After Trade, Sylvia Fowles Helps Lynx Flourish

Abstract: MINNEAPOLIS — The Minnesota Lynx traditionally break out brightly colored sneakers for the W.N.B.A. playoffs, picked by the six-time All-Star Seimone Augustus. Sylvia Fowles, who joined the Lynx in midseason, was delighted to find a royal blue pair when she arrived at practice this week. “This is my first time wearing the same kicks as a unit,” said Fowles, admiring the sneakers on her feet after practice. “I don’t know what we’re wearing next round, or in the finals. Hopefully, it will be something sweet.” About two months after forcing a trade from the Chicago Sky, the only W.N.B.A. team she had played for, Fowles is where she wants to be, on a team chasing its third title in five years. Fowles, a 6-foot-6 center and two-time league defensive player of the year, is seeking her first. With Fowles, the Lynx struggled through injuries and a shaky August to win their fourth Western Conference regular-season title in five years. Augustus (sprained left foot) and point guard Lindsay Whalen (right Achilles’ strain) are expected back for Minnesota’s first-round playoff series against the Los Angeles Sparks, which begins Friday. In a season lacking a dominant team, the Lynx are among four top contenders for the championship, along with the Eastern Conference-leading Liberty, the defending champion Phoenix Mercury and Fowles’s former team, Chicago. It is not as if Fowles left an unpleasant situation. The Sky have Elena Delle Donne, who was named the W.N.B.A.’s most valuable player Wednesday, and they reached the finals last season, losing to Phoenix. Fowles spent most of her career playing for Pokey Chatman, the Sky’s coach and general manager: three seasons at Louisiana State, two with Spartak Moscow in Russia and four with the Sky. Although the W.N.B.A. technically has unrestricted free agency, players like Fowles are rarely free to change teams. To keep stars where they are, the league created a core player designation, permitting teams to retain exclusive rights to a free agent for up to four years. Chicago designated Fowles as a core player when her contract expired after last season. Refusing to play is often a free agent’s only recourse. That was how Tina Charles, the 2012 M.V.P., nudged the Connecticut Sun into trading her to the Liberty before last season. As Charles did with her team, Fowles told the Sky to trade her. Then she sat at home in Miami waiting for it to happen. Seven months later, on July 27, Fowles was sent to Minnesota, two young Lynx players and a first-round draft pick went to the Atlanta Dream, and Erika de Souza went from the Dream to the Sky. Changing teams was not a financial windfall for Fowles, already believed to be making close to the W.N.B.A. maximum salary of $107,000. “From the women’s side of things, people make it more about the personal and not about the professional,” Chatman said. “This is professional sports. Teams have a right to core players after so many years. Players have a right if they want to play or not. You don’t have to understand it, but you have respect the process. I’m just happy we made really good out of an initially tough situation.” Until Delle Donne joined the Sky in 2013, Fowles was the franchise’s best player. A three-time All-Star and two-time Olympic gold medalist, Fowles averaged 15.7 points and 9.7 rebounds over seven seasons. Chicago’s career scoring and rebounding leader, Fowles compiled the highest field-goal percentage in league history (.585). Fowles said she considered leaving Chicago four years ago when her rookie contract expired. She reconsidered and agreed to a three-year extension. But when Chicago offered another extension last September, Fowles demurred. In January, she told Chatman and the owner Michael Alter that she preferred playing somewhere else. “Chicago is a great team,” Fowles said. “I was fortunate enough to play seven seasons there. Great seasons, great teammates, great coaches came through the system. But there was something I felt like I was lacking. It was a tough decision, but at the same time, it was something that I really wanted for a while now.” Fowles considered Washington, Los Angeles and Minnesota, all with coaches she admired, before settling on the Lynx and Coach Cheryl Reeve. Minnesota also had Augustus, Fowles’s former L.S.U. teammate; a winning culture; and a state-of-the-art practice complex across from Target Center. Chatman demanded a veteran impact player in return. The Lynx refused to part with Augustus, Whalen or Maya Moore — all of them American Olympians — so talks stagnated. “When you have a chance to get Sylvia Fowles, you need to make it work,” Reeve said. “You need to figure it out. An Olympian for an Olympian wasn’t going to work for us. We worked the hardest on finding a third team.” A potential deal fell apart three times. One appeared so imminent in early July that Fowles, visiting friends in California, booked an earlier plane ticket home so she could pack. She never used it. “That was a bummer,” Fowles said. “Probably after the third time I heard I was going to get traded and didn’t get traded, I had the mind-set I wouldn’t play this summer.” Chatman had given the Lynx three possible trade targets. One was the 6-foot-5 de Souza, a Brazilian who followed a breakout 2013 season by averaging a career-high 13.8 points plus 8.7 rebounds last year. Atlanta wanted young players back. Once Lynx General Manager Roger Griffith added the rookie forward Reshanda Gray to the deal with Damiris Dantas, a promising second-year forward, things progressed. Fowles described the news as Christmas times three. “It was a long process, but it was worth the wait,” Fowles said. Over the years the Lynx won with high-post, passing centers like Janel McCarville and Taj McWilliams-Franklin. Fowles is a low-post scorer. Reworking the offense to incorporate Fowles, coupled with Augustus sitting out with injuries, contributed to Minnesota’s 6-6 August slump. Once Fowles settled in, she posted five consecutive double-doubles, one short of Rebekkah Brunson’s franchise record. She averaged 15.3 points and 8.3 rebounds in 18 games, scoring double figures in every game but one. The Lynx won three of their last five. “I think she kind of started off slow and everybody was kind of in panic mode, like, ‘We’re struggling,’ ” Augustus said. “But it takes a while to learn your new teammates, learn the system, get accustomed to how we move and groove around here. Once she got into her groove, you can see the results.”

Basketball
Sylvia Fowles
Sports Trades
Pokey Chatman
Chicago Sky
Minnesota Lynx


South Korea Vows to Avenge Sailors’ Deaths

Abstract: SEOUL, South Korea — The South Korean military vowed revenge without identifying a target as the country gave an emotional farewell on Thursday to the sailors killed when their ship sank last month near a disputed sea border with North Korea . If the ship is found to have been torpedoed by North Korea, as many South Koreans suspect, it will amount to one of the most serious provocations from the North in recent decades. Seoul has repeatedly vowed “stern countermeasures” but has shied from publicly discussing its options until an investigation is over. Military retaliation, however, is unlikely, analysts say. “We’ll never forgive whoever inflicted this great pain on us,” said the navy chief of staff, Kim Sung-chan, at a mass funeral for the victims on Thursday in the port city of Pyeongtaek, about 45 miles south of Seoul, home of the ship’s naval base. “We will track them down to the end and we will, by all means, make them pay for this.” Sirens wailed, flags flew at half-staff and navy ships sounded whistles as South Korea honored the 40 sailors known to have died and 6 others who are missing and presumed dead. There is widespread suspicion among South Koreans that the ship was hit by a North Korean torpedo . Bruce Klingner, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, said on Thursday that he noticed “uncharacteristic reticence and nervousness” among South Korean officials although, metaphorically, “they found a body with a bullet hole in the head and North Korea was the only guy in the room with the pistol.” Mr. Klingner has met South Korean officials in the past week over the ship’s sinking. Investigators are studying the salvaged wreck of the ship , which broke in half on March 26. They are also searching the seabed for evidence of what caused the explosion. South Korea’s defense minister has said a heavy torpedo was the most likely cause, although he has not openly blamed North Korea, which has denied involvement. More than 2,000 guests, including President Lee Myung-bak and foreign ambassadors, attended the funeral. Mothers of the sailors wailed as they clasped their sons’ photos and the urns containing their ashes. The families of the six missing sailors burned their naval uniforms and personal belongings and buried those ashes on Thursday. The name of each sailor was read out while Mr. Lee placed a military medal on an altar before the sailor’s photograph.

South Korea
Defense and Military Forces
North Korea


Wall Street Hit Again, This Time by Housing Data

Abstract: The Dow Jones industrial average and the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index ended lower Tuesday for a fourth consecutive day, unable to rebound from a disappointing report on existing-home sales. The Nasdaq closed lower for a second day, missing a four-day losing streak by rising less than a point on Friday. “There is basically a bubble of negativity right now,” William Smith, the president of Smith Asset Management, said. “The market has got a very short memory. It is day to day. Today it is terrible housing numbers, which were anticipated.” The National Association of Realtors said in its latest report that existing home sales in July were at their lowest level in more than a decade. The purchases of existing homes declined 27.2 percent last month to a 3.83 million annual rate. Analysts had expected a 13.4 percent decline. At the close, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 133.96 points, or 1.32 percent, 10,040.45. The broader Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index declined 15.49 points, or 1.45 percent, to 1,051.87, and the Nasdaq fell 35.87 points, or 1.66 percent, 2,123.76. Mr. Smith said the housing numbers had been anticipated, possibly making it easier the Dow to recover somewhat from 180-point decline in mid-morning trading. “Fears of another leg down in real estate are certainly weighing on hopes for broad-based economic recovery,” said Nicholas Colas, the ConvergEx Group chief market strategist. Health care, industrials, materials, financial and consumer discretionary stocks were all down by about 1 percent or more. Investors will take in several other reports this week, including data on new home sales and durable goods on Wednesday and the latest estimate on second-quarter economic output on Friday. All are expected to reinforce the notion that growth in the United States has slowed. Most economists expect the latest snapshot of second quarter growth to be revised sharply lower. Trade deficit figures and revisions to other statistics point to growth of 1 to 1.5 percent in the quarter, rather than the previous estimate of 2.4 percent, Economists from Capital Economics said in a research note that policy makers might turn to regulatory and trade policy as an alternative means of bolstering the economy. Mr. Colas said another issue was the extent to which analysts would have to cut expectations. “It is clear that analysts have started to cut their revenue expectations,” he said. “We have hit the tipping point.” Mr. Colas said that a gathering of Federal Reserve officials at the end of the week was also generating some apprehension, especially after the central bank’s decision to buy government debt . “There is almost a fear of what they are going to try,” Mr. Colas said. The Fed chairman, Ben S. Bernanke, will address the annual symposium at Jackson Hole, Wyo., on Friday. The tone for Wall Street was set before the opening bell, with markets in Asia and Europe also falling. Investors will get looks at several reports other than housing later this week, including data on durable goods and economic output that are expected to reinforce the outlook that growth in the United States has slowed. Keith B. Hembre, the chief economist and chief investment strategist at First American Funds of Minneapolis, said the lower Asian markets, the weakness in Europe and the home sales were factors weighing on the market. “It is the fundamental backdrop of decelerating economic growth, and overseas influence,” Mr. Hembre said. “The yen continuing to be sharply stronger is generally not good for risky assets.” “And then, of course, the time of year: It is the summer doldrums,” he added. Trading volume has been low, even for August, with many traders staying on the sidelines because of the uncertainty. The rates on Treasury bonds continued to fall as investors sought a safe haven. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note was 2.53 percent, down from 2.60 percent late Monday. The declines that reached Wall Street on Tuesday started in Asia, with the Nikkei in Tokyo declining 1.33 percent to 8,995.14 — closing below 9,000 for the first time since May 1, 2009. The Nikkei’s decline is the result of a stronger yen, which hit a 15-year high against the dollar . That has caused shares of many Japanese exporters, including electronics companies and automakers, to fall. A stronger yen makes Japanese products more expensive in the world markets. Earlier Tuesday, the dollar fell to 84.36 yen, slightly above the earlier low of 84.17 yen. Shares were also lower in Europe, amid concerns about weakness in the American economy. In London, the FTSE 100 was down 78.89 points, or 1.5 percent, while the DAX in Frankfurt fell 75.47 points, or 1.2 percent. The CAC 40 in Paris was 62.12 points, or 1.75 percent, lower. Oil prices also declined.

International Trade and World Market
Yen (Currency)
Economic Conditions and Trends


Risk of Extreme Weather From Climate Change to Rise Over Next Century, Report Says

Abstract: WASHINGTON — More people will be exposed to floods, droughts, heat waves and other extreme weather associated with climate change over the next century than previously thought, according to a new report in the British medical journal The Lancet. The report, published online Monday, analyzes the health effects of recent episodes of severe weather that scientists have linked to climate change. It provides estimates of the number of people who are likely to experience the effects of climate change in coming decades, based on projections of population and demographic changes. The report estimates that the exposure of people to extreme rainfall will more than quadruple and the exposure of people to drought will triple compared to the 1990s. In the same time span, the exposure of the older people to heat waves is expected to go up by a factor of 12, according to Peter Cox, one of the authors, who is a professor of climate-system dynamics at the University of Exeter in Britain. Climate projections typically are expressed as averages over large areas, including vast expanses, like oceans, where people do not live. The report calculates the risk to people by overlaying areas of the highest risk for climate events with expected human population increases. It also takes into account aging populations — for example, heat waves pose a greater health risk to old people. The report is part of a series of efforts to analyze how climate change might affect human health. Other major climate reports, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a global document, and the National Climate Assessment in the United States, have addressed the issue. But Professor Cox said the new report was the first large-scale effort to quantify the effects that different types of extreme weather would have on people. “We are saying, let’s look at climate change from the perspective of what people are going to experience, rather than as averages across the globe,” he said. “We have to move away from thinking of this as a problem in atmospheric physics. It is a problem for people.” Image Men in Pakistan cool themselves in a river near Islamabad during a heatwave. The Lancet study is part of an effort to look at how climate might change life on earth for people. Credit Aamir Qureshi/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images The Lancet first convened scientists on the topic in 2009 , and produced a report that declared climate change was “the biggest global health threat of the 21st century.” Monday’s report notes that global carbon emission rates have risen above the worst-case scenarios used in 2009, and that in the absence of any major international agreement on cutting those rates, projections of mortality and illness and other effects, like famine, have worsened. “Everything that was predicted in 2009 is already happening,” said Nick Watts, a public health expert at the Institute for Global Health at University College London, who led the team of more than 40 scientists from Europe, Africa and China that produced the report. “Now we need to take a further step forward. The science has substantially moved on.” For years, climate change was presented in terms of natural habitats and the environment, but more recently, experts have been looking at how it might change life on earth for people. Scientists and some governments are trying to frame the dangers of climate change in health terms in order to persuade people that the topic is urgent, not simply a distant matter for scientists. Governments around the world are preparing for a United Nations summit meeting on climate change in Paris in December to discuss new policies to limit greenhouse-gas emissions. The report measures the increase over time in “exposure events,” which it defines as the number of times people experience any given extreme weather event. By the end of the century, the report estimates, the exposure to heat waves each year for older people around the world is expected to be around 3 billion more cases than in 1990. The number of times people of all ages are exposed to drought would increase by more than a billion a year. The rise in exposures to extreme rain would be around 2 billion a year by the end of the century, in part because populations are growing. Even without climate change, the health problems that come along with economic development are significant, the authors note. About 1.2 million people died from illnesses related to air pollution in China in 2010, the report said. Most broad climate reports do not go further than explaining the science, but much of the Lancet report is dedicated to policy prescriptions to slow or stop climate change and mute its effects on health. It notes that using fewer fossil fuels “is no longer primarily a technical or economic question — it is now a political one,” and urges governments to enact changes that would accomplish that.


49ers’ Mike Iupati Is Content to Create Holes, Not Attention

Abstract: NEW ORLEANS — The San Francisco 49ers had an N.F.L.-high nine players selected to the Pro Bowl this season. At this week’s media day, eight of them sat on podiums in front of television cameras and masses of reporters. The ninth, Mike Iupati, the starting left guard, roamed through the crowd with far less fanfare. It would have been easy to mistake Iupati, wearing his jersey and no pads, for a fan if he were not 6 feet 5 inches tall and more than 330 pounds. His size, along with a Mohawk-style haircut and arms covered in tattoos, make him an intimidating presence, right up until he speaks. Iupati is a 25-year-old run-blocking specialist from American Samoa described by teammates as gigantic, fearsome and a monster, but he speaks softly, even taking the time to politely correct a reporter who mispronounced his surname. (It is you-PAH-tee, not eye-ooo-PAH-tee). “Mike is just goofy,” said Joe Staley, the team’s Pro Bowl left tackle. “He loves to have fun. He’s like a big kid, the biggest kid you’ll ever see.” But that fun and pleasant demeanor goes away when Iupati becomes a bulldozer clearing paths for a running game that has helped the 49ers reach the Super Bowl. Having averaged 155.7 yards a game on the ground during the regular season, placing them fourth in the N.F.L., the 49ers have also excelled in the playoffs, with Colin Kaepernick setting a record for rushing yards in a game by a quarterback in the divisional round against Green Bay and Frank Gore chewing up time and running for 90 yards and 2 touchdowns in the N.F.C. championship game against Atlanta. One of the biggest reasons for the success has been the team’s commitment to the interior line, an oft-overlooked component in a league that celebrates the left tackle. For all of the talk of the read-option offense, the team’s versatile tight ends and Kaepernick’s strong arm, the 49ers have never wavered from their commitment to run. “We like to play smash-mouth football,” said Tom Rathman, the team’s running backs coach and a noted 49ers fullback in his playing days. “Our philosophy is physical and talented. You want to move guys out of the hole to create lanes for the running backs, and I think that’s what our offensive line has done this year.” LaMichael James, the team’s change-of-pace running back, thinks Iupati’s combination of size and speed is a key. “When I’m running behind him, they really can’t see me too well,” said James, who is listed, perhaps generously, at 5-foot-9. “So I try to stay behind him. I just pick a spot and go.” Gore praised Iupati’s ability to anticipate where the running backs may be going, but Iupati played that down, saying his strength was in blocking indiscriminately and letting those running behind him, including Kaepernick, handle the rest. “Whatever color I see, I hit, and he knows that,” Iupati said of Gore. “He knows the reads, so he’s the one doing the job. I’m just there to block.” They have played together for three seasons, and the comfort level between Gore and Iupati is apparent. During the regular season, Gore rushed behind the center and left guard 61.2 percent of the time, averaging nearly 5 yards a carry on those runs. Gore’s runs behind right guard averaged just 3.7 yards, but Coach Jim Harbaugh brushed aside the suggestion that the team might have a preference. “We feel pretty good running to either side,” Harbaugh said. “I think that may be more of a coincidence than a strategy.” Still, Harbaugh praised Iupati as one of the best guards in the game, calling his line one of his “offensive weapons” against Baltimore. “There’s no statistical agenda with those guys,” Harbaugh said. “They’re about playing the game, playing it tough, playing it strong, playing for a win and playing for a level of respect. That’s what drives our football team.” The team’s commitment to the offensive line was evident when it spent two first-round picks on linemen in 2010. After selecting Anthony Davis, a 6-foot-5 tackle out of Rutgers, with the 11th pick, the 49ers drafted Iupati from Idaho at No. 17. That surprised some, if only because of his position. Iupati is one of just seven active guards who were drafted in the first round, not counting those who were taken as tackles but later converted to guard. Guards are paid less, receive less attention, and yet are integral to any team’s running game. Coming off a dominant college career, Iupati was considered by many to be the best guard prospect since Michigan’s Steve Hutchinson in 2001. Despite that, he felt he needed to prove his ability to play tackle to increase his draft position, and he trained at both positions with the Hall of Fame offensive lineman Jackie Slater in the lead-up to the draft. Iupati became the first interior lineman selected by the 49ers in the first round since Forrest Blue, who was taken with the 15th pick of the 1968 draft. With Staley entrenched at left tackle, and Davis drafted to play right tackle, it was obvious that Iupati would remain a guard, a development that pleased him. “I knew I was a guard,” Iupati said. “I played all my career as a guard, so I don’t see why I wouldn’t be a guard in the N.F.L.” In three seasons, Iupati has cemented a reputation as one of the best in the league at what he does. “I don’t think there’s any question,” Rathman said when asked if Iupati was among the top run blockers in the N.F.L. “You look at how big he is. He can cover up a defender and he can get movement on him. That’s the biggest thing.” There may come a time when Iupati joins Staley and his other more well-known teammates at podiums during news conferences. But for now, Iupati is happy to be mostly anonymous. And come Sunday, when he sees the white jerseys of the Baltimore Ravens, he plans to hit them as hard as he can.


Injuries Threaten to Pare Yanks’ Loaded Bullpen

Abstract: TAMPA, Fla. — As Andrew Miller left the Yankees’ clubhouse early Wednesday evening, his bruised right wrist heavily bandaged, he felt lucky to be merely annoyed. A few hours earlier, Miller, expected to be the closer on opening day, had thrown one pitch against the Atlanta Braves in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. Willians Astudillo rocketed the ball back toward the left-handed Miller, nailing him on the right wrist and sending his glove flying and Manager Joe Girardi’s heart racing. What had begun as a tuneup for Monday’s season opener had the potential to be grave. Miller returned to Tampa for tests and was encouraged that X-rays were negative. However, a CT scan taken later revealed he had sustained a chip fracture. The Yankees said Miller would see a hand specialist on Thursday. Suddenly, the bullpen — which looked historically formidable when spring training began — could be perilously thin when the season begins Monday at Yankee Stadium against the Houston Astros. Already missing is Aroldis Chapman, the new closer, who will begin serving a 30-game suspension over domestic violence accusations. And Miller was not the only reliever whose status to open the season was suddenly in doubt. One inning after Miller left, Bryan Mitchell, who had won a spot in the bullpen with a superb spring, sprained his left big toe. He also returned to Tampa for tests, although the injury appeared innocuous and Mitchell seemed to think he had injured his foot coming off the mound to cover first base. As hopeful as Miller seemed, his loss for a lengthy period would be “substantial,” Girardi told reporters in Lake Buena Vista after the game. “The one thing that we’ve talked about is, we like our bullpen and the length that it has,” Girardi said. “You lose one, someone has to step up. You lose two, and you’re asking a lot.” Mitchell has pitched superbly during the exhibition season, allowing seven hits and one earned run in 152/3 innings. His absence would leave the Yankees’ bullpen with Dellin Betances, Chasen Shreve and a raft of questions. The Yankees began Wednesday by sending Branden Pinder, Nick Goody and Tyler Olson to Class AAA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, leaving four pitchers competing for two spots in the bullpen. Now all four — Luis Cessa, Kirby Yates, Johnny Barbato and Anthony Swarzak — could be on the opening day roster. The Yankees need no reminders about the effect baseballs can have on bones. When Mark Teixeira fouled a ball off his shin last Aug. 17, the injury was diagnosed as a bone bruise and was expected to sideline him a day or two. More than two weeks later, a third magnetic resonance imaging test revealed a fracture, and Teixeira was lost for the season, with his absence contributing to the screeching decline of the offense in the final weeks. “Not to downplay it, but this isn’t the same,” Miller said, adding that an injury to a pitcher’s nonthrowing wrist should not be serious — at least not in the way such an injury might be to a hitter like Teixeira. Other roster decisions are being finalized. Girardi said Ronald Torreyes had won the job of utility infielder. Torreyes, who can play third base, second base and shortstop, hit .306 this spring and will be the primary backup for third baseman Chase Headley. Austin Romine appears to have won the backup catcher’s job, a role he lost last spring to John Ryan Murphy, who was traded in November. Ivan Nova, who had appeared to be headed to the bullpen, having failed to separate himself from C. C. Sabathia in the competition to be the fifth starter, pitched superbly on Wednesday in his final spring training start, allowing two hits over six scoreless innings against the Braves. What seemed like a foregone conclusion, given that Sabathia will earn a team-high $25 million this season, may not be. “It’s hard,” Girardi said. “This is not etched in stone.” The decision, along with the presumed announcement that Masahiro Tanaka will start on opening day, could be made Thursday, when the Yankees break camp and head to Miami for their final two exhibition games. As Miller, who lives in Tampa, prepared for his last night at home, he was considering contingencies, too. “It’s annoying,” Miller said before he knew the result of the CT scan. “I’d rather be heading to Miami to pitch and get ready for the season.”

Baseball
Andrew Miller
Sports injury
Yankees
Bryan Mitchell


Missing Manager, Mets Find Their Offense

Abstract: When Pirates pitcher Paul Maholm crossed the plate in the fifth inning after lifting the first home run of his career into the right-field stands at Citi Field , he could not help grinning toward his dugout. The five runs he had given up an inning earlier were momentarily forgiven, and he took a second to revel in his fluke. When Carlos Beltran led off the bottom half of the fifth with a home run to left, he did not smile or glance playfully at his Mets teammates. He just glided around the bases with his National League-leading batting average kicked up a notch and the Mets well on their way to a 10-1 victory Saturday, their sixth win in a row. This was no fluke. Neither were any of the Mets’ 16 other hits on the warm, gray afternoon, as they delivered the kind of offensive performance they had been waiting for all season. It also meant that the bench coach Sandy Alomar Sr., who was sitting in as manager for the suspended Jerry Manuel, could spend a leisurely afternoon on the top step of the dugout, free from tricky decisions. And, after the Phillies lost to the Braves, 6-2, it allowed the Mets to climb atop the N.L. East, a half-game ahead of Philadelphia. “When you get 10 runs and the other team gets one run, I don’t think it’s difficult,” Alomar said. Manuel, wearing jeans and a T-shirt, was confined to General Manager Omar Minaya’s suite for one game after he was disciplined by Major League Baseball for an altercation with the umpire Bill Welke on Thursday in Philadelphia. It was the first time a Mets manager had been suspended since 1999 when Bobby Valentine thought he could outwit the baseball rule enforcers with a cunning disguise. After being tossed out of a game, he had tried to sneak back into the dugout wearing a fake mustache and sunglasses. But it was not clever enough to fool anyone and he was barred for one game. The only person who thought he was fooling anyone Saturday was John Maine. Despite a solid pitching line — he allowed three hits in six innings with two walks (one intentional) and three strikeouts — he was the harshest critic in the park. “I didn’t have much today,” he said. “I just kind of battled through it and got lucky.” Still, it was Maine’s third win in his last three outings, despite what he called an “awful” session in the bullpen before the game. Even though he may be tempting fate by allowing so many fly balls, the acres of outfield behind him make this stadium more forgiving than most. And on offense, the vast outfield that initially seemed as if it could doom the Mets appears to be slowly turning into an asset. In a five-run fourth — the Mets’ second five-run inning in two games against Pittsburgh — they explored every corner of the crisscross outfield grass from chalk line to chalk line by sending 10 batters to the plate. Beltran was in the middle of the rally, hitting a single, before David Wright, Gary Sheffield and Fernando Tatis each drove in a run with base hits. Jose Reyes drove in two more with a line single to center field to make the score 6-1. He finished 3 for 5, with three runs batted in. But Reyes’s productive games have been less frequent than the Mets would like, just as they have been for Wright and Carlos Delgado through the early part of the season. Beltran, meanwhile, has been the high-revving engine of the batting order. “There are times in the season when you feel good, but this year I feel like I’m being more consistent,” said Beltran, who is hitting .378 with 6 homers and 22 R.B.I. “And once you feel good like that, you really want to keep it simple.” The Mets tacked on a run in the seventh and two more in the eighth to guarantee Alomar his first victory as a major league manager. “It was a great pleasure to help the ball club,” Alomar said. “But actually it was the ball club who was helping me today.” INSIDE PITCH Catcher Ramon Castro left the game in the seventh inning with tightness in his right quadriceps. The Mets said that he was day to day, leaving them fairly exposed at catcher because Brian Schneider is on the disabled list with a calf injury. In Castro’s absence, Omir Santos will most likely move into the lineup.

Beltran Carlos
Baseball
New York Mets
Pittsburgh Pirates


Blues Edge Devils to Extend Streak

Abstract: Vladimir Tarasenko scored on a power play early in the third period, and the St. Louis Blues extended their winning streak to six games with a 1-0 victory over the host Devils. Jake Allen stopped 26 shots in earning his second straight shutout and ending the Devils’ two-game winning streak. ■ Alex Ovechkin became the leading scorer in Capitals history, raising his career point total to 827 with a pair of assists Washington’s 4-3 overtime loss to visiting Calgary. ■ Brad Marchand scored 3 minutes 27 seconds into overtime to lift host Boston to its ninth straight win over Florida, 2-1. Tuukka Rask made 18 saves for the Bruins, who have won three straight. ■ John Gibson, a rookie goalie for the N.H.L.-leading Anaheim Ducks, will be out for six weeks with a groin injury. Gibson was hurt during warm-ups before Anaheim’s game at Colorado last Saturday. He is 2-2-0 with a 2.28 goals-against average. Gibson, 21, has been the backup to Frederik Andersen. ■ A hot streak by the University of North Dakota hockey team has propelled it to second in both national polls. It received nine of the 34 first-place votes in the USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine Poll, and 11 of the 50 first-place votes in the USCHO.com poll. U.N.D. has five wins and a tie in its last six game. Minnesota remains atop both polls. Boston College, Colgate and Boston University round out the top five in each poll.

Ice hockey
University of North Dakota
Devils
St Louis Blues


House Votes to Extend Iran Sanctions in Bid to Ensure Nuclear Compliance

Abstract: The House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly on Tuesday for legislation to extend American sanctions on Iran for 10 years, a move that proponents called critical economic leverage to ensure Iranian compliance with an international nuclear agreement. The legislation, known as the Iran Sanctions Extension Act, needs Senate approval and President Obama’s signature before the end of the year, when American sanctions are set to expire. Under the nuclear agreement , which took effect in January, between Iran and six world powers including the United States, many economic sanctions were suspended or relaxed in exchange for Iran’s verifiable pledges of peaceful nuclear work. But the deal also contained a “snapback” provision that would allow for the reimposition of sanctions if Iran were found to have violated the terms. The legislation approved by the House on Tuesday would also extend longstanding American sanctions against Iran that predate the dispute over that country’s nuclear activities. Image President Hassan Rouhani of Iran in September. Trying to reassure his cabinet ministers after Donald J. Trump’s election, Mr. Rouhani said that Iran’s nuclear agreement “cannot be overturned by one government’s decision.” Credit Lucas Jackson/Reuters Iran has increasingly complained about these non-nuclear sanctions, particularly the prohibition on Iranian access to the American financial system and use of the dollar. The Iranians say such restrictions have discouraged many foreign companies from investing in Iran, subverting the economic rewards it expected from the nuclear agreement. Republicans and many Democrats opposed the agreement, asserting that Iran was untrustworthy and had gained too many concessions during the negotiations. President-elect Donald J. Trump said during his campaign that he would renegotiate the accord or renounce it. In a March speech to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the most powerful pro-Israel lobby group in Washington, he said his top priority was to “dismantle the disastrous deal with Iran.” Whether he will follow through on that pledge remains unclear. The other countries that agreed to the deal with Iran — Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia — have said they intend to honor it. President François Hollande of France said on Tuesday that he did not believe Mr. Trump would scrap the agreement, telling the France 24 television channel that the “absence of an accord would be very serious.” Iranian leaders, reacting to Mr. Trump’s victory, have also asserted that he will not be able to undo the agreement. President Hassan Rouhani of Iran told his cabinet ministers the day after the American election that the agreement “cannot be overturned by one government’s decision,” according to the official Islamic Republic News Agency. On Monday, 76 national security experts, including former officials of Republican and Democratic administrations, exhorted Mr. Trump not only to accept the nuclear agreement but to use it as a way to ease tensions with Iran on other longstanding problems.


How Is Blood Volume Calculated? Science Q&A

Abstract: Q. My husband weighs twice as much as I do. How does his blood volume compare with mine? A. Blood volume depends on many factors and is highly variable, but estimates based on body height, weight and gender can be made, and an online calculator based on recent research is available at easycalculation.com/medical/blood-volume.php . For a 200-pound, six-foot male, the blood volume is estimated at 7.2 liters, or about seven and a half quarts. For a 100-pound, five-foot female, the estimate is three and a half liters, or 3.7 quarts. The normal range for an adult human is usually estimated at five to six quarts. An updated, semiautomated method of getting a quick and reliable estimate of blood volume using radioactive tracers is discussed in a 2003 article in The Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology . Obtaining such a reading is important in many areas of treatment, like perfusion, or injecting a therapeutic substance into a patient’s blood supply. “Obviously, larger people have larger blood volumes, but blood volume also varies greatly by body composition,” the article explains. “Initial attempts to predict normal blood volume used a fixed ratio of blood volume to body weight, with different ratios for men and for women. However, fat is much less vascular than lean tissue, so two individuals of the same weight with different body compositions can have markedly different normal blood volumes.” C. CLAIBORNE RAY

Blood
Medicine and Health
Science and Technology


Retiring U.S. Envoy Faults Hong Kong and China on Snowden

Abstract: HONG KONG — The American consul general here had some pointed words on Thursday for Hong Kong and the Chinese authorities, saying that their decision to let the former United States intelligence contractor Edward J. Snowden flee to Moscow last month had “damaged the very high level of trust” between Hong Kong and the United States, and that repairing the relationship would take time. The consul general, Stephen M. Young, who will leave his post as the top American representative here by the end of the month, said in departing remarks to reporters that the Snowden case raised serious questions about the legal autonomy Hong Kong is supposed to hold under the agreement by which Britain handed its former colony over to mainland China in 1997. “There was a China factor here,” he said in suggesting that the Chinese government steered Hong Kong into letting Mr. Snowden flee to Russia on June 23. “China let us down.” During an hourlong news conference, Mr. Young occasionally directed pointed words at Beijing’s influence here, and at one point upbraided a reporter from a mainland Chinese newspaper, saying, “I wish you would be more objective,” adding, “but you have your masters in Beijing.” Until the Snowden episode, Hong Kong had warm relations with the United States and cooperated closely on local law enforcement matters. But Mr. Young said that trust had been eroded by Mr. Snowden’s departure, noting that American presidents and secretaries of state are not normally focused on ties with Hong Kong, and that this sequence of events had probably left a negative imprint in their minds. “It will take some time to repair the damage there,” he said. “We were frankly disappointed by the way our colleagues here in Hong Kong” handled the situation. Mr. Snowden fled Hong Kong after the United States asked the local authorities to detain and send him to the United States on charges that he illegally disclosed classified documents about global American surveillance programs. He has been staying in the transit zone of Sheremetyevo Airport in Moscow, awaiting a decision from the Russian authorities on his request for temporary asylum. While citing recent cases of what he called mainland Chinese intimidation of Hong Kong media outlets, Mr. Young nevertheless expressed confidence in the “one country, two systems” governance of Hong Kong, in which Beijing exercises control over the territory’s defense and foreign policy while ceding autonomy on other matters. “The U.S. has long had an interest in the success of the one country, two systems model,” he said. Mr. Young, who will retire from the Foreign Service, is being replaced as consul general by Ford Hart, who is the United States special envoy to the six-party talks on North Korea, which have stalled amid tensions over Pyongyang’s nuclear program.

Edward Snowden
Hong Kong
China
US
US Foreign Policy
International relations


Call Collins? Knicks Have Little to Lose

Abstract: One week into an already stressful season, the Knicks do not have a center, a defensive beacon in the N.B.A. storm. There is no short or complete answer to the loss of Tyson Chandler, who has a nondisplaced fracture of the right fibula. But there will be suggestions on how to cobble together a plan to survive for the next four to six weeks. And here is one: Get the agent Arn Tellem on the phone and see how quickly Jason Collins can get to New York. Collins has been home in Los Angeles, working out and waiting for the inevitable injury that would send a front-line player to the injured list and get him back into the league for at least part of a 13th season. Chandler was the first and will not be the last. Reluctant to be quoted on a touchy subject, many N.B.A. insiders have insisted that Collins’s exclusion has had nothing to do with the announcement last spring that he is gay . It has been, they said, more about his age, his limited abilities and, in some cases, luxury-tax complications related to the salary cap. They are right that Collins, who turns 35 next month, is no compelling asset for any team that does not have wreckage. But the Knicks are suddenly a desperate team, terrified of falling behind in the race for playoff seeding in a season that could determine Carmelo Anthony’s future with the franchise. In training camp, Coach Mike Woodson said the Knicks had considered signing Collins. Over the next six weeks, Woodson is going to need all the height, experience and big-man savvy he can get. Jeremy Tyler, who was cut at the end of training camp, could be re-signed. But he is young and unproven. If Collins can provide 10 to 15 minutes a game of smart, positional defense — and he can — he is worth signing, too. At the least, he would bring more value to the Knicks than Chris Smith, brother of J. R., and one or two others on their very flawed roster put together by Glen Grunwald, the former general manager, who was removed the week before training camp. What owner makes a move like that? Rational critics could not help but wonder while trying to read the mind of the Madison Square Garden strongman James L. Dolan. Behold the prescience and basketball savvy of Dolan as the Knicks — 1-3 after surrendering 64 first-half points and losing at home to Michael Jordan’s Charlotte Bobcats on Tuesday night — devolve before our eyes. Play along with the gag here as we claim that Dolan recognized that Grunwald, the architect of a 54-victory team last season, did a lousy job of addressing the issues and needs of the Knicks after their deflating and revealing second-round defeat to the Indiana Pacers in the Eastern Conference semifinals last season. (To the contrary, Dolan told Grunwald’s replacement, Steve Mills, that he was handed championship material.) Image Jason Collins who has announced he is gay, is unsigned. Credit Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images Remember how the Knicks were hammered on the boards by the bigger and more athletic Pacers, outrebounded by an average of almost nine per game during a six-game series? Explain, then, how Grunwald’s major off-season acquisition came to be Andrea Bargnani, a jump-shooting 7-footer whose reputation for not rebounding or playing with aggression was known to most N.B.A. fans in North America and millions more in Europe and Asia. Chandler, who turned 31 last month and has played professionally since he was a teenager, took a beating at center last season and looked more like 41 against Indiana’s Roy Hibbert. Forget a viable alternative for this season in the event Chandler got hurt, as he did Tuesday night when he collided with Charlotte’s Kemba Walker. Grunwald failed to provide even an actual center (unless you count Cole Aldrich, inactive against Charlotte). For a team that was overloaded last season with basketball geriatrics (Rasheed Wallace, Marcus Camby) whose health predictably betrayed them, Grunwald re-signed Kenyon Martin, whose 35-year-old and battle-worn body was breaking down by last spring’s playoffs after only 18 regular-season games. Martin now seems to be available to help out at center — a position for which he is undersized — only for limited minutes and perhaps not every night. That further hinders a roster hamstrung by the increasingly dysfunctional Amar’e Stoudemire, a defensive liability at any position. Collins would be no more than a Band-Aid, but he has been running hills in Los Angeles, lifting weights, doing yoga. “A lot of eyeballs on me,” he said in an interview last month, imagining being back in the sport. Los Angeles Clippers Coach Doc Rivers, who had Collins last season in Boston, told a story about how he was critical of Collins during a game for giving up a dunk. Kevin Garnett piped up: “Are you kidding, Doc? He ain’t ever in the wrong spot.” Rivers said, “As it turned out, they were right — he was in the right spot, as usual.” With the Knicks in a spot, does this franchise have the kind of enlightened cultural environment to handle the attention Collins would bring and the sensitivity he would deserve? This, of course, was the group that followed Martin when he suggested to teammates that they dress all in black for a presumed playoff burial of the Celtics last April, not long after Boston was traumatized by the marathon bombings. Collins in this mix might sound like a stretch, but let’s be positive. While the Garden’s City Dancers are being rebranded (the official explanation for the disappearance of their routines), here is an unexpected opportunity to rebrand the Knicks as a franchise with a social conscience and bring in a player they could use to boot. The way this season has begun, what do they have to lose? Anyway, in the end, it will all be Grunwald’s fault.

Basketball
Knicks
Jason Collins
Glen Grunwald


Indians’ Jose Ramirez Has Been Unlikely Hero as a Super Fill-In

Abstract: TORONTO — Jose Ramirez stood off in the corner, away from the revelry inside the visitors’ clubhouse at Rogers Centre on Wednesday night. Only moments before, the Cleveland Indians had clinched their first American League pennant since 1997. Players poured beer down teammates’ backs and sprayed Champagne into coaches’ faces. Only seven years ago, Ramirez was an overlooked prospect in the Dominican Republic. He was considered a little too old and too small, but the Indians liked his potential and signed him anyway for a bonus of $50,000. He spent parts of his first three years in the major leagues as a part-time player. Thrust into an everyday role this season, Ramirez unexpectedly led the Indians with a .312 average. “This is something incredible,” Ramirez, 24, said in Spanish as he surveyed the scene before him, waiting for celebratory cigars to be passed out. “I’m so happy, I don’t know how to explain it.” Ramirez, in many ways, epitomizes this surprising Indians team. Without two of their best starters, Danny Salazar and Carlos Carrasco; their starting catcher, Yan Gomes; and outfielder Michael Brantley, their most valuable player candidate of two years ago, the Indians claimed the A.L. Central title and lost only one playoff game as they barreled into the World Series. How much of the roster could the average baseball fan name? The Indians have talent — shortstop Francisco Lindor, second baseman Jason Kipnis, first baseman Mike Napoli and designated hitter Carlos Santana, among others — but they are better because of the sum of their parts. The backbone of the team, the starting rotation, was decimated by injuries, and the former A.L. Cy Young Award winner Corey Kluber was the last healthy formidable starter left standing during the A.LC.S. victory over the Toronto Blue Jays. Led by the star reliever Andrew Miller, the bullpen has carried Cleveland deep into the playoffs. The World Series will serve as an introduction to baseball fans across the country to the Indians’ other talented players, including outfielder Tyler Naquin, reliever Cody Allen and Ramirez. “Cleveland knows who is on the team, but guys that might have flown underneath the radar will get a bit more notoriety playing during the postseason,” the veteran outfielder Coco Crisp said. “It’s special they’re going to get a chance for people to actually know who is actually on this team.” One of them is Ramirez, a 5-foot-9, 180-pound switch-hitting utility player who became an unlikely hero when Brantley, who finished third in the A.L.’s most valuable player voting in 2014, endured setbacks from shoulder surgery and played only 11 games this season. Manager Terry Francona used a colorful phrase in saying that Ramirez had saved the team, adding: “And that’s all playing left field, third base — he’s played short, he’s played second. We know we have an everyday player that can hit the middle of the order at multiple positions.” Ramirez began the 2015 season as the Indians’ starting shortstop, but he struggled and was demoted to Class AAA Columbus twice. He finished the season strongly, however, and his play carried over into this season. He played mostly left field at first, in Brantley’s absence, then handled third base every day after Juan Uribe was released in August. “I felt good,” Ramirez said. “And thanks to the team for giving me a chance. I didn’t worry about who was hurt or not. I just worked hard and prepared myself to give the best I could.” In a career-high 152 games, Ramirez finished the season with the seventh-best average in the A.L. and was second in the league with 46 doubles. He did not strike out much (62 times), stole 22 bases, smacked 11 home runs and drove in 76 runs. “Very aggressive and very fearless,” said Ty Van Burkleo, the Indians’ hitting coach. “That’s the thing I love about him most: He’s a fearless hitter. He can handle fastballs as well as breaking balls. He’s tough to pitch to.” Van Burkleo described an attribute that stands out immediately about Ramirez. Despite being overlooked as a prospect in the Dominican Republic because of his stature, Ramirez does not lack for confidence or personality. He carries himself with a bounce in his step that has not gone unnoticed by teammates. “He’s got that George Jefferson walk,” Kipnis said. “He’s just got that quiet confidence. Wait, not quiet. He’s not quiet himself. He’s learned who he is as a player and grown to harness it and exploit the things that he does well. He’s worked on it, and it’s made him an impactful player.” Ramirez added: “That’s just what I’m like. I’ve always had confidence in myself. I don’t worry about anything. I’m the same always.” Before batting practice on Tuesday, Ramirez wore a shirt given to him by a Cleveland apparel company that featured his trademark flashy hair and a slogan, “Yes Way Jose.” Visible when his cap is off, Ramirez’s poofy orange hair has attracted humorous attention. “I’m probably the last person that should comment on hair,” said Francona, who is bald. “But since you asked, I think it’s atrocious.” Ramirez laughed at Francona’s comment. “That’s so weird,” he said. “I really like my hair. It has brought me many blessings, and we’re going to keep it like this.”


Wilfred Feinberg, Federal Appeals Court Judge and Mentor, Dies at 94

Abstract: Wilfred Feinberg, a federal appeals court judge in New York who ruled in major cases involving the Vietnam War and labor rights over his five decades on the bench and shepherded the careers of many young lawyers to prominence, died on July 31 in Manhattan. He was 94. His son, Jack, said the cause was pneumonia. Judge Feinberg was a lawyer in private practice in 1961 when President John F. Kennedy appointed him to a newly created position on the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. Five years later, President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed him to succeed Thurgood Marshall on the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. He served 45 years there, eight as its chief judge. In 1966, he was part of a three-judge panel that found that a young military draftee had violated a new law prohibiting the burning of draft cards. The year before, after a wave of draft-card burnings in protest of the Vietnam War, Congress had made burning the cards illegal. Lawyers for the defendant, David J. Miller, argued that card-burning was a symbolic protest protected as free speech. The appeals court affirmed a lower-court ruling, which said Congress had the right to pass the law under its authority to create and maintain armies. “The range of symbolic conduct intended to express disapproval is broad; it can extend from a thumbs-down gesture to political assassination,” Judge Feinberg wrote in the majority opinion. “Would anyone seriously contend that the First Amendment protects the latter?” On June 23, 1971, Judge Feinberg was one of three on an eight-judge panel who dissented from a majority opinion that delayed the publication of the Pentagon Papers in The New York Times. A lower court judge had ruled that The Times could publish the documents, which chronicled American involvement in the Vietnam War, but five of the appellate judges ordered publication to be delayed to allow the government time to prove that it would threaten national security. Days later, the United States Supreme Court allowed the publication to go forward. Later in the 1970s, Judge Feinberg was involved in a decision that required a North Carolina textile company, J. P. Stevens and Company, to allow employees to pursue efforts to unionize. The case inspired the 1979 movie “Norma Rae,” with Sally Field as a textile-factory labor activist. Judge Feinberg was born on June 22, 1920, in Manhattan, the youngest of three children of Jac and Eva Feinberg. The family had a company that sold hosiery. He graduated from Columbia College in 1940, then served in the Army in Europe during World War II. He went on to attend Columbia Law School, where he was editor of the Law Review and graduated in 1946. He spent much of the next 15 years in private practice before President Kennedy appointed him to the federal bench. Judge Feinberg’s selection to the appeals court in 1965 was to fill a seat being vacated by Judge Marshall, who had been named solicitor general. Senator Robert F. Kennedy of New York and some prominent advisers had urged President Johnson to select Edward Weinfeld, who was also a federal judge. Judge Weinfeld had many more years of experience and a national reputation. He was 64 at the time; Judge Feinberg was 45. Some people speculated that Johnson had been influenced by the fact that Judge Feinberg’s older brother, Abraham, was a major contributor to Democratic candidates. Others said the president chose Judge Feinberg for his potential to have a long career on the court. Besides his son, he is survived by his wife of 68 years, the former Shirley Marcus; his daughters, Susan Stelk and Jessica Twedt; and six grandchildren. Judge Feinberg’s former clerks include Lee C. Bollinger, the president of Columbia; Richard L. Revesz, the former dean of the New York University School of Law; and Gerard E. Lynch, an appellate judge on the Second Circuit. Judge Feinberg was a leader in judicial administration, serving on national committees. In 2004, he received the Edward J. Devitt Distinguished Service to Justice Award. The selection committee was led by Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist. Mr. Revesz said in an interview that though they differed ideologically, Justice Rehnquist had longstanding high regard for Judge Feinberg. Years earlier, after being appointed to the Supreme Court, Justice Marshall had selected Mr. Revesz as one of his clerks. In the move from New York to Washington, Mr. Revesz shared a moving trailer with his co-clerk in Judge Feinberg’s office, Alan B. Vickery. Mr. Vickery was going to work for Justice Rehnquist.

Wilfred Feinberg
Obituary
United States courts of appeals
New York
Judiciary
Lyndon Baines Johnson
Vietnam War


Washington Redskins at New York Giants Preview

Abstract: Redskins (3-10) at Giants (4-9) 1 p.m. Sunday, Line: Giants by 7 Eli Manning has been the Giants’ starting quarterback in every game since Nov. 21, 2004. In that time, Washington has had 10 starting quarterbacks. The revolving door does not appear to be stopping anytime soon, as the Redskins appeared determined to delay committing to a quarterback for this game from among the three who have started for them this season. Yet Washington still has more passing yards this season than the Giants. DeSean Jackson, a wide receiver signed this off-season, has helped introduce a vertical element to the Redskins’ offense, resulting in a team average of 8.1 yards per pass attempt, which is third in the N.F.L. Manning no doubt provides more consistency than anyone Washington has to offer, but the Redskins’ triumvirate has outperformed Manning, a two-time Super Bowl winner. Pick : Redskins


Jailed 17 Years, Long Island Man Gets Second Trial

Abstract: A state appeals court on Friday overturned the conviction of a Long Island man imprisoned 17 years for the grisly murders of his parents in 1988. The decision cited the “cumulative effect” of new witnesses and extensive new evidence that have emerged in recent years, pointing to other suspects as the real killers. The man, Martin H. Tankleff , was a teenager in 1990 when a jury convicted him, largely on the basis of an incomplete confession written by detectives, which he repudiated almost immediately and never signed. The long campaign to free him drew national attention and support from a battery of prominent pro bono lawyers and former prosecutors and judges, as well as his relatives and a private investigator who unearthed the new evidence. But several appeals were denied by state and federal courts. Friday’s decision, a unanimous ruling by a four-judge panel in the Appellate Division of State Supreme Court in Brooklyn, granted a new trial for Mr. Tankleff, who is now 36. It also renewed attention to questions he has raised about police and prosecutorial methods in Suffolk County, where a state investigation found rampant misconduct in the 1980s. “It is abhorrent to our sense of justice and fair play to countenance the possibility that someone innocent of a crime may be incarcerated or otherwise punished for a crime which he or she did not commit,” the judges wrote in a 21-page opinion. Suffolk County prosecutors said they were considering whether to appeal the ruling. “We respectfully disagree with the court’s decision,” said District Attorney Thomas J. Spota. If the ruling stands, Mr. Tankleff will be retried under the original indictment, said the assistant district attorney in the case, Leonard Lato. Mr. Tankleff’s lawyers began arranging bail for his release, which prosecutors have agreed to. “Marty was very, very happy,” said one lawyer, Bruce A. Barket, who gave his client the news in a phone call to the Great Meadow state prison, near Lake George, where Mr. Tankleff is serving a sentence of 50 years to life. “Literally his first words were: ‘Finally, justice is starting to tilt to us,’” Mr. Barket said. Mr. Tankleff’s jubilant supporters said they welcomed the opportunity for him to prove his innocence at a new trial. But they demanded the appointment of a special prosecutor to take over the case and pursue the other suspects, saying they did not trust Suffolk County law enforcement. “We handed this evidence to them, and they did nothing,” said Ron Falbee, Mr. Tankleff’s cousin and a family spokesman. “They’ve been covering up something, big time.” Prosecutors have denied the accusation. Mr. Tankleff has also accused the lead detective in the case, K. James McCready, of lying and shielding the real culprits. The detective, now retired, has denied doing so. Mr. Tankleff has not wanted for defenders. His cause has drawn help from public relations consultants and volunteers who organized a Web site. Friend-of-the-court briefs were filed by former state and federal prosecutors and judges, state and national defense lawyer associations and watchdog groups like the Innocence Project. The case was featured on Court TV and news programs including “48 Hours.” Mr. Tankleff had just turned 17 when his parents, Seymour and Arlene, were slashed and bludgeoned in their spacious home in Belle Terre, on a North Shore cliff overlooking Long Island Sound on Sept. 7, 1988. He was arrested that day, based on the disputed confession, which became the prime evidence in his conviction. Appeals to state and federal courts challenging the admissibility of the confession were rejected, sometimes narrowly. Several new witnesses came forward starting in 2003, implicating Joseph Creedon and Peter Kent as the killers. Mr. Tankleff said he believed the two had acted at the behest of his father’s embittered business partner, Jerard Steuerman. Under oath, the three men have all denied guilt, though other witnesses said they had admitted their involvement. Last year, Judge Stephen Braslow of Suffolk County Court denied an appeal, discounting the witnesses as “a cavalcade of nefarious scoundrels.” Several had psychological problems, criminal records or histories of drug abuse. But others included a restaurant owner, a cabinet maker, a retired businessman and a priest. In reversing Judge Braslow, the appellate court said: “The county court in effect applied a blanket disqualification for all of the defendant’s proffered evidence. It viewed almost all of the defendant’s witnesses as questionable, untrustworthy or unreliable.” But, the appellate judges said, “At this juncture there is no basis to conclude that all of the subject evidence is inadmissible.” The panel noted that the lower court had “completely disregarded a crucial fact which is pivotal to our determination” — that many of the witnesses did not know each other, yet implicated Mr. Creedon and Mr. Steuerman. “It appears that the county court never considered that the cumulative effect of the new evidence created a probability that, had such evidence been received at trial, the verdict would have been more favorable to the defendant,” the appellate court said. It concluded, “This evidence warrants a new trial.” The decision was signed by Judges Reinaldo E. Rivera, Gabriel M. Krausman, Anita R. Florio and Mark C. Dillon. At the time of the murders, Seymour Tankleff was pressuring Mr. Steuerman to repay him $500,000, and they were fighting over control of their growing chain of Strathmore Bagel stores, witnesses testified early in the case. Mr. Steuerman was at the Tankleff home for a late poker party on the night of the murders and was the last player to leave, according to testimony. When Detective McCready and other investigators arrived at the scene the next morning, Martin Tankleff — who had called 911 and administered first aid to his father — told them to investigate Mr. Steuerman. Instead, they focused on Mr. Tankleff. Detective McCready acknowledged that he had tricked Mr. Tankleff during interrogation, telling him that investigators had found his hairs in his mother’s hands, that a humidity test proved he had used the shower to wash off the blood and that his father had regained consciousness and named Mr. Tankleff as the attacker. None of that was true, but Mr. Tankleff said he began doubting himself. He told the interrogators: “Could I have blacked out ... and done this?” and adding, “Could I be possessed?” That led to the disputed admissions. A co-founder of the Innocence Project, Barry Scheck, said on Friday, “This had all the earmarks of a classic false confession.” A decade after Mr. Tankleff went to prison, a private investigator working for the defense, Jay Salpeter, began turning up new evidence. The first breakthrough was finding Glenn Harris, an ex-convict who said he had driven Mr. Creedon and Mr. Kent to and from the Tankleff house that night. Other witnesses followed, including Mr. Creedon’s son, who said his father had admitted to the killings. Despite Detective McCready’s denials that he knew Mr. Steuerman, two witnesses said they had seen the men together. A restaurant owner said Detective McCready told him that a construction business he owned had done work for Mr. Steuerman. There were also questions about District Attorney Spota, who as a private lawyer had represented Mr. McCready when he was investigated by a state commission that found he had lied in another murder case, and later when Mr. McCready was charged and acquitted of assault. Mr. Spota’s law partner had also represented Mr. Steuerman. “The big question is what happens now,” said Bennett L. Gershman, a law professor at Pace University and a former prosecutor who has followed the case closely. “You have three people walking at liberty — Creedon, Steuerman and Kent — who are potential killers. Is Spota going to continue on the case? I don’t see how he can.” Mr. Gershman praised the appellate ruling, saying: “Finally you have an objective, fair-minded view of this case, which has never happened before.”

Tankleff Martin
Long Island (NY)
Decisions and Verdicts


Teaching Candidates Aplenty, but the Jobs Are Few

Abstract: PELHAM, N.Y. — In the month since Pelham Memorial High School in Westchester County advertised seven teaching jobs, it has been flooded with 3,010 applications from candidates as far away as California . The Port Washington District on Long Island is sorting through 3,620 applications for eight positions — the largest pool the superintendent has seen in his 41-year career. Even hard-to-fill specialties are no longer so hard to fill. Jericho, N.Y., has 963 people to choose from for five spots in special education, more than twice as many as in past years. In Connecticut , chemistry and physics jobs in Hartford that normally attract no more than 5 candidates have 110 and 51, respectively. The recession seems to have penetrated a profession long seen as recession-proof. Superintendents, education professors and people seeking work say teachers are facing the worst job market since the Great Depression . Amid state and local budget cuts, cash-poor urban districts like New York City and Los Angeles , which once hired thousands of young people every spring, have taken down the help-wanted signs. Even upscale suburban districts are preparing for huge levels of layoffs. School officials and union leaders estimate that more than 150,000 teachers nationwide could lose their jobs next year, far more than any other time, including the last major financial crisis of the 1970s. Juliana Pankow, who just graduated from Teachers College at Columbia University , has sent out 40 résumés since January. A few Saturdays ago, she went to a school in Harlem because she heard the principal would be there (she was invited back to teach a demonstration lesson, but it may be for naught since the city has a hiring freeze). Now, Ms. Pankow said she might have to move back in with her parents in Scarsdale, N.Y., and perhaps take up SAT tutoring. “I can’t think of anything else I’d rather do,” said Ms. Pankow, 23, as she waited outside the principal’s office at Pelham Memorial last week, among 619 people applying for one English position. “Which is a problem, because I might have to do something else.” At Teachers College, so many students like Ms. Pankow are looking for work that two recent job fairs attracted a record 650 students and alumni, up from 450 last year. Last month, the college added a job fair focusing on schools in Harlem. But job postings are down by half this year, to one dozen to two dozen a week, mostly in charter schools , said Marianne Tramelli, the college’s director of career services. Charter schools, which are publicly financed but independently run, are practically the only ones hiring in New York and elsewhere because of growing enrollments amid expanding political and economic support for school choice. Even so, they do not have nearly enough jobs to go around. In New York, where the Success Charter Network is hiring 135 teachers for its seven schools in Harlem and the Bronx , some of the 8,453 applicants have called the office three times a day to check on their status. Veteran teachers have also offered to work as assistant teachers. “It’s heartbreaking — there’s much more desperation out there,” said Eva S. Moskowitz , a former councilwoman who is the network’s founder and chief executive. KIPP , another charter school network with 82 schools nationwide, has received 745 applications since January at its seven schools in the San Francisco Bay Area, compared with 385 last year. At the University of Pennsylvania , most of the 90 aspiring teachers who graduated last weekend are jobless. Many had counted on offers from the Philadelphia public schools but had their interviews canceled this month after the district announced a hiring freeze. “We’re trying to encourage everyone to hold on,” said Kathy Schultz , an education professor at Penn. “But that’s very difficult because students have taken out loans and want to be assured of a job.” Michigan State University has pushed its 500 teaching graduates to look out of state. As local jobs have dried up, it started an internship program in Chicago , a four-hour drive from campus. Professors now go with students to the annual campus job fair to make sure they do not hover around the Michigan tables, but walk over to, say, North Carolina , Texas or Virginia . “We have a culture of people wanting to stay here and teach where they went to school, but we also want them to get jobs,” said Suzanne Wilson , the chairwoman of the department of teacher education. Along with five other former teachers, Jade Stier, 27, finally gave up and enrolled in a nursing program last fall, after three years of looking for an elementary school job. She sent out hundreds of résumés, only to land one interview a year. She settled for working as a substitute teacher, earning $85 a day with no benefits. “Spending $50,000 for an education you can’t use is really frustrating,” Ms. Stier said. “I definitely miss teaching, but I felt like I had no other choice.” If there is an upside to the shortage of teaching jobs, it is that schools now have their pick of candidates. Teach for America , which places graduates from some of the nation’s top colleges in poor schools, has seen applications increase by nearly a third this year to 46,000 — for 4,500 slots. From Ivy League colleges alone, there are 1,688 would-be teachers. Here in Pelham, a well-regarded district where teaching salaries range from $50,000 to $134,000, high school administrators and teachers have spent recent weeks winnowing applicants’ résumés. Candidates with grade point averages below 3.0 were eliminated (3.3 in some departments), as were those who missed the April 30 application deadline. Almost 200 were invited for interviews. “It’s very difficult,” said Jeannine Clark , the high school principal in Pelham. “More so than in years past because there are so many very qualified candidates.” While Ms. Clark and the English supervisor were meeting with prospective teachers last week, candidates for the social studies job were down the hallway typing a 40-minute timed essay on the French Revolution. Upstairs, interviews for physics and biology teachers were being conducted. “People will come in here begging for anything,” said Dennis R. Lauro Jr. , the superintendent, who started closing his office door this year because out-of-work teachers would drop in unannounced to hand him résumés. “We’ve never seen these kinds of numbers before.” Top candidates will be asked to return several more times to meet with Dr. Lauro, parents and students and to teach a demonstration class. Ms. Pankow is hoping she will be among them. “It would be unbelievable,” she said. “I would love it here, but I’m not necessarily putting all my eggs in this basket.”

Teachers
Recession and Depression
Layoffs
Careers and Professions


After Madoff, the Mets’ Other Potentially Risky Investor: Steven A. Cohen

Abstract: It was, even then, a risk perhaps not worth taking. The owners of the Mets , fresh off the humbling and costly financial entanglement with a family friend, Bernard L. Madoff, sold a minority stake in the team to another secretive hedge fund manager and family friend whose operation was in the cross hairs of determined federal prosecutors. But the owners, Fred Wilpon and Saul Katz , went ahead and sold a 4 percent share earlier this year to Steven A. Cohen , the owner of SAC Capital Advisors, who has seen at least seven of his former employees implicated in the federal government’s multiyear insider trading investigation. Three have pleaded guilty to insider trading while working for Cohen. The Mets presumably had done their due diligence, although, because Cohen was a billionaire friend, a fan of the team and a season-ticket holder, it is unclear how exacting their look at his controversial financial past was. But Major League Baseball had to clear Cohen, too, as a consequence both of his interest in the Mets and his grander ambitions to buy the Dodgers. Now, however, prosecutors appear to have drawn closer to Cohen. On Tuesday, one of his former portfolio managers, Matthew Martoma, was arrested and charged with being part of an insider trading scheme that made more than $276 million, the largest such case ever, according to the federal prosecutors. In the case, the government for the first time cited Cohen’s participation in a trade that may have been improper. Cohen has not been charged and may never be. Through his spokesman, he has vigorously contended that he is innocent of any wrongdoing, a contention that his legal teams made to Major League Baseball when his business was vetted to buy the Dodgers. He lost the bid for the Dodgers to a group featuring Magic Johnson. Had he won, he would have had to sell his sliver of the Mets. If prosecutors eventually make a case against Cohen, which many in the city’s financial and legal circles believe they are intent on doing, it will be another whopping embarrassment for the Mets so soon after suffering huge losses because of their trust in Madoff and what turned out to be his Ponzi scheme . If Cohen is charged, Commissioner Bud Selig could suspend him or compel the Mets to buy out his ownership share. Unless the Mets have another buyer ready in the wings, they would have to find $20 million to repay his investment, which could be a big burden for a club that went to Cohen and others precisely to raise desperately needed cash. On Wednesday, the Mets and Major League Baseball would not comment on the latest legal developments involving Cohen’s firm. Cohen, who manages billions in investor money and whose returns have been among the best in the industry, has not publicly discussed his investment in the Mets. He was asked by Wilpon, and said yes. It struck many who know of this deal as something more of a friendly gesture than an investment made with an eye toward big returns. And it was a pittance compared with his wealth. “You have to scratch your head and say, ‘Was this the smartest thing in the world for the Mets?’ ” said Philip Aidikoff, a partner in the securities firm Aidikoff, Uhl & Bakhtiari in Los Angeles, who has clients defrauded by Madoff. He said that there must have been other wealthy people who were willing to buy a piece of the Mets “who don’t have the kind of baggage Cohen has.” Cohen was one of numerous people approached to buy minority stakes in the Mets over the last 18 months, but only a few individuals ultimately did — the media investors Kenneth B. Lerer and Robert W. Pittman; the comedian Bill Maher; and James F. McCann, the head of 1-800-Flowers.com , who is also a friend of Wilpon’s and a formal commercial sponsor of the Mets. Seven shares went to Mets insiders: four were bought by Time Warner and Comcast, the team’s partners in the SNY cable channel, and three were purchased by the Wilpon family. Cohen’s involvement with the Mets did not begin with the limited partnership he ultimately bought. In 2010, he was initially approached to take a big piece of the team — although before the court-appointed trustee for Madoff’s victims sued the team’s owners and the extent of the team’s financial problems were publicly known. He was approached again, but the Mets made a deal with another hedge fund star, David Einhorn, to sell a third of the team for $200 million. When that deal fell apart, the Mets started to market the limited partnerships, which promise investors like Cohen relatively little because they have no control. Some of the modest perks that come with the shares include access to Mr. Met, the team’s mascot; a free parking spot; an annual chance to throw out a game’s first pitch; a luxury box; and a return on investment of 3 percent, compounded annually if the stake is kept for six years. Cohen’s investment returns are among the best on Wall Street, averaging about 30 percent over the last two decades. Meanwhile, the Mets have racked up four straight fourth-place finishes, with declining attendance at Citi Field and losses that escalated to $70 million in 2011. Even as they operate with a player payroll closer to a middle-market club’s, they are considering whether to sign their most productive players, R. A. Dickey, the National League Cy Young Award winner, and David Wright, to long-term contracts.

Baseball
Wilpon Fred
Katz Saul B
Cohen Steven A
New York Mets
Frauds and Swindling


Judge Blocks Rules Limiting Sex Offenders on Halloween

Abstract: A federal judge in Missouri on Monday temporarily blocked parts of a new state law that requires sexual offenders to remain in their homes on Halloween evening and to avoid any contact with children related to the holiday. The judge, Carol E. Jackson, of United States District Court in St. Louis, said the law was unclear, questioning language that prohibits “all Halloween-related contact with children” and allows sexual offenders to leave their homes from 5 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. only if they have “just cause.” Two issues raised by the case were whether sexual offenders could celebrate the holiday with their own children or grandchildren, for example by hanging decorations or carving pumpkins, and on what grounds they could leave home during the curfew. The attorney general’s office said it would appeal the order, but declined to comment further. Chief Judge Jackson allowed two provisions in the law to stand, requiring sexual offenders to post a sign stating “no candy or treats at this residence” and to turn off any porch lights. Illinois and Louisiana have also passed state laws restricting sexual offenders’ activities on Halloween, and some other states have similar agency regulations or municipal ordinances. Missouri’s law was enacted as part of broader legislation cracking down on sexual offenders. “We’re counting it as a victory that kids going trick-or-treating will be a degree safer,” said State Senator John Loudon, a Republican who sponsored the legislation, speaking of Monday’s ruling. “And then we’ll have to go back to the drawing board depending on court action.” The ruling came after four anonymous convicted sexual offenders sued this month, represented by the American Civil Liberties Union of Eastern Missouri. They say the law is not only vague but also unfair and unconstitutional, an argument their lawyer vowed to keep pushing. “Once people have completed their sentences,” said the lawyer, Anthony E. Rothert, “you can’t go back and punish them for the same crime.” Detective Gary Coxen of the St. Louis County Police Department had planned to knock on doors to ensure the sexual offenders were home, but he worried they would ignore him, mistaking him for children trick-or-treating. After the ruling, he said his job would be easier; he would simply go to each house to ensure that a sign was posted and the porch lights were off. “It takes the guesswork out,” he said.

Sex Crimes
Halloween
Missouri
Law and Legislation


An Iranian Revolutionary, Dismayed but Unbowed

Abstract: TEHRAN REVOLUTIONARIES know exactly what they want to tear down, but often lack the ability to predict what will come next. That was true of Ebrahim Yazdi and many of his allies in the Iranian revolution who now, three decades later, still savor the memory of the day the shah fled Iran , but struggle with the bitter reality that they have been spit out, marginalized and rejected by what it is they helped create. Iran celebrated the 29th anniversary of its Islamic Revolution this month, but there are many fathers of that revolution, like Mr. Yazdi, who have not been part of any official celebration. “Of course this is not a monarchy, it’s a republican state,” Mr. Yazdi said during an interview in his living room, where he reflected on the government he helped to establish. “However, the political system, basically, is a despotic one. Many basic rights and liberties are continuously being denied. Therefore, one inspiration behind the revolution, restoration of people’s sovereignty, democracy and so on, hasn’t been achieved — yet.” Mr. Yazdi was an adviser to Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini , the moving force behind the ouster of the shah, the larger-than-life cleric who forged a nation that sought to merge religious governance and republican ideals. Mr. Yazdi was the first deputy prime minister and the first foreign minister. Today he is 76 years old, the leader of an illegal, if tolerated, party that has virtually no influence in Iranian affairs. He tried to run for president in 2005, but was disqualified and barred from the ballot. Mr. Yazdi has white hair now, a white beard, and a face softened by time, barely resembling the tight, stern young man who strode beside Ayatollah Khomeini in the early days of the revolution. He has a nice house in a nice section of Tehran, with crystal chandeliers in the living room, a large collection of parakeets that sing all day, a study lined with books and old photographs — and time, a lot of time. MR. YAZDI opposed the student takeover of the United States Embassy in 1979, but that is not to say he was pro-American. He was a critic of Washington’s policies toward Iran, and an enemy of Zionism. But he wanted a normal state, one recognized by the international community, not a pariah, isolated and radicalized. He says he knew that taking diplomats hostage would lead to the kind of Iranian state that exists today, one that continues to reward the most radical ideas. Unexpectedly, Mr. Yazdi finds himself today aligned with some of those hostage takers, like Abbas Abdi, who, like Mr. Yazdi, now want to reform the system, and, like Mr. Yazdi, have been marginalized for their views. “We thought we knew a lot of things back then,” Mr. Abdi said. “Everything was simplified. We thought, if only the shah goes, everything will be solved and finished. But the revolution was right, there was no alternative, no solution.” Mr. Yazdi says he is a fundamentalist, but what he means is that he is a Muslim intellectual, traditional in his adherence to ritual and teachings. But he is a staunch democrat who defines democracy not by the mechanics of governance, not by elections and institutions, but by ideas. “We recognize tolerance as a basic component of democracy,” he said. “God has not created all of us alike — we are different — human society is a pluralistic society. In the Koran, God is telling us that man is created to be free. So we are free to think, and think different. So the aim of democracy is to recognize the pluralistic nature of human society. The second item is tolerance, I have to tolerate my opponent. With tolerance comes compromise; without compromise democracy doesn’t exist.” But, Mr. Yazdi says that those who took over, those whose voices are loudest among Muslims these days, not just in Iran but around the region (and, he said, in Washington, too), are those who condemn diversity, and demand allegiance to one view. In Iran, he says, those he sees as having hijacked his revolution are the traditionalists, the people like President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who he says want to rule as religious leaders did centuries ago. “The simplistic perception of the state was that there is a leader, chosen by God, a divine person, so they were expecting that the system would work as it was working centuries ago,” Mr. Yazdi said. “They have succeeded. They have a leader, and he can do everything. And yet the problems are still here.” Mr. Yazdi turned to radical politics after the United States and Britain helped stage a coup in 1953, deposing the democratically elected government of Mohammed Mossadegh, a nationalist who opposed foreign control of Iranian affairs, and installed Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi. Mr. Yazdi joined an underground organization opposed to the shah but in 1960 traveled to the United States to study. He remained there — mostly in Houston — until 1979, when he returned with Ayatollah Khomeini. After earning a Ph.D. in pharmacology from Tehran University, Mr. Yazdi did postdoctoral work in molecular genetics at Baylor University in Houston before joining its medical school faculty. IT is hard to reconcile the American-trained scientist, fluent in English, comfortable in Houston, with the images now available on YouTube, old washed-out pictures of a young revolutionary. In one, Mr. Yazdi, Ayatollah Khomeini and Yasir Arafat are shown taking over the Israeli Embassy in Tehran. Mr. Yazdi held Mr. Arafat’s hand as they faced a sea of cheering men and women. “The story of the Iranian revolution is similar to the story of other revolutions,” he said. “It was a restoration of people’s rights and liberties — people rose against the tyrannical regime of the shah.” “The day after the revolution, Khomeini was facing the question: What is an Islamic republic?” Mr. Yazdi recalled. “I was in favor of a constitution and elections. They were against it. Khomeini was oscillating, but gradually he turned to the conservative side.” Nevertheless, Mr. Yazdi remains an optimist. He says he sees more traditional thinkers taking an increasingly pragmatic view. He says that Iranian society is maturing, moving through a difficult stage on its way to constitutional democracy. Economic hardships now, he says he believes, are the sign many traditionalists need to accept changes. “Iran is learning democracy,” he said, “because democracy is a learning process. Nobody will learn in a classroom. Democracy is not a commodity to be imported. America doesn’t carry democracy in its soldiers’ rucksacks. Democracy should come from within, through our own challenges and experiences.” “Trial and error,” he said, of the people running the state now. “They have to do it by themselves, just to learn what they are doing doesn’t work. There is no other way.”

Iran
Politics and Government
Yazdi Ebrahim
Khomeini Ruhollah


Mexico: Soda-Tax Bill Moves Forward

Abstract: The lower house of Mexico’s Congress has approved a tax on soda and other sugary drinks as part of the government’s fight against the twin epidemics of obesity and diabetes. The legislators also added a junk food tax of 5 percent to most snacks and candy when they approved a broad overhaul of Mexico’s tax system late Thursday. The beverage industry, along with sugar producers and the owners of small stores, has led a fierce lobbying campaign against the tax, but public health advocates have fought back. The Senate will take up the tax bill next week.

Mexico
Soda
Sales Tax
Excise Tax
Obesity
Diabetes


Profit Falls 22%, but Lowe’s Tops Expectations

Abstract: MOORESVILLE, N.C. (AP) — Lowe’s, the nation’s second-biggest home improvement chain after Home Depot, said Monday that its first-quarter profit fell 22 percent because of the housing market downturn. But the results were still above Wall Street’s expectations. Lowe’s said that consumers continued to stay away from bigger-ticket housing items as they tried to shore up their savings amid the recession. But it said smaller, outdoor purchases seemed to do well. Lowe’s remains optimistic. “In recent weeks we have seen consumer confidence improve, housing turnover show signs of a bottom in certain markets, and home prices slow their decline,” the chairman and chief executive, Robert A. Niblock, said in a statement. Mr. Niblock noted that Lowe’s would still be keeping an eye on its expenses and would “continue to plan conservatively” since many of the variables affecting the housing market are still at or near historic lows. For the period ended May 1, earnings dropped to $476 million, or 32 cents a share, from $607 million, or 41 cents, a year ago. Analysts predicted net income of 25 cents a share, according to a Thomson Reuters poll. Analysts’ estimates normally exclude one-time items. Sales dipped 2 percent to $11.83 billion from $12.01 billion, but topped Wall Street’s estimate of $11.63 billion. For the year, Lowe’s forecast earnings of $1.13 to $1.15 a share. The retailer’s second-quarter guidance anticipates profit of 51 to 55 cents a share. The company expects a sales decline of 2 percent to an increase of 1 percent for both the full year and the second quarter. Analysts predict 2009 net income of $1.11 a share on revenue of $47.16 billion. Second-quarter profit is expected at 50 cents a share on sales of $14.12 billion. Lowe’s forecast a sales decline of 4 to 8 percent at stores open at least a year for both the second quarter and the year.

Lowe's Companies
Company Reports
Housing and Real Estate


Going for Growth, Even in a Slowdown

Abstract: IN times of economic uncertainty, you would think that investors would flock to traditionally defensive stocks, like shares of stable utility companies or value-oriented dividend-payers. Yet in the current slowdown, which may turn into a full-blown recession, money managers are betting on what has often been a riskier segment of the market: growth stocks. These stocks are shares of fast-growing companies whose earnings tend to expand more rapidly than the market as a whole, and they are often more volatile than the broader market, too. So far, growth has been a winning bet. Since the stock market became jittery in July amid fears about a slowing economy, growth stocks in the Russell 1000 index have advanced 2 percent. By comparison, defensive-minded value stocks — beaten-down or overlooked shares that tend to appeal to cautious investors — have lost more than 7 percent. Even as slowdown fears are turning into recession worries this year, many investors still favor growth. “I still think growth is where you want to be,” says Jeffrey N. Kleintop, chief market strategist at LPL Financial Services in Boston. Mr. Kleintop said he particularly favors large-capitalization growth stocks in the technology, health care and industrial sectors. A recent survey of investment managers by the Russell Investment Group in Tacoma, Wash., found that three out of four money managers described themselves as “bullish” on large-cap domestic growth stocks. And nearly four in five were optimistic about technology stocks. By comparison, less than half described themselves as bulls on emerging-market stocks and less than a third were upbeat about value. But why bet on growth stocks, which are riskier and throw off less dividend income than value shares? There are several compelling reasons. For starters, until last year, large-cap growth stocks had long underperformed the broad market. From 2000 through 2006, such stocks lost nearly 5 percent a year, in contrast to annual gains of nearly 8 percent for value shares and about 2 percent for the broader stock market. So the argument goes like this: If the stock market is on the verge of a recession-driven downturn, growth may have less room to fall. Moreover, the Federal Reserve has recently been lowering short-term interest rates to bolster economic activity and head off recession. Many market watchers expect the Fed to keep lowering rates this year, especially if the housing market continues to cool. Historically when the Fed cuts rates, growth stocks benefit. Since 1974, growth stocks in the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index have advanced 11 percent, on average, in the six months after the first in a series of Fed rate cuts. During those same periods, value stocks gained just 7.9 percent, according to an analysis by Sam Stovall, S.& P.’s chief investment strategist. Money managers recommend focusing on stable growth companies for another reason. In times of slowing growth, investors are apt to choose companies with more reliable earnings growth, said Ernest M. Ankrim, Russell’s chief investment strategist. This would point to traditional growth sectors like technology and health care. Sure enough, growth stocks have shown stable — and enviable — earnings of late. Consider the third quarter of 2007. While profits among companies in the overall S.& P. 500 fell nearly 5 percent, on average, earnings of tech companies in the index rose 17 percent, and those of health care companies in the index grew 13 percent. More of the same is expected for the fourth quarter. The consensus on Wall Street is that the tech earnings grew 22 percent and the health care earnings 15 percent in the final three months of last year. Those figures are in stark contrast to the 9.5 percent drop in overall fourth-quarter S.& P. 500 profits that analysts are bracing for, according to Thomson Financial. Here are some other reasons to consider growth sectors in this slowing economy: TECHNOLOGY Tech sector funds returned more than 17 percent, on average, in 2007, one of the best years for the sector since the Internet bubble burst in 2000. “Big-cap tech had a great year, and I wouldn’t see any reason why that would change,” said Michael J. Cuggino, manager of the Permanent Portfolio, a mutual fund that invests in stocks, bonds and alternative assets. Would a potential recession throw a wet blanket on this comeback? Perhaps. But keep in mind that 55 percent of tech sector revenues are now derived overseas, making technology one of the most globally oriented sectors in the S.& P. 500. And because there are greater fears of a recession occurring in the United States than in the global economy, tech may be able to withstand trouble here better than some other sectors, market strategists said. HEALTH CARE This sector in general, and pharmaceutical shares in particular, have been a disappointment lately because of a dearth of new blockbuster drugs. But among classic growth sectors, health care is considered relatively recession-proof. After all, no matter how healthy the economy, people still get sick. And after years of being unloved, health care stocks in the S.& P. 500 are trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of around 15, on average. That’s roughly in line with the ratio of the overall index, though health care stocks have traditionally traded at a significant premium. INDUSTRIALS While it’s true that the industrial sector is economically sensitive, it is now sensitive to the global economy. More than two out of five dollars generated by domestic manufacturers now come from overseas, according to S.& P. And thanks largely to the falling dollar, the cost of doing business with domestic manufacturers is tumbling, making the sector even more appealing. David A. Rosenberg, an economist at Merrill Lynch, noted in a report that unit labor costs for domestic manufacturers were now 30 percent lower than the average for the rest of the industrialized world. The dollar might weaken further if the Fed continues to cut interest rates, so concern about the economy could make the growth sector more attractive than other parts of the market — not less.

Finances
Stocks and Bonds
Mutual Funds
Economic Conditions and Trends
Recession and Depression
Federal Reserve System
Standard & Poor's Corp


Russia: Rescuers Voice Pessimism About Survivors From Sunken Rig

Abstract: Rescuers said Monday that it would be a miracle if they found anyone else alive after a drilling rig with 67 men on board sank Sunday in the icy seas off Russia ’s Far Eastern coast. Fourteen workers were rescued from the water immediately after the rig sank; rescuers later removed 10 bodies from the Sea of Okhotsk and know of 4 others, the Emergencies Ministry said, leaving 39 people missing.

Offshore Drilling and Exploration
Rescues
Russia
Oil (Petroleum) and Gasoline
Maritime Accidents and Safety
Sakhalin Island (Russia)