Case Built in New York Against a Jamaican Kingpin

Abstract: In October 2007, federal drug enforcement agents were questioning a man who had been arrested in the Bronx on gun and drug charges when he began to talk about someone he depicted as “one of the most powerful men in all of Jamaica,” records show. The man, Lloyd Reid, said he was referring to Christopher Coke , the notorious gang leader whose resistance to extradition to New York has led to violence and deaths this week in Jamaica as the authorities have hunted for him. In seeking Mr. Coke’s extradition, Preet Bharara, the United States attorney in Manhattan, has charged that for more than a decade he has controlled an international drug ring from his neighborhood stronghold of Tivoli Gardens in Kingston. Prosecutors say Mr. Coke’s operatives in New York send him part of their drug proceeds and buy guns that they ship to him. In Jamaica, he distributes the firearms, bolstering his authority and influence, a federal indictment charges. The prosecutor’s office has not made public its extradition papers against Mr. Coke, but court records in New York show that investigators have been building a case against him through court-approved wiretaps and the questioning of people like Mr. Reid. The records offer a snapshot of how investigators believe Mr. Coke’s influence extends to the streets of New York, and suggest how the drug dealing here may have helped fortify what the indictment calls Mr. Coke’s garrison community in Jamaica, “a barricaded neighborhood guarded by a group of armed gunmen.” Prosecutors have said that Mr. Reid, who was convicted last year of conspiracy to distribute marijuana and is serving a five-year prison sentence, was an enforcer for Mr. Coke in New York. In talks with agents of the Drug Enforcement Administration, Mr. Reid said he had a close relationship with Mr. Coke because his brother had once served as Mr. Coke’s “right-hand man” in Jamaica before he was murdered, records show. But there was another reason, Mr. Reid told agents. He and Mr. Coke became close because they spent time together in the Bronx, where Mr. Coke once lived, according to testimony by Eric Baldus, one of the drug enforcement agents who interviewed Mr. Reid. That Mr. Coke lived in the United States is not widely known; officials say he was convicted in 1988 in North Carolina of possession of stolen property and deported the following year. Mr. Reid said he was often called upon to resolve disagreements among Mr. Coke’s operatives because people knew of his relationship with Mr. Coke, the notes show. And when problems needed resolution by a higher authority, he indicated, he relayed information to Mr. Coke. “Coke is the one who has the power to stop or settle all disputes,” Mr. Reid stated, the notes show. Mr. Reid’s lawyer, Jeremy Schneider, disputes the government’s characterization of his client. Mr. Schneider noted that Mr. Reid was convicted in a conspiracy that involved less than 1,000 kilograms of marijuana. He was also convicted of robbery conspiracy but acquitted of using a firearm in a drug trafficking crime. “He was found guilty of being a low-level marijuana dealer,” Mr. Schneider said. “He was clearly not a high-level operative representing Coke in the United States.” He added that there was “a previous familial relationship” between Mr. Coke and his client’s family. Prosecutors say that while guns and money were sent to Jamaica as part of Mr. Coke’s operation, he and his organization, called the Shower Posse, also sent something back — they provided protection for their operatives in the United States. The relationship between the operatives and “supporters in Jamaica was critical to the ability to traffic in marijuana here,” Jocelyn Strauber, a federal prosecutor, said in a pretrial proceeding in Mr. Reid’s case. Prosecutors have said in court papers that some of their evidence comes from court-authorized surveillance of what they call Mr. Coke’s co-conspirators. A transcript of one call, which was introduced at Mr. Reid’s trial last year in Federal District Court in Manhattan, shows him discussing Mr. Coke with a close associate. Mr. Reid quotes Mr. Coke as saying, “You represent me in America,” the document shows. Mr. Reid also quotes Mr. Coke as saying: “Don’t you see our thing is a worldwide thing? Nobody will mess with us.” Mr. Coke, 41, has been charged with conspiring to distribute marijuana and cocaine and to illegally traffic in firearms. If he is extradited and convicted, he could face a life sentence.

Coke Christopher
Jamaica (West Indies)
Drug Abuse and Traffic
Jamaica (NYC)


Novartis Ordered to Pay $250 Million in Gender Bias Suit

Abstract: The drug maker Novartis must pay $250 million in punitive damages for discriminating against thousands of female sales representatives over pay, promotion and pregnancy , a federal jury ruled on Wednesday. The decision was announced federal court in Manhattan by a jury of five women and four men who ruled Monday that the company’s United States division, the Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation, engaged in a pattern of discrimination against women. The $250 million in punitive damages is 2.6 percent of the company’s $9.5 billion 2009 revenue. The women had sought from $190 million to $285 million. In the first part of its ruling, the jury awarded $3.3 million in compensatory damages to 12 of the women who testified. Novartis, which for the last 10 years has been declared one of the 100 best companies by Working Mother magazine, showed a pattern of discrimination against women employees from 2002 through 2007, the jury found after a five-week trial and four days of deliberation. The award to the 12 opens the door for 5,588 others who can also apply for compensatory damages. The damages will likely be determined on an individual basis by a court-appointed special master, said Katherine Kimpel, a lawyer for the plaintiffs. Judge Colleen McMahon of United States District Court will determine a lump sum for back pay, lost benefits and adjusted wages that will be distributed to plaintiffs, lawyers said. They said they were seeking $37 million to cover back pay. Novartis said after the verdict was returned on Monday that it would appeal. Carol Evans, president of Working Mother Media, said in a statement Wednesday that the lawsuit had not barred Novartis from repeatedly winning its 100 best companies award because the magazine had a different role than the court system. “We are disappointed that Novartis has engaged in discriminatory practices against women and mothers,” Ms. Evans added. “We applaud the court system for effectively finding redress for this discrimination.” She said the magazine’s award was based on programs that Novartis had in place to support working mothers, like flextime, telecommuting and paid maternity leave. “We hope that Novartis will not appeal the ruling against them and instead turn their efforts to making sure that the company has no further incidences of discrimination,” Ms. Evans said.

Novartis AG
Discrimination
Drugs (Pharmaceuticals)
Suits and Litigation
Women and Girls


A 600-Year-Old Oak Tree Finally Succumbs

Abstract: BASKING RIDGE, N.J. — The locals say that George Washington and the Marquis de Lafayette — the Frenchman who bankrolled the American patriots with cold, hard cash — picnicked in the shade it provided. Rank-and-file soldiers are said to have rested under it, gathering strength before going on to beat the redcoats. It is a huge oak tree, now estimated to be 600 years old. Arborists such as Rob Gillies consider it one of the oldest in North America. It is a local landmark, right there in the cemetery of the Basking Ridge Presbyterian Church . On Thursday, Mr. Gillies sliced into it with a chain saw. Not the trunk, rotund and rotted inside and long since shored up with cement, like a cavity in a bad tooth. Mr. Gillies, who is 52 and has long experience in teasing extra life out of old trees, took aim at the upper reaches. From his perch in the bucket of a cherry picker, he gave the tree a haircut, trimming away trouble spots — thick limbs that hung and could snap if tossed by winter winds or weighed down by snow. They could crash onto the street or slam into the church sanctuary, a relative youngster at only 177 years old, or an adjacent wing that is in its early 60s. Or the ancient headstones in the cemetery, the oldest of which is 280. “It’s hard to even talk about this,” Mr. Gillies said. “I really wanted to save the tree.” But a dead tree cannot be saved, and dead it is, Mr. Gillies said. It was declared unsavable last month after the latest round of soil tests and consultations with other experts. Image Rob Gillies, in the bucket of a cherry picker, pruning the 600-year-old oak tree. “It’s hard to even talk about this,” Mr. Gillies said. “I really wanted to save the tree.” Credit Bryan Anselm for The New York Times Still, it is not gone yet. The church is planning a communitywide celebration of the tree’s life on Nov. 6. And while church officials say it will come down in 2017, by coincidence the congregation’s 300th anniversary year, they have not decided what to do with the wood that will pile up. The suggestions are pouring in. The tree is a passionate subject in this little town about 40 miles from Times Square. The tree is a part of the identity of what the minister, the Rev. Dennis W. Jones, calls “a Norman Rockwell-esque town.” He himself wore a likeness of it on his sleeve when he was a police officer here, before divinity school and a career change. The church has photographs of what look like revival meetings, with the congregation seated under the tree. Mr. Jones said children climbed it after Sunday school when they were not supposed to, and couples had their wedding photos taken under it. He said he was surprised, after a television news report on the tree last month, to hear from people who had grown up here and moved away — but still cared about the tree. So did people driving by on Thursday. Many rolled down their car windows and asked if it was finally being felled. No, they were told, although some drove off without hearing the full explanation. “We want to clear the airspace above the sidewalk and the street” before winter, said Jon Klippel, the chairman of the church’s planning council. “We have some limbs that wandered a great distance.” Indeed they have. The tree is wider than it is tall — it stretches more than 150 feet from side to side, while it was only about 100 feet tall before Mr. Gillies went to work. Image Jon Klippel, left, the chairman of the church’s planning council, and the Rev. Dennis W. Jones, the church’s minister, in front of the tree. Credit Bryan Anselm for The New York Times Its very size is testimony to its age. “It’s certainly been around longer than anyone that we can tell in our recorded history (except maybe the Lenni-Lenape Indians),” the local historical society declared on its website . If the 600-year-old age estimates are correct, its youth coincided with Britain’s defeat of the French in the Battle of Agincourt and Gutenberg’s invention of movable type. And, of course, all of the voyages by explorers such as Christopher Columbus. Somehow — and this is one of the mysteries — the tree was not squeezed out before settlers arrived. Other faster-growing trees could have risen above it, blocking the sunlight before the first settlers arrived and the surrounding township was granted a royal charter in the mid-18th century. Somehow — and this is another mystery — it was left alone in cold winters if firewood ran short. By 1924, nine years after Joyce Kilmer wrote the famous poem “ Trees ,” it was 75 feet tall and still growing. It was measured, tended and loved over the decades. Then came the summer of 2016. The old oak was done in, not by an April that was the cruelest month, but by a nasty August. “On Aug. 2, we saw some dark brown leaves,” Mr. Klippel said. “Day by day, there were more. Between Aug. 2 and Aug. 14, it all went brown, and it wasn’t the usual variable range of autumnal colors coming on early.” The church called in Mr. Gillies, who climbed the tree — with permission, and not when the children from Sunday school were around. Image Keith Keiling, left, and Cesar Guillen carrying a limb from the tree as it was being pruned. The work on Oct. 13 was meant to clear thick limbs that could snap if tossed by winter winds or weighed down by snow. Credit Bryan Anselm for The New York Times The conclusion? “The tree was so old, it wasn’t able to withstand the intensity of the heat we had,” Mr. Klippel said. “We had these stretches of heat, and then a deluge.” Mr. Gillies said the tree responded to the initial “heat stress” by closing off the pores in the rings deep inside, behind the bark. “These shut down, so it doesn’t transpire,” he said. “Then it was inundated” by almost 12 hours of heavy rain. “The roots were soaking because it couldn’t process the water,” he said. Mr. Jones said that some people wanted to keep the tree propped up for longer than next spring. “But it would be a dead tree, not a symbol of a living church,” he said. Mr. Gillies said he was well aware that he was tackling a “delicate job.” Mr. Klippel said the church was grateful he felt that way. “These guys are used to the typical tree pruning, not having to disassemble the tree,” Mr. Klippel said. “They’re used to buzz, buzz, drop, drop. Some of these graves are 250, 275 years old, and so are the tombstones.” “This isn’t like in someone’s backyard,” he said, “where you can cut them off and say, ‘Look out below.’”

Trees
Basking Ridge NJ
Historic preservation
Basking Ridge Presbyterian Church


Israeli Soldier Is Killed in Attack by Palestinian

Abstract: JERUSALEM — The wave of deadly attacks that has roiled Israel this month hit the southern desert city of Beersheba on Sunday, where a Palestinian armed with a pistol and a knife grabbed another weapon from a soldier, fatally shot him and wounded at least nine other people, including several police officers, according to the police. In the confusion as the attack unfolded, a migrant who was apparently mistaken for a second assailant was shot and seriously wounded by an Israeli security guard, then beaten by a mob. He later died of his wounds, according to Israeli news reports. Witnesses who said they knew the man identified him as an Eritrean asylum seeker. The Palestinian assailant was killed at the scene by police officers. After more than two weeks of almost daily attacks, mostly by young Palestinians armed with knives, there had been hope in Israel that Sunday would pass peacefully. But around 7:30 p.m., reports emerged of the shooting at the central bus station in Beersheba. Based on initial reports, some Israeli commentators considered this attack more sophisticated and requiring more planning than many of the past ones this month, most of which have been carried out in Jerusalem or the West Bank by Palestinians with no known links to militant organizations. The identity of the assailant in Beersheba was not immediately known, and no group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. But officials from Hamas, the Islamic militant group that dominates Gaza, praised it. Hussam Badran, a spokesman for the group, said in a statement on its official website, “We bless this unique operation that comes as a natural response to the coldblooded executions carried out by the occupation army and its settlers,” referring to Israel. “The intifada is ongoing and escalating to achieve its objectives to deter the occupier and get rid of it once and for all,” he added. The Palestinians have accused Israeli security forces of using excessive force because at least 18 suspects have been killed at the scene of the nearly 30 attacks on Israelis this month. Eight Israelis have been killed in those attacks. In clashes with Israeli security forces this month, more than 20 Palestinians have also been fatally shot. In one attack more than a week ago in the southern town of Kiryat Gat, a young Palestinian from the West Bank snatched an assault rifle from a soldier on a bus and fled into a nearby apartment block, holing up there. The police arrived and fatally shot him; he was unable to fire the weapon he stole because he had taken it without a magazine. On Saturday there were five knife attacks against Israelis, mostly members of the security forces, in the West Bank city of Hebron, in Jerusalem and at a checkpoint between Jerusalem and the West Bank city of Ramallah, according to the authorities. The Israelis escaped with minor injuries or unharmed. The assailants, including a young woman, were all fatally shot. Despite a security clampdown, Israel is struggling to prevent the attacks. The mayor of Beersheba, Ruvik Danilovich, told Army Radio on Sunday, “Fifty thousand people go through the central bus station on a daily basis, and the police have been doing their best to inspect people, but they cannot hermetically seal off this area against perpetrators.”

Palestinians
Israel
Hamas
Murders and Homicides
Beersheba Israel


Economic Reports for the Week of Oct. 29

Abstract: ECONOMIC REPORTS Economic information to be released this week includes personal income and spending for September and the Chicago Federal Reserve Midwest manufacturing index (Monday); the Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller home price index for August and consumer confidence for October (Tuesday); the Institute for Supply Management manufacturing index for October, construction spending for September, weekly jobless claims, retail sales for October and ADP employment for October (Thursday); and unemployment for October (Friday). CORPORATE EARNINGS Companies scheduled to release quarterly earnings reports include Burger King Worldwide (Monday); Deutsche Bank, Standard Chartered, UBS, Ford Motor, Chrysler, Pfizer and BP (Tuesday); Barclays and General Motors (Wednesday); Exxon Mobil, American International Group and Starbucks (Thursday); and Royal Bank of Scotland, Chevron, the Washington Post Company and Chesapeake Energy (Friday). IN THE UNITED STATES On Monday, the insider trading trial of Anthony Chiasson, formerly of the hedge fund Level Global, and Todd Newman, formerly of Diamondback Capital Management, begins with jury selection in Federal District Court in Manhattan, and the federal bankruptcy court in Manhattan will take up a deal under which Eastman Kodak would pay its retirees $7.5 million in cash and grant them $650 million in claims. On Tuesday, American Airlines’ parent, AMR, will ask the bankruptcy court for permission to obtain up to $1.5 billion in new bond financing. On Thursday, automakers will report their North American sales for October. OVERSEAS On Monday, Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy of Spain is set to meet the Italian prime minister, Mario Monti, in Madrid for talks on the economic crisis. On Thursday, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany is scheduled to meet Prime Minister Enda Kenny of Ireland for talks.

Standard & Poor's Case-Shiller Home Price Index


Forecast Comes True: No Playoffs for the Mets

Abstract: Minutes after being formally eliminated from playoff contention on Wednesday afternoon, the Mets did their best to escape the present and dwell on the past. They turned to an old reliable, the first-base coach Mookie Wilson, who unveiled a painting he and Bill Buckner commissioned of one of baseball’s most famous moments — the dribbler that Wilson hit between Buckner’s legs in the 1986 World Series, which the Mets captured against Boston in seven games. The painting will be displayed at Citi Field. That the two are cooperating in a for-profit venture 25 years after a World Series that left Wilson gleeful and Buckner in agony is intriguing in itself and — with the exception of Jose Reyes’s quest to win a batting title — as interesting as anything going on with the current Mets as they slowly cross off their remaining games. Their elimination, which had been preordained for the last month, came when Atlanta beat Florida, 4-1, on Wednesday. Just to reinforce the point, the Mets lost, 2-0, to the Washington Nationals in a listless game Wednesday night. It was their fifth straight defeat. For the Mets, it will be the fifth consecutive season without a playoff appearance, although few predicted they would make it to October when the season began. “Obviously, we’re very disappointed,” said Manager Terry Collins, who, for most of the season, has managed to keep the Mets around .500. He did so despite numerous injuries, strategic decisions to unload Francisco Rodriguez and Carlos Beltran and disappointing seasons from veterans like Jason Bay, David Wright and Mike Pelfrey, who was Wednesday’s losing pitcher. “I left spring training with a very good baseball team,” Collins said. “We couldn’t keep it together. That’s the nature of the beast.” The backdrop for this season has been an unusual one because of the financial issues consuming the team’s owners, who, among other things, are being sued for $1 billion by the trustee for the victims of Bernard L. Madoff’s Ponzi scheme . On the field, though, the Mets defied expectations after a 4-11 start. They received a lift from Reyes’s remarkable season at the plate and from the surprise contributions of players like Daniel Murphy, Justin Turner, Lucas Duda and Dillon Gee. As recently as a week ago, the Mets were one victory from a .500 record again after R. A. Dickey beat the Marlins, 1-0. Since then, the Mets have lost seven of eight, and Collins has appeared increasingly frustrated, sensing that his players have started to wilt. For one thing, the Mets have not been putting together as many quality plate appearances, seeming to give away at-bats by swinging early in the count. On Wednesday, the Mets managed only two hits off the Nationals’ 23-year-old pitching prospect Brad Peacock, who threw five scoreless innings to earn his first big league win. “It’s definitely easier to get up for games when you know you’re playing for something,” Gee acknowledged. “Right now, it’s harder to bear down and have the effort to be there. Mentally, I think it’s a mental barrier. You think you’re done.” Nevertheless, several Mets, after learning they were eliminated, said they hoped to make a push to get the team back to .500 or better. The players also said they would try to relish the role of spoiler in their coming series against the Braves and the St. Louis Cardinals, who are still fighting over the wild card. “There’s going to be some silver linings,” Collins said. “I’m very, very proud of the way these guys played. They could have folded this up two months ago. “It was just one after another,” he added about all the injuries and trades that subtracted important players for weeks, or months, or for good. With a .331 average after going 1 for 5 in Wednesday’s game, Reyes had a small lead over Milwaukee’s Ryan Braun (.329) in the batting race. If Reyes can hold on, he will become the first Met to be the N.L.’s batting champion. That, in turn, would only enhance his value as he proceeds into free agency, with the Mets’ chances to re-sign him not at all clear. But the Mets have the coming months to wrestle with that issue. For now, they have two weeks left in a season that has lost its verve. That has left them looking to the past, as a star from yesteryear did on Wednesday, in search of the happier moments as another long off-season looms.

Baseball
New York Mets
Playoff Games
Washington Nationals


Bernie Sanders, in New York, Presses Fight Against ‘Status Quo’

Abstract: Locked in a fierce fight with Hillary Clinton to win the New York primary, Senator Bernie Sanders took his plea for a political revolution to the heart of Greenwich Village on Wednesday and heaped particular scorn on Wall Street to the delight of several thousand jubilant supporters. Speaking on a cloudless night in Washington Square Park, the famed arch dramatically lit behind him, Mr. Sanders said he drew inspiration from the trade unions, gay rights activists and others fighting to “change the status quo.” He repeatedly denounced “corporate greed and the rigged economy,” taking aim at the big banks just to the south, and said that defending the interests of regular Americans was the abiding cause of his presidential campaign. “It is about creating a government that works for all of us, not just wealthy campaign contributors,” Mr. Sanders said, one of several negative comments or insinuations that he lobbed in Mrs. Clinton’s direction. “This campaign is sending a message to corporate America: You cannot have it all.” Image In buildings along the park, New York University students and workers pressed against windows to watch Senator Bernie Sanders and the vast crowd below on the chilly night. Credit Sam Hodgson for The New York Times With Sanders admirers waving placards reading “Democracy v Oligarchy, Humanity v Greed” and ‘‘Not Me — Us,” the rally had the feel of some of the Occupy Wall Street protests in 2011 and 2012, with the predominantly young crowd cheering Mr. Sanders every time he railed against major companies and executives and promised to impose higher taxes on Wall Street. People waited for hours in lines that stretched several blocks to get into the park, and they seemed spellbound at times as Mr. Sanders held forth against the wealthy and the powerful — in particular, Mrs. Clinton. “You can tell a lot about a candidate and the campaigns run by how they raise the money they need to run those campaigns,” Mr. Sanders said, drawing a contrast between his historic success with low-dollar online donations and Mrs. Clinton’s dependence on four-figure donations and “super PACs.” And when he mentioned the $675,000 in speaking fees she received from Goldman Sachs, the crowd roared with boos. Sanders campaign aides said that about 27,000 people attended the rally, a striking number; Barack Obama also filled the park during a rally in 2007, but his campaign said only about 20,000 people had registered. But no matter the exact count, the rally was an event that went viral on social media and drew people who flew to New York specifically for the event. In buildings along the park, New York University students and workers pressed against windows to watch the senator and the vast crowd below on the chilly night. “Bernie is promising the change we need when we need it,” said Terence Gardner, 25, a freelance film editor who lives in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn. Mr. Gardner cited climate change as the policy issue that worried him the most, and said he had great faith that Mr. Sanders would make environmental protection a top priority. Image Sanders campaign aides said that about 27,000 people attended Wednesday night’s rally in Washington Square Park. Credit Benjamin Norman for The New York Times “Climate change affects everything in my life, from where I’m going to live to whether I wanted to have kids,” said Mr. Gardner, who added that he did not know many details about Mrs. Clinton’s policy agenda. Before Mr. Sanders took the stage, several celebrity supporters addressed one of his biggest challenges in New York: He has been a far more popular vote-getter than Mrs. Clinton with independents, yet only registered Democrats are allowed to cast ballots in the primary. They urged the crowd to do everything they could to persuade more Democrats to support Mr. Sanders and help turn out the vote on Tuesday. Mrs. Clinton, who will debate the senator on Thursday, has held a comfortable lead over him in recent opinion polls. But Sanders supporters at the rally said they thought the intensity of support for the senator could lead to an upset victory on Tuesday, similar to his win in Michigan last month. “Change will not happen by choosing a candidate who is entirely entrenched in the dysfunction of the past,” said the actor Tim Robbins, who recalled protesting in the park against the Vietnam War as a young man. Mr. Sanders told the crowd that “it’s going to be a tough primary for us” because independents could not vote and young people, among others, could not register at polling places on Tuesday. But he said he was still hopeful. Image The rally had the feel of some of the Occupy Wall Street protests, with the predominantly young crowd cheering Mr. Sanders every time he railed against major companies. Credit Christian Hansen for The New York Times “If we have a large voter turnout on Tuesday, we’re going to win this thing,” Mr. Sanders said. The large crowd, and the senator’s promises to change politics, had much in common with the 2007 rally for Mr. Obama in the park. Like Mr. Sanders, Mr. Obama was running an aggressive campaign against Mrs. Clinton, and Mr. Obama’s visit to Washington Square Park was seen as a shot across her bow. Mr. Obama criticized Mrs. Clinton over Social Security reform, but mostly needled her, such as noting that she had refused to commit to root for the New York Yankees over the Chicago Cubs if the teams ever faced off in the World Series. At Wednesday’s rally, Mr. Sanders was more aggressive against Mrs. Clinton than Mr. Obama had been, assailing her for supporting some free trade agreements in the past and voting to authorize the war in Iraq. He portrayed her judgment as faulty and her pledges to change America as unreliable, based on her ties with bank and corporate executives and major donors. “What this campaign is profoundly about is that real change never occurs from the top on down — it’s from the bottom up,” Mr. Sanders said. Some people said they came out because they were still making up their mind between Mr. Sanders and Mrs. Clinton. Lauri Owens, an undecided voter from Forest Hills, Queens, said she shared Mr. Sanders’s concern that corporations had far too much influence, but was not sure if Mr. Sanders would be able to change anything as president. “I’d like to see someone who thinks about us again,” she said. “Regular people.”

2016 Presidential Election
Bernard Sanders,Bernie Sanders
NYC
Democrats
Hillary Clinton
Washington Square Park Manhattan


Quiet Bats and a Flub Send the Mets to Another Loss

Abstract: A week and a half ago, the Mets were the hottest team in baseball, having won 11 straight games. Citi Field was shedding its longstanding reputation for being desolate for much of April, attracting boisterous fans who, having been roused from their hibernation, were championing the ballpark as the home of the best pitching staff in the major leagues. But after a four-game series with the Nationals in which the Mets lost three times, including a second consecutive 1-0 loss at home on Sunday, the road to the National League East pennant still appears likely to go through Washington. Although the defeat did not knock the Mets out of first place — they are three and a half games ahead of Atlanta and Miami and four ahead of Washington — they have lost five of their last six games. They have also dropped 17 of their last 19 home games against the Nationals, dating to 2013. “Anytime you don’t win in your division, it’s missed opportunities,” left fielder Michael Cuddyer said. “But at the same time, it’s not like those guys are cakewalks over there. That’s a good team, good pitching.” The Mets’ pitchers remain their best asset, and Sunday’s starter, Dillon Gee, gave the team a chance to win even as his accuracy was off. The Mets’ offense, however, was unable to solve Nationals starter Doug Fister, who allowed five hits in his six and a third innings, and the Mets finished the game 0 for 7 with runners in scoring position, with Lucas Duda and Cuddyer striking out swinging to strand runners on second and third in the eighth inning. Gee fell to 0-2, walking five and allowing six hits. He left the game after loading the bases with no outs in the sixth, but Alex Torres struck out the next three batters to keep the score at 1-0. “I feel like almost from the first inning today, it was kind of like, this is going to be a battle,” Gee said, adding that he did not feel as good as he had during his last start, when he allowed one run in seven and two-thirds innings against the Marlins. The Mets’ recent struggles to drive in runs have been compounded by the continuation of a problem that arose in spring training: substandard middle- infield defense, particularly at shortstop. Ruben Tejada was given a second straight start at shortstop on Sunday to allow the usual starter, Wilmer Flores, to “get his mind straight,” Mets Manager Terry Collins said before the game. Tejada, while less of a threat offensively than Flores, is considered more sure-handed in the field. But a costly early miscue had Gee working from behind all afternoon. Image Mets starter Dillon Gee after he was removed with the bases loaded in the sixth inning of Sunday's game against the Nationals. Credit Kathy Willens/Associated Press After Denard Span led off the game with a walk, Yunel Escobar hit a grounder to Mets second baseman Dilson Herrera, who made a clean throw to Tejada for the forceout. Tejada, though, did not cleanly transfer the ball from his glove, and his delayed throw to first base could not complete the double play. Escobar later scored on a broken-bat single by Ryan Zimmerman. Tejada said after the game that the ball stuck in his hand momentarily and he could not find a grip. Sunday’s lineup change will not be permanent, Collins indicated. But with Flores having committed seven errors in his first 21 games of the season, including one in each of his last three starts, Collins felt Flores would benefit from some time off. (The Mets do not play Monday.) “I’m not just really thinking about anything,” Flores said. “I was just watching the game and trying to clear my mind.” Cuddyer, who made a leaping grab at the left-field wall to rob Zimmerman of a home run in the fourth, said the day off would be beneficial for the entire team. “Everybody can get recharged, refreshed,” Cuddyer said, adding that players would also have a good opportunity to realize the Mets were “still on top of the division right now.” “There’s no reason to press,” he said. Lately, though, in an effort to jump-start their offense, the Mets have been swinging at balls out of the strike zone, including pitches in the dirt with two strikes in the count. This series against Washington included little evidence that the team could consistently score on the Nationals’ pitchers, who outpitched their Mets counterparts. The Mets tallied two runs on Thursday against Stephen Strasburg but could not score again. On Friday, they were clinging to a 1-0 lead in the late innings; Nationals left fielder Jayson Werth then misplayed a fly ball in the eighth that led to three runs and an eventual 4-0 Mets victory . “This isn’t just one or two guys,” Collins said. “We’ve got to put some better swings on the ball throughout the lineup.” The Mets opened the season by taking two of three at Washington, which was missing three important position players: Werth, Danny Espinosa and Span. The Nationals’ pitchers still gave up only four earned runs in that series (10 total runs). The Mets are trying not to let their recent disappointments linger even though the path to a division crown may not be as easy as it appeared a couple of weeks ago. “You’re not going to beat them every single time you play them,” Cuddyer said. “That’s the nature of the business. The other side of it is, we only lost, 1-0, the last two days. So we were right there in the game. One big hit here, one big hit there, we win those games.”


After Making History, Jeter Makes the Yankees Winners

Abstract: With one out in the third inning Saturday, space was at a premium on the rail of the Yankees ’ dugout. Players and staff members crowded shoulder to shoulder, jostling for what they hoped would be the best view of history. Manager Joe Girardi was at one end, arms draped over the railing in his familiar pose; second baseman Robinson Cano was at the other end, a towel across his shoulder and one leg raised on the steps. Jorge Posada was smack in the middle. Posada is Derek Jeter ’s best friend on the Yankees, a teammate since 1992, when they were playing Class A ball in Greensboro, N.C. Posada, the longtime Yankees catcher and current designated hitter, had seen so many of Jeter’s 2,999 major league hits over the years that he was not going to miss this one. When Jeter swung, his shiny black bat meeting a full-count breaking ball from Tampa Bay Rays starter David Price, Posada shot his arms up. He knew, even before the ball had landed in the left-field bleachers, what had happened: Jeter had reached the coveted 3,000-hit mark, the first Yankee to do so, in the most thrilling of fashions. The Yankees poured onto the field, jumping joyously at home plate as Jeter rounded the bases. With his second hit of the day, in his second at-bat, Jeter — No. 2 — reached the milestone at 2 p.m. Posada pushed to the front of the mass of players, his smile wide as he wrapped Jeter in a fierce embrace. Mariano Rivera, the third remaining Yankee from the dynasty teams of the 1990s, was right behind Posada, and a receiving line of teammates was at the heart of an on-field celebration that lasted about four minutes. Even the relievers ran in from the bullpen. “I told him I was proud of him,” Posada said. “It was relief,” Jeter said of his emotions. “I was excited but, to be honest with you, I was just pretty relieved.” The ovation from the Yankee Stadium crowd of 48,103 lingered, long and loud. Price walked off the mound to get a drink of water, and he waited by the Rays ’ dugout, where several players — led by the former Yankee Johnny Damon — stood and cheered for Jeter, too. Jeter turned to each corner of the stadium as he accepted the congratulations, also acknowledging Price and the Rays. He then raised a fist toward the luxury suite where his family and friends, including his father and his girlfriend, the actress Minka Kelly , were seated. Kelly appeared to be blinking back tears. When the cheers continued even longer, Jeter returned to the field for a curtain call but admitted he felt sheepish, wanting the game to continue. Finally, after Price had thrown a few warm-up pitches, it did. But Jeter was not done. He doubled in the fifth inning, singled in the sixth and drove in the go-ahead run with another single in the eighth, matching a career high by going 5 for 5 as the Yankees beat the Rays, 5-4 . “It would have been really, really awkward to be out there doing interviews and waving to the crowd if we would have lost,” Jeter said. “If we didn’t win, it definitely would have put a damper on things.” On a different day, Jeter — ever the team player — might have tried to point to that single in the eighth as the biggest hit, but on this day even he conceded that completing his quest loomed larger. He reached 2,994 hits on June 13, then was sidelined for three weeks with a calf injury. He returned July 4, got three hits during a series in Cleveland, and then climbed to within two of the mark with a double on Thursday against the Rays. When Friday’s game was rained out — decreasing his chance to get the 3,000th hit at home because the Yankees have a series in Toronto right after the All-Star break — Jeter was frustrated. “I’ve been lying to you guys for a long time, saying I wasn’t nervous and there’s no pressure,” he said to reporters. “There was a lot of pressure to do it here.” After his first at-bat, though, he was able to relax a bit. Jeter was patient early in the count in that first at-bat, but on a 3-2 pitch, Price “could have thrown it in the dugout and I was going to swing,” Jeter said. Fortunately for the Yankees, Price threw a fastball that Jeter smacked to left field for hit No. 2,999. The crowd roared and Price, a left-hander, hung his head. Two innings later, he tried a different tack against Jeter, throwing a curveball on 3-2. Jeter, memorably, hit that one, too. “I’d rather not be the answer to that particular trivia question,” Price said of his place in history. “But I am.” The celebration continued throughout the game, as the Yankees played video tributes to Jeter between innings. Jeter then provided an almost perfect coda to the day with his eighth-inning single, although Rivera, who saved the game in the ninth, joked that he thought Jeter was going to hit a triple, which would have given him the cycle. Still, “it was a storybook ending,” said the rapper Jay-Z, who was among the crowd in the tunnel outside the Yankees’ clubhouse after the game. “He’s just a winner,” Jay-Z said. “That’s how it happens.” Also in the throng was Joe Torre, the former Yankees manager who is an executive for Major League Baseball. Torre sat in the stands for the game, then met with Jeter afterward and put him on the phone with Commissioner Bud Selig, who wanted to offer congratulations. “Derek is just amazing,” Torre said. Perhaps no one has seen that as often as Posada and Rivera. The old friends met reporters wearing T-shirts commemorating Jeter’s milestone, and the pride they took in his accomplishment was evident. “He deserves it,” Rivera said. “And I hope he has another thousand or two more.”

New York Yankees
Jeter Derek
Baseball
Tampa Bay Rays
Price David


Two Accounts on Jet Crash Seem to Vary

Abstract: WASHINGTON, Feb. 2 - Fifteen minutes before a charter jet crashed on takeoff in Colorado, killing three people including a son of the NBC Sports executive Dick Ebersol, the two pilots discussed the plane's wings and decided there was no ice on them, according to a transcript of the cockpit voice recording. But Mr. Ebersol, who along with another son survived the crash, told investigators in an interview two months afterward that "chunks of slush" slid from the roof and windows of the plane before takeoff, according to other documents, which, like the transcript, were among some 150 pages of reports on the accident released Thursday by the National Transportation Safety Board. The safety board has not yet established a probable cause of the accident, which occurred in Montrose, Colo., on Nov. 28, 2004, when the plane, a twin-engine Canadair Challenger, skidded off the runway, broke apart and caught fire. But a month after the interview with Mr. Ebersol, the board issued an alert warning pilots that particles of frost or ice "the size of a grain of table salt and distributed as sparsely as one per square centimeter" could reduce a wing's lift enough to prevent takeoff. The plane, bound from California to South Bend, Ind., had landed in Montrose, Colo., to drop off Mr. Ebersol's wife, the actress Susan Saint James, and another passenger. It was on the ground in light snow for about 45 minutes, Mr. Ebersol estimated, and was not de-iced. Mr. Ebersol's son Teddy was killed in the ensuing accident, as were the captain, Alberto Polanco, 50, and the flight attendant, Warren Richardson III, 36. According to the voice recorder transcript, before takeoff the captain asked, "How do you see the wings?" Seven seconds later, the first officer answered, "Good," and the captain said, "Looks clear to me."

NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION SAFETY BOARD
EBERSOL DICK
ACCIDENTS AND SAFETY


In a Contract Season, Jacobs Remains Confident

Abstract: EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — When the Giants had finished stampeding through the vaunted Baltimore Ravens defense last month, Brandon Jacobs strutted toward the locker room and shouted a message to no one in particular. “Big money out there,” he said. “Free agency.” When contract negotiations broke down during training camp, Jacobs set out to become an attractive find for a team seeking a top running back, and that meant banishing the impression that he was not a durable player who could withstand punishment an entire season. “Well, my main goal this year is to play 16 games,” Jacobs said in Albany last July. “If I play 16 games, everything is going to fall right into place for me.” Jacobs is the leading rusher on the N.F.L.’s best rushing team, pounding his way to 1,002 yards and 12 touchdowns. But he sat out his second straight practice Thursday with a sore left knee and his status for Sunday night’s clash with the Cowboys is in doubt. If Jacobs does not play, Derrick Ward and Ahmad Bradshaw, who returned to full practice Thursday after a neck injury, will carry the load. Jacobs was first injured against Seattle on Oct. 5, was dinged against the Ravens and sat out the next week against the Cardinals. In the past two games he rushed for 123 yards on 31 carries. “Everything comes down to the doctors,” Jacobs said Wednesday. “But like I said, just the competitive nature in me, I want to be out there to play.” Jacobs, 26, is in the final year of his rookie contract and earning $927,000. He repeated last summer that that figure has never weighed on his mind, suggesting that his performance on the field would do all the advertising he needed. But he had rushed for over 1,000 yards last season, as well, and that failed to prod the Giants enough to offer him a new deal. Teams looking at Jacobs this spring will have to decide whether his durability is still a concern and if they can handle the showman inside him. Last Sunday against the Philadelphia Eagles, Jacobs broke off a 23-yard run that did not result in a touchdown but still warranted, in his opinion, a little look-at-me skip. It was innocuous enough then, but when he tried a highlight-reel hurdle against the Eagles in their previous meeting, two defenders sandwiched him and caused a fumble. Giants General Manager Jerry Reese declined to comment on Jacobs’s impending unrestricted free agency in an e-mail message Thursday because the Giants never publicly discuss contract negotiations. “I’m fine with playing with what I’m making this year,” Jacobs said in July. “I don’t have a problem at all with playing with my salary and hitting the market.” EXTRA POINTS Wide receiver Domenik Hixon (ankle/foot) missed a second consecutive day of practice. ... Defensive end Justin Tuck (lower leg) participated for only part of the session. Neither has yet been ruled out of playing on Sunday.

Jacobs Brandon
Free Agents (Sports)
Football
New York Giants


China Sets Tough Line in Climate Talks

Abstract: BEIJING — Senior Chinese officials said on Tuesday that next week’s climate talks in Cancún, Mexico, would succeed only if the West agreed to transfer technology to developing countries like China and to take the lead in cutting emissions. The comments by one of China’s senior officials in charge of climate issues, Xie Zhenhua of the powerful National Development and Reform Commission, were mirrored by two other senior Chinese climate officials who earlier this week published a report saying China was willing to make concessions — if developed nations put money into a $30 billion fund aimed at helping poor nations cope with global warming . Western countries pledged to set up such a fund but details have yet to be worked out. Mr. Xie said it would be the key to securing a deal to the 1997 Kyoto treaty, which is due to expire in 2012. The positions reflect a long-standing view by developing countries, led by China, that they are largely not responsible for climate change — which they say was caused by decades of western pollution — and thus should not play a leading role in reversing it. Stated forcefully by China’s chief climate officials, the comments reemphasized the challenge facing negotiators in Cancun as they try to reconcile the positions of the two camps. “Developed countries need to take the lead in massively cutting their green house gas emission in order to give further development space to developing countries,” Mr. Xie said. “Developing countries in particular should be concerned about achieving tangible results with regard to funding and technology transfer issues.” The United States, by contrast, wants developing countries to curb emissions and agree to international verification. Mr. Xie called on developed countries to cut emissions by up to 40 percent and emphasized that China has already made huge strides in cutting pollution, even though its 30-year program of economic reforms have vaulted it to the forefront of industrialized nations. “No single country or single block of countries has achieved that in history,” Mr. Xie said. “This is our big contribution to the international community.” Despite China’s growth, Mr. Xie said it remains a developing country and couldn’t be treated like the United States or European countries with respect to climate change. “We will never accept anything beyond our condition as a developing country,” he said. Mr. Xie noted that China had made pollution cuts such a priority that some local governments had made last-ditch efforts to meet pollution-reduction targets. This year some factories closed as officials tried to meet targets for reducing China’s “energy intensity” — the amount of power consumer per unit of economic output.

China
Global Warming
Greenhouse Gas Emissions


Men at Kansas City Release Center Worry as Prison Plans to Move In

Abstract: KANSAS CITY, Mo. — When the Missouri Department of Corrections announced in February that it planned to open a minimum-security prison near this city’s downtown, the response from civic leaders was one that might seem surprising: joy. But it is actually what the prison is replacing that has them pleased. For more than three-and-a-half decades, the West Bottoms, an old warehouse neighborhood on the edge of downtown, has been home to a center that holds hundreds of men on probation or parole who have been released from prison but do not have a suitable place to live. The men are generally free to leave during the day to work, find a job or get treatment. Yet some residents and business leaders have complained that many of the men simply roam the streets, cluster on corners and cause trouble. A prison would ease that problem, they say, because the men housed there would be inmates who would not be released into the neighborhood during the day. “The image of having a prison in the neighborhood is not good, and sometimes the people who go to visit the prisoners are not the best element in the neighborhood,” said Bill Haw Sr., a developer and businessman in the West Bottoms . “It’s not utopia yet. But it’s an amazingly positive development compared to the work-release environment.” Still, a looming question is what will happen to the 135 men now housed in the site, the Kansas City Community Release Center, which corrections officials hope to have converted to a prison by September. The move has left many of the men trying to figure out where they will live when the center closes. Several said that they had been told that if they did not come up with acceptable living arrangements on their own, they might be placed in a homeless shelter. “If they’re going to send these guys to shelters, if that’s the idea, that’s that much worse,” said R. Crosby Kemper III, the director of the Kansas City Public Library, which has become a gathering place for men from the center and other transient people in the area. “The shelters are not monitoring them during the day, which the community release center was supposed to be doing. The shelter’s not making them sign in and out.” But David Owen, a spokesman for the Corrections Department, wrote in an email that no residents would be sent to homeless shelters. Image The Kansas City Community Release Center in the West Bottoms, an old warehouse neighborhood on the edge of downtown. Credit Nick Schnelle for The New York Times “The department has been working with community partners that have possible alternative housing for offenders who cannot get approved home plans,” Mr. Owen wrote. “Some offenders may be placed in a contracted residential facility” or at other corrections facilities, he added. Corrections officials said they were converting the release center, which has a capacity of 410, to a prison because of the state’s increasing inmate population — up 1.5 percent since 2005 and currently 205 inmates over its limit. The site was originally intended to be a low-level prison, officials said, but was converted to a release center when inmate numbers were not as high. The release center in Kansas City is one of two in the state. The other is in St. Louis. In general, the centers take in people on parole or probation who do not have a feasible housing option. Typically, the Kansas City center takes former prisoners from the west side of the state, and St. Louis takes those from the east side. Business leaders in St. Louis have expressed concern that their city’s center, with a capacity of 550, would have to take on more people because of the closing in Kansas City. A spokeswoman for Francis G. Slay, the mayor of St. Louis, said the corrections commissioner had told city officials that the St. Louis release center, which houses 397 men, would not have to shoulder a greater share of the state’s parolees and probationers. In Kansas City, several residents of the center said they were pleased to be moving on because staff members were rude and disrespectful. They also described the support services as lax. One time after he returned from his construction job at 10:30 p.m., Jamie Killian said, a staff member put him on overnight cleanup duty even though he had to go to work the next morning. Mr. Killian, who has been here since April off a 10-year sentence on multiple drug charges, said he expected to leave soon because his plan to live in an apartment in suburban Kansas City had been approved. “We’re in a good mood all day long until we start walking down that bridge,” he said, pointing toward a bend that leads to the release center. The corrections officers, he added, “talk to you like you’re a piece of. …” He finished the sentence with an expletive, but then thought better of it, saying, “like we’re dirt.” The prospect of getting sent to a homeless shelter actually seemed more appealing than remaining in the center, some said. “There’s no guaranteeing that you’re getting out each day,” Jeffrey Cox, 47, said of the center where he has been housed for about two months after spending four years in prison for drunken driving. Image Tyre Winfrey, 23, waiting for the bus to attend orientation at his new job. Mr. Winfrey has been in the release center for about two months, and said that he was unsure of where he would go when the center is replaced by the prison. Credit Nick Schnelle for The New York Times “Even at the shelter, I’m not going to wake up worrying about whether they’re going to let me out the door,” he said. “Inside this place here, if they feel you’ve done something wrong, if you’ve had a disciplinary or you’ve not completed one of their programs or something, they lock you in solitary or in the hole. It’s a prison outside of prison is what it is.” Corrections officials did not respond to a request for comment about the treatment. On a recent cloudy morning shortly after 9, Mr. Cox, lanky with a bony, red face, trudged out of the center to start what has been his daily ritual over the last month. Toting a plastic shopping bag with several essentials including his wallet and an umbrella, he was headed to the downtown library to check the weather on the Internet. He would then search for job openings, he said, and figure out which buses he needed to take to get to the sites. Mr. Kemper, the library director, said he understood concerns that the congregation of people from the center in and around the library might disturb other patrons. But, he added, the library had a “genuine civic obligation” to help them. The library has adult literacy programs, high school equivalency diploma classes and computer training that residents of the center participate in, he said. “We’re there to serve everybody,” he said. “Some people are more difficult to serve than others and, obviously, the community release center people, coming out of prison, are going to be among the toughest patrons that we’ve got. In some ways that makes them even more important.” The release center, with a tan facade and royal-blue roof, sits tucked beneath a highway in a sunken old warehouse district near the intersection of the Kansas and Missouri Rivers. It is about a 10-minute walk from the downtown. As a prison, it will house inmates nearing release. “It gives us a great opportunity to start working with the people on their transition into the community before they are released,” said Kathy Ficcadenti, the program manager for Catholic Charities of Kansas City-St. Joseph. The organization has been working with corrections officials to get the remaining residents of the release center into housing that could include community-based halfway houses, Ms. Ficcadenti said. Those could provide a better alternative to the release center, she said, because the men would be spread out throughout the community, making it easier for them to find jobs. Tyre Winfrey, who is from California and has been in the release center for about two months, said that he had no ties in Missouri and that officials had declined his petition to live back in his home state. “They tell us to get a job and ask some of these ministries to help us get places to live,” said Mr. Winfrey, who served nearly two years for burglary and theft. “I’m concerned about it. Where do I get to go?”

Kansas City MO
Prison
Ex Cons
Probation and Parole


A Passion Play Endures in Florida

Abstract: WAUCHULA, Fla. — With less than two hours until showtime, a man sits amid the backstage chaos and studies his image in a propped-up mirror. The eyes are grayish blue, the goatee trim, the long dark hair flecked with gray. Not there yet. He scoops another dab of makeup to continue the annual transformation of Mike Graham, now 58, into Jesus Christ, forever 33. An assistant hustles over with a sky-blue robe that an anxious Mr. Graham wriggles over his bare torso and summer shorts. “Too little on me,” he says apologetically, working his way out of it. Someone else asks him to assess a young girl’s angel costume. “I’d like her to be glittered,” he says, before asking whether the child has been warned how to behave around the camels. Then the man who plays Jesus for a living turns back to his imperfect reflection. For more than two decades, Mr. Graham, a preacher, has directed and assumed the lead role in a gritty Passion play, “The Story of Jesus,” that unfolds 10 nights a year in the modest Cattleman’s Arena, in rural Hardee County. Across its dirt-floor stage come chariots and sword fights, miracles and betrayals, exotic animals and a cast of hundreds. Over time, Mr. Graham’s play has survived many trials, some natural, some economic and some, he suspects, the work of the devil. In 2004, the production weathered both the competition of the Mel Gibson movie “ The Passion of the Christ ” and the wrath of a hurricane that nearly swept Wauchula away but spared the play’s many costumes and long-suffering donkey. Other challenges, he says, have included his divorce years ago, which alienated many followers; a decline in attendance, due in part to competition from the Holy Land Experience theme park in Orlando ; and other, curiously timed setbacks — a car accident, a sudden illness — that nearly prevented him from picking up his cross. Finally, Mr. Graham knows the folly of trying to slow time, although he has tried. For one thing, he has enlisted a 27-year-old bridge inspector to play Jesus in certain taxing scenes. “He handles the Trial, the Ascension, the Resurrection,” Mr. Graham explains. “I do all the miracles, basically. The adult life of Jesus, the Last Supper, the garden of Gethsemane scene, and the Crucifixion.” Mr. Graham cuts his hair just once a year, and works out every morning in his home gym so that he is able to carry a heavy cross dozens of yards across the stage. Still, he has no desire to follow the great Josef Meier , who played Jesus in performances in South Dakota and in Lake Wales, just north of here, well into his 80s. A miracle in itself. For now, Mr. Graham must set aside these concerns, and focus. The first Passion play of the season is just 90 minutes away. Props, Paint and Petting Zoo Under the late-afternoon sun, white cast members take turns getting spray-painted a color called Sebring brown, a shade that Mr. Graham thinks approaches a Middle Eastern skin tone. A man in a “Sprayin’ & Prayin’ ” T-shirt dilutes the chocolate muck in plastic buckets, while another man, with a praying-hands tattoo on his left leg, paints a succession of outstretched arms, splayed legs and wincing faces. This ritual is one of many that have evolved over the last quarter-century, ever since Mr. Graham, as a guitar-wielding youth pastor from southern Illinois , staged a crucifixion scene at a church banquet with a few teenagers and a couple of props. Some of those here tonight have never been in a Passion play; others have never known a spring without one. They are united now by glistening coats of Sebring brown. Alongside the arena, clusters of ticketholders gather for some nonalcoholic tailgating, while a Roman centurion trots past on a horse. In a tent nearby, volunteers set out various souvenirs for sale, including cardboard license plates that say: The Story of Jesus — I Was There! — Wauchula, Florida . A kind of off-limits petting zoo has sprung up beyond the arena’s back entrance, with pens containing ducks, sheep, horses, two oxen, a donkey and three camels, just arrived from Ocala. Their owner, Butch Rivers, 70, a former stunt rider who now uses a cane — “You pay for it,” he says of certain passions — is excited to see the play again. “The first time I saw this play it put chills on me,” Mr. Rivers says. An hour until showtime, and the Cattleman’s Arena awaits its first-century bustle. The dirt has been raked and sprayed with water, to keep the dust down. All soda cans and other remnants of the future have been removed. The still-life setting is as serene as the blue-dyed river dug into the dirt, stage right. But just a few yards away, in an exhibit hall serving as backstage, a large industrial fan stirs the nervous air. Actors hunt through a long rack of costumes that runs beneath a portrait gallery of beauty queens, the “Cattlemen’s Sweethearts” of the near and distant past. Children wolf down treats and Gatorade before assuming the roles of angels and demons. Girding thespians reach for their fake spears and swords. Behind the Scenes Here is Joann Grantham, 56, volunteer prop master, who has done everything from scour discount stores for plastic fruit to retouch the throne of the child king. She has also helped to decide whether you’re a shop owner, an apostle or a member of the Sanhedrin. (Mr. Graham, by the way, is aware of the history of anti-Semitic Passion plays, and takes pains not to traffic in stereotypes.) In the past, Ms. Grantham has often played a “false witness” who spits on Jesus. But she chose to remain behind the scenes this year, after undergoing chemotherapy and radiation for breast cancer . When she goes to Wal-Mart , she says, she wears a hat to cover her bald head, but tonight she feels at home, hatless and happy. Here, too, is Michelle Puma , 54, volunteer makeup artist, who has set up shop in the 4-H Club’s concession booth. Everything is in its place: the long-haired wigs set on Styrofoam heads; the various jars of fake blood; the blue boxes of Jesus beards; the Ace Hardware bucket containing various props, including a crown of thorns. One of Ms. Puma’s challenges is to make young people look older, which is the opposite of Mr. Graham’s task, as he peers critically into a mirror leaning against a menu board. “My hair’s just crazy tonight,” he says. Mr. Graham’s words seem rooted more in worry than vanity. Because he deeply believes that this play is how God wants him to spread the Word, his mind races with all the things that could distract from that message, and have: camels arriving a week late, a teenager texting on stage, a stray chicken flying out of Lazarus’s tomb. How about the time a couple of camera-carrying tourists wandered into the John the Baptist crowd scene? He is also thinking of a shortfall. The production costs about $250,000 a year, which includes the modest salaries for Mr. Graham and his wife, Diane, who will play Mary Magdalene tonight, and various rentals, from the arena to the camels ($1,000 a night). And, of course, here he is again, trying to be 33. But Mr. Graham has a plan: to replace “The Story of Jesus,” at least next year, with a new production, “The Story of Noah,” featuring himself in the lead role of the biblical patriarch, who was said to have lived several hundred years. Maybe someday, if he raises enough money, he will be able to build an outdoor theater of his own. Fifteen minutes to showtime. Mr. Graham, now in full Jesus attire, climbs on top of a table, near a sign promoting beef (“Real Food for Real People”), and uses a microphone to deliver some last-minute reminders. No cellphones. No gum. No glasses. No watches. And if you’re a teenage girl who is wondering, “Can I hang out with the Sanhedrin?” — the answer is no! Mr. Graham leads everyone in a short prayer and a rallying hymn, then releases his energized flock with: “Let’s go! Do it!” A Happy Ending Showtime, and on a dirt stage in a darkened arena, the Story unfolds again. An innkeeper, played by a Sebring-brown student of Harley-Davidson mechanics, leads a couple to shelter. The baby Jesus, played by an infant named Angelina, is raised triumphantly into the air, while four white-robed angels, teenage girls strapped into harnesses, glide by pulley across the ceiling. Hear the wails of mothers whose baby boys have been slaughtered by Herod’s soldiers. See the colorful scrum of early commerce. Breathe the dust kicked up by the scurry of sheep and the plodding of oxen. Marvel as Jesus raises a child from the dead, halts the stoning of an adulteress and, thanks to a concealed harness and a fog machine, walks on water. During the brief intermission, take in the orange-blossom air of the Florida night. Buy a “Story of Jesus” fan for $2. Enjoy some nachos, or a bowl of mini doughnuts slathered with whipped cream. Return, then, to brace for the bloody, violent passion. The scourging, the spitting, the echo of nails hammered into hands and feet. The death. But everyone in the aluminum bleachers knows: This is not how the play ends. Soon the resurrected Jesus returns to the stage in glory. His crown of gold glittering, his sword raised high, he races back and forth on a galloping steed, perfect in its whiteness. The applause and cheers of 1,400 ring through a rodeo arena in central Florida. When it is over, Mr. Graham, exhausted, 58, ready to do it again tomorrow, takes the microphone to thank the audience and ask for parting donations. And if anyone wants to be baptized, there are robes, towels and a manmade river dyed a deep blue.

Jesus Christ
Theater
Florida
Christianity


J.F. terHorst, Ford Press Secretary, Dies at 87

Abstract: J. F. terHorst, a reporter who in August 1974 was appointed White House press secretary by an old friend, President Gerald R. Ford , but who resigned less than a month later when Ford granted former President Richard M. Nixon an unconditional pardon in connection with the Watergate scandal, died Wednesday in Asheville, N.C. He was 87. The cause was congestive heart failure, said his son, Peter. Mr. terHorst’s resignation was — and still is — considered a rare act of conscience by a high-ranking public official, and the circumstances in which it occurred were extraordinary. He was a veteran newsman, the Washington bureau chief of The Detroit News and a respected member of the White House press corps when he was named press secretary by Ford. He had known Ford since he covered his first Congressional race in 1948 for The Grand Rapids Press, and at the time he was writing his biography. For four weeks reporters credited Mr. terHorst (pronounced terHORST) — and the new president and his staff — with restoring openness and honesty to the White House after having dealt with a Nixon administration that they had often felt was deliberately misleading them. The Watergate affair — the break-in at the offices of the Democratic opposition by a White House team of burglars and the Nixon administration’s attempts to cover up that crime — had its roots in this culture of suspicion and secretiveness that was fostered by the Nixon White House, and it was still being investigated by an independent prosecutor when Ford took office. Indeed, a number of top administration officials, including Attorney General John N. Mitchell; the White House chief of staff, H. R. Haldeman; and Nixon’s top domestic policy adviser, John D. Ehrlichman; went to prison for Watergate-related crimes. In early September, however, Ford announced that he was pardoning Nixon, saying that to pursue criminal charges against the former president would be detrimental to the interests of the country. Mr. terHorst felt not only that the decision was wrong — the president should not be held to a different standard of justice than people of a lesser station, he said — but also that he had been kept in the dark about it, which he said had undermined his credibility. “I cannot in good conscience support your decision to pardon former President Nixon even before he has been charged with the commission of any crime,” Mr. terHorst wrote to Ford in his resignation letter on Sept. 8, 1974. “As your spokesman, I do not know how I could credibly defend that action in the absence of a like decision to grant absolute pardon to the young men who evaded Vietnam military service as a matter of conscience and the absence of pardons for former aides and associates of Mr. Nixon who have been charged with crimes — and imprisoned — stemming from the same Watergate situation.” Jerald Franklin terHorst was born in Grand Rapids, Mich., on July 11, 1922, the son of Dutch immigrants. He did not speak English until he was 5. He dropped out of high school at 15 to work on his uncle’s farm but was eventually persuaded to resume his education by the high school principal. He went on to earn an agriculture scholarship to Michigan State University, where he worked on the school newspaper. Before finishing college, he joined the Marines and served in the Pacific at the end of World War II, then completed his college career at the University of Michigan. After graduating he took a job as a reporter for The Grand Rapids Press. His wife, the former Louise Roth, whom he had met at Michigan State and married in 1945, took a job at the rival paper, The Grand Rapids Herald. He subsequently worked for The Detroit News, first in its Lansing bureau, then in the city room and finally the Washington bureau. The paper granted him a leave of absence to take his White House job, and after his resignation he returned to the paper as a columnist. His book about Ford, “Gerald Ford and the Future of the Presidency,” was published at the end of 1974, with an epilogue about Mr. terHorst’s resignation. Ron Nessen, a correspondent for NBC News, succeeded him as White House press secretary. In 1981, Mr. terHorst left journalism to work for the Ford Motor Company as Washington public affairs director. Louise Roth terHorst died last year. In addition to his son, who lives in Asheville, Mr. terHorst is survived by three daughters, Karen Morris, of Decatur, Ga.; Margaret Robinson, of Alexandria, Va.; and Martha Lubin, of St. Petersburg, Fla.; and eight grandchildren. Shortly after his resignation, Mr. terHorst was asked by The New York Times to elaborate on his reasons. “If justice is to be even-handed and administered to the rich and the poor, the weak and the powerful alike,” he replied, “then mercy, I thought, when administered by a president who sets the tone for the country, also should be an act of similar kind.”

Ford Gerald Rudolph Jr
Appointments and Executive Changes
Deaths (Obituaries)
terHorst Jerald Franklin
Detroit News


Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump Are Winning Votes, but Not Hearts

Abstract: The victories were lopsided. The celebrations were effusive. The delegates were piling up by the hundreds. But Donald J. Trump and Hillary Clinton’s resounding triumphs on Tuesday masked a profound, historic and unusual reality: Most Americans still don’t like him. Or her. Both major parties must now confront the depth of skepticism, resistance and distaste for their front-runners, a sentiment that would profoundly shape a potential general election showdown between Mr. Trump and Mrs. Clinton. Even as they watched the two candidates amass large margins on Tuesday, historians and strategists struggled to recall a time when more than half the country has held such stubbornly low opinions of the leading figures in the Democratic and Republican Parties. “There is no analogous election in the modern era where the two top candidates for the nomination are as divisive and weak,” said Steve Schmidt, a top campaign adviser to George W. Bush in 2004 and John McCain in 2008. “There is no precedent for it.” Mrs. Clinton’s commanding wins in the swing states of Ohio, North Carolina and Florida seemed to hobble the once robust challenge of Senator Bernie Sanders. And Mr. Trump’s dominance in Florida, North Carolina and Illinois knocked out Senator Marco Rubio and propelled Mr. Trump even closer to the Republican nomination. This would be the moment, under normal circumstances, when the de facto nominees, emerging victorious from the intramural skirmishes of their parties’ nominating contests, would invite an eager national electorate to take their measure. And in their victory speeches, both tried their best, issuing broad appeals for Americans to unite behind them. But Mr. Trump has unnerved many Americans with his inflammatory oratory and radical-sounding proposals. And Mrs. Clinton, while viewed as a more seasoned and serious political figure, has struggled in her campaign to win the trust of the American electorate. And it is all but impossible for the country to take a fresh look at them. Image The Trump Ballroom at Mar-a-Lago before Donald J. Trump held an election night news conference in Palm Beach, Fla., on Tuesday. The candidate has unnerved many Americans with his inflammatory oratory and radical-sounding proposals. Credit Eric Thayer for The New York Times America has lived with Mr. Trump and Mrs. Clinton, in a remarkably intimate fashion, for decades, processing their controversies, achievements and setbacks, from impeachment to marital breakdowns, Senate victories to flashy skyscraper openings. Voters’ impressions of them, with few exceptions, are largely formed and fixed. According to Gallup, 53 percent of Americans have an unfavorable opinion of Mrs. Clinton and 63 percent have such a view of Mr. Trump. “You are talking about two universally known figures here,” said David Axelrod, the former Democratic strategist and former adviser in the Obama White House. “The strong feeling that each generates is unusual.” The negative perceptions will be difficult to overcome. Fewer than half of Republican voters across five states on Tuesday said Mr. Trump was honest and trustworthy. Even in the states where he won, a majority of voters do not view him as truthful. And while majorities of Democratic voters viewed Mrs. Clinton as honest and trustworthy, she finished second to Mr. Sanders among those who said honesty mattered most in their decision. Video A look at the speeches from the presidential hopefuls after a day of crucial primaries. Credit Credit Eric Thayer for The New York Times That reality is forcing the Trump and Clinton campaigns to prepare for all-out warfare against each other, an improbably brutal dynamic for a pair of New Yorkers whose paths have crossed, repeatedly, for years — even on the way down the wedding aisle. (Mrs. Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, attended Mr. Trump’s third wedding, in 2005.) They are devising appeals that are as much arguments that their all-but-certain opponent would be disastrous for the nation as they are messages trumpeting their own virtues or character. Aides to both predict that a Clinton-Trump contest would be an ugly and unrelenting slugfest, as she pounces on his business practices and personal integrity, portraying him as unscrupulous robber baron, and he lacerates her over ethical lapses and sudden riches, painting her as a conniving abuser of power certain to be indicted in a federal investigation. There is, both sides concede, plenty of material to mine, stretching back to 1980s Arkansas (for her) and 1970s New York (for him). Five States Go to Polls 12 Photos View Slide Show › Image Jim Wilson/The New York Times Voters are strikingly familiar with the candidates’ biographical vulnerabilities and political liabilities, interviews show, and they express disapproval in vivid, sweeping terms. Kent Moore, 51, a Democrat from Charlotte, N.C., does not simply dislike Mrs. Clinton. He doubts her basic values.“She has no moral center,” Mr. Moore said. He ticks off past sins: She favored free trade agreements that have killed American jobs, he said, and she supported the misbegotten 2003 war in Iraq. How, he wondered, could she beat Mr. Trump with a record like that? Even those who vote for Mrs. Clinton harbor reservations. Renee White, 31, a Democrat in Youngstown, Ohio, is not entirely convinced that Mrs. Clinton, her choice in Tuesday’s primary, cares about people like her, she said. “A lot of people,” she said, “just don’t trust her at all.” The views of Mr. Trump from Republicans are almost equally uncharitable and unwavering. “Too crude and rude,” is how Nikki Heath, 59, a graphic artist from the Columbus, Ohio, area put it. She supports the state’s low-key, genial governor, John Kasich. She has written off Mr. Trump and his antics as “an embarrassment.” The distaste is so strong that voters speak of a radical transformation (or personality transplant) required for them to consider backing Mr. Trump. “He’s going to have to be completely different,” said Steve Rogers, an engineer in Ohio who will try to hold his nose and back him if he becomes the nominee. Those dim assessments are not isolated, which is why the commanding tallies that Mr. Trump and Mrs. Clinton have collected are pushing both parties into uncharted waters. Should they clinch the nomination, it would represent the first time in at least a quarter-century that majorities of Americans held negative views of both the Democratic and Republican candidates at the same time. The highest unfavorability rating for any nominee or front-runner was 57 percent, for the elder George Bush, in October 1992, as he emerged from a difficult first term in the White House. But his Democratic rival, Mr. Clinton, was widely liked: Just 38 percent viewed him unfavorably, according to Gallup. The unpopularity of Mr. Trump and Mrs. Clinton is prompting Republicans and Democrats to weigh unusual considerations at the ballot box. Lowell P. Weicker Jr., who sought the Republican nomination for president in 1980 and served as an independent governor of Connecticut in the 1990s, said he held Mrs. Clinton in low regard. But he holds Mr. Trump in even greater contempt. “I don’t like her,” Mr. Weicker said, “but I am sure going to vote for her over Trump.”

2016 Presidential Election
Hillary Clinton
Donald Trump
Democrats
Republicans
US Politics


Texas Candidate Says She Ended Pregnancies

Abstract: AUSTIN, Tex. — Wendy Davis, the Democratic candidate for governor, reveals in a new campaign memoir that she terminated two pregnancies for medical reasons in the 1990s, including one in which the fetus had developed a severe brain abnormality. Ms. Davis writes in “Forgetting to be Afraid” that she had an abortion in 1996 after an examination revealed that the brain of the fetus had developed in complete separation on the right and left sides. She also describes ending an earlier ectopic pregnancy, in which an embryo implants outside the uterus. Ms. Davis disclosed the terminated pregnancies for the first time since her nearly 13-hour filibuster last year over a tough new Texas abortion law. Both pregnancies happened before Ms. Davis, a state senator from Fort Worth, began her political career and after she was a mother to two young girls. She writes that the ectopic pregnancy happened in 1994 during her first trimester. Terminating the pregnancy was considered medically necessary. Such pregnancies generally are not considered viable, meaning the fetus cannot survive, and the mother’s life could be in danger. But Ms. Davis wrote that in Texas, it is “technically considered an abortion, and doctors have to report it as such.” Ms. Davis said she and her former husband, Jeff, wound up expecting another child in 1996 after they decided to stop birth-control measures. During her second trimester, Ms. Davis said she took a blood test that could determine chromosomal or neural defects, which doctors first told her did not warrant concern. After a later exam revealed the brain defect, Ms. Davis said she sought opinions from several doctors, who told her the baby would be deaf, blind and in a permanent vegetative state if she survived delivery. “I could feel her little body tremble violently, as if someone were applying an electric shock to her, and I knew then what I needed to do,” Ms. Davis writes. “She was suffering.” She wrote that an “indescribable blackness followed” the pregnancy and that the loss left her forever changed. Ms. Davis catapulted to national Democratic stardom after her filibuster temporarily delayed passage of sweeping new abortion restrictions. She is now running for governor against the Republican attorney general, Greg Abbott, who is a heavy favorite to replace Gov. Rick Perry, also a Republican, next year. A spokesman for Ms. Davis, Zac Petkanas, called the book “a bold and brave memoir that is less about politics than it is a stunningly frank personal story.” Matt Hirsch, a spokesman for Mr. Abbott, did not return messages seeking comment. Anti-abortion groups, including those that have attacked Ms. Davis’s candidacy, expressed sympathy for the tough choice she confronted with the second terminated pregnancy. “That’s an incredibly difficult position for anyone to find themselves in,” said Melissa Conway, a spokeswoman for Texans Right to Life. “While our heart goes out for the decision she had to make, again, still the value of life is precious,” The president of Planned Parenthood, Cecile Richards, daughter of former Gov. Ann Richards of Texas, said she was grateful that Ms. Davis shared her story, though “no woman should have to justify her decision.” Ms. Davis’s filibuster in June 2013 set off a chaotic scene in the Texas Capitol that extended past midnight. Thousands of people watched it live online, with President Obama at one point posting on Twitter, “Something special is happening in Austin tonight.” In the book, Ms. Davis recalls reading testimony during the filibuster about a woman who had had an abortion after learning her daughter would be born with a terminal illness. She said the story hit a little too close to home, and “could have been my story.” The bill Ms. Davis was fighting to block required doctors who perform abortion to obtain admitting privileges at nearby hospitals, and mandated that clinics upgrade facilities to hospital-level operating standards. A federal judge in Austin last month blocked a portion of the law that would have left Texas with only seven abortion facilities statewide.

Wendy Davis
Abortion
Texas
Books
Pregnancy
Gubernatorial races
Forgetting to be Afraid


Richard J. Durrell, First Publisher of People Magazine, Dies at 82

Abstract: Richard J. Durrell, the founding publisher of People magazine, died on Friday at his home in Fairfield, Conn. He was 82. The cause was lung cancer, his son, Brad Durrell, said. Mr. Durrell’s long career at the magazine publishing giant Time Inc. began in 1950 when he answered a newspaper ad for a circulation newsstand representative in Minneapolis. He later worked in advertising for both Time and Life magazines before being named publisher of People. A blend, then unique, of pictures, celebrity features and human-interest articles, People hit the streets in March 1974 with the actress Mia Farrow, who was starring in the movie “The Great Gatsby,” gracing its first cover. While it was initially a bit of a bomb among critics, the magazine was an instant hit among readers. “We were all newsstand sales then — no subscriptions at all — and we promised we were going to sell a million copies of this magazine on the newsstand,” recalled Richard B. Stolley, People’s first managing editor. “That was unheard-of at the time. We had no idea what we were talking about. It was wonderful how naïve we were.” While the first few issues missed the million-sales mark, the magazine did hit its target in July that year. An issue with the actor Telly Savalas on the cover was the first to surpass one million in sales after Mr. Durrell created a distribution group inside Time to get enough copies of the magazine on newsstands each week, Mr. Stolley said. Persuading advertisers to place ads was another challenge, because People was such a departure from the other more male-oriented magazines published by Time Inc., including Time, Fortune and Sports Illustrated. Slowly but surely, important advertisers at the time like Polaroid and Revlon were signed. Within 18 months of its introduction, People was turning a profit. “For Durrell and the business side of the publication, that was a great accomplishment,” Mr. Stolley said. Mr. Durrell, who retired in 1983, was a baseball’s throw away from an entirely different career. After graduating from high school in Minneapolis in 1942, he enlisted and served three years with the Marines and spent time in occupied Japan. Upon his return to the States, he was offered professional baseball contracts with the Brooklyn Dodgers and the Chicago Cubs. He chose, instead, to attend the University of Minnesota, from which he graduated in 1948. He married Jacquelyn C. Dow in 1949. She is a former first selectman of Fairfield. In addition to his wife and son Brad, of Morris, Conn., Mr. Durrell is survived by another son, Alex, of Fairfield; three daughters, Piper Durrell, of Blacksburg, Va.; Robyn Geissler, of Mill Valley, Calif.; and Kerry Durrell, of San Diego; a sister, Lois Anne Anderson, of Sun Valley, Idaho; and seven grandchildren.

People
Magazines
Deaths (Obituaries)
Durrell Richard J.


Hong Kong Lawmaker Pays Price for Breaking Ranks With Beijing

Abstract: HONG KONG — A Hong Kong lawmaker who broke ranks with his pro-Beijing allies by calling last week for the resignation of the city’s top official faces expulsion from a prestigious Chinese government advisory panel as punishment for his disloyalty, his brother said Tuesday. The lawmaker, James Tien, the leader of the Liberal Party, is set to be expelled from the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference for not supporting its resolutions, which include backing Hong Kong’s government, Mr. Tien’s brother, Michael, said in a telephone interview. The body’s standing committee will meet Wednesday to vote on the issue, said Michael Tien, also a Hong Kong lawmaker. “The oath made when being appointed is that they would vow to uphold all the resolutions made by the standing committee of the C.P.P.C.C.,” said Michael Tien, a delegate to China ’s legislature, the National People’s Congress. “So they considered him as not honoring his oath.” The swift response is a signal that Beijing backs Leung Chun-ying, Hong Kong’s chief executive, even as public support for him dwindles during student-led pro-democracy protests. Mr. Leung’s handling of the demonstrations, which have occupied busy avenues of the city, has been heavily criticized by democracy advocates, many of whom are calling for his resignation. James Tien echoed that sentiment on Friday, saying in a radio interview that Mr. Leung’s leadership had been poor. It was the first time a prominent member of the pro-business establishment had called for Mr. Leung to quit. Michael Tien said that there were “corridors of discontent” in Beijing over Mr. Leung’s performance, but that officials thought it was important to support him because if he were removed, it would be a contravention of the “one country, two systems” model promised to Hong Kong when it returned to Chinese rule in 1997 after more than 150 years as a British colony. Image James Tien, a pro-Beijing lawmaker, had called for Hong Kong’s leader to resign. Credit Bobby Yip/Reuters “They are supporting C. Y. because they are supporting the system and structure,” Michael Tien said, referring to Mr. Leung. A report in Sing Tao Daily, a local newspaper, also said the body’s standing committee would meet Wednesday to vote on the expulsion. The body, which advises the National People’s Congress, comprises over 2,000 delegates drawn from a broad range of society, including many billionaire executives but also Buddhist monks, professional athletes, scientists, soldiers and professors. Under China’s Leninist system, they must share one trait: loyalty to the central government led by the Communist Party. Members serve five-year terms and can be reappointed. Hong Kong runs most of its internal affairs but still sends delegates to the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and the National People’s Congress. Hong Kong’s delegation represents the elite of the government’s supporters. Michael Tien said that members of the body were free to voice their opposition to policies before a decision was made, but that afterward, they had to support the choice. “Whether you think this is right or wrong, this is the oath that you made,” he said. James Tien, 67, has a reputation as a maverick. In 2003, he withdrew the Liberal Party’s support of a government-backed security bill, ensuring its defeat. Michael Tien said his brother might be able to keep his status as a member of the so-called pro-establishment camp in Hong Kong and not be viewed as a member of the opposition. James Tien did not return a phone call and an email seeking comment. Mr. Leung, 60, stirred a new controversy last week when he told The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Financial Times that allowing lower-income people equal representation in elections would lead to a “numbers game” that would skew “politics and policies” in favor of lower-income groups. Those remarks have been pilloried by the pro-democracy demonstrators. On Tuesday, Mr. Leung said he regretted that his remarks had caused misunderstanding, The South China Morning Post reported.

Hong Kong
China
Leung Chun-ying
C.Y. Leung
James Tien