Review: Cassariano Italian Eatery in Mineola

Abstract: Cassariano Italian Eatery, which opened in Mineola in August, is an import from Venice. No, not that one: Venice, Fla. The 9-year-old Florida restaurant is named for its original owners: Luca Cassani and Antonio Pariano. Its new Mineola outpost, also owned by Mr. Cassani and Mr. Pariano, includes two more co-owners who are in charge of the day-to-day operations: William Conte, the manager, and Giancarlo Di Maggio, the chef. The two met when they worked at La Parma II in Huntington. I have dined numerous times at this Mineola address, which has a tendency to turn over restaurants. Within six years, there was Circa , followed by Lula Trattoria and most recently, True American Kitchen . Cassariano has lightened the look of the dining room with a wall of white stone. The center-stage, free-standing fireplace was also redone in white stone. The floors are now pale wood, and there is a pressed-tin ceiling. Add bare wood tables, and one has a recipe for a very high noise level. On a recent Saturday night I counted four tables with eight or more patrons. A lot of “Happy Birthdays” were sung that night. Was the food worth the cacophony? In most cases the answer is yes. Still, a few offerings had us saying, “This is a good dish, but ...” Take the spinach salad: It was flavor-packed with pancetta and goat cheese, but the large spinach leaves still had their inedible stems. The salad also featured polenta croutons, as did the otherwise fine Caesar. Croutons, of course, are there to add a bit of crunch. These were soft and soggy. Image Among the menu options, from left: spaghetti carbonara, pork tenderloin, and chocolate mousse. Better openers were the Caprese salad with its extremely creamy buffalo mozzarella and sweet tomatoes, and a generous offering of sautéed shrimp in a chunky tomato sauce, served atop wilted arugula. The antipasto di mare was a seafood salad dominated by calamari rings. The calamari, though, was tender. I liked the spaghetti carbonara with its tasty pancetta, but it was in need of black pepper, which was not automatically offered. Another dish, a spaghetti in a commendable tomato sauce flecked with creamy goat cheese, made us dubious at first, but it ultimately won our approval, despite the overly large and dry lamb and beef meatballs on top. We liked the zuppa di pesce entree, a delight for seafood lovers with its jumbo shrimp, scallops, mussels, clams and cod, all in a fresh-tasting tomato sauce. Also popular was the pork tenderloin wrapped in prosciutto, with mushrooms and a Marsala sauce served with tasty slabs of polenta, and topped with broccolini. A chicken dish augmented by a creamy yet subdued Gorgonzola sauce and crowned with crunchy asparagus was a favorite. The veal scaloppine with porcini mushrooms entree was disappointing. I ordered it because of the mushrooms, which were scarce in the dish. Additionally, the sliced potatoes served with it were undercooked. Desserts were the high point of the meal. The house-made sweets included a silken panna cotta, a crème brûlée with a hint of lemon, a luscious chocolate mousse and a creamy tiramisù served in a stemmed glass with whipped cream and chocolate syrup. Can Cassariano beat the curse of this snakebit location? Right now it seems to have caught on, especially with big groups in a celebratory mood.

Restaurant
Mineola NY
Cassariano Italian Eatery


A Culture of Nagging Helps California Save Water

Abstract: SAN FRANCISCO — Californians sharply cut water use this summer, prompting state officials to credit their new conservation policies and the sting of thousands of warnings and penalties that they had issued to people for overuse. But the most effective enforcers may be closer to home: the domestic water police. They are the moms and dads, spouses and partners, children, even co-workers and neighbors who are quick to wag a finger when they spot people squandering moisture, such as a faucet left running while they’re brushing their teeth, or using too much water to clean dinner plates in the sink. And showers? No lingering allowed. So discovered Dick Allen, a retired businessman in San Francisco, who tells of getting busted recently by his wife. He’d just stepped into a hot shower to loosen up after a workout when she appeared in the bathroom to scold him. “ ‘You’ve been in the shower too long,’ ” he recalled her saying. “How do you know that?” he pleaded. She had proof — his back was red. “It was the gotcha moment,” said Mr. Allen, who occasionally jokes with his younger wife that she has “junior water rights” and therefore can’t shower until the following day. The culture of badgering has intensified since January 2014, when the drought led Gov. Jerry Brown to declare a state of emergency and ask Californians to voluntarily cut water use by 20 percent. But as conditions worsened, the state stopped asking so politely. In June and July, for instance, state water agencies issued more than 70,000 warnings for overuse and more than 20,000 penalties. (The fines varied widely, but were generally several hundred dollars or less, state officials said.) Many of the warnings were issued because “someone’s neighbor ratted on them,” said Max Gomberg, climate and conservation manager for the State Water Resources Control Board . The actual penalties, he said, were assessed to “a tiny percentage of people who just don’t care.” Image Tara Lindis said she has been using California’s dry spell as a teaching moment for her son, Fyo Corbell, 6, and daughter, Lyv Corbell, 4, at their home in Brooklyn. Credit Joshua Bright for The New York Times The nanny-state strategy, however, has been helped by the nagging-state approach at home, according to interviews with people across the state. By many accounts, the needling often seems taken in its intended, well-meaning spirit. But it isn’t always welcomed, particularly when it comes from someone outside the inner family circle. That led to an awkward moment for J. S. Gilbert and his wife recently during a gathering at their house with friends in South San Francisco. One of the visitors used the bathroom and, Mr. Gilbert happened to notice, didn’t flush. So he mentioned this oversight to his friend, who “looked me straight in the eye and said, ‘If it’s yellow, let it mellow,’ ” said Mr. Gilbert, who works as a consultant to advertising agencies. “I said, ‘I think that’s O.K. if that’s you and your wife at home,’ ” Mr. Gilbert responded, which invited another riposte from his visitor. “He said: ‘That’s up to you. I’m doing what I can to save water.’ ” Water shaming has plenty of precursors. Public safety advocates, for instance, have said that greater use of seatbelts, and a drop in drunken driving episodes nationwide, can be traced in part to friends and family members giving offenders a mouthful. With water, the California droughts in the late 1970s and ’80s prompted some homegrown policing, but nothing like the crackdowns now taking place in households across the state, said Jeffrey Mount , a senior fellow of the Public Policy Institute of California . (A poll from the group published in March found that, for the first time, Californians’ concern about the drought equaled concern about jobs and the economy). Shorter showers and fewer toilet flushes can add up, but they represent a small fraction of the water being used for lawn irrigation and agriculture, said Jeffrey Michael , an economist who studies water issues at the University of the Pacific in California. Residents and urban districts are typically responsible for about 20 percent of the state’s water usage; the rest is used for agriculture , which is not included in the state’s latest water-saving figures. How to Save Water: The California Way Drought is not new to California. Indeed most of its residents have been living with it for years, making them experts in conservation. We asked our readers in California how they have adapted to a life with less water. Here are some of their suggestions and tips on how to live with drought. But Dr. Michael said Californians’ willingness to nudge one another could change the collective mind-set toward water. In Dr. Michael’s own household, outside Sacramento, the water cop duties are divided. He handles the lawn, while his wife oversees the showers. But Dr. Michael said the different roles betrayed a subtext in water policing: People use the drought to press their own agendas. For instance, he likes cutting back on watering partly because he hates lawn care. And he thinks his wife is tough on shower time because she would really like family members to be more efficient in all things. “She wants people to get ready faster,” he said, adding, “You can use the drought to sort of hasten or further our alternative goals.” Some Californians police colleagues at work to, say, toss a half-drunk cup of water on a plant and not down the drain. Some residents hear it from their children; Robin Wolaner, an executive at a nonprofit in San Francisco, got an earful from her teenage daughter because she was shaving her legs in the shower with the water running. Shaving without running water? “Uncivilized,” Ms. Wolaner said in an interview. But she found little support from friends on Facebook, so she now shaves with the taps off. Others are weighing how appropriate it is to nag a neighbor. For instance, Nick Desai, the chief executive of a health care start-up and a resident of Pacific Palisades, said he had been thinking of a proper way to tell his new neighbors that they should revisit their sprinkler strategy. “I think I’ll wait another two weeks and I’ll knock on the door and say, ‘At night I can see the sprinklers from our bedroom, and they’re mostly watering the patio,’ ” he said. Many people report that policing pits generations against each other. Parents, especially, say they can have trouble getting through to smaller children who think of water as just plain fun. And how exactly to counter years of programming that children need to bathe every night? “The pendulum has swung from filthy boys needing a bath twice a day to, ‘Does he really need a bath?’ ” said Dave Donohue, a San Franciscan who has reduced bathing for his son Milo, 2, and also concedes chiding his wife and his colleagues if they toss a glass of drinking water into the sink. The habit has caught on elsewhere. Tara Lindis, a writer in Brooklyn, said she had used California’s dry spell as a teaching moment for her children. For example, when they were having a water fight in the backyard this summer, she said she told them, “Don’t dump that bucket! Kids in California can’t have water balloon fights like you! They don’t get baths!” What goes around comes around. The other day, her son, who is almost 7, admonished her: “That was a long shower.” Sometimes you just can’t win with the water cops. Mr. Gilbert, the ad agency consultant in South San Francisco, was told by another friend (not the one who declined to flush at his party) that he needed to replace the old toilet in his house because it used too much water. Eventually, after being hectored for a few months, he relented and replaced the toilet. Unfortunately, the new low-flow toilet, which was white, no longer matched the old green sink and tub. So Mr. Gilbert replaced the sink, and enameled the tub himself, spending $2,500 for the new fixtures and plumbing, plus his own enameling time. The next time the friend came over, Mr. Gilbert showed off his efforts. “I said, ‘Are you happy I replaced the toilet?’ and he said, ‘Well, at this point, I’m not sure we have to worry so much, we’re going to have El Niño.’ ”

California
Water
Conservation of Resources
Drought
Bathrooms


Campari Sales Beat Forecasts, Rising 3 Percent in 2015

Abstract: Campari, the world’s sixth-largest premium spirits maker, reported better than expected sales for 2015 on Tuesday, driven by its top brands. The company is focusing on its higher-margin Campari, SKYY vodka, Wild Turkey whiskey, Aperol and Jamaica rum brands to lift revenue growth and improve its overall margins. It said total sales came in at 1.66 billion euros ($1.8 billion) last year, up 3 percent over a comparable period. The pace of sales growth for the five higher-margin brands nearly doubled in the second half of 2015. Shares of Campari were up more than 3 percent in Italy.


Skiing and Laughing to a Third Gold

Abstract: Darya Domracheva is so light-footed on her skis, her rivals have started comparing her to a dancer. Without losing rhythm, Domracheva, of Belarus, eased to victory in the 12.5-kilometer mass start race in Krasnaya Polyana, Russia, on Monday, completing an unprecedented haul of three gold medals in women’s biathlon at one Olympics. “Maybe it’s strange, but I don’t feel like I’ve done something special,” Domracheva said. “I just tried to enjoy myself, and I did my race with a laugh. But for sure, it’s amazing.” Domracheva is also expected to compete in the mixed and the women’s team relays, but Belarus is not among the favorites for gold in either. High on confidence after wins in the pursuit and individual races last week, Domracheva took the lead after four minutes and stayed ahead of the field after the first shooting. She missed one target before finishing in 35 minutes 25.6 seconds. Gabriela Soukalova of Czech Republic was 20.2 seconds behind to take the silver medal, and Tiril Eckhoff of Norway finished 27.3 behind for bronze. “She is amazing,” Eckhoff said of Domracheva. “She skis like a dancer.” HEAVY FOG LEADS TO POSTPONEMENTS As fans gathered for the men’s snowboard cross race, they could barely see beyond the finish line. Competitors headed to the starting area on a chairlift, but it was an ascent into a white unknown, the thick fog obscuring even the chair in front of them. Image Fog at the Extreme Park on Monday forced the rescheduling of men’s snowboard cross. Credit Doug Mills/The New York Times Low clouds first blanketed the mountain venues Sunday night. With visibility down to mere feet in some places in the morning, events were postponed. The fog did not lift, and events were postponed further. By late afternoon, the men’s 15-kilometer mass start biathlon competition, the first event halted by fog Sunday night, was rescheduled for Tuesday afternoon. At Rosa Khutor Extreme Park, officials abandoned the qualification round for men’s snowboard cross; they will go straight to the finals, on Tuesday morning, fog permitting. JOHN BRANCH U.S. CURLERS FALTER Britain’s women beat Russia, 9-6, in curling, eliminating the host nation from the tournament before falling later to Denmark, 8-7. The United States finished in last place for the second consecutive Olympics after losing, 11-2, to South Korea in seven ends. “This team is a better team than our performances this week,” said the American Ann Swisshelm, who had tears in her eyes as she left the ice. “That’s pretty heartbreaking.” The United States men fell to Switzerland, 6-3. (AP) SVINDAL WILL SKIP GIANT SLALOM The Norwegian skiing star Aksel Lund Svindal is skipping his last race because of allergies he says are “from the concrete that’s in the air.” After training, Svindal decided not to enter Wednesday’s giant slalom. He had not been planning to enter Saturday night’s slalom, the final Alpine race. “There’s a lot of athletes that have some kind of allergy against something here,” Svindal said. “I think it’s something from the concrete that’s in the air, like some fine dust.” (AP)

2014 Winter Olympics
Darya Domracheva
Aksel Lund Svindal
Belarus
Gabriela Soukalova
Tiril Eckhoff
Biathlon


A Bankruptcy Court Rejects Law Barring Same-Sex Marriage

Abstract: A bankruptcy court in California has declared that the 1996 law barring federal recognition of same-sex marriage is unconstitutional, increasing pressure against the law. “In this court’s judgment, no legally married couple should be entitled to fewer bankruptcy rights than any other legally married couple,” wrote Judge Thomas B. Donovan of the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Central District of California. In an unusual move, 19 other judges — nearly all of the 24 judges of the central district — also signed the decision. The impact of the opinion could be limited, since the decision of the court is specific to the bankruptcy of the couple, Gene Douglas Balas and Carlos A. Morales. But the other judges’ signatures suggest that as a matter of policy they would rule similarly. It is not the first blow to the law known as the Defense of Marriage Act. A federal judge in Boston declared the law unconstitutional last July, and that case is working its way through the legal system. The Department of Justice, however, is not driving that appeals process. In February, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. announced in a letter to members of Congress that while the Obama administration would continue to enforce the law, it would no longer defend it in court and that classifications based on sexual orientation should be subjected to a tough legal test intended to block unfair discrimination. Speaker John A. Boehner, Republican of Ohio, then announced that Congress would defend the law , and that it had hired former Solicitor General Paul Clement to argue on its behalf. Mr. Balas and Mr. Morales cited Mr. Holder’s letter in their pleadings, and Judge Donovan quoted it approvingly in his 26-page opinion, and stated, “The Holder Letter demonstrates that DOMA cannot withstand heightened scrutiny.” Mr. Balas and Mr. Morales were legally married under California law, and wanted to file jointly for bankruptcy. The trustee, the federal officials who oversee the bankruptcy process, moved to dismiss their petition under the Defense of Marriage Act. They then asked Judge Donovan to allow them to file jointly, and Monday’s decision was the result. Adam Winkler, a professor at the law school at the University of California, Los Angeles, called the decision “a powerful statement about the status of gay rights today.” Professor Winkler said, “it shows the effect of Eric Holder’s letter in shaping legal decisions that came after it, almost as if it’s a precedent in the case.” Mary Bonauto, the civil rights project director for Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders, the group that brought the Massachusetts case, said she was not surprised to see another judge agree with the earlier decision, because the law “advances a blatant legal double standard.” Ms. Bonauto added, “In our system of justice, it’s the job of courts to call that out.” One of those who signed Judge Donovan’s opinion, Judge Sheri Bluebond, said that a signing by other judges is “an unusual occurrence, but it is certainly not unprecedented.” Judge Bluebond said bankruptcy judges signed on to their colleagues’ decisions when “threshold questions” were brought before one judge and the others in that district “so the bar would know where we stand,” and whether they would be able to file in those courts. While 20 judges signed the opinion and there are 24 in the Central District of California, Judge Bluebond said, “the fact that some judges did not sign on to it does not mean one way or another what their views on that issue are.” “There could have been procedural reasons or just logistical reasons that they did not sign on,” she said. It is unclear whether an appeal will be filed. Judge Donovan noted that the House Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group, which is leading the Congressional action, requested a brief delay in proceedings while it considered whether to intervene, but that “no further pleadings and no challenge” had ensued. “The government’s nonresponse to the debtors’ challenges is noteworthy,” Judge Donovan wrote. A spokesman for Mr. Boehner, Brendan Buck, said the ruling would not be appealed. “Bankruptcy cases are unlikely to provide the path to the Supreme Court, where we imagine the question of constitutionality will ultimately be decided,” Mr. Buck said. “Obviously, we believe the statute is constitutional in all its applications, including bankruptcy, but effectively defending it does not require the House to intervene in every case, especially when doing so would be prohibitively expensive.”

Same-Sex Marriage Civil Unions and Domestic Partnerships


The Argus App Can Help to Keep You Fit

Abstract: If you are still vowing to get off the couch before summer is over, having a device that holds you accountable can help get you going. But before you plunk down $60 to $130 for something like a Fitbit or an Up wristband, you can test the concept with a free iPhone app, Argus . The app uses the iPhone’s motion sensors to track your activity. It also lets you log how much you sleep, what you eat and drink, and your heart rate. It’s a very simplified version of those highly sophisticated devices for competitive triathletes. Image A screenshot of the Argus app, which uses the iPhone’s motion sensors to track your activity. For instance, instead of weighing and logging every morsel you consume, Argus has you take a photo of what you have eaten, then shows it on a photo page with a honeycomb arrangement of other data. Or tap “Food” on the menu and see just those photos. Peter Kuhar, chief technology officer of Azumio, which makes Argus, said this method helps 50 percent of people improve their diet. It’s certainly easier. You have to manually log in some activities and data, as you do with other motion-sensing monitors, because Argus isn’t good at recognizing exercises like weight lifting or stationary bicycling. To log heart rate and sleep automatically, you have to use two other Azumio Apps, Sleep Time , which parses your tossing and turning from a phone placed on your mattress, and Heart Rate , which reads your pulse through a fingertip placed on the phone’s camera lens. There is a free version of each; the full versions are $2 each. While the app does a lot of what a dedicated monitor does, the monitors are better in some ways. They are smaller and weigh less than your phone, so they are easier to have with you every second. Also, running the app speeds up the drain on your phone’s battery.


In Face of Success and Scrutiny, a Rising American Star Hasn’t Flinched

Abstract: PARIS — Sloane Stephens is a character, an original, a mixture of philosopher and comedian and tennis player caught somewhere between teenager and adult. She is 19 years old and practically grown up, and with each victory, each step forward in development, she looks more like a potential star. There is a burden that comes with that, of course, for whichever player eventually assumes the mantle of “best female American tennis player” from Serena Williams, next year or five years from now or however many years hence. But Stephens seems unaffected by that prospect, or by all the attention here, or by the questions about her deceased fathers and her race. On Friday morning, she stepped onto Court Philippe Chatrier, center court at the French Open , and bludgeoned another opponent in straight sets to advance to the fourth round. Her 6-3, 6-2 victory , over Mathilde Johansson of France, for the most part seemed inevitable, and while the opponents will get tougher, the magnitude greater, Stephens hardly even smiled afterward. She walked off the court as if this were the outcome she had expected all along. In the interview room, Stephens described the two biggest perks of her advancement: a first-class plane ticket back to the United States and a likely bump in Twitter followers . She talked about how she recently kicked her two-a-day orange Fanta habit. She showed off her necklace and called out her mother, Sybil Smith, who sat in the back. “She’s an interesting girl,” Smith said. “That’s my Sloane. She came out this way.” In victory, Stephens became the fourth American woman to reach the fourth round here since 2005, joining Serena and Venus Williams and Lindsay Davenport. Stephens also became the first unseeded American woman to survive the first week here since 2002. Her fellow Americans Christina McHale and Varvara Lepchenko have advanced to the third round, so the competition for Olympic berths among the American women remained too close to call. McHale, ranked 36th, is the highest-ranked American woman left in the tournament. Stephens preferred not to think about the selection criteria. “It’s too stressful,” she said. “It’s like, O.K., whatever.” Smith said her daughter had always taken an unruffled approach to life. She took in large part after her mother. In her day, Smith was an all-American swimmer at Boston University in the late 1980s, a sprint freestyler who later became a psychologist. Mother and daughter share the same facial expressions; the same calm, measured tone; the same graceful athleticism, albeit in different sports. “Spitting image,” said Roger Smith, Stephens’s coach. Stephens knew less about her father, John, a running back for the New England Patriots and three other N.F.L. teams. They rekindled their relationship six years ago, mostly on the telephone, after the elder Stephens found out he had a degenerative bone disease. He died in a car accident in 2009, during the United States Open . His death came two years after Stephens’s stepfather, who introduced her to tennis, died from cancer. Looking back, Sybil Smith noted her daughter’s “mental fortitude,” as strong then as it is now. “She’s resilient,” Smith said. “She’s incredibly resilient.” Roger Smith said he had watched Stephens mature in recent years, in part from “the trauma that she went through” and also through getting older and gaining experience. On a recent trip to Barcelona, however, Stephens seemed overwhelmed. “I was being 19,” she said. “Now, I’m being 29.” Her mother flew to Spain, as did her aunt, Kalen Wright, who works for the Charlotte Bobcats. Stephens has stopped drinking soda and cut down on her candy consumption. Her grandparents gave her a silver necklace with a heart pendant inscribed with the phrase “In calmness and confidence.” In the first week of this tournament, she displayed both. Stephens showcased a baseline style that appeared more aggressive than in the past, a result, her coach said, of her maturation — along with, perhaps, her propensity to read books on leadership. In a news conference, Stephens fielded the usual question about how the Williams sisters must have inspired her as an African-American. She said that race had nothing to do with it, that they inspired her, period, and that she decorated the walls of her bedroom with posters of them. “That’s Sloane in a nutshell right there,” Roger Smith said. “That’s her outlook on a lot of things. Such a measured response. She appreciates all the questions about the Williams sisters. She and Serena have become friends. But she was just a kid when they started.” In the fourth round, Stephens is scheduled to face Samantha Stosur of Australia, the sixth seed here and the 2011 United States Open champion. Stephens’s goal, Roger Smith said, was to make it to the second week here. Check. The women’s singles draw has unfolded in a predictably unpredictable manner. Also Friday, Maria Sharapova crushed Ayumi Morita of Japan in a second-round match that had been postponed the day before. In four sets so far, the second-seeded Sharapova has lost four games. Yet both Williams sisters have already lost, and Agnieszka Radwanska, the third seed, lost Friday. Stephens, meanwhile, told her coach that she planned to buy a Louis Vuitton purse here while she needled her mother about the car she had yet to receive, as promised, after last year’s United States Open. “Oh, my God,” Stephens said. “Can someone please talk to my mom? She’s over there. She still hasn’t got me one.” Her mother shrugged. That’s her Sloane.

Tennis
French Open (Tennis)
Stephens Sloane


After Loss to Costa Rica, Uruguay Reexamines Itself

Abstract: MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay — Few in Uruguay will have heard of the English man of letters Cyril Connolly. Yet his most famous phrase — “Whom the gods wish to destroy they first call promising” — would not be lost on a country used to auspicious starts. The seeds of Uruguayan exceptionalism were sown early. After the country hosted and won the inaugural World Cup, in 1930, the president of the Uruguayan Football Association gave a moving speech in which he stated his expectation that the country take its place as the first among all nations. Unfortunately for the diminutive republic, a world championship in soccer meant just that and nothing more. Uruguay may have been the team of the 1920s, but by the end of the decade, the sun was already beginning to set on its empire. For Uruguayans, however, this notion of having been worldbeaters — compounded by a victory over Brazil in the 1950 World Cup final — was now ingrained in the nation’s psyche. The words of the Uruguayan coach Ondino Viera years later would only reinforce the nation’s distorted attitude toward the game: “Other countries have their history; Uruguay has its soccer.” He failed to realize that other countries possessed both. Across the Río de la Plata from Buenos Aires lies Montevideo, a quiet reminder of a more polite age for many Argentines. Time slows when one crosses that muddy estuary. The Uruguayan writer Eduardo Galeano once described the city as sleeping “its eternal siesta on the sloping hills of the coast ... boring and beloved, smelling of bread in the summer and smoke in the winter.” The old colonial Montevideo is fast dying out, usurped by a shinier 21st-century version of what Uruguayans feel a Latin American city should be. How We Play the Game Every team plays in distinct ways. To understand their style, one must learn a bit about each country’s history. But some things in this city never change. World Cup fever here is high. The street vendors, visible on most corners, sell the national flag in various forms. The belief is palpable. Uruguayans seem to have long memories only when it suits them. Four years ago, Uruguay’s run to the World Cup semifinals was born of good fortune rather than great skill. Nevertheless, the country suspended its disbelief. This was proof that Uruguay could still compete at the international level, that its august sporting prowess was not consigned to the past. Since 1970, Uruguayan soccer had promised much but delivered little. (Fame had given way to notoriety when, at the 1986 World Cup, a Uruguayan defender was shown a red card after 56 seconds.) The phoenix of the Río de la Plata had risen from the ashes of its own game. Beating Paraguay, 3-0, in the 2011 Copa América final furthered this newfound sense of self. Moreover, in Luis Suárez the country found a player of which it could only have dreamed. Soccer players have always faced the possibility both of winning redemption and of earning condemnation. Suárez has been such a player. In the 2010 World Cup quarterfinals, he was reproached like a disobedient child for his off-the-field celebration after Ghana’s Asamoah Gyan missed a last-minute penalty kick, which was awarded when Suárez stopped a certain goal with his hands. The Uruguayans opted for the perspective that this had been the ultimate sacrifice for country, an act infused with the selflessness of a Sydney Carton. Against Costa Rica, there was no place for Uruguay’s talisman. An injury, the result of a careless challenge at the end of last season, kept Suárez out of the game. The Uruguayans have their theories. This was not the work of some graceless substitute, rather a plot to keep Suárez off the field. It is no secret that paranoia and conspiracy enjoy a symbiotic relationship in the region. Half an hour before Saturday’s match, the streets of Montevideo begin to empty. Posters of Diego Forlán, with arms crossed (somewhat defensively), look down on the traffic. The legend — “Nothing Matters More Than the World Cup” — speaks for a nation. The street vendors have disappeared. Not even the ubiquitous taxis prowl the boulevards. For all the hype, the 90 minutes against Costa Rica pass quickly. Uruguay, as ever, shows promise early, with Edinson Cavani scoring from the penalty spot. But three second-half goals from Costa Rica put Uruguay to the sword. Defeat allows Uruguayans to revert to type — a cultured pessimism. “At least we can now watch the World Cup in comfort,” one fan says. Resignation seems to suit these Montevideans more than success. Supporting Uruguay seems a peculiar mix of masochism and nostalgia. A very Uruguayan combination.

2014 World Cup
Soccer
Uruguay
Costa Rica
Diego Forlan
Edinson Cavani


Botched Surgery Suspected in a Death in New Jersey

Abstract: RAHWAY, N.J., Nov. 28 — It was the day before Thanksgiving when Ronald Livingston looked through the big plate-glass window of the Just a Little Healthier restaurant here and watched as an ambulance pulled up to the white Cape Cod two doors down on West Scott Avenue. Soon, there was a police patrol car. And then there was another. “Then I saw the medical examiner’s van pull up,” Mr. Livingston, a supervisor at the restaurant, said on Wednesday. “That’s when I knew somebody was gone.” The authorities would learn that the dead woman was Olga Arroyo, 41, an executive assistant to the director of the Newark Police Department. Now investigators are trying to determine whether she died because of a procedure performed by an unlicensed cosmetic surgeon, whom the police did not identify, working in the house at 212 West Scott Avenue. The authorities have not yet determined what caused Ms. Arroyo’s death, and are hopeful that toxicology tests, the results of which might not be available for weeks, will help solve a mysterious death that has sent a spasm of grief through the top ranks of the Newark police. Ms. Arroyo had been an assistant to the police director, Garry F. McCarthy, since September 2006, and her voice was familiar to many in the department. “She was loyal, hard-working and tenacious,” Mr. McCarthy said of Ms. Arroyo in a telephone interview on Wednesday. “She was my pit bull. She would protect me.” Mr. McCarthy said that Ms. Arroyo was the wife of Jimmy Arroyo, a former Newark police officer who works for the Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission, and that she leaves two sons, 14 and 11, and a stepdaughter. Eileen Walsh, a spokeswoman for the Union County prosecutor, Theodore J. Romankow, said that detectives were trying to determine whether Ms. Arroyo died as the result of an unlicensed surgical procedure. “That’s one of the possibilities,” Ms. Walsh said. “It’s an ongoing investigation.” The authorities said they arrived at the house about 3 p.m. on Nov. 21 and found Ms. Arroyo on a sofa. She was pronounced dead at the scene. More than a week has gone by, and the authorities have said little about their investigation or about the owner of the house, who is listed as Flor Margarita Castro. Ms. Walsh would not say whether Ms. Castro had been interviewed by the authorities. Investigators are trying to determine whether part of the house was used as a medical office. On Wednesday, no one answered the door at Ms. Castro’s home, where a withered rosebush stood in the narrow front yard and a Dalmatian barked in the back. A blue drum labeled “Ethyl Vanillin” — used as a substitute for vanilla in foods and perfumes — sat in a carport, next to a door that led to the basement. Two mountain bikes hung from hooks off to one side. Mr. McCarthy said that when he first arrived in Newark after spending 25 years with the New York Police Department, Ms. Arroyo was invaluable in helping him navigate his new city’s insular and rough-hewn political culture. “She would say, ‘You’ve got to watch out for this one or that one,’” he said. “She was always here when I got here, and she was always here when I left. It was embarrassing.”


McCain Ends Resistance to Secret Service Protection

Abstract: Senator John McCain said Friday that he would meet with officials next week to discuss receiving Secret Service protection, even though he has resisted it in the past. “I think that it’s important as we get more and more visibility, that we recognize the inevitable,” Mr. McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, told Chris Wallace in an interview that will be broadcast on “Fox News Sunday.” “And so we will be talking with them early to arrange for, very soon, some Secret Service protection.” He said he had resisted accepting such protection earlier because “it inhibits my ability to have close contact with people.” Mr. McCain, of Arizona, said in November that he would reject Secret Service protection if he won the Republican nomination and possibly even the White House. While he does use private security guards, he called the elaborate security procedures of the Secret Service an “inconvenience” and a “waste of taxpayers’ money.” Testifying before a House subcommittee on Thursday, Mark Sullivan, director of the Secret Service, said that Mr. McCain had not requested Secret Service protection and that he was not required have it. His Democratic rivals have long received such protection: Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York had it from her years as first lady, and Senator Barack Obama has had it since May 3, 2007. Mr. Sullivan said that even without protection for Mr. McCain, the 2008 presidential campaign was on track to be the most expensive in Secret Service history. With the help of a panel that includes Congressional leaders and based on a set of qualifications, the secretary of homeland security determines whether to grant a candidate’s request for protection. “Senator McCain has already met all these criteria,” which include prominence in opinion polls and contributions totaling at least $2 million, said Malcolm Wiley, a spokesman for the Secret Service.

McCain John
Secret Service
Presidential Election of 2008
Guards


2 Officers Accused of Harassing Latinos Now Await Verdict

Abstract: HARTFORD — The federal trial of two police officers accused of harassing Latinos in a Connecticut town concluded here on Wednesday with lawyers in the case presenting very different views of the officers and how they did their jobs. The officers, Dennis Spaulding and David Cari, were among several members of the East Haven Police Department implicated in a Justice Department investigation. In closing arguments, the federal prosecutor in the case characterized the officers as part of a racially motivated conspiracy to intimidate the town’s Hispanic residents and a local priest who came to their aid. Defense lawyers for the two officers called the idea of a conspiracy a myth. “We don’t have racial profiling,” said Frank J. Riccio, the lawyer for Officer Spaulding. “We have enforcement of the law regardless of race, color or creed.” Jurors are scheduled to begin deliberations on Thursday. The three-week trial in Federal District Court here has laid bare tensions that have taken hold in East Haven, a working-class town where the population of Latino immigrants has soared in recent decades. Defense lawyers argued that their clients were dutiful officers, responsible for a region heavily populated by Latino immigrants, some of whom were involved in criminal activity. The lawyers also suggested that witnesses had embellished testimony and in some cases changed it midtrial in an effort to aid their immigration status. Prosecutors said the officers were driven by animus toward Latinos. Officer Spaulding, they said, singled out Latinos for traffic stops and arrested them or threatened arrest for seemingly minor infractions or for no infraction at all. They said he also exchanged messages with fellow officers that contained derogatory references to Hispanics. The wrongdoing, the authorities said, reached into the upper ranks of the Police Department. In January 2012, the Federal Bureau of Investigation arrested three officers along with their commander, Sgt. John Miller, on charges of conspiracy, false arrest, excessive force and obstruction of justice. Sergeant Miller and Officer Jason Zullo pleaded guilty to lesser charges. In some cases, prosecutors said, the officers used violence. In November 2008, in the parking lot of a Latino-owned restaurant called La Bamba, they said, Officer Spaulding slammed the restaurant’s owner to the ground, cutting his chin, and then repeatedly kicked him in the back and legs while his hands were handcuffed. The owner had been videotaping Officer Spaulding when the attack occurred. “For Dennis Spaulding, what rights you have depend on who you are and where you come from,” Krishna R. Patel, the lead trial prosecutor, said in her closing statement. In February 2009, Officers Spaulding and Cari confronted a priest, the Rev. James Manship, at an Ecuadorean-owned grocery store. Father Manship began investigating police intimidation in 2009 after several members of his congregation came to him with complaints. He was videotaping the officers during an encounter with grocery store workers when he was approached and then arrested by Officers Cari and Spaulding. The charges again Father Manship were later dropped. But according to the indictment, a high-ranking officer described as Co-Conspirator No. 1 made calls to Father Manship’s supervisor, asking that he be moved to a different parish. In their statements on Wednesday, defense lawyers tried to portray witnesses as biased and untrustworthy. They pointed to discrepancies between testimony delivered at the grand jury and testimony at the trial. They also noted that some witnesses who were in the United States illegally were provided with visas so that they could testify. Defense lawyers singled out Father Manship, describing his actions as well intentioned, but clouded by an agenda that opposed the police department. “Just because your heart is in the right place doesn’t mean you can’t be wrong, that you can’t make a mistake,” said Alex Hernandez, the lawyer representing Officer Cari. For residents of East Haven, there was a cautious optimism as the trial came to a close. Cecilio Cuapio, who attended the arguments on Wednesday, said many Latinos had felt more secure in East Haven since the officers were arrested. “I can see people are more comfortable,” he said. “If you walk around, you can see more people walking the streets.” Much, he said, will depend on the verdict.

Police Brutality,Police Misconduct,Police Shootings


With Flixster, Studios Bet Consumers Will Buy Movies Again

Abstract: LOS ANGELES — Hollywood has had enough of the sharp consumer shift toward renting movies through Netflix. Desperate to raise home entertainment profits, studios want people to start buying movies outright again, either digitally or on little silver discs. But what’s the best way to force that pendulum to swing? Every studio is grappling with that question, but one of the more aggressive and risky bets is being made by Warner Brothers . The studio, which is owned by Time Warner and commands a 20 percent share of the DVD and Blu-ray market, has decided to center its buy-not-rent hopes on Flixster, a small social network for movie buffs that it bought in May for about $75 million. Warner last month introduced technology that makes Flixster the home base for a new movie storage service called UltraViolet. The free service, backed by most of the big studios, allows people to buy a movie once and watch it anywhere — on a computer, mobile device or Web-ready television. The strategy is to make owning more compelling than renting by loading digital portability into purchases. “We must move consumers in mass numbers toward collecting movies digitally, and this is a path,” said Kevin Tsujihara, president of Warner Home Entertainment. Retailers like Wal-Mart are working on UltraViolet access sites, but the only way to use the cloud-based service for now is via Flixster . Once consumers buy an UltraViolet-enabled DVD or Blu-ray set — say, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2,” which arrived in stores on Friday — they can set up an account on Flixster and type in a code provided on the disc packaging to claim their digital rights. That may seem complicated for consumers in the age of Netflix and iTunes. “We recognize that the product is not perfect today,” Mr. Tsujihara said. “We don’t have the luxury of waiting a year until we have everything perfect.” Some analysts say Warner is moving too quickly. Rank-and-file consumers are still hazy about what cloud storage even means. There will be only 10 or so titles for UltraViolet by Christmas. And large swaths of the UltraViolet system are still incomplete. “It remains far, far easier for DVD-buying consumers to pirate a digital copy of their movie,” said Richard Greenfield, an analyst for BTIG Capital, adding that, “moving forward with UltraViolet before it is ready for prime time risks pushing consumers increasingly toward rental-priced options where they do not need to deal with the hassles.” Warner and other studios are racing ahead for a variety of reasons. Purchases provide margins for the studios that are typically three times greater than rentals — and the rise of Netflix, Redbox and video-on-demand rental services have severely cut into purchases. And the down economy has also taken a toll. Sales of DVDs in the United States last year totaled $7.8 billion, a 43 percent decline from the industry’s 2006 peak of $13.7 billion, according to the media-tracking firm IHS Screen Digest. At the same time, the sale of movies online, hampered by the lack of interoperability that UltraViolet is intended to fix, has been “a complete failure to date,” Mr. Greenfield said. In the first three quarters of 2011, electronic sales increased about 7 percent to $406 million, according to the Digital Entertainment Group. Warner has bigger ambitions for Flixster. In the coming months, Flixster will start offering a service called Disc to Digital that will allow people to pay a small fee per disc to convert their existing DVD collections into digital copies. The idea is to train consumers to manage their movie libraries online, much the way they do digital music or photos. Flixster already offers a service called Collections that allows users to tie together their iTunes, Hulu and Netflix accounts to show any films that they have rented or bought online. Flixster will also transform itself into a film retailer, allowing users to buy digital movies through what it calls a “studio agnostic” storefront. That positions Flixster as a competitor to Apple’s iTunes and Wal-Mart’s Vudu, a strategy that some other studios see as foolhardy. What does it know about retail? Won’t retail partners — especially Wal-Mart — see the move as turf infringement? The plan “hasn’t caused any problems,” Mr. Tsujihara said, indicating that Warner intends to tread carefully. He added, “We didn’t buy Flixster as a retail outlet.” Still, building a direct relationship with consumers was one of the primary reasons Warner bought the site. Flixster Collections allows the studio to see users’ movie purchases, for instance. If Warner sees that a user has bought five of its eight Harry Potter films, the studio can try to sell the other three. “It’s a huge opportunity from a marketing perspective,” Mr. Tsujihara said. The question that remains, of course, is whether Warner had a choice — did the studio step in because it’s a forward thinker? Or was no retailer willing to stick its neck out for the UltraViolet locker? Flixster.com had only about 1.2 million unique visitors in September, according to comScore. Most of the company’s muscle comes from a free what’s-in-theaters-now app that works on Apple, Android and BlackBerry devices. The app, which Warner says attracts about 25 million unique users a month on a global basis, includes information from RottenTomatoes.com , the review aggregation site that is also owned by Flixster. (The studio dismisses industry worries that owning Rotten Tomatoes is a conflict because the site will be reviewing Warner films. “It’s completely independent, and if you looked at some of Warner’s scores, you would know I’m serious,” Mr. Tsujihara said.) Flixster was founded in 2006 by two Silicon Valley entrepreneurs. Initial backers included the LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman. The idea was to create a network for movie fans to share ratings and reviews. It quickly became part of the studio marketer toolbox, with studios paying to sponsor quizzes that could be shared with friends, essentially turning users into sales agents. It is too early to judge the consumer response to Flixster’s UltraViolet push, but there are early indications of trouble among the geek squad. “Talk about a bad first impression,” wrote the tech blog GigaOm. Warner’s analysis of early results is starkly different. “We are very, very happy with the redemption rates,” said Thomas Gewecke, Warner’s president for digital distribution. He declined to reveal numbers to back up the assertion, but he said Warner had plans to prod more people to open UltraViolet accounts on Flixster by offering a “starter kit” that comes with a choice of a free digital movie. “This is only the beginning,” Mr. Gewecke said.

Warner Brothers
Consumer Behavior
Movies
DVD (Digital Versatile Disc)
Flixster


Federal Employee Will Not Face Criminal Charges in Drone Crash at White House

Abstract: WASHINGTON — The Justice Department said Wednesday that it would not criminally charge a federal employee who was operating a hobbyist’s drone that crashed on the South Lawn of the White House in January. The Federal Aviation Administration, however, has begun an investigation of the incident to determine whether the man, Shawn Usman, should be fined, the Justice Department said. It is against federal regulations to fly a drone in Washington. The crash of the DJI Phantom drone, a 2-foot-by-2-foot quadcopter, on the lawn of the White House generated deep concern among law enforcement officials, who said it exposed a vulnerability in the security around the White House. Officials said radar designed to stop planes was not designed for drones that are so small. Law enforcement and national security officials have said that such drones could carry explosives, cameras or other potentially dangerous equipment. In recent weeks, officials said that the Secret Service and other agencies were flying drones in the skies above Washington to test methods of detecting and stopping them. The drone that Mr. Usman was flying added to the list of embarrassing security breaches at the White House. It followed an incident in September in which a man jumped the iron fence around the White House and made it into the building’s ornate East Room. Senior Secret Service officials had wanted federal prosecutors to charge Mr. Usman, who has worked at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and maintained a security clearance to work with secret government material. Secret Service officials believed there was enough evidence to indict him. But they have said it is not clear to them whether the laws intended to protect the airspace around the White House would have applied to unmanned aircraft like drones. There was also no evidence that the man deliberately tried to fly the drone over the White House, they said. “Mr. Usman is pleased and grateful that the U.S. attorney’s office has decided not to pursue charges in this matter,” his lawyer, James M. Garland, said in an emailed statement. “This entire incident, while unfortunate and understandably alarming, was totally inadvertent and completely unintentional.” The statement went on: “Mr. Usman wishes to express his sincere apologies to all those affected — especially to the president and his family, as well as to those responsible for ensuring their safety.” Mr. Garland said that his client would cooperate fully with the F.A.A. investigation. The Justice Department said that its investigation found that Mr. Usman had borrowed the drone from a friend and was flying it out of his apartment window in the overnight hours when he lost control of it. “Around 3 a.m., the drone was outside over 10th Street when he saw it ascend to an altitude of about 100 feet and head in a westerly direction,” the United States attorney’s office for the District of Columbia said in a statement. “He tried to regain control over it, but to no avail. He called his friend, who was unable to advise him how to gain control over the drone.” Mr. Usman, the statement continued, “knew that the drone’s battery was nearing the end of its charge and expected that it would crash somewhere over the Mall.” He then went to sleep, not knowing where the drone had fallen. When he woke up the next morning, he saw news reports about the crash and then reported the incident to the Secret Service. A “forensic analysis” performed on the drone by the authorities determined that Mr. Usman was not controlling it when it crashed at the White House. The DJI Phantom drone , which sells for as much as $2,000, is one of the most popular drones among hobbyists. Company officials said the drone uses GPS technology to help amateur operators control where it goes. Some users have reported instances in which the wireless connection between the controller and the drone is lost, leading the drone to shoot up into the sky and then head off in an unknown direction at high speed. Those reports are similar to what Mr. Usman told investigators. Company officials blamed user error for most of those incidents and said that in some cases, users have accidentally programmed in an erroneous “go home” address for when the drone loses contact with the controller.

Drones
White House
FAA
Shawn Usman
Justice Department
Secret Service


Rare Loss for Barcelona

Abstract: Barcelona lost its first match of the Spanish league season, squandering a two-goal lead in a 3-2 defeat at Real Sociedad. ¶ Unseasonably cold temperatures, hours of driving rain and no goals marked the opening day of the African Nations Cup in Johannesburg. The continental tournament began with a 0-0 draw between South Africa and the Cape Verde Islands. The second match, between Morocco and Angola, also finished goalless. (REUTERS)¶ Manchester City kept up its pursuit of Manchester United with a 2-0 victory over Fulham in the Premier League.

Soccer
Real Sociedad Soccer Team
Barcelona Soccer Team


U.N. Accuses Eritrea’s Leaders of Crimes Against Humanity

Abstract: GENEVA — The leaders of Eritrea are responsible for crimes against humanity, a United Nations commission of inquiry said Wednesday, calling for international action to hold them to account, including referral to the International Criminal Court. The inquiry found that “officials at the highest levels of state,” including the ruling party and military commanders of the East African nation, “have committed and continue to commit” crimes including enslavement, imprisonment and disappearances, torture, rape and murder. One of the most egregious offenses, the United Nations commission found, was the forced conscription of young people in a never-ending national service program that has driven thousands of young Eritreans to flee, many to Europe. Eritrea, a small country on the Horn of Africa along the Red Sea, is known as the North Korea of Africa. It is one of the continent’s most secretive, isolated and repressive countries. Its leader, Isaias Afwerki, an intellectual turned guerrilla fighter turned president, was once considered one of the smartest and most charismatic rebels in the world. During Eritrea’s war for independence from Ethiopia two decades ago, Mr. Isaias brought Christians and Muslims, nomads and farmers, and men and women together in the trenches; he even oversaw underground tampon factories for his female fighters. These days, though, many Eritrean analysts question his leadership. Mr. Isaias’s “stubborn refusal to modify his repressive rule has put the country in this position,” said Dan Connell, an American journalist who knows Mr. Isaias personally and has written several books on Eritrea. Mr. Connell said he had been hearing stories of fear and repression for years. “Denied a chance to express themselves at home, Eritreans continue to vote with their feet, which is as strong a confirmation of the commission’s findings as any,” he said Wednesday. Mike Smith, the chairman of the United Nations panel, said that the report found that the abuses inflicted by the government were “a major impetus” for the exodus of Eritreans: More than 47,000 applied for asylum in Europe last year. The three-member panel of inquiry urged the Security Council to recognize the human rights deprivations in Eritrea as a serious threat to international peace and security and to refer the allegations in the 94-page report to the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court. The panel also called for travel bans against those accused of the crimes and human rights abuses, and the freezing of their financial assets. The panel said it had compiled dossiers of evidence against an unspecified number of individuals and would make these available at the appropriate time to courts of law and other relevant institutions, “to ensure there is justice for the Eritrean people.” The Eritrean government swiftly denounced the report as “an unwarranted attack not only against Eritrea, but also Africa and developing nations,” and said the commission’s findings were deeply flawed and unsupported by any evidence. Video A United Nation commission of inquiry said on Wednesday that Eritrean officials had committed crimes against humanity and listed the accusations during a news conference. Credit Credit Fabrice Coffrini/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images “From the very get-go, they have shown that they lack independence, impartiality and objectivity,” Yemane Gebreab, an adviser to Mr. Isaias, told reporters Wednesday in Geneva. Some analysts have said that the report seems one-sided, and that the international community bears some responsibility for Eritrea’s descent. The government of Eritrea went to war with its larger neighbor and former ruler, Ethiopia, in 1998, resulting in the deaths of tens of thousands of soldiers on each side. The dispute started over the town of Badme, a dusty border outpost that both sides claimed. More than 10 years ago, an international arbitration commission ruled that the town belonged to Eritrea. But the Ethiopians have yet to pull out . Western powers tend to side with Ethiopia and have turned a deaf ear to Eritrea’s appeals. The Eritrean government has used the stalemate as an excuse to keep the country on war footing and to deny civil liberties. The United Nations commission based its report on testimony from 833 Eritreans living as refugees in 13 countries. The panel did not visit Eritrea, noting that the government failed to grant investigators permission to visit. Few outsiders make it into Eritrea these days. Those who do are often charmed by the 1930s Art Deco architecture and other remnants of the country’s past as Italy’s prized African colony. But there has been little development in Eritrea for decades; traveling through the country feels like a visit to a vintage shop. Many Eritreans are frightened to speak to outsiders, especially about politics, and government agents carefully watch visitors, especially journalists and diplomats. And many visitors to Eritrea, and foreign residents of the capital, Asmara, see a different situation than the one described in the report, said Mr. Smith, the chairman. “Human rights abuses of the type that we describe don’t generally happen in the streets of Asmara,” he said. “They are happening in detention centers across the country, they are happening in military camps, and they are happening training centers where foreigners simply don’t have access.” Some 300,000 to 400,000 people have been forced into labor, Mr. Smith estimated, working in a system characterized by harsh living conditions and abuse, including the rape of female recruits. Those fleeing the country risked their lives crossing borders patrolled by troops with orders to shoot to kill, and again by crossing deserts and relying on human smugglers to get them across the Mediterranean. “People have to have a lot of motivation to do that kind of thing,” Mr. Smith said. The panel said that the Eritrean authorities had not responded to its requests to visit the country and that panel members based their report on interviews with Eritreans living outside the country. Many of the Eritreans described a system of arbitrary detention without warrant or judicial process and said they were tortured after their arrest. “I haven’t seen my husband in seven years and don’t know if he is alive or not,” one woman told investigators for the panel. For four years after her husband’s arrest outside their house, she took food and clothes to the place he was being detained until he again disappeared. “I searched for him, but the authorities finally told me just don’t bother coming back, there’s no point.” In addition to witness testimony, the panel had received some 45,000 letters and petitions, nearly all critical of its investigation. An evaluation of the letters found that many of the writers had not read the report, some signatures had been forged and others were added without the knowledge of the individuals concerned. They were the direct result, the panel said, of “an organized government campaign to attempt to discredit the inquiry.”

War Crimes,Genocide,Crimes Against Humanity


Joseph Lechleider, a Father of the DSL Internet Technology, Dies at 82

Abstract: In the late 1980s, Joseph W. Lechleider came up with a clever solution to a puzzling technical problem, making it possible to bring high-speed Internet service to millions of households. His idea earned him a place in the National Inventors Hall of Fame as one of the fathers of the Internet service known as DSL. Mr. Lechleider, who died on April 18 at his home in Philadelphia at 82, was an electrical engineer at the Bell telephone companies’ research laboratory, Bellcore. At the time, the phone companies wanted to figure out a way to send signals at high speed across ordinary copper wire into homes, mainly to compete with cable television companies and offer interactive video services. Applying digital technology was the best route to sidestep the limitations of copper wire, but there was still a barrier. When the data speeds in both directions — downloading and uploading — were the same, there was a lot of electrical interference that slowed data traffic to a crawl. Mr. Lechleider figured out that such meddlesome interference — known as electrical crosstalk — could be substantially reduced if the download speeds were far faster than the upload speeds. This approach became known as the asymmetric digital subscriber line. And these digital subscriber lines, or DSL, were how big phone companies like AT&T and Verizon brought fast broadband Internet into homes. “Joe Lechleider’s idea was a simple, elegant solution to the problem,” said John M. Cioffi , an emeritus professor of electrical engineering at Stanford University. “His contribution was essential to the development and spread of the Internet.” Mr. Lechleider’s death was confirmed by his son, Dr. Robert Lechleider, who said the cause was cancer of the esophagus. Besides his son, he is survived by his wife, Marie; his daughter, Pamela; and four grandchildren. Joseph William Lechleider was born on Feb. 22, 1933, in Brooklyn. He attended Brooklyn Technical High School and earned his undergraduate degree from Cooper Union and a Ph.D. from the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn. Upon graduation, he went to work for General Electric for a few years, and in 1955 he joined Bell Labs. After the 1982 court order breaking up American Telephone & Telegraph, the research arm of the regional Bell companies was established as Bellcore. Mr. Lechleider’s insight about how to increase data speed came when he was 55. He had spent decades studying signal processing, so he was deeply grounded in the field. But Mr. Lechleider, according to Mr. Cioffi, was something of an iconoclast in a large, often bureaucratic organization. “He was not afraid to take a risk and fight for a new idea,” Mr. Cioffi said. Mr. Lechleider was fueled by a wide-ranging curiosity, his son said. Two walls of his study, he recalled, were bookshelves, double-stacked, with books on subjects ranging from physics to philosophy. The study also had a bust of Albert Einstein, whom Mr. Lechleider revered for advancing ideas that challenged accepted wisdom. Digital subscriber lines were not an immediate success. Early versions were not capable of video-on-demand services, the market the Bell companies originally wanted to enter. And when the Internet began to take off in the 1990s, most consumers went online using dial-up modems, which increased the demand for second phone lines in homes. That was a good business for the phone companies, and a familiar one. Why opt for this new DSL technology? “There was considerable skepticism,” Mr. Lechleider said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal in 2003. “There were people who didn’t want to deploy it. There were people who didn’t think it would work. Many of them weren’t sure there was a market for it.” But as the web added more data-rich images, music and video, the demand for affordable, higher-speed communications services surged. And DSL technology afforded the phone companies a path to do that for years without having to undertake the costly alternative of installing fiber-optic cable into homes. Mr. Lechleider contributed a key idea. But it was younger engineers like Mr. Cioffi who developed DSL modem technology. The inexpensive cleverness of DSL technology, industry analysts say, meant the phone companies did not invest heavily to upgrade their broadband systems, as did the cable companies, like Comcast and Time Warner Cable. The cable operators initially feared competition from satellite television, but their investment paid off, allowing them to offer ever-faster Internet service. “DSL allowed the phone companies to milk another two decades out of their copper infrastructure,” said Craig Moffett , a telecommunications analyst. “But the phone companies now find themselves far behind the cable companies in the speeds they can offer.” Mr. Lechleider was not an early adopter of Internet technology. But when he signed up for high-speed service, he chose cable. Yet his son recalled first getting DSL service years ago in his own home and, realizing how much faster it was than dial-up service, thinking of his father. “I loved him for it,” he said.

Obituary
Joseph W. Lechleider
Bellcore
Computers and the Internet
Tech Industry
Wire and Cable
Telecommunication
Bell Laboratories


MTV’s ‘Skins’ Casts Teenagers in Racy Scenes, and Raises Doubts

Abstract: MTV executives have a new hit drama on their hands, featuring the sexual and drug-fueled exploits of misfit teenagers. They also have something else — a fear that coming episodes of the show may break the law. In recent days, executives at the cable channel became concerned that some scenes from the provocative new show “Skins” may violate federal child pornography statutes. The executives ordered the producers to make changes to tone down some of the most explicit content. They are particularly concerned about the third episode of the series, which is to be broadcast Jan. 31. In an early version, a naked 17-year-old actor is shown from behind as he runs down a street. The actor, Jesse Carere, plays Chris, a high school student whose erection — assisted by erectile dysfunction pills — is a punch line throughout the episode. The planned changes indicate that MTV, which has been pushing the envelope for decades, may be concerned that it pushed too far this time. “Skins” is a calculated risk by MTV which is eager to get into the scripted programming business. The channel, a unit of Viacom , has long tested American standards for sexuality and obscenity on television with shows like “The Real World” and “ Jersey Shore .” Those reality shows have generally involved adults, but for “Skins,” the producers purposefully cast actors ages 15 to 19, most of whom had never acted before. MTV’s president and other executives declined interview requests on Wednesday. An MTV spokeswoman, Jeannie Kedas, insisted that the future episodes of “Skins” were still works in progress. She would not confirm that MTV executives were fearful of running afoul of child pornography laws. “ ‘Skins’ is a show that addresses real-world issues confronting teens in a frank way,” she said in a statement. “We review all of our shows and work with all of our producers on an ongoing basis to ensure our shows comply with laws and community standards. We are confident that the episodes of ‘Skins’ will not only comply with all applicable legal requirements, but also with our responsibilities to our viewers.” Child pornography is defined by the United States as any visual depiction of a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct. In some cases, “a picture of a naked child may constitute illegal child pornography if it is sufficiently sexually suggestive,” according to the Justice Department’s legal guidance. Anyone younger than 18 is considered to be a minor. The youngest cast member on “Skins” is 15. “Skins” is an import from Britain , a country that has historically displayed a higher tolerance for TV eroticism than the United States. The episodes for MTV, including the third one, which was shared with TV critics, are virtually identical to the source material. The remade episodes, like the ones in Britain, included simulated masturbation, implied sexual assault, and teenagers disrobing and getting into bed together. With ads that feature groups of barely clothed teenagers, “Skins” is surely one of the most sexually charged programs that MTV has featured. Before it even had its premiere, the Parents Television Council, a TV watchdog group, labeled “Skins” the “most dangerous program that has ever been foisted on your children.” The group objected to the gratuitous scenes of drug and alcohol use , violence and sexual acts. Of course, those scenes may be what attract young viewers in the first place. Jessica Bennett, a senior writer for Newsweek , wrote last week , “ ‘Skins’ may be the most realistic show on television.” The show is off to a running start. It attracted 3.3 million to its premiere on Monday night and set a new first-episode record for the channel among viewers ages 12 to 34. Episodes of “Skins” are rated TV-MA, indicating that the content may be unsuitable for viewers younger than 17. MTV states in news releases that it is “specifically designed to be viewed by adults.” However, many of MTV’s viewers are in middle and high school. According to the Nielsen Company, the first episode drew 1.2 million people younger than 18. MTV noted that the episodes were being shown only at or after 10 p.m. Eastern, and said in the statement, “We also have taken numerous steps to alert viewers to the strong subject matter so that they can choose for themselves whether it is appropriate.” It is unclear when MTV first realized that the show may be vulnerable to child pornography charges. On Tuesday, a flurry of meetings took place at the network’s headquarters in New York, according to an executive who attended some of the meetings and spoke only on the condition of anonymity. In one of the meetings, the executives wondered aloud who could possibly face criminal prosecution and jail time if the episodes were broadcast without changes. Days earlier, MTV held a premiere party for the series in Manhattan . Ensconced there in the V.I.P. perch, the actors huddled around one another and stared in awe at the youthful party that was under way — while unable to partake in the free alcohol that was flowing in the 21-and-older area. By midnight, several of the actors appeared to have headed home with their parents. Referring to the largely unknown actors, Bryan Elsley, an executive producer of “Skins,” said in a letter to critics last month, “They’re making the characters their own and demanding that their voices be heard.” Mr. Elsley and his producing partners did not respond to interview requests on Wednesday, but MTV executives were known to be worried about how the producers would react to the planned changes. The channel intends for the editing to obscure some of the sexual content in the third episode and others. There are, of course, innumerable examples of youthful sexuality being packaged by the media. Amy M. Adler, a professor of law at New York University who specializes in free speech, art and pornography, pointed to the teenage singer Miley Cyrus ’s revealing photo shoots and the CW network’s use of condemnations by the Parents Television Council of the risqué drama “Gossip Girl” to promote the show. “There are times when I look at mainstream culture and think it is skirting up against the edge of child pornography law,” she said.

Viacom Media Networks
TV
Teens
Pornography


The Higgs Boson, a Blip That Speaks of Our Place in the Universe

Abstract: ASPEN, Colo. — Last week, physicists around the world were glued to computers at very odd hours (I was at a 1 a.m. physics “party” here with a large projection screen and dozens of colleagues) to watch live as scientists at the Large Hadron Collider , outside Geneva, announced that they had apparently found one of the most important missing pieces of the jigsaw puzzle that is nature. The “ Higgs particle ,” proposed almost 50 years ago to allow for consistency between theoretical predictions and experimental observations in elementary particle physics, appears to have been discovered — even as the detailed nature of the discovery allows room for even more exotic revelations that may be just around the corner. It is natural for those not deeply involved in the half-century quest for the Higgs to ask why they should care about this seemingly esoteric discovery. There are three reasons. First, it caps one of the most remarkable intellectual adventures in human history — one that anyone interested in the progress of knowledge should at least be aware of. Second, it makes even more remarkable the precarious accident that allowed our existence to form from nothing — further proof that the universe of our senses is just the tip of a vast, largely hidden cosmic iceberg. And finally, the effort to uncover this tiny particle represents the very best of what the process of science can offer to modern civilization. If one is a theoretical physicist working on some idea late at night or at a blackboard with colleagues over coffee one afternoon, it is almost terrifying to imagine that something that you cook up in your mind might actually be real. It’s like staring at a large jar and being asked to guess the number of jelly beans inside; if you guess right, it seems too good to be true. The prediction of the Higgs particle accompanied a remarkable revolution that completely changed our understanding of particle physics in the latter part of the 20th century. Just 50 years ago, in spite of the great advances of physics in the previous half century, we understood only one of the four fundamental forces of nature — electromagnetism — as a fully consistent quantum theory. In just one subsequent decade, however, not only had three of the four known forces succumbed to our investigations, but a new elegant unity of nature had been uncovered. It was found that all of the known forces could be described using a single mathematical framework — and that two of the forces, electromagnetism and the weak force (which governs the nuclear reactions that power the sun), were actually different manifestations of a single underlying theory. How could two such different forces be related? After all, the photon, the particle that conveys electromagnetism, has no mass, while the particles that convey the weak force are very massive — almost 100 times as heavy as the particles that make up atomic nuclei, a fact that explains why the weak force is weak. What the British physicist Peter Higgs and several others showed is that if there exists an otherwise invisible background field permeating all of space, then the particles that convey some force like electromagnetism can interact with this field and effectively encounter resistance to their motion and slow down, like a swimmer moving through molasses. As a result, these particles can behave as if they are heavy, as if they have a mass. The physicist Steven Weinberg later applied this idea to a model of the weak and electromagnetic forces previously proposed by Sheldon L. Glashow, and everything fit together. This idea can be extended to the rest of particles in nature, including the protons and neutrons and electrons that make up the atoms in our bodies. If some particle interacts more strongly with this background field, it ends up acting heavier. If it interacts more weakly, it acts lighter. If it doesn’t interact at all, like the photon, it remains massless. If anything sounds too good to be true, this is it. The miracle of mass — indeed of our very existence, because if not for the Higgs, there would be no stars, no planets and no people — is possible because of some otherwise hidden background field whose only purpose seems to be to allow the world to look the way it does. Dr. Glashow, who along with Dr. Weinberg won a Nobel Prize in Physics, later once referred to this “Higgs field” as the “toilet” of modern physics because that’s where all the ugly details that allow the marvelous beauty of the physical world are hidden. But relying on invisible miracles is the stuff of religion, not science. To ascertain whether this remarkable accident was real, physicists relied on another facet of the quantum world. Associated with every background field is a particle, and if you pick a point in space and hit it hard enough, you may whack out real particles. The trick is hitting it hard enough over a small enough volume. And that’s the rub. After 50 years of trying, including a failed attempt in this country to build an accelerator to test these ideas, no sign of the Higgs had appeared. In fact, I was betting against it, since a career in theoretical physics has taught me that nature usually has a far richer imagination than we do. Until last week. Every second at the Large Hadron Collider, enough data is generated to fill more than 1,000 one-terabyte hard drives — more than the information in all the world’s libraries. The logistics of filtering and analyzing the data to find the Higgs particle peeking out under a mountain of noise, not to mention running the most complex machine humans have ever built, is itself a triumph of technology and computational wizardry of unprecedented magnitude. The physicist Victor F. Weisskopf — the colorful director in the early 1960s of CERN , the European Organization for Nuclear Research, which operates the collider — once described large particle accelerators as the gothic cathedrals of our time. Like those beautiful remnants of antiquity, accelerators require the cutting edge of technology, they take decades or more to build, and they require the concerted efforts of thousands of craftsmen and women. At CERN, each of the mammoth detectors used to study collisions requires the work of thousands of physicists, from scores of countries, speaking several dozen languages. Most significantly perhaps, cathedrals and colliders are both works of incomparable grandeur that celebrate the beauty of being alive. The apparent discovery of the Higgs may not result in a better toaster or a faster car. But it provides a remarkable celebration of the human mind’s capacity to uncover nature’s secrets, and of the technology we have built to control them. Hidden in what seems like empty space — indeed, like nothing, which is getting more interesting all the time — are the very elements that allow for our existence. By demonstrating that, last week’s discovery will change our view of ourselves and our place in the universe. Surely that is the hallmark of great music, great literature, great art ...and great science.

Higgs Boson
Physics
Large Hadron Collider
Science and Technology
Weinberg Steven
Higgs Peter Ware
CERN
Glashow Sheldon Lee
Weisskopf Victor F


Lindsey Jacobellis Again Comes Up Short in Snowboard Cross

Abstract: KRASNAYA POLYANA, Russia — Again, there was nothing in front of Lindsey Jacobellis but open snow, a finish line and a mountain of possibility. She was in the lead, a pack of women chasing with little hope of catching the most accomplished female snowboard-cross rider in history. In 2006, at the Turin Olympics, Jacobellis had a similarly wide gap in the final when, after launching off the second-to-last jump, she grabbed her board with her hand and twisted sideways, trying to punctuate her run with panache. She crash landed and was passed, turning gold into silver, the most heartbreaking feat of Olympic metallurgy. This time, it was the semifinals, and it was not a showy midair move that brought Jacobellis to earth. It was a couple of rollers, gentle but devious little humps near the bottom of the course, just above the final jump. Jacobellis came around a tight corner, rose off one roller, landed awkwardly on another and spun to the ground. She never reached the finish line, which meant she did not realize the elusive dream of turning her dominating career into Olympic gold. Four years ago at Vancouver, when she was again the gold medal favorite, Jacobellis lost in the semifinals, too. That time, in a crowd, she nearly landed on another competitor’s snowboard, wobbled off balance and went out of bounds. “I don’t think it has to do with the Olympics,” Jacobellis said. “It’s just on a fluke of when things work out for me and when they don’t. ” An eight-time winner of the event at the Winter X Games, Jacobellis, 28, was placed in the “small final,” a consolation run. She won that six-person contest, officially giving her a seventh-place finish at the Olympics. Image Dominique Maltais of Canada, left, won silver, Eva Samkova of the Czech Republic, center, won the gold and Chloe Trespeuch of France captured bronze. Credit Josh Haner/The New York Times “I was really happy with how the course was coming together for me,” Jacobellis said glumly but without obvious signs of heartache. “I wasn’t scared. There were a lot of girls who were scared and not really putting it together. It just didn’t work out. I don’t know how else to say it.” It was Eva Samkova of the Czech Republic who dominated the event, from timed qualifications to the final race, to win the gold medal. Dominique Maltais of Canada earned silver and Chloé Trespeuch of France captured bronze. As they crossed the finish in a line, each raised her arms triumphantly, pleased with the result, if not simply happy to survive standing up. “I couldn’t imagine this,” said Samkova, who had painted a handlebar mustache above her lip in the national colors of red, white and blue. Faye Gulini of the United States finished fourth, an outcome charged with mixed emotions. “I’m happy with fourth,” she said, pleasantly. “But it is the Olympics. Being on the podium would have been nice.” The topic turned to Jacobellis, and Gulini quickly came to the defense of her fallen teammate. “People don’t understand how much pressure is put on her,” she said. “It breaks my heart, because I think it takes the fun out of it for her. Just this event. She loves the sport. She’s a phenomenal snowboarder. But it’s in her head. With that much pressure on you — I’ve never had that kind of pressure on me — but I know that it just breaks her, as an athlete.” She added: “Maybe it was just a fluke mistake. But it’s a bummer. She deserves more.” The course of big jumps, knee-bending rollers and banked corners took its toll on the athletes from the beginning. Two of the first six women to take the course in timed qualifiers, the medal contender Helene Olafsen of Norway and Jacqueline Hernandez of the United States, were hauled down the course on sleds after nasty falls. Olafsen, who finished fourth at the 2010 Vancouver Games, hurt her knee. Hernandez flew off a jump and landed sideways on her board, toppling onto her back and hitting her head. She sustained a concussion and was released in time to watch the end of the event. The women’s snowboard cross arrived ripe in story lines. Torah Bright of Australia competed in her third snowboard event, after slopestyle and halfpipe, in which she won a silver medal. In snowboard cross, though, she was quietly ousted in the quarterfinals. And in August, in the aftermath of news about Russian legislation considered antigay, another Australian, Belle Brockhoff, announced that she was gay. One of seven known gay athletes at the Games (all women), Brockhoff said she would have some words for President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia. “After I compete, I’m willing to rip on his” backside, she said. “I’m not happy, and there’s a bunch of other Olympians who are not happy, either.” Brockhoff missed out on the final, and finished behind Jacobellis in the small final, coming in eighth. Afterward, she offered few words on the subject of gay rights, suggesting that social media might be a better format for her views. That kept most of the attention on Samkova, the winner, and Jacobellis, the upended favorite. Samkova dominated her races the way Jacobellis, in a different semifinal, was dominating hers. Jacobellis carried more speed around a hard left-hand bend in the semifinal than she had in the quarterfinal. She hit the first roller of a short straightaway and flew past where she intended to land. She came down awkwardly on an uphill slope that faced the midday sun — “kind of like landing in mashed potatoes,” Jacobellis said — and slid into the course’s final turn, a right-hander that led to a drop-off and the final jump. As it was eight years ago, it was a self-inflicted mistake in an unpredictable sport of collisions and wipeouts. As she was eight years ago, Jacobellis was philosophical about the result. “There’s worse things in life than not winning,” she said. “A lot worse. Of course, it’s very unfortunate that this didn’t work out for me, and I trained very hard for this moment. It doesn’t come together, for who knows what reasons.”

2014 Winter Olympics
Snowboarding
Lindsey Jacobellis


Questions of Discretion Arise When Jurors Blog

Abstract: Bruce Slutsky began chronicling his jury duty experience in Queens with a blog post on Sept. 16, the first day he had to report. He wrote about the jury room and disclosed that he was called for a civil case. His feelings about the process began to emerge in what he posted to the blog after his second day: “A prospective juror can ask for one postponement with no questions asked,” he wrote. “The next time may be more inconvenient, so I may as well get it over with.” Day after day, Mr. Slutsky posted accounts of his experience, most of them complaining about how slow and dreadful he considered the process. But a law professor in Texas researching juror behavior was alarmed when he stumbled upon Mr. Slutsky’s blog, at www.bruceslutsky.com . The professor, John Clark of the University of Texas at Tyler, then notified the court. After questioning Mr. Slutsky, the judge and the lawyers decided that the posts were not a reason to dismiss him. Mr. Slutsky, who was the foreman, remained on the jury, which rendered a verdict on Friday in favor of the defendants. Mr. Slutsky’s posts raised the age-old question of what jurors may or may not reveal about their jury service. They also highlighted a 21st-century nuance of dealing with jurors who use blogs and other forms of social media to share their existence with the world. The civil case in State Supreme Court in Queens in which Mr. Slutsky served as jury foreman involved a lawsuit over injuries suffered by a man who said he was assaulted by a father and son who were his neighbors. To Professor Clark, Mr. Slutsky’s blog posts clearly “crossed the line.” Jurors are not allowed to talk to one another about the case, “much less go on the World Wide Web and discuss it with everybody,” he said. No one involved in the case — the judge, the lawyers, the parties or Mr. Slutsky himself — found Mr. Slutsky’s blog entries troubling. “I didn’t do anything wrong,” said Mr. Slutsky, 61, of Flushing. “I didn’t blog about the actual case, just about the jury process. I specifically said in my blog that I’m not allowed to talk about the case.” Mr. Slutsky said that the blog served more as a diary and that most of his remarks related to the case were about his frustration with its duration. He also said that this was the sixth time he had been called to be on a jury in the last 30 years. But Professor Clark pointed to one entry in particular that he said went too far. On Oct. 6, his ninth day of jury duty, Mr. Slutsky wrote about the plaintiff’s taking the stand for the second day. “It was really annoying when the witness got the same question over and over,” he wrote. “This is very annoying.” He added that much of the evidence “is not relevant to the jury’s ultimate decision of liability.” This entry could have been especially problematic had the lawyers discovered the blog and tracked it, Professor Clark said. “If you’re an attorney and you’re reading this, you may go try to recover from that,” he said. “You may try to go back the next day to try to clear up something.” In judging the evidence, Mr. Slutsky may have been breaking the judge’s instructions to keep an open mind, Professor Clark said. “He’s actually kind of telling what he’s thinking, and the jury hasn’t even begun deliberating yet,” he said. Judges are instructed to tell jurors before the start of a civil trial that they are not to research the case on the Internet, specifically mentioning Facebook, Twitter and Google. The instructions say not to discuss the case, but do not mention writing about the case. “Maybe the law needs to be amended to accommodate blogs,” Stephen Gillers, a New York University law professor, wrote in an e-mail. “No doubt this sort of thing happened and happens a lot on a smaller scale (juror to friend, relative over dinner), and no one learns of it.” Justice Augustus C. Agate, who presided over the case, said that after learning of Mr. Slutsky’s blog, he and the lawyers questioned him. “Based upon the questions and the answers, it was my opinion he followed the instructions of the court,” Justice Agate said. One of the defendants, Robert J. Sasso Sr., 66, a private investigator, said the blog was harmless. “He just put a blog about what he was doing,” Mr. Sasso said. “As long as he didn’t mention my name, I didn’t care.”

Jury System
Computers and the Internet
Blogs and Blogging (Internet)
Social Networking (Internet)


News Corporation to Buy Unruly for Up to $176 Million

Abstract: News Corporation announced Wednesday that it was buying Unruly, a video ad technology company, in a deal worth up to $176 million that underscores the publishing company’s continued push to remake itself for the digital age. Founded in 2006, Unruly offers advertising products that help predict the popularity of videos across social and digital media, and also deliver targeted mobile and video ads. Robert Thomson, chief executive of News Corporation, said in a statement that Unruly’s expertise in digital and mobile video would benefit companies under the News Corporation umbrella, including HarperCollins Publishers and Realtor.com. “Unruly complements our traditional editorial and commercial expertise with contemporary insight into how people read, watch, buy and sell in the digital era,” he said. Unruly will operate as a separate business group and report to Rebekah Brooks, who this month returned to News Corporation as chief executive of the company’s British media operation, called News UK. The position includes responsibilities for the acquisition and development of digital assets. Four years ago, Ms. Brooks was embroiled in a phone-hacking scandal in Britain. She was arrested and accused of phone hacking, among other crimes, and later was acquitted. The acquisition of Unruly includes a cash payment of about $90 million at closing and up to $86 million in future payments if the company meets certain objectives. The deal is expected to close by the end of the September.

News Corp
Mergers and Acquisitions
Unruly
advertising,marketing
Rebekah Brooks


Investors Buy Stake in Global Hyatt

Abstract: The Global Hyatt Corporation, the hotel company controlled by the Pritzker family of Chicago, said yesterday that it would sell a minority stake to a group of investors, including Goldman Sachs Capital Partners, for $1 billion. Goldman and Madrone Capital Partners, a firm affiliated with S. Robson Walton, chairman of Wal-Mart Stores, will appoint members to the board, Global Hyatt, which is based in Chicago, said. “The addition of these sophisticated investors with long-term horizons will allow us to further our restructuring efforts without affecting Global Hyatt’s financial capacity to grow,” Hyatt’s chairman, Thomas Pritzker, said. Global Hyatt was formed in 2005 when the Pritzkers gathered various Hyatt holdings under one name. The family has discussed the breakup of its holdings since the death in 1999 of Jay Pritzker, who began the hotel company by buying the Hyatt House in Los Angeles in 1957. The process accelerated in 2005 when the family, whose holdings range from a credit-check company to a maker of artificial joints, settled a lawsuit by two of Jay Pritzker’s grandchildren concerning their trust. Greg B. Penner, a former senior vice president of Wal-Mart and a general partner of Madrone, and Byron D. Trott, vice chairman of investment banking for Goldman, will join Hyatt’s board.

Global Hyatt Corporation
Goldman Sachs Group Incorporated
Hotels and Motels