Initiative Safeguards Sage Grouse Across Western United States

Abstract: RYEGATE, Mont. — When permanent settlement began in the West some 16 million greater sage grouse lived on the steppes of the high plains. There may now be as few as 200,000 of these ground-dwelling birds, famous for their elaborate courtship dance, and they are on the decline, hit especially hard by oil and gas development. Their dwindling numbers warrant protection as an endangered species, federal officials say. Because other species need listing first, though, and because protections for endangered species are widely reviled in the West, a unique way of managing the birds is under way. The Sage Grouse Initiative , a project administered by the federal Natural Resources Conservation Service, targets for protection three-quarters of the birds on about a quarter of total sage grouse habitat. Officials call it a triage approach to conservation — protecting land where habitat is mostly intact and ignoring much of the land that has been degraded by energy development and other things. “We’re targeting like a laser beam those places where there are a lot of birds,” said David E. Naugle, an associate professor of wildlife at the University of Montana and scientific adviser to the project. The effort is also unique because it covers so much land — some 56 million acres across 11 Western states. Nothing near this scale has been done with a species in trouble. The project received $18 million last year and $30 million this year from the conservation service. Last week, the conservation service announced the addition of $23 million to buy conservation easements on core habitat. “The federal government really stepped up in a meaningful way to keep sage grouse off the endangered species list,” said Tom Remington, director of the Colorado Division of Wildlife, which is not involved in the effort. “It’s mind-boggling that they did it so fast and it’s as well funded as it is. And applying science in this way is unprecedented.” Noah Greenwald, a biologist with the Center For Biological Diversity , which focuses on endangered species, thinks the plan is good, but doesn’t go far enough. The sage grouse initiative “is voluntary,” Mr. Greenwald said. “We hope the promises are kept, but things can fall through the cracks.” Neither, he said, does the plan protect sage grouse habitat on federal land damaged by energy development, and plans to protect the birds in those areas are not nearly as strong as an endangered designation would be. The group has sued to force listing of the bird so it receives full protection under the law. The effort began with the locations of the biggest, healthiest populations. In each state leks have been well tallied — a lek is like a sage grouse town square, a critical area where the birds carry out courtship rituals and mate. Counting birds on the lek in the spring gave biologists a solid estimate of numbers. The spring breeding rite of the sage grouse is one of the bird world’s most dramatic courtships. For a month or so dozens of males, which are the largest grouse in North America and can weigh up to seven pounds, show up at the grassy lek and jockey for territory with displays — puffing up a huge collar of white chest feathers, fanning their tail feathers and making popping sounds by slapping together two small yellow air bladders on their chests. The birds clash and feathers fly, all in an effort to prove superiority and claim a few more square feet of ground than other birds. By April the females fly in, and some researchers joke that it’s the wildlife equivalent of the bars during spring break in Florida. “It’s chaos,” said Dr. Naugle. As the air is filled with the popping of air bladders, “everyone starts displaying and strutting and trying to woo the females.” The top male may mate with three-quarters of the females. Within the 56 million acres, the conservation service is concentrating on ranch land with the highest numbers of birds and best habitat, called core areas, and working to improve it. It’s a last, large-scale effort to stem the bird’s decline, and should it fail the bird will probably receive strict protection across its range. The program is part of the 2008 federal farm bill , and the lead agency is the conservation service, whose main mission is to provide financing and technical help to farmers and ranchers. An idea at the heart of the initiative, though, is that a better-managed ranch will also improve habitat for sage grouse, and a more profitable ranch means it’s less likely to be sold for subdivisions. The project worked to improve habitat on 1,000 square miles last year and will work with ranchers on 3,000 square miles this year. The conservation service, said Dr. Naugle, is the key to doing so much in so short a time. “They have an army already in place to create these kind of outcomes,” he said. The program, heavily based on research into the impact on grouse from such things as livestock grazing and barbed-wire fences, comes down to ranchers like Ben Lehfeldt. Mr. Lehfeldt runs sheep and cattle north of Billings, in a part of central Montana that is still rich in sage grouse. As he rides along a dirt road through his remote, wind-swept ranch across gentle sagebrush-studded swells, Mr. Lehfeldt points out plastic tags the size of playing cards affixed to miles of barbed-wire fence. Sage grouse fly low, just feet off the ground, and fences kill hundreds of birds a year. This marking of some fences and the removal of others, for a total of 180 miles of fence, should prevent 800 to 1,000 collisions annually, according to a study done at the University of Idaho. Ranchers have also put ramps in the tanks they use to water cattle to allow a bird that falls into a tank to climb out. Mr. Lehfeldt said he liked the approach. An endangered species designation would have meant restrictions and no financing. So it would have been a lot more contentious. “It would have made things a lot harder if they did,” Mr. Lehfeldt said. The energy industry has also fought the designation. The forests of silver-green sagebrush are vital to every aspect of the grouse’s life. The birds need heavy grass beneath the two- to three-foot-high sagebrush, for cover from predators during nesting and brood rearing, so eight new water tank locations will enable Mr. Lehfeldt to let his cattle and sheep range more widely in this dry country, which will allow prairie grasses to grow taller. Where land has been tilled, ranchers are paid to reseed to native prairie. The program began last year, and this spring biologists will begin monitoring to see what effect the changes have had. “We’re expecting an 8 to 10 percent increase in nest success,” based on these steps, Dr. Naugle said. “If it doesn’t increase we’ll tweak the habitat management to reach those benefits. It’s adaptive management, and we monitor every step of the way.” While the Endangered Species Act would protect the bird by law, this program is voluntary. It can have hefty incentives. Ranchers can receive a total from farm programs of up to $450,000 over 10 years, but have to match some of that. Still, it is enough for ranchers to make changes in management right away that may otherwise have taken years, or may never have been made. In some places, especially on federal land, efforts to protect the birds will not be made. Energy development has turned much of Wyoming’s sagebrush steppes into a network of roads, power lines and other development. Because the birds don’t tolerate disturbance, their numbers have suffered badly. A boom in wind power turbines and subdivisions are problems as well because of the roads and traffic associated with them. A wild card in this project is West Nile virus . Where Dr. Naugle has studied grouse, there is 25 percent mortality during outbreak years. Moreover, settling ponds that the energy industry uses to store water extracted with the gas breed mosquitoes, carrier of the virus, and the industry is searching for ways, including mosquito-eating fish, to cope with the problem. Canada’s experience with sage grouse has been a dark lesson for biologists here. Western Canada once had flourishing populations. Primarily because of energy development there are now just 200 birds in Saskatchewan and fewer than a hundred in Alberta, and there are concerns the Alberta population will soon disappear. Because of their strong flavor, sage grouse are not a widely hunted game species. They are important as an umbrella species — if their diverse habitat is protected, it protects other prairie species, from migratory song sparrows to pygmy rabbits and mule deer. “This initiative is one of the most important I have seen in a decade, to preserve high-quality habitat,” said Ben Deeble, sagebrush coordinator for the National Wildlife Federation in Missoula. “They are bringing in the best new science to analyze impacts.”


70% of Santander Clients Take Madoff Settlement

Abstract: MIAMI (Reuters) — About 70 percent of Banco Santander ’s clients caught up in the Bernard L. Madoff case have signed compensation agreements with the Spanish bank, lawyers for the bank told a federal court in Miami on Thursday. The disclosure was made at a hearing on a class-action lawsuit filed on behalf of people who lost money through their investments in a bank fund that had invested with Mr. Madoff. “About 70 percent have already executed exchange agreements,” a lawyer, Sam Danon, told Judge Paul Huck of Federal District Court. “I believe somewhere in the area of 7 or 9 percent have rejected it. There’s a percentage that are still considering the agreement.” The two sides in the Miami lawsuit also told the court that they had agreed to send a notice to Santander clients that outlines details of the pending Miami class action. The final version of the notice, which explains that the lawsuit demands clients be made whole for their losses and that the compensation agreement releases all parties from further liability, should be ready in a week, lawyers said. The notice will go to the about 30 percent of clients who have not yet settled, the lawyers said. Santander offered to compensate all individual clients through the issuance of 1.38 billion euros ($1.75 billion) in preferential shares with an annual coupon of 2 percent. The offer would cost Santander, the euro zone’s biggest bank, less than the 2.33 billion euros ($2.96 billion) it has acknowledged its clients may have lost to Mr. Madoff, lawyers for the plaintiffs have argued. The lawsuit asked the court to halt the compensation plan, saying the settlement was “coercive” and fell far short of the compensation sought by the class-action suit. Judge Huck appeared to question his role in the litigation, repeatedly noting that most of Santander’s clients were foreign residents. ”It seems to me there is an issue of whether I have jurisdiction,” Judge Huck said. The plaintiffs’ lawyer, Michael Hanzman, said many of the potential class members have temporary residences in Miami and bank accounts with Santander’s Miami offices. The issue of jurisdiction may be dealt with at a later hearing, lawyers said.

Madoff Bernard L
Ponzi Schemes
Banco Santander SA


As Knicks Fall Again on Road, Robinson Loses in Hometown

Abstract: SEATTLE — It took Nate Robinson two years to make it back to his hometown, to play in front of his friends and relatives and to strut through the arena the way he once did here in high school and college. Robinson, the Knicks ’ cocksure young guard, did indeed strut into KeyArena on Saturday night, to wild cheers from the stands. But he left the court with his No. 4 jersey stretched over his anguished face. The Knicks had sputtered again. And Robinson’s homecoming had turned humiliating. He missed all nine of his shots, including a 3-point attempt that could have won the game in the final seconds. When the ball clanged off the rim, the Knicks were left with an 86-85 loss to the Seattle SuperSonics and an 0-5 trip. “My mom probably disowned me today,” Robinson said. It was a typical finish for the Knicks (14-33), who played well enough to win every game of the trip but never found a way to close the deal. On Saturday, they battled through obvious fatigue and poor shooting and the continued absence of Eddy Curry. Jamal Crawford, the Knicks’ other Seattle native, had 23 points to bounce back from a poor performance Friday. Zach Randolph scored 24 points. They outshot the Sonics from the field (44.4 percent to 39.5 percent). And still, the night ended in despair. “I’ve never seen a team play that hard for five straight games and have a chance to win each game and come up short every time,” Crawford said. Kevin Durant, the Sonics’ rookie star, had 21 points to lead the rebuilding Sonics (12-35) to their first three-game winning streak of the season. The Knicks had a chance to win the game when Jared Jeffries poked the ball away from Durant with just under 25 seconds left. The Knicks called a timeout and designed a play for Randolph. But the Sonics threw a quick double-team at Randolph, forcing him to pass the ball out to the cold-shooting Robinson. For a second, it looked like Robinson would have his redemption. “I was praying to God it was,” Robinson said. “I let my team down. I didn’t make no shots. If I had just made one 3 or one bucket, we’d have won the game.” Robinson played the final minutes with a badly bruised left thigh, courtesy of a couple collisions with Seattle’s Kurt Thomas, a former Knick. The greater problem, it seemed, was Robinson’s own nerves. Robinson, who played locally at Rainier Beach High School and the University of Washington, missed last year’s trip here while serving a 10-game suspension for instigating the Knicks’ brawl with the Denver Nuggets. “I psyched myself out before the game,” Robinson said. “I just kept telling myself, ‘Just don’t have a bad game, don’t have a bad game.’ So I was like, ‘Oh man,’ and then I end up having one.” There was not much to accomplish here except to claim some sort of psychological edge before going home. There would be a meaningful difference, Thomas had said, between 0-5 and 1-4. “It’d be a big boost, believe it or not,” he said before the game. “If you come off this road trip without having won a game, you just dug yourself a bigger hole. Fortunately for us, everybody back home that we’re trying to catch is losing also. So that helps.” In a low-scoring and often low-energy game, the Knicks led by 38-34 at halftime and by 7 points in the third quarter. They fell behind by 6 points in the final quarter but — for the fifth time in five games — they reached the final minutes with a chance to win. David Lee’s tip-in cut the deficit to 83-81, and Randolph tied the score with a 22-footer with 1 minute 20 seconds left. Durant answered immediately, hitting a 3-pointer with 54.5 seconds left. Crawford scored the Knicks’ final basket with a runner in the lane. The fatigue was evident from the moment the Knicks took the court. They missed 15 of their first 22 shots and looked listless on the bench. Thomas pulled Crawford and Randolph seven minutes after tipoff. For the game, the Knicks were outrebounded by 55-34. They missed 10 of 26 free throws. “This has been a grueling road trip,” a weary-sound Thomas said before the game had even begun. The Knicks were a little closer to whole. Quentin Richardson (11 points) was back in the lineup after sitting out the Portland game and most of the game in Utah because of flu-like symptoms. Curry remained ill and missed his second straight game. By their next game, the Knicks should be healthy, if not necessarily rested. They play host to the Los Angeles Clippers on Monday, about 38 hours after landing in New York. It will be the first of four games over six nights. “In effect it will be like another road game,” Thomas lamented, “because you’re flying all night and you just get up and try to do it again.” REBOUNDS Zach Randolph will not be fined for arriving nearly a half-hour late to Friday’s game in Portland. Randolph stayed at his own house and drove separately from the team. “We talked about it,” Coach Isiah Thomas said. “I knew he was at home and I knew he had some stuff to do at home and he drove to the game. So there won’t be any fine.”

New York Knicks
Robinson Nate
Seattle SuperSonics
Basketball


Trying to Turn Back the Clock on Deals Gone Sour

Abstract: Lyondell Chemical and Basell AF completed their merger nearly nine years ago. Yet today, former shareholders of Lyondell face the possibility that a new court ruling could force them to pay back money — all $12.5 billion of it. Several such clawback cases over buyouts that were hammered out in the years before the financial crisis but later failed have resulted in thousands of shareholders now fighting to keep the money that was paid out to them. It had seemed so different at the time. In July 2007, with the merger market still a bit bubbly, the more than $20 billion leveraged buyout of Lyondell was announced. Basell borrowed the entire purchase price to create the third-largest chemical company in the world, paying $12.5 billion to shareholders and the rest in fees and debt refinancing. But the chemical industry soon spun into a decline, and in the financial crisis the combined company could simply not shoulder its debt. LyondellBasell entered bankruptcy in January 2009, only 13 months after the purchase was completed. With all that money at stake, the bankruptcy proceedings have been bitterly fought with the bankruptcy trustee — the person appointed to oversee the debtor’s estate — pursuing everyone in sight. The big banks — Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch — were sued, accused of mistreating junior creditors. They settled for $450 million in cash and notes. Len Blavatnik, the Russian-born founder of Basell’s owner who orchestrated the deal, was also sued . Not content with big fish, the bankruptcy trustee turned on Lyondell’s old shareholders. In three lawsuits, the trustee argued that the sale of Lyondell was a fraudulent transfer. Dating to England in the 1500s, this is a principle that tries to prevent a debtor from simply transferring their assets to avoid payment of a debt. In its various forms, the doctrine voids transfers made with the intent to defraud creditors like the banks and others who lent over $20 billion to finance this debacle. The doctrine has had a rebirth in the wake of the financial crisis, with a particular vengeance for leveraged buyouts. In the years before the financial crisis, private equity was king, accounting for over 20 percent of takeovers. Debt was piled onto companies, as was the case with Lyondell, which was financed entirely with debt. This debt became an enormous dead weight in the wake of the financial crisis, dragging companies down as they struggled to keep up with payments. More than a few went bankrupt. In the bankruptcy cases that followed, claims of fraudulent transfer were sometimes brought, most prominently in the bankruptcy of the Tribune Company, which had been bought by Sam Zell in an $8.2 billion buyout. Such claims have come as a bombshell to the former shareholders of these companies. They thought the deal was long done. The money was paid out, and shareholders reinvested it in new stocks or perhaps a new kitchen. But like a ghost from the past, a bankruptcy trustee knocks on the door years later, demanding repayment. Even if the trustee does not succeed, the shareholders face legal costs to try and prevent repayment. In the Lyondell case, the trustee sued shareholders who received more than $100,000. He then included everyone, down to a grandparent in Florida who owned 10 shares. And in a lawsuit you need to hire a lawyer. So far, some of the larger shareholders have been paying for the defense. And the old Lyondell shareholders have had success in fighting off the bankruptcy trustee’s charge. The trustee initially brought two claims . The first was a claim for constructive fraudulent transfer; the second for actual fraudulent conveyance. The difference between the two is intent. The first is the easier to bring since it allows the court to look at the surrounding circumstances, while an actual fraudulent conveyance needs a finding that the sellers — here Lyondell — had “actual intent to hinder, delay or defraud” creditors, a high standard . In a decision involving the Tribune case , the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit threw out the constructive fraudulent conveyance claims on a technicality, holding that those claims were barred by another section of the bankruptcy code that prohibited suits against security holders. The case applied to the Lyondell case and other leveraged buyouts equally, at least those litigated in New York . This left Lyondell’s former shareholders with hope that the actual fraudulent intent claim could be thrown out. Success was had in the bankruptcy court , but bankruptcy court rulings are subject to review in the district court, and that is where the Lyondell shareholders met Judge Denise L. Cote . The plaintiffs claimed that there was actual intent here as a result of the actions of Lyondell’s chief executive at the time, Dan F. Smith. In the hasty negotiations of the Basell deal that unfolded in a week, Mr. Smith was accused of updating projections that the plaintiffs said were overly optimistic. But that is not enough — the plaintiffs had to show intent. Here the chief executive was harmed by some language he had used before the buyout. At a convention in Las Vegas two months before the deal with Basell, Mr. Smith said, “If you’re a bondholder, I am not sure you get enriched” in a buyout of Lyondell. He continued, “If you think you are going to have a down cycle in the chemical markets, don’t think you want to add $8 billion, $10 billion debt to this and live through that.” Oops. Judge Cote found that the facts alleged by the plaintiffs were enough to be “badges” of actual intent sufficient to allow the claim to proceed against the thousands of old Lyondell shareholders. The shareholders have not given up, filing a motion last week for reconsideration or to have the Second Circuit hear the case. The shareholders’ basis for reconsideration is that there is no “actual” intent to defraud here. Instead, it was the Lyondell board that had agreed to sell the company to Basell. The argument can be summed up to an “Oh, really?” Or to put it another way, are you really going to hold innocent shareholders liable when it was another party that sold the company? And let’s not forget all those sophisticated banks that willingly lent that money and have not claimed to be defrauded. It’s unclear what should happen. The law seems to be on the defendants’ side, but more so because Delaware law is rather clear that it is the board here that makes these decisions. In other words, we are down to technicalities on whether the shareholders should pay back the $12.5 billion paid to them. That should give you an answer on whether any of this makes sense. Does anyone really think that in these cases the board actually is defrauding everyone? What about the buyer here who knew exactly what they were doing? The banks here were also the most sophisticated of the sophisticated. To say that the innocent shareholders of Lyondell should repay the amount these banks lent is a bit absurd . And of course, this will affect future buyouts, possibly making it harder for private equity firms to buy companies. When a lawsuit doesn’t make sense but the legalities are cited, one has to wonder: Is the law really right here?

Bankruptcy
Mergers and Acquisitions
LyondellBasell
Denise Cote
Lawsuits
Basell Holdings
Lyondell Chemical


Big New York High Schools Fall Hard but Are Not Going Quietly

Abstract: The boos cascaded over the auditorium as a city education official read out the case against Christopher Columbus High School , one of the last remaining large high schools in the Bronx . Columbus has had a “long history of sustained academic failure” and “chronically poor performance and low demand,” Santiago Taveras, a deputy chancellor, told the standing-room crowd. As a result, he said, it should be closed. But the frustrated teachers, soft-spoken students and former football players who stood up at the hearing said otherwise. They described a school that had served some students well, despite the difficult circumstances faced by many. They told of a school that, even after the city identified it as struggling, continued to receive an increasing share of the city’s most demanding students — the very students that needed the most help. “And now that they have found a home here, and have been welcomed with open arms to our family, you want to take that away from them, too,” said Jaime Allen, a special education teacher. Closing schools for poor performance, especially large high schools, has been one of the most controversial hallmarks of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg ’s control of the school system . And it is taking on a new urgency, both in New York and around the country, with the Obama administration putting a premium on “school turnaround” policies in its nationwide competition, called Race to the Top , for billions of dollars in federal education grants. Since 2002, the city has closed or is in the process of closing 91 schools , replacing them with smaller schools and charter schools , often several in the same building, with new leadership and teachers. This year, the city has proposed phasing out 20 schools, the most in any year. It is also the first year in which the city is required to hold public hearings at each school proposed for closing, as a result of a change in the mayoral control law that resulted from complaints about an insufficient role for parents. The hearings are unlikely to save any school from closing; on Tuesday, a panel controlled by mayoral appointees will vote on the proposals. But in auditorium after auditorium at schools on the closing list, like Columbus, Jamaica and Beach Channel High Schools in Queens , and William H. Maxwell Career and Technical Education High School in Brooklyn , the hearings have exposed a torrent of anger about how large high schools have fared in the Bloomberg years. The city’s Education Department says that on the whole, the closings have been a success. The small high schools created in the shells of old large high schools have average graduation rates of 75 percent, 15 percent higher than in the city as a whole and far greater than those of the schools they replaced. “Obviously, closing schools is not something anyone enjoys,” said Joel I. Klein , the schools chancellor. “By and large, what this is about is simply the fact that when you have many kids in a high-needs community, you find that the smaller schools, where they are highly personalized, where they have strong partnerships and involvement with various organizations, those things really have been a successful strategy for us.” To education officials, the failures of Columbus, a 70-year-old school that graduated only 40 percent of its students on time last year and received a D on its most recent report card, are self-evident. And they say they make the closing process as painless as possible. For the closing school, it is a gradual death, with current students allowed to graduate if they do not fall behind, but no new classes admitted. As space opens up, the new schools come to life, adding a grade each year. A study last year by the Center for New York City Affairs at the New School backed the chancellor’s argument that students at the smaller schools — which are organized around themes like science or community service — fare better. But the study also found evidence of a domino effect at the large high schools. Because the new schools, at first, accepted relatively few special education and non-English-speaking students, those students began enrolling in greater numbers in the remaining large high schools. Overall enrollment increased at many large high schools, and attendance fell. “While a few schools were successful in absorbing such students, most were not,” the report said. From the classrooms of Columbus, the last seven years have felt like forging ahead though a snowstorm, said Karen Sherwood, an English teacher since 1993. In 2003, for example, its honors programs were peeled off and became separate small schools in its large brick building on Astor Avenue in the Pelham Parkway neighborhood. Three other small schools moved in. (One is now on the city’s closing list for poor performance.) The result was severe overcrowding for Columbus’s 3,400 students, who had classes on the auditorium stage and attended in split shifts between 7 a.m. and 5:45 p.m. As the Department of Education sent fewer students to Columbus, enrollment began to decline, but so did the academic level of its entering student body. By 2005, only 6 percent of the entering eighth graders were reading at grade level, and the proportion of special education students rose to nearly a quarter. Another reorganization led the school to create small clusters with names like “Equality” and “Justice,” and to form work-study and other structured programs that give students on the verge of dropping out a second chance. The school stabilized, but its four-year graduation rate remained stubbornly low, and struggles continued. As measured by the city’s “peer index,” which takes into account over-age and special education students and the academic level of its entering class, Columbus had the eighth-lowest ranking among 380 high schools in 2008-9. The Columbus student body is in constant flux. Because the school has unscreened admissions, it takes children expelled from charter schools, released from juvenile detention, and others on a near-daily basis: last year, 359 of its 1,400 students arrived between October and June. Even after the city proposed the school’s closing in December, it received 27 more students. Lisa Fuentes, the Columbus principal since 2002, said she believed that her school was succeeding, considering its challenges. Her feeling is that city wants the space her school occupies, for small schools and charters. “It’s something that they are going to do just to fulfill their next plan,” Ms. Fuentes said, speaking in a low, calm tone on the day before the school hearing. The city does not dispute that Columbus has been dealt a tough hand, but it argues that other high schools with a similar population — 26 percent are classified as special education and 18 percent are not fluent in English — have had better results. Columbus was also included on New York State ’s list of “persistently lowest performing” schools last week, which requires the city to produce a plan either for closing or for staff changes and reorganization of the school. “I’m not going to say it is not a challenging situation; it is,” said John White, the deputy chancellor for strategy. “We are not laying the blame for the challenges at the feet of anyone in particular. The question, is can you organize a school in different ways for greater success, and we have shown that we can.” In November, the mayor said his goal was to shut down the lowest-performing 10 percent of city schools over the next four years, doubling down on Washington’s challenge to states to close or turn around the weakest 5 percent of schools. States get credit for effective turnaround strategies in their applications for $4 billion in Race to the Top funds, which were submitted last Tuesday. An additional $3.5 billion will go to states this spring to finance school transformations or closures. In Chicago , school officials closed 44 schools between 2001 and 2006 more abruptly than New York did: instead of phasing out schools by grade, the entire student body was dispersed at once. When the schools reopened the next year, there were new administrators, teachers and students. But the displaced students often went into other weak schools, adding little benefit for those students and sending those schools into tailspins. As chief executive officer of the Chicago public schools during that era, Arne Duncan , now the federal secretary of education, modified the policy to follow what he calls a “turnaround model.” In most cases, students now remain in the same building, while most or all of the staff is replaced. Mr. Duncan said the federal government did not have a preference for closing over other school-overhaul models. Race to the Top suggests a number of options, such as replacing the principal and having the staff reapply for their jobs, or converting a public school to charter management. “What might work in one school might not work in a school two miles away,” he said. “This is complicated, and it really has to be done by a case-by-case basis. There’s no magic bullet.” Mr. Klein’s view is that large high schools are a poor setup for children who need special attention. And if a school is not organized properly for its population, it is likely to fail. As such, the closing proposals are “curative, not punitive,” he said. But that is not what the closing schools want to hear. “We’ll be O.K.; it’s just very upsetting,” said Ms. Fuentes, the Columbus principal. “I’m proud of my staff, even with my D. We worked very hard for that D.”

NYC
Mike Bloomberg
Race to the Top Fund
NYC Department of Education
Economy
Teachers
Charter school
Closings


Polls Show Obama Gaining Among Bush Voters

Abstract: Senator Barack Obama is showing surprising strength among portions of the political coalition that returned George W. Bush to the White House four years ago, a cross section of support that, if it continues through Election Day, would exceed that of Bill Clinton in 1992, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News polls. Underscoring his increasing strength in the final phase of the campaign, Mr. Obama led Mr. McCain among groups that voted for President Bush four years ago: those with incomes greater than $50,000 a year; married women; suburbanites and white Catholics. He is also competitive among white men, a group that has not voted for a Democrat over a Republican since 1972, when pollsters began surveying people after they voted. Of potential concern for Mr. Obama’s strategists, however, a third of voters surveyed say they know someone who does not support Mr. Obama because he is black. Voters were also closely divided about Mr. Obama’s ability to handle a crisis, a finding that came as Republicans seized on remarks by his running mate, Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware , that foreign leaders were likely to test him in the first months of his term if he is elected. Over all, however, the poll found that Mr. Obama would defeat Mr. McCain if the election were held now, with 52 percent of those identified as probable voters saying they would vote for Mr. Obama and 39 percent saying they would vote for Mr. McCain. Among registered voters in the latest poll, the spread is almost identical, with 51 percent saying they would vote for Mr. Obama and 38 percent saying they would vote for Mr. McCain. A New York Times/CBS News poll taken a week ago showed a similar margin of victory for Mr. Obama. The latest nationwide telephone poll was conducted Sunday through Wednesday with 1,152 adults, of whom 1,046 said they were registered to vote. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus three percentage points. To measure support for the candidates among specific voting blocs, The Times combined data from the latest poll with one conducted last week because some of the subgroups were too small to be statistically reliable when extracted from a single survey. Despite Mr. McCain’s continued questioning of Mr. Obama’s readiness, the number of voters surveyed who say Mr. Obama has prepared himself well enough for the presidency was at its highest yet in the newest poll, 56 percent. When The Times and CBS News first asked the question, more voters said they believed Mr. Obama was not ready, 49 percent, than believed he was, 44 percent. Mr. McCain still holds an advantage on that front, with 64 percent saying they believe he is prepared for the presidency. There was also fresh evidence that Mr. McCain’s attacks on Mr. Obama’s character and qualifications in commercials, mailings, speeches and automated telephone calls were, if anything, harming Mr. McCain. The percentage of people who view Mr. McCain unfavorably was at its highest level since The Times and CBS began asking the question in 1999. Forty-six percent said they held unfavorable views of him, with 39 percent saying they viewed him favorably. Mr. Obama was viewed favorably by 52 percent of those surveyed, and unfavorably by 31 percent. Voters were almost evenly split over Mr. Obama’s ability to handle a crisis wisely: 49 percent said they were confident he could and 47 percent said they would be uneasy. Respondents showed less ease with Mr. McCain: 51 percent said they would be uneasy with his approach and 46 percent expressed confidence. Mr. Obama fared better than Mr. McCain on economic matters: 65 percent said they were somewhat confident or very confident in Mr. Obama’s ability to handle the economy; 47 percent said the same thing about Mr. McCain. In spite of Mr. McCain’s sustained attack on Mr. Obama’s proposal to raise income taxes on households and businesses that earn more than $250,000 a year, Mr. Obama’s plan received significant support in the new poll. When voters were asked whether they supported the tax increase to help provide health insurance for those who are not covered, 62 percent said it was a “good idea” and 33 percent said it was a “bad idea.” Voters were evenly divided over Mr. McCain’s plan to make permanent Mr. Bush’s 2001 tax cuts. In another area where Mr. McCain could take heart, the last two polls offered fresh evidence that his choice of Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska as his running mate had helped to excite two traditional bases of support for Republican presidential candidates. White voters who say they attend church every week preferred Mr. McCain over Mr. Obama by 61 percent to 29 percent, and voters who live in the South preferred him over Mr. Obama by 51 percent to 40 percent. But, over all, the percentage of those who view Ms. Palin unfavorably, 40 percent, was higher than those who view her favorably, 31 percent. Senior strategists of both parties have viewed the unpopularity of Mr. Bush and the Republican Party as major drags on Mr. McCain’s chances. Favorability ratings for both are at all-time lows. Mr. Bush’s approval rating of 22 percent is tied for its worst in the history of the Times/CBS poll, and opinions of the Republican Party are at their lowest since the poll first included questions about the political parties in 1985. Only 36 percent expressed a favorable opinion of Republicans, compared with 56 percent who expressed a favorable view of Democrats. That difference was reflected in comments from some respondents who said they had voted for Mr. Bush in 2004 but were planning to vote for Mr. Obama. “I’ve always been a Republican, but I’ve switched in the last four years,” said Helen Taylor, 63, of Los Fresnos, Tex., in a follow-up interview. “I voted for Bush because I knew more about him than Kerry, and I stuck with the Republican stance on things at that time. But I became concerned about things Bush was doing, and now I’m more in line with the Democratic platform. I also like Barack Obama because he has intelligence and class and the ability to think on his feet.” Mr. Obama has a 16-point advantage over Mr. McCain among women in the combined data of the last two polls; Senator John Kerry outpolled Mr. Bush by three percentage points among women in 2004, according to exit polls. Mr. Obama is supported by 45 percent of white women, and Mr. McCain is preferred by 42 percent; Mr. Bush beat Mr. Kerry with 55 percent of the vote among white women, according to exit polls. Mr. Obama is tied with Mr. McCain among white men, a group that President Bush won with 61 percent of their vote. Mr. Bush’s father, George Bush, was favored by more white men than those who preferred Mr. Clinton when he won the White House in 1992. Some voters ascribe racial motives to those opposing Mr. Obama. Among the 33 percent who said they knew someone who did not support him mainly because he is black was Robert Richter, a Democrat from Dunbar, Pa. “Some people are prejudiced and don’t want to vote for him, for one thing, because he’s black and for another, because they feel he’s a Muslim,” said Mr. Richter, a gas station worker. “I think for some people saying Obama is a Muslim is their way of getting around the black issue.” Mr. Obama is a Christian, but e-mail has circulated falsely identifying him as a Muslim.

2008 Presidential Election
Barack Obama
John McCain
George W Bush


Roger Goodell and N.F.L. Right a Wrong, but Only After Further Review

Abstract: The most stunning aspect of the N.F.L.’s new policy on domestic violence is that the league, through Commissioner Roger Goodell, admitted that it had made a mistake. The N.F.L. never admits it makes a mistake. Never. Not in labor negotiations when it locks out players, not in the face of abysmal performances by officials and not when it gives a star running back a love tap after evidence that he brutalized his fiancée. In a letter to team owners released on Thursday, Goodell wrote: “My disciplinary decision led the public to question our sincerity, our commitment and whether we understood the toll that domestic violence inflicts on so many families. I take responsibility both for the decision and for ensuring that our actions in the future properly reflect our values. I didn’t get it right. Simply put, we have to do better. And we will.” Better late than never, I suppose. But why so late? Perhaps because the N.F.L.’s moral high ground is so low. After issuing a two-game suspension to Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice , Goodell simultaneously played offense and defense, spinning rationale after rationale for allowing Rice to get back to running. In cases of racism, sexism and homophobia, we tend to argue for our limitations. Goodell was no exception. Speaking to reporters at the Hall of Fame game in Canton, Ohio, this month, Goodell insisted that he had made the right call. He said that the important thing was to be consistent with other penalties that had been issued. All the while, he seemed to ignore the disturbing footage of a star player dragging his unconscious fiancée out of a casino elevator . “We have to remain consistent,” Goodell said at the time. “We can’t just make up the discipline. It has to be consistent with other cases, and it was in this matter.” Goodell pointed out that Rice had never been in trouble before, ignoring that a first-time offense hadn’t made Rice’s fiancée any less unconscious. Besides, Rice was remorseful. “You know, you have a lot of people voicing their opinions,” Goodell said, “but I think it’s important to understand that this is a young man who made a terrible mistake.” He declared that Rice’s actions had been “inconsistent with what we’re all about, and we’ve dealt with it in a serious manner, and we’re very confident that this young man understands where he is and what he needs to do going forward.” The leader of any organization sets a tone of tolerance or intolerance. In issuing such a light reprimand in the form of a two-game suspension, and then stridently defending his decision, Goodell made the abuse of women in a male-dominated sport seem like a misdemeanor. He opened the door for less-than-enlightened commentators to suggest that the woman might have provoked her treatment . On Thursday, facing an undercurrent of outrage that showed no signs of subsiding, with the possibility of demonstrations and even boycotts, Goodell did an about-face. What’s galling about his sudden turnabout is that we see the same intransigence in other areas. In the face of mounting criticism from American Indians and others, Goodell insists that there is nothing racist about the Washington team’s nickname, that the majority of fans support it , and that he sides with the team’s owner, Dan Snyder, on that issue. For all the lip service Goodell and the N.F.L. paid about the evils of bullying last season, the commissioner will allow Richie Incognito to wear an N.F.L. uniform this season. And while the league has agreed to settle with thousands of former players in concussion-related lawsuits, the league has yet to come clean — as the tobacco industry did — and admit that the violence of its game is at the root of short- and long-term debilitating injuries. Still, the N.F.L. finally admitted that it was wrong about something. On Thursday, Goodell, faced with sustained outrage, made the right call and said he had blundered. But just once it would be great to see this multibillion-dollar empire admit the truth without being backed into a corner.

Football
Domestic violence
NFL
Super Bowl
Super Bowl 2015
Roger Goodell
Ray Rice
Richie Incognito
Ravens


Humans and Mastodons Coexisted in Florida, New Evidence Shows

Abstract: Florida, it seems, has always been a popular destination. Even the first known Americans gravitated to the state. Of course, they probably went for the mastodons. Underwater archaeologists and other researchers have taken a second look at a sinkhole 30 feet deep in the Aucilla River in northern Florida that is rich with remnants of stone tools, as well as fossilized mastodon bones and dung. Although scientists had studied the location, known as the Page-Ladson site, for more than a decade and knew how old some of the material was, they could not come up with definitive evidence that humans and mastodons were there at the same time. Now, the researchers say, the discovery of an unmistakable human artifact, a stone knife fragment, embedded in sand and dung that allowed for exact dating, proves that paleoindians, as archaeologists call the first people to come to North America, colonized northern Florida by 14,550 years ago. Image A partially reassembled mastodon tusk from the Page-Ladson site. Credit DC Fisher/University of Michigan Museum of Paleontology David G. Anderson, an anthropologist at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, who specializes in the early history of humans on the continent, and who was not involved in the research, called the new work, reported in the journal Science Advances , “superb archaeological scholarship.” The Page-Ladson site — named for Buddy Page, a diver who first found it, and the Ladson family, which owns the land around it — is about 30 feet underwater in a sinkhole in the Aucilla River southeast of Tallahassee, about seven miles inland from the Gulf of Mexico. It was painstakingly uncovered from the early 1980s until the late 1990s by James S. Dunbar, who joined in the new research, and S. David Webb, then a paleontologist at the University of Florida. Together they wrote ”First Floridians and Last Mastodons: The Page-Ladson Site in the Aucilla River .” It is the oldest site with evidence of human activity in the Southeastern United States and one of only a handful of sites that show that humans were living in North and South America by about 14,500 years ago. Until recently, scientists thought that the first humans to come to America were big-game hunters who made stone tools in an identifiable style. They were called the Clovis people, after the location of the first discovery of such tools near Clovis, N.M. Researchers put the arrival of the Clovis people in the Americas at around 13,500 years ago. But discoveries in Monte Verde, Chile; Texas; Wisconsin; Oregon; and a few other spots suggested that humans were in the Americas earlier, well over 14,000 years ago, without the distinctive Clovis tools. And studies of modern and ancient DNA have suggested that the first humans to set foot in North America could have come much earlier, perhaps 16,000 or even 18,000 years ago. Michael R. Waters, director of the Center for the Study of the First Americans at Texas A&M University, who led the research with Jessi J. Halligan, who was doing postdoctoral research with him at the time and is now at Florida State, said the DNA studies suggested that the first humans in America came down the Pacific Coast. So far, no one knows how they got to Florida. When they arrived, however, they found a climate not much different from today, but the area was drier and more open, and the seas were much lower. The coast would have been about 125 miles from the site, which was then a spring-fed pond, in open, upland terrain, not part of any river. The pond was probably frequented by mastodons and other extinct mammals, like ancient bison and rhinoceroses. People and animals would have gone there to drink, Dr. Halligan said, “and, if you were a mastodon, apparently wallow around and defecate a lot.” Today the pond and its shore are deep in the Aucilla, known as a black water river because of its tea-colored, tannin-stained water, which posed an added challenge to the archaeologists. They used scuba gear and helmet-mounted caver’s lights to cope. “It is, as my dad would say, as dark as the inside of a cow,” Dr. Halligan said. The radiocarbon dating of plant material found in the mastodon dung, plus a discovery that the layer containing the tools was sealed off by another layer on top that was also older than 14,000 years, confirmed the age of the site. The age had been in doubt before in part because of less conclusive tool fragments and questions about whether the river may have churned up the sediments. There was also a mastodon tusk, with cuts that looked like they might have been made by humans. But that evidence was doubted, too, so Daniel C. Fisher, a paleontologist at the University of Michigan, joined the recent investigation to reanalyze the tusk. He said the marks were made exactly where people would have had to cut through a tough ligament to remove the tusk from a carcass and could not have been made another way. Why would the first Floridians have worked so hard? Probably for a stone age delicacy: up to 15 pounds of fat-rich pulp at the deep, growing root of the tusk. It’s a bit like bone marrow, available at fine restaurants in Miami.

Archaeology,Anthropology
Science Advances
Paleontology
Florida


Seve Ballesteros, 54, Daring Golf Champion

Abstract: Seve Ballesteros, the charismatic Spanish golfer who won the Masters twice and the British Open three times and helped propel Europe’s rise in the Ryder Cup competition with the United States, died early Saturday at his home in northern Spain, where his struggle with brain cancer had gained wide attention in the sports world. He was 54. Ballesteros had surgery for a cancerous brain tumor in October 2008 and had been cared for at his home in the coastal town of Pedreña, where he died early Saturday morning, his family said in a statement on his Web site. Ballesteros was only 19 and virtually unknown when he was thrust into the golf spotlight in July 1976. He was on the final hole of the British Open at Royal Birkdale, on England’s western coast, when he hit a brilliant chip shot between two bunkers that landed four feet from the cup. He then sank his putt to tie Jack Nicklaus for second place behind Johnny Miller after having led for three rounds. That daring chip, and the shots before it that rescued him after wild drives into dunes and bushes, caught the golf world’s attention and defined the kind of game that made Ballesteros one of the finest players of his era. With a passion for perfection, an uncommon intensity and a brilliant short game, Ballesteros won five major championships in a 10-year span. At Augusta National in 1980, he became the first European and, at 23, the youngest player to win the Masters. (Tiger Woods then became the youngest in 1997 when he won the Masters at 21.) Ballesteros won the Masters again in 1983, captured the British Open in 1979, 1984 and 1988, and won the World Match Play Championship five times. “I think he comes as close to a complete player as anybody I’ve ever seen,” his fellow golfer Ben Crenshaw told Sports Illustrated in 1985. “He can hit every shot in the bag and do it with the style and look of a champion.” Ballesteros won 45 events on the European Tour, and he was its earnings leader six times. He was in the vanguard of world-class Spanish golfers, preceding José Maria Olazábal, Miguel Ángel Jiménez and Sergio García. But he saw limited action in the United States, winning four PGA Tour events in addition to his Masters triumphs. Told of Ballesteros’s deteriorating condition, Olazábal and Jiménez were visibly upset after finishing their second rounds at the Spanish Open in Terrassa on Friday and would not speak with reporters, The Associated Press reported. In Charlotte, N.C., at the Wells Fargo Championship, Phil Mickelson said Friday that beyond Ballesteros’s impact on the game, “the greatest thing about Seve is his flair and his charisma.” “Because of the way he played the game of golf, you were drawn to him,” Mickelson added. “You wanted to go watch him play.” Ballesteros was something of a golf magician. In addition to his miraculous recoveries from wild drives, he could balance three golf balls on top of one another, a favorite trick. Handsome with a swashbuckling style, he was a favorite of the television cameras, as Frank Hannigan, senior executive director of the United States Golf Association, remarked at the 1985 Masters. “He’s made for this medium,” Hannigan said. “They come in close for a shot, and they can’t miss. You can see his thought processes. For me, he is more fun to watch than any player in the world.” Severiano Ballesteros (pronounced buy-yuh-STAY-ros) was born in Pedreña, where his father, a former Spanish-champion rower, was a farmer. His three older brothers, Baldomero, Manuel and Vicente, were golf pros, as was his uncle Ramon Sota. As a boy, he batted stones with a homemade golf club on the beaches near his family’s stone farmhouse. When he was 8, his brother Manuel gave him a 3-iron, and he began to caddie at a prestigious golf club in Santander, near his home. He won the caddie championship there at age 12 with a 79, sneaked onto the course at night to practice his shots, quit school at 14 and turned pro at 16. Ballesteros won his first major when he captured the 1979 British Open at Royal Lytham & St. Annes in England, and it was there, on the 16th hole of the final round, that he made one of his most storied shots. With his ball in a parking lot, he hit a sand wedge to the green, then sank a 20-foot putt for birdie and went on to win by three shots, besting Nicklaus. In this case, however, it wasn’t a matter of Ballesteros’s being out of control on a drive. He had deliberately hit to the parking lot to take advantage of the prevailing winds. Ballesteros led or was tied for the lead after each round in capturing the 1980 Masters, but he ran into trouble late on the final day, three-putting the 10th hole, hitting twice into Rae’s Creek and sending his drive on the 17th hole onto the seventh green. At one point, he was only two shots ahead, but he won by four, a margin he reprised in winning the 1983 Masters. Apart from his individual achievements, Ballesteros was a leading force in Europe’s emergence on the Ryder Cup scene after players from the continent were allowed to join with British and Irish players beginning in 1979. He played on eight Ryder Cup squads, including the 1987 team that achieved the Europeans’ first triumph in America, at Muirfield Village in Dublin, Ohio. He won 22 ½ points from his 37 matches over all. He was the nonplaying captain of Europe’s team in 1997, when the Valderrama Golf Club on Spain’s Costa del Sol played host to the event, the first time the Ryder Cup had been held on the continent. Ballesteros was a master of concentration. “I’m so deeply immersed in my game plan and my play that I’m virtually oblivious to outside sights and sounds,” he wrote in his 1991 book “Natural Golf,” written with John Andrisani. “I never hear my playing partner’s clubs rattling, and I rarely ever hear the gallery applauding. I’m grinding as hard as I can inside my bubble.” Ballesteros’s last European Tour victory came at the Spanish Open in 1995; a chronic back problem curtailed his play after that. His biggest disappointment was his failure to win a United States Open championship, his often erratic play proving costly on the customarily narrow fairways and high roughs. Ballesteros was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1999 and retired in an emotional news conference at Carnoustie before the 2007 British Open. In recent years, he ran a golf-course design business. He learned he had a brain tumor after fainting at Madrid’s international airport while waiting to board a flight to Germany on Oct. 6, 2008. The next March, in an interview with Marca, a Spanish sports newspaper, he spoke openly about his cancer and the 300,000 get-well cards he had received from around the world as he underwent chemotherapy. “I’m not called Seve Ballesteros,” the paper quoted him as saying, “I’m called Seve Mulligan, because I’ve had the luck to be given a mulligan, which in golf is a second chance.” Ballesteros is survived by two sons and a daughter and his three brothers. His marriage to Carmen Botín ended in divorce in 2004. In 1988, when he won a major for the last time, Ballesteros displayed the elements that had been his trademark: he was erratic but overwhelmingly brilliant. He had two bogeys in one 11-hole stretch of the final round of the British Open, but he also had six birdies and an eagle in that span, finishing with a 65 to beat Nick Price by two shots. On the 16th hole, he hit a 9-iron from 135 yards that stopped three inches from the cup. “It was the best round of my life so far,” Ballesteros said. “That shot at 16 was one of my two best.” The victory came at Royal Lytham & St. Annes, the site of that memorable approach shot in his first British Open nine years earlier. Holding the champion’s silver cup aloft, Ballesteros said, “This time I didn’t hit from the parking lot.”

Ballesteros Seve
Golf
Deaths (Obituaries)
Masters Golf Tournament
Ryder Cup (Golf)
British Open (Golf)
PGA Tour Inc


One Site. Two Games. Four Underdogs.

Abstract: TAMPA , Fla. — As the San Diego Toreros stood in the tunnel and soaked in the N.C.A.A. tournament scene here, they became riveted by the final minutes of Western Kentucky ’s dramatic overtime victory against Drake. Ty Rogers’s last-second 3-point shot might have seemed like a tough act to follow Friday. The Toreros, though, were energized by the extra jolt of inspiration from their fellow underdog, an emotion that cascaded into four upsets in the West and Midwest Regions. “It definitely excited us,” said De’Jon Jackson, the San Diego guard who hit an overtime winner of his own to beat Connecticut . “It was like we were Western Kentucky fans for a moment there.” All of which raises an interesting question: who’s the underdog now? Will the fans at the St. Pete Times Forum root for Siena, a 13th seed, against 12th-seeded Villanova when they play on Sunday? Will they embrace No. 12 seed Western Kentucky, or 13th-seeded San Diego? This situation has never played out at a first-round regional site since the N.C.A.A. tournament began seeding teams in 1979. Coaches and players scrambled Saturday to reclaim the underdog role as if it were a loose ball in the final seconds. “According to the rankings, we’d have to be the underdog,” said San Diego forward Gyno Pomare, grasping tightly to the Toreros’ 13th seed. Western Kentucky Coach Darrin Horn took a down-the-middle approach, putting the underdog label on his team and the Toreros. Villanova’s Dwayne Anderson offered a similar line of thinking. “There’s a lot of confusion because of the number that’s in front of your ranking,” he said. “That means like you’re basically a better team, which is not true, as you can see from the scores. Siena and ourselves, we were both underdogs coming into the tournament and we’re still going to have the same approach on tomorrow’s game.” If only by default, Villanova may be viewed as the marquee team left in the games here — an odd twist given that the Wildcats were among the last teams to receive an at-large bid. They won 7 of their last 11 games, but they lost by 19 points to Georgetown in the quarterfinals of the Big East tournament. Villanova appeared headed for an early exit Friday against Clemson after falling behind by 18 points late in the first half. Scottie Reynolds, who scored 14 of his 21 points in the second half, and Corey Fisher, who had 12 of his 17 points in the final 20 minutes, came to the rescue offensively. The Wildcats focused defensively, too, and held Clemson to 2-of-16 shooting on 3-pointers in the second half. Villanova also has a recent history of making strong runs in the N.C.A.A. tournament. Two years ago, the Wildcats reached the final eight. In 2005, they advanced to the Round of 16. Each time, they lost to the eventual national champions. Still, Villanova Coach Jay Wright rejects the idea of being at the head of this higher-seeded class. “The way our team has been all year, to hear us called the marquee team right now is funny,” he said. “Seriously,” he added, “you can’t say anything about favorites. What went on here in this first round is just the beauty of the N.C.A.A. tournament. It’s incredible. We won’t feel like the favorites tomorrow.” Bill Grier, San Diego’s first-year coach, learned how to play both sides of the fence as an assistant for 16 seasons at Gonzaga, the quintessential midmajor that for many years played down its chances against opponents with bigger reputations. Even after knocking off Connecticut, Grier soft-pedaled the Toreros’ success and declared Western Kentucky the team to beat. “I still think we’re the underdog,” he said. “They’re 28-6. They had a heck of a year. They’re a senior-dominated team for the most part.” He added: “That’s still the approach we’re going to take. Also, the motivation of being 40 minutes away from something really special. I don’t think it will be an issue to get these kids ready to play.” Jackson, the Toreros’ sophomore guard, considered all the talk as simply part of the game plan. “Each team is going to come out and think they’re the underdog because that’s how they won,” he said. “In their brackets, people might not put them down, but everybody likes the underdogs.”


Suspect in Rape and Torture Is Found Fit to Stand Trial

Abstract: An ex-convict accused of raping and torturing a Columbia University graduate student in April has been found mentally fit to stand trial. The ruling yesterday by Justice Carol Berkman of State Supreme Court came after the lawyer for the defendant, Robert Williams, conceded that his own psychiatric expert believed Mr. Williams was able to meet the minimal legal standards of fitness to stand trial, including being able to understand the charges against him and to assist in his own defense. When a court-appointed psychiatrist in September found Mr. Williams mentally fit to stand trial, the lawyer, Arnold J. Levine, contested the finding and said he wanted a second expert to examine his client. But yesterday Mr. Levine said in court, “As of now I have no basis on which to contest the findings” of the two court-appointed experts. Mr. Williams, 30, who served eight years for attempted murder in another case, has been indicted on charges including kidnapping, arson, attempted murder and rape in the attack on a 23-year-old student in Hamilton Heights. The police said at the time that he entered the elevator with the woman and forced his way into her apartment. Over the next 19 hours, the police said, he tied the woman to her bed with computer cables, taped her mouth closed, raped and sodomized her repeatedly, burned her with hot water and bleach, slit her eyelids with scissors and force-fed her an overdose of pain reliever. After withdrawing money using her A.T.M. card, the police said, the man set the woman’s futon on fire and left her there unconscious, but she revived and was able to use the flames to loosen her bonds and escape. At the hearing yesterday, Mr. Levine said that “instinct” had told him his client was not mentally competent to stand trial, but that his expert had not supported that instinct. He said Mr. Williams had a documented history of treatment for mental illness. He also said that correction officers had to use force to get his client to court yesterday. Mr. Williams, wearing an orange coverall, was brought to court with his wrists and legs shackled and with cloth mitts on his hands. The prosecutor, Ann Prunty, said that the court-appointed doctors had found Mr. Williams “coherent, responsive, alert, oriented.” Justice Berkman said that the legal standard for fitness to stand trial “doesn’t require that somebody be a model of mental health.” She said that she was “going to confirm the finding of fitness,” but that Mr. Williams could present any new evidence of his mental state at a later date. Mr. Levine said afterward that he was still considering using mental illness as a defense.


They Helped Make Twitter Matter in Ferguson Protests

Abstract: A year ago, these three activists were ordinary Americans: a teacher, a school administrator and a temporary government employee. Like many others, they found a voice on social media to comment on the news, describe their personal experiences and relate the everyday struggles of blacks in America. As their social media following soared during the Ferguson protests, so did their belief in the power of Twitter to dispute official statements that did not ring true. Eventually, they used Twitter and Tumblr to fund and mobilize protests and make demands on police departments and government officials. Their high-profile status also made some of them targets of intelligence monitoring and threats. Here, Johnetta Elzie , DeRay Mckesson and Zellie Imani read their tweets from the past year and discuss how social media boiled after the fatal shooting by a police officer of 18-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., turning the nation’s attention to race and police conduct, and in the process changing their lives. On Monday, officers with the Department of Homeland Security arrested Ms. Elzie and Mr. Mckesson during a civil disobedience protest at the federal courthouse in downtown St. Louis. But on Aug. 8, 2014, the day before Mr. Brown was killed, Ms. Elzie was 25 and living in St. Louis. She had just finished a job as a phone interviewer for the United States Department of Agriculture and was considering going back to school. She had a community of friends and maybe 2,000 Twitter followers, and used social media to comment on topics like makeup, movies and sports. On the day Mr. Brown died, Ms. Elzie drove to Ferguson and started tweeting and posting photographs and videos to social media. She has not stopped. A year later, she has more than 57,000 followers on Twitter. She is now an organizing member of the group WeTheProtesters.org, along with Mr. Mckesson. Mr. Mckesson, 30, monitored Twitter during the first few days of last August’s protests from his home in Minneapolis, where he worked as a school administrator and had 1,000 or so Twitter followers. But after watching protesters in Ferguson clash with a militarized police force, he packed his car and tweeted, “En route to Ferguson.” In the months since, Mr. Mckesson has become a full-time protester and organizer, and a go-to source for reporters covering protests around the country. He has 200,000 Twitter followers. On Aug. 12, 2014, Mr. Imani, a 30-year-old math teacher in Paterson, N.J., posted a link to his GoFundMe account , hoping to raise money for a plane ticket to St. Louis to join the protesters in Ferguson. He already had a respectable social media following as a commentator on his blog, Black-Culture.com. Altogether, Mr. Imani has traveled to Ferguson five times, with three of the trips financed by crowdfunding. He now has nearly 50,000 Twitter followers and helps organize NJShutitdown, a group protesting police brutality on college campuses in New Jersey.

Police Brutality,Police Misconduct,Police Shootings


Hong Kong Takes a Second Look at Changes to Corporate Database

Abstract: HONG KONG — The second-highest official in Hong Kong said Wednesday that the government was reviewing a proposed rule change that had prompted a groundswell of worry among global banks, accounting firms, investors and media companies who fear the loss of a powerful tool against corruption in China. Carrie Lam, Hong Kong’s chief secretary and second-ranking official, said that the city’s financial services regulators had begun holding discussions with its privacy commissioner about the proposed rule change. The change, contained in a bill that the administration began pushing through the legislature last month, calls for deleting the identity numbers and addresses of directors from Hong Kong’s corporate registry starting next year. “We will continue to listen to public views,” Mrs. Lam said. Many financial institutions around the world depend on Hong Kong’s corporate registry for information about businesses here and in mainland China. They use it to check whether directors have ever been associated with fraud or corruption at other businesses, in Hong Kong or in mainland China. Banks consult the registry, which is available online and at a Hong Kong government office, before agreeing to help a company do an initial public offering on stock exchanges in Hong Kong or in mainland China. Hedge funds, private equity firms and other investors check the registry before buying large blocks of stock in companies. Journalists check the registry for purposes of investigative reporting. Including the identity numbers and addresses is what makes it possible to ascertain whether a director in a company is someone with a background of fraud and other corrupt dealings, or simply someone with a similar name. There has been a series of cases in mainland China in which an individual accused of having a shady background has maintained that he or she was being confused with someone else, only to be found out based on the registries. David Webb, a corporate governance activist in Hong Kong who maintains a database of directors of local companies, welcomed the government’s willingness to review the draft rule. “It’s encouraging if they’re starting to think about it,” Mr. Webb said. “It is important to be able to identify people uniquely.” He noted that his database has 19 people named Chan Chikeung and 12 people named Chan Waikeung, who need to be distinguished by identity numbers. Mainland China also has corporate registries. But the Chinese government has restricted access to them by investors and other users over the past year, particularly in Beijing, after short-sellers from the United States used research in those registries to document widespread fraud and other abuses at Chinese companies listed on American stock exchanges. Lack of access to mainland registries has made the registry in Hong Kong, which Britain returned to Chinese sovereignty in 1997 but which retains a separate legal system, much more important in recent months. Mrs. Lam said that the Hong Kong administration and legislature had held discussions dating at least to 2009 before adopting a new ordinance on companies last summer. The ordinance had broadly worded provisions encouraging privacy in corporate records, and there was little discussion about what that privacy might mean for financial markets. The controversy began this winter when the government sent an implementing bill to the legislature with detailed changes to laws, including the deletion of data from the registry. China’s incoming leader, Xi Jinping, has called for a crackdown on corruption but has been silent about the role of Hong Kong. The city is popular among mainland officials and their families as a safe place to park large sums of money beyond the reach of the Chinese police and tax collectors, and the city now has some of the world’s highest real estate prices partly as a result, creating a housing problem.

Hong Kong
Regulation and Deregulation
Board of directors
Privacy


Breaking Up Bottlenecks

Abstract: A recent traffic analysis by the consulting company Inrix ranked the San Francisco Metropolitan Area as the seventh most congested region in the country. That study also found that commuters in the Bay Area spend 32 more hours in traffic a year than the average driver who spends 22 hours per year on the highway. From San Rafael to Menlo Park, Caltrans and local officials have tried to alleviate the problems. I-880 AND HIGHWAY 92 Commuters inching their way through construction at Interstate 880 and Highway 92 might wonder why it takes so long to build two flyover bridges and a couple of ramps where the San Mateo bridge empties its eastbound traffic. But Caltrans says the interchange is on schedule for completion next summer, and is within its $158 million budget. That interchange, like much of I-880, the Nimitz Freeway, was built in the 1950s, when the region’s population was a third of today’s. By 1991, when planning to accommodate heavier traffic began, the cloverleaf interchange had been overwhelmed. The fix involves welding 7 million pounds of steel and forming up 28,000 cubic yards of concrete on roadways traveled by 250,000 cars a day. JACQUELINE GINLEY HIGHWAY 101 IN MENLO PARK It has been 13 years since San Mateo County began the first of a series of auxiliary lane additions along Highway 101. After a decision by county officials earlier this month, South Bay commuters can expect this project to continue after the approval of improvement on more freeway segments. Construction will take place along three different locations from Marsh Road to Embarcadero Road and is expected to begin in the spring of 2011. Caltrans officials anticipate this phase of the project will be complete in late 2013. The project is expected to alleviate peak-hour traffic through an area full of drivers heading to jobs in the heart of Silicon Valley. Along a 1.2-mile stretch of highway from Willow Road to University Avenue, for example, Caltrans estimates that nearly 900 more cars per hour can be accommodated during peak morning hours after the project is done. The auxiliary lane project extends 26 miles from San Mateo County’s northern to southern borders. Estimates indicate that auxiliary lanes can cut travel times by 9 minutes during peak hours, while reducing carbon emissions by 12 percent. RYAN MAC I-580 AND HIGHWAY 101 Two years ago, Inrix listed a stretch of Interstate 580 in Marin County as one of the Top 10 worst traffic bottlenecks in the country. Upstream from the notorious exit ramp between I-580 westbound and Highway 101 northbound, the one-lane thoroughfare was a logistical nightmare; congested 69 hours a week, with cars averaging a speed of 7.6 miles per hour along the 1.5-mile stretch during peak hours. A year later, simple restriping created a second lane on the ramp, improving traffic dramatically. Drivers experienced only 19 hours of congestion a week and averaged 14 m.p.h. during peak hours. But the project proved to be just a temporary fix. In April, Caltrans initiated a $10 million construction project to build a new exit ramp that is expected to be completed by October. RYAN MAC

Roads and Traffic
San Francisco Bay Area (Calif)
Commuting
MAC


Houston Ship Channel Blocked After Barge Crash

Abstract: HOUSTON — Oil tankers and cargo ships were lining up in the waters outside the Houston Ship Channel on Monday, as crews with a floating crane worked furiously to repair a damaged 300-foot-tall electrical tower that was blocking entry to one of the country’s largest ports, the Coast Guard said. At 6 a.m. Sunday, a tug boat pushing three barges loaded with scrap metal went off course and crashed into the base of the metal tower, which sits on an island in the center of the channel near where it empties into Galveston Bay, Petty Officer Richard Brahm said. The first barge cut through part of the tower’s base. The tower listed wildly to one side and ended up resting on the barge, its high-voltage lines sagging dangerously close to the water. The channel was effectively cut off to traffic. CenterPoint Energy, which owns the power lines, brought in a giant crane on another barge Monday. Crews of workmen were trying to hoist the wrecked tower up with the floating crane, known as Big John. The job may not be completed until late Tuesday, the company said. Thirty to 40 vessels use the channel daily to reach dozens of terminals at refineries, railheads and shipping companies that line the 25-mile-long waterway. The Coast Guard estimates that the channel handles about $322 million a day in freight. By late Monday afternoon, 19 ships were anchored outside the port, waiting for it to open, and at least 12 ships were trapped at piers. Still, it will be at least three days before the accident begins to take a economic toll, port officials said. Most of the refineries have at least a three-day supply of gasoline and distillates, because it is not uncommon for the channel to be closed for 48 hours due to bad weather or heavy fog. Pilots in the bay are well drilled on shepherding a backlog of ships into port once the closings are over. “Right now, we don’t expect anything to be lost,” said Patrick Seeba, a project manager with the Greater Houston Port Bureau , a trade group. “It’s like sitting in traffic on the way to the grocery and you decide to turn around and go back tomorrow. You are still going to go to the grocery store.” Large refineries owned by Valero Energy, Royal Dutch Shell, Pasadena Refining System and other companies could be affected by a long delay. Mr. Seeba said the ships affected so far were carrying bulk loads, like grain, cement and steel, as well as oil. Much of the traffic in shipping containers was unhindered, since the biggest facilities for unloading containers are on Galveston Bay. The cause of the accident is under investigation, Petty Officer Brahm said. The captain of the tug boat, the Safety Quest, has been interviewed and tested for drugs and alcohol.


The Tale of the Red Queen, Communist Double Agent

Abstract: Q. Wasn’t there a woman early in the Cold War known as the Red Queen? A. You are probably thinking of Elizabeth T. Bentley , a Vassar graduate who had led a spy ring for the Soviet Union and then turned double agent in 1945. She helped start what became the Red Scare by being the first ex-Communist to testify before a congressional committee and name names. Some newspapers tried to titillate their readers by referring to the female ringleader as “a shapely blonde” in a “form-fitting black dress.” Liberal critics of the anti-Communist crusade called her a neurotic spinster. In fact, she was a plain-looking woman who had an active sex life and suffered from alcoholism. Her story is told in “Red Spy Queen,” by Kathryn S. Olmsted (University of North Carolina Press, 2002). Ms. Bentley joined the Communist Party in 1935, fell in love with an important Communist spy, Jacob Golos, in 1938 and replaced him as a courier for a Washington spy ring in 1941 after he was convicted of failing to register as a Soviet agent. For four years, Ms. Bentley shuttled between New York, where she helped run a shipping company that was a Communist front, and Washington, collecting information, documents and the names of Communist contacts. But as World War II was winding down, the Soviet Union wanted to replace its American ringleaders with its own people. Irate at the impending loss of her friends, and fearful — justifiably, Ms. Olmsted writes — that the Soviets were out to kill her, she went to the Federal Bureau of Investigation in 1945 with information about her contacts, including the names of 37 employees of government agencies or wartime boards who she said had given her information. She spoke to grand juries, reporters and House and Senate investigating committees. She later testified in the espionage conspiracy trials of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, who were executed. She wrote a book about her experiences, “Out of Bondage,” and lectured, but passed rapidly into obscurity. She died in December 1963 at the age of 55. Unlike the much more famous Whittaker Chambers, whose accusations against Alger Hiss helped launch Richard M. Nixon to national fame, Ms. Bentley kept no incriminating documents, although she corroborated some of the testimony of others. None of the 37 people she named were indicted on charges of spying. Because her defection to the F.B.I. had been tipped to the Soviets almost immediately, her contacts covered their tracks. Between her severe drinking and her desire to remain on the F.B.I. payroll by staying useful, she frequently changed her stories, magnifying her role and the importance of her information. She served the F.B.I.’s political purposes, but she was increasingly regarded as unreliable. She converted to Catholicism and then abandoned it. Her last job was teaching at a girls’ reform school. But her obituaries underestimated her importance, Ms. Olmsted observes. Ms. Bentley had controlled dozens of agents. Her defection shut down the Soviet espionage system in the United States for some time. She began a trail that led to the convictions of Hiss and the Rosenbergs, and she helped define the partisan political warfare of the early Cold War. Far from being naïve and flighty, “the real Elizabeth Bentley had been a strong woman who defied limits, laws and traditions,” Ms. Olmsted writes.

Elizabeth Bentley
Spying and Intelligence Agencies
Cold War
Communism


Teaching Youngsters How to Read Advertising

Abstract: A federal agency is undertaking an effort to school youngsters in the ways of Madison Avenue. The initiative seeks to educate children in grades four through six — tweens, in the parlance of marketing — about how advertising works so they can make better, more informed choices when they shop or when they ask parents to shop on their behalf. The centerpiece of the effort is a Web site called Admongo ( admongo.gov ), where visitors can get an “ad-ucation” by playing a game featuring make-believe products closely modeled on real ones, among them Choco Crunch’n Good cereal, Cleanology acne medication, Double Dunk sporting goods and the Smile Meals sold at Fast Chef restaurants. “Advertising is all around you,” the home page declares in urging youngsters to always ask three questions: “Who is responsible for the ad? What is the ad actually saying? What does the ad want me to do?” The initiative is being sponsored by the Bureau of Consumer Protection of the Federal Trade Commission, which polices deceptive, fraudulent and unfair marketing and advertising practices. The bureau is enlisting Scholastic, the educational publishing company based in New York, to help distribute materials to teachers and classrooms. The idea that children need to better understand how commercial speech differs from other forms of communication is not a new one. Many schools have courses in what is called media literacy, intended to help students analyze various methods of persuasion, among them sponsored messages. The goal is generally “to help kids start to understand the commercial world they live in and to be alert to, and think critically, of advertising,” said David Vladeck, director of the bureau in Washington. The belief that youngsters ought to be given additional tools to assist them in deciphering sales pitches has been gaining support as the Internet, and social media in particular, are used more for marketing. “We’ve had some consumer-directed ads, directed to children, on advertising,” Mr. Vladeck said, “but nothing of the scope, depth and complexity” of the new effort. As for the tone of the materials, they are meant to be “nonjudgmental,” Mr. Vladeck said, rather than presupposing there is nefarious purpose inherent in ads and that marketers continuously try to trick consumers into buying things they do not want or need. “The vast majority of marketers sell lawful products to people who can lawfully buy them,” Mr. Vladeck said. “The game says advertising is pervasive and it’s good to know what it is, it’s good to think critically and think whether purchasing a product is in your best interest.” • On the other side of the coin, the bureau was also careful in developing the materials, he added, to avoid giving anyone grounds to complain that the effort “promotes commercialism by teaching kids advertising techniques.” That tack was praised by C. Lee Peeler, president and chief executive of the National Advertising Review Council, which is the ad industry’s voluntary self-regulatory system. The council operates under the aegis of the Council of Better Business Bureaus, where Mr. Peeler is also an executive vice president. The bureau’s effort will “teach kids how to swim in the ocean of advertising,” Mr. Peeler said, yet takes “a straightforward approach that does not go a step further and demonize advertising.” “We were pretty impressed by what we saw,” he added, and the council intends to link to Admongo.gov from its own Web site ( narcpartners.org ). Fleishman-Hillard, a public relations agency owned by the Omnicom Group, helped the bureau in developing the Admongo Web site, the online game and the teaching materials. Asked if the participation of Fleishman-Hillard presents a conflict because the agency is part of the Madison Avenue marketing machine, Mr. Vladeck replied that persuasion is “what Fleishman-Hillard does, and they do it well.” “They also know the tricks of the trade,” he added. “We’re tapping into their expertise.” Likewise, the division of Scholastic that is handling the distribution of the materials to teachers and students works with corporations as well as government agencies and nonprofit organizations. For instance, the division, known as Scholastic In School, teamed up with the Lexus unit of Toyota Motor for the Lexus Eco Challenge, a curriculum meant to teach teenagers about the environment. • “We help teachers explain the world around them to the children,” said Ann Amstutz Hayes, vice president at Scholastic In School. For the bureau, “we’re informing the kids about advertising,” she said, “because it’s so important they understand what it is and make informed decisions.” The reason the curriculum is being aimed at students in the fourth through sixth grades is because that is when “they’re at the stage they’re developing their critical-thinking skills,” Ms. Amstutz Hayes said. Mr. Vladeck said he hoped that with Scholastic’s assistance the bureau would be able to “get into a couple hundred thousand classrooms” around the country. The effort is being financed by “a little over $2 million,” he added. The bureau is especially pleased with the online game, Mr. Vladeck said, adding that he has played it himself. “I was not able to get past Level Two,” he said, laughing. “My 12-year-old nephew, in 45 minutes, was already on Level Four.” The bureau will announce the initiative on Wednesday at a news conference and on the “Today” show. Perhaps the effort comes not a moment too soon. Adweek devotes this week’s issue to “Kids” and “How the industry is striving to conquer this coveted market.”

Advertising and Marketing
Children and Youth
Education and Schools
Bureau of Consumer Protection
Federal Trade Commission
Admongo.gov


Rail Industry Again Given More Time to Install Safety System

Abstract: WASHINGTON — When Congress in October gave railroads extra time to install a badly needed speed-control system, officials at the Federal Railroad Administration vowed to move aggressively to make sure the safety technology would be in place by the end of 2018, the new deadline. This month, Congress struck again. Tucked into a 1,000-page transportation law signed Dec. 4 is new language that could effectively extend the deadline until the end of 2020. And positive train control , a technology that safety advocates say could have prevented the deadly Amtrak crash in Philadelphia in May, could stay on the shelf even longer. “This five-year extension of lifesaving technology is way too long, with way too little guarantee that P.T.C. implementation will get done,” Senator Richard Blumenthal, Democrat of Connecticut, said in a statement. Mr. Blumenthal has long been critical of an extension for railroads to install the safety technology. The new delay is the latest pull in a tug of war between the railroad industry and federal regulators over the safety system. A firm deadline for installing it on all freight and commuter trains by 2015 was originally set under a law passed in the aftermath of a 2008 commuter rail crash in California that killed 25 and injured 135. But as the Dec. 31 deadline approached, the industry appealed to Congress, saying it needed an extension because the technology, which tracks the speed and movements of trains and can prevent collisions, was difficult to install. Without a reprieve, the railroads said, the nation’s rail system would have to shut down. The Obama administration acquiesced, but in public statements and in letters just after the reprieve passed, Sarah Feinberg, the railroad agency’s administrator, told industry leaders that she expected them to meet deadlines and requirements for installing the safety system by the new deadline or face civil penalties starting at $5,000 a day. Barely a month later, Congress said that Ms. Feinberg had misinterpreted the lawmakers’ intent. Language in this month’s five-year transportation law essentially gave the rail industry what critics called a blanket extension — until the end of 2020 — to fully install the technology. The National Transportation Safety Board says positive train control is the best way to prevent deadly train accidents. It says the technology could have prevented 145 of the rail accidents it has investigated since 1969; those accidents killed 288 people and injured 6,574. Efforts to have the technology installed on train tracks have dragged on because of bureaucratic hurdles and technical challenges. A Government Accountability Office report released in September said that several problems had contributed to delays, including the newness of the technology and its limited supply. The report said the government had also added to the delays. For example, railroads had to stop construction of radio poles, which relay the GPS signals, along tracks because environmental approvals were delayed by bureaucracy or understaffing. After lobbying from freight and commuter rail companies, lawmakers had considered giving railroads a five-year extension, but those efforts were roundly criticized after the Amtrak crash in Philadelphia, which killed eight and injured more than 200. Under the initial bill signed by President Obama in October, railroads were given until December 31, 2018, to install positive train control, with the option of requesting two additional years to work on the installation and testing. But that extension would be available only if the railroads submit plans for doing the work by Dec. 31, 2018. Each request would have to be approved individually by the secretary of transportation. Officials at the Federal Railroad Administration feared that some railroads might wait until the last minute and submit plans requesting the additional two years, essentially taking five years to complete the work without ever trying to do it in three. So Ms. Feinberg told rail executives not to bother submitting plans asking for extensions if they had not shown that they were making progress on the required schedule. Each revised implementation plan “should reflect the new December 31, 2018, deadline for all elements” to implement positive train control, Ms. Feinberg wrote in a Nov. 19 letter. Congress was having none of it. “This bipartisan provision clarifies what Congress explicitly stated in the signed-into-law October legislation extending the P.T.C. deadline,” said Fredrick Hill, a spokesman for the Senate Commerce Committee. “This clarification was necessary to prevent a misinterpretation.” Federal railroad regulators declined to comment, but some lawmakers from the Northeast said the language in the transportation bill made the 2018 deadline a sham. The American Association of Railroads, the industry group for freight carriers, declined to discuss the specifics of the language in the transportation bill and said it had no role in requesting the provision. “The freight rail industry’s focus is to get P.T.C. installed and implemented as quickly as possible,” the association said in a statement. Amtrak announced last week that all of the tracks it owns between Washington and New York have the positive train control system installed and working.

Train wreck
Federal Railroad Administration
NTSB
Amtrak
Transportation
Legislation
US Politics


Europe Likely to Act to Cut Phone Roaming Costs

Abstract: BARCELONA — The European telecommunications commissioner said on Monday that she probably would seek new regulations to end the high charges Europeans face when using data services on smartphones outside their home countries. Speaking here on the opening day of the Mobile World Congress, the industry’s largest convention, the commissioner, Neelie Kroes, said that limits on the fees operators charge each other for mobile data roaming, which were enacted in 2007, had failed to significantly lower costs to consumers. Mobile data roaming involves uses like downloading e-mail or reading a newspaper on a phone, as opposed to simply making a voice telephone call. Prices for mobile data roaming across European borders can reach 2.60 euros, or about $3.50, a downloaded megabyte, compared with an average of 5 cents a megabyte paid at home, Mrs. Kroes said. “I would love to be able to say to you today that the roaming market is competitive, that data roaming charges approach domestic prices, that bill shocks are a thing of the past, that prices for voice and SMS roaming are not clustered around the maximum levels permitted,” she said. “Regrettably, I cannot.” European laws on mobile roaming charges set limits on how much consumers can be charged for voice services, but place only wholesale caps on data services. They are both set to expire in July 2012. Mrs. Kroes is studying whether to extend the caps, impose new ones or introduce other measures to improve competition. Her recommendation, expected by the end of June, would then be taken up by the European Parliament and national governments. Mobile operators, which lost a fight against the initial price caps in 2007, have said that the market for data roaming is not big enough to create true competition and that domestic prices are falling rapidly. Mrs. Kroes, a Dutch economist, acknowledged the argument in her speech but said operators were using market developments as an excuse to maintain unreasonably high charges. “Of course incentives to compete on roaming prices are not as strong as the pressures on domestic prices,” she said. “But that is not a justification for the current rip-offs.” Mrs. Kroes opened a review of the market in December, soliciting comments from operators, consumers and others. During her speech, Mrs. Kroes said that high mobile data roaming prices were hindering the commission’s broader goal of making fast broadband service, with download speeds of at least 30 megabits a second, available to all residents of the 27-member European Union by 2020. She outlined three options under consideration to reduce them. One would impose retail price caps on mobile data roaming charges similar to those on voice, which led to an increase in the use of cross-border mobile calling. Another would allow consumers to buy roaming packages from any operator, not just their own. A third would set lower wholesale price caps on data roaming and require operators to sell the service to low-cost virtual operators like Tele2 of Sweden, a specialist reseller of services on other operator’s networks. Without saying which option she backed, she suggested that at the least, the current regulation would be extended beyond 2012. “It may be that no single approach will do the job on its own,” she said. “And we cannot exclude that different approaches may need to be implemented for the first years following the expiry of the current regulation while laying the groundwork for more sustainable long-term solutions. ” The chief executives of the five largest mobile operators in Europe, Telefónica, Vodafone, Deutsche Telekom, France Télécom and Telecom Italia, were scheduled to discuss roaming privately Monday in Barcelona.

Cellular Telephones
Regulation and Deregulation of Industry
European Union
European Commission
Wireless Communications
Telephones and Telecommunications
European Parliament
Europe