Bratton Gives Revolving Door One More Spin

Abstract: As a private consultant in 2002, William J. Bratton advised a federal monitor for the troubled Los Angeles Police Department. A few months later, Mr. Bratton was appointed the city’s police chief, binding him to practices that he had helped shape and placing him under the supervision of the monitor, Michael G. Cherkasky, his friend and former boss at the consulting firm. When Mr. Bratton stepped down as police chief in 2009, he went to work with Mr. Cherkasky again, back in the world of private security consulting. A revolving door between government service and the corporate world has long been a feature of politics, and police officials often pursue second careers after hanging up their uniforms. But few have done so with Mr. Bratton’s breadth and fluidity. Equally comfortable with boardroom jargon and precinct slang, he parlayed his national reputation for wrestling down crime in New York in the 1990s into an international brand. Now, his return to New York City for a second tour as police commissioner may create an awkward situation for Mr. Bratton, who sits on the boards of two companies who hope to do business with the city, and is a senior adviser to a third. One of them is ShotSpotter, which uses a system of outdoor microphones to pinpoint the locations of gunshots. Mr. Bratton is resigning from all three positions — forfeiting hundreds of thousands of dollars in pay — in an effort to head off any potential conflicts of interest. “I don’t see any issues at all going forward,” he said in an interview on Friday, his first since being named commissioner. “And if there is an issue that comes up, then I’ll just recuse myself from any part of the decision making on it.” In all, Mr. Bratton, 66, spent a decade doling out advice to police departments from Birmingham, Ala., to Oakland, Calif., and giving speeches about the importance of collaboration. Earlier this year, he unveiled BlueLine , a social media network for law enforcement officers. Mayors have hired his consulting company, the Bratton Group , and corporations as varied as the drugstore chain Rite Aid and Smart Cop Inc., a security software business based in Florida, have had him on their boards. A leader who relishes straddling worlds, whether dining with the powerful or patrolling the streets, Mr. Bratton bounded up the corporate ladder just as he had through police ranks. But his private career was not always a clear success. At times, he ran up against the limits of his influence, he said, finding that officials listened less to a consultant than to a commander. His time as chairman of the global risk management firm Kroll ended unceremoniously. “You soon discover that consulting is not commanding,” said John Timoney, a first deputy commissioner under Mr. Bratton in New York who now advises Bahrain on policing. “You’re not in charge.” Mr. Bratton, echoing that sentiment, said, “It’s not as, quite frankly, fun as making decisions.” Over the years, he has become associated with several prominent companies that do business — or want to do business — with the city and its Police Department. Motorola, which put Mr. Bratton on its board and paid him about $240,000 in cash and stock awards in 2012, has made at least $63 million from city contracts since 2010, mostly for telecommunications technology, according to public records. (That figure may be higher; the Police Department does not make all of its contracts publicly available, citing security concerns.) Kroll has earned roughly $1.8 million from city contracts since 2010. A spokesman for the firm’s holding company, Altegrity, where Mr. Bratton was also a chairman, would not discuss his pay at the privately held company. In May, Mr. Bratton joined the board of ShotSpotter, a private company. The company lobbied the city in 2009 but was not selected for testing in New York City. The Police Department said it later tested gunshot detection technology from Safety Dynamics, a competitor, and found too many false positives. However, ShotSpotter’s fortunes appear likely to improve under Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio, who said on his campaign website that he “will invest” in the company’s technology for high-crime areas. Before then, Mr. Bratton will resign from the board, said Ralph A. Clark, the chief executive of ShotSpotter, which is based in Newark, Calif.; he would not comment on Mr. Bratton’s pay for the position. Mr. Bratton said he and Mr. de Blasio “never had a conversation about ShotSpotter,” adding that “if the city were to go forward on whatever proposal that company might make, that’s an example of something I’d have to recuse myself from.” Video Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio announced William J. Bratton as his choice for commissioner of the New York City Police Department. Credit Credit Ozier Muhammad/The New York Times Mr. Bratton said he was also stepping down from the board of Motorola. He added that he would not give paid speeches or consult with outside governments while police commissioner, and was working with the city’s Conflicts of Interest Board to comply with city law on his other business engagements. As commissioner in the 1990s, Mr. Bratton courted executives like Jack Welch of General Electric to talk to commanders at Police Headquarters, and flew on the private jets of his friends. (He later reimbursed his friends — paying nearly $12,000 — after the flights and stays at their homes came to the public’s attention.) Outside government, Mr. Bratton mixed easily with powerful business leaders, who saw him both as a strategic thinker and as a personality who lent credibility to their endeavors and opened avenues into public sector work. He transformed his data-driven approach to crime into a lucrative career as a global management consultant for the police. Chuck Wexler, the director of the nonprofit Police Executive Research Forum, said Mr. Bratton’s rise coincided with the thinking two decades ago about the impact of good police leadership on crime. “And if you think about it,” he said, “there are not a lot of people who can speak to it at the level of Bratton.” The Bratton Group, a private company founded in 1999, has one employee — Mr. Bratton — but brings together teams of former law enforcement officials to consult police departments in places like Baltimore, Detroit and Mamaroneck, N.Y. Almost immediately after leaving the New York Police Department, Mr. Bratton found himself scooped up by a private security firm based in Boston. By 1997, he was back on patrol — in the favelas of the Brazilian coastal city of Fortaleza, where he found officers eager for his counsel. But while Mr. Bratton found receptive partners in Brazil, he also bumped up against the realities of life as a consultant on the other side of the blue wall. Despite a rousing welcome in Caracas, Venezuela, in 2001, complete with a police band rendition of “New York, New York,” Mr. Bratton faced political realities beyond his control. The city’s mayor, Alfredo Peña, and the country’s president, Hugo Chávez, were at odds; the police became political; and an American’s advice was suddenly suspect. Soon, graffiti appeared on the streets: “Bratton Go Home.” Around 1999, Mr. Cherkasky, the federal monitor in Los Angeles and president of Kroll at the time, brought Mr. Bratton to the private security firm. “Brand, brand, brand,” said Mr. Cherkasky, describing his reasons for hiring him that first time and then again in 2009, at Altegrity. Mr. Bratton, he said, could attract business by reputation alone. “He’s getting calls from the prime minister of the United Kingdom,” Mr. Cherkasky said. Mr. Bratton announced his departure from the Los Angeles Police Department in 2009, a month after a federal judge began phasing out oversight by the federal monitor, Mr. Cherkasky, who had recommended the judge do so. Critics complained that that resolution appeared to be curiously well timed, since Mr. Bratton returned to work for Mr. Cherkasky right after. “It raises the obvious question of whether the consent decree was really comprehensive and thoroughgoing, or if Cherkasky and Bratton were in a hurry to move on,” said Tom Hayden, a former California state senator. Mr. Bratton’s time as chairman at Altegrity turned rocky, according to several former employees of the company, who requested anonymity because they were not permitted to discuss internal dealings. “There were a lot of departures,” a former managing partner said. “If you’ve got a smoothly running operation, people tend not to jump ship.” Mr. Cherkasky said that after he left Altegrity in 2011, “it did not go great” for Mr. Bratton, who had become a nonexecutive chairman at Kroll after Altegrity purchased the company. Mr. Bratton did not have a role in the day-to-day operations or management of the company, he said, adding that his position “was not particularly stimulating or satisfying to me.” He would not comment on whether problems arose while he was employed there, and said he left when his three-year contract ended. A spokesman for Altegrity, which is owned by Providence Equity Partners, a private equity firm, would not discuss the details of Mr. Bratton’s tenure or make any employees available for an interview. Mr. Bratton kept a corner office at Kroll’s Manhattan headquarters and remained a senior adviser after leaving his post as chairman last year. On the fourth floor, near Mr. Bratton’s office, a champagne toast this month signaled an end to his ties there. “Bill will be stepping down,” the company said in a statement. “We wish him all the best in his new role.”

William J Bratton
NYPD
Conflict of interest
NYC
Motorola
Kroll Associates
Altegrity


Members of Al Qaeda in Iraq Clash With Government Troops

Abstract: CAIRO — Insurgents from Al Qaeda in Iraq clashed with the country’s security forces on Thursday, the second attack this week in what the insurgent group’s leader has depicted as a new offensive aimed at recapturing lost ground. The attack came as Syrian refugees tried to flee across the Iraqi border, joining migrations to Turkey and Lebanon over the past week. At a border crossing near Al Qaim, Iraq , where the Syrian side of the border was under rebel control, more than 2,000 Syrian refugees arrived in recent days, said Saadoun Shallan, head of the Anbar Provincial Council. At least 12 people were killed in an attack in Diyala Province, including five Iraqi policemen and seven militants, a police official said. The Associated Press reported that an Iraqi helicopter was shot down, but Iraqi officials said it had only been damaged. The fighting began Wednesday night in Hadid, a town about six miles northwest of Baquba. The area was once an insurgent stronghold. “It was fierce fighting and lasted several hours between the security forces and Al Qaeda fighters,” said Blaer Hassan, a provincial security official in Diyala. “This is a setback because we are worried about the capacity of Iraqi forces in the face of the growing strength of Al Qaeda,” he added. On Sunday, the leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq, who uses the pseudonym Abu Bakir al-Baghdadi, announced in an unusual audio recording, posted on a jihadi Web site, that an offensive was about to begin in which the insurgents would seek to regain ground they had held in Iraq before American forces helped oust them. The next day, the group began a coordinated series of at least 40 attacks that killed more than 100 people throughout Iraq. Al Qaeda has also announced its intention to join the conflict in Syria on the side of the popular uprising there, although opposition leaders have disavowed any connection with extremist groups.


Christie’s Re-election Engine Gets in Gear for a Bigger Race

Abstract: BOSTON — He has hired specialists in microtargeting who worked for the presidential campaigns of Mitt Romney and George W. Bush. He has built a sprawling, 50-state fund-raising network, including major Republican players like Harold Simmons, the billionaire backer of a Karl Rove-led “super PAC” that spent $105 million in the 2012 race. And he is pouring resources into an effort to attract blacks, Hispanics and women to prove that he is a new kind of Republican. As Gov. Chris Christie heads for what is expected to be an easy re-election, he is also quietly building a sophisticated political operation that could become the basis for a national campaign. His advisers, while saying the governor is focused on New Jersey, are aiming to run up a huge margin against his Democratic opponent and position Mr. Christie as a formidable figure among Republicans ahead of the next presidential primary. At the Republican National Committee summer meeting in Boston last week, Mr. Christie and his aides repeatedly made the case that his re-election effort in heavily Democratic New Jersey this fall would offer a model for Republicans in the years ahead. And despite their claims to be focused only on 2013, his aides have also signaled to Republicans that the governor, if re-elected as expected, plans to begin visiting other states immediately after November. Mr. Christie’s appearance at the twice-annual gathering of Republican state officials was significant. In addition to courting the conservative-leaning party activists, he met privately with two Republicans who could be helpful in a presidential race: Spencer Zwick, Mr. Romney’s well-connected chief fund-raiser, and Scott P. Brown, the former Republican senator from Massachusetts who is considering a Senate run in New Hampshire, which holds the first presidential primary. Already, Mr. Christie is assembling the kind of national fund-raising network that would be essential to a presidential campaign; some 35 percent of the $9 million he has raised for his re-election is from out of state, and he has held fund-raisers around the country, both in donor-rich enclaves like Palm Beach, Fla., and McLean, Va., and in Minneapolis, Pittsburgh, Chicago and throughout California. Thanks to his prominence, and the fact that New Jersey is one of only two states with contests for governor this year, Mr. Christie has been able to cultivate big donors around the country. “Under the guise of his re-election, he’s able to meet these folks and say, ‘I need your help,’ ” Mr. Rove said. The governor has tapped some boldface contributors like the Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. But more important for his future ambitions are the checks he has gathered from loyal Republican givers like Mr. Simmons, the deep-pocketed Dallas political patron, and lesser-known local power players like Dax R. Swatek, an Alabama lobbyist. “I wrote him a check because, first, I think, as a Republican in New Jersey doing what he’s been able to do is pretty damn impressive,” said Mr. Swatek, who is close to many of his state’s leading Republicans. “Secondly, looking at it long-term, the way the presidential map is, it is going to be very difficult for Republicans to win without going into some states that are purple and blue. To me, the guy can do it.” Not all of Mr. Christie’s donors this year can be counted on to support him if he runs for president in 2016. But winning the backing of people like Mr. Swatek, who can raise money from a wide variety of sources, helps the governor reach potential presidential donors in other state capitals and business communities across the country. Mike DuHaime, Mr. Christie’s chief strategist, has also reached out to Mercer Reynolds, a Cincinnati executive who is one of the Republican Party’s top contributors and was Mr. Bush’s finance chair in 2000. Earlier this month, Mr. Christie held a fund-raiser at a Las Vegas hotel owned by the casino magnate Sheldon Adelson. Mr. Adelson and his wife, two of the biggest contributors to Republicans last year, were listed as co-hosts and each gave Mr. Christie the maximum contribution of $3,800. Of course, the governor has a long way to go to prove to Republicans nationally that he can be the party standard-bearer, and some conservative activists are still smarting over his embrace of President Obama in the days after Hurricane Sandy. And New Jersey voters may resent what they see as his exploiting state issues to appeal to the conservative wing of the national party. The governor recently vetoed $7.5 million in family planning spending and Friday vetoed three gun-control measures. Barbara Buono, his opponent in the governor’s race, frequently says he “would rather be campaigning in the cornfields of Iowa.” According to an analysis by Democrats, since last August Mr. Christie was outside of New Jersey for all or part of 91 days, or roughly 24 percent of the time. Mr. Christie emphasized that much of that out-of-state travel was for nonpolitical trips. Senior Republicans who are familiar with Mr. Christie’s strategy say it is most closely modeled after Mr. Bush’s bid in 1998 for re-election as governor of Texas. The parallels are clear. Mr. Bush was considered a shoo-in for re-election to the governor’s office, but he and Mr. Rove became determined to win over Hispanic and black voters to demonstrate the governor’s broad appeal to a national audience. Mr. Bush won that race, with 68 percent of the vote, which included more than a third of the Hispanic vote, offering him a powerful credential when he ran for president two years later as “a different kind of Republican.” This summer, Mr. Christie established a bilingual campaign office in Paterson, N.J., and spent $275,000 on a Spanish-language television ad. He has also announced a Hispanics for Christie coalition and is now running even among Hispanic voters against Ms. Buono, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released 10 days ago. “He’s going to emphasize first trying to win a big re-election with a diverse coalition behind him,” Mr. Rove said. Despite his lead, Mr. Christie is spending expansively to enhance his targeting of voters this year. While his core team is filled with fixtures of presidential politics — including Mr. DuHaime, the ad man Russell J. Schriefer, the communications director Maria Comella and the campaign chairman, William J. Palatucci — he has brought aboard a new Republican firm, Deep Root Analytics. The group includes strategists from Mr. Bush’s 2004 campaign and the consultants who ran Mr. Romney’s data effort last year, and is helping Mr. Christie direct his advertising more precisely by determining what voters are watching on TV, and from that, deciding what ads to air and when. (Mr. Obama’s campaign used the same technology in 2012.) “The unspoken element in the room is that this could potentially be a test of what works and what doesn’t” for a presidential contest, said a Republican with knowledge of the inner workings of the campaign who spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid antagonizing Mr. Christie’s circle. The timing gives Mr. Christie distinct advantages: If he prevails in November, he will be handed a big national platform — the chairmanship of the Republican Governors Association. The position will give him a reason, and ample time, to travel the country, meet with activists and candidates, and raise unlimited money for the association, freed from federal and state regulations that limit him as governor from seeking contributions from those that do business with the state. Early primary states, including Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, are holding governors’ races next year, so Mr. Christie will surely visit. And he will ultimately get to play the role of political Santa Claus inside the Republican Party, distributing millions in campaign cash to grateful governors and would-be governors. Even if Mr. Christie is well-positioned, however, skepticism toward him within the Republican base is still real. And, despite the warm reception he received in Boston, some resistance was apparent. “I just really had a little bit of a problem with him embracing Obama,” explained Paul Reynolds, the national Republican committeeman from Alabama, after Mr. Christie spoke. “I’ve got to get over that.” The broader challenge for Mr. Christie regarding party activists is that he is not seen as sufficiently tough on a president the Republican base loathes, and is too quick to throw an elbow at other Republicans, as he did with Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky on national security issues last month. William Kristol, the editor of the conservative Weekly Standard who recently met privately with Mr. Christie over pizza, said the governor must avoid being seen as the Republican who likes to beat up on his own party. “The party hates that and they will not forgive it,” Mr. Kristol said. “A Republican who simply comes from a different part of the country, has a few differences on issues but respects the actual Republican primary voter worldview — that’s a different story. That’s the line Christie needs to walk. He doesn’t have to be a red state Republican, but he needs to respect red state Republicans.”

Chris Christie
Gubernatorial races
New Jersey
2016 Presidential Election
Republicans


Mavericks Begin With Roster in Flux and a Focus on Repeating

Abstract: DALLAS — Even as they spoke of repeating as champions, the Dallas Mavericks were not sure exactly who would embark on the defense of their title on Christmas Day here against the Miami Heat. Depleted by free agency, Dallas opened training camp Friday with 10 players at its American Airlines Center practice facility, including the newly signed forward Brandan Wright. As the Los Angeles Lakers, the New Orleans Hornets and the Houston Rockets jousted with the league over the blockbuster Chris Paul trade, the Mavericks clearly have been cast as an afterthought in the Western Conference, a role Jason Kidd likened to last season’s low expectations. “People thought we were a team that wouldn’t even get out of the first round,” Kidd said. “Maybe that’s the same label. For us, it’s something that we learned last year. You’ve just got to go out there and play and see what happens.” Forward Shawn Marion said: “We’ve been proving doubters wrong all the time. We’re good at that. We’re probably going to have some more pieces here, but for the most part we’re ready to go.” Tyson Chandler’s expected departure to the Knicks created the biggest void, and Mavericks Coach Rick Carlisle officially announced Brendan Haywood as the new starting center. Beyond that, the Mavericks figure to scramble. Caron Butler, injured most of last season, left for the Clippers. Guard J. J. Barea, who played a pivotal role in their title run, is reportedly in discussions with at least six teams and is not expected back. DeShawn Stevenson is also not likely to return. Peja Stojakovic and Brian Cardinal were pondering their free-agent options and were not at the first practice. “I’m anxious to see what are roster is going to end up looking like because it’s obviously not complete yet,” Carlisle said. “We had some guys that did some great things for us here that probably aren’t going to be back,” Carlisle said. “But that’s part of the circle of life in the N.B.A. We’re all going to adjust. Guys are going to step up into some opportunistic situations. We plan on defending our crown with a lot of pride.” All optimism centers on the aging nucleus of Kidd, who turns 39 in March; Dirk Nowitzki , 33; Jason Terry, 34, and Marion, 33. Kidd, entering his 18th season, said he wanted to play another three years and hoped to end his career with the Mavericks. “Hopefully, my talent will stay at a respectable level where I can help a team out,” he said. “I’d love to stay here and finish it out. I’d like to get to 20 years.” Kidd said he even told Nowitzki he wanted to keep playing so that the two could retire together. A joke, perhaps, but he and the older Mavericks clearly do not want to let go of their late-career success. “The makeup of the team is probably going to be a little different, but that’s just the business of basketball,” Kidd said. “That happens. But we still believe we can win. We’re going to take pride in trying to protect our championship.” The Mavericks steered away from any comments about the Lakers and the trade controversy surrounding Paul and the N.B.A. Carlisle insisted he was only concerned about who was in camp, even if it was only 10 players for the first practice. “The N.B.A. will take care of whatever that situation is,” Kidd said. “For me, it’s trying to figure out here what we have to do to win.”

Basketball
Dallas Mavericks
Carlisle Rick
Nowitzki Dirk
Kidd Jason
Haywood Brendan
Chandler Tyson


Exploring Anarchism in a Play at the Library

Abstract: In spite of an emphatically bourgeois background, the Miser, as a youngster, fancied himself enough of an anarchist to scrawl the famous symbol of a capital A enclosed in a circle on his denim jacket in indelible black ink. Subsequent efforts actually to understand anarchism revealed its philosophical depth and long history. Two of the more remarkable figures in that history are Emma Goldman, the Lithuanian-born anarchist writer, theorist and orator, and Mary Wollstonecraft, wife of the proto-anarchist philosopher William Godwin and author of the seminal feminist text “A Vindication of the Rights of Woman.” Had they met, Wollstonecraft and Goldman, born nearly 100 years apart, probably would have had much to talk about. That tantalizing thought drives “ Emma Meets Mary ,” a play by the New York performer and playwright Lorna Lable. You can see it free this Saturday at the New York Public Library’s Bloomingdale branch on the Upper West Side. Set in a sort of heaven for radicals, the show is a lighthearted take on a fictional duel between two serious and influential minds. (Saturday at 2 p.m., 150 West 100th Street, Manhattan; 212-222-8030, nypl.org.) COMFORT IN PHOTOGRAPHY Around the time Goldman emigrated to New York, in the mid-1880s, a young woman living on Staten Island was taking her first photographs with a camera given to her by an uncle. The woman, Alice Austen, would eventually be recognized as a pioneering female photographer whose subjects ranged from pastoral scenes and documentary work to more experimental tableaus, as well as daily life at her family’s home, a waterfront estate on Hylan Boulevard known as Clear Comfort. The house, declared a landmark by the city in 1971 and now a museum known simply as the Alice Austen House, has recently undergone a substantial restoration and is hosting a Community Open House this Saturday. The free afternoon-long affair includes tours of the house and garden and live performances organized by Deep Tanks Studio . (Saturday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., 2 Hylan Boulevard, near Edgewater Street, Rosebank; 718-816-4506, aliceausten.org.)

Theater
NYPL
Emma Meets Mary
Lorna Lable
Alice Austen
Alice Austen House Museum
Historic preservation
Staten Island


Talking Parades With the Police

Abstract: Dear Diary: On my first Halloween in Gotham City, an old boyfriend and I retreated to the warmth of a deli on 50th Street. We had tried to go to the parade, but I was too cold in my flowy, black, not-meant-for-New-York-autumn skirt. We were dressed as Batman and Batwoman. I had spent hours perfecting a Batwoman mask painted onto my forehead and cheeks. When I was two bites into my deli cheeseburger, three police officers approached the section where we were seated. One of the officers nonchalantly invited himself to our table, pulling up a chair. He asked us what seemed like 20,000 questions: how old we were, how we met, our plans for the night and so on. I felt confused, nervous and slightly ridiculous in my costume. The officer’s female partner, sitting a few tables away, laughed. She eventually yelled at him to leave us alone. The tension broken, we talked with the three officers for a while. We asked if they knew the best spot if we wanted to try another parade come Thanksgiving. They got a call on their radios and had to rush away. Just when I thought I had survived my first New York Police Department questioning, the woman officer pulled out her notebook and asked for names and phone numbers. My heart skipped a beat. Were we being given a ticket? Detained? For what? She smiled and said they would give us a call if they had any leads on good viewing spots for Thanksgiving morning. We never heard back, and left the Macy’s parade early because of the cold, too.


Young Jets Safety Emulates Veteran Teammate With Pivotal Play

Abstract: EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — The genesis of Antonio Allen’s blocked punt and touchdown in the second quarter Sunday can be traced back to last Monday, when the Jets’ special-teams coordinator, Ben Kotwica, told Allen to line up just off the center, rather than off the edge. Allen did not really know why. He said Kotwica had noticed something with Oakland’s long snapper, or maybe it was the tackle. Fighting for playing time, trying to establish himself as a playmaker, Allen was not about to question the move. Newly positioned, he burst through the middle of the line so smoothly it was as if he were being hoisted by pulleys. He could have blocked Marquette King’s punt with his sternum. “He put me in the perfect place to make the play,” Allen said of Kotwica. Allen fell on the ball in the end zone and braced himself for a pileup. But there was not a Raiders player within 10 yards. “It felt weird — they just let me loose,” Allen said. “I was surprised. I thought that the tackle was going to give me some kind of push, but he didn’t even touch me. He just let me go right through.” The score gave the Jets a 20-3 lead with 3 minutes 55 seconds left in the half. They were not exactly struggling to move the ball, but with the inconsistency of the offense this season, and their difficulties stopping Oakland, the early cushion was welcomed. “Sometimes you need special teams to pick up the defense,” Coach Rex Ryan said. “That’s the mark of a team.” On the sideline, Ed Reed congratulated Allen, a fellow safety, on his play, a game-changing score that might have reminded Reed a little bit of himself. An interesting dynamic has developed between the two players — one at the beginning of his career, the other in his professional twilight — since Reed arrived four weeks earlier and supplanted Allen in the starting lineup. At the time, it was viewed as a deferential move to a nine-time Pro Bowl selection and the N.F.L.’s active leader in interceptions with 62. The Jets hoped Reed, 35, would find comfort in Ryan’s system and turn back the clock to their days together in Baltimore. Of course, things did not exactly go that way, and Reed’s quiet first three games with the Jets opened him up to criticism. Questions were raised about his age and ability, and some wondered what role would be left for Allen. Allen, 25 and in his second season, wondered a bit about that himself. He said Sunday that he had been satisfied with his performance and progress for the first nine games of the season, before Reed arrived. “I thought I was having a pretty productive season,” he said. “I was thinking coming into the season, this was going to be my breakout year.” But what could have been a combative relationship has instead become a congenial one. Allen said he had benefited from Reed’s arrival and his mentorship on the practice field and in the locker room. “He gives me little tips to pick up on,” Allen said. “I try to follow him.” And so there Allen had been, on the sideline, congratulating Reed after his first interception of the season, which set the Jets up for a field goal on the series just before Allen’s blocked punt. “Nobody’s perfect playing this game,” Reed said. “I welcome anybody who wants to watch film with me. There’s a reason why I’m on this side of the fence.” Reed remained the starter Sunday, but Allen generally played on third downs and when Oakland’s mobile quarterback, Terrell Pryor, was in the game. Reed also appeared to have injured his right knee on a miscommunication with cornerback Antonio Cromartie, a midfield collision that resulted in a 48-yard Raiders touchdown. But he stayed in the game. “Ed had a nice pick and did a nice job of communicating things,” Ryan said. “We’re trying to take advantage of the talent that we have. We knew it would be a physical game, so we tried to put some of the youngsters in there to take some of the heat.” Afterward, one of those young players seemed like the happiest in the locker room. “It feels good to make a play on special teams,” Allen said. “I’ve been trying to make plays with whatever happens with my playing time. It’s big for me and big for the team.”


New York’s Sanitation Commissioner Faced First Major Test

Abstract: Kathryn Garcia stopped by Sanitation Department garages to check on her workers. She stood with Mayor Bill de Blasio to take questions about storm preparations. And she prepared herself for the snow that was threatening New York and would be the first big test of her tenure as the city’s sanitation commissioner. But she had started her day on Monday with an email from John J. Doherty , who preceded her as commissioner and who had risen to the top job after starting as a trash collector more than 50 years ago. The storm would turn out to be far less damaging than feared. But on Monday morning, with attention on the city and the Sanitation Department, and few people understood better what Ms. Garcia was facing than Mr. Doherty. He had worked for the department under eight mayoral administrations and he had heard every manner of snow-related sanitation complaint, not least last winter when a succession of storms battered the city and the new administration of Mr. de Blasio, which had asked Mr. Doherty to stay on through last winter. Image Mr. Garcia's predecessor as commissioner, John Doherty, sent an email with encouragement to her as the storm headed toward the New York region. Credit Nicole Bengiveno/The New York Times So it was that he emailed Ms. Garcia, with something of a digital pep talk. She had an experienced and effective work force, he reminded her. “Don’t worry; they’re going to do great,” Ms. Garcia recalled Mr. Doherty’s telling her. In an interview, Mr. Doherty said: “I just wanted to encourage her. I wanted to thank her as an old commissioner. I took some blows over the years.” Before departing last spring, Mr. Doherty had passed along some advice. “He gave me his secret list, as he likes to call it,” Ms. Garcia said. Mr. Doherty said it was a double-spaced, two-page checklist that included making sure to notify City Hall and reviewing alternate-side parking. Ms. Garcia, 44, however, had some experience of her own in big municipal crises. Before being named to lead the Sanitation Department, she was the chief operating officer of the Department of Environmental Protection , and on Monday, the mayor praised Ms. Garcia’s leadership in restoring operations at a wastewater treatment plant and 42 pumping stations within days of Hurricane Sandy . It was not her only big event at the environmental department, and more than once she had spent the night in her office at the agency. Late on Monday and early on Tuesday, she was again sleeping in an office, this time at the building on Worth Street that is the headquarters for the Sanitation Department’s operations.

Waste management
Hurricane Sandy
Sanitation Department NYC
Bill de Blasio


Municipal Bonds Are on a Tear, but for How Long?

Abstract: DESPITE warnings of defaults near the start of this year, municipal bond funds have turned in a Cinderella performance so far, even as many stock funds lost ground. Total returns for some muni funds were in the 10 percent range for the calendar year, although their 12-month returns were generally lower. Analysts and fund managers see continued good performance for intermediate and long-term muni funds, along with periods of high volatility. Miriam Sjoblom, lead bond fund analyst at Morningstar, said, “Muni bonds have had a great year, but yields across all levels are near all-time lows.” As a result, she said, “yields are likely to rise, so prices could fall.” Many fund shareholders have been “buying and selling at the wrong time,” Ms. Sjoblom said. There was a surge of sales last November, December and January, she added, amid fears that state and city fiscal woes could lead to waves of defaults. That hasn’t happened, and, she said, the funds have turned in “a great performance since then.” Still, muni bond funds had a net outflow of $1.01 billion in August, the Investment Company Institute said late last month. In Ms. Sjoblom’s opinion, the funds are appropriate for anyone seeking tax-exempt income in a regular account, not a retirement account. Investors should be prepared to hold them at least a year, or preferably several years. Given today’s low-yield environment, she said, investors should focus on no-load funds with low expenses, like those from Fidelity, Vanguard and T. Rowe Price. Investors should be aware of three other considerations when choosing a muni fund:  Interest paid by state and local governments and agencies is generally tax-exempt for in-state residents, but when people own bonds from another state — say, a Californian who invests in Texas bonds — their home states often tax the out-of-state interest. So many fund groups offer state-specific funds.  Capital gains that are incurred either when a portfolio manager trades holdings — or when an individual shareholder sells — are taxable.  Some municipal bonds, while exempt from regular taxes, are not exempt from alternative minimum taxes, so investors who face a perennial A.M.T. obligation should select funds with little or no A.M.T. exposure. Regina Shafer, who manages three municipal bond funds — short-term, intermediate-term and New York — for USAA in San Antonio , another no-load, low-expense organization, said, “Our goal is to provide as much tax-free income as possible and to try to be very tax-efficient and avoid taxable capital gains.” The market has changed greatly since 2008, she said. Before that disastrous year, she said, muni bond insurers guaranteed bonds’ triple-A ratings, “so an investor didn’t have to think” much about individual holdings. Now credit research is important, she said, and there is more interest-rate volatility, which brings opportunity. Ms. Shafer called muni bonds “a safe asset class” over all, pointing out that municipalities have taxing authority, unlike corporate issuers. Yields on munis in the 10- to 20-year range are actually higher than those of comparable Treasuries, which are taxable, making many munis very attractive right now, she said. In a similar vein, Jason T. Thomas, chief investment officer of Aspiriant, a national fee-only wealth management firm, said, “By almost every measure, municipal bonds are priced attractively relative to U.S. Treasuries and U.S. corporate bonds.” He contends that concerns about munis are overblown. The market is diverse, he said, and defaults have historically been rare, with 10-year cumulative default rates for all municipals of less than one-tenth of 1 percent. Aspiriant uses short-, intermediate- and long-term municipal funds from Vanguard and a commingled separate account for clients. In the high-yield part of the market, research and active management are crucial, he said, and his firm uses the Nuveen High Yield Municipal Bond fund, which Morningstar says had a total return of 10.05 percent for the first nine months of this year. The 10-year cumulative default rate for high-yield munis is just over one-half of 1 percent, he said, citing studies that have found that muni defaults often share these characteristics: They are issued by smaller entities for risky or nonessential projects like a municipal golf course, are not rated, or are rated by only one rating agency and are nongeneral obligation bonds. On the other hand, he said, these factors reduced the risk of defaults: a low current cost of debt service, opportunities for increased revenue like raising property taxes, efforts by governments to cut expenses, and the relatively high security of states’ general obligation bonds. And while states’ costly obligations for their pension plans are often cited as a worry, he said those obligations are long term in nature, giving plan sponsors time to make needed adjustments. Barnet Sherman, portfolio manager of the TIAA-CREF Tax-Exempt Bond fund, called munis “a tremendous value, a core part of a fixed-income portfolio.” His fund holds only investment-grade issues, no junk. The best returns come from long-term investments, he said, adding that munis are desirable because they finance schools, ports, hospitals — “the fabric of a community.”

Municipal Bonds
Local Government
Mutual Funds


Tougher Standards Set for U.S. Visa Waivers, Citing Militant Threat

Abstract: WASHINGTON — The Department of Homeland Security has toughened air travel requirements on foreign governments in response to what it believes is the growing threat from fighters who have gone to Syria and Iraq to join the Islamic State and other groups, senior American officials said Thursday. The changes will be applied to the so-called visa waiver program that the United States has with 38 countries. The program allows citizens of those countries to enter the United States on visits of fewer than 90 days without being interviewed for visas at American consulates and embassies. Countries participating in the program will now be required to allow more American air marshals on flights to the United States. They also must use passports that rely on biometric identifiers, like fingerprints, and have electronic chips that contain a photograph of the holder. Older passports typically do not have these features. A small percentage of travelers who entered the United States last year through the visa waiver program had the older passports. The countries will have to use computer programs and databases that automate the sharing of travel records and other information with the United States and that track lost and stolen passports. Many European countries — including Britain, Belgium, Germany and France — that have a large number of citizens who have traveled to Iraq and Syria are part of the waiver program. The Obama administration fears that these citizens might have received training while they were in Iraq or Syria and could then use the new expertise to wage attacks in the United States or on American airliners, the officials said. Last September, the United Nations Security Council adopted a resolution that called for countries to share more information about travelers in an effort to identify foreign fighters. While American intelligence agencies say they can track these combatants, some administration officials believe that other countries could be doing more. Where ISIS Has Directed and Inspired Attacks Around the World More than a dozen countries have had attacks since the Islamic State, or ISIS, began to pursue a global strategy in the summer of 2014. “As I have said a number of times now, the current global threat environment requires that we know more about those who travel to the United States,” Jeh Johnson, the secretary for homeland security, said in a written statement. “This includes those from countries for which we do not require a visa.” The Department of Homeland Security will also conduct a review of all the countries participating in the waiver program to determine whether they are following its requirements. Those findings will probably lead to additional scrutiny at border crossings for travelers from countries that the department has determined have weaknesses in their screening processes. The visa waiver program was created in 1988 to expedite travel between the United States and its allies. Participating countries are required to meet certain standards for aviation and border security. They are also expected to have strong laws and safeguards to prevent counterfeiting of passports. Instead of applying for a visa, travelers using the waiver program have to fill out a special form and receive approval from Customs and Border Protection before boarding a flight to the United States. Last fall, the department added new questions to its visa waiver applications. Six months ago, it began a review of the program to determine whether it could be exploited by foreign fighters. “D.H.S. is also considering options available to encourage compliance, beyond utilizing the most stringent option of removing a country from the program, measures that are designed to achieve greater global security,” according to a department document. The department will not make any changes to the United States’ programs with other countries “without first consulting with the affected country,” the document said. The United States believes that at least 18,000 foreign combatants, including more than 3,000 Europeans, have made their way to Syria since the conflict began there in 2011. Roughly 500 of them have returned to European countries. The “security enhancements” announced on Thursday, Mr. Johnson said, “are part of this department’s continuing assessments of our homeland security in the face of evolving threats and challenges, and our determination to stay one step ahead of those threats and challenges.” He added that the changes would not “hinder lawful trade and travel with our partners in the visa waiver program.”

Airport security
Homeland Security
ID
ISIS,ISIL,Islamic State
Visas
Europe
Iraq
Syria


Pakistani Army Poised for New Push Into Swat

Abstract: PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Residents flooded out of the Swat Valley by the thousands on Tuesday as the government prepared to mount a new military campaign against Taliban militants and as a much-criticized peace accord with the insurgents fell apart. People crammed into cars and buses and headed south after the local government told residents to leave Swat before a government military offensive. On Sunday, black-turbaned Taliban fighters seized control of Mingora, Swat’s capital. Since then, Taliban and government forces have accused each other of scuttling the peace accord, and they traded gun and mortar fire. The Taliban had dug in and laid mines in the streets, girding for battle, residents said. President Asif Ali Zardari of Pakistan is scheduled to meet on Wednesday with President Obama in Washington, where American officials have sharply criticized the peace accord and urged the government to fight the Taliban. Two weeks ago, the Taliban used the territory all but ceded to them under the accord to push into another district, Buner , just 60 miles from the capital, Islamabad, prompting American calls for tougher action. A new operation in Swat may signal the harder stance American officials have been looking for. But the question remains whether the Pakistani military has the will and ability to sustain its operations against the insurgents, the vast majority of whom are Pakistani. The American special envoy for the region, Richard C. Holbrooke, said Tuesday that the situation in Pakistan was fragile, but he welcomed the turn toward wider military action. “Until yesterday, the momentum did not appear to be in the right hands,” he told Congress. “The army has now begun a major offensive. We’ll have to wait and see how it goes.” The Pakistani military has battled the militants reluctantly in the past, but it is now engaged in heavy fighting with the Taliban in two other districts, Buner and Dir, that border Swat in the North-West Frontier Province. Those campaigns are daunting enough. But the task in Swat remains hugely difficult, not least because the military had already failed to drive out the Taliban in two years of fighting before it finally conceded to the February truce and agreed to allow Islamic law to be imposed in the valley. But public opinion in Pakistan has undergone an important shift against the Taliban since the deal, and it has now apparently given the military more confidence to move with full force. A recent video showing the Taliban in Swat flogging a young woman as the militants enforced their version of Islamic law shocked the nation. The government has taken great pains to show its efforts to make the Swat peace deal work, going as far as agreeing to appoint judges trained in Islamic law, or Shariah. Finally, the Taliban incursion into Buner solidified a growing consensus that the Taliban had gone too far and that the military needed to stop them. The media, politicians and even religious leaders are now speaking out against Maulana Sufi Muhammad, the main negotiator of the Swat deal, and Mullah Fazlullah, his son-in-law, who has links to the Qaeda-backed Taliban movement based in Pakistan’s tribal areas. Leaders of the Awami National Party, which governs the North-West Frontier Province, continue to stand by the deal, which they say is critical in winning people away from the militants. The deal was popular among the people of Swat, who were desperate for peace. An estimated half million people have been displaced by the fighting in the tribal areas and in the North-West Frontier Province over the past two years. Those fleeing Buner and Swat, many of whom will now stay in camps or with relatives in cities like Mardan or Peshawar, have criticized the military operations as heavy handed. But the Taliban have revealed in the past three months that they have no intention of ending their insurgency inside Pakistan proper. It has also become apparent, the politicians say, that Maulana Muhammad is not able to control the militants. “Now we have the upper hand,” said Saqib Chamkani, a member of the provincial assembly for the Awami National Party. “We have exposed that this fight does not have anything to do with courts and Shariah.” Yet the military remains divided in its resolve, the United States remains deeply unpopular and some religious parties still sympathize with the Taliban. Anees Jillani, a lawyer who works at the Supreme Court and who visited Swat recently, said some in the military had sympathy for the Islamists and were not willing to fight. “When you ask them why are you not defeating them, they ask: ‘Why should we?’ And you ask about Sufi Muhammad, they say: ‘What’s wrong with him?’ ” he said. Maulana Yousuf Shah, general secretary of the Jamiat-u-Ulama-i-Islam-S, a political party that is close to the Taliban, blamed the government for failing to keep its side of the February truce. Maulana Muhammad was therefore unable to convince the younger Taliban fighters to keep the peace, he said. “For 20 years these people have been struggling peacefully for Shariah, but it was no use,” he said. “It is a natural thing when democratic avenues are not working to take up arms.” At the same time, though, there has been a significant change in the military and paramilitary forces facing against the Taliban. Under the leadership of Maj. Gen. Tariq Khan, an energetic and determined commander, the Frontier Corps, a local Pashtun paramilitary force, has become better armed and equipped, with the help of the United States. Supported by army units, the Frontier Corps has proven itself better able to push back the Taliban, first in the tribal areas in Bajaur last year, and now in Buner, though at a considerable cost to civilians caught up in the operations. In Peshawar, capital of the North-West Frontier Province, antiterrorist police units have killed 88 people suspected of being militants in the past four months, cracking down on kidnapping and general lawlessness, a senior police official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the nature of his work. “It is a manageable problem,” he said, when asked whether Pakistan can contain the militant threat. American support has been important, he said, and the police are hoping for the same help, he said. “If Uncle Sam shows the same generosity to our force, I don’t see why we cannot be a good supporting force,” he said.

Pakistan
Taliban
Swat (Pakistan)
Khan Tariq
Terrorism
Buner District (Pakistan)
North-West Frontier Province (Pakistan)
Frontier Corps


Spain Stings Argentina Over Nationalization of Repsol YPF

Abstract: MADRID — Spain said Friday that it would seek to restrict imports of biodiesel fuel from Argentina, its first retaliatory measure after the government in Buenos Aires decided to seize control of the assets there of Repsol YPF , the largest Spanish oil company. Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría, the deputy prime minister, said Spain would seek to use Spanish and European biofuel instead of that of Argentina, which is the biggest exporter of biofuel to Spain. Madrid imports almost three-quarters of all its biofuel, with shipments from Argentina worth about €750 million, or $991 million, last year. Still, the measure fell short of the kind of hard-hitting sanctions that had been threatened by Spain. Several government ministers warned in recent days that Argentina’s decision was an act of aggression against Spain and would not go unpunished. Following a cabinet meeting in Madrid, Ms. Sáenz de Santamaría would not comment on what further actions might be taken by Madrid, nor even detail how the biofuel restrictions would be applied. The diplomatic tussle follows last Monday’s announcement by President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner that Argentina would take back majority control of YPF, now 57 percent owned by Repsol. Even before the response from Madrid on Friday, her government played down the impact that such sanctions could have on Argentina. Repsol is planning to challenge the Argentine government before the international courts and seek at least $10.5 billion in compensation for the expropriation in what promises to be a lengthy legal battle. Matthew Parish, a Geneva-based international arbitration partner at the law firm Holman Fenwick Willan, noted that Argentina was already the world’s biggest defaulter on investment arbitration awards. The Spanish government has been studying what sanctions it could impose under the terms of a bilateral investment treaty signed with Argentina in 1991. However, trade lawyers have warned that Spain needed to consider the risks that any escalation in the conflict would present to the significant assets of other Spanish corporations operating in Argentina — a further reason to opt instead for sanctions at the European Union level. The Union is Argentina’s second-biggest export market after Brazil. The Union could, for instance, freeze ongoing talks about forming a free trade area with Argentina or suspend some trade concessions granted to the country. On Friday, lawmakers from the European Parliament approved a resolution urging the European Commission to remove such concessions on Argentine exports.

Repsol YPF S.A
Kirchner Cristina Fernandez de
Nationalization of Industry
Spain
Argentina
Biodiesel Fuel


Witnesses Testify Espada Paid Own Expenses With Nonprofit’s Funds

Abstract: A videographer who was hired by former State Senator Pedro Espada Jr. to film a private birthday party testified on Thursday that she had been pressured by Mr. Espada’s assistant to lie about the work she performed and claim in an invoice that she had actually filmed a public event. The videographer, Evelyn Lopez, said in the federal trial of Mr. Espada, who is accused of spending hundreds of thousands of dollars from a nonprofit health care network on his private expenses, that she filmed the birthday party of Mr. Espada’s 1-year-old grandson in May 2007 and submitted an invoice to Mr. Espada that indicated as much. She later received an e-mail from Mr. Espada’s assistant at the time, Norma Ortiz. “The invoice sent needs revision,” said the e-mail from Ms. Ortiz, which Ms. Lopez read aloud from the stand. “Please correct and e-mail to me a.s.a.p.” In the e-mail, Ms. Ortiz asked that Ms. Lopez revise the invoice to indicate that Ms. Lopez had filmed a “children’s community outreach” event, not a birthday party. Ms. Lopez replied to that e-mail: “The invoice is correct. The event was in a private home.” Ms. Lopez’s e-mail continued, “So as you can see, I cannot change the invoice (it would be dishonest).” Ms. Lopez was one of more than a dozen witnesses who testified on Thursday in Federal District Court in Brooklyn that Mr. Espada paid them for personal services with business checks from Community Expansion Development Corporation, which prosecutors said was a subsidiary of the health care network, Soundview Health Care Network in the Bronx. According to the indictment against Mr. Espada and his son, Pedro Gautier Espada, who is also on trial, the Community Expansion Development Corporation , a for-profit janitorial services company incorporated by Mr. Espada, became a full subsidiary of Soundview in 2006. The indictment charged that Mr. Espada and his son continued to operate the company as if it still belonged to the elder Mr. Espada, operating solely for the benefit of him and his family. An administrator at Preston High School, an all-girls’ Catholic school in the Bronx, testified that Mr. Espada paid the tuition for Angelita Gonzalez, who prosecutors said was Mr. Espada’s niece, with a check from Community Expansion. The chief financial officer of Huntington Learning Center, an after-school tutoring program, said his company received payment from the same corporation. An administrator at St. John’s University, a lawyer who defended Mr. Espada in a libel case, an antique dealer and the ghostwriter who was to write Mr. Espada’s memoir all testified that they had been paid with the corporation’s checks. Lawyers for the Espadas have said that they were entitled to make the purchases and that they did not steal from Soundview. Donald MacLaren, the ghostwriter, said in an interview outside the courtroom that Mr. Espada had been motivated to write the memoir by a brewing rivalry with Eliot Spitzer, who was then the state attorney general. “He was afraid Spitzer was going to turn against him and it would turn into the same thing this is now,” Mr. MacLaren said, referring to the criminal trial.

Espada Pedro Jr
Soundview Health Care Network
Espada Pedro Gautier
Frauds and Swindling
Bronx (NYC)
Nonprofit Organizations
New York State
Politics and Government


Tar Heels’ Walk-On Has Taken His Lumps

Abstract: No one knows Tyler Hansbrough’s moves, or his temper, better than a mostly anonymous North Carolina teammate who has spent the past three years as his personal punching bag. Surry Wood has the cuts, bruises, stitches and concussion to prove it. But he has no complaints about a role that few will see, yet many envy. He is one of a handful of walk-ons on the North Carolina roster who spend each day being pounded by the regulars in practice and each night on the Tar Heels’ bench hoping for a blowout so he can spend a minute or two on the court. Wood and the rest of the so-called blue squad of walk-ons will have a front-row seat when the Tar Heels meet Kansas in the N.C.A.A. tournament semifinals Saturday night in San Antonio. And if all goes well, he may actually earn a line in the box score. But either way, he is content to have contributed to a team that may win a national championship. “I definitely feel like I’m a part of it,” Wood, a senior, said Tuesday as he sat in a chair on the sideline at Dean Smith Center. “Getting to prepare these guys every day, you definitely know you’re part of the program when you get to run out, put the jersey on.” That is the easy part. But it is not so easy in practice. Apparently, Hansbrough, a consensus all-American forward, does not have an off switch there, either. “Surry’s definitely taken his beatings,” Hansbrough said. “Every once in a while he’ll come to practice, we’re like, ‘Man, where’d you get that bruise, Surry?’ He goes: ‘It’s from you. The elbow you gave me the other day.’ But it’s Surry’s job. He’s there pushing us every day.” Wood is not allowed to hit back, though. He once received a stern warning when he accidentally elbowed Danny Green. No fouling Hansbrough, either. But Wood happily recalls the broken finger Hansbrough sustained while trying to guard him awhile back. “I don’t think he’ll ever be able to wear a ring,” Wood said. “I got him pretty good. He’ll always remember that.” Wood, who grew up in nearby Raleigh as a Tar Heels fan, played Division III basketball at Hampden-Sydney in Virginia for a season before transferring to North Carolina in 2004. Through tryouts against other students, he won a job on the junior-varsity squad four years ago and earned a spot on the varsity team in 2005-6. He has played 78 minutes in his career. But Wood has been rewarded for his efforts. Williams inserted him into the starting lineup on Senior Night in March — the only start of his career. SEAN SUTTON RESIGNS Oklahoma State Coach Sean Sutton resigned after a 17-16 season. Sutton served as an assistant under his father, Eddie, before taking the top job. (AP) OLSON DISMISSES O’NEILL Arizona’s Lute Olson, who took a personal leave of absence this season, said the assistant coach Kevin O’Neill would not remain on his staff. O’Neill had been named as Olson’s successor when he retires. “When he said he’s coming back, or that he’s going to fulfill the terms of his contract, he won’t be on the staff,” Olson said. (AP) FORMER PLAYER DIES The former Kentucky and Louisville player Marvin Stone died Tuesday after collapsing during halftime of a game in Saudi Arabia. He was 26. The Louisville spokesman Kenny Klein said Stone apparently had a heart attack. Stone signed a contract with Ittihad Jeddah earlier in the week and was playing in the team’s Elite Cup semifinal game when he fell ill. (AP) GRIER AND OREGON STATE MEET Bill Grier, who led San Diego to the N.C.A.A. tournament in his first season coaching there, said he interviewed for the vacant Oregon State job. (AP)

NCAA Basketball Tournament
University of North Carolina


To Keep or Kill? Lowly Leap Second Focus of World Debate

Abstract: On Thursday, the world will go to battle over a second. In Geneva, 700 delegates from about 70 nations attending a meeting of a United Nations telecommunications agency will decide whether to abolish the leap second. Unlike the better-known leap year, which adds a day to February in a familiar four-year cycle (with a few well-defined exceptions), the leap second is tacked on once every few years to synchronize atomic clocks — the world’s scientific timekeepers — with Earth ’s rotational cycle, which, sadly, does not run quite like clockwork. The next one is scheduled for June 30 (do not bother to adjust your watch). The United States is the primary proponent for doing away with the leap second, arguing that the sporadic adjustments, if botched or overlooked, could lead to major foul-ups if electronic systems that depend on the precise time — including computer and cellphone networks, air traffic control and financial trading markets — do not agree on the time. Abolishing the leap second “removes one potential source of catastrophic failure for the world’s computer networks,” said Geoff Chester, a spokesman for the United States Naval Observatory, the nation’s primary timekeeper. “That one second becomes a problem if you don’t take it into account.” But Britain, along with Canada and China, would like to keep the current keeping system, arguing that, in the 40 years that leap seconds have been gracefully inserted in our midst — most recently in 2008 — there have been no problems to speak of, and the worriers have greatly exaggerated the potential for havoc. Remember Y2K? “It’s the devil we know,” said Robert Seaman, a software engineer at the National Optical Astronomy Observatory. While he is an American, he is also a member of another group leery of the change: astronomers. If a software-guided telescope is not pointed in the right direction, it may not capture the right image, and updating software could be a sizable task. Defenders of the leap second would like to retain the quaint notion that the definition of a day has something to do with the rising and setting of the sun. Since the 1950s, the world has run on two sets of clocks. One is the ticking of atomic clocks, defined by the precise frequency that electrons jump around in atoms. The other is based on the traditional notion of a spinning Earth. If the leap second is stamped out, the astronomical definition of time will diverge from what is dictated by the atomic clocks, about a couple of thousandths of a second a day, growing to a minute over the course of a century, and someday — thousands of years from now — noon will strike at sunrise instead of when the sun is overhead. The problem is a distinctly modern one. Only a few centuries ago, people set their watches by the clock in the town square, and the time in each town was different from the next. That mattered little, since there was no need or ability to communicate with anyone elsewhere in the world. Railroads changed the situation, creating the need to set cross-country schedules. This in turn led to the creation of time zones, synchronizing time across large swaths. But the length of a day and a second remained tied to the rotation of Earth. In 1967, the nations of the world changed things around, creating a new definition of a second based on atomic clocks and pegged to the length of an astronomical day in 1900. But Earth, like any spinning top, has slowed down since 1900, and the time between sunrise and sunset has grown longer. Atomic clocks now run slightly ahead of what is defined in the sky, and, starting in 1972, leap seconds have been added to keep the two sets of clocks synchronized. A panel of experts at the International Telecommunication Union, an arm of the United Nations, began discussions eight years ago, but could not come to a consensus to keep or get rid of them. The United States and Britain have been butting heads over the issue over most of that time. “What it decided was to give the baby to the higher levels,” said François Rancy, director of the union’s radio communication bureau. Discussions are continuing between the United States and Britain, and Mr. Rancy said he hoped the two could finally come to a consensus in the hours before that agenda item is reached. But if necessary, the proposal to eliminate leap seconds would be put to a vote of the delegates. In a poll conducted by the union last year, only 16 nations expressed an opinion. Thirteen would abolish leap seconds. Three wanted to keep them. If approved, the recommendation would still have to be ratified by a larger meeting next month. Regardless, there will be one extra second to enjoy this summer. The change would not take effect until 2018.

Time
Watches and Clocks
Astronomy and Astrophysics
International Relations
United Nations


The Dog That’s Stealing Asians’ Hearts

Abstract: In the cramped metropolises of East Asia, brown toy poodles have become the latest must-have accessory. They amble down Chinese streets in sweaters, bow ties and dinosaur costumes. They are so popular in Tottori, Japan, that the police force has added two female toy poodles, Fuga and Karin , to its ranks. In China, the pets are known as “taidi,” a riff on the English word “teddy.” So, why toy poodles? And why brown? Chinese poodle-lovers described the breed as smart, easygoing and humanlike in personality. They said the coffee-colored coats set these pups apart from other poodles and made it easy to conceal grime from the street. In the hygiene-obsessed cities of East Asia, there is another perk: Toy poodles are known for shedding very little hair. “I regard her as one of my family,” said Xu Chen, 25, a flight attendant from Beijing whose poodle, Ceicei, is clean, cuddly and low maintenance. “She’s very beautiful and smart.” Dogs were once dismissed as a bourgeois luxury in China, and large pets are still banned in parts of some major cities . That has led to a boom in the market for small dogs, with toy poodles selling for several hundred dollars each. Of the roughly 950,000 dogs in Beijing last year, more than 13 percent, or about 125,000, were toy poodles, according to the Beijing Kennel Club. They outnumbered other breeds like the bichon frisé, the golden retriever and the Welsh corgi. Shen Ruihong, who leads the kennel club, said demand for toy poodles in China surged several years ago after a craze in Japan. Toy poodles started showing up on popular television programs, and soon “they went viral,” he said, especially among the young women who fuel so many fads. “The more people who raised them, the more people who wanted them,” he said. “Now we have too many.”


Henrik Lundqvist Has 48 Saves in Rangers’ 4-1 Win Over Carolina

Abstract: RALEIGH, N.C. — If the Rangers needed a breather after back-to-back games against Eastern Conference-leading Pittsburgh and before two critical meetings with Toronto this week, the schedule offered this kindness on Saturday night: a trip to Carolina. The fading Hurricanes had lost 10 of their last 11 games and had to play without the injured Alexander Semin, their second-leading scorer. With every point crucial in their battle with the Islanders and the Devils for the final two playoff berths in the East, these were 2 points the Rangers needed to bank. And they did, with a 4-1 victory over a Carolina team that turned out to be far from a pushover. Henrik Lundqvist saved the Rangers, stopping a season-high 48 shots, and a three-goal burst in the second period allowed them to come away with their third victory in four games. Derek Stepan, Ryan Callahan and Rick Nash scored in the decisive second period, with Brian Boyle adding an empty-net goal in the final second of the game. The Rangers and the Islanders remained tied in points in the race for the final two playoff spots. They each have 42 points, but the Rangers are in seventh because they hold a tiebreaker. The Islanders defeated Tampa Bay, 4-2, on Saturday. The Devils fell 3 points back after a 2-1 loss to Toronto. Lundqvist had 14 saves for the Rangers in what could have been a disastrous first period, and he kept the Hurricanes from coming back in the third with 20 more saves. He has allowed two goals or fewer in each of the last 10 games. “That’s the best I’ve seen him play since I’ve been here,” Rangers Coach John Tortorella said. “He stole us one. I thought we had a good second period, but first and third we were nowhere to be found.” Perhaps, but the Rangers seem to have found their game of late. That is at least in part because of the recent additions of Ryane Clowe, Derick Brassard, Mats Zuccarello and John Moore. “It’s a different atmosphere in the room,” Lundqvist said. “Not only did we get some really skilled players, but it changed the dynamic in the room where you get the new guys.” He added, “It’s just a lot better feeling in here.” The Rangers scored twice in 31 seconds early in the second period to pull away. Brad Richards set up Stepan in the slot, and he broke a scoreless tie with a power-play goal two minutes into the period. Moments later, Carolina goalie Dan Ellis was caught out of the net trying to play the puck along the end boards. Nash poked it away, sending it to Callahan in front for an easy goal into the open net. Nash added a power-play goal at 11 minutes 19 seconds when he stickhandled through the slot, turned around and wristed a low shot past Ellis. The Rangers were 2 of 5 on the power play. “We knew they were coming and we didn’t weather it too well in the first, but we did create some chances, too,” Richards said. “The second, it was important to bury some goals and we did, and then Hank took us home.” Lundqvist lost his shutout bid when Zac Dalpe buried a one-timer from the slot at 9:27 of the third. It was the only blemish on a busy, busy night. “I’m just so tired I don’t know what to say right now,” Lundqvist said. “I’m exhausted.” Slap Shots Hurricanes centers Eric and Jordan Staal are now wearing visors on their helmets after the injury to their brother Marc Staal, the Rangers defenseman who has been out since March 5 after a puck hit him near the right eye. The Staals had resisted wearing visors, but put them on for the first time March 26 against Winnipeg. ... The Hurricanes’ Alexander Semin was out with an upper-body injury. ... Rangers defenseman Michael Del Zotto did not face league discipline for what he called an inadvertent elbow to the jaw of Pittsburgh wing James Neal on Friday in the Penguins’ 2-1 shootout victory. Neal was dazed by the blow and did not return to the game. Del Zotto said Saturday morning that he had not been contacted by the N.H.L. for a disciplinary hearing, and he was in the lineup Saturday night.

Ice hockey
Rangers
Carolina Hurricanes
Henrik Lundqvist


From the Valley Comes a Warning

Abstract: From the Valley Comes a Warning Maybe it was the tombstone that did it. Even as Wall Street burned, Silicon Valley seemed strangely sanguine. Then a PowerPoint presentation from Sequoia Capital prophesying Armageddon — featuring an “R.I.P. Good Times” headstone — made the rounds. A month later, venture capital firms are slashing investments and counseling portfolio companies to cut jobs. Sequoia’s warning may reflect the technology industry’s woes, but it’s more notable for what it says about venture capital. Maybe it’s because venture capital’s traditional gravy train — initial public offerings of fast-growing start-ups — had slowed. That, coupled with the severity of the 2000 dot-com crash, gave the industry a false sense of immunity to financial hard times. Then came the Sequoia document. The firm — which had financed Apple, Google and Yahoo — showed its portfolio companies a presentation on why this financial crisis could be the worst yet and advised survival tactics like layoffs. The presentation burned across Silicon Valley like wildfire. When one of the most successful firms moves in a club known for herdlike behavior, everyone takes notice. Other investors, like Benchmark Capital, advised their companies to conserve cash. Layoffs began en masse. Sequoia-backed LinkedIn and Zappos both chopped their staffs, as have big public companies like Yahoo and Sun Microsystems. Since the Sequoia presentation in October, there have been nearly 50,000 layoffs in the technology sector, according to a running counter on the blog TechCrunch. Sequoia’s viral hit underscores the precariousness of the venture capital business. Venture-backed exits have fallen 54 percent so far this year. And with the I.P.O. market shut, that has left mergers and acquisitions as the primary value driver. Yet with financing near impossible, even the historical safety of being swallowed by a Cisco or Google has disappeared. Like Wall Street banks, hedge funds and private equity, the venture capital industry got too fat. Firms currently manage $260 billion, according to the National Venture Capital Association, 14 percent more than during the bubble, and the industry now raises more money than it creates. A shakeout was inevitable. It’s just odd that it took Sequoia’s PowerPoint to get it under way. A Pension Portfolio No wonder private equity, hedge fund and venture capital fund managers are biting their fingernails. As the stock market holdings of some of their big pension fund investors have plunged, the proportion that these so-called alternative investments comprise as a portion of their overall portfolios has ballooned. That’s a problem. Take the California Public Employees’ Retirement System — the biggest pension fund. Calpers, which will discuss its asset allocation at an investment meeting on Monday, had its portfolio thrown out of whack by the global equity mess. The fund aims to have about 56 percent of its $200 billion in equities, and 9.5 percent in alternative investments. The rest goes to bonds, real estate, inflation-linked assets and cash. But because equities slid so drastically in the past month, Calpers is now overinvested in these riskier and less liquid alternative assets. Today they account for 14 percent of the portfolio. Since private equity and venture capital firms typically collect money over several years from pension funds — which make commitments upfront to various funds — the weighting is likely to increase even further. Calpers can hope that equity markets will rebound before it is asked to follow its capital commitments. That’s no sure thing. Calpers could try to turn down future fund raisings — but it would surely be penalized by the fund managers for doing so. It could sell other assets to cough up the cash, but that might force it to take big losses. Barring any of these options, for Calpers to follow its money and realign its allocation model, it will need to pass the hat back around to the state workers it serves — and ask for more money. This puts the pressure further down the chain, particularly if it forces the fund's working members to raise their contributions. In theory, asset allocation models are meant to mitigate risk through diversification. If one bucket, say equities, falls, then the fixed-income or private equity investments should offset the decline. But when markets fall more or less in tandem, the model not only fails but also puts other assets at risk of the capital needs of others. So much for theory. JEFF SEGAL, LAUREN SILVA LAUGHLIN and ROB COX

California Public Employees Retirement System


U.S. Jets to Use Turkish Bases in War on ISIS

Abstract: ISTANBUL — Turkey plunged into the fight against the Islamic State on Thursday, rushing forces into the first direct combat with its militants on the Syrian border and granting permission for American warplanes to use two Turkish air bases for bombarding the group in Syria . The developments ended a longstanding reluctance by Turkey, a NATO member and an ally of the United States, to play a more aggressive part in halting the Islamic State’s expanding reach in the Middle East. American officials said it carried the potential to strike Islamic State targets with far greater effect because of Turkey’s proximity, which will allow more numerous and frequent bombings and surveillance missions. Turkey, a vital conduit for the Islamic State’s power base in Syria, had come under increased criticism for its inability — or unwillingness — to halt the flow of foreign fighters and supplies across its 500-mile border. Up to now, Turkey has placed a priority on dealing with its own restive Kurdish population, which straddles the Syrian border in the southeast, and in the toppling of Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad, whom the Turks blame for creating the conditions in his war-ravaged country for the rise of Islamic extremism. But now that extremism has increasingly menaced Turkey, where 1.5 million Syrian war refugees have also been straining the country. A series of Islamic State attacks on Turks, including a devastating suicide bombing a few days ago that officials have linked to the extremist group, may also have helped accelerate the shift in Turkey’s position. Turkish internal security officials had signaled their growing concern about the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, with a series of large-scale raids in the past few weeks, detaining hundreds of suspected ISIS members and sympathizers. Taking the fight to the Islamic State in Syria, however, represents a huge leap. “The terrorist organization represents a national security threat to Turkey, and we are working closely with our allies, including the United States, to combat terrorism,” said a senior official in the prime minister’s office. The official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of government protocol restrictions, also emphasized that Turkey had not changed its position regarding Mr. Assad in Syria. In what Turkish officials described as the first direct cross-border confrontation with the Islamic State, Turkish jets scrambled as tanks and artillery of its Fifth Armored Brigade shelled militants across the border. And early Friday, Turkish fighter jets hit four Islamic State targets within Syria, across the border from Kilis Province, without crossing into Syria, a Turkish security official said, according to Reuters. Obama administration officials, who have been negotiating with Turkey for months, said Thursday that they had reached an agreement for manned and unmanned American warplanes to carry out aerial attacks on Islamic State positions from air bases at Incirlik and Diyarbakir. The agreement was described by one senior administration official as a “game changer.” How ISIS Expands The Islamic State aims to build a broad colonial empire across many countries. The agreement was sealed on Wednesday with a phone call between President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey and President Obama, another administration official said. Turkey had allowed unarmed surveillance flights from Incirlik but had thus far balked at anything more muscular. Officials at the State Department and the Pentagon said they were hesitant to talk about the pact until the Turkish government acknowledged it publicly. Turkish officials declined to comment on the pact Thursday night. The United States and Turkey “have decided to further deepen our cooperation in the fight against ISIL,” the State Department’s spokesman, John Kirby, said in a statement. He said that “due to operational security I don’t have further details to share at this time.” The clash between Turkey’s armed forces and the Islamic State came after gunmen identified by the Turkish military as Islamic State fighters fired on a Turkish border outpost in the Kilis region, killing one Turkish soldier and wounding five. The Turkish military said in a statement that its border shelling was a response, and that at least one militant was killed. Turkish news media said a number of Islamic State vehicles were obliterated in the shelling. The clash came three days after a suicide bomber with suspected ties to the Islamic State struck a cultural center in the Turkish border town of Suruc, killing 32 people. Obama administration officials said the United States had agreed to work with European allies, including Germany, France and Britain, to do more to control their end of the flow of foreign fighters crossing Turkey to reach Syria. Acknowledging that commitment to Turkey, Mr. Kirby said the United States recognized that “the foreign fighter problem is not Turkey’s alone.” It was unclear what other concessions might have been made by the United States to conclude the deal, but a NATO official said on Thursday that “the Turks always drive a hard bargain.” The breakthrough came after recent talks between Gen. John R. Allen, a retired Marine who is Mr. Obama’s special envoy for the fight against the Islamic State, and Turkish counterparts. General Allen’s trip was preceded by a telephone call from Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. to Mr. Erdogan, administration officials said. Obama's Evolution on ISIS Some of President Obama’s statements about the American strategy to confront ISIS and its effectiveness. A senior Defense Department official said recent Islamic State attacks on Turkish targets had played an important role in Turkey’s decision to join the fight against the militant group directly. “Attacks in Turkey are part of the catalyst for them to think about how they get in the game,” the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity. For the Pentagon, the Turkish decision is huge because the two air bases are much closer to the Syrian border than Iraq, Kuwait, Jordan and the Persian Gulf, where strikes had been launched. The agreement will significantly increase the amount of time that American spy planes can hover over Syria. In addition, it will accelerate the response time for manned flights acting on intelligence information. But even as they were lauding the agreement, American military officials were cautious because they felt that they had been burned by Turkey before. In 2003, Defense Department officials believed that they had an agreement with the Turks to send the Army’s Fourth Infantry Division into northern Iraq from Turkey as part of the invasion of Iraq that toppled Saddam Hussein. But the Turkish Parliament refused to grant permission and the division’s equipment remained offshore on ships. While the United States shares Turkey’s antipathy for Mr. Assad, the Turks had previously insisted on a no-fly zone in northern Syria, near the border with Turkey, in exchange for allowing the United States to use their bases. A no-fly zone would create a safe area to arm and train moderate rebels fighting Mr. Assad and allow an opposition government to take root. The United States has largely opposed this because it would broaden Mr. Obama’s stated objective of focusing only on the destruction of the Islamic State; however, some within the government, especially at the State Department, believe the idea should be given serious consideration. Asked on Thursday at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado whether a no-fly zone was part of the deal with Turkey, General Allen said: “No. It was not part of the discussion.” He referred all other questions about the agreement to officials in Washington. Other administration officials said the growing Islamic State threat to Turkey as well as Mr. Assad’s shrinking control over territory in Syria had prompted the Turks to drop the condition — at least for now. “The agreement seems a watershed moment in terms of airstrikes,” said Andrew J. Tabler, an expert on Arab politics at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. But for the Turkish government, Mr. Tabler said: “ISIS is just one manifestation of state collapse in Syria. Solving it is getting Assad out of Damascus.”

Turkey
ISIS,ISIL,Islamic State
US Military
Syria
Kurdish
Diyarbakir Air Base
Incirlik Air Base


Impassively, Knicks’ Amar’e Stoudemire Describes His Accident

Abstract: GREENBURGH, N.Y. — To Amar’e Stoudemire it was all an accident, a momentary swipe of his left hand in the frustrating wake of a dispiriting defeat. In his words, he meant to “make some noise,” not summon paramedics and several days of censure. As his Knicks teammates practiced Wednesday, Stoudemire contended that Monday night’s self-inflicted hand injury — caused when he broke the glass partly enclosing a fire extinguisher — was a case of bad timing. It was an unfortunate mishap, with blood and screaming headlines to follow. “I didn’t, in a million years, expect to hurt myself,” said Stoudemire, who will not play Thursday in Game 3 against the Miami Heat. “Who would want to hurt himself in the playoffs?” With his left hand wrapped in a thick, soft bandage, Stoudemire seemed neither embarrassed nor distraught. He addressed reporters in a matter-of-fact tone that was a mix of unsupported hopefulness — he said he had a great chance to play in Sunday’s Game 4 — and detached bewilderment. It all happened, Stoudemire said, so fast. “I was walking down the corridor frustrated that we were down, 0-2, and I swung my arm at the wall,” Stoudemire said, describing the episode. “The fire extinguisher door was 85 percent metal and 2 percent glass, or whatever. I didn’t see the glass. I swung my arm backward. It wasn’t like I had a closed fist and punched the glass. I was letting off a little frustration — trying to make some noise, not injure myself. “When I saw that I my hand was cut, I was like, what? I was very upset and upset with myself. But never in a million years did I think I would cut my hand.” Stoudemire was disappointed that he would not be able to help his teammates Thursday — he said he had let them down — but added that he believed he could play in Sunday’s game. The Knicks list him as doubtful for Game 4. “I’m expecting to heal up fast,” Stoudemire said. “I think there’s a great chance I can play Sunday.” Knicks Coach Mike Woodson, however, was not planning on Stoudemire’s return. “I wait until the doctors tell me who’s ready,” Woodson said. “It’s not something I can undo. You don’t expect something like this to happen, but over the years, I’ve seen players do strange things.” Woodson added that Stoudemire was apologetic, although according to his teammates, there was no formal apology to the team. Nor was one sought. “He doesn’t have to apologize to me,” Steve Novak said after an unusually long practice session. “I know Amar’e wouldn’t do anything to hurt the team.” Carmelo Anthony said he talked on the telephone with Stoudemire on Tuesday, the day after the incident. “He feels bad and we talked about it,” Anthony said. “Right now, all I care about is him getting healthy.” At times Wednesday, Stoudemire appeared to be rationalizing the injury, as if to say he was an unlucky victim. “Everybody gets upset at times,” he said. “People knock over ice coolers or kick a chair or a table. It was accidental that I struck the glass. I just swung my arm backward.” Asked about fan reaction to the incident and criticism he has received, Stoudemire said: “I understand the fans are frustrated, and I am, too. But they have the wrong perception of what happened. I wasn’t trying to hurt myself and I didn’t punch a glass window. It was nothing like that.” After Stoudemire left the Knicks’ practice, and after his teammates and coaches faced 20 minutes of questioning about the chaotic Monday night postgame scene, the mood around the team suddenly changed to something a little more uplifting. In an elaborate ceremony broadcast nationally by the N.B.A., center Tyson Chandler was named the league’s defensive player of the year — the first Knick to win the award. Chandler, signed as a free agent before this season, said he was especially happy to be recognized because he is not among the top players in either blocked shots or steals. “I play defense by being in the right position and in many other fundamental and not always flashy ways,” he said. “So I’m glad that was recognized. I’ve always wanted to be considered one of the top defensive players in the league. But the defensive player of the year often goes to a big name. It’s just a dream for it to come my way.” The defensive work of Chandler and his teammates will have to be at its best Thursday against Miami. Much of the Knicks’ lineup is in flux. Woodson said Anthony would shift to power forward, where he played recently, and sometimes thrived, when Stoudemire was sidelined with a back injury, but was undecided about whom to start at small forward. “Whoever plays, we’re going to need a big push from everyone on the court,” Woodson said. “But I’m not unnerved by this situation. We’ve got a legitimate chance on our home court. We’ll see what we’re made of.” REBOUNDS Point guard Jeremy Lin participated in a full-court three-on-three pickup game after practice. Wearing a brace on his surgically repaired left knee, Lin looked fluid and ran without a limp. “This is the first time he’s been able to run up and down,” Mike Woodson said. “The question is: Can he defend? Can he cut on the knee? We’ll wait and see how he feels. He’s talked about wanting to play but it’s up to a decision by the doctors.” ... The Knicks announced that Iman Shumpert had knee surgery and would need six to eight months to recover.

Stoudemire Amar'e
New York Knicks
Basketball


Ex-Chief of Viacom Joins the Time Warner Dissidents

Abstract: Carl C. Icahn said yesterday that he had recruited Frank J. Biondi Jr., the former chief executive of Viacom and Universal Studios, to become Time Warner's chairman and chief executive if Mr. Icahn prevailed in a planned proxy fight for control of the media giant. Mr. Icahn, the billionaire financier, has been staging a battle to replace the board of Time Warner, where his fund and various others own about 3 percent of the stock. He has told other funds that he believes Time Warner's stock could be worth about $27 a share. Time Warner rose 26 cents yesterday to close at $17.55 a share. But Mr. Icahn's push has met with relatively little reaction on Wall Street, where his proposals to split off Time Warner's cable unit, replace top management, trim expenses and increase the share repurchase program have failed to generate much investor excitement. "Desperate men do desperate things," said Michael Nathanson, a media analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Company, of Mr. Icahn's decision to bring Mr. Biondi on board. "Despite Mr. Icahn's investment, we don't see $27 or $28 a share of value at Time Warner unless the company is broken up in its entirety, and that does not appear to be imminent." A spokesman for Time Warner, Edward I. Adler, said that "our management, Dick Parsons and Jeff Bewkes, has restored the company to health and put it on a growth track," referring to the company's chief executive and its president. "Beyond that, we do not have a comment on Mr. Biondi." In a filing yesterday with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Mr. Icahn said that Mr. Biondi would be paid at least $6 million if the Icahn slate failed to win and at least $10 million if the slate was elected. In the filing Mr. Icahn also responded to a recent article in The Wall Street Journal that was critical of his efforts at Time Warner. Mr. Icahn wrote that his efforts had already resulted in the company's going forward with a $12 billion stock repurchase plan. He also reiterated criticism of Mr. Parsons's management, which he said had failed to maximize shareholder value. Mr. Biondi, 61, is a well-known and well-liked figure in the media industry, though his career has had setbacks. In 1998, he was ousted by Seagram's chief executive, Edgar Bronfman Jr., in part because Universal Studios, the company's film division, had fared poorly. Two years earlier, he was pushed out as chief executive of Viacom. At that time, associates said that Sumner M. Redstone, Viacom's controlling shareholder, was unhappy because in his view Mr. Biondi had not managed the company aggressively enough. Other company executives said that Mr. Redstone simply wanted to take more direct control over the company. "This seems an odd choice," said Leo J. Hindery Jr., managing partner of InterMedia Partners, a media private equity firm. "One of the reasons that Mr. Redstone let him go was because he was not an aggressive enough manager, and Mr. Icahn has stated that that is precisely what he is looking for." Mr. Biondi did not quite see it that way. "If you want someone to get up and shout and scream, that is not me," Mr. Biondi said in a telephone interview yesterday. "If you want someone who knows the businesses and knows what can be done with them, that is me." Since Mr. Biondi left Universal in 1998, he has been one of the partners in WaterView Advisors, a $150 million private equity firm that specializes in the media. He is also on the board of the Cablevision Systems Corporation. Mr. Biondi was brought into the Time Warner fight by his brother, Michael J. Biondi, head of investment banking at Lazard, which is working with Mr. Icahn to draw up a plan for reshaping the company. Mr. Icahn is expected to unveil those plans early next week. Frank Biondi said he had signed on because of "the chance to work with Mike and with Carl, and it is a fairly worthy case. It is a referendum on a business strategy that has not increased shareholder value. It will correspondingly be a referendum on our proposal to increase it." Richard Greenfield, a media analyst at Pali Research, an independent research firm, said, "There is now a face to the Icahn push." But he added: "Mr. Biondi has been largely on the sidelines of the entertainment business for the last seven years. He is being positioned to implement the plan now being drawn up by Mr. Icahn and his bankers at Lazard Freres. The plan is far more important than Frank Biondi. The question is whether the plan will have enough meat to generate investor support."

TIME WARNER CORP
TIME WARNER INC
ICAHN CARL C
BIONDI FRANK J JR
MERGERS ACQUISITIONS AND DIVESTITURES
BOARDS OF DIRECTORS