 of 8 free throws in the final 1:09. The Ducks were 15 of 18 over all from the foul line. VIRGINIA 51, FLORIDA ST. 41 Anthony Gill scored 13 points, Darion Atkins had 11, and No. 2 Virginia (25-1, 13-1 Atlantic Coast Conference) defeated visiting Florida State (15-13, 7-8). WICHITA ST. 62, EVANSVILLE 43 Fred VanVleet scored 18 of his 22 points in the first half to lead No. 13 Wichita State (25-3, 15-1 Missouri Valley Conference) past visiting Evansville (19-9, 9-7). MICHIGAN 64, OHIO ST. 57 Spike Albrecht scored 16 points to help host Michigan (14-13, 7-8 Big Ten) upset No. 24 Ohio State (19-8, 8-6). Women NORTH CAROLINA ST. 72, DUKE 59 Miah Spencer scored 23 points, and host North Carolina State (16-11, 7-7 A.C.C.) upset No. 10 Duke (19-8, 10-4). Elizabeth Williams scored 19 points for the Blue Devils. OREGON STATE 52, UTAH 42 Ruth Hamblin scored 14 points and Jaime Wesiner added 13 to help No. 7 Oregon State (25-2, 15-1 Pac-12) shake off a sluggish offensive performance to top host Utah (9-18, 3-13). FLORIDA ST. 86, BOSTON COLL. 68 Leticia Romero scored 19 points and had 11 rebounds and 11 assists to lead No. 9 Florida State (25-3, 12-2 A.C.C.) over host Boston College (12-15, 4-10). ARIZONA ST. 76, U.S.C. 73 Promise Amukamara scored 20 points and Sophie Brunner added 14 as No. 12 Arizona State (24-4, 13-3 Pac-12) survived host Southern California (15-12, 7-9) in double overtime. MISSISSIPPI ST. 57, ALABAMA 55 Dominique Dillingham came up with a key block with six seconds left to help No. 14 Mississippi State (25-4, 10-4 Southeastern Conference) escape host Alabama (13-16, 2-12). TEXAS A&M 66, FLORIDA 46 Courtney Williams led a balanced attack with 11 points, 8 rebounds and 5 assists, as No. 15 Texas A&M (22-6, 10-4 SEC) beat visiting Florida (12-15, 4-10). NORTH CAROLINA 66, MIAMI 65 Stephanie Mavunga scored 14 points and grabbed 14 rebounds, and No. 17 North Carolina (22-6, 9-5 A.C.C.) held on to edge host Miami (18-9, 8-6). CALIF. 63, STANFORD 53 Mercedes Jefflo scored a key basket with 1:59 left, and visiting California (20-7, 12-4 Pac-12) beat No. 18 Stanford (20-8, 12-4). MICHIGAN ST. 60, RUTGERS 50 Aerial Powers scored 18 points and matched a career high with 18 rebounds for her 20th double-double of the season, and host Michigan State (13-14, 5-11 Big Ten) upset No. 19 Rutgers (20-7, 11-5). HOFSTRA 63, JAMES MADISON 62 Ashunae Durant scored 12 points, including two free throws with nine seconds left, and visiting Hofstra (18-9, 11-5 Colonial Athletic Association) held on to upset No. 23 James Madison (23-3, 14-1). SYRACUSE 68, PITTSBURGH 54 Brianna Butler sank five 3-pointers and finished with 19 points as No. 25 Syracuse (20-8, 10-5 A.C.C.) ran away from visiting Pittsburgh (18-9, 8-6).

College basketball
University of Utah
University of Oregon


Manager Jim Tracy Resigns From Rockies

Abstract: DENVER (AP) — Colorado Rockies Manager Jim Tracy resigned on Sunday, stepping down after the team set a franchise record for losses. The Rockies said a search for Tracy’s replacement would begin immediately but that they had no time frame for making a hire. Colorado finished last in the National League West this year while going 64-98. Tracy was promoted to manager from bench coach in May 2009. He was voted the N.L. manager of the year that season after guiding Colorado into the playoffs. The Rockies went 294-308 under Tracy. “I was surprised,” Bill Geivett, the team’s director of major league operations, said. Energized by the young players and the challenge of fixing things, Tracy, 56, had said repeatedly the last several weeks that he wanted to fulfill the final year on his contract in 2013. But he changed his mind after meeting with Geivett for several hours Friday and then mulling those discussions over the weekend.

Tracy Jim
Colorado Rockies
Coaches and Managers
Baseball


Protesters Take Drive to Oust Government Beyond Bangkok

Abstract: BANGKOK — Protesters seeking to overthrow the Thai government expanded their campaign outside of Bangkok on Wednesday, massing at more than a dozen municipal buildings across Thailand and forcing the evacuation of the country’s main criminal investigative agency on the outskirts of the capital. After shutting down the Finance Ministry building on Monday, demonstrators marched to a large government complex and cut the electricity supply to the Department of Special Investigation, the equivalent of the F.B.I., on Wednesday. “These people are trying to portray the country as a failed state,” said Charupong Ruangsuwan, the interior minister and head of the governing party in Thailand. Mr. Charupong said protests flared in a third of the country’s 76 provinces, including all provinces in southern Thailand, an opposition stronghold. The demonstrators say they are angry at the influence of Thaksin Shinawatra, the polarizing former prime minister ousted in a 2006 coup. Although he has lived abroad since fleeing a conviction for abuse of power in 2008, Mr. Thaksin retains a loyal following, and his party has won every national election since 2001. Mr. Thaksin’s youngest sister, Yingluck Shinawatra, is prime minister. On Thursday, Ms. Yingluck easily survived a no-confidence vote in Parliament, though that was unlikely to stem the unrest. Supporters of the protests say the raiding of ministries is an attempt by an exasperated electorate to bring about a cleaner and more ethical system of government. But a rising number of critics, including many in the Thai news media, describe the protests as a blatant power grab by a minority unable to win elections. “Accept it, what’s going on has nothing to do with reform,” Prayong Doklumyai, a longtime advocate for the poor, was quoted as saying in an opinion column in The Bangkok Post on Wednesday. “It’s a battle for political power, plain and simple.” The government’s response to the demonstrations has been seen as weak, and even the military appears to have retreated. The country’s top generals decamped this week from their headquarters to the safety of a well-guarded army base on the outskirts of Bangkok. A senior official in charge of security portrayed the government’s response as a calculated effort to allow the protests to die away. The official, Lt. Gen. Paradorn Pattanathabutr, secretary general of the National Security Council, said Wednesday that the number of protesters was decreasing and that the government was counting on “dialogue,” not the use of force, to end the protests. Image Suthep Thaugsuban, the main leader of the protests, during a protest on Wednesday. Credit Damir Sagolj/Reuters “People are learning lessons and becoming more civilized,” he told reporters. “I believe that the people can exercise discretion and will understand the damages that could be inflicted on Thailand.” A Bangkok court issued a warrant on Tuesday for the arrest of Suthep Thaugsuban, a former deputy prime minister and the main leader of the protests, on charges of invading government property and breaching the peace. General Paradorn said he hoped Mr. Suthep would surrender “like a gentleman.” On Wednesday, the government asked a court to issue warrants for six other protest leaders. As the 86th birthday of King Bhumibol Adulyadej approaches, some analysts say the government is making a risky calculation that the protesters will disperse in the coming days. Mr. Suthep initially portrayed the protests as short-lived, but has not said when the protesters might go home. The king’s birthday is Dec. 5, and political unrest on that day would be broadly perceived as disrespectful. At least two dozen schools have remained closed, but most areas of Bangkok were calm and banks and businesses were functioning normally. About two dozen foreign governments have issued warnings to their citizens, advising them to avoid protest areas. Mr. Suthep has pointedly said fresh elections are not his goal — he and the opposition Democrat Party would very likely lose a general election. Instead he has called for a “people’s council,” a seemingly utopian plan that would effectively suspend the country’s democratic system and select “good people” to lead the country. He has not offered specifics on how the council would be selected, beyond saying it would represent people from “all professions.” Another protest leader, Thaworn Senniam, said on Thai television on Wednesday that Thais should “not focus too much on elections.” “I don’t think elections fully represent democracy, and it would be an excuse to have a slave Parliament controlled by one individual,” he said, in an apparent reference to Mr. Thaksin. In a country known for its upbeat people, many Thais are exuding gloom as the protests wear on. Pravit Rojanaphruk, one of the country’s leading commentators, said that hopes for reconciliation in such a polarized country appeared bleak and that the risk of unrest was a real concern. “Given the country’s long track record of political violence and military coups, the current prospect is not good,” he wrote in the newspaper The Nation on Wednesday. Mr. Pravit lamented what he said was an “obvious incentive for leaders from both sides to keep their supporters whipped up and hating one another” — ensuring that members of rival camps “won’t switch sides.”


India Changes Cabinet, Prepares for Early Elections

Abstract: NEW DELHI — India ’s governing coalition announced a reshuffled cabinet Sunday in yet another effort to shake off nearly a year of paralysis and prepare for elections that may come sooner than their scheduled date in 2014. The appointments also suggested that the governing United Progressive Alliance will continue to confront charges of corruption and nepotism that have embroiled some of its most prominent members in controversy. The government’s new foreign minister, for example, is Salman Khurshid, who has been accused along with his wife of diverting funds from a charity for disabled persons. Mr. Khurshid has angrily denied the charges. Wealthy and urbane, Mr. Khurshid is a Muslim, which could prove helpful in India’s efforts to improve relations with neighboring Pakistan. Until recently, Mr. Khurshid was the government’s law minister. Perhaps the most surprising part of Sunday’s announcement was that Rahul Gandhi , the son of the current Congress Party leader Sonia Gandhi and the heir apparent in the family that played a crucial role in India politics since independence, was not among those named to new positions. The younger Mr. Gandhi’s ascent into a leadership position in the government has long been expected. A TV news channel quoted Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Sunday as explaining, “I always wanted Rahul to be in the cabinet, but he wants to strengthen the party. This is hopefully the last cabinet reshuffle.” The new appointments of seven cabinet positions and 15 ministers of state follow recent efforts by the government to open India’s retail, insurance and airline industries to more foreign investment and competition. The government also announced measures to reduce popular subsidies for gasoline, diesel and cooking gas. These economic measures led to a storm of indignation from political opponents and caused a minority partner to leave the government and call for early elections. But they were greeted warmly by business leaders and investors and won praise from the United States Treasury secretary, Timothy F. Geithner, during a recent visit. India’s once-blistering economic growth has slowed, and the steady drumbeat of corruption charges has taken a toll on the government’s credibility, which is one reason, among others, why early elections are considered possible. The new measures and appointments are intended to help the government regain its credentials as a modernizing force, political analysts said.

Corruption (Institutional)
Elections
Gandhi Rahul
India
Indian National Congress
Gandhi Sonia


With Field Guide, a Cloud Enthusiast Is Out to Win Hearts and Minds

Abstract: Gavin Pretor-Pinney confronts his new book’s major problem right up front. “You might well think,” he writes, “that cloud collecting sounds like a ridiculous idea.” True, he acknowledges, clouds are ephemeral, “magicked into being” by the atmosphere and constantly changing. And, of course, they cannot actually be gathered up and stored away. But as Mr. Pretor-Pinney sees it, you don’t have to possess something to collect it: “You just have to notice it and record it.” Hence “The Cloud Collector’s Handbook,” published by Chronicle Books, a serious yet charming field guide to clouds. The book teaches readers how to identify clouds they have seen and gives them a place to record the sightings, just the way birders create life lists of the birds they have spotted. It even has a scoring system, in which cloudspotters receive 10 points for ordinary clouds like nimbostratus, the more or less featureless rain clouds people typically have in mind when they say clouds are depressing; 40 points for a cumulonimbus storm cloud, the anvil-shaped “king of clouds”; and more points for more exotic formations. His goal, Mr. Pretor-Pinney said in an interview, is to help readers escape the tyranny of “blue sky thinking” and to understand and appreciate the beauty of a cloudy day. The book contains photographs of dozens of cloud types, with information on how they form and how they differ from their close relatives; a guide to rainbows and other optical effects of clouds; and a glossary of technical terms. A chart shows how meteorologists classify clouds by genus, species and variety, the way biologists classify flora and fauna. Mr. Pretor-Pinney, founder of the Cloud Appreciation Society (motto: “Look Up and Wonder”), campaigns against the idea that sunny days are best. Still, though the society has more than 25,000 members in 87 countries and counting, encouraging cloud appreciation is uphill work. “It’s written into our language,” he said. “ ‘A cloud hanging over you,’ ‘a cloud on the horizon.’ ” Although small groups of members occasionally get together in Britain, the society’s real life is on its Web site, where people can view reproductions of famous cloud art, read cloud-related poetry, post their own cloud photographs and post comments as long as they are cloud-related. “Otherwise,” the site says, “we are not interested.” The site also sells cloud-related postcards, jewelry, T-shirts and the CD “Rain, Glorious Rain,” which is just what you think it is. As the society says, “we love clouds, we’re not ashamed to say it, and we’ve had enough of people moaning about it.” In a way, Mr. Pretor-Pinney said, cloudspotting resembles trainspotting, the British pastime of hanging out in stations or along railway lines and noting the numbers of passing train cars and locomotives. He said he sometimes wished cloudspotters kept better trainspotter-quality track of the points they accumulate, if only because the effort would encourage them to pay more attention to what is going on overhead. Mr. Pretor-Pinney, 42, went to Oxford, where, as he tells it, he gradually moved through physics, philosophy and psychology only to end up going to graduate school in London and getting a degree in graphic design. In 1993, he co-founded The Idler , an annual publication that celebrates the beauty of doing nothing. “It’s unpaid work,” said Mr. Pretor-Pinney, who lives in Somerset, England, with his wife and their two daughters, ages 5 and 2. “You cannot have too many things like that.” Mr. Pretor-Pinney is about to become a visiting fellow in meteorology at the University of Reading — which is, apparently, prepared to overlook his complete lack of training in his subject, something he sees as an advantage. “You just need to look and observe,” he said. “Sometimes getting too trained up in something narrows your vision.” “The Cloud Collector’s Handbook” is not the only guide to the clouds. The World Meteorological Organization , an arm of the United Nations, publishes an atlas of clouds , and Mr. Pretor-Pinney himself produced “The Cloudspotter’s Guide,” a surprise best-seller when it came out in Britain in 2007. (He is also the author of “The Wavewatcher’s Companion , ” which appeared last year.) But the 2007 book was text-heavy and had few color photographs, he said, and the cloud atlas is aimed at scientists. He said he wanted to reach the general public with his new book, which is full-color and lightweight. Mr. Pretor-Pinney resists the idea that cloudspotting is merely funny, or even merely fun. Instead, he said, it’s a way of training yourself to be aware of the natural world, “of being receptive when something is happening in the sky and noticing it.” Clouds are an important and necessary part of our environment, he notes, and anyway an endless succession of cloudless days would be boring. So Mr. Pretor-Pinney has little patience for people who dream of sunnier climes when clouds fill the sky. “Happiness does not come from wanting to be somewhere else,” he said. “Happiness comes from finding beauty and a stimulation or interest in the everyday surroundings in which you find yourself.”

Pretor-Pinney Gavin
Books and Literature
Weather
Science and Technology
Cloud Collectors Handbook The (Book)


McCutchen Leaves Again as Pirates Top Cardinals

Abstract: Pinch-hitter Ike Davis blasted a tiebreaking, three-run homer off Seth Maness in the eighth inning Tuesday night, lifting the Pittsburgh Pirates over the visiting St. Louis Cardinals, 5-2. The Pirates won after Andrew McCutchen left in the fifth inning because of discomfort in his left ribs. Recently on the disabled list because of a rib problem, McCutchen ran into the wall earlier in the game. Davis sent a 2-2 pitch from Maness deep over the fence in right-center for his ninth home run of the season and his third as a pinch-hitter. ORIOLES 4, RAYS 2 Jonathan Schoop singled in the go-ahead run in the sixth inning and Caleb Joseph had two runs batted in as host Baltimore beat fading Tampa Bay. The Rays have lost seven of 10 since reaching the .500 mark on Aug. 15. PHILLIES 3, NATIONALS 2 Freddy Galvis and Darin Ruf homered and Carlos Ruiz drove in the go-ahead run with an eighth-inning sacrifice fly to lead host Philadelphia to a victory over Washington. RED SOX 11, BLUE JAYS 7 Mike Napoli and Allen Craig both homered in a seven-run 11th inning, Dustin Pedroia homered and had four R.B.I., and visiting Boston beat Toronto. Boston got its second straight victory after an eight-game losing streak. ASTROS 4, ATHLETICS 2 Chris Carter hit his 32nd homer, a three-run drive in the eighth that lifted Houston over visiting Oakland. Oakland starter Jason Hammel had retired 10 straight batters when he was replaced by Luke Gregerson. CUBS 3, REDS 0 Travis Wood pitched six innings of two-hit ball against his former team for his first win in two months, leading Chicago past host Cincinnati. The Cubs have won four in a row for the first time since June 30 to July 4. ROYALS 2, TWINS 1 Alex Gordon hit a two-run homer in the ninth inning, giving host Kansas City a win over Minnesota and helping the Royals avoid their first three-game skid since mid-July. INDIANS 8, WHITE SOX 6 Zach Walters hit a two-run home run in the 10th inning, lifting visiting Cleveland to victory over sliding Chicago. Pinch-hitter Lonnie Chisenhall doubled to lead off the 10th against Jake Petricka, and Walters hit a 3-2 pitch well into the right-field bleachers.

Baseball
MLB
Pittsburgh Pirates
St. Louis Cardinals
Andrew McCutchen
Astros
Chicago Cubs
Kansas City Royals
Phillies
Orioles


For an Immigrant, a New Home Brings Comfort but Also Isolation

Abstract: In 2002, Yefim Zadov, then 68, came to the United States from Ukraine, looking to change a life that had deteriorated into loneliness and poor health. His wife had died six years earlier, and in 1995 he suffered a stroke, which weakened the right side of his body. Despite his age and his condition, Mr. Zadov, a mechanical engineer by training, said he had tried to find a job in New York. “I brought all my documents and diplomas from Ukraine,” he said in Russian. “I wanted to work as an electrician.” But he said that at his age, without the required licenses and better English, no one wanted to hire him. For years, Mr. Zadov, now 79, lived alone in an apartment in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn. It was plagued by cockroaches, mice and mold, he said, but he felt the support of the many friends he got to know in the neighborhood, who had also immigrated from Ukraine. His health troubles, however, continued. In 2012, he underwent surgery for a blood clot in his left leg, and soon after he had another stroke, he said. Walking is a task. His building had no elevator, and the steps leading to his mezzanine apartment became impossible to climb. In 2013, after five years on a waiting list, he was approved for an apartment in a new affordable-housing complex for the elderly owned by the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty, a beneficiary agency of UJA-Federation of New York, one of seven organizations supported by The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund. The new apartment, on East 46th Street in Midtown Manhattan, “feels like home,” he said, because it resembles one he had back in Dnipropetrovsk, in Ukraine. He outfitted his new place with furniture from his Brooklyn apartment, most of which he had found on the street or gotten from friends. He decorated the shelves with pictures of his granddaughter and of Raisa Shumerina, who was his wife. Born in Belarus and raised in Ukraine, Mr. Zadov was 7 when his family fled German forces as they approached Dnipropetrovsk during World War II. The family eventually traveled to Kyrgyzstan, where they settled in a small city, Kara-Balta, he said. They returned to Dnipropetrovsk in 1943, after the town was liberated. In 1955, Mr. Zadov met Ms. Shumerina at a polytechnic institute in Baku, Azerbaijan, where they both were studying engineering. He saw her for the first time at a disco, he said. They both enjoyed the theater, dancing, classical music and long walks. “We were soul mates,” he said. They married in 1958. Two years later a daughter was born. Mr. Zadov was a project manager at a metallurgic plant in Dnipropetrovsk, and Ms. Shumerina was an engineer for a company that built homes. She had lost her parents during the war, and was raised in an orphanage, said the daughter, Taya Shumerina, 53, a piano teacher, who lives in Parsippany, N.J. Her health had been fragile since she was a child. She had heart disease, and in the 1980s she became seriously ill with failing kidneys. She died in 1996 at age 57. Mr. Zadov said the heavy industrial emissions in the region of Dnipropetrovsk contributed to her frailty. Their daughter blamed the 1986 nuclear disaster in Chernobyl, about 360 miles away from their home. Mr. Zadov, who still wears his wedding ring, said he never completely recovered from his wife’s death. He lives very simply, relying on $797 from Supplemental Security Income each month and $200 in food stamps. Since 2008, he has had a Section 8 housing voucher, which reduces his portion of the monthly rent to $172. When he moved to Midtown in August, the Metropolitan Council paid $750 for his moving expenses, then $148 in October for his electric bill, using money from the Neediest Cases Fund. Mr. Zadov said his move turned out to have a downside, too. For the first time in his life he is isolated from a Russian-speaking community, and he misses the company of his friends in Brooklyn, whom he is unable to visit. “It’s too far,” he said. “And I’m getting weaker every day.” He walks with the help of a cane and, he said, even when he goes for a short stroll — clinging tightly to a home attendant — he worries that he will cause both of them to fall. His mood lifts every time he talks about his granddaughter, Julia Shumerina, 23, who is majoring in German at Montclair State University in New Jersey. She also plays piano and organ and takes singing lessons. “She is very talented,” he said with pride. Mr. Zadov said he used to read a lot, but his eyes are failing him. He now spends much of his time watching Russian-language films and listening to classical music. He likes Chopin and Schumann, but Beethoven’s piano sonatas are his favorite.

Philanthropy
New York Times Neediest Cases Fund
Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty


In Iowa, the Living Room Has Fallen Out of Favor

Abstract: DUBUQUE, Iowa , Feb. 18 — Iowa, with its first-in-the-nation presidential caucuses, has been celebrated for 30 years for its intimate campaigns where future presidents would perch on living room couches or sit at kitchen tables and take questions from 20 or 30 people late into the night. But it was standing room only on Sunday afternoon at the Grand River Center here, where hundreds of people showed up for a forum with John Edwards, a Democratic candidate for president. When Mr. Edwards asked for questions, dozens of hands shot up. Many were still up when he called an end to the meeting. Mr. Edwards’s experience has been shared by most of the major candidates on recent visits to Iowa, almost a year before the caucuses. It is evidence of what appears to be the demise of the living room campaign, signaling a potentially profound change in the way presidential campaigns are conducted here, and to a lesser extent in New Hampshire. A chapter in American political history that began in 1976 when Jimmy Carter rose from obscurity by working the living rooms and kitchens of Iowa may be drawing to a end. It is, at least for this election cycle, the victim of an era of celebrity candidates tracked by busloads of reporters, and of intense interest in the 2008 race among voters, who are turning out in numbers that would fill many, many living rooms. “Perhaps it’s time to write the obit to the living room,” David Yepsen, the state’s premier political columnist, wrote in The Des Moines Register after Senator Barack Obama drew thousands of people to a gym in Ames. “They are now relics of past campaigns, as ancient as the torchlight parade. Rock-star candidates need room for their fans and the gawkers.” Chuck Larson, a former chairman of the Iowa Republican Party and a senior adviser to the campaign of Senator John McCain, said that when Mr. McCain planned his campaign stops here for this weekend, he did not even try to set up the kind of small gatherings that were once Iowa’s signature political events. “For any candidate of significance, I think those days are in all honesty gone,” Mr. Larson said Sunday. To a certain extent — and with all due respect to veteran chroniclers of the American political system given to nostalgia and perhaps idealized memories of past Iowa journeys — this may not be an entirely bad thing. The events for Mr. Obama, the Democratic senator from Illinois, were bustling with young faces that were not familiar to many Iowa political activists. The crowds turning out for the candidates suggest that this extraordinarily competitive and wide-open campaign, taking place amid a nationwide debate on the war in Iraq and on the heels of the Democrats’ recapturing of Congress, has engaged Americans in a way they have not been engaged in a long time. While the sites may be bigger and less intimate, candidates like Mr. Edwards and Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton are still inviting question after question. Mr. Obama and Mrs. Clinton have also at least tried to have some smaller gatherings, but there is no getting around the fact that living rooms have given way to hotel ballrooms, coliseums and gymnasiums. Some Iowans have noticed the change. They wonder if, or perhaps hope, this is a passing phase. Theresa Grutz, a special education teacher from Dubuque, lamented the change as she took her place at Mr. Edwards’s forum here. “You get to ask questions,” she said of the more intimate gatherings. “You keep asking them and you keep asking them until you get an answer, and not a sound bite.” Mr. Larson argued that there were some advantages to the new style. Mr. McCain saw 1,200 potential caucusgoers in three events on Saturday, compared with perhaps 100 he could have met in private homes. Mr. Larson said smaller meetings were less crucial because of the advent of Internet video streaming. On the other hand, candidates have lost the laboratories that gave them a chance to learn about issues and formulate responses to tough questions, and make beginner mistakes, out of sight of rival campaigns and reporters. Jennifer O’Malley, the Iowa director of Mr. Edwards’s campaign, said the more personal campaigning, with candidates spending time with voters, was critical for caucuses, in which people need to be particularly motivated to turn out for two hours on a Monday night. “A conversation with voters is much more important than a television ad,” she said. Some campaign officials said they expected voters’ attendance to die down and news media interest to fade as the candidates continued an exhausting trudge across the state, before exploding again in the final weeks, as has historically been the case. Of course, that might just mean that a crowd of 800 would drop to 400. Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Obama have gamely tried to replicate the living room experience, but it has not worked particularly well. A Clinton event in Cedar Rapids was, unusually though understandably, invitation-only. Even so, the house became so crowded that people had to peer around corners and over shoulders to catch a glimpse of Mrs. Clinton. To deal with the crush of national reporters — a big part of the problem — her campaign assigned one to act as pool correspondent and share the information; inevitably, however, others sneaked in. Last week, Mr. Obama’s campaign aides scheduled one session in the home of Tom and Patti Friend of Iowa Falls. But after the Friends put a notice of the event in the newspaper, 200 people showed up, spilling out of the living room. When Mr. Obama walked through the door, the booming applause made it clear that the gathering was not so intimate after all; he had to climb up the stairs to find a speck of floor to speak from. One day after Mr. Obama appeared there, he bounded onto the stage at the Field House at the University of New Hampshire in Durham. Christine Sohl, who arrived early to get a seat about 20 rows back, recalled meeting a little-known governor named Bill Clinton in a group of no more than 20 people. Four campaigns later, she strained to see Mr. Obama. “This is as close as we’ll get,” she said.

Presidential Election of 2008
Iowa
Presidential Elections (US)


‘Gang of Eight’ Says Deficit Solution Should Come From the Top

Abstract: WASHINGTON — After years of wrangling, members of the bipartisan group of senators known as the Gang of Eight are ratcheting back expectations for a deficit reduction breakthrough and now say the best they can probably do is offer ideas for the one fiscal negotiation that will truly matter: talks between President Obama and Speaker John A. Boehner that begin in earnest on Friday. Another fruitless meeting this week of the Senate group has only raised the pressure ahead of the White House session between the president and Congressional leaders. “It was great. We had a lot of doughnuts,” said Senator Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, the Senate’s second-ranking Democrat and the most powerful member of the gang, which was once seen as the best hope for a budget deal that could draw support from both parties. Other ad hoc efforts seem to be languishing as well. Senator Bob Corker, Republican of Tennessee, said after circulating a deficit plan a year in the making, that it was solely up to the president and the speaker to stop the country from careening over the so-called fiscal cliff. Senator Michael Bennet, Democrat of Colorado, who has been negotiating with Senator Lamar Alexander, Republican of Tennessee, said it was time to squelch such side negotiations, lest they undermine Mr. Obama and Mr. Boehner. “There’s eight individuals, well meaning and trying to get a deal, and it shows you how hard it is,” Senator Tom Coburn, Republican of Oklahoma and an original member of the Gang of Eight, said of the apparent impasse. “And it’s gotten harder after the election. As you might imagine, positions have hardened.” Such freelance negotiations were once seen as a bottom-up way to push leaders on Capitol Hill and in the White House toward the political center, where they could compromise on a sweeping deficit reduction package. The self-appointed gang once put itself forward as the architects of a “grand bargain” to save the nation from fiscal and economic crisis. But, Mr. Bennet said, time has run out. Now lawmakers from both parties say they need a solution imposed from the top. “We want to find a way to avoid the cliff, and the focus of this effort is going to be between the president and John Boehner,” Mr. Durbin said. “It is possible that some of the ideas we come up with may be of value in that conversation.” On Friday Mr. Obama will meet with Mr. Boehner; Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, the House Democratic leader; Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader, and Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, to begin deficit negotiations formally. White House officials say Mr. Obama is likely to extend another invitation for next week, after he returns from a trip to Asia and before Thanksgiving . If no agreement is reached, hundreds of billions of dollars in simultaneous tax increases and across-the-board spending cuts will begin in January. Economists say that sudden jolt would be likely to send the economy back into recession. “At this point, the president and the speaker, the other leaders, are going to be meeting at the White House, and I think the focus needs to be on those meetings,” said Senator Michael D. Crapo, Republican of Idaho and another member of the gang. “And although there are many other discussions working on trying to help find a path forward here, I don’t think that we need to be looking at other options in terms of the decision-making process right now.” Senators involved in the negotiations do not want a repeat of last summer, when they were blamed in part for the collapse of the last set of deficit talks between the president and the speaker. Those negotiations appeared to be heading toward a deal in July 2011 when the framework of a Senate “gang” agreement emerged, promising $1.2 trillion in revenue increases, 50 percent more than the $800 billion that Mr. Obama and Mr. Boehner were homing in on. Suddenly the president faced the prospect of agreeing to the lower figure with the speaker, then facing a revolt from his own party. Republicans say the White House demanded more tax increases, Mr. Boehner balked, and talks collapsed. Senate negotiators say officially that efforts to find a broad, bipartisan debt plan continue, but frustration is starting to show. The original Gang of Six — augmented by two new members, Mr. Bennet and Senator Mike Johanns, Republican of Nebraska — met for three days in Mount Vernon, Va., in October, but little progress was made. They reconvened on Tuesday, but the election results presented a new set of problems. Republican officials familiar with the talks say Democrats dug in on demands for tax revenue that Republicans are not willing to meet. Democratic aides say Republicans who had spoken abstractly about the need for more revenues are balking at the specifics. “Things change. It’s not just a matter of the numbers changing, and they do,” Mr. Durbin said of shifting deficit projections, revenue forecasts and spending totals. “It’s also a matter of the political environment, and the landscape changing.” Democrats freely admit they have shifted their stance from the defensive crouch of the summer of 2011, when they signed on to a budget deal that cut $1 trillion in spending with no tax increases, to now, when they believe the voters have given them a mandate to raise taxes on the affluent. “We were in damage limitation mode. Now we’re in full problem-solving mode,” said Representative Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, the senior Democrat on the House Budget Committee. Both sides insist they want a deal before January, but a rising chorus of voices, especially Democrats, say they would rather go over the cliff than accept a deal that raised too few taxes while extracting too many cuts, especially to Medicare and Medicaid . The search for a deal before January is off to a slow start. Rob Nabors, the president’s chief liaison to Congress, came to the Capitol early this week to meet with Mr. Boehner’s chief of staff, Mike Sommers. But little groundwork was done ahead of Friday’s meeting. Some Republican House aides suggested that Mr. Obama was trying to raise the pressure on Republicans with his lackadaisical approach ahead of a trip to Asia and a Thanksgiving break. True negotiations, they say, will not begin until December, just weeks before the deadline.

Federal Budget (US)
Senate
Obama Barack
Boehner John A
United States Economy
United States Politics and Government
United States
Congress


Home Builder Says It Broke U.S. Rules and Will Restate Earnings

Abstract: Beazer Homes USA, a major home builder, said yesterday that it had broken federal rules to help buyers of its homes qualify for federally insured mortgages. The statement did not indicate precisely how the rules had been broken, nor did it disclose the volume of mortgages involved. Beazer said it hoped to reach a relatively inexpensive settlement with federal regulators over the practices, which it said were related to rules governing down payment assistance for home buyers. Beazer’s statements came as it reported that sales of new homes plunged in the third quarter. It also said it would restate several years of financial statements, with changes going back to 1999, because it had improperly used reserves to first hide earnings and then to overstate them. Beazer previously disclosed that federal prosecutors in North Carolina had subpoenaed documents relating to its mortgage origination services. Yesterday’s announcement gave no details on that investigation, or on a formal investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company said that as a result of its mortgage actions, it could be liable if the Federal Housing Administration, which guarantees mortgages before selling them to investors, suffered any losses from defaults on those mortgages. The company said the practices went back to at least 2000, and involved the down payment assistance rules. It said it thought “that an adequate settlement with regulatory authorities in a range of $8 million to $15 million may be attainable.” An F.H.A. spokesman had no comment. A company spokesman did not return a call seeking clarification of which regulatory authorities were involved. Beazer shares, which sold for more than $82 in early 2006, have fallen sharply this year amid its reports of investigations and plunging home sales. Yesterday, in what appeared to be relief that the investigation might be nearing a close, the shares rose 20 cents, to $10.13. The company, which builds homes in the Northeast, South and West, said that it recorded net new orders for 990 homes in the quarter that ended in September, the last of its fiscal year, down 52 percent from the 2006 quarter, and 80 percent below the quarter in 2005, when the housing boom was going strong. It pointed to “an unusually high cancellation rate” of 68 percent, which it attributed to the tight mortgage market in August and September. With the subprime mortgage crisis causing a rising number of foreclosures, it has become very difficult to sell mortgage-backed securities unless they carry a guarantee from the F.H.A. or one of the government-sponsored lenders, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. To get such a guarantee, loans must meet certain specifications. Among those specifications are down payment requirements. Buyers must put up at least 3 percent of the purchase price as a down payment, although they are allowed to get help from relatives or charities. The F.H.A. has adopted a rule, effective at the end of this month, to close off the practice of home builders contributing to charities that then provided down payment assistance to the builders’ customers. Critics said that amounted to a way for builders to evade the rules, and the F.H.A. said mortgages that received such help were far more likely to default than were other mortgages. That practice was legal, however, so Beazer’s practices presumably took a different form. That could have included directly providing down payment assistance without disclosing that fact to the F.H.A. For its 2006 fiscal year, Beazer reported revenue of $6.46 billion and net earnings of $388.8 million. Before taxes, its net income was reported as $613.2 million. Yesterday, it said those results would be reduced by two factors. It said its improper use of reserves had reduced pretax income before 2006 by about $25 million, and had increased it in that year by $20 million. It also said that improper accounting for the sale and leaseback of model homes had resulted in the reporting of $20 million of additional income through June 30 of this year. It did not say how much of that was reported in 2006.

Housing
Mortgages
Beazer Homes USA Incorporated
Sales
Foreclosures


Exchanges in China Look to Speed Delistings

Abstract: SHANGHAI — The two China stock exchanges said Sunday that they wanted to make it easier to delist companies so investors’ interests would be better protected. The Shanghai Stock Exchange and the Shenzhen Stock Exchange are asking for public feedback on planned changes by May 20, according to statements on their Web sites. Current procedures do not “fully serve their purpose,” and the changes should allow swifter removal of companies from trading and a faster path to relisting, according to the Shanghai exchange’s statement. “Improving the delisting rules will allow capital markets to work more efficiently, improve the quality of listed companies and protect the interests of small investors,” the Shanghai exchange said. Among the proposed changes, companies with negative net assets would no longer remain listed, and the exchange would use net income, excluding one-time gains, of companies seeking to relist as the benchmark for a true picture of their profit. Guo Shuqing, who was appointed as China’s top securities regulator in October, has pledged to fight insider trading and misconduct in the nation’s securities markets. The China Securities Regulatory Commission is studying ways to make its delisting policies more effective because companies use loopholes to avoid removal, according to an April 20 statement on the agency’s site. The securities regulatory commission may exclude nonrecurring items from net income, as some unprofitable companies use government subsidies or other sources to book profits and avoid delisting, according to its statement. Companies are taking advantage of 2007 accounting-rule changes that allowed one-time gains to be counted as profit, it said. Other criteria being considered by the exchanges are annual revenue and trading volume, according to the statements on Sunday. In November, the Shenzhen exchange proposed new rules for delisting stocks on the ChiNext market, a board for startup businesses. Companies would be delisted if they were censured by the exchange three times during a three-year period, if their shares closed below an established minimum value for 20 consecutive days, if combined trading volumes fell below one million shares for 120 consecutive trading days or if net asset values were negative for two consecutive years. Also Sunday, China’s securities regulator released new rules for initial public offerings, saying the changes should make share prices “more reasonable” and improve disclosure, Bloomberg News reported from Shanghai. The guidelines set out the responsibilities of issuers and other organizations involved in an I.P.O., including law and accounting firms, and pledge to punish illegal practices, according to a statement posted on the China Securities Regulatory Commission’s Web site. Underwriters may invite 5 to 10 individual investors to participate in the pricing procedure, according to the new rules, in addition to the seven types of institutions currently allowed.

Stocks and Bonds
Regulation and Deregulation of Industry
Shanghai Stock Exchange
Shenzhen Stock Exchange
China


With Yi, the Nets Hope to Expand Their Market

Abstract: Yi Jianlian was about 7,000 miles away when he made the move from Milwaukee to New Jersey. As he trained with the Chinese Olympic basketball team, the Nets made a three-player trade with the Milwaukee Bucks on Thursday afternoon, before the N.B.A. draft , acquiring the 7-foot Yi and putting him in the spotlight on the East Coast. The deal sent the longtime Nets star Richard Jefferson to the Bucks, who also sent Bobby Simmons to New Jersey. On the court, Yi is regarded as a mobile big man with a good shooting touch from midrange. But the Nets are hoping that off the court, he will help attract a new pool of fans. With sizeable Chinese communities in North Jersey and Brooklyn, where the Nets are scheduled to begin playing in 2010, Yi could be the Nets’ marketing answer to the Houston Rockets’ Yao Ming. “It opens up a truly new fan base for us,” said Brett Yormark, the Nets’ chief executive. “Yi is going to give us the opportunity to be relevant to Asian-American fans in ways we haven’t been before.” Within hours of the trade’s confirmation, the Nets’ marketing efforts were in full swing. Their Web site had a splash page of Yi in a Nets uniform, announcing, “Something big has come to New Jersey.” They offered a free Yi jersey to everyone who purchased a season ticket. According to Yormark, the Nets sold 200 season tickets in the 36 hours after the trade. This was the kind of exposure that Yi had made such a fuss about when he was drafted by the Bucks with the sixth overall pick in 2007. Initially, reports said that he did not want to sign with the Bucks because he and his agent, Dan Fegan, had hoped Yi would play in a market with a larger Asian population. But the concern he cited more widely involved playing behind Andrew Bogut, another 7-footer taken first in the 2005 draft. Fegan pushed for Yi to be traded, but two months after he was drafted, Yi and his Chinese professional team — which allowed Yi to be in the draft — reached an agreement with the Bucks. “We’ve talked to the Bucks and the Rockets so we can learn from their mistakes and, more often, replicate what they did,” Yormark said. “We jumped right on it.” During his first season in the N.B.A., Yi averaged 6.6 points and 5.2 rebounds and had 56 blocks in 66 games. But like many imported big men, he has a more fluid game than a traditional inside player. Alongside the Nets’ first pick in this year’s draft, the 7-foot center Brook Lopez from Stanford, Yi is expected to help provide the frontcourt size the team lacked last season. “Traditionally, the Nets have been a very good perimeter team,” General Manager Kiki Vandeweghe said. “We suffered a little bit with lack of low-post scoring last year, lack of interior defense. “I think we’ve now got some big players who can score and shoot from the outside,” he added. Yi is one of the first pieces of the Nets’ rebuilding effort after a disappointing 34-48 season, the first time they missed the playoffs since 2001. By the end of draft day, the Nets had acquired three 20-year-olds. But Yi’s experience might be tested with the Nets, as it was in Milwaukee. He will probably be one of eight players on the Nets next year with fewer than three years of N.B.A. experience. Yi spent five years with a Chinese professional team, the Guangdong Tigers, and represented China at the 2004 Olympics, but he often seemed raw in his 49 N.B.A. starts. The Nets seem to be banking on youth as they move toward 2010. With the Jefferson trade, they will be well below the salary cap by then and may be looking at a spectacular free-agent class that could include LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Amare Stoudemire and Chris Bosh. Yi appears to have two seasons to live up to his potential before the Nets shift approaches from rebuilding to contending.

Chinese-Americans
Basketball
New Jersey Nets
Yi Jianlian


Chess Group Officials Accused of Using Internet to Hurt Rivals

Abstract: A lawsuit filed in federal court last week accuses two officers of the nation’s leading chess organization of posting inflammatory remarks on the Internet under false names in order to win election to the group’s board. The lawsuit, filed on Tuesday in Federal District Court in Manhattan, says that Susan Polgar and Paul Truong, who are married and who were elected to the board of the United States Chess Federation in July, posted thousands of remarks, many obscene or defamatory, over the last two years on two public Internet bulletin boards. The suit was filed by Samuel H. Sloan of the Bronx, who ran unsuccessfully for re-election to the board. He said more than 2,000 of the fake remarks were posted under his name. According to the lawsuit, Ms. Polgar and Mr. Truong broke a federal law that prohibits using electronic means to harass or annoy another person. Mr. Sloan is asking for new board elections and punitive damages, among other requests. The suit was filed a week after Brian Mottershead, an administrator of the chess federation’s Web site, posted a report on the group’s discussion forum in which he said he had discovered that the impersonator was almost certainly Mr. Truong. Mr. Truong denied the accusations. “The charges are absolutely outrageous, and it is based on information that was obtained 100 percent illegally from the U.S.C.F.,” he said in an interview Friday from his home in Lubbock, Tex. Mr. Truong said that Mr. Mottershead and Hal Bogner, whose company, ChessMagnetSchool, had been working on the redesign of the federation’s Web site, leveled the accusations after he and Ms. Polgar became dissatisfied with the administration and redesign of the Web site and asked that Mr. Mottershead and ChessMagnetSchool be fired. (The New York Times uses an interactive chess board on its Gambit chess blog that was developed by ChessMagnetSchool.) Ms. Polgar said that she had no idea who the Web site impersonator was, and that she did not have the time to post the messages, given her hectic schedule. Ms. Polgar is a former women’s world champion and the chairwoman of the federation, which is based in Crossville, Tenn. She also is director of the Susan Polgar Institute for Chess Excellence at Texas Tech University in Lubbock and runs the Susan Polgar Foundation, which sponsors scholastic chess tournaments and operates a chess center in Queens. She said Mr. Mottershead and Mr. Bogner were waging a vendetta. “These people started all these accusations the day after I criticized them about their job performance,” she said. Since Mr. Mottershead posted his report, the chess federation’s executive board, including Mr. Truong and Ms. Polgar, have met several times to discuss what to do. Bill Hall, the federation’s executive director, has been asked to hire an independent expert to go over Mr. Mottershead’s findings and report to the board. The existence of fake postings on the two public bulletin boards, rec.games.chess.politics and rec.games.chess.misc, in the name of Mr. Sloan and others had been suspected for some time. But the identity of the impersonator or impersonators has not been revealed. Both bulletin boards are sponsored by Google. The tone of the messages, and the controversy they have created, stand in stark contrast to the usual studied decorum of world-class chess play. Mr. Mottershead’s report said there were more than 2,400 fake postings, and it listed them all, many too obscene to print. Some of the tamer examples included one purportedly from Mr. Sloan saying, “X-rated DVD featuring my wife is on sale now for only $27.95 plus shipping, handling and tips” and one under another name saying that a federation member was gay and “seems to be in love with Sam Sloan.” Mr. Mottershead said that he began looking into the identity of the impersonator before Mr. Truong and Ms. Polgar complained about his work on the Web site. “I don’t like Paul Truong, but there are still the facts that I put out, and those have not been fabricated,” Mr. Mottershead said. Mr. Bogner, asked if he tried to frame Mr. Truong or Ms. Polgar, burst into laughter. “It’s absurd,” he said. “It’s not my job to judge those people.” Mr. Mottershead said that he identified the impersonator by matching up Internet protocol addresses on the bulletin boards with those on the federation’s discussion forum. Mr. Mottershead said that because the I.P. addresses are unique, it was difficult to believe that anyone but Mr. Truong could have been responsible. Mr. Truong said someone could have found his I.P. address and made it look as if the postings were coming from him. David Ulevitch, founder and chief executive of OpenDNS, which provides Internet domain name services, said that impersonating someone on the Internet “happens a lot.” Asked about Mr. Truong’s contention that he could have been framed, Mr. Ulevitch said, “It has been known to happen that someone has impersonated someone else impersonating someone else.” In addition to Ms. Polgar and Mr. Truong, Mr. Sloan’s suit names as defendants the five other members of the federation board, several of the group’s officials, Texas Tech and the federation itself, which is the governing body of organized chess in the United States. “If I ever want to apply for a job, nobody’s going to hire me because there are thousands of obscene messages supposedly from me on the Internet,” Mr. Sloan said. Mr. Sloan is no stranger to the legal system. In 1978, the United States Supreme Court agreed with Mr. Sloan that the Securities and Exchange Commission had improperly suspended trading in stocks that he handled. Then, as now, he represented himself. In 1992, he was convicted of attempted kidnapping in a case involving his daughter, Shamema, who was living with guardians. Mr. Sloan spent 18 months in a Virginia prison. Brian P. Lafferty, a federation member who is a lawyer and a former administrative judge in New York City, said that he believed Mr. Truong and Ms. Polgar were responsible for the false posts, some of which mentioned him, and that he planned to take a complaint to the United States attorney’s office tomorrow. Mr. Truong and Ms. Polgar said they are contemplating filing lawsuits against Mr. Mottershead, Mr. Bogner and possibly the federation. “I have an impeccable reputation, and they are trying to damage my reputation,” Ms. Polgar said.


Bryans in Wimbledon Doubles Final

Abstract: The American brothers Bob and Mike Bryan beat France’s Michael Llodra and Nicholas Mahut, 7-6 (4), 6-3, 6-2, in a Wimbledon semifinal Friday to return to a Grand Slam final for the first time since winning at Wimbledon last year. They will play Jack Sock and Vasek Pospisil.

Wimbledon Tennis,Wimbledon
Tennis
Mike Bryan
Bob Bryan