Judge Drops Charges for 8 in an Inquiry on Benefits

Abstract: A state judge on Thursday dismissed charges against six police officers and two other city workers who had been accused in a huge fraud investigation of faking mental illnesses to obtain federal disability benefits. Justice Daniel P. Fitzgerald of State Supreme Court in Manhattan threw out the charges after the district attorney’s office said in a motion that it had uncovered new evidence suggesting the eight defendants might indeed be ill. The motion concluded that “these cases cannot be proved beyond a reasonable doubt.” The eight men were among 136 city employees — more than half of them firefighters and police officers — swept up in January and February and charged in two indictments with taking part in a scheme to steal millions of dollars from Social Security by feigning mental illnesses. Prosecutors said the ringleaders of the scheme had coached the applicants to pretend to have mental problems, and, in some cases, to falsely claim that they had been scarred by their experiences of Sept. 11. None of the defendants have gone to trial. With their assets frozen and disability payments cut off, 87 have pleaded guilty to grand larceny; most were sentenced to probation in return for promising to return the money. The district attorney’s investigation has nonetheless provoked an unusual legal battle with Facebook, which has objected to search warrants the district attorney obtained, compelling it to turn over its data on 381 people, including photos and private messages. Lawyers for some defendants whose charges were dismissed on Thursday said that prosecutors had not done enough to ensure that people with legitimate mental health problems were not being falsely accused. One was Michael Kull, a former police sergeant who spent most of his career in the First Precinct in Lower Manhattan. When terrorists flew jets into the World Trade Center towers, he was one of the first officers to respond. He worked for days in the rubble and in a makeshift morgue, where the bodies of victims, or pieces of them, were laid out, his lawyer, Bruce Kaye, said. Mr. Kull retired and two psychiatrists diagnosed post-traumatic stress disorder as well as severe respiratory problems, Mr. Kaye said. He applied for disability from the Social Security Administration, but his application was turned down. Then an officer from his precinct gave him a business card for Thomas Hale, a consultant who, prosecutors say, led the scheme with Raymond Lavallee, a Long Island lawyer. With their help, Mr. Kull, 46, of Milton, N.Y., saw a third psychiatrist, reapplied and eventually started receiving disability checks. When he was arrested in January, prosecutors were not aware of the diagnoses by his previous doctors, Mr. Kaye said. “They had cast a wide net and inadvertently ensnared an honest cop,” he said. In some of the other dismissed cases, prosecutors received minutes from Social Security hearings in which judges had ruled the defendants had legitimate claims. Peter Martin, 50, a disabled elevator repairman who walks with a cane, was arrested, largely because he had hired Mr. Lavallee to handle his application, his lawyer, Brian Kennedy, said. Prosecutors said they did not know that the Social Security Administration had already ruled that he had a mental disability.

Fraud
Mental Health
NYC
9/11,Sept 11
Disability insurance
Social Security Administration
Daniel P Fitzgerald


Julianne Moore’s West Village Home Is Robbed of $127,000 in Cartier Jewelry

Abstract: What riches lie behind the manicured facades of Manhattan brownstones are seldom willingly discussed. Tell-all books and blind gossip items give some inkling about the opulence that is concealed. And, as the actress Julianne Moore recently learned, so do burglaries. Ten pieces of Cartier jewelry, valued at $127,000, disappeared from her five-floor brownstone on West 11th Street between June 6 and Aug. 28, the police said on Wednesday. No arrests have been made. Contractors had been working in the brownstone, which Ms. Moore shares with her husband, the director Bart Freundlich, and their two children. The city’s Buildings Department lists three permits, filed in July, for interior renovation and plumbing work. On Wednesday, there were no obvious signs of construction, apart for some wires hanging loosely from the roof near the front door. But Jesse Robertson-Tait, a contractor working on the site, said, “There’s a great deal of activity.” He declined to discuss details of the work, which he said was “nearly finished,” or anything about the burglary, though he acknowledged hearing about it. Ms. Moore’s publicist did not immediately return phone calls seeking comment. According to published reports, Ms. Moore spent part of the summer in Toronto, where she was filming a remake of “Carrie,” and in Montauk, N.Y., where she attended the wedding of the musician Rufus Wainwright. In the neighborhood of bankers and brokers, graphic designers and artists, the six-figure theft appeared to have been carried off without anyone immediately noticing. “First I heard of it,” said a documentary filmmaker who was walking his dog around the block and would give only the name of his companion, Bodhi. (“Like the tree,” he said.) A neighbor in the building next door, which shares a back yard with Ms. Moore’s brownstone, said he also had not heard of any trouble. “There are a lot of families in this neighborhood,” said Marcela Gamboa, 20, a writing student who works three doors down at the 11th Street Cafe but lives in Bushwick, Brooklyn. A customer in the cafe with a blueberry-size diamond on her ring expressed surprise after hearing of the theft and said she had recently seen Ms. Moore at a local farmers’ market. Ms. Gamboa said that did not surprise her. “She walks around the neighborhood alone,” she said of Ms. Moore. “She seems to feel pretty safe here.” Nevertheless, according to real estate documents, Ms. Moore may be planning on decamping; the family’s six-bedroom 1905 brownstone has been listed twice in the past few years, most recently for $12.5 million.

Moore Julianne
Robberies and Thefts
Jewels and Jewelry
West Village (NYC)
Freundlich Bart


Storm Shows Off a Less Stoic Mayor Now in Charge

Abstract: He trudged out with a shovel soon after sunrise, scraping the snow from his sidewalk and reminding New Yorkers to “lift with your knees.” He confessed that his teenage son, Dante, had lobbied for the day off from school, saying that if a 16-year-old did not want a snow day, “there’d be something wrong with him.” And when asked how many layers of clothing he had worn on a numbingly cold day, this new mayor of New York City, Bill de Blasio, provocatively unzipped his windbreaker and struck a coquettish pose. “Do you go want me to go further?” Mr. de Blasio teased. Faced with the first major test of his two-day-old tenure, Mr. de Blasio, in a series of snow-related appearances on Friday morning, was by turns joking and serious, assertive and playful. It was a stark change from the button-down tone of his predecessor, Michael R. Bloomberg, who presided over emergencies with a just-the-facts gravity. A longtime political operative, Mr. de Blasio emerged early from his rowhouse in Park Slope, Brooklyn, with a shovel to clear his own sidewalk, a ritual he said he had done for years. “Get low, scrape a little,” he instructed a television crew, demonstrating with his own shovel. “Rise up with your knees.” Later, at a news conference at a sanitation depot in Woodside, Queens, Mr. de Blasio, in baggy bluejeans, the windbreaker and no necktie announced to New Yorkers that the city’s cleanup operation was running smoothly. “It would have been nice to talk about how to handle a snowstorm in an abstract exercise, but we didn’t get to do that,” he said to the sanitation commissioner, John Doherty, a temporary holdover from the Bloomberg administration. “We got the real thing.” There were some slip-ups. After Mr. de Blasio suggested that New Yorkers dial 911, which is reserved for emergency calls, to report snow issues, he immediately stopped to correct himself. “Let me retake that one,” he said, with a sheepish smile. (The correct number to call is 311, he noted.) And the mayor made it clear that he was not yet accustomed to some of the demands his new office entails. After describing a predawn conference call with his schools chancellor to decide whether to close schools, Mr. de Blasio admitted he had never presided over a 4 a.m. meeting before. “I was one of the most informed people in New York City at 4 a.m. this morning,” Mr. de Blasio said, with a touch of pride. At least one wag on Twitter replied: “He should be.”


Goldman Says It Supports IEX, but Raises Market Structure Issues

Abstract: Goldman Sachs told the Securities and Exchange Commission in a letter dated Tuesday that it supported a proposed new stock exchange, but also pointed out that one exchange should not have an unfair advantage over another in its control of market data. The proposed exchange, Investors Exchange, or IEX, is trying to get approval to operate as an official exchange. It bills itself as the investor-friendly alternative to other exchanges, where high-frequency traders lie in wait to make trades based, in part, on the buy and sell orders their fast computer programs can see from other brokers. IEX proposes to slow trading by delaying the sharing of buy and sell orders on its exchange by 350 microseconds. But it would not slow its receipt of information from others — and that is part of the problem, its rivals say. Goldman has long been supportive of IEX, and said in its letter that the emergence of the new exchange had raised important issues regarding the way stock markets operate. One of those issues is that exchanges have increasingly taken on roles as broker-dealers. “We are concerned that exchange-affiliated routing broker-dealers may have access to and use the proprietary market data of the exchange to benefit their own order routers,” Goldman said on Tuesday in a comment letter to the S.E.C. In other words, IEX will have some trade information before other exchanges, such as BATS, the New York Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq. BATS said last year in its comment letter, “This disparate treatment in favor of IEX’s routing-broker dealer not only unfairly discriminates against other broker-dealers, but it actually allows the IEX routing-broker dealer to engage in the exact type of latency arbitrage that IEX claims is plaguing the current market.” The N.Y.S.E., Citadel Securities and others have made similar complaints. One of the market trends of the last two decades has been an increasingly blurred distinction between the broker-dealers who send orders to and from exchanges and the exchanges themselves. Goldman and other major Wall Street trading banks compete with exchanges for orders through their internal dark pools, which match buyers and sellers but do not publish the trade information. Goldman has been investing in electronic trading, including improving its Sigma X dark pool and hiring executives from high-frequency trading firms to strengthen its electronic execution business. In the comment letter said Goldman said it supported IEX becoming an exchange. The bank also suggested that speed should not be the only factor in trading. “The value to investors from this nonstop race for faster speeds may have reached a point of diminishing marginal returns for market efficiency and stability,” Paul Russo, a managing director at Goldman, wrote in the letter. Instead, stronger safety nets to reduce the size and frequency of market malfunctions should be a priority, the letter said.

Stocks,Bonds
Goldman Sachs Group
IEX Group
SEC
NASDAQ


Mysterious Illness Slows Trevor Bayne, Up-and-Coming Driver

Abstract: CHARLOTTE, N.C. — From mastery to mystery, no Nascar driver has taken more dramatic turns this season than Trevor Bayne. Bayne is the 20-year-old part-time Sprint Cup driver who stunned the sport by winning the most prestigious race on the circuit, the Daytona 500 , in only his second career start. That victory propelled him to instant stardom, only to have his promising career suddenly and bizarrely interrupted by an illness doctors have yet to diagnose. Bayne has been off the track since April 23, when he competed in a lower-level Nationwide Series race at Nashville. He is scheduled to return next week in a Nationwide event at Chicagoland Speedway, and is expected to be back in Cup competition June 19 at Michigan. Bayne, touted as the next great driver when he wheeled the Wood Brothers’ famed No. 21 Ford to victory lane at Daytona, experienced double vision days before an April 9 race at Texas. Although he finished 17th in the race, Bayne went to the emergency room the next day to receive treatment for what he thought was a reaction to a tick or spider bite. After experiencing nausea and fatigue, he ultimately made four trips to hospitals, including a weeklong stay at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. He was treated with antibiotics even though doctors were unable to determine the cause of the illness. Bayne still has no explanation for what happened. But he said the worst has to be behind him now. “I think this year is just helping me figure out what I am made of,” Bayne said Thursday when he met with reporters at Charlotte Motor Speedway before this weekend’s Nationwide and Cup races. He was originally scheduled to run both events but is being held out for another week as he recovers. “I think if you can handle the biggest high you can have and the largest bottom you can have, then the rest of the year should be easy from here,” Bayne said. “I told everybody that I didn’t buy a ticket to get on the roller coaster, I stepped back and watched it even though I was a part of it. I didn’t want to go to the very top and bottom, but luckily I do have my faith and that is what defines me because if I was defined by this I would be in trouble right now.” The team owner Eddie Wood said: “We have tried to make the best of it. When you are as old as we are, you have seen all of it, done all of it and been to the bottom and top of it. You have almost been back to the top, fall back down, it is just racing. You just take it and go.”  KYLE BUSCH CONTRITE Trevor Bayne’s buoyancy contrasted sharply with the contrition of the Cup driver Kyle Busch, who was ticketed Tuesday for driving 128 miles per hour in a 45-m.p.h. zone in Troutman, N.C., north of Charlotte. Busch is among the premier drivers in Nascar, third in the Cup standings with two victories this season. “It was a lack of judgment, and all I can do is apologize to the public, my friends, my fans, my sponsors and everybody, look at this experience as a learning experience, and to move forward,” said Busch, who faces a fine and possible suspension of his driver’s license. Busch was on probation by Nascar for an incident after a race this season in which he used his racecar to bump another car out of the way on pit road, potentially endangering others. But series officials will not punish Busch for the speeding ticket; a competitor does not need to have a valid driver’s license to compete in Nascar. Officials at Joe Gibbs Racing are mulling a possible punishment, although Busch will not be suspended for Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600. “I think some people are their own worst enemy when it comes to being responsible as a person or as a businessperson or anything that comes with life’s responsibilities,” said the driver Kevin Harvick, who was also put on probation for the incident with Busch on pit road.  RAIKKONEN’S RETURN Kimi Raikkonen, the 2007 Formula One champion, will drive the No. 87 Toyota on Saturday in a Nationwide Series race. It will be his second Nascar race; he finished 15th in his debut May 20 in a Camping World Truck Series race here. Raikkonen is eyeing a possible Cup Series debut at a road-course event — perhaps June 26 at Infineon Raceway. “It would be nice to go and do it,” Raikkonen said. “But I don’t know if it is going to happen or not. We’ll see if I come back or not.”

Bayne Trevor
Automobile Racing
Daytona 500 (Auto Race)


E.U. Refuses to Cooperate on Security

Abstract: BERLIN — Next week, President Barack Obama will make his first official call on Chancellor Angela Merkel since 2009. During those four years, Mr. Obama has had to grapple with an economic downturn, the Arab Spring and winding down U.S. involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan. And, of course, the euro zone crisis. It has been a source of disagreement between the White House and Berlin. Ms. Merkel’s critics in the United States believe her policy of insisting on austerity measures has jeopardized growth. No doubt all of these issues will be discussed when both leaders meet on June 18 and 19. But if there is one topic that top U.S. officials have shied away from asking European leaders, it is how Washington’s pivot toward Asia will affect the Union’s security and defense policy. As leader of Europe’s biggest and most successful economy, Ms. Merkel has remained silent on the issue. The reason is that Germany and most other E.U. countries still do not think and act strategically when it comes to strengthening Europe’s foreign and security policy. And if they cannot even do that, how can they react to Washington’s changing strategic priorities? “Apart from a very few countries, such as France and Britain, the Europeans have been very complacent about strategic affairs,” said Rem Korteweg, defense expert at the Center for European Reform, a research organization in London. “It’s as if the world outside does not affect them.” This is confirmed by a new study from the European Council on Foreign Relations that analyzed the national security strategies of the 27 member states. Olivier de France, one of the authors, said the strategies showed that there was no common purpose or common strategic culture that could give Europe’s foreign, security and defense policy substance. “There is no shared ambition about Europe as a global player or about the allocation of defense resources,” Mr. de France said. Many of the national strategies reveal parochial attitudes toward security. This is despite the fact that Europe’s southern neighborhood has fundamentally changed since the Arab Spring, China is a major economic power, and the United States believes it’s time Europe took responsibility for its own security. But why is it that 20 years after the European Union first established the Common Foreign and Security Policy, the member states still think almost exclusively in national terms? Some experts say that governments are loath to cede more sovereignty to Brussels. Yet all the E.U. governments signed up to the 2009 Lisbon Treaty precisely to give Europe a stronger, coherent and more effective voice. Heiko Biehl, one of the editors of a new book, “Strategic Cultures in Europe,” argues that the differing historical and national experiences of the member states have prevented any welding of a common strategic culture for Europe. Consider the national strategies of the Baltic states, France and Germany. The Baltic countries are focused on NATO as their crucial security guarantor because of their deep distrust of Russia. France’s recent white paper on defense grapples with the big strategic issues of the Middle East and elsewhere because of its perspective as a former colonial power and its status as a nuclear power. Germany’s perspective focuses on the importance of multilateralism for dealing with new threats but lacks ideas for European defense. Perhaps it’s because Germany has since 1945 depended on the United States for its security and for setting the security agenda. But analysts wonder how much longer Germany can use the past as an excuse not to commit itself to a strong European defense and security policy. “The dependence on the U.S. was a virtue and vice,” Dr. Korteweg said. “Now Europe is struggling with this as Washington shifts its strategic attention elsewhere.” If the Europeans were serious about responding to the changes taking place in its neighborhoods and in the United States, then national governments would at least agree to write a new security strategy. The first one was 10 years ago. Yet Catherine M. Ashton, Europe’s foreign policy chief, opposes writing a new one, fearing huge disagreements. London and Berlin are hostile to the idea, too. Britain would have to discuss its role in Europe, and Germany would have to deal with Europe’s relations with Russia. These attitudes bode ill for next December’s E.U. summit meeting on defense, the first one in eight years. “The expectations are already being lowered,” Mr. de France said. It remains to be seen whether Mr. Obama’s visit to Berlin can change that. Judy Dempsey is editor in chief of Strategic Europe at Carnegie Europe. ( www.carnegieeurope.eu )

EU
NATO
Germany
Catherine Ashton
Angela Merkel


Ex-Correction Officer Shoots 2 Men at Queens Bowling Alley

Abstract: A retired New York City correction captain working security at a Queens bowling alley shot and wounded two men during a violent confrontation early Saturday morning outside the alley, the authorities said. The retired officer, Michael Iavecchio, 54, was charged with two counts of second-degree assault after the 1:50 a.m. shooting outside the AMF 34th Avenue Lanes, at 6910 34th Avenue in Jackson Heights, the police said. The two wounded men, both 29, were in stable condition at Elmhurst Hospital Center in Queens on Saturday, the police said. The police did not identify them. The violence unfolded after Mr. Iavecchio, who was armed, asked the men to leave because they were smoking cigarettes in a vestibule, according to the police. Mr. Iavecchio then escorted the men outside, where the ensuing fight and shooting were captured on a surveillance video, a law enforcement official said. According to the official, words were exchanged and the two men “put their hands” on Mr. Iavecchio. He pulled out a .380-caliber Ruger pistol, but the men “go back at him and he shoots,” the official said. Mr. Iavecchio fired two shots; one bullet hit one of the men in the chest and the other hit the second man in the stomach, the police said. The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the investigation was still open, said that detectives were conferring with prosecutors from Queens County, and that it was unclear whether the two wounded men would also be charged with a crime. Detectives at the 115th Precinct station house were reviewing the video. The official added that Mr. Iavecchio had an active and unrestricted license to carry a concealed weapon. “So his permit is valid,” the official said. A woman who answered the telephone at the bowling alley on Saturday declined to comment. “I don’t want to answer any questions,” she said. “I’d rather let my boss deal with that.” Matthew Carroll, a manager at the bowling alley, referred questions to corporate officials in Virginia, but several calls to those offices were not returned. The bowling alley is on a desolate commercial strip just south of Northern Boulevard. It has 35 lanes for bowling, as well as billiard tables and a snack bar. On Saturday afternoon, about half the lanes were occupied with youth bowling teams and families and friends bowling together. One worker said that uniformed police officers had been in the alley on Saturday morning. “We feel very safe, very secure here,” said Lorna Rainey, who came to the bowling alley on Saturday to see her daughter’s bowling coach. “It’s a great, all-American sport, and it’s a good place for kids to play it.” Stephen J. Morello, a spokesman for the Department of Correction, said that Mr. Iavecchio retired on July 19, 1999, after an 18-year career. “He retired voluntarily,” Mr. Morello said. Mr. Iavecchio held the rank of captain when he retired, and his last assignment was working in the Kings County Hospital Center prison ward, Mr. Morello said. Further details about Mr. Iavecchio’s work history were not immediately available, he added.


Sea Otters’ Failure to Thrive Confounds Researchers

Abstract: MONTEREY, Calif. — On a fog-shrouded morning in Monterey Bay, wildlife researchers are out to capture a southern sea otter named Blanca — part of a three-year project to learn why her species, hunted to near extinction a century ago, is still in trouble here despite decades of efforts to bring it back. Blanca is not cooperating. Because wild sea otters bolt at the whiff of human presence, the only way to catch one is when it is asleep. Blanca is tagged with a radio transmitter, and scientists onshore are tracking her by telemetry and telescope. About 8:30 a.m., she begins diving for crabs in a kelp bed off Cannery Row. In a skiff on the bay, three otter biologists — Tim Tinker, Brian Hatfield and Joe Tomoleoni — wait for her to stop feeding and take a nap. And wait. And wait. When Blanca finally dozes, five hours after the tracking began, Mr. Hatfield and Mr. Tomoleoni slip into the water 270 yards away, with scuba gear and underwater scooters rigged with nets. Long minutes pass. Then Dr. Tinker, watching with binoculars from the boat, sees her awaken and plunge beneath the surface. “She just saw you,” he tells his companions by radio. “Target is gone. It’s over.” For the wildlife biologists, a clear explanation for the sea otters’ failure to thrive is proving just as elusive. Almost wiped out by fur traders, the species rebounded after an international ban on commercial otter hunting in 1911. But today, the otter population in California is just 2,700, in a mosaic of small, separate colonies off the coast, down from perhaps as many as 16,000 in the past. Multiple factors are stalling the recovery. One popular view, supported by veterinary pathologists who study dead otters, primarily blames coastal pollution — in the form of parasites, bacteria, toxins and chemicals. But Dr. Tinker and other biologists say that, at least in the areas where the sea otter population is highest, off Monterey and nearby Big Sur, the underlying problem is simply that the otters are running out of food. While they are not starving to death, they are depleting their favorite prey, sea urchins and abalone, and having to spend more time hunting. Poor nutrition is compromising their fitness to survive diseases or other threats, said Dr. Tinker, who runs the United States Geological Survey’s otter research program. “They’re not getting enough food to make it through.” Reports from Dr. Tinker’s team also suggest that otters are particularly vulnerable to sharks. Bridging the two scientific camps, Dr. Tinker is working closely with veterinary experts and biologists at the California Department of Fish and Game , the Monterey Bay Aquarium , the University of California and elsewhere. The wildlife sleuths have been tracking diet, behavior, diseases, births and deaths among 90 radio-tagged sea otters that live off urban Monterey or pristine Big Sur. The sites differ mainly in that Monterey Bay receives more polluted runoff. Last fall, the team was recapturing the otters to take more blood samples, pluck whiskers and retrieve a small, implanted, pen-shaped instrument (all with anesthesia) from each. The instrument recorded a trove of data on body temperature and the time and depth of every dive an otter had made in the past year. By telescope, the scientists observed what the otters ate in more than 20,000 foraging dives. More information is coming from a novel test analyzing the chemical composition of the otter whiskers (based on the principle “you are what you eat,“ said Seth D. Newsome, a research collaborator from the University of Wyoming). And a new genetic technique detects whether pollutants and pathogens are impairing the otters’ immunological health, even before they get sick. The new blood test screens activity in 14 key genes, said Lizabeth Bowen , a geneticist at the Geological Survey who developed the test with Jeffrey Stott of the University of California, Davis. The genetic signatures can reveal whether an animal is experiencing subtle physiological stress, inflammation or infection by bacteria or parasites, Dr. Bowen said — or reacting to exposure to pollutants like PCBs . The testing cannot as yet tell precisely which contaminant may be stressing the otters. The Big Sur-Monterey study is part of a larger, multiagency effort called the Pacific Nearshore Project , which is comparing nine distinct sea otter populations and the health of their coastal habitats in the northern Pacific. The broader project is investigating why some colonies in southeastern Alaska, British Columbia and Washington that were growing rapidly two decades ago — by 20 percent a year — have seen that rate slowed by half, said its leader, James L. Bodkin of the Geological Survey’s Alaska Science Center . The California otters’ growth rate is even more lackluster: usually less than 5 percent a year and, lately, near zero. Sea otters are remarkably voracious: To survive frigid waters, they must fuel a high metabolism by consuming 25 to 30 percent of their body weight every day. Veterinary scientists, who tend to favor the coastal-pollution explanation, note that the otters dine on many types of shellfish and invertebrates that are prone to accumulating contaminants. As a result, the animals “are getting hit with so many things,” said Melissa A. Miller , a veterinary pathologist at the California Fish and Game Department who autopsies stranded otters. “I picture it sometimes almost like otters are sitting there right at that land-sea interface with their mouths open.” In 2010, Dr. Miller and her associates reported evidence that microcystin, a toxin from blue-green algae that live only in freshwater lakes and streams, had killed at least 21 sea otters. Another toxin, domoic acid, is also deadly to the animals. Such poisons are generated by harmful growths of algae that can be fed by fertilizers in agricultural runoff. Dr. David Jessup, a veterinarian retired from the state wildlife agency, says other leading killers include disease-causing parasites transmitted in feces from cats and opossums; infections by bacteria in human or animal feces; and industrial pollutants, which may subtly affect otter immune defenses. These factors all “have some connection to human activities,” he said. But to ecologists, emerging evidence instead strongly suggests that elevated rates of infectious diseases are mostly a symptom of a larger problem — insufficient food resources and malnutrition. “When animals reach a point of extreme nutritional stress,” Dr. Tinker said, “they will succumb to whatever particular stressor they encounter first” — whether a parasite or toxin, a boat strike or a shark attack that a well-fed otter might otherwise fend off or evade. Even without harmful pathogens from land, “I think they would be dying from something else,” said James Estes , a marine ecologist at the University of California, Santa Cruz. While these ecologists do not minimize the importance of cleaning up coastal pollution, they doubt it would lead to a major rebound in the sea otter population off Big Sur and Monterey. Dr. Tinker says these areas probably cannot sustain any more otters, given the available supplies of sea urchins, abalone and other shellfish. “Their rate of food acquisition has declined to a point where they’re pretty much spending as much time feeding as they can,” he said — 40 to 50 percent of each day. They are scrawny compared with the “big, round happy otters” at San Nicolas Island in Southern California, where their prey abounds and the otters forage only 25 percent of the time. The results from the current comparison study, due this spring, may help resolve some of the debate by answering whether otters fare better in the cleaner waters at Big Sur. Preliminary genetic tests indicate higher stress, inflammation and exposure to pathogens and pollutants in the Monterey group, Dr. Tinker said. But survival data have not been analyzed. For now, the research partners agree to disagree. No single answer can explain the California sea otter mystery. For instance, food is abundant elsewhere in the otter range, so why aren’t animals rapidly multiplying there and moving into unoccupied territories? No one knows. The reason may be a high rate of shark attacks in some places, or a land-based pathogen in others, Dr. Tinker said. And, because those low-density otter colonies still have much growth potential, he said, combating pollution might still be the best long-term answer to the sea otters’ plight.

Sea Otters
Research
Monterey Bay (Calif)


How a Mastodon’s Teeth Found in Michigan May Tell Us How It Died

Abstract: Seth Colling, who teaches children with developmental disabilities at an outdoor learning center in Michigan, was walking along a creek looking for fish with his students in 2014 when they saw something odd sticking out from the water. “It looked really strange,” Mr. Colling said. “I said to my student, ‘Hey what is that?’” As Mr. Colling and his students would find out, what they had discovered was a leg bone belonging to the most complete mastodon skeleton found in Michigan in more than 70 years. After a full excavation last month, paleontologists uncovered 75 bones, including ribs, a pelvis, shoulder bones and a skull with five gleaming molars that looked as if they were made of quartz. The teeth may hold the keys to figuring out how the beast died some 13,000 years ago: Was it butchered by hungry prehistoric hunters, did it succumb to starvation in the harsh environment, or was it the loser in a mating-season death match? Image The upper portion of a mastodon skull found in Michigan. Credit The Fowler Center Mastodons are ice age relatives of the elephant that once roamed across much of North America and went extinct 10,000 years ago. Like mammoths, they were herbivores, but unlike their grazing behemoth brethren, they had sharp, pointed teeth, which they used to eat twigs and shear trees. Although the teachers and students at the Fowler Center for Outdoor Learning first found the bones at the site in 2014, it was not until this October that a large-scale excavation took place. A small army of schoolteachers, volunteers and researchers uncovered the beast’s skull as well as 70 percent of its skeleton. It is the most complete find in the state since the discovery of the Owosso mastodon in 1944. “Not only was it complete, it was mostly undisturbed,” said Daniel Fisher , a paleontologist at the University of Michigan who helped excavate the Fowler Center mastodon. “This is the way it was left for around 12,000 to 13,000 years.” Image Seth Colling and a student from The Fowler Center for Outdoor Learning with a mastodon leg bone and vertebra, which they first found near a creek in 2014. Credit The Fowler Center They found the bones buried in distinct piles, which Dr. Fisher has seen in other mammoth finds in Michigan. One clump contained the skull, and about nine feet away there was a pile that had a shoulder blade, some vertebrae, a rib and parts of the forelimbs and hindlimbs. They also found a third pile, which contained a lower back vertebra, part of the pelvis, some more bones from the forelimbs and a lot of ribs. “The pattern we see is not what you would expect under any natural or nonhuman scenario,” Dr. Fisher said. “If it’s a crime scene and you found a forelimb nestled to a pelvis, you would say ‘Hmm, something happened here.’” Dr. Fisher is not yet arguing that humans were involved in the mastodon’s death, but he said the findings pointed in that direction. The evidence that could potentially answer how the mastodon died lies within its mouth, he said. Paleontologists can tell a lot from mastodon teeth. In this case, the team members uncovered the top portion of the skull, which included five molars. Based on the conditions of the molars, they concluded that the mastodon had been around 30 years old. But to solve the cold case, they need to look beneath the surface. Mastodon teeth grew layers incrementally in a way that roughly corresponded with the changing seasons. Using a microCT scan, researchers can examine the insides of a tooth to determine what time of year the mastodon died, according to Dr. Fisher. If the analysis shows that the mastodon died in the winter, then its death was most likely because it starved or was sick. If it died in the spring or summer and was a male, then it most likely lost a battle with another male during mating season. Image A molar from the mastodon. Credit The Fowler Center It is the deaths in autumn that humans most likely had a hand in, Dr. Fisher said. The mastodons that he has found in Michigan that died in the fall all showed signs that they had been butchered, he said. “We don’t have an exception to that yet,” Dr. Fisher said. “It suggests that humans were on the scene and probably part of the cause of death.” What most likely happened, he said, is that human hunters or scavengers butchered the carcass and submerged it in a pond for refrigeration. Last year, he and his team identified a mammoth that they believe was processed this way; it is now on display at the University of Michigan Museum of Natural History . Image Researchers and volunteers uncovered the mastodon’s pelvis. Credit The Fowler Center Ross MacPhee , a curator at the American Museum of Natural History’s department of mammalogy, praised Dr. Fisher’s methods but said he did not think there was enough evidence to say whether humans had been involved in the mastodon’s death. He said he was unsure whether the teeth would hold many answers. “It’s an interesting argument, but whether or not the animal was actually hunted to me is unclear,” he said. “There are no arrowheads, no actual signs of butchery.” For Mr. Colling, who found the tibia in 2014, just excavating the mastodon with his students was exciting enough. “It was amazing that I got to do this,” he said. “When I was a kid I wanted to be a paleontologist, so it was like a childhood dream come true.”

Teeth
Paleontology
Endangered Species
Michigan
Skeleton


DuPont and Syngenta Join in Modified-Seed Venture

Abstract: CHICAGO - DUPONT and the Swiss company Syngenta said yesterday that they would join forces in a venture that could present a more formidable challenge to Monsanto's dominance of the business for genetically modified seeds. DuPont, which owns the Pioneer Hi-Bred International seed company, will become an equal partner in an existing Syngenta venture called GreenLeaf Genetics that licenses both conventional and genetically modified varieties to other seed companies in the United States and Canada. Syngenta will also use an experimental genetic engineering technology developed by Pioneer that allows crops to withstand glyphosate, the herbicide sold by Monsanto as Roundup. With both Pioneer and Syngenta offering that technology, it should have a better chance of competing against Monsanto's popular Roundup Ready seed technology. The partnership will "bring more choice, more options, to the growers," Michael Mack, the chief operating officer for Syngenta's seed business, said at a news conference at the biotechnology industry's annual convention here yesterday No financial terms were disclosed. The move marks a big departure for Pioneer, a company that is extremely proud of its long history as a corn breeder and which until now has sold seeds only under its own name. But Monsanto has been gaining market share in corn seeds over the last few years at Pioneer's expense, in part by licensing Monsanto's herbicide-resistant and insect-resistant crop genes to other seed companies. Pioneer executives said they would continue to sell their premium brands under the company's name. "Our long heritage is intact," Dean Oestreich, Pioneer's president, said at the news conference. But he and other Pioneer executives said there were some nonpremium varieties now just sitting on the shelf that could be licensed to others, allowing Pioneer to expand into the 40 percent of the market that does not buy premium seeds. Other seed companies will be able to cross lines provided by Pioneer to create new varieties, and seed retailers would be able to sell Pioneer varieties under their own brands. "What has changed is the time is right," Mr. Oestreich said. "Our biotechnology pipeline is now maturing. These important products really need to be driven across the industry." During a conference call held by DuPont, analysts questioned why the company entered a 50-50 joint venture, since Pioneer is much stronger in seeds than Syngenta. But DuPont officials said the deal was mutually beneficial. Monsanto accounts for the vast majority of biotech crops planted in the world, some under its own brands and the rest by other seed companies that have licensed its technology. Its biggest class of products has been soybeans, cotton, corn and canola genetically engineered to resist Roundup, enabling farmers to spray to kill weeds while leaving the crop intact. Both Pioneer and Syngenta license the Roundup Ready technology from Monsanto to impart glyphosate resistance to their own varieties. Developing their own herbicide-resistance technology would not only give them entry into a lucrative market but also relieve them of paying licensing fees and royalties to Monsanto. Pioneer executives said soybean seeds using its new technology would be ready for sale in 2009. The technology is called Optimum GAT, standing for glyphosate ALS tolerant. Crops using it would be even more resistant to glyphosate than Roundup Ready crops, the executives said, and would also be resistant to another widely used class of weed killers that use so-called ALS chemistry. ALS is an abbreviation for acetolactate synthase, a plant enzyme that the weed killers inhibit. In return for allowing Syngenta to use Optimum GAT, Pioneer is getting a license to insect-resistance genes from Syngenta. Pioneer now sells seeds for insect-resistant corn developed in partnership with Dow Chemical. Robb Fraley, chief technology officer for Monsanto, said it was too early to judge the effectiveness of the Optimum GAT technology or the impact of the new joint venture. "In the end it's going to come down to who has the best product in the marketplace," he said. DuPont shares rose 27 cents, to $42.97 yesterday, while Monsanto's fell 62 cents to $85.62. Syngenta's American depository receipts were down 24 cents in New York, to $27.71.

SYNGENTA AG
MONSANTO CO
DUPONT CO
DUPONT E I NEMOURS & CO
SYNGENTA
AGRICULTURE
GENETICS AND HEREDITY
SEEDS
BIOTECHNOLOGY
MARKET PLACE (TIMES COLUMN)


Factory Orders Fall Again Despite Demand for Aircraft

Abstract: WASHINGTON (AP) — Orders to United States factories fell for a second consecutive month, a worse-than-expected performance that reinforced worries that the risk of a recession might be increasing. The Commerce Department reported Wednesday that factory orders dropped 1.3 percent in February, about double what economists had been expecting. In January, orders fell by an even larger 2.3 percent, the largest decline in five months. The drop in demand was widespread, with steep declines in orders for motor vehicles and various types of heavy machinery and in demand for iron and steel. The Federal Reserve chairman, Ben S. Bernanke, testifying before the Joint Economic Committee of Congress on Wednesday, said the economy could contract over the first half of this year, his most pessimistic assessment to date. “It now appears likely that gross domestic product will not grow much, if at all, over the first half of 2008 and could even contract slightly,” Mr. Bernanke said. Two consecutive quarters of declines in total output constitute a recession. The report on factory orders showed demand falling by 1.1 percent for durable goods, items expected to last at least three years; orders for nondurable goods, like oil products and chemicals, fell 1.5 percent. The weakness in manufacturing occurred despite a 5.1 rise in orders for commercial aircraft in February, rebounding from a big decline in January. Orders for motor vehicles fell 2 percent in February after no gain in January. Automakers are struggling with weak demand in the face of soaring gasoline prices and the broad slump in the economy. Over all, orders for transportation products posted a 1.8 percent rise in February as the strength in commercial and military aircraft orders, as well as higher demand for ships, offset the drop in motor vehicles. Orders for heavy machinery plunged 12.3 percent in February, the biggest drop since January 2004. Orders for iron and steel fell 2.3 percent.

United States Economy
Factories and Industrial Plants
Economic Conditions and Trends
Recession and Depression
Gross National Product (GNP)
Commerce Department


Fan Praises Nets Center for His Help on Highway

Abstract: Scott Koplik made his way to work one day last month, traveling the same route in the same car that he used to take for his four-hour round trips from upstate New York to Nets games while in college. Koplik was driving in the right-hand lane on the western spur of the New Jersey Turnpike, not far from the Izod Center, when a tractor-trailer merged into Koplik’s lane without signaling. As the tractor-trailer drew closer to Koplik’s Chrysler Sebring, Josh Boone, a center with the Nets , watched in amazement from his car in the left lane. Koplik, 27, braked and veered to the right, but it was too late: the tractor-trailer pinned his car against the concrete barrier along the side of the road, dragging it for several seconds until the barrier ended and the vehicle came to a rest near a group of construction workers. The driver slowed the tractor-trailer momentarily, then kept moving without checking on Koplik. Boone did. “I wanted to see if he was all right,” Boone said. “His car was pretty bad. It was a bad accident, like something out of a movie. I had never seen anything like that.” Boone stopped his car on the left side of the road, but was unable to make it across against the traffic. A woman who had also stopped asked if Boone had dialed 911. As Boone finished the emergency call, a state trooper arrived at the scene. Dazed, but largely unscathed, Koplik exited his vehicle through a window. He looked across traffic and noticed Boone, who is 6 feet 10 inches. “I recognized Josh Boone immediately,” said Koplik, a lawyer in West Orange, N.J. “He’s not an unrecognizable individual. “I was pretty impressed with him in particular. On the one hand, there were at least 50 people who must have seen it who did nothing. It was pretty impressive for the person who probably has more to lose than anybody else in terms of valuing their time stop.” The two did not have the chance to meet. Boone gave a witness statement and continued on his way. “I hope somebody would do the same for me,” Boone said. “Just to make sure I was O.K.” Another man who saw the accident briefly chased the tractor-trailer, but the driver has still not been located, Koplik said. Koplik went to the hospital the next day and was treated for a mild concussion, he said. He wrote a letter to Boone thanking him, and he copied it to the Nets’ basketball operations department. “I have heard rumors that he’s on the trading block, and it does not make me happy as a fan,” Koplik said. “We can’t afford to lose quality people like that from the area, yet alone basketball players.”

Boone Josh
New Jersey Nets
Accidents and Safety
Automobiles


N.H.L. Playoffs — Senators Defeat Canadiens in Overtime

Abstract: The Ottawa Senators have adopted the “Pesky Sens” nickname this season. They lived up to that role Tuesday night. Kyle Turris scored at 2 minutes 32 seconds of overtime as the Senators fought back from a 2-0 third-period deficit to beat the Montreal Canadiens, 3-2, in Ottawa to grab a 3-1 lead in their playoff series. Turris took a shot from the sideboards that sneaked past the backup goalie Peter Budaj, who came on for the injured starter Carey Price at the start of overtime. With only 22.6 seconds left in regulation, Ottawa had tied the score on a goal by Cory Conacher during a scramble in front of Price. “That was a bit of a lucky shot tonight, but I’ll take it,” Turris said of his winner. “How we did it tonight, sticking around and kind of giving ourselves a chance to win — you know, pesky.” A team ravaged by injuries all season, the Senators found a way to make the playoffs with a patchwork roster and now have the East’s No. 2 seed on the brink of elimination. Mika Zibanejad had the other goal for Ottawa, which got 26 saves from Craig Anderson in a game the Canadiens controlled for lengthy stretches. “We came to play and that’s exactly what we did,” said Canadiens Coach Michel Therrien, whose team will look to stay alive in Game 5 at home Thursday night. “We certainly deserved a better fate. Image Ron Rolston, rear, led Buffalo to a 15-11-5 record after Lindy Ruff was fired in February. Credit Gene Puskar/Associated Press “It’s one of those nights, tough to explain.” P. K. Subban and Alex Galchenyuk scored 62 seconds apart in the second period for Montreal. Price, who made 30 saves for the Canadiens two nights after allowing all six goals in Ottawa’s 6-1 victory in Game 3, sustained a lower-body injury at the end of regulation. BLACKHAWKS 3, WILD 0 Patrick Sharp scored 2 goals and Corey Crawford stopped 25 shots as Chicago won at Minnesota and took a 3-1 lead in their first-round Western Conference series. Sharp has four goals in the series for the top-seeded Blackhawks, who can close out the Wild on Thursday night in Chicago. Minnesota goalie Josh Harding, who has multiple sclerosis, left the game with a left leg injury with nine seconds remaining in the first period. SHARKS 4, CANUCKS 3 At San Jose, Patrick Marleau scored a power-play goal 13:18 into overtime as the Sharks completed their first playoff sweep in franchise history. Joe Pavelski scored his second power-play goal of the game to tie it with 4:27 left in regulation. Brent Burns also scored for the Sharks, who will now get a break before beginning the second round of the playoffs next week. “A win like this feels good; now we will get some rest,” Pavelski said. Mason Raymond, Alex Burrows and Alexander Edler scored for the Canucks, who were unable to hold onto a late third-period lead for the second time this series. SABRES STICK WITH ROLSTON Ron Rolston was hired as head coach of the Sabres, dropping the interim title he was given on Feb. 20. He becomes the 16th head coach in Sabres history. Rolston was the only candidate considered for the job by the Sabres. He led Buffalo to a 15-11-5 record after being promoted from Buffalo’s A.H.L. affiliate, the Rochester Americans. The team began the season 6-10-1, leading to the firing of Lindy Ruff, the longtime Sabres coach. Ruff spent 16 years as coach of the Sabres and 10 years as a player.

Ice hockey
Coaches
Buffalo Sabres
Ron Rolston
Lindy Ruff
Montreal Canadiens
Ottawa Senators


Unemployment Rate in Europe Holds Steady

Abstract: BRUSSELS — Unemployment in the 16-nation euro zone held stable at 10 percent in May, a sign that a long and steady deterioration in the labor market may have stopped. But the outlook remains pessimistic as government austerity programs start to bite. The European Union ’s statistical office also said producer prices remained subdued in May, in line with expectations, pointing to low underlying inflation pressure. Eurostat said 15.789 million people were jobless in the euro zone in May, 35,000 more than in April. For that month, the figure was revised to 10 percent from 10.1 percent. Analysts polled by Reuters had expected unemployment at 10.1 percent, the highest level in almost 12 years. “The recent reduced rise in the number of unemployed suggests that a limited pick up in euro zone economic activity since early-2010 is currently helping the labor market,” said Howard Archer, chief European economist at IHS Global Insight. Euro-zone joblessness was unchanged thanks to a drop in Germany, Europe’s biggest economy, to 7 percent from 7.1 percent. Unemployment increased in crisis-hit Spain to 19.9 percent from 19.7 percent, but held steady in France and Italy. The lowest unemployment across the full 27-nation European Union was registered in Austria at 4 percent and the highest in Latvia at 20 percent. “Encouragingly, the German rate fell, boosting hopes of a modest consumer revival there,” said Ben May, analyst at Capital Economics. “But the news from the periphery was more downbeat. The Spanish, Portuguese and Irish rates all rose, supporting our view that a sustained recovery in domestic spending in these economies remains a long way off.” But he noted that that German subsidies that had kept many workers employed will start expiring later this year. Spending cuts ordered by many governments to ward off the sovereign debt crisis are also likely to hit the job market and reduce economic growth, economists have said. Unemployment is a lagging indicator, slow to react to the fragile economic recovery from the worst economic crisis in decades. But after hitting 10 percent, the figure has held flat. Analysts expect unemployment to remain high this year and next, putting a drag on the economy, which needs strong consumer demand to help make any recovery self-sustaining. Separately, Eurostat said euro zone producer prices rose 0.3 percent month-on-month in May and 3.1 percent annually, in line with economists’ expectations. The annual figure was boosted by energy prices, which were at low levels a year ago. But modest monthly increases of durable and non-durable consumer goods, 0.2 and 0.1 percent respectively, suggested no inflationary pressure. This, coupled with fragile growth outlook, is expected to cement expectations that the European Central Bank would keep its main interest rate at a record low of 1 percent well into the next year. Producer prices play an important role for rate-setters as a precursor to consumer price developments. The European Central Bank wants to keep consumer inflation below, but close to 2 percent over the medium term. Euro zone consumer inflation was 1.4 percent year-on-year in June, Eurostat estimated this week.

European Union
Unemployment
Economic Conditions and Trends


New Face, Lingering Problems for New York City’s Carpenters’ Union

Abstract: When he was elected in December as the leader of the city’s 25,000 unionized carpenters, Michael Bilello was helping to build the new PATH station at ground zero. After the election, he “put down his tools” — as they say in his trade — and went to Brooks Brothers, where he had once built a staircase, to buy a new suit. “It was the only place I could find with the union label in the pocket,” he said. Mr. Bilello, 54, has been a carpenter since graduating from high school in Hicksville, N.Y., in 1975. After years of swinging a hammer, he won election as a reformer, pledging to return democracy and integrity to a union in distress. He has his work cut out for him. Among the challenges he faces are an increase in nonunion construction, unsigned labor contracts, a breakaway faction seeking to leave the union, a federal judge who monitors his every move, and organized-crime families that still view the New York City District Council of Carpenters as a prime feeding ground. He also has to beat the jinx: the last four leaders of the district council were indicted for on-the-job crimes. Mr. Bilello’s immediate predecessor, Michael Forde, is serving an 11-year term in federal prison for taking bribes; Frederick W. Devine was convicted in 1998 of embezzlement; Paschal McGuinness was acquitted of bribery but resigned in 1994 as part of a consent decree that settled a federal civil racketeering case and placed the union under court oversight. Theodore Maritas did not make it to court: he vanished in 1982 on the eve of his trial on mob-tied extortion charges, leaving behind only a wallet found floating near the Throgs Neck Bridge. “The members have always felt kind of helpless over the way the organization has gone over the years,” said Mr. Bilello, who had a brief stint as a union business agent in 1999 but was fired after he shined a spotlight on corruption. “The idea is to give them the ability to determine their own future.” As part of that effort, carpenters will vote this month on new collective bargaining agreements, for the first time. Previous contracts were approved by a small group of union officers. “They did it at a table about this size,” Mr. Bilello said as he sat in the large wood-paneled corner office he inherited at the council’s Hudson Street headquarters. Exploring the office on his first day, he opened what he thought was a closet door, only to find a well-equipped kitchen. Behind another door was a marble-clad bathroom with a glass shower stall. “They had it nice,” he said. But the party appears to be over. Union benefit funds have slid sharply because of the lack of work. In a bid to keep the growing nonunion sector at bay, the proposed contracts give employers vastly increased freedom to pick their workers, bypassing the union’s out-of-work list, except for shop stewards. They also call for increased job site scrutiny, including electronic scanning of union cards as a safeguard against the use of nonunion labor, a common fraud in the past. The pacts were negotiated by national union officials who placed the council in trusteeship after Mr. Forde’s 2009 indictment. Mr. Bilello campaigned against the so-called full mobility provision, arguing that older carpenters and whistle-blowers could be left sitting on the bench. But he has not taken a position on the pending vote. “I don’t want to taint it,” he said. Then there is the secession movement started last year by current and former members, some of whom have run afoul of strict anticorruption measures imposed under the 1994 consent decree. The Amalgamated Carpenters and Joiners Union is promoting itself as a viable option to the district council. Part of its pitch is that unlike the national carpenters, who are engaged in a bitter national jurisdictional feud with the A.F.L.-C.I.O., the Amalgamated group is affiliated with the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades, which belongs to the labor federation. “We have been offering assistance to them,” said a painters’ union spokesman, referring to the Amalgamated group. The breakaway leaders declined to discuss their organizing. Listed as the Amalgamated president is a lawyer named Angelo R. Bisceglie Jr., who has represented several carpenters charged with wrongdoing. Mr. Bisceglie also served in the 1990s as labor counsel for a New Jersey businessman named Thomas Petrizzo, who was described by the Federal Bureau of Investigation as a member of the Colombo crime family, exerting influence over past carpenters’ union officials. Mr. Bisceglie did not return calls. But at a hearing in December before Judge Richard M. Berman of Federal District Court in Manhattan, he said he did not believe that the consent decree should apply to his new organization. “We realize the importance of keeping a clean-running union,” he added. The new union’s secretary is John Holt, who was removed as a carpenters’ union business agent after the current court-appointed monitor, Dennis M. Walsh, cited him for violating job-referral rules. “I can’t help you right now,” Mr. Holt said when reached by phone. The first vote on the breakaway union will come later this month, when some 700 dock builders, who construct piers and pilings, will vote on whether to stay with the district council or be represented by a new Dock Builders Local of Amalgamated Carpenters and Joiners. (They will also have the option of voting for none of the above.) Leaders of the effort said they decided to leave last summer, after national carpenters’ union officials abruptly dissolved their old local, Dock Builders Local 1456, merging it with another carpenters’ unit. “They took our union,” said Eric Gundersen, a dock builder for 13 years. “We’re looking to stand by ourselves and not have things shoved down our throat.” But the revolt also followed the resignation or retirement of top Local 1456 officials, after an investigation by Mr. Walsh found thousands of dollars in unauthorized spending on lavish dinners, golf and spa fees, and trips to conferences in Florida and the Caribbean by officers and their spouses. Mr. Gundersen, who was not one of those cited, said the inquiry was unnecessary. “I felt like it was a witch hunt,” he said. Mr. Walsh said such scrutiny was needed at the union. “I believe it is difficult if not impossible for any person with bad intentions to steal a dollar from the district council right now,” he said. Mr. Bilello agreed. “These are people who were players in this organization that are not allowed to play here anymore,” he said. “Now they’re trying to bring the game across the street.” Mr. Bilello stowed his old work clothes — a Carhartt jacket, boots and hard hat — in the walk-in closet near the marble bathroom in his office. He has been wearing them lately to job sites, where he has urged dock builders to stick with the district council. “Like any other election, you’ve got to work it,” he said.

District Council of Carpenters
Organized Labor
Corruption (Institutional)
New York City
Bilello Michael


Treasury Bills Scheduled for This Week

Abstract: The Treasury’s schedule of financing this week included today’s regular weekly auction of new three- and six-month bills and an auction of four-week bills tomorrow. At the close of the New York cash market on Friday, the rate on the outstanding three-month bill was at 4.91 percent. The rate on the six-month issue was 5.01 percent, and the rate on the four-week issue was 4.71 percent. The following tax-exempt fixed-income issues are scheduled for pricing this week: TOMORROW Ohio. $250 million of general obligation bonds. Competitive. WEDNESDAY San Francisco. $152.5 million of debt securities. Competitive. North Carolina. $200 million of debt securities. Competitive. Omaha Metro Utility District, $96 million of revenue bonds. Competitive. Ogden City, Utah, School District, $60 million of general obligation bonds. Competitive. ONE DAY DURING THE WEEK Miami-Dade County, Fla., $86.8 of general obligation bonds. A. G. Edwards. Miami-Dade County, Fla., School District, $79.6 of general obligation bonds. A. G. Edwards.


Buzz Lightyear, Lost, Found and Returned

Abstract: I FELT so virtuous handing over $1 for the Buzz Lightyear action figure my 3-year-old daughter found amid the wreckage at the charity bazaar. Little did I know she’d stolen it from a younger kid. We had heard about the bazaar on a local parenting e-mail list: it was a fund-raiser for Jonah’s Just Begun , a foundation for children with Sanfilippo syndrome , a horrible disease that I’d never heard of and that currently has no cure. My husband dragged the twins to the back of the bazaar for face-painting — a rainbow with a star that curiously resembled the Libyan liberation flag — while I scavenged the rich-but-not-sorted-by-size piles of castoffs. Everything was $1: gray sweat pants with pink and purple hearts; a purple fleecy sweatshirt; and a plush snowsuit in size 18 months that I couldn’t leave there, even though I will never have another 18-month-old. I’d give it to a friend. Faces painted, my twins searched the toy table. Virtually everything was for babies. Oh, well. Then Shayna found Buzz. We’d watched “Toy Story” and “Toy Story 2” the previous two Saturdays. The kids are just starting with movies. Their first was “Finding Nemo.” Their 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 14th was “Finding Nemo.” They don’t like the part where Nemo gets lost. Every time. Now, Buzz. “Infinity and beyond!” Shayna kept saying in a delighted, cartoonish voice I’d never heard. For $1. I scoured the toy table for something similar for my son, Lev, but the only remotely age-appropriate thing was a helicopter rocket-launcher spinner I remembered from Purim carnivals in the 1970s (yes, I bought it; yes, it broke on first use). Shayna slept with Buzz that night. “And beyond!” The next day, we watched “Toy Story 3.” She asked why her Buzz did not have purple fingertips, like the movie’s Buzz. Lev kept asking where his Buzz was. That night, still reveling in my community-mindedness for supporting Jonah, I returned to the e-mail list. I shared our wondrous find at the bazaar, and my mother-of-twins quandary of Lev’s being Buzzless. Was there an old Buzz out there in need of a new child? Someone who was 3 when the first movie came out, in 1995, would be in college now, after all. Instead, this: Did you happen to purchase the Buzz Lightyear doll at St. John-St. Matthew-Emanuel Lutheran Church? They had a rummage sale Saturday morning. If so, my son lost his Buzz Lightyear at that sale on Saturday morning. His arm is broken off but I have been gluing it back with Gorilla Glue and it seemed to work. My son has been asking where Buzz is. Please let me know if you might be the keeper of his lost Buzz action figure. It was signed by a woman from Park Slope, Brooklyn, who used three names. Her son, Matthew, is apparently very, very into “Toy Story.” He takes Buzz everywhere. It must have fallen out of a pocket at the bazaar. “I know your children are attached to it now, but if they would be willing to return it, that would be great,” she wrote. I consulted several friends about whether the “finders keepers” doctrine was operative, then begged for time: Could Matthew wait until we got two more Buzzes? That night, I sent my husband to Target, but he came back with only a lamer, miniature, five-pack of “Toy Story” figures. I resigned myself to ordering a new Buzz — and perhaps a Woody for Lev — online. Then I wrote to the woman with three names: What was her address? Wouldn’t it be simpler for me to just have the new Buzz sent to her son, rather than arrange to hand this one off? Thank you for your very generous offer, but no need to purchase a new one for Matthew. If your daughter and son are attached to the current Buzz, keep it for now until the new one comes in. If they want to keep the old one too, then we are happy that Buzz has a good new home (the last thing we want is any unhappy children). But, if old Buzz doesn’t hold the luster as it did before the new Buzz and they want to give it up, then we are happy to take it back. Shamed by her kindness and flexibility, I ordered $9.99 Buzz and Woody figures from toysrus.com , lured partly by free shipping (only to discover that I had to spend $100 to get free shipping, which I promptly did). Then, the next morning, I dared to tell Shayna about Matthew. While I was thinking “finders keepers,” mini-me was as nice as the woman with three names. We wrote Matthew’s name on Buzz’s foot — just like the movie! That night, Matthew and his parents came over for the big exchange; they even brought a DVD of “Toy Story 3” for us as a thank-you. We gave the twins the tiny Buzz and Woody (and Bullseye and Jessie and T-Rex) from Target. Within days, they were abandoned on the floor. Just like the movie.

Toys
Children and Youth
Brooklyn (NYC)
Toy Story (Movie)


Board’s Proposal for Rent Increases Disappoints Landlords and Tenants Alike

Abstract: The board that regulates rents for New York City’s one million rent-stabilized apartments proposed a tentative range of increases Monday night that could lead to larger increases than last year’s. The city’s Rent Guidelines Board recommended increases of 3.5 percent to 7 percent for one-year leases and 5.5 percent to 9.5 percent for two-year leases. The nine-member board will hold two public hearings on June 11 and June 16 and is scheduled to set a final number, not a range, at a meeting on June 19. The proposed range of increases apply to leases renewed between Oct. 1, 2008, and Sept. 30, 2009. The board’s 5-to-4 vote left both tenant advocates and landlord representatives equally disappointed. A landlord group had called for higher increases, while tenant leaders, many of whom are pushing for substantive reform of the rent-stabilization system, supported a proposal by some board members for a rent freeze. “I’m afraid it’s going to be higher than last year’s increase, and last year’s increase was way too high as it was,” said Barry Soltz, 51, the legal coordinator for the tenant association at the rent-stabilized Janel Towers in the Bronx. He was one of a few dozen tenant advocates at the meeting, which had a low turnout compared to previous years. Last year, the board approved increases of 5.75 percent on two-year leases and 3 percent on one-year leases. Those increases were modest compared with those passed in 2006, when the board voted to allow increases of 7.25 percent on two-year leases and 4.25 percent on one-year leases. The board decides the size of the allowable rent increases for rent-stabilized apartments, and its annual round of public meetings and hearings have become a rowdy dramatization of the battle of wills and pocketbooks between the city’s landlords and tenants. In June 2006, jeering tenants with drums, whistles and handmade rattles tried to shut down a board meeting, prompting the chairman, Marvin Markus, to call a two-and-a-half-hour recess. The notice announcing Monday night’s meeting at the Great Hall at Cooper Union in the East Village warned that “items that are reasonably likely to disrupt the proceedings, such as noisemakers and drums, are prohibited and may not be brought into the meeting venue.” The warning hardly seemed necessary, however, since more than half the seats in the Great Hall were empty during much of the meeting, and those tenant leaders in attendance were mostly mild-mannered. At the start of the meeting, a board member representing tenants proposed a rent freeze, which was struck down 7 to 2. A member representing owners then proposed 9 percent increases on one-year leases and 14 percent on two-year leases, which was also voted down 7 to 2. The stalemate was broken when Mr. Markus proposed the range of increases that ultimately passed. There were angry shouts from the audience as Mr. Markus made his proposal. “Stooge for the landlord, that’s all you are,” one man screamed. The proposed rent increases come as advocates for moderate and low-income housing and some elected officials have grown concerned about the affordability of the city’s rental market. Representative Anthony D. Weiner of Queens and Brooklyn released a study last month that found that roughly 500,000 New Yorkers were spending 50 percent or more of their income on housing. Key factors in the range established by the board on Monday night are recent trends in housing affordability, tenant income and owner costs highlighted in three reports issued by the board’s staff last month. One of the reports, called the Price Index of Operating Costs, found that operating costs for rent-stabilized buildings increased 7.8 percent in the last year, in large part because of a rise in fuel costs and utility payments. The previous year, owners’ costs had risen by 5.1 percent. But another report showed that landlords of rent-stabilized units saw their net operating income — the earnings that remain after operating and maintenance expenses are paid — increase by 8.8 percent. That report was based on 2006 data. Those dueling conclusions — an increase in owners’ operating costs but also an increase in their income — fueled much of the debate at the meeting. Tenants and their supporters view the Price Index of Operating Costs as a one-sided report and put more stock in the report that examines owners’ net operating income, while landlords used the rise in costs in the price index report to demand a larger set of rent increases. The Rent Stabilization Association, representing landlords who own hundreds of thousands of rent-stabilized units, urged the board to adopt an increase of 10 to 15 percent, or a minimum increase of $60 a month. Joseph Strasburg, president of the association, said that in the last six years, operating costs of rent-stabilized units have grown by more than 40 percent, while the board’s rent increases in that time for one-year leases have risen by 20 percent. “They will not cover the fuel costs at all,” Mr. Strasburg said of the tentative increases the board approved. But Adriene L. Holder, a board member representing tenants, said a staff report showed that for every dollar of income, the typical landlord was left with 37 cents for debt service and profit. “This is more than a decent return,” she said. The Rent Guidelines Board is made up of nine members appointed by the mayor. Two represent tenants, two represent owners and the rest represent the public. This year, tenant leaders are intensifying their efforts to restructure the board. They are urging legislators to support a bill in Albany that would require City Council approval of all mayoral appointments to the board. The bill, sponsored by State Senator Thomas K. Duane of Manhattan and Assemblyman George S. Latimer of Westchester County, would change the composition of the board so that tenants, owners and the general public would each have three members. It would also bar the use of the price index report and eliminate the need for tenants to renew their leases.

Rent Guidelines Board
Rent Control and Stabilization
New York City
Landlords
Housing
Renting and Leasing


Sheltering in Storm, Family Must Flee as Debris Rains From Brooklyn Bridge

Abstract: With his family taking shelter from a powerful storm under the Brooklyn Bridge on Wednesday evening, Jerome Dilligard darted out into the streets of the Dumbo neighborhood to retrieve their car. When he returned a few moments later, all he could see where his family had stood was a mound of gray rubble. Part of the facade of a wall near the bridge’s pedestrian entrance had crumbled to the ground, raining chunks of stone and dust on his wife, his 8-year-old daughter, his 30-year-old daughter and his two grandchildren. For a moment, he despaired of rescuing them from beneath the debris. Then he saw his wife, Teresa Dilligard, who, though stunned, managed to tell him that the rest of the family had narrowly escaped being engulfed and had fled across the street — though not before his 4-month-old granddaughter, Kiarra, had fallen out of her baby carriage. “I’m right around the corner, I come right back, and within that time, all hell broke loose,” Mr. Dilligard, 52, a retired corrections officer who lives in Bedford-Stuyvesant, said on Thursday. “It was a disaster.” They had spent an idyllic afternoon visiting Brooklyn Bridge Park, taking the route through the underpass at Prospect Street and Washington Street as they had done dozens of times. Then heavy rain, thunder and lightning drove them under the bridge with another couple, who had managed to hail a cab to the subway by the time Mr. Dilligard decided to make a run for the car. While he was gone, Ms. Dilligard said, water began seeping through the stones covering the wall. No sound warned them of what was to come. Then, a little after 7:30 p.m., the stones simply tumbled down, exposing bare concrete behind them. Image After the area was cleared and inspected. Credit Andrew Renneisen/The New York Times Fire trucks and other emergency personnel quickly arrived at the area, closing the streets around the bridge. By Thursday morning, the streets had reopened, and pedestrians could come and go freely through the underpass, which connects Brooklyn Heights and Brooklyn Bridge Park to Dumbo and to the steps up to the bridge’s pedestrian walkway. Workers had stripped the rest of the facade off for safety. A Fire Department spokeswoman said that five adults and three children, including Mr. Dilligard and his family, had been treated for minor injuries at Bellevue Hospital Center in Manhattan. Mr. Dilligard’s family has been released, although he said Kiarra was still undergoing tests. Nancy Greco-Silvestri, a spokeswoman for the city’s Office of Emergency Management, said there were no structural issues at the bridge. A spokeswoman for the Transportation Department said in a statement that it was conducting “a full inspection of all the facade, and we will continue to thoroughly inspect our entire bridge inventory.” The department last inspected all its bridges in 2012, and is in the midst of another citywide inspection. A police officer, who declined to give her name because of the continuing investigation, said workers had been doing construction on the overpass of the bridge before the storm, which may have enabled water to seep down into the underpass when it began to rain. She cautioned that no link between the construction and the collapse had been confirmed. Mr. Dilligard is thankful, he said, that none of his family was seriously hurt. But he said he hoped the city would investigate the incident thoroughly, because “that’s not normal.”

Brooklyn Bridge
Accidents and Safety
Rain
Fire Department NYC
Office of Emergency Management NYC


North Dakota: Saltwater Contaminates Missouri River After Pipeline Spill

Abstract: Saltwater contamination from a massive pipeline spill in northwestern North Dakota reached the Missouri River, the state’s environmental chief said Friday, adding that officials did not expect harm to wildlife or drinking water supplies because the water was diluted. Blacktail Creek and the Little Muddy River were contaminated after nearly three million gallons of saltwater leaked this month from a pipeline operated by Summit Midstream Partners. Testing showed elevated levels of chloride contamination where the Little Muddy River empties into the Missouri, but the levels became diluted to within water quality standards almost immediately, said Dave Glatt, chief of the North Dakota Department of Health’s environmental health section. Wayde Schafer, a North Dakota spokesman for the Sierra Club, said there was no basis for questioning the state’s contention. But he said, “It is a worry and a concern that we are just waiting for that other shoe to drop, where there will be another spill that will do harm.” Summit Midstream Partners discovered and reported the spill north of Williston on Jan. 6.


Massachusetts: Prospective Jurors Screened for Trial of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev

Abstract: The first phase of jury selection in the trial of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev in the Boston Marathon bombing ended Wednesday as the last of more than 1,350 prospective jurors filled out questionnaires intended to help lawyers and the court find 12 jurors and six alternates for the capital case. For the third day, several hundred prospective jurors were introduced by Judge George O’Toole to the defendant, who is accused of killing three people and injuring more than 260. One of those injured, Jaymi Cohen, a college student, watched the proceedings alongside Carmen Ortiz, the United States attorney for the District of Massachusetts. The questionnaires will be reviewed, and some of the prospective jurors will be summoned for further questioning.

Boston Marathon Bombings
Jury
Dzhokhar A Tsarnaev
Massachusetts


Netanyahu to Form New Israel Government

Abstract: JERUSALEM — Benjamin Netanyahu , leader of the conservative Likud Party, was invited by Israel ’s president, Shimon Peres , on Friday to take the lead in assembling the next government. Whatever form that government takes, Mr. Netanyahu, 59, is widely expected to return as prime minister a decade after the last government he led fell apart. In a brief but statesmanlike speech at the presidential residence on Friday afternoon, Mr. Netanyahu accepted the mandate and immediately called on the centrist Kadima Party, led by Tzipi Livni, and the center-left Labor Party, led by Ehud Barak, to join him in a unity government. He said national unity was necessary in order for Israel to contend with the formidable challenges ahead. “Let us unite to secure the future of the State of Israel,” Mr. Netanyahu said, adding that he wanted to discuss the possibility of forming a broad government “for the good of the people and the state.” Mr. Netanyahu and Ms. Livni have agreed to meet on Sunday, but the negotiations between them are likely to be tough and the chances of success are unclear. Ms. Livni, the current foreign minister and Mr. Netanyahu’s main rival for the premiership, has so far refused the idea of joining a government led by Mr. Netanyahu and including several ultra-orthodox and far-right parties. Committed to the peace process with the Palestinians , she has said she would rather go into the opposition than serve as a fig-leaf for a coalition of the right. Mr. Barak, whose Labor Party fared badly in the elections, has already said he would heed the will of the people and head into the opposition. But in his plea for unity, Mr. Netanyahu pointed to the existential threat to Israel that would be posed by a nuclear Iran and the global economic crisis that he said could cost hundreds of thousands of Israelis their jobs. Such major challenges, Mr. Netanyahu said, required “a new approach” of unity and of “joining hands.” Striking a more positive and conciliatory tone, he said the goal was to seek “peace with our neighbors and unity among ourselves.” A broad government joined by the center and left would likely promote a more pragmatic agenda and avoid friction with Israel’s most important ally, the United States. Mr. Netanyahu will have up to six weeks to put together a governing coalition. He was tapped for the premiership after he gained the endorsement of 65 members of the 120-seat Parliament, from religious parties and those on the far right. While Ms. Livni’s Kadima narrowly won the Feb. 10 elections, it failed to muster the support of a majority in the Parliament, a prerequisite for forming a governing coalition. Ms. Livni gained the endorsement only of Kadima’s 28 legislators. In the last few days, many here have predicted that Mr. Netanyahu would be left with no choice but to form a narrow government with those he has termed his “natural partners,” parties representing the ultra-orthodox and the right. After a private meeting earlier Friday with Mr. Peres, who has also been urging national unity, Ms. Livni said that the coalition taking shape lacked political vision and that “a broad coalition has no value if it does not lead the way.” But in his speech on Friday, Mr. Netanyahu indicated that he wanted to embark on a new track. He said he would meet first with Ms. Livni and Mr. Barak, and made no mention of the parties that endorsed him — groups like Avigdor Lieberman’s ultra-nationalist Yisrael Beiteinu, which came third in the elections, or the ultra-orthodox Shas. Rina Mazliah, a political commentator with Israel’s Channel 2 News, said that Mr. Netanyahu had changed direction and that his call for unity based on national responsibility might make it difficult for Ms. Livni to refuse. Nevertheless, Mr. Netanyahu’s vision of unity seemed far from assured. Leading members of Mr. Barak’s once-dominant Labor Party, which won a mere 13 seats in the new Parliament, have said the party must spend time rebuilding itself in the opposition. Moreover, the parties to any coalition would have to agree on basic government guidelines. Ms. Livni has staked her political career on promoting negotiations with the more pragmatic, Western-backed Palestinian leadership for a two-state solution. Mr. Netanyahu says he wants to promote “economic peace” in the West Bank but has remained deliberately vague about any long-term political solutions. Ms. Livni noted on Thursday that Mr. Netanyahu “meanwhile refuses to talk about a two-state solution.” Mr. Netanyahu acknowledged on Friday that there were serious political differences, but he said that given the momentousness of the hour he believed it was possible to “find a common path to reach the country’s goals.” A narrow government would be less stable, with Mr. Netanyahu having to balance the often competing demands of small parties. A right-wing agenda would also set Israel on a possible collision course with the new administration in the United States, which has pledged an active and aggressive pursuit of peace. Shalom Yerushalmi, a columnist in Friday’s Maariv newspaper, described such a government as Mr. Netanyahu’s “nightmare.” “The narrow government he formed in 1996 fell apart in stages,” Mr. Yerushalmi noted. “Netanyahu swore that he would not make a narrow government again, and would never again be the prime minister of half the people.”

Politics and Government
Israel
Netanyahu Benjamin
Peres Shimon


Ovechkin Leads Capitals

Abstract: Alex Ovechkin assisted on Washington’s only goal in regulation, then scored in the opening round of the shootout to give the first-place Capitals a 2-1 victory over the slumping Lightning in Tampa, Fla.

Hockey Ice
Washington Capitals
Tampa Bay Lightning
Ovechkin Alex


Cuomo Administration Lawyer Is Shot in Head Before West Indian Day Parade

Abstract: The revelers were crowded onto Bedford Avenue in Brooklyn partaking in the annual West Indian American Day celebration early on Monday when the bullets began to fly in all directions. A dispute, possibly between rival gangs, prompted the shootout, police officials said, endangering the lives of hundreds of innocent bystanders. Among those caught in the crossfire was Carey Gabay, a lawyer with the administration of Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo , who had joined the festivities with his brother. Mr. Gabay, 43, was shot in the head and on Monday afternoon was described as “not doing well” by Mr. Cuomo, who spoke with reporters after visiting the lawyer’s bedside at Kings County Hospital Center. Mr. Gabay underwent surgery and was in critical condition Monday night. The shooting was one of several violent episodes, including a fatal stabbing, in the hours before the annual West Indian American Day Parade in Brooklyn, a colorful event of flamboyant costumes and dancing that in years past has also been accompanied by bloodshed in the streets near the parade route. The circumstances of Mr. Gabay’s shooting were still under investigation. He was shot around 3:40 a.m., near the corner of Bedford Avenue and Sullivan Place, about two blocks from the east side of Prospect Park. Stephen Davis, the chief spokesman for the New York Police Department, said nearly 30 shots were fired from as many as three guns. “There was some indication that there were words being exchanged right before the gunfire started and the next thing you know, gunfire broke out on one side of Bedford and the other side of Bedford,” Mr. Davis said, adding that more shots possibly came from a terrace overlooking the street. “The fact that no one else was hit is nothing short of miraculous,” he said. Mr. Cuomo suggested that Mr. Gabay was a bystander and not an intended target. He said Mr. Gabay was out with his family celebrating J’ouvert, a West Indian holiday that culminates in the parade. “It is so painful, so unnecessary, so sad,” Mr. Cuomo told reporters at the parade. He said he did not know what it would take for the country “to come to its senses with gun violence.” “It’s the same story almost weekly,” he continued. “Tragedy after tragedy after tragedy.” In January, Mr. Gabay was appointed first deputy counsel for the Empire State Development Corporation, the state’s main economic development agency. Previously, he had been an assistant counsel to Mr. Cuomo, and before that, a banking and finance associate at the Jones Day law firm. Mr. Gabay grew up in public housing in the Bronx, the governor said. He graduated from Harvard University, where he was president of the Undergraduate Council, the student government, and also received his law degree from Harvard. “He could have been at any law firm he wanted to be, making multiples of what we paid him,” Mr. Cuomo said. “He worked for the state because he wanted to give back and he wanted to do the right thing.” Mr. Cuomo said he visited Mr. Gabay’s family at the hospital and, clearly shaken, described “the tears and the frustration.” Image Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo on Monday at the West Indian American Day Parade, which has recently been plagued by violence. Credit Andrew Kelly/Reuters “I’m governor of New York and there’s nothing I can say and there’s nothing I can do,” he said. “And sometimes it just hurts.” No suspects have been arrested in the shooting, though Mr. Davis said investigators had recovered at least one weapon, a .45-caliber MAC-10. He said officials were hopeful that surveillance footage from the area would provide some leads. That section of Bedford Avenue, Mr. Davis said, has been the scene of a long-running dispute between rival gangs. “It’s an ongoing battle there,” he said. Some residents of the nearby Ebbets Field Houses, an apartment complex built on the site where the Brooklyn Dodgers played, said they had been woken up by the crackling of shots, then heard the wail of sirens and the thump of helicopters. “There were swarms of police officers out here,” said a resident who watched the scene from her balcony but did not give her name for fear of retaliation. After the parade finished, and the torn ribbons of blowing police tape were passed by throngs of revelers, including men draped in Haitian flags and women dressed in swimsuits, glitter and feathers, a few people stood over the spot, still stained with blood, where Mr. Gabay had fallen. They shook their heads. Though crime rates in New York City remain historically low, the number of shooting victims to date this year is up compared with the same period last year. Speaking at the parade, Mayor Bill de Blasio said the city was working hard to get firearms off the streets, but, echoing the governor, said more needed to be done nationally to address the scourge of gun violence. “Here in this city,” Mr. de Blasio said, “we will fight every day, use every tool we have to deprive criminals of guns, but we need a bigger change in this nation to finally ensure that guns don’t flow freely across state borders and into the wrong hands.” Mr. Gabay is a native of Jamaica and lived with his wife in the Clinton Hill area of Brooklyn, said Wayne Coutain, a security guard at the 14-story apartment building where the family lives. Mr. Coutain, who is from Trinidad, said he and Mr. Gabay often spoke of places to find the best West Indian food, especially a mutually loved dish, goat stew. “He always stops and talks to us; he’s a very nice guy, very kind,” Mr. Coutain said. “He makes the guards feel like they’re important.” The shooting topped a violent night in Brooklyn in the hours before the parade. About an hour and a half before Mr. Gabay was shot, at a different corner of Prospect Park, a 24-year-old man was stabbed to death and a 21-year-old was shot in the buttocks and hospitalized. There have been no arrests in either case. Violence surrounding the parade festivities has been a persistent problem, police officials say. Last year, a gunman opened fire into a crowd of revelers, killing one man and wounding two others. In 2012, two people were stabbed to death and at least two were shot. The parade has been a source of headaches for the Police Department and often generates grumbling from officers on patrol. A few years ago, dozens of people who appeared to be city police officers kept a running conversation on Facebook where they described paradegoers in offensive terms including “animals” and “savages.” The police commissioner, William J. Bratton, and Mr. de Blasio eschewed suggestions that parties connected to the parade be banned. Mr. Bratton said the police had to deal with gang violence and crime in the area, but “that’s no reason to not go forward with the events each year.”

Carey Gabay
Assault
West Indian American Day
Parade
Andrew Cuomo
Gang
Brooklyn


G-20 Leaders Agree to Continue Stimulus Plans

Abstract: MOSCOW — The leaders of the world’s 20 largest economies issued a joint statement on Friday saying it was too early to ease off government stimulus spending, in spite of recent positive economic news. The opening lines of the statement, which was issued at the end of the Group of 20 meeting hosted by Russia, said that “strengthening growth and creating jobs is our top priority” with no mention of tackling deficits. The leaders also approved a plan to crack down on multinational corporations that had been able to legally avoid taxes by shuffling profits and costs between various jurisdictions. The overhaul should, over time, shift some of the global tax burden away from individuals and small businesses to large, global companies. But the first step, a plan to share tax information, would only be implemented at the end of 2015, the statement said. The economic tone of the statement was little changed from a draft issued in July after a summit meeting of finance ministers, suggesting that the world’s most influential leaders are still nervous about growth prospects despite a recent spate of positive economic news. Governments in the Group of 20 countries collectively account for about 90 percent of the world’s economic output. “We agreed that it remains critical for the G-20 countries to focus all our joint efforts on engineering a durable exit from the longest and most protracted crisis in modern history,” the statement said. Although not openly critical of austerity measures like the across-the-board federal budget cuts in the United States or the diminished state spending lenders have insisted on in Greece, the statement suggested that most governments considered the recovery too weak to risk reducing spending on unemployment benefits, job training or infrastructure. The statement comes as the United States Federal Reserve considers pulling back from its stimulus efforts, which have helped keep interest rates low and spurred growth. The expectation of a change in Fed policy is sending tremors through the global economy. Currencies like the rupee in India to the ruble in Russia have lost value. Emerging market bonds, too, have suffered. The G-20 statement offered little consolation. It said central banks would better “communicate” their intentions but made no promises of easing the sell-off in countries with poorer investment climates. The statement seemed in part a concession by developing countries like India, where the rupee has lost 17 percent of its value against the dollar this year, that they would have to fend for themselves. It referred vaguely to “collective and country specific measures” to improve the investment climates in such nations. The statement, a senior United States Treasury official said in a telephone interview, was “a recognition that certain emerging markets that are seeing weakened investor appetite need to look at their policy reform agenda” and help themselves.