All Eyes Are on Chris Christie as Trial in Bridge Scandal Starts

Abstract: It might be easy to forget, now that he has endorsed and defended Donald J. Trump to the ridicule and anger of fellow Republicans he called friends, that Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey was himself once a leading, if not the leading, presidential hopeful in his party. Then came revelations of a scheme so preposterous that it was hard to believe: Aides to the governor had deliberately created a traffic jam at the world’s busiest bridge as political payback. The trial in the George Washington Bridge lane-closing scandal, which is scheduled to open on Thursday with jury selection, will play out like a documentary on the rise and fall of Mr. Christie’s presidential ambitions, a tell-all tale of how he and his aides built his administration and his 2013 re-election campaign with an eye to winning the White House, then scrambled to contain the damage as inquiries into the lane closings began to wreck those hopes. Image Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey Credit Mel Evans/Associated Press Mr. Christie has not been charged. But he will loom large in the story laid out by both sides in the courtroom. The governor is expected to be on a list of people who federal prosecutors say knew about the scheme to create gridlock in order to punish a mayor who had declined to endorse him. And while prosecutors have fought back against a defense lawyer’s assertion that the case is “criminalizing normal politics,” their argument in court filings is that the lane closings were precisely that: normal politics. At least, normal Christie politics — aggressively transactional and focused above all on winning. Image Mark Sokolich, a Democrat and the mayor of Fort Lee. Credit Anthony Lanzilote for The New York Times In the prosecutors’ portrayal — and defense lawyers do not really disagree — the Christie administration treated the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the $8 billion-a-year bistate agency that operates the bridge, as an arm of the governor’s campaign for a second term, using it to cajole mayors into endorsing Mr. Christie and to discipline them if they did not. An entire department of the governor’s office was focused on gaining the support of local officials, as Mr. Christie sought the sort of landslide victory that would allow him to argue that he was the Republican best able to take the White House. “It offers a glimpse at the kind of machinations that went into shaping a candidate with national ambitions,” said Brigid Callahan Harrison, a professor of political science and law at Montclair State University. “Not just all of the kind of back-room inside politics that many people find really distasteful, but the enormous extent to which the administration would flex its muscles to paint Chris Christie as this candidate that had such broad appeal.” Nearly three years after the mystery of the lane closings captivated New Jersey, the trial will finally answer big questions. Perhaps biggest of all: When and how did Mr. Christie know about the plan, as the prosecution’s star witness has said he did? And who else was involved? A Timeline for the George Washington Bridge Scandal Events in the scandal that has settled around Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey regarding the motives behind the shutdown of some traffic lanes to the George Washington Bridge. Mr. Christie was always expected to coast to victory in his 2013 re-election bid. But he wanted to break the record set by his mentor, former Gov. Thomas H. Kean, who won re-election with 69 percent of the vote. And he wanted to demonstrate to national Republicans that he could win crossover support from women, Hispanics, black voters and Democrats, even in a state where they far outnumber Republicans. Mark Sokolich, the mayor of Fort Lee, the town on the New Jersey side of the George Washington Bridge, was 47th on a list of 100 Democratic mayors that the Christie administration was especially hoping to win over. On Aug. 13, 2013, after confirming with an aide who had tried to court the mayor that he was not going to support Mr. Christie, Bridget Anne Kelly, a deputy chief of staff to the governor, sent an email to David Wildstein, a Christie ally at the Port Authority: “Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee.” Image Bridget Anne Kelly, a deputy chief of staff to Mr. Christie, at a court hearing in 2014. Credit Pool photo by Mel Evans They waited a month — to achieve maximum impact, prosecutors say — until the first day of school, in a week that included Yom Kippur and the Sept. 11 anniversary, and closed two of the three access lanes from Fort Lee to the bridge. They did not tell local officials, who were soon overwhelmed by traffic, with ambulances, school buses and commuters gridlocked for hours. Mr. Wildstein went to the bridge to admire his handiwork in person, and texted Ms. Kelly about children stuck on buses. “Is it wrong that I am smiling?” she replied. Image David Wildstein, a Christie ally at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, during a hearing at the Statehouse in Trenton in 2014. Credit Ángel Franco/The New York Times As drivers fumed, the Port Authority police instructed them to call Mayor Sokolich, who in turn called, emailed and texted Bill Baroni, Mr. Christie’s top appointee at the Port Authority. Mr. Baroni refused to respond, as did the governor’s office. “Radio silence,” Mr. Wildstein wrote to Mr. Christie’s campaign manager. The lanes were closed for four days, until the executive director of the Port Authority, an appointee of New York’s governor, discovered a query from a traffic columnist about the delays and ordered the lanes reopened. That November, Mr. Christie won his huge margin of victory , with 60 percent, though he fell short of Mr. Kean’s record. In his victory speech, he urged Washington to learn from his electoral success. Image Bill Baroni, Mr. Christie’s top appointee at the Port Authority, in 2013. Credit Chris Pedota/The Record, via Associated Press But reporters, and the State Legislature, which Democrats control, continued to press questions about the bridge. The governor’s office and Port Authority officials said the lane closings were part of a traffic study; Mr. Baroni told a legislative committee that not telling the mayor or local police had been a “communications breakdown.” That story came apart in January 2014, when a legislative subpoena revealed Ms. Kelly’s email. Mr. Wildstein began to cooperate with federal prosecutors, and pleaded guilty in May 2015 to conspiracy to commit fraud and conspiracy against civil rights. Ms. Kelly and Mr. Baroni were indicted later the same day. Mr. Wildstein will be the witness to watch during their trial, at the federal courthouse in Newark. Once the author of a widely read and widely feared (and anonymous) political blog, he was hired to be a kind of enforcer at the Port Authority, as New Jersey sought to take back some of the power Mr. Christie believed had been shifted to New York. Image Christina Renna, a Christie campaign aide, at a hearing in 2014. Credit Kena Betancur/Getty Images Court filings suggest that Mr. Wildstein will help the government establish the traffic jam as part of a pattern of retribution. Christie officials had punished another Democratic mayor , Steven Fulop of Jersey City (No. 34 on the administration’s list of 100 mayors), after he reneged on what they thought was a deal to support the governor. Mayor Fulop had represented a Port Authority tenant in its bid to get a lease extension. Mr. Wildstein and Mr. Baroni had helped him get the terms he wanted and Mr. Christie’s campaign manager urged them to “continue throwing the Gov/my name around when discussing this with him,” so the mayor would understand that the governor had helped him, and expected help in return. When Mr. Fulop told the Christie campaign he would not give his endorsement, the administration canceled a special “mayor’s day” of meetings between Mr. Fulop and high-ranking Port Authority and Christie administration officials. Mr. Wildstein also said early on that “ evidence exists ” that Mr. Christie knew about the lane closings as they were happening. Court filings suggest that at least part of that evidence may be photographs of Mr. Christie laughing with Mr. Baroni and Mr. Wildstein at a Sept. 11 memorial service that week, during which, Mr. Wildstein has said , the lane closings were discussed. Image Bill Stepien, who was Mr. Christie’s campaign manager. Credit Amy Newman/The Record, via Associated Press “The photos will provide corroboration,” a court filing explains, before proceeding into a lengthy redaction. The names of other unindicted co-conspirators — people who joined in the conspiracy but are not charged — are likely to come out at the trial. There is another list, of people who knew about the conspiracy but did not join in it, which almost certainly includes Mr. Christie. It was unclear whether that means the governor knew about the plot before it began, as he has strenuously denied, or while it was going on, which he has vacillated about in his public comments. Mr. Christie did not respond to requests for comment about the list. And lawyers for Mr. Baroni and Ms. Kelly have said the two were hardly alone in planning the scheme or covering it up. In court papers, Mr. Baroni’s lawyer pointed out that Mr. Christie acknowledged, in an internal report on the lane closings, that canceling the meetings with Mr. Fulop had been his idea. The lawyer also revealed a text from another witness expected to testify for the government, Christina Genovese Renna, to a Christie campaign aide, sent during a January 2014 news conference when the governor said his senior staff and campaign chief, Bill Stepien, did not know about the lane closings. “He just flat-out lied about senior staff and Stepien not being involved,” Ms. Renna wrote. (Mr. Christie and Mr. Stepien’s lawyer say this does not prove any involvement.) Ms. Kelly, in her only public statement after the indictment, said it was absurd to suggest that she would act on her own to order the lane closings or cover them up. In her lawyer’s telling, the governor’s office was less worried about figuring out what had happened with the lane closings — the senior staff all knew exactly what happened, they say — and more concerned with figuring out what evidence existed, and how it might damage Mr. Christie’s national ambitions. It did. Significantly. Mr. Christie’s approval ratings in New Jersey, commanding when he was re-elected in 2013, fell, and they have lagged at record lows since the bridge scandal. Speaking to reporters last month, Mr. Christie played down the importance of the trial. “I know you guys all hope for this story to go on forever,” he said. “But unfortunately for you, I suspect by the time we get to October or so, it will finally be over.” Opening arguments are scheduled for Sept. 19.

Bridgegate George Washington Bridge Scandal


State Budget Nears Approval in Albany

Abstract: ALBANY — The spending plan tops $141 billion. It pays for things like expanded prekindergarten programs and a marketing plan promoting the state’s beer, wine and Greek yogurt industries. And this week, after weeks of haggling with Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, the State Legislature is poised to approve it. Lawmakers are hoping to finish voting on the bills that make up the budget on Thursday. The approval would be a week later than lawmakers had intended, but still before the start of the state’s next fiscal year, which begins on Monday. This year would be the third in a row that the state budget has been on time, the best streak in decades. Over all, spending under the new budget would increase by about 4 percent over the current one, although much of that increase is the result of federal aid to help rebuild areas damaged by Hurricane Sandy. The increase in state operating funds would be less than 2 percent. Here is a look at some of the highlights of the budget — and some of the issues that Mr. Cuomo and lawmakers agreed to postpone until later in the legislative session in order to ensure they could complete the spending plan by the Monday deadline. TAXES AND OTHER REVENUE In the biggest surprise of the budget deal, Mr. Cuomo and legislative leaders decided to extend the use of a high-tax bracket on the state’s top incomes. The bracket, which lawmakers approved on a temporary basis in late 2011, had been set to expire at the end of 2014, which is an election year. The new budget would extend the high-tax bracket through 2017. The extension, which Mr. Cuomo, a Democrat, did not include in his original budget proposal, has drawn criticism from business groups, who warn that New Yorkers with high incomes might relocate to lower-tax states, a claim that some dispute. The budget also creates a new $350 tax rebate for families with incomes between $40,000 and $300,000 and who have at least one child. The first rebate check would be mailed by mid-October next year just before voters go to the polls to decide whether to re-elect Mr. Cuomo and members of the Legislature. (The Assembly is controlled by Democrats, the Senate by a coalition of Republicans and independent Democrats.) Lawmakers rejected a proposal by Mr. Cuomo to expand the Quick Draw lottery game. They also rejected a proposal to make it more difficult for drivers to reduce the severity of speeding tickets through court pleadings, but put in place a $25 surcharge for speeding tickets that are pleaded down to a low-level traffic offense. They also set a $50 minimum fine for texting or using a hand-held cellphone while driving, as well as higher maximum fines — as much as $400 — for repeat offenders. MINIMUM WAGE The budget would raise the state’s minimum wage to $9 per hour, from $7.25, by 2016. The increase would be gradual: the wage would rise to $8 at the end of this year, $8.75 at the end of 2014 and $9 at the end of 2015. The minimum wage would not be tied to inflation, as Democrats in the Legislature had hoped. The increase would also not apply to tipped workers, who receive a lower minimum wage, although the budget will require the State Labor Department to review whether those wages should be increased. The budget also provides relief for businesses that would face higher labor costs as a result of the minimum wage increase: they would receive a refundable tax credit for their costs above the current minimum wage for workers they employ who are ages 16 through 19. LOCAL GOVERNMENTS Mr. Cuomo abandoned his plan to allow local governments to defer a portion of their pension costs by choosing a fixed contribution rate below the current one. But the budget includes an alternative plan that was supported by the state comptroller, Thomas P. DiNapoli, who had veto power over the governor’s original proposal. The existing pension-deferment plan was approved in 2010 and permits public employers to borrow from the pension fund to pay their pension costs. The new alternative program would allow more money to be deferred in the near term, while extending the maximum payback period to 12 years, from 10. The budget does not restore about $250 million in school aid that is being withheld from New York City. The city was penalized for missing a January deadline to reach an agreement with the teachers’ union to put in place a teacher evaluation system. Mr. Cuomo would not agree to eliminate the penalty, but the budget ensures that the city does not continue to be penalized in future budget years, as some lawmakers and Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg had feared. HEALTH CARE The budget restores $30 million of the $120 million that Mr. Cuomo had proposed to cut from the Office for People With Developmental Disabilities to help plug a budget hole created by a change in how the federal government will reimburse the state for its care of those people. Despite the wishes of some lawmakers, the budget does not include money to help the financially troubled SUNY Downstate Medical Center. Instead, the budget asks SUNY to submit a restructuring plan for the hospital by June. GUN CONTROL The spending plan suspends a ban on the sale of gun magazines with a capacity larger than seven rounds, which was a centerpiece of the package of new gun laws enacted by the Legislature in January in response to the mass shooting in Newtown, Conn. The state had an existing ban on magazines larger than 10 rounds, and Mr. Cuomo said the more restrictive ban, which had been set to take effect April 15, was a problem because few seven-round magazines are manufactured. Gun owners will still be permitted to load only seven rounds into their magazine unless they are at a firing range or a competition. The budget also includes $28 million to pay for a statewide database of handgun licenses that was created as part of the gun law. STILL TO COME Mr. Cuomo and lawmakers had hoped to resolve several other policy debates. A proposal to cut down on low-level marijuana arrests stemming from police stops in New York City was put off until later in the session. So was a proposal to specify the locations of new casinos that could be built if the state legalizes Las Vegas-style casino gambling, and another proposal that would legalize mixed martial arts.

Budget
Legislation
State legislature
Tax
Gun Control
Health Insurance
Minimum wage
New York


In Land of Spitzer, a Vile Season of Frost and Fury

Abstract: ALBANY, Nov. 2 — Gov. Eliot Spitzer promised early on to spend his time “breaking some china,” proclaimed himself a “steamroller” and often invoked a favorite saying: “You can’t change the world by whispering.” So give the man credit. Rarely has state politics been more fraught with feuds and fury than in his first year in office. Two weeks ago, a special legislative session ended bitterly, with agreements brokered months ago on issues like campaign finance falling apart. And in the last week, the governor seems to have angered all political stripes by shifting his plans to offer driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants — and he may have tripped up Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s presidential push for good measure. Because the Spitzer effect has emboldened lawmakers to fire their own slings and arrows and form increasingly complicated alliances, some CliffsNotes are required to keep track of Albany’s enemies and “frenemies.” GOV. ELIOT SPITZER , Democrat: No feud is more fiery than the one between the governor and Joseph L. Bruno, the state’s top Republican, who have not spoken in months. Where to begin? The governor has accused Mr. Bruno of “duplicity” and has said he is addicted to “horrendous” pork-barrel spending “dripping with fat.” One senator said the governor told him Mr. Bruno was “senile,” a charge the governor has denied. Mr. Bruno has said the governor once told him, “I’m going to knock you down so that you will never get up.” But that was all an appetizer. In July, a report by Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo found that the governor’s staff misused the State Police to gather information on Mr. Bruno’s use of state helicopters and police cars. The governor apologized, but last month his administration considered sending a letter to the Internal Revenue Service urging an investigation of Mr. Bruno for not paying taxes on the flights. The governor also once proclaimed himself “a [expletive] steamroller” to the top Assembly Republican, James N. Tedisco; Mr. Tedisco recently returned the favor by saying Osama bin Laden was in a cave toasting the governor’s new license policy. The governor once said of the Assembly’s top Democrat, Sheldon Silver: “Nobody should be under the illusion it will be easy for me to work with Shelly Silver.” There is also no love lost between Mr. Spitzer and Mr. Cuomo. Asked last month if he and Mr. Cuomo were friends, Mr. Spitzer would say only, “I have a lot of friends.” JOSEPH L. BRUNO, Senate majority leader, Republican: Mr. Bruno, a former Army boxing champion, can give as good as he gets. He has called the governor a “dictator” and a “rich spoiled brat” and described the governor’s staff as “hoodlums” and “thugs” whose conduct “should send shivers up the spine of every New Yorker.” Mr. Bruno, 78, is also not fond of his Democratic counterpart in the Senate, Malcolm A. Smith, and once told the governor — during one of their more memorable blowups — that Mr. Smith was close to the governor’s posterior. “I don’t respect him for being such a wimp,” Mr. Bruno said of Mr. Smith in a recent radio interview, “for being a wholly owned subsidiary.” SHELDON SILVER , Assembly speaker, Democrat: After years of feuding with Gov. George E. Pataki, Mr. Silver is relishing — some critics say too much — playing the role of negotiator between the warring Spitzer and Bruno camps. “I kind of feel like Henry Kissinger used to feel in the Middle East, doing shuttle diplomacy between the two of them,” he said in a recent WNBC-TV interview. Mr. Bruno chafed at that suggestion. “Silver has not been a go-between,” he said. “If he has, he’s a dismal failure. All he is doing is feathering his own nest, making excuses for his own inactivity.” “He’s a peacemaker? That’s news to me,” he added. “We’re at peace?” Mr. Silver rebutted the next day, saying, “If it wasn’t successful, he’s the reason I wasn’t successful.” ASSEMBLY DEMOCRATS: The majority party in the Assembly, the Democrats were elated when the governor was elected, giving them a fellow Democrat in the executive branch for the first time in a dozen years. And now? Not so much. The governor called out Assembly Democrats for a “stunning lack of integrity” in February when they picked one of their own, Thomas P. DiNapoli of Long Island, as state comptroller. Mr. Spitzer even brought the criticism home to some legislators’ districts, telling The Syracuse Post-Standard that local Assemblyman William B. Magnarelli “just raises his hand when he’s told to do so.” Returning the favor, Democratic lawmakers now openly bemoan the governor’s bellicosity. “We’ve been to hell,” Assemblyman J. Gary Pretlow, a Westchester Democrat, said in a recent interview, “are we coming back?” ATTORNEY GENERAL ANDREW M. CUOMO , Democrat: The governor is not the only top Democrat rankled by Mr. Cuomo, whose office is conducting a sweeping investigation of Mr. DiNapoli’s office. The investigation is focused on the tenure of Mr. DiNapoli’s predecessor as comptroller, Alan G. Hevesi, but Mr. Cuomo’s investigators have strained relations by questioning Mr. DiNapoli’s communications director, Dennis Tompkins, for several hours under oath. With Republicans, meanwhile, Mr. Cuomo appears to be getting along swimmingly. “He has been fair and diligent and doing a really good job on a lot of fronts,” Mr. Bruno told The New York Sun of Mr. Cuomo. Such warmth has irritated the Spitzer camp, which views Mr. Cuomo with wariness. And some Democrats are wondering whether he will challenge the governor in a primary. MAYOR MICHAEL R. BLOOMBERG , Unaffiliated: All the money in the world — or at least enough to rank 25th on the Forbes list of the richest Americans — does not seem to help the mayor much in Albany. A former Republican, he has been the largest individual contributor to Senate Republicans. Mr. Silver, the Democrat, keeps throwing roadblocks in front of the mayor’s projects — from the West Side football stadium to, more recently, his congestion pricing plan. Mr. Silver, who is from Lower Manhattan, has said the mayor “insists that he is the city.” More recently, the mayor’s generally peaceable relationship with the governor was breached. After the mayor voiced some concerns about Mr. Spitzer’s controversial proposal to give driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants, the governor said Mr. Bloomberg was “wrong at every level — dead wrong, factually wrong, legally wrong, morally wrong, ethically wrong.” Mr. Bloomberg seemed to warm up last weekend when the governor revised his plan so it would include three kinds of licenses, with one available to illegal immigrants, calling it a “step in the right direction.” The bonhomie lasted four days. On Thursday, the mayor said that after further consideration the new plan was still not “where we should be.” And in the unkindest cut, when asked if he agreed with the governor’s bitter nemesis on the issue, CNN anchor Lou Dobbs, the mayor said; “Lou is an old friend of mine that I agree with seldom, but nevertheless in this case, Lou happens to be right.”

Politics and Government
Spitzer Eliot L
New York State


Norman Dello Joio, Prolific and Popular Composer, Is Dead at 95

Abstract: Norman Dello Joio, a composer who achieved wide popularity in the mid-20th century with a proliferation of essentially tonal, lyrical works, died on Thursday at his home in East Hampton, N.Y. He was 95. His death was announced by Carl Fischer Music, one of his publishers. Mr. Dello Joio wrote dozens of pieces each for chorus, orchestra, solo voice, chamber groups and piano, as well as scores for television and three operas. Church music, the popular tunes of the jazz age and 19th-century Italian opera were all influences on his style, which could be both austere and colorful. In defining his musical approach, Mr. Dello Joio cited the advice of a teacher, the composer Paul Hindemith, that he should never forget that his music was “lyrical by nature.” That meant, “Don’t sacrifice necessarily to a system,” Mr. Dello Joio said on his Web site. “If it’s valid, and it’s good, put it down in your mind. Don’t say, ‘I have to do this because the system tells me to.’ No, that’s a mistake.” He said he took the advice to heart, and jokingly called himself an “arch-conservative.” A strong spiritual bent emerged in his composing, and the story of Joan of Arc became a major theme. He wrote an opera called “The Triumph of Joan,” which he withdrew after a student performance in 1950 at Sarah Lawrence College, saying he was dissatisfied with the work. In its wake came “The Trial at Rouen,” a new St. Joan opera written for television. He revised it for the New York City Opera, under the title “The Triumph of St. Joan,” and later derived a symphonic piece from the first version. Mr. Dello Joio said he was first drawn to the subject by a children’s book on the lives of the saints, which he found in an organ loft at age 12. “The timelessness and universality of Joan as a symbol lay in the eternal problem of the individual’s struggle to reconcile his personal beliefs with what he is expected to believe,” Mr. Dello Joio wrote in a 1956 article in The New York Times. “Daily, for ages, she has challenged men to have her courage.” Mr. Dello Joio won awards throughout his career, gathering a Pulitzer Prize in 1957 for his piece “Meditations on Ecclesiastes” for string orchestra and an Emmy in 1965 for a TV series, “The Louvre,” on NBC. He also wrote works for ballet; Martha Graham choreographed a number of them. The jazz clarinetist Artie Shaw commissioned a concerto from him. Mr. Dello Joio taught variously at Sarah Lawrence, the Mannes College of Music and Boston University, where he was a dean of the School of Fine and Applied Arts. He also helped to establish a program at the Ford Foundation that placed young composers in residence in high schools. Mr. Dello Joio was born on Jan. 24, 1913, and reared in New York City. His father was a vocal coach, a church organist and his first keyboard teacher. (He recalled that he used to see Metropolitan Opera stars arrive in Rolls-Royces at his house for coaching.) At 12, he was substituting for his father at the Roman Catholic Church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Manhattan. By 14, he was organist and choir director at St. Mary Star of the Sea Church on City Island. He also studied organ with his godfather, Pietro Yon, who was the organist at St. Patrick’s Cathedral. He studied composition at the Juilliard School and with Hindemith at Yale and the Berkshire Music Center in Tanglewood . Mr. Dello Joio’s first marriage, to Grayce Baumgold, ended in divorce. In 1974 he married Barbara Bolton, who survives him, along with his sons, Justin Dello Joio, a composer, and Norman Dello Joio, a champion equestrian jumper; his daughter, Victoria Dello Joio, a martial arts master teacher; two stepchildren, Ned Costello and Kathleen Bar-Tur; and three grandchildren.

Joio Norman Dello
Classical Music
Deaths (Obituaries)
Music


The Pulse: Prime Parking Space Is Opening Up

Abstract: Mayor Richard M. Daley ’s administration is planning to remove rush-hour parking restrictions on some of Chicago’s busiest streets. City officials say the move will help businesses and make those streets safer, but it also appears likely to slow traffic and generate more money for the private company that runs the city’s parking meters. Transportation Department officials sent letters to aldermen last month informing them of the change. In a letter to Alderman Scott Waguespack (32nd Ward), the city said rush-hour restrictions would end on stretches of North Clybourn and Lincoln Avenues that have meters and “pay and display” parking fee boxes. The restrictions had prevented motorists from parking at the metered spaces from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. and from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. on weekdays. In the letter, Thomas H. Powers, the acting transportation commissioner, said the change would make those streets safer for pedestrians. “On-street parking has been shown to reduce vehicle travel speeds, as parked cars create a visual narrowing of the roadway for drivers,” Mr. Powers wrote. “Pedestrian safety is improved because of the lower travel speeds, and because the parked cars act as a buffer between the sidewalk and the active travel lane.” Mr. Waguespack remained unconvinced after meeting this week with Transportation Department staff members. “Is this about safety or about increasing revenue for the parking company?” he said. Mr. Waguespack was one of only five City Council members who cast a dissenting vote when the Council approved the $1.15 billion, 75-year parking meter privatization deal in 2008. Brian Steele, the Transportation Department spokesman, said the city studied traffic patterns before deciding where rush hour restrictions are no longer needed.

Parking
Roads and Traffic
Daley Richard M
Waguespack Scott
Feller Bob
Chicago White Sox


Christians of Mosul Find Haven in Jordan

Abstract: AMMAN, Jordan — They were among the final holdouts. Even as many of their neighbors fled the violence that engulfed Iraq after the American invasion, the three men stayed put, refusing to give up on their country or their centuries-old Christian community. Maythim Najib, 37, stayed despite being kidnapped and stabbed 12 times in what he believed was a random attack. Radwan Shamra, 35, continued to hope he could survive the sectarian war between his Sunni and Shiite countrymen even after losing two friends shot by an unknown gunman who left their bodies sprawled in a Mosul street. And a 74-year-old too frightened to give his name said he remained despite the trauma of spending three anguished days in 2007 waiting to learn if his kidnapped 17-year-old son was dead or alive. Now all three men from Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, and its environs have fled with their families to Jordan , forced out by Islamic State fighters who left them little choice. After capturing the city in June , the Sunni militant group gave Christians a day to make up their minds: convert, pay a tax, or be killed. It was “the last breath,” said Mr. Shamra, one of 4,000 Iraqi Christians from Mosul who have come to Jordan in the past three months and one of more than 50 people sheltering in St. Ephraim Syrian Orthodox Church in Amman. “We waited as long as possible until we knew we would die if we remained.” Their flight is part of a larger exodus of Christians leaving those Arab lands where religious intolerance is on the rise, a trend that has caused concern among Christians outside the region — including the pope. It has also captured the attention of King Abdullah II of Jordan, a close American ally who has made the need for the continued presence of multiple religions in the Middle East a major talking point in recent years. So when fighters from the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, stormed into Mosul, the Jordanian government threw open the country to Iraq’s Christians despite rising tensions in Jordan over waves of Syrian refugees whose presence has increasingly burdened ill-prepared communities. Hasan Abu Hanieh, a Jordanian political analyst, said the government’s decision was both humanitarian and strategic, at a time when Jordan is edgy over Islamist militants on its borders and anxious to keep its bonds with the West strong. “The government can show the world that Jordan has a policy that seeks to protect minorities, unlike its neighbors,” he said. The Iraqi Christians also benefited from the fact that Jordan’s small Christian community maintains good relations with its majority Sunni neighbors and mobilized quickly to help the refugees, many of whom were crammed into camps in the Kurdistan region of Iraq. Also crucial was the intervention of Caritas , an international Christian charity that has spent years in Jordan serving displaced Palestinians , poor Jordanians and others. The group worked to let Iraq’s Christians know that Jordan was opening up to them. Payment for visas was waived, and Caritas and Jordan’s churches said they would provide for refugees’ basic needs. Refugees did, however, have to pay for their own flights on Royal Jordanian Airlines from Erbil, in Iraq, to Amman. About 500 of the new and often traumatized Christian refugees now live in community halls in seven churches in Amman and nearby Zarqa, trying hard to make do in places with little privacy or even enough basic necessities like toilets. Many of the other refugees are living several families to an apartment or house, paying the rent with their own money or with aid from Caritas. Still, they are relatively lucky, aid workers say. One of the lures to come here was the promise of being able to more quickly obtain refugee status that might allow them to leave the region. At the Mary, Mother of the Church in Amman, where dozens of the Christian refugees reside, suitcases lay on top of each other to save space. Thin mattresses with floral designs are spread across the floor and wet garments hang from windows to dry. The children, still afraid of their new surroundings, rarely wander off without their parents, even to play. “I ask them to tell me what they saw, how they feel now,” said Khalil Jaar, a priest in the parish. “I try to give them hope by telling them about the resilience of refugees in the past.” Besides providing shelter, the church feeds the refugees, doling out hearty portions of rice and vegetables paid for by charities or from donations from Jordanians. Like the approximately 620,000 Syrian refugees in Jordan and more than 30,000 other Iraqi refugees , the latest arrivals are not allowed to work — an attempt to ensure they do not stay forever in a country that previously granted citizenship to a large population of displaced Palestinians. To while away the time, the men play backgammon, drink tea together or help with chores at the church’s school. The women spend their time mainly caring for their children and helping prepare meals. Mostly, they are haunted by the abrupt end to their lives in Iraq, and to a Christian tradition that had survived in Mosul for more than 1,700 years. Saif Jebrita, a photographer, said he knew it was time to leave when he went to open his shop days after ISIS declared victory and found a notice from the militants demanding that he abandon his profession. The group claims that images are against Islam. “It’s the only thing I know how to do, and they wanted to destroy it,” he said recently as his two young sons stood next to him, fidgeting with broken toy dinosaurs. At St. Ephraim, the 74-year-old who was too anxious to give his name said his greatest worry was the safety of his older son, who remains in Erbil, in the Kurdistan region of Iraq. A younger son, the one who had been kidnapped, is with him, having survived that earlier ordeal. To show what the family had been through, the elderly man carefully laid out photos of his old home on one of the only flat surfaces he has, next to the toothpaste and a small broken mirror. A neighbor sent the photos after the family fled. A letter N for Nazrene, a term used for Christians in the Quran, is spray painted twice on the stone wall surrounding the home, which also is now marked Property of the Islamic State. Mr. Najib, the man who survived the stabbing, said his 8-year-old daughter did not understand that there was nothing to go back to, and had been crying a lot recently, asking to go home. He bemoaned the loss of Mosul’s Christian community. Under the Islamic State, “diversity is dead or at least dying,” he said. Mr. Jebrita, the photographer, shared his despair. “We are very much part of the Arab culture, we are citizens of Iraq,” he said. “What do we go back to? There is no home, and if this continues, there will be no country.”

Jordan
Refugees,Internally Displaced People
Christianity
ISIS,ISIL,Islamic State
Iraq
King of Jordan Abdullah II


Washington: F.A.A. Rules Found to Apply to Unmanned Aircraft

Abstract: The National Transportation Safety Board ruled Tuesday that the Federal Aviation Administration has the authority to apply to unmanned aircraft its longstanding rules against “reckless or careless use” of aircraft. In making the decision, the safety board sent its first case involving an F.A.A. fine against a drone back to an administrative law judge to determine whether the flight in question was “careless or reckless.” The case involved the use of an unmanned aircraft in 2011 to make a video for the University of Virginia. The F.A.A. said the remote pilot, Raphael Pirker, had, among other maneuvers, flown his model aircraft directly toward a person standing on a sidewalk, “causing the individual to take immediate evasive maneuvers.”


Start-Ups Take On Challenge of Nuclear Fusion

Abstract: A group of start-ups is promising a new and virtually unlimited source of power, one that produces none of the gases scientists say contribute to global warming. The only problem? A way to harness the energy source, nuclear fusion — the reaction that gives birth to sunlight — still needs to be invented. Such an achievement has long evaded government scientists and university researchers, despite decades of work and billions of dollars in research. But backed by hundreds of millions in venture capital and some of the wealthiest people in the technology industry, a handful of young companies say they can succeed where government has fallen short. Nuclear fusion is one of many areas of science and energy now getting the backing of venture capitalists . The investor dollars coming into fusion start-ups, like those in many areas of science, still pale in comparison with the money spent by governments. But signs of progress, including some results that have eclipsed government projects, have generated hope among some scientists that the companies could help develop a fusion reactor within their lifetimes. At the very least, they talk a confident game — even though the history of fusion science is littered with frustration and false starts. Some fusion scientists, unable to evaluate the start-ups’ unpublished scientific results, doubt the companies’ chances. “The fusion era is here and coming,” said William D. Lese, a managing partner at Braemar Energy Ventures, a venture capital firm with a stake in General Fusion, one of the leading start-ups in the field. “The increase in activity in this space is perhaps a sign of that.” Nuclear fusion occurs when two atoms are squeezed together so tightly that they merge. That single, larger atom releases a tremendous amount of energy. This happens naturally at the center of the sun, where gravity easily crushes hydrogen into helium, spewing forth the sunlight that reaches Earth. But on Earth, making hydrogen hot and dense enough to sustain a controlled fusion reaction — one that does not detonate like a thermonuclear bomb — has been a challenge. The potential upsides of the power, though, provide a huge incentive. Fusion reactions release no carbon dioxide. Their fuel, derived from water, is abundant. Compared with contemporary nuclear reactors, which produce energy by splitting atoms apart, a fusion plant would produce little radioactive waste. The possibilities have attracted Jeffrey P. Bezos, founder of Amazon.com . He has invested in General Fusion , a start-up in British Columbia, through Bezos Expeditions , the firm that manages his venture capital investments. Paul Allen, a co-founder of Microsoft, is betting on another fusion company, Tri Alpha Energy, based in Foothill Ranch, Calif., an hour south of Los Angeles, through his venture arm, Vulcan Capital. Peter Thiel — the co-founder of PayPal, who once lamented the superficiality of the technology sector by saying, “We were promised flying cars and we got 140 characters” — has invested in a third fusion start-up, Helion Energy , based near Seattle, through Mithril Capital Management. Government money fueled a surge in fusion research in the 1970s, but the fusion budget was cut nearly in half over the next decade. Federal research narrowed on what scientists saw as the most promising prototype — a machine called a tokamak, which uses magnets to contain and fuse a spinning, doughnut-shape cloud of hydrogen. Today’s start-ups are trying to perfect some of the ideas that the government left by the wayside. After earning his doctorate from the University of California, Irvine, in the mid-1990s, Michl Binderbauer had trouble securing federal funds to research an alternative approach to fusion that the American government briefly explored — one that adds the element boron into the hydrogen fuel. The advantage of the mixture is that the reaction does not fling off neutrons that, like shrapnel, can wear down machine parts and make them radioactive. Mr. Binderbauer, along with his Ph.D. adviser, Norman Rostoker, founded Tri Alpha Energy, eventually raising money from the venture capital arms of Mr. Allen and the Rockefeller family. The company has raised over $200 million. Image The C-2U machine at Tri Alpha Energy in California was used to superheat a ball of hydrogen to 10 million degrees Celsius and hold it for five milliseconds, a milestone in fusion technology. Credit Emily Berl for The New York Times “We basically said, “What would an ideal reactor look like?’ ” said Mr. Binderbauer, who is now the company’s chief technology officer. Mr. Rostoker died late last year . General Fusion is pursuing an approach that uses pistons to generate shock waves through the hydrogen gas. Compressed hard enough, the hydrogen atoms will begin to fuse. General Fusion has raised about $74 million from private investors and another $20 million from the Canadian government. Its reactor concept, like that of Tri Alpha Energy, would yield power plants much smaller than a commercially viable tokamak, which would need to be larger than many stadiums are in order to work. General Fusion’s idea to compress a ball of hydrogen, too, is borrowed from a government project aborted decades ago. The company’s innovation on that approach is to use cannon-size pistons for the compression. Critics in the nuclear physics field say it is unlikely start-ups will succeed with these alternative approaches. “They just keep pounding on the same dead horse,” said Edward C. Morse, a nuclear physicist at the University of California, Berkeley. “What happens in fusion is that the same ideas pop up every two decades. It’s like a game of Wac-A-Mole.” In addition, private funds cannot match those of the most ambitious government fusion energy project, the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, or ITER , a stadium-size tokamak being built in France by the European Union, along with the United States and five other nations, for about $14 billion. The United States is committed to funding about 9 percent of the project. Still, the Energy Department is also hedging its bet, granting $30 million to alternative fusion projects, including Helion Energy, which received $4 million. “In all of our selections, it’s not about a start-up versus something else,” said Eric A. Rohlfing, deputy director for technology of the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, the government agency that made the grants. “It’s about the quality of the idea.” The start-ups counter critics by saying that they can be more efficient than government projects. When Tri Alpha Energy’s panel of outside advisers visited the construction site of the company’s lab in 2007, the concrete was still being poured. Some advisers doubted the company would be conducting experiments within a year, as Mr. Binderbauer said they would. But by the following year, the machine was ready. “When I walked these guys out there to see that, their jaws dropped,” Mr. Binderbauer said. “I do recall being surprised by how fast they said they would get the facility ready,” said Burton Richter, a professor emeritus at Stanford and Nobel laureate in physics who advised Tri Alpha Energy. This past June, Tri Alpha reached a new milestone: Its machine superheated a ball of hydrogen to 10 million degrees Celsius and held it for five milliseconds — much longer than government projects achieved using the same method. “You may ask: ‘Five milliseconds? That’s nothing.’ Certainly, that’s the blink of an eye to a layperson,” Mr. Binderbauer said. “But in our field, that’s half an eternity.” His next goal is to increase that temperature tenfold. Other fusion efforts have set even more ambitious goals. When Lockheed Martin announced its own fusion project last year, the company said it expected to build a prototype within five years. But history would suggest that struggles lie ahead. For example, the American government’s other major approach to fusion, used by a California lab that fires 192 giant lasers at a container holding hydrogen to compress and fuse it, missed a 2012 deadline for achieving ignition, the point at which a reaction produces more energy than was used by the lasers that began it. (The researchers did achieve an intermediary step toward ignition in September 2013.) That checkered past is not stopping the start-ups. “We’re moving very quickly,” said Michael Delage, vice president for strategy at General Fusion. “Is it two years away? Three years away? Four years away? Maybe. We’ll let you know when we get there.”

Nuclear energy
Venture capital
Nuclear fusion
Startup
Research


Brooklyn: Ferry Captain's Suit Dismissed

Abstract: Judge I. Leo Glasser of Federal District Court dismissed a lawsuit against the city yesterday filed last year by the captain of the Staten Island ferry that crashed in October 2003, killing 11 passengers. The captain, Michael J. Gansas, who was fired after he refused to talk to investigators about the crash, asserted in legal papers that he had been made a scapegoat for the accident and sought reinstatement to his job with back pay or a city agreement to arbitrate his claims. He contended that city officials falsely claimed that he had violated regulations requiring two captains in the pilot house when a ferry is docking. A lawyer for Mr. Gansas did not return a call seeking comment.

Suits and Litigation
Battery Park City Authority
Brooklyn (NYC)


Former Iraqi Parliament Speaker Spreads Blame

Abstract: BAGHDAD — The former speaker of the Iraqi Parliament on Wednesday blamed political infighting for his downfall, as the Parliament’s leading Sunni coalition appeared to be on the verge of collapse. The former speaker, Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, whose resignation on Tuesday ended a stormy tenure of nearly three years, also criticized the United States, saying it had “handed us a ruined state.” During a wide-ranging news conference, Mr. Mashhadani said his bloc in Parliament, the National Dialogue Council, would immediately pull out of the Iraqi Consensus Front, the coalition of Arab Sunni groups in Parliament. Also known as Tawafiq, the front has been a crucial counterweight to the Shiite majority in Parliament. Another Sunni group in Parliament, the Independence Bloc, also announced Wednesday that it would leave the Consensus Front. The withdrawal of the two groups would reduce membership in the front to 27 from roughly 40 in the 275-member Parliament. But a spokesman for the Consensus Front, Salim al-Joburi, said Wednesday that the coalition would remain vibrant. “We express our regret for the withdrawal, but we maintain that our front is solid and active,” said Mr. Joburi, who is also a member of Parliament. Mr. Mashhadani said during Wednesday’s news conference that he had been forced to resign as part of a plot by several parliamentary blocs to depose Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki ’s Shiite-led government. During an interview afterward, he named the groups as the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, which is Shiite, the Iraqi Islamic Party, which is Sunni, and the Kurdish Alliance. The prime minister leads Dawa, another Shiite party. “They are hoping that after my resignation, it will be easier for them to dismiss Maliki,” Mr. Mashhadani said. But Yasin Majid, the press adviser to the prime minister, dismissed that assertion. “We don’t agree with Mashhadani’s analysis about an attempt to force Maliki to step down,” he said. Fuad Ma’sum, leader of the Kurdish Alliance in Parliament, also rejected the notion of a plot. “Our relationship with Prime Minister Maliki and the Dawa Party is good in spite of some political disagreement,” Mr. Ma’sum said. “Prime Minister Maliki’s government has our trust.” Mr. Mashhadani, known as an outspoken and mercurial figure among his colleagues, quit during a heated parliamentary session last week, but hours later rescinded his resignation. He had quit as speaker and changed his mind at least once before. But this week, his colleagues threatened to depose him by majority vote if he did not leave. Mr. Mashhadani had particularly harsh words for the United States’ performance in Iraq . He had not previously been known as a strong critic, but on Wednesday, Mr. Mashhadani described American troops as “hateful occupation forces” who were “destroying everything in Iraq.” “They handed us a ruined state,” he said, blaming the American occupation for the subsequent sectarian violence that Iraq has only recently begun to emerge from. The former speaker added, however, that the status of forces agreement signed between Iraq and the United States in November had been a significant embarrassment for the United States. “The Iraqi people forced the American forces to sign a humiliating withdrawal agreement,” he said. Finally, Mr. Mashhadani had harsh words even for himself and his former party, which he said had “achieved nothing” except to arrange for him to live in “a palace” and to “provide bodyguards that close roads for us.”

Iraq
Politics and Government
Maliki Nuri Kamal al-
Status of Forces Agreements
Iraq War (2003- )
Sunni Muslims
Shiite Muslims
United States Armament and Defense


France Reflects on Role in Rounding Up Jews for Death Camps

Abstract: PARIS — Early on a Thursday morning in July 1942, more than 4,000 police officers set out in pairs through the streets of occupied Paris, carrying arrest orders for scores of Jewish men, women and children. Within days, 13,152 people had been rounded up for deportation to death camps. No more than 100 would survive. The mass arrests, the largest in wartime France , were planned and carried out not by the Nazi occupiers but by the French. That difficult reality, for years denied, obscured, willfully ignored or forgotten, is now increasingly accepted here, historians and French officials say, part of a broader reckoning with France’s uncomfortable wartime past. The 70th anniversary of that dark episode — known as the Vel d’Hiv roundup, after the arena where many of those arrested were taken — has brought a flurry of commemorations this month, with official ceremonies, museum exhibits, wide news media coverage and an address by President François Hollande . Perhaps most telling, though, is a modest installation at the municipal hall of the Third Arrondissement in central Paris, where the national police are exhibiting for the first time the documents that record the operation in cold administrative detail. For decades after the war, historians say, the police resisted a public accounting of their actions under the German occupation and the collaborationist Vichy government, restricting access to their archives as they struggled with the same tangle of pride, guilt and shame that marked much of French society. The police were especially reticent, said Tal Bruttmann, a scholar of the Vichy period, “because it was they who conducted the arrests.” The exhibit in the municipal hall is symbolic of a memory that has been largely “soothed,” Mr. Bruttmann said. “It means that they are taking responsibility for this history.” Beneath the hall’s marble pillars and gilded cupola, visitors can examine the nine-page police circular, marked secret, that specified non-French Jews as the targets of the operation, men ages 16 to 60 and women 16 to 55. “Children of less than 16 years will be led away at the same time as the parents,” the yellowing paper reads. “The teams charged with the arrests will have to proceed with the most possible speed, without useless words and without comment,” the directive said. “Furthermore, at the moment of the arrest, the well-foundedness or ill-foundedness of this arrest is not to be discussed.” Buses were to take those arrested to the transit camp at Drancy or to the Vélodrome d’Hiver, the cavernous indoor bicycle arena in the 15th Arrondissement. The circular took care to insist that the bus windows “must remain closed.” Also on display is a note dated July 21, 1942, five days after the roundup began, pronouncing a grim arithmetic: “Men: 3,118; women: 5,919; children: 4,115; or in total: 13,152 arrests.” Despite the scale of the Vel d’Hiv operation, researchers have found few official papers that document it. In the name of national unity, the postwar French government ordered all documents linked to the treatment of Jews during the occupation destroyed, a sort of imposed national forgetting. (Another display case shows a 1946 directive to prefects across the country, instructing that “there must no longer remain any trace of the exceptional legislation instituted under the occupation, and all the documents based upon the Jewish status must be destroyed.”) For reasons that are not clear, though, the records of two police commissariats in the Third Arrondissement were spared and apparently forgotten. They were rediscovered by chance about a decade ago. The display is largely the work of Charles Tremil, 77, a retiree who heads a local historical association and who petitioned the police administration to allow the documents to be shown. His mother and older brother were arrested on July 16, 1942; they died at Auschwitz. Mr. Tremil, then a young boy, hid outside Paris during the war. The police administration is “conscious of the duty of memory that is incumbent upon it,” Bernard Boucault, the Paris police prefect, said at the inauguration of the exhibit this month. Mr. Tremil, speaking of the display, said: “The police prefecture had the courage to do it. A few years ago, it would not have been possible.” Police ties to difficult wartime realities are not limited to the Vel d’Hiv roundup. Maurice Papon , for instance, a former Vichy administrator, served as Paris police prefect after the war, before being convicted in 1998 of complicity in Nazi crimes against humanity. The first official recognition of broad French culpability for the Vel d’Hiv roundup came only in 1995, when President Jacques Chirac , on the anniversary of the operation, spoke of the nation’s “collective wrongdoing.” Since then, France has taken pains to address that dark chapter. A government commission set up in 1999 has paid compensation to tens of thousands of families whose property was seized during the war, for instance. “To the Jewish martyrs of the Vélodrome d’Hiver, we owe the truth about what happened 70 years ago,” Mr. Hollande said last Sunday at the site of the arena, the Winter Velodrome, which was demolished long ago. “The truth is that the crime was committed in France, by France.” In doing so, Mr. Hollande broke with his mentor and the hero of the French left, François Mitterrand , who refused to acknowledge broad French responsibility for the operation. Mr. Mitterrand, who worked as a low-level Vichy administrator before joining the resistance, declared when he was president in 1992, “Let us not ask for an accounting from the Republic.” Mr. Mitterrand insisted on a distinction between an ideal, irreproachable Republic and a traitorous wartime “French state,” and the semantics remain contentious. Mr. Hollande’s references simply to “France” drew criticism from some opposition politicians who said he was assigning guilt too broadly. Pascale Hassoun, 69, a psychologist, visited the police exhibit the day it opened. “It authenticates things,” she said softly in the echoing marble hall. Ms. Hassoun’s family “did not want to be completely aware” of the horrors carried out during the war, she said. “The first reflex is to not know,” Ms. Hassoun said. “It’s not a denial, it’s rather a willful ignorance. “We need to learn to live with this stain,” she said, as the country’s past cannot be expiated. “We will never be able to do enough.”

France
Jews and Judaism
Hollande Francois
Deportation
Holocaust and the Nazi Era


Giants Liven Up Final Practice Before Playoff Game Against Eagles

Abstract: EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Early in practice Friday morning at Giants Stadium, the defensive linemen gathered in a shady corner for drills near a newly mounted metal sign that said “NFL Playoffs.” Everything was quiet — too quiet. Suddenly, there came the rattling sound of a dozen big fists pounding the metal sign as if it were a punching bag. “We just like making a loud noise,” said Justin Tuck , a defensive end. “It was cold outside and guys were kind of down at first. So we just wanted to hype it up and get some spirit going.” This was the Giants ’ last long workout before they begin their defense of their Super Bowl title on Sunday by hosting Philadelphia in an N.F.C. divisional playoff game. The Giants do not usually practice on the main field, but Coach Tom Coughlin wanted his players to have a feel for the weather with cold and snow in the weekend forecast. Over all, the mood seemed chipper, the drills as crisp as the air. As the team began work, a helicopter hovered over the stadium, circling a little, dipping and twisting. Antonio Pierce, the veteran linebacker, took notice. “Who was that, was that Andy Reid again?” Pierce said, referring to the Eagles’ coach. COUGHLIN PICKS A SLOGAN Tom Coughlin gave his players T-shirts this week bearing the message “Cut It Off.” It is a reference to a scene in the adventure movie “Men of Honor” in which a hero has to have his leg amputated. Coughlin said the thought was to motivate players to do whatever is needed to succeed. TUCK WANTS TO PLAY Justin Tuck said he would play on Sunday against the Eagles, but said that his injured lower right leg had not healed. “It would be an all-perfect world if I could be healthy, but I’m not,” Tuck said. “I’m playing Sunday and that’s all that matters. Obviously, I’m not injured. Obviously, I’m banged up. I’m looking forward to the opportunity.” Defensive tackle Fred Robbins, who missed the final regular-season game with a sore shoulder, is expected to play. Zak DeOssie (sore back), a backup linebacker and punt snapper, was listed as probable. Offensive tackle Jon Runyan of the Eagles was listed as questionable and did not practice on Friday. Running back Brian Westbrook was listed as probable. GETTING READY FOR SNOW Jim Minish, executive vice president for facilities of the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority, said Friday that about 300 snow-shovelers would report to Giants Stadium beginning at 4 p.m. Saturday to clear seats. While the Giants practiced Friday, stadium workers tossed salt on the concrete steps and aisles. NO DECISION ON KICKER After practice Friday, Lawrence Tynes was asked if he would share kicking duties with John Carney. Because Carney’s kickoffs have been growing shorter, Coach Tom Coughlin has considered using Tynes for kickoffs and long field goals and Carney for extra points and short field goals. “I would love to know today, but I won’t know until 10:30 on Sunday,” Tynes said. “I would like to contribute, even if it’s just kicking off.” After adding that he did not think he would play, Tynes said: “I thought there would be some indicators and there really hasn’t been. I’m not anticipating it. If I am told I’m playing, I’m 100 percent healthy.” After recovering from a preseason knee injury shortly before midseason, Tynes dressed for only two games, handling just kickoffs in one and both kickoffs and placekicks in the other. Tynes and Carney talked Friday about how cold weather affected a kicked ball. Referring to the tricky winter wind patterns of Giants Stadium, Carney said: “It was different today than it was yesterday. Almost the opposite.” Tynes said cold weather shortened kickoffs by seven to eight yards. “It also affects hang time,” he said. “The ball is not going to compress off your foot like it would if it’s warm.” SOME TURNED DOWN TICKETS Pat Hanlon, the Giants’ vice-president for communications, said a few thousand tickets for Sunday’s game were turned down by season-ticket holders who had the right to buy them. Instead, they were sold to fans on the waiting list for season tickets. When asked whether this was a sign of declining economic conditions, Hanlon said it was not unusual for tickets to be sold that way for a playoff game.

Football
New York Giants
Tuck Justin
Coughlin Tom


An Oxonian Challenges Euro-Skeptics

Abstract: WOODSTOCK, ENGLAND — The setting was quintessentially English: the library of Blenheim Palace, one of the loveliest old stately homes and birthplace of Winston Churchill. Hundreds of diners admiring the lofty ceilings, portraits and stacks of books had arrived from a two-day conference at Christ Church, Oxford, another venerable station of England’s heritage. The speaker for the occasion had the rounded vowels and rich tones of the well-educated, well-to-do Englishman. Indeed, as he reminded his audience, he had himself studied at Oxford. But this was no Englishman, in fact, and his message was distinctly unrepresentative of what a sizable slice of the English political class would like to think of as its creed. Radek Sikorski, foreign minister of Poland , and a former award-winning journalist for The Times of London, had come, he said, to reflect “on a subject of considerable British domestic sensitivity: the U.K.’s membership in the European Union .” And, as he boldly put it, “I want to try to change some minds.” Just days earlier, Mr. Sikorski and his German counterpart, Guido Westerwelle, had laid out — in the International Herald Tribune, and in a later published paper — a vision of what an even more integrated Europe might be. They talked of a European Monetary Fund, a strengthened European foreign and diplomatic service, the removal of national vetoes over E.U. foreign policy decisions, and plenty more. But Mr. Sikorski, whose trajectory has mirrored that of his country in terms of its growing stability and embrace of Europe, and who could be an obvious candidate for a larger European office, chose not to advance that European agenda in advocacy terms. Instead, he seemed genuinely worried that Britain , the country that harbored him, an outcast from martial-law Poland, in the 1980s, is carelessly turning its back on Europe, regardless of its need for European ties. Mr. Sikorski started out by noting that the latest YouGov survey indicated that 67 percent of Britons supported holding a referendum on E.U. membership — a step further than the vote on relations with the Union that Prime Minister David Cameron has dangled before restive euro-skeptics in his party. “Don’t do it,” Mr. Sikorski stressed, noting that as a refugee from Soviet-era Poland, a reporter from Soviet-occupied Afghanistan, a former scholar at “the right-wing American Enterprise Institute” and a fan of free markets and Margaret Thatcher, “I tick every box required to be a lifelong member of London’s most powerful euro-skeptics’ club.” Yet, “on the contrary, I believe in the logic and justice of the modern European project. And my country, Poland, will do its utmost to help it succeed.” Mr. Sikorski rebutted what he called eight British myths about the European Union: that Britain is drowning in E.U. bureaucracy, directives and laws from Brussels, for example, or bankrupting itself by funding the Union. He stressed that those in favor of quitting Europe would not necessarily be able to negotiate some kind of free trade agreement, because E.U. members would have the upper hand and begrudge such selfishness. Nor would any freedom to maneuver that was gained compensate for the loss of power and influence, he argued. For the moment, Mr. Sikorski took note, his fellow Oxford graduate, Mr. Cameron, “certainly gets it,” quoting the Conservative leader as telling euro-skeptics: “If your vision of Britain was that we should just withdraw and become a sort of greater Switzerland, I think that would be a complete denial of our national interests.” But for how long? Perhaps the most interesting thing about the reaction to what Mr. Sikorski termed his reckless interference in British affairs was that it garnered scant attention in Britain. Mr. Sikorski was seated next to David Miliband, the former foreign secretary whose brother now leads the Labour opposition in Britain. Mr. Miliband — like some top European officials — congratulated him on the speech, Mr. Sikorski said later by e-mail. He admitted, however, that “he was not the one I wanted to convince.” “I wanted to give some arguments to those who want Britain to be an active E.U. member,” Mr. Sikorski wrote. At least some Conservative members of Parliament and others in the party welcome such arguments. One pro-Europe Tory, requesting anonymity, noted bluntly: “We are in grave danger of putting ourselves on a mindless glide path to exit” Europe. How these Conservatives regain the political initiative as Europe confronts its debt and currency crisis is not clear. Virtually daily reports of unrest in places like Greece and Spain seem to comfort even squeezed Britons, whose aloofness from the euro currency certainly has not insulated them from hard economic times. “At least we made our own mess” seems the modern echo of Churchillian spirit. Mr. Sikorski had a darker interpretation. “Since I came to these shores over 30 years ago, Britain has become much more European,” he told the dinner audience in Blenheim Palace, a mix of the global crowd mostly inclined to endorse his multilateral case. As evidence, he offered the widespread British adoption of European quilts, double glazing, the Channel tunnel and even better cuisine. “Yet your public opinion and your politics is more euro-skeptic than ever,” he added, recalling his Oxford study of “false consciousness, which is when the ideological superstructure is out of sync with the economic base.” “Britain today is living with false consciousness,” he intoned. “Your interests are in Europe. It is high time for your sentiments to follow. Your leaders need to make a more vocal case for your European interests. Britain is famous through the ages for its practical good sense and policies based on reality, not myths. We hope you can return to this tradition soon.”

Great Britain
European Union
European Sovereign Debt Crisis (2010- )
Euro (Currency)
Oxford University
Poland


Notre Dame Handled Te’o and Seeberg Cases Differently, Some Say

Abstract: SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Tom Seeberg, a commercial insurance broker from suburban Chicago, has watched the Manti Te’o case unfold with great interest. What stands out to him, he said, is the level of engagement with which Notre Dame officials dug into the case, even hiring a private investigative firm to determine whether Te’o, the university’s star linebacker, had been the victim of a hoax. In September 2010, Seeberg’s daughter, Lizzy, then a 19-year-old freshman at St. Mary’s College, also in South Bend, accused a Notre Dame football player of sexually assaulting her. Ten days after her accusation, she committed suicide. In a telephone interview, Seeberg said Friday while he was reluctant to draw comparisons between the Te’o tale and his daughter’s case, he, among others, is wondering why Notre Dame began an immediate investigation over a matter that seems to be nothing more than a very embarrassing situation for its star football player. “It’s kind of amazing that Notre Dame’s done a pretty good job of keeping the lid on Lizzy’s story the last two years,” Seeberg said. “It’s really because of the B.C.S. championship and now this — it just sort of amazes me. Now it’s out there again.” When Te’o told Notre Dame officials on Dec. 26 that he had been the victim of a hoax — that his purported girlfriend, Lennay Kekua, with whom he said he had an online relationship, never actually existed — the university reacted within hours, hiring an investigative company to look into the matter. It reported its findings after nine days. “Our investigators through their work were able to discover online chatter among the perpetrators that is sort of the ultimate proof of this, the joy they were taking,” Notre Dame Athletic Director Jack Swarbrick said this week at a news conference at which he grew emotional. Dennis Brown, a spokesman for Notre Dame, said the university’s approach in the two cases was consistent. He said the campus police investigated the Seeberg complaint immediately and sent a detective to the hospital to interview her as soon as she reported it. “We’ve acknowledged that we could have acted more quickly in interviewing the accused student,” Brown said Friday, “but we also felt it was important to be thorough rather than fast, and to avoid a rush to judgment.” According to Brown, “We began investigating the case as soon as she reported it and shared the information with the prosecutor’s office the next day.” Image Athletic Director Jack Swarbrick discussing the Manti Te’o case at a news conference this week. Credit Joe Raymond/Associated Press The Rev. John Jenkins, the university’s president, refused to have any contact with the family, saying it might compromise his ability to serve as the final arbiter in a disciplinary hearing, according to a March 2012 investigation by the National Catholic Reporter. After Seeberg’s death, the district attorney did not pursue the case. Notre Dame clearly made efforts to collect evidence about the Te’o hoax, including text messages and other electronic communications. Tom Seeberg said that during the course of the investigation into his daughter’s accusations, the university did not try to seek evidence that he said would have been crucial in corroborating her account that she had been lured into the room where the sexual assault reportedly took place. “It would have been even more important in Lizzy’s case,” Seeberg said. “Never did the police say, ‘We want to look at the communications records to prove whether or not what she said about the orchestration had occurred.’ ” Seeberg underscored what he saw as stark differences in the way each case was handled. “They hear this guy’s story,” he said, referring to Te’o, “and within seconds they’re like, ‘We need a private investigator.’ And what does the private investigator say? ‘We need to get communications records.’ ” One similarity between the two cases is that Notre Dame chose to keep both in-house. In Te’o’s case, the university chose not to contact law enforcement officials, a step Swarbrick said he deemed unnecessary because it was not apparent any crime had been committed. With Seeberg, Notre Dame used the campus police to investigate the case. “Is it not ridiculous,” Seeberg said, “that we sit here in 2013, and a woman who presents what could be a felony battery allegation to a law enforcement agent has to think about whether that law-enforcement agency could be compromised because their paycheck” comes from the university? Kathy Redmond, the founder of the National Coalition Against Violent Athletes, who has been openly critical of Notre Dame’s treatment of women, said she found Swarbrick’s news conference “shocking.” “And I’m listening to the athletic director sound so shaken up by the fact that this football player, who is so trusting, will never be able to trust again,” Redmond said. She added, “To prey on the sympathy of people by using a dead woman — a nonexistent dead woman — seems kind of sick to me.”

University of Notre Dame
Manti Te'o
Football
Suicide
Rape
Jack Swarbrick
College football
Hoax
Lizzy Seeberg


New York Local-Food Movement Quietly Thrives

Abstract: Suffern, N.Y. Tom Sleight remembers the advice his father gave him in case he wanted to take over the family’s farm in Dutchess County: Don’t do it. It was the 1970s. Family farms were being sold to developers left and right. His family, he said, had been farming in the Hudson Valley since 1640, but his father had concluded that the certainty of cashing in their real estate was worth more than the uncertainty of farming it. Mr. Sleight is now executive director of the New York Farm Viability Institute , which awards grants for applied agricultural research projects, and he’s well past the age where getting back into farming makes sense. Still, looking back, he sounds a bit wistful. “I’ve never seen this kind of excitement about agriculture as a career since I’ve been alive,” he said. “It’s really a time when farmers with good ideas can reinvent themselves. It’s inspiring to see that people can do it. I half wish that I were doing it.” Well, jumping out of airplanes can be exciting too, hence, perhaps, the half wish. But you could see both sides the other day at a hard-to-define assemblage of farmers, would-be farmers, academics, sustainable-agriculture and farmland-preservation types, and others. The gathering, this year’s program on environmental themes by a consortium of Hudson Valley colleges and universities, was a discussion of regional foodsheds, a buzzy term denoting that communities, at least in part, can be fed by local farmers just as they are sustained by local watersheds. But the underlying issue was the essential conundrum of the local version of the local-food movement. Being so close to the New York metropolitan area is providing almost endless opportunities for enterprising local farmers amid the vogue for local food . But being so close to the New York metropolitan area has made the price of land, even land supposedly protected in perpetuity by the sale of development rights, out of the reach of farmers. Few think of New York as an agricultural state, but in many ways it still is. According to David Haight, New York State director of the American Farmland Trust, farmland makes up around 7 million acres of the 30 million acres in New York State, and almost 30 percent of privately owned land. Agriculture is a $4.5-billion-a-year business. New York is in the top three nationally in production of dairy goods, maple syrup, corn, wine, apples, pumpkins and cabbage. As always, it’s a very mixed picture — witness the plight of hundreds of dairy farmers trying to survive the severe price drops of recent years, the fact that a farm in New York disappears every third day, or the looming issue of gas drilling upstate. Still, there is optimism, much of it a reflection of the success — albeit a niche success — of the local-food movement in farmers’ markets and other direct sales to consumers and restaurants. “We began this 20 years ago, and it seemed like a totally crazy idea; people said that’s a New York scheme they hadn’t heard about before,” said Jean-Paul Courtens, whose Roxbury Farm began in 1990 supplying food directly to 30 families and now supplies about 1,400 in New York City, Westchester and Columbia Counties and the Capital District. “We’ve come a long way.” Benjamin Shute is an example of how much the dynamic has reached beyond traditional farmers. In college at Amherst, he got interested in the kinds of food issues raised by the author Michael Pollan. He decided to go into farming. “It felt like something that was real, honest and productive,” he said. “I didn’t want to be repackaging mortgages and questioning my role in society.” At 32, he is co-owner of the Hearty Roots Community Farm in Red Hook, N.Y., now in its seventh growing season. It mostly grows mixed vegetable crops, and it serves 600 households in three towns in the Hudson Valley and three neighborhoods in Brooklyn. He’s a founding board member of the National Young Farmers Coalition and wants to make agriculture his life’s work. But he’s doing it on 25 rented acres. The first property Mr. Shute farmed on was sold for nonfarm purposes, and there’s no guarantee his current arrangement will go beyond its five-year lease. These days, Mr. Courtens and Mr. Shute have no problem selling everything they grow. But they agree that the single biggest issue facing farmers, particularly in the mid-Hudson Valley and the Catskills, is the availability of land — whether current farm families can afford to keep their land growing crops rather than McMansions, or prospective farmers can find a place to farm. There is plenty of buzz in the air about new farming models. That’s the easy part. Figuring out the land issues that translate to something on the ground and under it, that’s a lot harder.

Farmers
Local Food
Hudson River Valley (NY)


Romney Tries to Woo Conservatives at CPAC

Abstract: WASHINGTON — For more than an hour Thursday afternoon, Mitt Romney huddled with a small gathering of leaders in the conservative movement, potential emissaries to those who have so far proved most wary of embracing him as the Republican Party ’s nominee. About three dozen evangelical organizers, conservative writers and Tea Party activists were in the room at the Marriott Wardman Park, and the largely friendly group politely grilled him over nuts and soda about his positions on social issues and pressed him on his surprising losses during Tuesday’s presidential contests. Not in attendance: many of those in the conservative movement who have questioned Mr. Romney’s commitment to their causes — their absence underscoring the challenge he faces in winning them over. Several said Thursday that they had been invited, but declined. Others said Mr. Romney’s campaign had not reached out to them this week. The private meeting, which the campaign described as an opportunity for Mr. Romney to “reconnect” with social conservatives after a grueling period of campaigning, was the closed-door prequel to a public effort that will come on Friday at the Conservative Political Action Conference, when Mr. Romney and his opponents in the Republican nominating fight will address a Washington gathering of nearly 10,000 activists. In a speech to the broader group Friday afternoon, Mr. Romney will seek to reassure social conservatives, deficit and national security hawks, and evangelical voters that they are a crucial part of the coalition he is building. “As he tries to bring this party together, it’s critical that he reaches out to them, that he is there to address those issues that they might have some questions about,” said Bay Buchanan, a longtime conservative activist who is helping Mr. Romney court the party’s right wing and who attended the private meeting. “You have to do something to bring them aboard.” The effort to assuage conservatives could not come at a more critical time for Mr. Romney, who watched on Tuesday as hard-core Republican activists in three states shouted their preference for what they considered Rick Santorum ’s authentic brand of conservatism. The triple-state loss to Mr. Santorum was an embarrassment to Mr. Romney just as he was trying to pivot away from his Republican rivals toward a general election matchup with President Obama . And it was a reminder of the weakness that he has demonstrated among conservative voters in the early contests this year. The CPAC conference will likely be another stark reminder. The halls of the Marriott Wardman Park hotel in Washington are once again filled with the most fervent believers in conservative causes. And Mr. Santorum’s surprising victories on Tuesday have many of them buzzing with anticipation for his appearance, which precedes Mr. Romney’s. Supporters flew in from as far away as California to register their support for Mr. Santorum as his campaign sought to use the momentum from Tuesday’s victories to charge his campaign. Hogan Gidley, a spokesman for Mr. Santorum, said Thursday in a Twitter posting that the campaign had registered its second straight day of million-dollar fund-raising. “Numbers keep pouring in,” Mr. Gidley wrote. Jennifer Jones , 27, said Thursday that she had joined about 50 others from Los Angeles to support Mr. Santorum, taking an overnight flight after being inspired by the candidate’s Tuesday victories. Jason Jones, 40, a film producer and anti- abortion activist from Glendale, Calif., said he “called all my friends to urge them to come.” Several conservatives said Mr. Santorum’s victories this week have quickly turned around the skepticism that many felt about his rag-tag campaign, which has struggled to raise money and build an organization. “The only concern that most conservatives have about Rick is whether he could win. He’s rapidly dispelling that concern,” said Richard Land, the president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention . By contrast, Mr. Land, who has not endorsed a candidate, said Mr. Romney would be greeted warmly — but with lingering suspicion — by the conservatives at CPAC. “You can’t undo what you’ve done,” Mr. Land said. “He was a governor of Massachusetts . He did run against Ted Kennedy . And in both cases, he was a moderate.” “There are still conservatives who wonder if in his heart of hearts he really loves them.” Mr. Land added. “They are not going to wonder that about Rick Santorum.” On Saturday, activists attending the conference will be invited to cast ballots in a straw poll to determine their preference for a presidential candidate. For the last two years, supporters of Representative Ron Paul of Texas have managed to overwhelm the other contenders to come out on top. This time, Mr. Paul is skipping the conference for a campaign stop in Maine . Aides to Mr. Romney shrugged off the straw poll, saying it was a meaningless exercise. The campaign said it was taking its usual approach to nonbinding, unofficial preference surveys — mostly ignoring them. Mr. Romney plans to use his speech to highlight his social and conservative credentials even as he contrasts his own leadership style with that of Mr. Obama and his Republican rivals, aides said. He will also push back against attacks — like those that have come from Newt Gingrich and Mr. Santorum — that he is a moderate. “We’re not going to let those false attacks stand,” said Gail Gitcho, the communications director for Mr. Romney’s campaign. “Governor Romney will go there and make the case for his campaign — that he is a conservative businessman and the only one who can beat Barack Obama .” But the results of the CPAC balloting — which will be announced on Saturday — could provide another psychological boost for Mr. Santorum, and, if Mr. Romney loses, could be a blow to him just when he needs help changing the narrative from Tuesday’s losses. James Bopp Jr., a veteran social conservative who endorsed Mr. Romney last week, dismissed his candidate’s losses this week as the result of a “tactical decision” not to campaign in those states. And he said Mr. Romney has done better than any of his rivals at achieving “broad acceptability” in the Republican Party. “The vast majority of Republicans and conservatives, their purpose is to defeat President Obama and replace him with a conservative,” Mr. Bopp said. “I think there’s an increasing consensus that Romney is the most acceptable and electable candidate.” But that view is not shared by some in the conservative movement. Tony Perkins, the president of the Family Research Council, predicted that Mr. Romney will be “received cordially” at the conference on Friday, but added that “whether it will be enthusiastic or not, I’m not so sure.” Mr. Perkins, who is not endorsing anyone in the race, said that Tuesday’s victories by Mr. Santorum had reinforced for conservatives the idea that the race is far from over. He predicted that the Republican campaign might not be finished until the August convention. “A week ago, the thought would have been that Romney comes here to close the deal,” Mr. Perkins said. “Instead, now his conservative credentials have to be on display. Instead of getting the activists to sign on the dotted line, he’s still trying to get his foot in the door.”

Mitt Romney
2012 Presidential Election
Rick Santorum
Conservatism in the United States


Mired Talks on Trade to Resume

Abstract: PARIS, Aug. 31 — Negotiators in Geneva are set to resume talks on world trade on Monday at the start of another crucial period for the stalled negotiations, which began in 2001 and have been on the verge of collapse for months. Discussions will focus on agriculture, one of the main obstacles to an accord, with negotiations on industrial issues and the trade of manufactured goods scheduled for the week after. The director general of the World Trade Organization , Pascal Lamy, will meet with trade ministers from the Asia and Pacific region in Sydney, Australia, from Wednesday through Friday. Over the next two months, Mr. Lamy will have to decide whether enough progress has been made in negotiations to merit a full ministerial meeting on the so-called Doha round, named after the capital city of Qatar where the talks began. In July, the chairmen of the negotiating committees in Geneva published draft proposals on the scope of cuts in tariffs and subsidies, as the basis for a possible agreement, which backers say would increase economic growth and lift more people in developing countries out of poverty. To achieve that, they are seeking to lower customs duties around the world, cut the level of subsidies to farmers in the United States and force the European Union to reduce tariffs and get rid of export subsidies. While officials say that the gap has been narrowed in the negotiations, it remains unclear whether there will be enough political impetus to close a deal by the end of the year. In a speech in mid-August, Mr. Lamy argued that, “given what is already on offer on the negotiating table, and what remains to be done, my sense is that concluding this negotiation is both necessary and doable.” That analysis was disputed by France’s finance minister, Christine Lagarde, on Thursday. “The gap among the parties is too wide,” she said during a speech to executives near Paris, according to Bloomberg News. “For now, I don’t see it.”

International Trade and World Market
Agriculture
World Trade Organization
Lamy Pascal
Geneva (Switzerland)


From Blocking Sled to Bobsled for Football Players

Abstract: LAKE PLACID, N.Y. — Caleb Campbell received curious glances and furrowed eyebrows — just like other athletes before him. He is the latest in the lineage of football players turned bobsledders. The Detroit Lions selected Campbell, a safety from Army, in the seventh round of last year’s college draft. As the N.F.L. season drew near, the Lions received a letter from the Army stating that its professional athlete policy had been revised . It wanted Campbell to serve a two-year commitment. As he drove from Detroit back to West Point, Campbell received a call from the assistant United States bobsled coach Bill Tavares, asking him to try out for the team. Campbell’s only familiarity with the sport came from watching “ Cool Runnings ,” a Disney movie loosely based on a Jamaican bobsled team. “I did it last year and saw some of my friends, and they would look at me and say: ‘I heard a funny joke the other day. Somebody told me you were bobsledding,’ ” Campbell said. “Nobody really knows the correlation between football and bobsledding and how much of a relationship there is until they understand the sport of bobsled.” Although the two sports share little in common — there are no violent collisions between bobsledders — there is a kinship that had never been as evident as now when the United States team gathered here last week to participate in trials for the 2010 Olympic Games. Seven athletes vying for slots played college football. Nearly all played high school football. Football/bobsled synergy dates back almost 25 years. Brian Shimer , the United States men’s bobsled coach, played football at Morehead State and piloted a sled with the former Heisman Trophy winner Herschel Walker in the 1992 Winter Olympics. Willie Gault , a wide receiver who played in the N.F.L. for 11 seasons, was on the team at the Olympic Games four years earlier. Nearly all converted football players are bobsled pushers, who thrust the sled down the hill as fast as they can at the start of the race before hopping in. Their frames are nearly uniform — around 6 feet 2, 220 pounds. “We can’t get the real big guys,” Tavares said. “They just won’t fit in the sled.” “We’re heavier guys, explosive and strong,” said Jesse Beckom III , a former Iowa State linebacker. “Moving a 400-pound sled across the ice, you need some powerful, fast guys. You can hit the sled. You miss hitting people, but it’s definitely still an adrenaline rush.” The surge is present in both sports. In football it is sustained over a few hours. In bobsled, it is a spiked rush that many athletes said reached higher proportions and is an overload of senses and blurs. “It’s like you’re on a roller coaster and you’re going downhill real fast, it just kind of sucks at you and wants to pull you out of the sled,” Campbell said. Both sports are highly technical. Athletes search for optimal angles. The training is similar, with each reliant on weight lifting and sprinting. A large difference is that the movement in bobsled is vertical instead of in all directions. And, of course, bobsledders travel at speeds that can hit 5 g-forces. “It’s not the craziest thing, well, it may be the craziest thing I’ve done,” said Curt Tomasevicz , a former linebacker at Nebraska, who placed sixth in four-man at the 2006 Olympics. Jamie Moriarty was intrigued watching Tomasevicz perform. He read the backgrounds of bobsledders and discovered that many had football dotted on their athletic résumés. Four members of Moriarty’s family played in the N.F.L., including his father, Tom, and uncle, Pat, who is the Baltimore Ravens’ vice president of football administration. At Cornell, Jamie Moriarty played safety. If other athletes could make the switch, he figured he could as well. He finished fifth at the 2009 United States National Bobsled Push Championship. “You can’t really play pickup football at the same level as maybe pickup basketball or something,” Moriarty said. “This is a great outlet to still compete at a high level.” Shimer was part of the first wave of football players who crossed over to bobsledding in 1985. Some European countries had already started recruiting players from track and field and soccer. They further advanced the sport from its humble beginnings. The origin of the sport’s name stems from how athletes originally started bobbing back and forth on the sled — there were no pushers — to gain momentum. John Morgan, a former United States bobsled executive director, sent out his own pitch to college athletes. One of his letters fell on the desk at Morehead State’s athletics department. Morgan asked Shimer to try it out. With a free plane ticket and the chance to travel, Shimer agreed and has not looked back. “Within three years, I was competing in my first Olympic Games,” Shimer said. “I never thought that could ever happen like if you didn’t have skates on your feet by the age of 2, you couldn’t be a great hockey player or figure skater. “But bobsledding is a unique sport,” Shimer said. “We can take great athletes and make them exceptional bobsledders in a few years.” Campbell is a novice and is a long shot to make the team; there will be another trial later this week in Park City, Utah. His athleticism and strength are there. And, more important, it has been an outlet for Campbell. He questioned if he wanted to continue with athletics after he could not go straight to the N.F.L. After Tavares’s phone call, he returned to West Point and helped coach the football team. The competitive juices were still there. He hopes to sign with an N.F.L. team when his military commitment expires. “I wore the uniform and I was excited to wear the uniform,” Campbell said of his duties. “In a way, it would have been a blessing to play football. But it was also a blessing not to play. I’m maturing as a man and I’m maturing as an athlete.”

Bobsledding
Football
College Athletics
Campbell Caleb
Shimer Brian