Cathleen Black, New York’s New Schools Chief, Faces Big Problems

Abstract: In introducing herself this week to a surprised city as the next New York City schools chancellor, Cathleen P. Black asked for the one thing that may prove to be impossible. “I have no illusion about this being an easy next three years — quite the opposite,” said Ms. Black, a publishing executive without political or education leadership experience. “But what I ask for is your patience, as I get up to speed on the issues facing K-12 education.” But there will be no cushy learning period for Ms. Black. She will be entering a treacherous political and educational landscape, far darker than it was just one year ago, when elementary and middle school test scores told a story of continual growth and achievements. Now, more than 100,000 additional students who failed toughened state tests this year need tutoring and help. Up to 47 schools face closing. The teachers’ union, which has been without a contract for more than a year, has been more adversarial toward the city than supportive, a relationship that promises to sour further if the Department of Education continues to back the public release of teacher rankings based on student test scores. A higher bar for high school graduation — the state will soon require better scores on Regents exams — looms ahead. And after a period of flush budgets, electives, after-school programs and teaching jobs are being cut, with the coming years promising to get only tougher. Making things harder, a top official who was the Department of Education’s budget expert announced her resignation on Wednesday. While she will be cheered by many, Ms. Black will also face thousands of demoralized teachers, hundreds of frustrated principals, and outspoken local politicians who feel sidelined, as well as high-ranking education officials who are chafing at how her appointment was handled, experts and insiders said. “She’s got a minefield ahead of her, and more mines just keep cropping up,” said Pedro Noguera, a professor of education at New York University. “She is going to be tested.” Ms. Black, the chairwoman of Hearst Magazines, is no ordinary candidate for the chancellorship, and that will be her first hurdle. While Joel I. Klein, the current chancellor, is a lawyer, not an educator, he often talked about how he grew up in a New York housing project, attended public schools and even taught briefly. Ms. Black attended private schools, as did her children. “She enters a political landscape in a worse position, if possible, than Joel Klein, who was a known quantity after eight years and at least had a reputation for street smarts,” said David Bloomfield, a professor of education at the City University of New York. Ms. Black, he said, is being cast popularly “as a Park Avenue socialite, and she first has to live down a newly minted reputation and then she can build another reputation up.” She will face a complex tempest of political forces, from City Council officials who regularly rail against school closings and other controversial policies, antagonistic lawmakers in Albany, and grass-roots parents groups that align around a variety of agendas. For this reason, her lack of public experience is as much a concern as her lack of educational experience, said Joseph P. Viteritti, a public policy professor at Hunter College who ran a year of public hearings on mayoral control of the schools. “With all due respect to Joel, who probably implemented more change in New York than any other chancellor, he did not work effectively with people in Albany,” Professor Viteritti said. In New York City, he said, “there was concern, from parents and union leaders — everyone from the chancellor of the Board of Regents on down — that they had a deaf ear.” At the school level, Ms. Black will find a vibrant landscape of school choice and many excellent schools. But there are also parents and teachers worn down by directives that have focused on basic skill instruction in reading and math to the exclusion of a wider curriculum. “You need to move away from a test-prep culture, to where kids are getting more exciting offerings from their school,” said Kim Nauer, the education project director at the Center for New York City Affairs. “If there’s one thing a publishing executive can do, it should be find new ways to make reading and writing more exciting.” Some parents, like Michael Kassin at Public School 187 in Manhattan, heard of Mr. Klein’s departure on the same day as the year’s first parent-teacher conference, just as they learned of their school’s falling performance under tougher state standards. Citywide, the proficiency rate in English fell to 42 percent, from 69 percent last year; 54 percent reached grade level in math, down from 82 percent. “I was shocked,” he said of his school’s B grade, from an A last year. Diane Ravitch, an education historian and an outspoken critic of Mr. Klein, said: “Many parents are very discouraged because they found out their kids were very low-scoring who they believed were doing fine. Remediation is a very important thing to address.” Mending the administration’s relationship with teachers is perhaps the most important task for the new chancellor, said Michael J. Petrilli, an education analyst at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute in Washington. “For all the great work that Joel Klein did, his biggest failure was in getting excellent educators on board with his reform efforts,” he said. “Anecdotal reports indicate that fantastic veteran teachers — the very people that Klein wanted the rest of the system to emulate — were just as frustrated and beaten down by the changes as everyone else.” Instead of supporting the release of teacher rankings, which could come next month, Ms. Black could stand against it, to align herself with their concerns, he said. Many experts argue their release will unfairly malign teachers, because they are flawed indicators of overall teacher performance. The teachers’ union has gone to court to block the release, while several media organizations, including The New York Times, are arguing for access to the data. Photeine Anagnostopoulos, the deputy chancellor for finance and technology, resigned on Wednesday, becoming the first top education official to leave in the wake of Mr. Klein’s announcement. “Given the transition we are about to undertake, she felt it was the right time to move on,” said Natalie Ravitz, a Department of Education spokeswoman. The city has already begun a search for a replacement. As federal stimulus funds end, deeper cuts and potential layoffs lie ahead. One of the main areas for savings could be a new teachers’ contract, but wringing concessions — like a way to lay off teachers more easily — will be difficult. Again, communication, cited by several experts as a core weakness of Mr. Klein’s administration, will be crucial. Harold O. Levy, the chancellor who served before Mr. Klein, said Ms. Black “has to work with the union to bring out its more progressive instincts.”

Black Cathleen P
Teachers and School Employees
Education Department (NYC)
Education (K-12)
New York City


Venezuela Opens Investigation Into Possible Killing of Miners

Abstract: CARACAS, Venezuela — Venezuela is opening an investigation into the possible killing of 28 miners in the southeastern jungle state of Bolívar, officials said Monday. Family members of the missing miners have said that their relatives were murdered on Friday in a dispute over a gold claim. They have said that a gang seeking to control the claim dismembered the miners, who were operating there illegally, and then threw their bodies in trucks and took them away. “We will conduct an objective, independent and impartial investigation,” Tarek William Saab, Venezuela’s ombudsman, said on Monday, echoing a promise by the public prosecutor’s office. Francisco Rangel, the state’s governor and a staunch ally of the socialist administration, denied that any massacre had taken place, saying that the local police investigated reports of a shootout but found no bodies at the mine. “Once again, irresponsible politicians are trying to sow chaos in Bolívar State with FALSE information about murdered miners,” he wrote on Twitter , accusing opposition politicians of trying to discredit the government’s campaign to root out illegal mining. Families of the miners and people who said they had witnessed the attack demanded further investigation and blocked the main road connecting the region to the border with Brazil. Americo de Grazia, an opposition lawmaker, accused the state government of complicity in the crime, which he said was one of nearly two dozen similar episodes over the past decade.


African Crisis Is Tougher Than France Expected

Abstract: PARIS — With photographs emerging of children toting guns and estimates of more than 400,000 displaced people in camps, the crisis in the Central African Republic is proving more complicated, violent and desperate than the French expected, according to Western diplomats, analysts and human rights activists. The scale of the humanitarian needs and the growing animosity between the country’s Christians and Muslims threaten to overwhelm President François Hollande’s goal of quickly restoring order, disarming militias, expediting emergency aid and preparing for elections in 2014. The French ambassador to the United Nations, Gérard Araud, has described the country as verging “on the brink of mass atrocities.” But a number of Western diplomats and human rights advocates fear that the country is already so deep in a spiral of revenge killings that it will be difficult for the French soldiers — who have a substantial task ahead just in Bangui, the capital — to slow the mayhem nationally. More than 600 people have been killed in the past week in the sectarian violence and lawlessness convulsing the Central African Republic, and the turmoil is getting worse, the United Nations refugee agency said Friday. This crisis is far different from the one in Mali, another former French colony, where France intervened militarily in January to halt an advance by Islamist insurgents. “In Mali you had a pretty identifiable enemy in one part of the country, albeit a large part, but in the Central African Republic you have communities breaking into violence all over the country — it’s not just one group,” said a Western diplomat familiar with the situation, who asked not to be named because of he was not authorized to discuss the situation with reporters. The full contingent of 1,600 French troops arrived over the weekend, and the United States is now helping to transport reinforcements from other African countries to join an African Union force of about 2,500 soldiers already deployed, with the goal of increasing that force to 6,000. The soldiers are authorized to pre-empt violence under a United Nations Security Council resolution approved last week. President Obama has ordered $60 million in nonlethal military equipment to be sent. It is unclear whether that will be enough. “What we are facing today is a bit heavier than we expected,” said a French diplomat speaking in Washington this week, referring to some of the Muslim militias active in Bangui and elsewhere. “We plan for everything,” said the diplomat, who, under the diplomatic protocol established by the French government, declined to be identified. “But some have hidden weapons in the capital city and are behaving in a very unconventional way with fake uniforms. Some are wearing civilian clothes. We have to cope with that; we hope we can.” The genocide in Rwanda in 1994 casts a long shadow . The French have been blamed for not doing more and accused of allowing the escape of some notorious figures who were involved in perpetrating the carnage, and they now appear committed to preventing a similar cycle of killing. French military intervention in its former colonies carries other risks. Islamic insurgents linked to Al Qaeda, seething over France’s deployment in Mali, retaliated with a deadly attack on a desert gas field in neighboring Algeria that left at least 37 foreign hostages and 29 attackers dead. While Qaeda operatives are not believed to have turned their attention to the Central African Republic, some analysts worry that it has the kind of lawless and remote profile that could attract jihadist cells. Image Muslim militiamen armed with machetes roughed up a Christian man while checking him for weapons in Bangui on Friday. Credit Jerome Delay/Associated Press The Central African Republic is France’s fourth military engagement in Africa in 10 years, including Mali, Ivory Coast and Libya. Thirty-four French soldiers have been killed during that period in combat operations in Africa, with the largest number in Ivory Coast. All except Libya have been part of France’s colonial past, and each has a complex relationship with its former overlord. France had hoped that its engagement in Mali, where it has deployed 2,800 troops, would be winding down by now, but those plans have been delayed. From the start, the Central African Republic was a challenge of a different order, analysts said. The country is poorer and farther from Europe, making it less of a celebrated cause than Mali, whose culture and tradition of democratic stability and religious tolerance are admired far beyond its borders. Mali attracted financial support from the European Union as well as from individual members to help with its rebuilding. The Central African Republic, by contrast, is much more isolated, with the world’s fourth-highest infant mortality rate and a life expectancy of about 50 years. One of the toughest problems France faces is trying to reach the lawless areas outside the capital. In large parts of the countryside, communities belonging to the Christian majority have formed militias known as the anti-balaka to repel attacks from the largely Muslim rebels, known as the Seleka, who took power after toppling the government this year. Some analysts say the rebels’ allies include foreign mercenaries and warlords from neighboring Sudan and Chad. “The French haven’t reached many of the towns where the Seleka are present, and they haven’t reached the countryside, where the anti-balaka militias are, and the countryside is armed and ready to fight to overthrow the Muslim rule,” said Peter Bouckaert, director of emergencies for Human Rights Watch, who was visiting the country for the past two weeks. “It is very scary to walk into some of these villages and see everyone other than yourself armed,” said Mr. Bouckaert, who posted a photo on Twitter of a boy, about 12 years old, carrying a gun near Bossangoa, a more heavily Christian area in the country’s west. The child had been pressed into service by the anti-balaka Christian militias. Disarming such groups, one of the French objectives, could backfire unless both Christian and Muslim militias are disarmed, said Mr. Bouckaert and other analysts. Human rights advocates have already documented instances in which the French disarmed Seleka leaders, who were then lynched by Christian militias within hours. Africa analysts worry that France does not have a clear plan for how to contain the sectarian violence and create an environment for a caretaker government to bring stability. “The most difficult thing at the moment is the disarmament of the population,” said Thierry Vircoulon, the central Africa project director for the International Crisis Group. “Communities are armed now; they will try to hide their weapons,” he said. “The second thing is what to do with the Seleka fighters,” he continued. “If they go to their barracks and agree to disarm, the French have to offer them an alternative future.” French officials argue that they had an overriding reason for sending in troops. “If we hadn’t intervened,” said Mr. Hollande, speaking on Tuesday, shortly after French troops arrived, “there would have been further massacres, there would have been more women raped, more children would have been killed.”

War Crimes,Genocide,Crimes Against Humanity


Paul D. Clement’s Latest High-Profile Cases

Abstract: WASHINGTON — It would be hard for any lawyer to fathom a more riveting caseload than the one Paul D. Clement carried during his seven years in President George W. Bush ’s Justice Department. As solicitor general for three years and deputy solicitor for four, Mr. Clement appeared before the Supreme Court 49 times, defended the administration’s detention of terrorism suspects, fought off challenges to the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law and validated the prosecution of medical marijuana growers in a landmark commerce case. But if possible, the docket that Mr. Clement has compiled in the private sector as one of Washington’s leading appellate litigators may situate him even closer to the center of national discourse. At the moment, he is defending both Arizona’s tough new law against illegal immigration and Congress’s prohibition against federal recognition of same-sex marriages . And if, as expected, the Supreme Court soon announces that it will hear a challenge to last year’s health care law , it seems increasingly likely that it will be Mr. Clement who argues, in the thick of the 2012 campaign, that President Obama ’s signature domestic achievement is unconstitutional. This week and last, Mr. Clement, 45, filed briefs supporting the Obama administration’s request that the court accept his health care challenge from among the several pending before it. He is lead counsel in the high-profile Florida case filed by Republican governors and attorneys general from 26 states. In August, he and his co-counsel, Michael A. Carvin, won the only appellate ruling to invalidate the act’s keystone provision, which will require most Americans to obtain medical insurance , starting in 2014. That opinion , from the Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in Atlanta , directly contradicts a ruling from the Sixth Circuit in Cincinnati , and both rulings, along with others, have been appealed to the Supreme Court. “I do think there’s a good chance that the court will take the 11th Circuit case,” Mr. Clement said in an interview in his M Street office. “It may take other cases as well. But in the 11th Circuit case you’ve got a statute of Congress struck down as unconstitutional, in a way that creates a circuit split, and the federal government is petitioning. I’m not sure there’s ever been a case that had those three things going for it that wasn’t granted.” The other thing the 11th Circuit case may have going for it is Mr. Clement. As a former clerk to Justice Antonin Scalia , Mr. Clement maintains a breezy but respectful rapport with the justices. It is assumed that his familiar name on a petition can improve the 1-in-100 chance that a case will be accepted for consideration. That is among the reasons Gov. Jan Brewer of Arizona hired Mr. Clement to handle her state’s Supreme Court appeal of rulings against its groundbreaking immigration law. The speaker of the House, John A. Boehner , engaged him to contest challenges to the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act after the Obama Justice Department declared it was unconstitutional and stopped defending it. Mr. Clement, who has argued more Supreme Court cases since 2000 than any other lawyer, made his 54th appearance in mid-October and has another scheduled for December. As a change of pace, he is among the lawyers representing the National Basketball Association in labor negotiations with its locked-out players, reprising a role he played for the National Football League last spring. Florida’s attorney general, Pam Bondi, said the plaintiffs in the health care litigation hired Mr. Clement at the appellate stage out of conviction that their case was “the ideal vehicle” for the Supreme Court. “Having Paul Clement as our lawyer cements that,” she said, “because his presence assures the Supreme Court that our arguments will be presented as professionally, intelligently and effectively as possible.” Justice Department officials said the health care law would be defended in the Supreme Court by the current solicitor general, Donald B. Verrilli Jr. Florida and the other plaintiff states have a contract with Mr. Clement, at discounted rates, that is capped at $250,000. In the same-sex marriage case, House Republicans recently tripled the cap on his fees to $1.5 million, paid from tax coffers. Without being precise, Mr. Clement confirmed speculation that he typically bills in the range of $1,000 an hour. Other appellate specialists say Mr. Clement brings both exhaustive preparation and acute insight to his cases. The son of an accountant and a homemaker from Cedarburg, Wis., north of Milwaukee , he received his bachelor’s degree from Georgetown, a master’s in economics from Cambridge and a law degree from Harvard , where he helped edit the law review when Barack Obama was its president. Mr. Clement now lives in Alexandria , Va., with his wife and three sons. Despite his relative youth, Mr. Clement ranks eighth among active lawyers in the number of Supreme Court appearances. (The record belongs to the 19th-century advocate Walter Jones, with 317, followed by Daniel Webster, according to the Yale Biographical Dictionary of American Law .) Mr. Clement has a winning record in the Supreme Court, but his losses include significant rulings against the Bush administration’s indefinite detention of enemy combatants. In 2004, he asserted under questioning from Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg that the Bush administration did not torture, only to learn through news reports the next day that American soldiers had mistreated Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib . “It’s the worst thing that can happen to you as a lawyer,” he said of being blindsided by inconvenient facts. Mr. Clement is admired by colleagues and adversaries for the straightforward clarity of his presentation. He famously argues without notes, leaving his hands free to jab and gesticulate, sometimes as if wringing an imaginary neck. “He just internalizes every single aspect of the case,” said Viet D. Dinh, Mr. Clement’s law partner. “He makes the argument not from memory but from total immersion.” Mr. Clement’s familiarity with the court was on display in an edgy exchange in 2009, when he argued in Perdue v. Kenny A. that lawyers occasionally deserved enhanced fees for exceptional performance. It had been barely a year since he left the solicitor general’s job, with its $158,500 salary, for a huge pay package at King & Spalding. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. , who had himself once enjoyed a lucrative law practice, started the ribbing. “Maybe we have a different perspective,” the chief justice said. “You think the lawyers are responsible for a good result, and I think the judges are.” “And maybe your perspective’s changed, Your Honor,” Mr. Clement suggested, as the courtroom tittered. “Maybe your perspective has changed, too, Mr. Clement,” volleyed Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. , who then questioned whether good lawyering could be bought only with immense fees. “Well, on that,” Mr. Clement said, “my perspective has changed, Your Honor.” Because Mr. Clement’s caseload reads like the Republican Party platform — against same-sex marriage, tough on illegal immigration, pledged to the destruction of the Obama health care law — he is perceived by some as an ideological warrior. “He has really run the table of conservative causes,” said Walter Dellinger, who served as solicitor general under President Bill Clinton . “Paul is such a good advocate and such a cheerful friend that it’s easy to forget how conservative he is.” That reputation was likely reinforced by Mr. Clement’s principled resignation in April from King & Spalding after the firm, under internal and external pressure, withdrew from the Defense of Marriage case. Officials at the firm said the case had not received proper review, but acknowledged that Mr. Clement had reason to believe it would be approved. Mr. Clement said he knew his representation might offend some, but felt strongly that any act of Congress should receive a capable defense. In his resignation letter, he stressed that he was leaving not because of his views on same-sex marriage, which he did not volunteer, but “out of the firmly held belief that a representation should not be abandoned because the client’s legal position is extremely unpopular in certain quarters.” Decamping a firm with 800 lawyers, Mr. Clement landed at one with 12, Bancroft P.L.L.C., which was founded by Mr. Dinh, a law school friend and former Justice Department colleague. Mr. Clement resists discussing his own politics, and said he eagerly took work from wherever it came. He pointed to his recent representation of California inmates who won a United States Supreme Court order to reduce overcrowding, and of a human rights group seeking to obtain videotape of a prison murder. “I’m sure I’ve been involved in a case that, if you just looked at that one case, would tick off almost everyone,” Mr. Clement said. “To me, being a lawyer means that you get in the fray.” Because Mr. Clement’s name is included on most lists of potential Supreme Court candidates in a Republican administration, his caseload is scrutinized by court watchers for signs of positioning. Mr. Clement cannot help hearing the buzz, but said it played no role in his selection of cases. “It sure doesn’t seem to, does it?” he asked. “You certainly don’t look at the cases I take and say, ‘Boy, this guy’s being incredibly cautious.’ ”

Paul D Clement
Supreme Court
Lawsuit
Obamacare,Affordable Care Act
Arizona Immigration Law
Defense of Marriage Act
Same-Sex Marriage,Gay Marriage
Lawyers


For Las Vegas Weddings, 12/12/12 Is a Date With a Built-In Reminder

Abstract: LAS VEGAS — Wendy Wampach has been dating Rick Schroeder for about four years, but neither one can remember when their romance started. So when they decided a couple of months ago to get married, the date they chose was an obvious one: 12/12/12. “So we can remember our anniversary,” Ms. Wampach said. And the location? A place they had enjoyed visiting many times: Las Vegas. They are among the thousands of couples expected to declare their vows of everlasting love in Las Vegas on Wednesday, Dec. 12 — the last such triple-date likely to occur in their lifetimes. Many couples consider it lucky to get married on such a propitious date; there was an especially large crush on 07-07-07, which broke Las Vegas records, and 10-10-10 and 11-11-11. During the four-day periods leading up to those dates, Clark County, which includes Las Vegas, issued licenses to 4,333; 3,090; and 3,342 couples. The total for an average month would be about 7,500. This time, 80 or so chapels in town have been gearing up for the rush, as has the Marriage License Bureau, which went from five to nine windows and has had staff working overtime, according to Jim Pierce, assistant county clerk. Ms. Wampach and Mr. Schroeder arrived Monday morning from Burnsville, Minn., at the Aria Resort and Casino, saw a tribute show to the Bee Gees and woke up Tuesday morning to get ready for the limousine that would take them the 3.5 miles north along the Strip for the run-through at the Chapel of the Flowers, the site of their nuptials. Aimee Stephens, a spokeswoman for the chapel, said her colleagues had spent “the past couple of months getting our game plans together” for the big day. There were 80 weddings scheduled for Wednesday at Chapel of the Flowers, about 15 times what would be expected for a Wednesday in December, she said. Couples were coming from England, Brazil, Canada and Luxembourg, paying special prices ranging from $812 to $2,412 just for the ceremony. That is not counting reception, photos and any other extras. Why were they choosing this day to start their futures together? “People like being a part of something larger,” Ms. Stephens said, adding that the brides also wanted “to make it easier for their husbands to remember.” A few blocks north along the Strip, at Viva Las Vegas Wedding Chapels, Brian Mills had 120 weddings scheduled, which, he said, is 12 times what is typical for this time of year. That included couples from Australia, England, the Netherlands and Sweden. Mr. Mills is a general manager and also plays Elvis in several wedding packages. (Couples can also choose to get married with a pink Cadillac, or by staff members dressed up as James Bond or Michael Jackson.) Prices range from $312.12 to $1,212.12. Mr. Mills speculated on the chapel’s Web site about the date, theorizing that “the ‘go-getting’ 1 and the ‘sensitive’ 2 make this a very balanced number.” And, he said, “this is the last one there is for 100 years.” Or, to be exact, 89: 01/01/2101. At the Bellagio Hotel, a more high-end setting, 12 weddings were scheduled — which “blows away a normal Wednesday in December,” said Monica Bisek, senior assistant manager of the hotel’s chapels. On Monday night, Ms. Wampach had only one regret: her 12/12/12 wedding was scheduled for 9 a.m. “I wasn’t thinking,” she said. “I should’ve done it at 12 noon. Then,” she added, “it would’ve ended at 12:12.”

Weddings and Engagements
Las Vegas (Nev)


Bailout Terms Are Eased for Ireland and Portugal

Abstract: DUBLIN — Euro zone finance ministers agreed on Friday to give Ireland and Portugal more time to repay their bailout loans after the chaotic rescue of Cyprus rekindled animosity toward the authorities overseeing the single currency area. Ministers also made some progress on a bundle of initiatives to create a so-called banking union intended to break the vicious circle between indebted sovereign governments and shaky banks that helped unleash a string of crises, repeatedly threatening to sink the euro over the last three years. The most important step taken by the ministers on Friday was an agreement in principle to extend the maturities of emergency loans made to Ireland and Portugal by seven years. Prolonging the payment schedules could ease pressure on the countries’ public finances and allow them to obtain better terms from private lenders. Because some of the bailout loans were granted by a fund backed by all 27 European Union countries, the 10 finance ministers from noneuro member states had to give their approval, too, after they joined the meeting Friday afternoon. The extensions must still be approved by the Parliaments of some European Union countries, including Germany. “This is another very important step forward toward a sustained return to full market financing for both countries,” Olli Rehn, the European commissioner for economic and monetary affairs, said at a news conference after the meeting of finance ministers. But Mr. Rehn also underlined that officials in Ireland and Portugal had to stick to promises to overhaul their economies, including the kind of painful belt-tightening that has been criticized for restraining growth, leading to wider deficits and making it harder for governments to pay down debt. “Ultimately it is the combination of growth-enhancing structural reforms and consistent fiscal consolidation that will firmly re-establish investor confidence and ensure that the Irish and Portuguese people can put this very hard crisis behind them and move on,” Mr. Rehn said. Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the president of the so-called Eurogroup of finance ministers, said at the same news conference that the authorities in Portugal, where the Constitutional Court recently overturned some austerity measures, would be able to pass “compensatory measures” to control spending. The ministers are struggling to fend off a return to full-blown crisis mode in the euro zone as the ramifications of the Cypriot bailout become clearer and as other concerns, including the perilous state of the economy of Slovenia, another euro member, rise up the agenda. The Cypriot bailout raised questions about whether efforts to save the euro were on course. Investors were rattled by terms that included raiding the savings of uninsured depositors and by a forecast this last week by the troika of international bodies overseeing bailouts that the downturn in the Cypriot economy over the next two years would be far more severe than expected just weeks ago. Unemployment is already near 15 percent. The worry now is that Cyprus may eventually need another bailout to keep it as a member of the euro area. On Friday, the ministers gave their political approval to the terms of the bailout, which involves euro zone member states contributing 9 billion euros in loans and the International Monetary Fund providing 1 billion euros. The deal still needs approval by some national Parliaments. Image From left, Olli Rehn, Jeroen Dijsselbloem, Mario Draghi and Klaus Regling at a news conference about economic issues on Friday. Credit Peter Muhly/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images Officials said the first payments of aid to Cyprus from the bloc’s bailout fund, the European Stability Mechanism, could take place in mid-May. Mr. Rehn said that there would be further aid for Cyprus, but that it would involve directing more structural money to the country, rather than changing the total amount of the bailout. Cyprus must raise billions of euros to stay within the terms of the bailout, and one option is for its central bank to sell gold reserves. Mario Draghi, the president of the European Central Bank, said at the news conference that the decision would be left to the central bank of Cyprus. But he added that “profits made out of the sales of gold should cover first and foremost any potential loss that the central bank might have” from the emergency liquidity assistance that has been provided by the European Central Bank. Another concern that has overshadowed the gathering is slow progress among euro governments on policies meant to break the so-called doom loop, where member states incur enormous debts bailing out their banks. In recent days, Germany raised new concerns about a proposal to create a single banking supervisor for the European Union under the aegis of the central bank. The creation of the single supervisor is a precondition for the European Stability Mechanism to be tapped to directly recapitalize struggling lenders. Pumping bailout money to banks themselves avoids putting the loans on national balance sheets and should help keep a lid on sovereign borrowing costs. Ireland and Spain are among the nations lobbying strongly to speed the change. The single supervisor must also be in place before other elements of a banking union can be put in force, including a system for euro area countries to share some of the burden of shutting down failing banks, a system that would have a clearly defined hierarchy of creditors, including shareholders, bondholders, uninsured depositors and funds contributed by banks and governments. In recent days, German diplomats made clear in Brussels that they had some reservations about giving the central bank such broad supervisory powers. Their concern was that the central bank might alter its monetary policies to make it easier to perform its bank supervision duties. Late on Friday, the Germans won agreement that there should be steps to lock in the separation of the two areas of responsibility the next time that the union’s treaties are revised. That prospect had alarmed some European officials, who fear opening up the treaty at a time when Britain’s calls for significant changes to the pact have irritated other member states. They were also worried that the prospect of a future treaty alteration would jeopardize the legal bias of the banking supervision system. Analysts said the German demands were tantamount to delaying tactics, and showed how much the government in Berlin, which faces an election in September, was resisting committing to measures that could mean sharing the cost of bailing out banks in member states with weaker economies. “I think this shows the government slowing down the prospects for ever directly injecting aid into banks,” said Megan Greene, the chief economist at Maverick Intelligence in London.

European Monetary Union
Euro Crisis
Cyprus
Ireland
Banking and Finance
Europe
Portugal


Municipal Bonds, Stung Again

Abstract: “SELL IN MAY,” the stock-market adage, would have served municipal bond investors well this year. Those who stayed in the market faced sharp losses. For example, the $34 billion Vanguard Intermediate Term Tax Exempt fund, the biggest muni bond fund, lost more than 5 percent from May through August. And the largest exchange-traded tax-exempt fund, the $3 billion iShares National A.M.T.-Free Muni Bond fund, lost 8.3 percent in the same period. Much of the fixed-income world has been smarting from the blow of sharply rising long-term rates ever since Ben S. Bernanke, the Federal Reserve chairman, raised the possibility in May that the Fed was considering tapering its stimulus spending. When interest rates rise, bond prices fall; total return (or loss) is the sum of those two components. But the tax-exempt nook of the bond market has taken some extra hits as well. In July, the city of Detroit declared bankruptcy, raising concerns that it may not ultimately pay its bond obligations in full. In late August, it was Puerto Rico’s turn to roil the market. A Barron’s article detailed the territory’s high debt load and an economy that wasn’t producing enough revenue to easily cover that debt. The S.& P. Puerto Rico municipal bond index fell 10 percent over the next two weeks before the bleeding stopped. Still, the index was down 16.4 percent in the first nine months of the year. Interest payments on Puerto Rico bonds are exempt from state and local taxes in all 50 states, which gives the territory’s high-yielding bonds some appeal for fund managers. More than 75 percent of muni bond funds tracked by Morningstar own Puerto Rico bonds. But the appetite is muted, with the average allocation at less than 5 percent. While not minimizing the problems facing Detroit and Puerto Rico bondholders, muni professionals note that within the industry — if not among individual investors — neither problem came out of left field. “Nobody was surprised by the Detroit filing; this was a very slow train wreck that you could see coming for years,” said Sheila Amoroso, co-director of the municipal bond department at the Franklin Templeton fixed-income group. “Puerto Rico wasn’t anything new, either. The issues are well known.” James Evans, director of tax-advantaged bond strategies at Eaton Vance , notes that the municipal market often suffers from misplaced extrapolation. “When General Motors and American Airlines filed for bankruptcy, nobody invested in corporate bonds was worrying what that meant for their Procter & Gamble and Walmart bonds,” he said. “But whenever there is an isolated problem with a municipal bond issuer, there’s an overreaction that this means the entire market is in trouble.” The last time this dynamic struck muni bonds was in late 2010, when a “60 Minutes” report raised concerns about municipalities’ ability to make good on debt. Some investors rushed for the exits, sinking bond prices more than 4 percent in the fourth quarter that year. Within a few months, as widespread problems for muni bonds failed to materialize, the market stabilized; it went on to gain more than 10 percent in 2011. Once again, most municipal bond managers don’t seem concerned that the drip of stressed muni issues will become a torrent. An improving economy is generating more tax revenue for municipalities. The Rockefeller Institute reported that first-quarter state tax revenue increased 8.6 percent, on average, compared with the same quarter of 2012. Tax revenue has been increasing for 13 consecutive quarters since the end of 2009. Image Detroit sought bankruptcy in July, but the move didn’t surprise managers of many muni bond funds. Credit Jeff Kowalsky/European Pressphoto Agency The municipal bond default rate is below 1 percent. “More than 99.5 percent of bonds are safe, but that just gets buried when people are worried,” said Rafael Costas, co-director, with Ms. Amoroso, of Franklin Templeton’s municipal bond department. A longer-term concern is whether municipalities can make good on their debt payments along with unfunded pension and health care liabilities. Eaton Vance examined each state’s combined long-term obligations for those three components. It estimated that the median debt is less than 12 percent of state gross domestic product and might even be lower. That’s because current reporting doesn’t separate state and local health care liability. It’s all listed as being the responsibility of the state. But there is variance: Puerto Rico is at 90 percent, and Alaska, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois and New Jersey are above 30 percent. Chicago’s obligations are high compared with expected revenue, Eaton Vance said. “Some places are more stressed than others,” Mr. Evans said. “But the vast majority of states and cities have very manageable situations.” What does concern muni bond managers is that many investors are missing an opportunity created by the recent sell-off. Since May, net cash outflows from long-term municipal mutual funds have exceeded $45 billion. “Compared to six months ago, you are now getting significantly more income, for the same risk,” said Peter Hayes, head of the municipal bonds group at BlackRock. The long-term norm is for the yield of a 10-year AAA-rated general obligation municipal bond to be 85 percent of that for a 10-year Treasury note. Since the financial crisis, that figure has tended to be 90 to 95 percent, in large part a function of Fed policies that have had the effect of lowering Treasury rates. Lately, however, high-quality muni bonds are yielding about 110 percent of comparable-length Treasury issues. “When muni yields are above taxable yields, that suggests we’ve had an overshoot on the down side,” said Thomas R. Hession Jr., managing partner of Riverbend Capital Advisors , which specializes in muni bond portfolios for individual investors. James Kochan, chief fixed-income strategist at the Wells Fargo Advantage Funds , noted that not only are nominal municipal yields above those for Treasuries, but they also deliver a much higher taxable-equivalent yield than corporate bonds. The 3.3 percent yield on a 10-year A-rated muni bond has a taxable-equivalent yield of 4.6 percent for an investor in the 28 percent federal tax bracket; a 10-year A-rated corporate bond has an average yield of 3.9 percent. At the 39.6 percent income tax bracket, the taxable-equivalent yield is 5.5 percent. “The argument for munis is very compelling,” Mr. Kochan said. “It is the best value within the fixed-income market.” JAMIE PAGLIOCCO, a co-manager of Fidelity muni bond funds including Fidelity Municipal Income , says investors still need to prepare for more volatility in coming months as the Fed eventually begins to taper its purchases. Because of the wide gap between low yields in short-term issues and higher yields in longer-term ones — what’s known as a steep yield curve — Mr. Pagliocco is using a barbell strategy. On one end of the barbell are lower-yielding but less volatile short-term bonds. At the other end are higher-yielding issues maturing in more than 10 years. The net duration of the fund — a measure of its sensitivity to interest rates — is around eight years. “We’re not making a call on when we expect the yield curve to flatten, but the barbell strategy will outperform when it does,” he said.

Municipal bond
Mutual fund
Detroit
Puerto Rico
Debt
US Economy


Mad About Fedoras, but Not About Those Stereotypes

Abstract: Will the slights and the innuendo never end? Most minorities have someone to speak up for them when the aspersions start flying. But members of one particular group have endured indignities for years, largely in silence. We’re talking about people who wear real hats, not caps that are stuffed unceremoniously into coat pockets. Among the most put-upon are men who favor fedoras. Their numbers are said to be growing. Yet they have trouble shaking a stereotype that their preference in hats, of itself, suggests something ominous. Hat-ism as an acceptable form of bigotry was discussed in this space years ago. It is revived now because of a new movie, “The Adjustment Bureau.” In it, mysterious men wearing fedoras of “Mad Men” vintage seem intent on tormenting Matt Damon and Emily Blunt. Posters for the film have been splashed across subway stations for several weeks. One shows a man with his head down. His face is shaded and barely visible. Mostly what you see is his broad-brimmed fedora. “Your world has been adjusted,” the tag line says menacingly. The hat is offered as proof that evil lurks. “It isn’t the first time,” sighed Orlando Palacios. Mr. Palacios sells hats under the venerable name Worth & Worth, in a showroom above West 57th Street. “There’s always that placement of the fedora with the mob,” he said. “The good guy rarely wears a hat — unless he’s Dick Tracy, right?” Right. Though we’ll always have Humphrey Bogart and Indiana Jones, hat-ism keeps rearing its ugly head. The labor leader Dennis Rivera, who says he owns five or six Borsalinos, once found himself reviled as an old-time boss, with his fedora cited as evidence of his sinister streak. A few years ago, The Washington Post tore into Jack Abramoff, the scandal-tainted lobbyist, for his black fedora . “Dressed like a crime boss,” The Post sniffed. “He could not have appeared more guilty, more menacing and more unsympathetic.” None of this sits well with Mr. Palacios. “It’s giving the hat a bad name,” he said. Like many a kicked-around minority, fedora wearers must put up with insults even as their numbers expand. Hats enjoyed a revival at recent men’s wear shows in Paris, Milan and New York. Linda Pagan, owner of the Hat Shop on Thompson Street, said purchases by men had steadily increased for the past four years. “The demographic is guys in their 20s and 30s,” Ms. Pagan said. “They start out with the stingy-brimmed fedora.” That would be the standard hipster look, often a hat that is more trilby than fedora. But broader brims are gaining ground. “Now,” Ms. Pagan said, “we have guys branching into homburgs.” In imitation of the homburg-wearing, Oscar-winning Colin Firth in “The King’s Speech”? Ms. Pagan doubted it, but didn’t rule out the possibility. “It can’t hurt,” she said. Some men seem to have finally realized that it is time to lay down the baseball cap — in Mr. Palacios’s words, “to switch to a hat and grow up.” Ms. Pagan said the trend was “reinforced by the recession, because accessories do well in a recession.” It is usually a lot cheaper to give yourself a new look with a hat than with a suit or an overcoat. “In the mid-to-late-’90s, guys shaved their heads if they were losing their hair,” Ms. Pagan said. “They got bored, so they did the goatee thing. Then they did earrings, and they did tattoos. Then somebody about five, six, seven years ago realized, ‘If I wear a hat, I make no commitment, long-term, to my statement.’ ” Those men can take it from a veteran wearer of fedoras that the world is still stacked against them. Few restaurants have proper storage space. Try climbing into a low-slung cab without having your lid knocked off. On an airplane, there is always someone with a humongous bag who is crushing your poor hat in the overhead bin. And then there are negative stereotypes like those movie posters. Which brings to mind Bernard L. Madoff. Did you see the photos of him as he was hauled into court? Or of State Senator Carl Kruger, one of two lawmakers who are the latest New York politicians charged with corruption? On Thursday, Mr. Kruger turned himself in to the federal authorities . It remains to be determined if he is a crook. But if stereotypes are your thing, let it be noted that, like Mr. Madoff, he was most definitely bareheaded.


Harold Turner Tells Court F.B.I. Encouraged His Web Rants

Abstract: The family of a federal judge had just been brutally murdered. And as Harold C. Turner remembered it, it seemed an opportune time for the F.B.I. to make use of his secret role as a confidential informant. Sitting together at a New Jersey diner, the F.B.I. agents told Mr. Turner, an Internet radio host and provocateur, that they wanted his help identifying a killer, whom they believed to be a member of a white supremacist organization, Mr. Turner testified on Wednesday in United States District Court in Brooklyn. Mr. Turner enjoyed a devoted following among such groups because of the racist and inflammatory views he espoused on his program. The F.B.I.’s request, Mr. Turner said, came with a suggestion: “Ratchet up the rhetoric.” Mr. Turner said he immediately obliged. That afternoon he posted a picture of the judge, Joan Humphrey Lefkow of Federal District Court in Chicago, on his blog below the headline “Gotcha!”He later appeared on television twice to discuss the case — for which he said he was paid by the F.B.I. — both times declaring Judge Lefkow “worthy of death.” This description of the meeting in 2005 was presented on Wednesday during Mr. Turner’s testimony in his trial for threatening the life of three other federal judges in Illinois. That case stems from a blog posting he made on his Web site last summer denouncing a ruling upholding a local gun ban, in which he again declared the judges on the case “worthy of death.” This time, though, he was quickly arrested. During five hours of testimony, Mr. Turner, 47, provided a detailed account of his rise as an incendiary radio host, as well as his recruitment and on-again and off-again relationship with the F.B.I. He tried to characterize the posting last summer as a continuation of the same behavior that the F.B.I. had tolerated and even encouraged over the years. Mr. Turner who lives in North Bergen, N.J., did not testify at his first trial, which ended last December in a deadlocked jury. During that trial, prosecutors acknowledged that Mr. Turner was an F.B.I. informant, but said that he was dropped because he continually stepped out of line. On Wednesday, Mr. Turner described his repulsion to racist views even as he became one of the country’s most prominent proponents of them. He said he never wanted anyone to get hurt. Mr. Turner painted a contrarian picture of himself as a patriot who answered the call of the federal government to infiltrate the white supremacist movement. He said he received more than $100,000 in payments for his assistance and helped avert “more than 10 acts of domestic terrorism,” but his outspokenness so concerned the F.B.I. that the agency eventually stopped using him, and he was later arrested. He said he never believed the message he promulgated, citing a letter he wrote to one F.B.I. agent that said, “Just be confident that the person you hear [or hear about] on radio is not real life.”

Turner Harold C
Radio
Federal Bureau of Investigation
Threats and Threatening Messages


Subprime Problems Spread Into Commercial Loans

Abstract: Turmoil in the subprime mortgage market spread again yesterday — this time to a type of short-term security held by money market mutual funds. These funds have become the investment of choice for many people seeking a safe haven. Standard & Poor’s, the ratings agency, warned yesterday that it might downgrade several issuers of commercial paper, a short-term I.O.U. by companies that promise to repay loans typically within a few weeks to a year. In these cases, S.& P. said, the commercial paper was backed by residential mortgages. The amount of commercial paper in the United States has grown to $2.2 trillion, according to Lehman Brothers, with about $1.2 trillion backed by residential mortgages, credit card receivables, car loans and other bonds. The major buyers include pension funds, insurance companies, hedge funds and short-term money market funds. Investors have flocked to money market funds as they try to avoid volatile stocks and the seized-up bond market. Last week, more than $36 billion moved into money market funds, the largest shift since December 2005. In all, some $2.6 trillion is in money market funds, according to AMG Data Services. Such funds are sold to investors as the equivalent of cash, and their $1-a-share net asset value is considered inviolate. But if the funds experienced big losses, the value of the assets could be vulnerable. The S.& P acted a day after a $1.6 billion cash-management fund run by the Sentinel Management Group halted redemptions because it could not sell its assets at what it considered acceptable prices. Until recently, the crisis in the credit markets has been limited to problems related to subprime mortgages, those given to borrowers with questionable credit histories. But as these troubles seep into other parts of the securities markets, fears of losses are rising in unexpected places. The borrowers, companies that issue asset-backed commercial paper, have found it highly profitable. These companies usually have used the money they borrow to buy securities like slices of mortgage pools that generated yields much greater than the interest paid to the short-term lenders. But there are several risks. First, the companies that issue short-term notes backed by assets with considerably longer terms are exposing themselves to the risk that the interest they earn will not exceed the amount they must pay to their lenders. Perhaps more significant, the borrowers must be concerned about possible losses in the assets they buy, especially when investors will no longer lend them money by buying their commercial paper. The S.& P. highlighted three issuers of commercial paper for possible downgrading. Broadhollow Funding, which was set up by American Home Mortgage Investment, a lender that filed for bankruptcy last week; KKR Atlantic Funding Trust and KKR Pacific Funding Trust, two affiliates of the buyout firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts; and Ottimo Funding, an affiliate of Aladdin Capital Management, an investment manager in Stamford, Conn. Kohlberg Kravis declined to comment yesterday. Ottimo Funding holds about $3 billion in residential mortgages, all rated AAA. George Marshman, chief investment officer at Aladdin, said: “It’s a negotiation process. We’re working with all the investors to make things as orderly as possible. I’m optimistic we can get a good outcome.” Among the money market funds that held commercial paper issued by the companies singled out for possible downgrading were two offered by Evergreen Investments. As of May, the $16.6 billion Evergreen Institutional Money Market Fund held $385 million in Broadhollow Funding and $72 million in Ottimo Funding. The $4.5 billion Evergreen Prime Cash Management Money Market Fund held $50 million in Ottimo Funding as well. A spokeswoman for Evergreen declined to comment. Legg Mason ’s Master Portfolio Trust Liquid Reserves Portfolio, a $52.5 billion fund, owned almost $200 million in securities issued by Ottimo Funding and $750 million in KKR Atlantic Funding. Mary K. Athridge, a Legg Mason spokeswoman, said in a statement: “The holdings represent less than 1.4 percent of the portfolio. We believe the current disruption in the marketplace is liquidity-related rather than credit-related, which the Fed has stepped into the market to address.” As of May 31, Columbia Funds Series Trust Cash Reserves, a $62 billion fund, had a $120 million stake in Ottimo Funding and $400 million in KKR Pacific Funding Trust. A Columbia Management spokesman did not return calls for comment. “If the stigma of mortgage-related extendable-asset-backed commercial paper spreads to asset-backed commercial paper as a whole, you could see bailout events,” said Peter G. Crane, president of Crane Data, the publisher of a newsletter about money market mutual funds. But he added: “The stuff that the money funds are invested in are the highest quality, so it’s the last thing to have trouble.” However, the investment strategies that once were considered conservative no longer are. The Sentinel fund that banned redemptions Monday advertised itself as risk-averse. In a letter to investors, Sentinel said that it had hoped to ride out the troubles but was unable to do so. “We are concerned that we cannot meet any significant redemption requests without selling securities at deep discounts to their fair value and therefore causing unnecessary losses to our clients,” the letter said. “We will continue to monitor the markets and we will raise cash as opportunities present themselves.” Sentinel officials did not return calls for comment. Douglas A. Kass, general partner of Seabreeze Partners Management, an investment firm in Palm Beach, Fla., said the Sentinel disclosure and upheaval in commercial paper markets are examples of the risks investors take when they reach for higher yields. “This is symptomatic of a whole body of investors, including money market and cash management funds, that are attempting to enhance yields, and this is the downside to that journey,” he said. On Monday, Coventree, a Canadian financial services company, said it could no longer issue asset-backed commercial paper because of a liquidity squeeze. In a statement, the firm said that “problems that initially seemed isolated to a few U.S. subprime mortgage lenders have led to broader concerns relating to debt capital markets generally,” including the market for Canadian asset-backed commercial paper. Coventree extended maturities on 250 million Canadian dollars ($237 million) and sought emergency funding for an additional 700 million Canadian dollars ($664 million). In its third-quarter financial statement yesterday, Coventree said: “Certain liquidity providers have advanced funding, some have disagreed that they have an obligation to fund, some are in discussions with the company, and some have not responded. There is no assurance that the liquidity providers will fund or be obligated to fund under the requisite liquidity agreements.” Canadian companies have issued 170 billion Canadian dollars ($161 billion) in commercial paper, according to a Lehman Brothers research report citing Bank of Canada data. About 116 billion Canadian dollars ($110 billion) of that market is asset-backed commercial paper, up from 66 billion Canadian dollars ($63 billion) at the beginning of 2005.

Mutual Funds
Mortgages
Stocks and Bonds
Finances
Credit


Time Stands Still on Living History Farm

Abstract: TITUSVILLE, N.J. UNLESS you work the graveyard shift, spend weekends at the Shore in February and buy bagels at 4 p.m., New Jersey ’s density can be wearying. For parents of young children so accustomed to the sprawl that they know where Webkinz come from but not watermelons, it can also be depressing. If the state’s open-to-the-public farms offer an antidote, it’s sometimes a too-familiar one; a certain pumpkin-patch-here, hayrides-there sameness doesn’t do much to quell the sense that such outings are just another part of the suburban weekend routine. Neither do the hordes at the height of the season. But if boarding the next flight out of Newark to some rural neverland is not an option for families in need of a bucolic intervention, time travel is. At the boundary of Mercer and Hunterdon Counties, near the gurgle of the Delaware River and a sprinkling of farm stands selling apple-cider doughnuts, sits the Howell Living History Farm. Here the fields sprawl, the grass is verdant and the whine of weed-whackers has yet to pierce the tranquillity of crisp autumn afternoons. That’s because at Howell, a 130-acre farm that has been tending to the public’s pastoral needs for more than 20 years, the year is 1900. Beyond the parking lot and the new visitors’ center, where guests are asked to make a donation in lieu of paying admission, the farmhands — men in beards and suspenders, and women in ankle-length prairie skirts and granny boots — do indeed live history. They are helped along by Howell’s menagerie of pigs, oxen, draft horses, chickens, cows and sheep. Despite some predictable visual impediments — recently, a 6-year-old in purple Crocs and a sparkly headband pumped water from the well and carefully separated dandelion greens from the flowers for chicken feed, though she would have looked more convincing in a petticoat — it is easy to get caught up in the spirit. Volunteer guides, who direct guests and answer questions on weekends and during group visits, cheerfully ask for the kind of help the 6-year-old provided. And during talks they don’t stint on the kinds of details kids remember, for example, that the corn cobs in the outhouse would once have been used as toilet paper. The guided tours of the farm, which is part of the Mercer County parks system, have the flavor of a school field trip (including, on a recent visit, an oral quiz on the difference between oxen and bulls, administered by a lady in a bonnet). That is abated, however, by the expanse of the place and the option to skip the guides and roam, unaccompanied, the hills and valleys that yield footbridges, vegetable gardens, ponds and orchards. Then, too, there are a baleful of seasonal events. Pumpkin picking, hayrides and a two-mile corn maze shaped like a double horseshoe run weekends from late September through October. And every weekend in fall features a special event. On the schedule for next month are pumpkin decorating, an introduction to quilting and a blacksmithing and horseshoeing demonstration at which children can make tin lanterns. In November, there will be cider making, a corn harvest and bacon-, sausage- and scrapple-making. Even amid the general stillness of winter there is activity: Ice harvesting, followed by ice cream making and eating, is scheduled for late January, weather permitting. And roughly a month earlier, a special guest arrives via sleigh. As a picture prominently displayed in the visitor center makes clear, Howell Farm agrees with Santa. He never looked more relaxed or more real.

Howell Living History Farm
New Jersey
Children and Youth


Rookie Receiver Nicks Shines Against Jets as Veterans Falter

Abstract: EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — With Plaxico Burress probably headed to prison and Amani Toomer now playing for the Kansas City Chiefs, the Giants are auditioning candidates at wide receiver. Coming into the preseason, the leading contenders were Steve Smith and Domenik Hixon, young players with obvious skills but unproven credentials. But Smith and Hixon were notable for their mistakes Saturday night as the Jets defeated the Giants , 27-25, dropping the Giants’ preseason record to 1-2. The best performance by a wide receiver came late, in surprising fashion, when the rookie Hakeem Nicks teamed with the backup quarterback David Carr on two impressive touchdowns. The first was a diving 22-yard reception in the end zone while Nicks was tightly covered by cornerback Drew Coleman. The second was a grab on the right sideline and a sprint to the end zone for a 71-yard scoring play. “I just got a high from making plays,” Nicks said. “I felt good. I feel like I got my feet wet a little bit. I just want to contribute. I’m still trying to get comfortable.” Although Nicks’s touchdowns came with mostly backup players on the field, they were the sort of moments the Giants hoped for when they drafted him out of North Carolina with their first choice in April’s draft . With one exhibition game remaining for the Giants — at New England on Thursday — it might be premature to suggest that Nicks has vaulted himself into a starting role. “I don’t control the depth chart,” he said. But he certainly did not hurt his chances by finishing with six receptions for 144 yards. On his second touchdown, Nicks read a corner blitz and accelerated past a safety, a move that pleased Carr. “I was just praying, Please, Hakeem, know that,” Carr said. “For a young guy, sometimes they don’t know that. They’ll stop right where the guy is and I’ll have to throw it away. But he read it just like a veteran. It was very heady and, obviously, he’s got talent, too.” Nicks, who said he and Carr “were just on the same page,” said the best part of the play was his shifty run after he caught it. “That’s the best part of my game,” he said. Things did not go as well for Smith, who got open behind the Jets ’ secondary early and settled under a long pass from Eli Manning. With nothing but open field in front of him, Smith reached for the ball — and dropped it. Three plays later, Manning found Hixon open and hit him in the hands with the ball on a short route. But Bart Scott hit Hixon from behind, and the ball bounced off Hixon’s hands to linebacker David Harris for an interception. In the fourth quarter, Mario Manningham, another young player contending for a role, took a turn dropping a pass. His drop came on the right sideline in front of the Giants’ bench, after Carr led him perfectly for what would have been a long gain. The best pass in the first half for the Giants went to a running back, Brandon Jacobs, who caught a pass from Manning as he fell to his knees in the end zone for an 8-yard touchdown and a 7-0 lead on the first drive of the game. Jacobs left the game briefly in the first half for an X-ray of his arm after he was hit by a helmet on a carry. He returned in the second quarter but fumbled a ball that was recovered by the Jets. Coming into the game, no Giants wide receiver had more than three receptions in the team’s first two exhibition games, a 24-17 victory against Carolina and a 17-3 defeat in Chicago. On defense on Saturday, the Giants’ tackling again was inconsistent, as it was in last week’s loss in Chicago. Their secondary play looked sloppy when the Jets took a 14-13 lead on a 31-yard pass from Mark Sanchez to Chansi Stuckey. On what seemed to be a broken play, Sanchez threw under pressure. Stuckey, who had drifted from left to right, caught the ball on the 12-yard line and danced into the end zone between three Giants: safety C. C. Brown and the cornerbacks Kevin Dockery and Corey Webster. It happened again in the third quarter, when Jerricho Cotchery gained 28 yards by beating Dockery on a pass from Sanchez and adding about 10 yards by dodging tackle attempts from Travonti Johnson and Brown. For the second consecutive game, linebacker Antonio Pierce was out of uniform with a foot injury, but the starting guards Chris Snee (knee) and Rich Seubert (shoulder) were back in the lineup.


BET Plans Channel for Middle-Aged Black Audience

Abstract: Viacom, the owner of BET, is forming a new cable television channel for middle-aged African-Americans, heightening the competition for the minority viewing audience. The channel, to be named Centric and scheduled to make its debut in October, will be formally announced at an event for advertisers Thursday night. Centric will complement BET, executives say, by appealing to an older and more affluent audience. The 29-year-old BET, available in 89 million homes, is the dominant network for black audiences. It attracts roughly four times as many viewers as TV One, its main competitor, which is owned by Comcast and Radio One and available in about 47 million homes. BET, with its reality shows, movies and music videos, primarily draws a teenage and young adult audience. Cable channel start-ups are rare. With hundreds of channels already in operation, new ones often struggle to earn a spot on cable lineups, but Viacom said it would be able to assemble 45 million homes for the premiere of Centric. Viacom executives would not comment on whether BET J, a small music-oriented offshoot of the network, would be affected by the formation of Centric. As Viacom considered the 25- to 54-year-old target demographic for Centric, it realized that “a perfect example would be” Barack and Michelle Obama, said Scott Mills, the president of BET. Centric will be operated jointly by the BET and MTV Networks divisions of Viacom. Viacom’s channels include Nickelodeon and MTV. Doug Creutz, an analyst for Cowen & Company, called the niche strategy valid but incremental. “They’re not going to hit any home runs doing this, but it can grow their reach over time,” he said. Mr. Creutz said the African-American adult audience had “been underserved,” and pointed to the series of successful movies by Tyler Perry as evidence that “there’s money to be made at targeting that audience.”

Black Entertainment Television
Cable Television
Centric
MTV Networks


Guangzhou Activists Sentenced to Jail After Backing Hong Kong Protests

Abstract: On the night of Oct. 3, 2014, the teenage Joshua Wong stood on a platform high above a crowd of thousands in the heart of Hong Kong, urging them to continue pro-democracy demonstrations that had taken over major thoroughfares in the city and brought him international fame as the leader of a burgeoning student movement. That same day, about 70 miles to the north in the Chinese city of Guangzhou, five men, in a show of support for those protesters, unfurled a blue banner whose 13 Chinese characters read: “Freedom Is Priceless! Support Hong Kong’s Fight for Freedom.” On Friday, as Mr. Wong, now 19, prepared to formally unveil a new political party in Hong Kong that will seek to win seats in the city’s legislature in elections this year, the fate of some of those who held up the banner was decided in a Guangzhou courtroom. Two of them, Wang Mo, 43, and Xie Fengxia, 39, were sentenced to four and a half years in prison for “incitement to subvert state power.” The two cities, Hong Kong and Guangzhou, are neighbors, closer together than Los Angeles and San Diego. Both fly the red-and-gold flag of the People’s Republic of China. But civil rights in Hong Kong are protected by the city’s mini-constitution until 2047, part of a legacy of British colonial rule, allowing Mr. Wong to plan a future in politics. Guangzhou is ruled from Beijing, whose leaders in 2014, fearing that the demonstrations in Hong Kong might spread to the mainland, detained more than 100 people who had voiced support for the Hong Kong protests. Mr. Wang and Mr. Xie, who goes by the name Xie Wenfei, have been in custody since the day they unfurled their sign and were among the last to be prosecuted. Many others were released after a period of detention. Lawyers for the men both said on Friday that they would appeal the verdicts. Another man, Liang Qinhui, was sentenced to a year and a half in prison, Mr. Wang’s lawyer, Qin Chenshou, said by telephone. A fourth man, Zhang Rongping, who uses the name Zhang Shengyu, was sentenced to four years, several Chinese-language news services, including Duowei News, reported. “They did nothing else besides express their views,” said William Nee, a China researcher at Amnesty International in Hong Kong. “They’re being punished for exercising their freedom of expression.” The written verdict against Mr. Wang and Mr. Xie was posted online by Weiquan Wang, a website with an emphasis on civil and political rights in China, and it focuses on their activities that day, including holding up the banner. Video In 2014, Joshua Wong was at the forefront of a student movement for democracy in Hong Kong. Mr. Wang and Mr. Xie were key members of what was called the “ Southern Street Movement ,” a group of political activists who participated in highly visible street demonstrations, including pushing officials to disclose their families’ assets. That prominence and outspokenness may explain the harshness of their sentences, Mr. Nee said. On Friday morning in court, Mr. Xie chanted “Abolish the one-party dictatorship” and “Build a democratic China,” his lawyer, Wang Xun, said by telephone. During his trial in November, Wang Mo declared that voicing support for democracy did not amount to a movement to subvert the Chinese state. “From afar in Guangzhou I held a banner to express my support for the Hong Kongers, and you are telling me that’s inciting subversion of state power?” Mr. Wang said in an account verified by Mr. Qin and posted on the website of ChinaChange.org , a group based in the United States that focuses on civil rights and the rule of law in China. “If this act of mine counts as inciting subversion of state power, then what crime are the hundreds of thousands of Hong Kongers guilty of?” The gap between political rights in Hong Kong and in the mainland helped lead to the 2014 movement, known variously as Occupy Central or the Umbrella Revolution. Leaders of the movement feared that Beijing was encroaching on Hong Kong’s freedoms, especially after China’s legislature in late August of that year put strict guidelines on proposed elections for Hong Kong’s top leader that effectively gave the central government control over the nominating process. Many people on the mainland expressed disdain for the Hong Kong protests, but some, like Mr. Wang and Mr. Xie, who were already prominent, actively expressed their approval. “Their show of support encouraged us,” Mr. Wong said by telephone on Friday. “Even though they lived directly under authoritarian rule, they voiced their support for us and risked imprisonment.” On Sunday, Mr. Wong plans to announce the founding of a new party, Demosisto, to bring his advocacy for a referendum on Hong Kong’s political future into the legislature, which is set to have elections in September. The proposed vote would include options such as a continuation of the current “one country, two systems” governing principle after 2047 — the year when China’s promise of 50 years of semi-autonomy is to expire — and independence, an increasingly popular call among young people as they perceive an erosion of civil liberties and local culture under mainland control. Mr. Wong is too young to run himself. His party will field candidates including Oscar Lai and Nathan Law, core members of two student protest groups, Scholarism and the Hong Kong Federation of Students. Mr. Wong has been charged with unlawful assembly and other offenses related to the 2014 protests. “It really shows how different Hong Kong is from mainland China,” he said. “At least Hong Kong still has judicial independence, and we still have the freedom of speech, even though it’s declining.”

China
Hong Kong
Civil Unrest
Joshua Wong
Guangzhou
Freedom of speech
Decisions and Verdicts


Amid Ethnic Conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh, an Oasis Thrives

Abstract: STEPANAKERT, Azerbaijan — On a crystalline spring morning, Iosif Adamyan sipped coffee on the veranda of his guesthouse, overlooking a pear orchard in bloom and, in the distance, a range of snowy mountains. In this picturesque spot, he entertains guests from England, France and Russia; in fact, people from “the whole world,” wind up here, he said, with the peculiarity that many of them speak Armenian. At the stately Hotel Armenia, which caters to the diaspora visiting the capital of the disputed mountain enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, dear to the hearts of Armenians everywhere, the dining room clings to the traditional starched tablecloths and, of course, aged Armenian cognac. “Karabakh is the cradle of Armenia,” said Lyudmila A. Oganyesyan, the director of School No. 3, beautifully restored in a facade of tan, locally quarried stone and paid for, naturally, by a wealthy Armenian benefactor, in this case an insurance executive from Moscow. For being the capital of a war-afflicted former Soviet splinter region, a category of places better known for mud and misery, Stepanakert, with a population of 50,000 or so, is surprisingly livable. Throughout the city, which went onto a war footing this month during three days of fighting with Azerbaijan’s military, signs of the careful attention and largess of a wealthy diaspora are everywhere: a new hospital rising on a hillside; smooth new asphalt on the road into town. This support from the broader world of Armenian émigrés, not least from the large community in Southern California, adds an improbable metropolitan flair to the tiny republic of Karabakh and its capital. The city still has some rough edges, beginning with the six-hour drive to get there on endless switchbacks that take you past a parade of burned and abandoned villages of the Armenians’ enemies, the Azerbaijanis, and terrifying thousand-foot cliffs. In its mountain perch, the region is surrounded, marooned in Azerbaijan, with this road the only supply route. No airport functions. The sustenance from the diaspora makes all the difference. Funds flowed in from the late Kirk Kerkorian , the California financier. A Swiss-Armenian built a sturgeon farm called the Golden Fish. California and six other American states have recognized the splinter republic, though the federal government and in fact no other country have. Image Soldiers ate lunch last week at a field position about 45 miles north of Stepanakert. Credit Karen Minasyan/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images In the former Soviet Union’s other low-intensity wars, known as the frozen conflicts, of which there are at least six, Russian foreign policy is the pivotal element. For Russia, the frozen conflicts in the neighboring states of Georgia, Moldova and most recently Ukraine serve the purpose of weakening independent governments, discrediting democracy and preventing inroads by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the European Union. Nagorno-Karabakh is the oldest of these smoldering conflicts , distinguished from the others by the deep ethnic hatreds involved and the diaspora’s support, which means that Karabakh, known in Armenian as the Artsakh Republic, is not wholly a puppet of Moscow. In 1988, ethnic Armenians voted to secede from Azerbaijan, and fighting broke out between the mostly Muslim Azerbaijanis and Christian Armenians. Massacres and ethnic cleansing on both sides ensued, killing more than 20,000 people and displacing about a million, mostly Azerbaijanis, before a cease-fire took hold in 1994. Russia tends to lean toward Armenia in the conflict, though Moscow sells weapons to both sides. A Russian-brokered cease-fire ended the flare-up after several dozen soldiers died on both sides. Image Armenian-Americans at a candlelight vigil in Los Angeles on Tuesday after fighting flared last week between Azerbaijanis and Armenians along the border of the Nagorno-Karabakh region. Credit Mark Ralston/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images During the fighting, Stepanakert’s main square — immaculately paved, with stunning views of an alpine valley — became a hub of excitement for young and old alike. Jeeps wheeled about, screeched to a stop for soldiers to hop in. An old veteran from the 1991-94 war stood nearby to see them off, the empty right sleeve of his jacket carefully ironed and tucked into a pocket. David Agamalyan, 14, stood with two friends gaping at the armed men and bustle. In this city, any boy on the street has two numbers on the tip of his tongue, his age and his best time for disassembling and reassembling a Kalashnikov rifle, a skill that is taught in schools from age 13. David’s best time is 27 seconds, certainly a feat considering all the springs and rods and sheet metal parts involved. Girls are taught first aid. Both boys and girls are taught to march and stand at attention. At School No. 3, children’s drawings adorning the walls show in crayon and colored pencil the smoldering fight that is all they have ever known: a tank in a mountain landscape; men marching with rifles. All boys join the army. Asked whom he would fight in four years when he signs up, David shrugged at the ridiculous question. “Our neighbor, of course,” he said.

Azerbaijan
Stepanakert
Armenia
Nagorno-Karabakh
Soviet Union
Restoration and Renovation


Mystery of Pits Is Solved, Just in Time to Fill Them In

Abstract: Local residents and researchers have apparently solved the mystery of the underground rooms in Ossining, but they will probably not be able to save them. The network of rooms, at the entrance of a condominium complex, has been identified as a rare 19th-century pit silo where food for livestock was stored. Road work is scheduled to begin this week that will destroy the subterranean brick silo despite a finding by the state’s Historic Preservation Office that the silo, which appears to have been built in the late 1870s, is probably eligible for listing on the State and National Registers of Historic Places. “We are hoping that something can be done to secure the silo and eventually make it accessible so that it can be interpreted,” wrote Peter D. Shaver, a specialist in the Historic Preservation Office, in a letter on Thursday to the property manager of the Mystic Pointe condominiums. But being listed on a historical registry does not necessarily mean that the structure must be preserved. “Even if it has historical value, safety comes first,” said Sal Faruggio, president of the condominium board. The board has been weighing what to do about the private roadway since it developed a sinkhole in the spring. An excavation revealed the mysterious structure, which was the apparent cause of the hole. Some area residents had known about the rooms for years, but they could only speculate what the structure had been used for. Perhaps it was a root cellar or a stop on the Underground Railroad. One resident, Anne Marie Leone, has spent the last few months pursuing the mystery with the help of neighbors, condominium board members and the Ossining Historical Society. She was ultimately able to establish that the structures were ensilage pits used to preserve green fodder over the winter. It appears they were built by Orlando B. Potter, who bought the property as a summer residence in the 1870s. The underground structures feature detailed brickwork and arched ceilings with vents. Ms. Leone’s research found old newspaper articles that chronicled farmers’ experiments with new ways of storing fodder. The silo that is to be filled in is made up of about 10 rectangular, interconnected rooms that create a tunnel-like space. “The modern-day silo apparently evolved from these earlier pit silos,” Mr. Shaver said. Ms. Leone and other members of the community have sought help from the Village of Ossining, historic groups and state officials, without success. About a month ago, officials in the Westchester County village ordered the condominium to fix the road, which it shares with St. Augustine Catholic Church and School. “If that road opened up, we would be held responsible,” Mr. Faruggio said. “With all the facts presented to us, our only goal is to make the road safe.” The cost of repairing the road and saving the underground structures is estimated to be at least $200,000, which is more than four times the estimated $50,000 needed to save just the roadway and fill in the pits. “It comes down to money,” Ms. Leone said, noting that because the site is on private property, it is more difficult to attract grants or other types of assistance. “If I were a millionaire I’d write them a check.”

Westchester County (NY)
Historic Buildings and Sites


Fund-Raising Trip Takes Obama Along West Coast

Abstract: SAN FRANCISCO — If there were any doubts that President Obama had plunged fully into his re-election campaign, they were erased on Thursday as the president spent an entire day hopscotching some of California’s fanciest neighborhoods in search of dollars to finance his bid for a second term. In political circles a fund-raising trip of this magnitude is called a “money run,” and advisers say that by the time the last wineglasses will be clinked — on Friday, at a fund-raiser at the Westin in Bellevue, Wash. — Team Obama will have raised around $8 million. While Mr. Obama is mixing in a couple of public stops — he visited a manufacturing company in Milwaukee on Wednesday and will stop at a Boeing plant on Friday — the mostly political nature of his trip produced Republican grousing that Mr. Obama was doing “what he does best,” in the words of the Republican National Committee’s spokeswoman, Kirsten Kukowski: “Campaign in Hollywood with the rich and famous who will open their pocketbooks for his campaign coffers.” The White House press secretary, Jay Carney, shrugged off the Republican criticism, saying, “We’re consolidating a lot of events out here because he’s here, and then there will be periods of relatively few political events, and then more concentration, depending on what’s on the schedule.” As to the criticism that taxpayers are paying for part of what is a fund-raising trip because the campaign stops are combined with official events, Mr. Obama’s advisers noted that has long been the case during presidential re-election seasons. “We do it absolutely by the book and in the same manner that President Bush did and President Clinton did,” Mr. Carney told reporters traveling aboard Air Force One . Mr. Obama is trying to use the lengthy Republican presidential nomination fight to shore up Democratic financing for the election year. Just two weeks ago, the Obama campaign, in a turnaround, began officially encouraging supporters to donate to a Democratic “super PAC,” Priorities USA. Obama campaign officials characterized their decision as a necessary one meant to combat similar Republican political action committees, particularly those set up to back Mitt Romney. At the various events on Wednesday and Thursday, Mr. Obama mostly stuck to the same script, telling supporters at one fund-raiser, co-hosted by the actor Will Ferrell: “Part of our job is to say, as tough as it is, as incremental as it sometimes seems, things have changed. And they can change more if we fight for it, if we’re determined, if we have confidence in each other, if we decide to unite instead of divide.” Mr. Obama referred to signs of an uptick in the economy, including jobs growth and a revival of the auto industry after the bailout that he backed. And because this was, after all, a group as solidly Democrat as any the president is likely to encounter, he even talked about the health care bill he pushed to passage. Mr. Obama’s arrival on Thursday in San Francisco coincided with his campaign’s announcement that it had opened its first office dedicated solely to high-tech work in the race, like setting up Twitter feeds, Facebook pages and other Internet applications. Campaign aides called it a “technology field office,” and said they believed it to be a first for a presidential campaign. Katie Hogan, deputy press secretary with the Obama campaign, said that one of the office’s missions would be to serve as a place for Web-savvy volunteers to come with ideas about how to increase the campaign’s reach through the use of the Internet.

Presidential Election of 2012
Obama Barack
San Francisco (Calif)
California
Washington (State)
Campaign Finance


Mets Get Glance at a Bright Future

Abstract: ATLANTA — The visitors’ clubhouse at Turner Field was bustling with energy Sunday. Hip-hop blared from two speakers as heaps of luggage bound for St. Louis barreled around the room. The aura of levity was augmented, too, by the sight of blue cheerleader uniforms hanging in the locker of each Mets rookie, signaling the arrival of a familiar late-season ritual. Most significant, though, the Mets were buzzing about having just come from behind to beat the Atlanta Braves, 7-5 , giving them an unlikely series win against a division rival that has the postseason in sight. The victory came during a weekend in which they said they would relish playing spoiler to teams like the Braves, and it provided a measure of relief to Manager Terry Collins, who said Thursday that he was disgusted with his players after they lost eight out of nine games in their most recent homestand. “It’s huge,” Collins said of how his team rebounded. “They do stuff that makes you proud to be around them and makes it fun to be around them.” The Mets (73-80) were galvanized by two rookies who poked holes in the Braves’ seemingly untouchable bullpen. With the game tied, 5-5, in the eighth, Ruben Tejada came up with the bases loaded against Jonny Venters and floated a soft single to right field to give the Mets the lead. The next inning, Lucas Duda blasted a 97-mile-per-hour fastball from Craig Kimbrel, the Braves’ closer, over the wall in straightaway center to give the Mets their two-run cushion. “We’re not happy where we’re sitting with our record and everything else right now, but without the play of our young players, it’d be a lot worse, believe me,” Collins said. “Those guys have played absolutely outstanding baseball all summer long, and I salute them.” The play of Tejada was particularly significant because it occurred on a day he was filling in for Jose Reyes at shortstop and atop the Mets’ order. Collins kept Reyes and Angel Pagan, who had a sore right quadriceps, out of his starting lineup to take advantage of the chance to give them consecutive days of rest. The Mets, who have played 26 games in the last 24 days, are off Monday before starting a series in St. Louis on Tuesday night. Collins said Reyes, who has been troubled by his left hamstring the entire second half of the season, would play the rest of the games. The spotlight on Reyes has been particularly bright this month. He has the chance to become the first player in franchise history to win a batting title. Reyes entered Sunday’s game as a pinch-hitter and went 0 for 1, dropping his average to .331 and putting him further behind Milwaukee’s Ryan Braun , who is hitting .336. But more important, Reyes is set to become a free agent, and though the Mets would love to have him back playing shortstop next year — perhaps with Tejada at second base — that may not be possible. Tejada’s presence at shortstop and in the leadoff spot, then, offered a possible glimpse of the Mets’ future. “Ruben did what he’s done ever since he got here, which is come up with a quality at-bat by using the field and not trying to do too much,” Collins said. “The more experience you get, the more confidence you get. The more confidence you get, the better player you can become. And that’s what he’s done.” Tejada also pounded a three-run double to the warning track in left field in the Mets’ four-run fourth. His surge of offense helped offset a shaky outing from Dillon Gee, who gave up four runs in four and a third innings. “This year, I feel really good,” Tejada said. “I have more experience this year. So I feel good right now.” Tejada said he worked out in Panama during the off-season, adding about 15 pounds to his frame. Despite that, he remains slight, and is listed as 162 pounds. The same could not be said for Duda, who used all of his 6-foot-4, 255-pound frame to muscle Kimbrel’s fastball out of the park. There was little joy in his eyes later, though, as he stood in front of his locker, warily eyeing his new costume. “I don’t know if it’s big enough,” Duda said. INSIDE PITCH The Mets agreed on a one-year contract extension with Tim Byrdak, 37, who spent much of this year as the team’s lone left-handed reliever.

Baseball
Atlanta Braves
New York Mets
Tejada Ruben


The Hue Losing Its Purview

Abstract: CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS — “Whiteness,” Nell Irvin Painter said the other day, “is not what it used to be.” Dr. Painter is a black woman and a prominent scholar of whiteness. Last year, she published a much acclaimed book, “The History of White People,” which germinated in a whiteness studies class she taught at Princeton University in New Jersey. Beginning with Homer and ending with the Obamas, it is the story of the invention and defense of a pigmentary privilege. But today, as Dr. Painter said, whiteness is not what it used to be. The United States is in the middle of a culture war yet again, and the question of whiteness seems inseparable from it. At one level, the questions confronting the nation are more obviously about other things — deficits, wars, health care. But it does not take long to hear in the conversation a palpable anxiety in certain, overwhelmingly white quarters centered on an unspoken question: To whom does America really belong? On Fox News, Glenn Beck regularly asks whether Barack Hussein Obama is pro-American. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People fires back with a report detailing what it calls “white nationalism.” Mike Huckabee, a Republican presidential contender, claims, then recants, that Mr. Obama grew up in Kenya and thus has an anti-colonial mentality. There are the birthers, with the progress they have made in convincing Americans that Mr. Obama was born outside the United States. (He was not.) There are those who believe everyone on the right to be racist, which is surely as specious as the president’s foreign birth. I asked Dr. Painter what she made of what she called this “roiling cloud of passions,” and the notion that beneath it is a cultural anxiety on the part of a segment of white Americans. She replied that the Tea Party and its penumbras, though racially very white, are ideologically diverse, with various interests. Some are deficit hawks; some are tough-on-terrorism types; some want to break up labor unions. But she sees in parts of the ferment the hallmarks of a “movement of resentment — resentment over loss of what seems to be the center of the world, or of country; loss over what may be perceived as traditional values; loss of a world that seemed to be in their hands.” A moment later, she described it as “a loss of the meaning of whiteness,” of the feeling of “being at the center, being powerful, being beautiful, being important.” It is this sense of loss that some read into the words of the speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, John A. Boehner , when he told an interviewer last year, “They’re snuffing out the America that I grew up in.” He went on to speak about the political economy rather than culture. But the blogosphere erupted with analyses that made a very different interpretation. It is true, of course, that Mr. Boehner’s America is being snuffed out. In the America of his youth, it was easier to be white, male and middling than it is today. The withering of American manufacturing has wreaked its havoc. Globalization has compelled Americans to compete with the best and brightest everywhere. The median wage has stagnated. Immigration has soared. Women and minorities have been admitted into places where white men never had to compete with them. Islamic fundamentalists have taken on the United States. China has graduated from Communist backwater to challenger for pre-eminence. Part of the problem for Mr. Obama is that he embodies all of these changes in one man. He is black, but that is only the beginning of it. He is also married to a vigorous woman who used to make more money than he. He was globalized from childhood, with a foreign father and stepfather and a childhood spent partly outside the United States. His first name is Arabic-derived. He has relatives in China. I asked Dr. Painter whether, as whiteness becomes less plainly advantageous, as it becomes better to be rich and black, for example, than poor and white, there will be more explicit calls for white pride and white solidarity. Because of America’s history, white Americans are essentially the only group not encouraged to create members-only clubs to celebrate their identity. After all, much of the country was a white members-only club until not long ago. The problem, Dr. Painter said, and in this view she is not alone, is that white pride has been hijacked by extremists, so that there is no reasonable middle ground between feeling no pride at all and feeling superiority. “The really bad guys like the Aryan Nation and the Ku Klux Klan and the neo-Nazis — those people commandeered white identity. So you can’t say, ‘I’m white and I’m proud.”’ In the life of Dr. Painter, color is not destiny. But her name? Upon retirement from Princeton, she followed the example of her mother, who after retiring took up a new vocation in writing books. Dr. Painter’s second act has been ... to paint. She took art classes at Princeton, then in New York, then spent three years getting an art degree from Rutgers University in New Jersey. She has since enrolled at the Rhode Island School of Design, where she is three months from graduating. I asked her what painting had taught a lifelong scholar of race about color. She recalled that, in an art class at Princeton, when asked to make a self-portrait, she struggled. She told her teacher, “I’m having a lot of trouble figuring out what color I actually am.” Her teacher’s reply lingered in her ears: Neither she nor anyone else could be painted with a single color — and everything depended on the light. Color, it turns out, was a multifarious, complicated, ever-shifting thing. Which the historian in Dr. Painter, if not the painter, knew all along.

United States
Race and Ethnicity
Obama Barack
Boehner John A
Beck Glenn


Coach Jesse Marsch to Leave Montreal Impact

Abstract: Coach Jesse Marsch is leaving the Montreal Impact. The announcement came days after the club ended its expansion season in Major League Soccer with a 12-16-6 record. ¶ Robin van Persie helped Manchester United to the top of the Premier League, punishing his former club Arsenal with a goal in a 2-1 win as Chelsea’s stay in first place ended. Chelsea was held to a 1-1 tie at Swansea after an 88th-minute equalizer by Pablo Hernández, falling a point behind United after 10 games. ¶ Barcelona’s 3-1 home win over Celta Vigo marked the club’s best start in the Spanish league in its 113-year history. Unbeaten Barcelona has won nine of its first 10 games.

Coaches and Managers
Soccer
Marsch Jesse
Montreal Impact (Soccer Team)
Montreal Impact