Reform Unlikely to Prevent a New Financial Crisis

Abstract: So where were we? Last November, when I took a temporary powder, the subject du jour — at least in this little corner — was financial regulatory reform . Today, eight months later (ouch!), as I return from my hiatus, the subject du jour is financial regulatory reform. Back then, the question was whether Congress could muster the votes to even pass a reform bill. Health care dominated the body politic. Financial lobbyists were swarming. Senate Republicans were doing their foot-dragging thing. And so on. Today, the question is a different one. Very soon, possibly as early as next week, House and Senate conferees will begin meeting to hammer out the compromises necessary to turn the bills they wound up passing in the interim into something President Obama can sign into law. There are plenty of differences between the House bill, which passed in December, and the Senate version that passed a few weeks ago, and there will be lots to haggle over in the conference committee. But broadly speaking, they’re not that different. They both contain a new consumer protection agency, and they both take the same general approach to everything from systemic risk to the ratings agencies. And thus it’s not too early to ask: Will the bill that emerges from this conference do what it is intended to do? Will it prevent another crisis? Will it put an end to government bailouts? The painful answer is: probably not.  In the first place, there is nothing even remotely radical about anything in these bills. Nobody is suggesting setting up a new Securities and Exchange Commission , which reshaped Wall Street regulation when it was formed in 1934. Nobody is talking about breaking up banks the way they did in the 1930s with the passage of the Glass-Steagall Act . Nobody is even talking about a wholesale revamping of a regulatory system that so clearly failed in this crisis. “They are trying to attack the symptoms, instead of the basic issues,” said Christopher Whalen, managing director of the Institutional Risk Analyst. There is something oh-so-reasonable about these bills, as if Congress was worried that they might do something that would — heaven forbid! — upset the banking industry. Credit derivatives ? Banks will still be able to trade them, and peddle the most dangerous ones without using an open exchange. Credit rating agencies? Their wings are barely clipped. The consumer agency? It has potential, but it’s not nearly as strong as it should be. Too big to fail? Under the new regime, the banks will remain as big, and as interconnected, as ever. And just because the country is going to have a systemic risk council — consisting of the Treasury secretary and the top financial regulators — doesn’t mean the bills do anything to reduce systemic risk. They don’t. If you drill down with me on a few provisions, you’ll see what I mean. THE RATINGS AGENCIES Does anyone doubt that the willingness of the big three ratings agencies — Moody’s, Standard & Poor’s and Fitch — to slap AAA ratings on subprime junk played a huge role in the financial crisis ? The shocking charges leveled this week at the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission hearing by former Moody’s employees only reinforced the point. Moody’s analysts, they said, had knowingly handed out flawed ratings because top executives were pushing them to complete deals as fast as they could. They sold their souls for market share. To solve this problem, Senator Al Franken of Minnesota inserted an amendment in the Senate bill that would end the practice of banks picking the agency to rate their securities; rather, an agency would be chosen at random, and the bank would be forced to accept its rating. But that is not the only problem — or even the primary one. Ratings agencies are understaffed and underpaid. The best rating agency employees quickly gravitate to Wall Street. And the agencies have a long history of getting it wrong. Enron, WorldCom, Penn Central — the ratings agencies always seem to be a day late and a dollar short. Yet since the 1970s, the ratings agencies have been imbued with a special government status — Nationally Recognized Statistical Rating Organizations, they’re called — and a whole body of regulation has been written that revolves around ratings. Mutual funds , to cite one example, can hold only securities that have the highest investment-grade ratings. The solution should be obvious, shouldn’t it? Just get rid of that special government status — and stop writing regulations that revolve around ratings. Believe it or not, S.& P. is in favor of such a solution. So why isn’t it in the bill? Because all those money market and pension funds much prefer the crutch provided by the ratings — that way, if anything goes wrong they can simply say “It was the rating agency’s fault.” And they’re the ones Congress listened to. CONSUMER PROTECTION AGENCY The good news is that it hasn’t been completely gutted, despite the efforts of the Chamber of Commerce. The bad news is that it is a lot weaker than it ought to be. The “plain vanilla” option — showing consumers, for example, a 30-year-fixed mortgage alongside an option adjustable-rate mortgage — was tossed overboard long ago. A committee of bank regulators can veto any decision by the consumer agency. An astounding 98 percent of the nation’s banks — every bank with assets under $10 billion — are exempt. And get this: the bill gives the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency the right to pre-empt state laws aimed at stopping predatory practices. This is the same regulator that used its pre-emption powers to moot laws passed by cities and states aimed at curbing the worst subprime excesses during the bubble. Not exactly confidence-inspiring. “The consumer agency has some dings in it right now,” said Elizabeth Warren , the chairwoman of the Congressional Oversight Panel, who first broached the idea for the agency in an article she wrote as a law professor. “I think it still has what it needs to succeed, but it’s right at the edge,” she added. “If it is weakened any further, then it becomes a waste of time.” DERIVATIVE REGULATION You’ve no doubt heard that the vast majority of derivatives will wind up on an exchange, where everyone can see their price and the risks can be toted up out in the open. Don’t get too excited. Most such derivatives will be products like interest rate swaps, which had no role in the crisis. Credit-default swaps , which played a major role in the crisis, are another story. In particular, the most complicated, one-of-a-kind — and most profitable — credit-default swaps will most likely stay in the shadows, which is exactly where the big banks want them to be. The profits the big banks make on these credit derivatives would drop substantially if these swaps were traded openly and, well, we can’t have that, can we? The banks actually argue that credit will be constrained if they are forced to put these swaps on an exchange. It’s like saying, if I can’t gouge you, I won’t lend to you. Nice little business model they’ve got there. The bills try to come at these complex derivatives in other ways, primarily by clamping down on credit speculation and proprietary trading by banks. (That’s what the Volcker Rule is all about.) But I’m skeptical that the Volcker Rule will be effective, even if it becomes law, which appears likely. The line between what constitutes trading for one’s own account — proprietary trading — and what constitutes trading for one’s client, which would still be legal, is extremely murky. It is easy to imagine the banks classifying all sorts of activities as “servicing clients,” even if they happen to put lots of money in their own pockets. Because credit-default swaps are a form of insurance — insuring against a default — they ought to be regulated like an insurance product, which would include walling them off from the rest of the bank and requiring that large amounts of capital be set aside to cover big potential payouts. But because that would inflict actual pain, it won’t happen. (The amendment introduced by Senator Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas into the Senate bill, which would have walled off derivative operations from the rest of the bank, has no chance of making it into the final bill.) Perhaps the most troubling fact of all is that the bill will do very little to reduce systemic risk. Derivatives will still be a means of creating unacknowledged leverage in the system. Hedging activities between counterparties will still create immense interconnectedness. Capital — the greatest cushion of all against systemic risk — is barely mentioned in the bills; Congress is leaving that to an international body in Basel, Switzerland, that sets international capital standards — and didn’t exactly cover itself with glory with the rules it set prior to the financial crisis. The bills’ supporters say that the new resolution authority will give regulators the tools to prevent future taxpayer bailouts. But let’s be honest: if a giant bank like Citigroup, with tentacles all over the world, most out of reach of United States regulators, were to become insolvent, you don’t think the Treasury Department would rush to bail it out? I do. “When they say this is the greatest reform package since the 1930s, that is literally true,” said Simon Johnson, the co-author of “13 Bankers” and one of the leading critics of the United States response to the crisis. “But that tells you nothing. There haven’t been any reforms since the 1930s.” Indeed, watching Congress struggle just to pass even these timid reforms gives one a greater appreciation for what Congress accomplished during the Great Depression . The current bills tinker with the status quo. The reforms in the 1930s actually forced banks to divest their investment banking divisions and outlawed all sorts of practices that were as common as selling credit-default swaps are today. No doubt the bank lobby of that era complained that their business would be ruined. But Congress went ahead and did it anyway. I guess it’s easier to have a spine when you’re living through a Great Depression, and not just a Great Recession.

Regulation and Deregulation of Industry
Banks and Banking
Reform and Reorganization
United States Politics and Government
Senate
House of Representatives
Securities and Exchange Commission
Obama Barack
Warren Elizabeth
Lincoln Blanche Lambert


Bring a Yoga Mat and an Open Mind. Goats Are Provided.

Abstract: ALBANY, Ore. — Ordinary yoga can feel complicated enough sometimes, with the focus on breathing, and the search for an “intention” that many yoga instructors ask students to reach deep within themselves to find. Goat yoga has all that, plus half a dozen goats, mostly miniatures and all of them completely accustomed to people and our deeply strange habits. They wander around with their collars and name tags, looking for affection, or a bit of grassy kibble (like many yogis, they are vegetarians), and seem entirely unfazed by the sight of 20 or so people posing in downward-facing dog, out in the pasture as the sun sets on a lovely fall evening. The goats are in their element amid the hummocky, fragrant tufts of grass. As you smell that grass on a yoga mat, you realize that you have entered the goats’ world, not the other way around. Geese honk overhead, flying south in formation as a soft wind rustles by. Chickens cluck and scratch, as loosely regulated as the goats, though the goats themselves are mostly silent. Image A yoga class with goats on a farm in Albany, Ore. Credit Jason Henry for The New York Times The idea of goat yoga was hatched at a birthday party this spring in Lainey Morse’s backyard here in this agricultural community about 70 miles south of Portland. A bunch of 6-year-olds were partying with the young goats — “kids and kids,” the party invitation said. Ms. Morse began adopting goats last year as pets and for a kind of self-administered therapy after an illness and a divorce. One of the moms, a yoga instructor named Heather Davis, turned to Ms. Morse and said, “Hey, I’ve got an idea.” The Oregonian newspaper then wrote a story, and the internet sent the idea careening around the globe. More than 600 people had joined a waiting list before the first half-dozen classes were even held. A couple in Germany wrote saying they would like to come and spend their whole vacation with the goats, sight unseen. A woman in Michigan sent Ms. Morse a bracelet with the phrase “goat yoga” formed by keys from an old manual typewriter, which Ms. Morse wears like a charm. Kasey Luby made the 90-minute drive from Portland with her husband, Zack. She has a tattoo of a goat on her arm and was predisposed, Mr. Luby said, to anything goats. Rachel Hanson, a wedding planner from Eugene, Ore., is similarly drawn to goats for reasons she can’t fully explain. “I have a goat problem,” she said. My own close encounter came toward the end of class, on a night in early October. We were doing boat pose, with our legs and arms raised, when the tiniest member of the herd, Annie, wandered by and stopped in front of me, under my outstretched legs. Annie is 4 months old and weighs all of 20 pounds, a fuzzy, big-eyed love-magnet that members of the class had been holding on their laps before we began. Boat pose was forgotten, along with any notion of a mental “intention.” Annie was saying hello, and goat yoga no longer felt mysterious or complicated at all.


New York Courts Cut Time Between Arrest and Arraignment

Abstract: For two decades, court officials in New York City have struggled to solve a vexing problem: reducing the arrest-to-arraignment time in its criminal courts. People arrested in the city would typically spend a full day and night behind bars before making a court appearance, even for fairly minor infractions that typically resulted in little or no bail. But in the last year and a half, New York has made remarkable strides. For the first time since 2001, the average time it takes to bring a defendant before a judge for arraignment fell last year to below 24 hours in all five boroughs. The 24-hour benchmark had been set by the state’s highest court in a pivotal 1991 decision, but it proved mostly elusive, especially in the Bronx and Brooklyn. The solution, according to many criminal justice officials, can largely be traced to a computer-tracking initiative spearheaded by Judge George A. Grasso, a former first deputy commissioner in the Police Department who was put in charge of arraignment courts in April 2012 — as well as the discovery of a cache of unused scanners that were bought to track case files. Judge Grasso’s inspiration was CompStat, a crime-tracking system introduced in New York in the 1990s during William J. Bratton’s first stint as police commissioner. CompStat was widely credited with helping drive crime numbers down by using computers to pinpoint high-crime problem areas, allowing the department to direct police officers toward specific outbursts of criminal activity. “It popped into my head,” Judge Grasso said. “I said, ‘Wow, we could turn our arraignment parts into mini CompStat sessions.' ” Now judges, clerks, police officers, defense lawyers and prosecutors — all the parties involved in the complex dance necessary to bring charges against a citizen — have computer screens tracking cases going through arraignment courts, from the time the police and prosecutors bring the complaint to docket clerks to the time the defendant is standing in front of a judge with a lawyer. Image An officer at arraignment court in Brooklyn last month. Credit Michael Appleton for The New York Times The system, perhaps inevitably called CourtStat, went into operation citywide in the summer of 2013, and arrest-to-arraignment times have dropped sharply. The citywide average of 21.4 hours in 2013 was the lowest in decades, and the declines are most pronounced in Brooklyn and the Bronx, where, as recently as February 2012, detainees waited on average for about 32 hours before seeing a judge. Brooklyn’s time declined to about 22 hours; while the Bronx fell to just under 24 hours. Judge Grasso said he learned of the unused scanners at one of the first staff meetings he held after being put in charge of speeding up arraignments. Melding the scanners with new software, court officials could track cases, identify slower-moving ones and pinpoint the reasons. Computerized graphs now tell everyone involved in the arraignment court which link in the process — the police, corrections officers, docket clerks, defense lawyers or prosecutors — needs to move faster. “Nobody’s guessing anymore,” said Michael J. Yavinsky, the judge in charge of arraignments in Brooklyn. “You can see what’s flowing and what’s not flowing, and it’s very easy to spot the solution.” The problem is not unique to New York, though few American cities match it in terms of volume; New York processed about 225,000 arrests in 2013. In 1957, the United States Supreme Court ruled in Mallory v. United States that arraignments should take place “without unnecessary delay,” and most states subsequently adopted statutes with similar language. In practice, times vary widely. Criminal courts in Houston and Los Angeles, for instance, have 48 hours under state law to arraign people on felony charges. Image Incoming violations being registered at Brooklyn Criminal Court. Credit Michael Appleton for The New York Times In New York, the State Court of Appeals placed the bar at 24 hours in its ruling in People v. Roundtree, interpreting “without unnecessary delay” to mean 24 hours under normal conditions. (Damon Roundtree, suspected of shoplifting, had been held for 51 hours before he saw a judge.) Donna Lieberman, the executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, said the drop in arrest-to-arraignment time was encouraging but misleading, because some people were still being held longer than 24 hours. “This doesn’t mean the problem is solved by a long shot,” Ms. Lieberman said. Nonetheless, Judge Barry M. Kamins, the administrator for New York City’s criminal courts who assigned Judge Grasso to the assignment backlog, said the system worked mostly because it shined a light on clogs in the pipeline. Gone are the mysterious lulls in action that used to occur regularly, during which the police, prosecutors and court officials would blame one another. “Everyone would look around and point in this direction or that,” Judge Kamins said. “No one really knew what the answer was.” Judge Yavinsky keeps two computer monitors running on his bench, one showing the progress of cases through the arraignment courts and one with information about cases the police and prosecutors are still preparing. Likening himself to an air-traffic controller, he constantly scans the lists of defendants for any case that has been lingering for more than 20 hours. Then he picks up a telephone to find out why. On a recent morning, he asked the police to locate one case stalled for more than 24 hours. It turned out the defendant had been sent to the wrong courthouse. “That’s a perfect example,” he said. Beyond electronic tracking, Judge Grasso used his influence with police commanders to persuade them to prioritize moving defendants to the courthouse more quickly. As a former deputy police commissioner for legal affairs, Judge Grasso had credibility with police officials. Image Judge George A. Grasso, who was put in charge of arraignment courts in April 2012. Credit Michael Appleton for The New York Times “Grasso knew the system, and we couldn’t put a net over his head and give him excuses,” said Assistant Chief Gerald Nelson, the commander of Patrol Borough Brooklyn North. Pushed by the judge, Chief Nelson said he determined the biggest reason for delays was the practice of using squad cars to take prisoners to court, so he dedicated two prisoner vans to act as a shuttle service for the busiest precincts. He also ordered commanders in each precinct to report to him whenever a detainee was held longer than eight hours. The police in Brooklyn have shaved three hours off the average time it takes for them to deliver sworn complaints to the docket clerks. Just before court started on a recent Thursday, Judge Yavinsky was moving through misdemeanor cases at a rapid clip, keeping one eye on the charts on his computer. In the docket room, officers dropped off bundles of complaints and rap sheets, while clerks gave them docket numbers and checked for outstanding warrants. One clerk slapped bar code stickers on the packets used to track them. Wrapped with a rubber band, the packets were taken to the arraignment courtroom, where police officers matched them with slips for each defendant who had been brought from precincts to holding pens. Defense lawyers picked up the packets and went to the pens to interview defendants. Tim McGrath, a senior clerk, moved around the court, the docket room and pens with quiet efficiency, keeping the flow moving. “I compare it to being a ringmaster of a circus,” he said. “Only you don’t have that much control of certain things.” At 10 a.m., Rayvone Gibson, 19, was arraigned on charges he had used someone else’s school MetroCard to ride the subway. The police had picked him up at 6 p.m. the day before; he was released on his own recognizance. He said he had been arrested three times before for “little stuff, marijuana mostly” but had never been released sooner than 24 hours. “This is the fastest time I ever spent here,” Mr. Gibson said. “Usually it takes a day or two. You could be sitting there all day and not see your lawyer.”

NYPD
Crime
NYC
Judiciary
George A Grasso


U.S. Holds the Whip Hand in Modifying Mortgages

Abstract: For much of the last year, Washington officials have been pressing the mortgage industry to modify home loans and avoid foreclosures. Now, the extraordinary government intervention in Fannie Mae , Freddie Mac and a growing number of banks puts federal agencies in the powerful, and awkward, position of deciding which borrowers will receive help and who will lose their home. And while the Bush administration is leaving it to the next president to decide how the mortgage finance companies will operate further out, the actions taken by their conservators now will have an immediate influence on the cost to taxpayers — and to the economy — of stabilizing the nation’s fragile housing market. Regulators are walking a fine line between protecting the government from losses and helping struggling homeowners and the broader economy, according to financial and political analysts. If officials modify too many home loans or the companies suffer high defaults on modified loans, taxpayers will be stuck with an inflated bill. But doing too little might prolong housing market problems. “You are trying to strike the balance between the duty to protect the assets of the organization,” said Alex J. Pollock, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, “and the sensible policy of trying to control the downward momentum of the housing bust.” Politics will also play a role as the November presidential election draws closer, not least because the rescue plan engineered by Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. defers important decisions about the companies’ missions for the next president and Congress. Both presidential campaigns have supported the takeover of the companies, but they differ significantly on what should be done with them in the future. For now, the federal budget will not include Fannie’s and Freddie’s liabilities, the Office of Management and Budget said on Friday. Including the debts on the government’s books would have doubled the national debt. On Thursday, four Democratic senators called on the Federal Housing Finance Agency, the regulator now in charge of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, to give some breathing room to defaulting borrowers by imposing a three-month moratorium on new foreclosures for loans owned by the companies. The Bush administration opposed calls for a similar moratorium by Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton earlier this year. Mr. Paulson later persuaded some big lenders to give delinquent borrowers an extra month to negotiate modification or repayment plans before seeking foreclosure. As they prepare to go large-scale, regulators have been keeping an eye on how the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, which oversees failed banks, does things. The agency has taken several steps to make it easier for struggling borrowers to repay their mortgages and stay in their homes. Last month, it began offering 25,000 customers of IndyMac Bank — which became one of the largest failed financial institutions in American history — lower-priced, fixed-rate loans if the borrower could afford to make payments. It offered to trim interest rates on loans to as little as 3 percent in some cases, and gave a number of borrowers up to 40 years for repayment. Sheila C. Bair, the chairman, has been one of the most vocal proponents of wide-scale loan modifications since last year, when defaults on mortgages started rising sharply. A spokesman for Ms. Bair, Andrew Gray, said the efforts were still in the early stages, but the F.D.I.C. had been pleased with the results so far. But the challenges for Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and their regulators are on a different plane. How the Federal Housing Finance Agency decides to approach loan modification will have ripple effects through the economy, because the two companies together own or guarantee nearly half of all loans outstanding. The director of the F.H.F.A., James B. Lockhart, has said he wants the two companies to be “creative and aggressive” in modifying loans, but he has not offered or endorsed any specific plans since he took their reins. For the moment, only a small faction of loans controlled by the companies are delinquent or in foreclosure. But defaults have been rising fast, especially among a category of loans known as Alt-A, which are riskier than conventional prime loans. Many of these did not require borrowers to provide proof of their incomes and assets. Before the government seized them, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac had already advanced their efforts to modify loans. In July, the companies said they would pay the mortgage servicing companies that deal with borrowers on their behalf a double bonus to help arrange loan modifications. Fannie Mae has also been making personal loans to help borrowers with temporary financial problems catch up with past-due payments. The government has, of course, overseen large programs for delinquent mortgages before. In the banking crisis that struck the economy in 1980, the F.D.I.C. and later the Resolution Trust Corporation took over many failed banks and savings and loans. But that is where the comparison ends: most of the problems then were concentrated among a relatively small number of commercial mortgages. It will be harder to deal with millions of home loans, said William M. Isaac, a former chairman of the F.D.I.C. “When I make a judgment about commercial loans,” Mr. Isaac said, “it’s just a handful of commercial loans.” He says he believes the government will need to impose general rules and monitor how mortgage companies apply them to borrowers. To make matters worse, a large number of mortgages made during the recent housing boom are unsalvageable because borrowers cannot afford even the terms of modified loans. Many of these will default yet again after they are altered, said Bert Ely, a financial consultant who has been critical of the F.D.I.C. modification plan. “If you do a bunch of mass modifications with borrowers who still can’t handle the modified loans for any number of reasons, all you have done is rolled the foreclosure into the future,” Mr. Ely said.

Mortgages
Foreclosures
Fannie Mae
Freddie Mac
Housing
Finances
Politics and Government
Economic Conditions and Trends
United States Economy
Paulson Henry M Jr


An 80-Year-Old Model Reshapes China’s Views on Aging

Abstract: BEIJING — Before cranking up the techno music at his 80th birthday party, the man known as “China’s hottest grandpa” paused from his D.J. duties to poke fun at the country’s staid traditional celebrations for the elderly. “I should wear a long robe, with the word ‘longevity’ embroidered on the front,” the birthday boy, Wang Deshun, said at his party in September. Far from looking frail, the silver-haired actor, model and artist wore a crisp white shirt and black jeans, his back straight and his eyes glittering with humor. “Two young maidens should help me into an old-style wooden chair,” he added, pretending to hobble. Determined to avoid mental and physical stagnation, Mr. Wang has explored new skills and ideas while devoting ample time to daily exercise. Last year, he walked the runway for the first time, his physique causing a national sensation . He takes obvious joy in subverting China’s image of what it means to be old. And old age in China begins relatively early. The legal retirement age for women is 50 for workers and 55 for civil servants, and 60 for most men. Being older in China typically means being respected, but also, often, sentimentalized. Someone as young as 50 may be addressed as “yeye” or “nainai” — grandpa or grandma — regardless of whether they have offspring. Mr. Wang is having none of that. “One way to tell if you’re old or not is to ask yourself, ‘Do you dare try something you’ve never done before?’ ” he said in a recent interview at a hotel in Beijing. “Nature determines age, but you determine your state of mind,” he said. Mr. Wang has not escaped being called grandpa — he has two children and a 2-year-old granddaughter — but the honorific is accompanied by accolades for his vigor and his embrace of the new. “Grandpa, you’re my idol!” one admirer wrote on Mr. Wang’s Weibo social media account, one of thousands of similar comments. Sex appeal is part of the mix. “Grandpa, your stomach is so gorgeous! Incredibly handsome!” another person wrote next to a photo of Mr. Wang, topless in a gym , his skin smooth and pectorals buff. Mr. Wang said he was always athletic. An avid swimmer as a child, he still swims more than half a mile each day. “Morning is my learning time,” he said. “I read books and news. From 3 to 6 p.m. is my exercise time, in a gym near my home.” He also drinks less alcohol now, he said, but that is about as far as his dietary restrictions go. “I am not picky at all about what I eat. I eat whatever I want.” Mr. Wang was born in the northeastern city of Shenyang in 1936, one of nine children of a cook and a stay-at-home mother. At 14, a year after the Communist Party came to power in 1949, he began working as a streetcar conductor. Image Mr. Wang blowing out the candles on his 80th birthday cake in Beijing on Sept. 20. Credit Shen Qi “I liked acting, singing, dancing, playing musical instruments so much that I joined my work unit’s band,” he said. At the Workers’ Cultural Palace in Shenyang, he took free lessons in singing, acting and dancing. He later took a job at a military factory and joined its art troupe. Sometimes they entertained soldiers. “Even if there was just one sentry, say, at the top of a hill, like once in Dalian, we’d surround him and perform,” Mr. Wang said. Later he worked in radio, film and theater. In the early 1980s, Mr. Wang, who would teach runway modeling at a Beijing fashion school, staged what he believes was the first modeling show in the northeastern city of Changchun. “In 1982, the clothes Chinese wore were so out of date,” he said. “I went to the city’s biggest department store and told the sales clerks, ‘Give me your nicest clothes, and I’ll organize a show.’ They agreed. The best clothes they had were fur coats, and for men, woolen Sun Yat-sen suits” — also known as Mao suits. Back then, he said, “Chinese had no sense of color or style. People wore black, white, gray or blue. Some people wore army uniforms. I wanted to start a sense for fashion among ordinary people. We did a swimming-suit show. The girls refused at first, thinking it was indecent. But I insisted.” By 49, Mr. Wang was eager to move to Beijing, China’s cultural capital. He wanted to be a “living sculpture.” He also needed money. He began working out, determined to have a lithe body that would allow him to interact, almost naked and covered in metallic paint, with copies of Auguste Rodin’s and Camille Claudel’s sculptures of women. The idea, he said, came from his wife of 48 years, Zhao Aijuan. After the first show in Beijing , in 1993, the authorities, disturbed by its sensuality, barred Mr. Wang from performing in public. He continued to perform privately. “I really admire him very much,” said Xiao Lu , 54, a performance artist. “I do body art, and you know, after a certain age. a person’s abilities decline. But he has this amazing sculpted body and spirit. Such power for life really comes from the inside. He makes the feeling that’s in the Rodin sculptures come alive.” Last year, he appeared bare-chested in a fashion show in Beijing’s 798 arts district, featuring designs by Hu Sheguang . His appearance on the runway earned him a cultlike following. Some fans call him laoxianrou, or “old fresh meat,” making a play on the word for teen idol: xiaoxianrou, or “young fresh meat.’’ So has old fresh meat replaced young fresh meat? Perhaps not. But Mr. Wang’s physicality, notable in a society where men rarely highlight their attractiveness, also sets an example in a nation that is growing older fast . “People can change their life as many times as they wish,” he said. Having a goal is important, he said. “Being mentally healthy means you know what you’re going to do,” he said. “For example, a vegetable vendor, when he wakes up, he has a goal, he works hard. And when he finishes, he feels fulfilled.” For Mr. Wang, fulfillment comes in many forms: acting, modeling, exercising and creating art. And one day soon, he said, parachuting. That is the plan.

Models
Wang Deshun
Fashion
China
Old age,elderly,senior citizens


Candidates Present 401(k) and Small-Business Plans

Abstract: Senator John McCain proposed on Friday that investors should be given a temporary reprieve from a rule forcing them to withdraw from their 401(k)’s and I.R.A.’s after the age of 70, so that they might be shielded from the devastating plunge of the stock market in recent weeks. The staggering decline in stocks has devastated the retirement holdings of many Americans, posing a particular threat to those nearing retirement age. Because investors over age 70 1/2 are required to begin withdrawing from their retirement accounts, they are being forced to sell their stocks at substantial losses. “We have to protect those who currently rely on their investments for retirement,” Mr. McCain said at a rally in La Crosse, Wis. “Current rules mandate that investors must begin to sell off their I.R.A.’s and 401(k)’s when they reach age 70 1/2. To spare investors from being forced to sell their stocks at just the time the market is hurting the most, those rules should be suspended.” Douglas Holtz-Eakin, Mr. McCain’s top economic adviser, said that under the plan, the government would waive for one year rules requiring people to begin withdrawing parts of their 401(k)’s and other retirement plans. The mandatory withdrawals are based on an investor’s life expectancy, and the rate of withdrawal increases each year. So at age 70 1/2, the annual distribution is about 4 percent of the value of the retirement plan; at age 80, the rate is about 5 percent. But what can make the requirement burdensome in the current financial crisis is that withdrawals being made now are based on an account’s value on Dec. 31, 2007, when accounts were most likely worth much more, said Roberton Williams, a principal research associate at the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center. “It’s not exactly onerous to say, ‘You’ve got to get 4 percent out,’ ” Mr. Williams said. “On the other hand, if your portfolio has dropped by half, you have to take out twice as much.” Campaigning in Ohio, Senator Barack Obama also put forth a proposal to deal with the economic crisis, urging a rescue plan in which the Small Business Administration would lend directly to small businesses that are cut off from other sources of loans. The plan would provide fixed-rate loans to help businesses meet operating expenses, make short-term investments and refinance existing debt. Mr. Obama called for the S.B.A. to increase guarantees on private loans and reduce borrowing fees in order to unfreeze credit markets that have retreated from extending loans to small businesses. A final provision calls for additional tax incentives for small businesses to spur investment and job creation.

Subprime Mortgage Crisis
Retirement
401(k) 403(b) and 457 Plans
McCain John
Obama Barack
Small Business
United States Economy
Presidential Election of 2008
Small Business Administration


Super Bowl XLVIII Matchup: Seahawks vs. Broncos

Abstract: Seahawks vs. Broncos 6:25 p.m. Eastern, Fox Line: Broncos by 2 The buildup to Super Bowl XLVIII for Seattle was largely defined by players the news media have scolded for talking too much (Richard Sherman) and for not talking enough (Marshawn Lynch). For Denver, the discussion centered on what a win or a loss would mean for the legacy of Peyton Manning. Any time left over was devoted to speculation about the weather at kickoff. Football rarely entered the conversation. On the field, the game will be a study in contrasts. For the first time since 1990, the Super Bowl will pit the N.F.L.’s highest-scoring offense (Denver) against the defense that gave up the fewest points (Seattle). Matchups like this traditionally favor the dominant defense, and Manning’s record-setting offense did not appear to intimidate the second-youngest team in the N.F.L. “This is what we want,” said Seattle free safety Earl Thomas, a contender for defensive player of the year. “We want to face this kind of offense. We don’t want to take the easy way. If it’s easy, you shouldn’t do it.” Image Wide receiver Demaryius Thomas led the Broncos with 92 catches for 1,430 yards and 14 TDs. Credit Marcio Jose Sanchez/Associated Press That attitude is what makes the Seahawks’ secondary so imposing, and worthy of the nickname Legion of Boom. In the middle of the field, they have Thomas and Kam Chancellor, two of best safeties in the game, and in coverage they have Sherman, the N.F.L.’s best cornerback. Even the loss of the starting cornerback Brandon Browner to an indefinite suspension did not slow a unit that allowed 14.4 points a game. The secondary was aggressive, leading the N.F.L. with 28 interceptions and allowing only 172 passing yards a game. Although Seattle’s front seven is also disruptive, many Seahawks players said the unit had been overshadowed. “Our defensive line, they’re savages,” Chancellor said. “I can say that hands down. They’re savages.” Led by Michael Bennett and Cliff Avril, Seattle had 44 sacks this season, tied for eighth in the N.F.L. If they can find a way through Denver’s offensive line, which has not allowed a sack during the playoffs, Manning may be forced to make unwise throws. But if ever there was an offense built to deal with the Seahawks, it would be Denver’s. Manning, with a lightning-quick release, rarely contends with pressure, and the Broncos are so stocked at wide receiver and tight end that it is futile to try to cover them all. Demaryius Thomas is Manning’s favorite receiver, leading the team with 92 catches for 1,430 yards and 14 touchdowns, but Eric Decker (87 for 1,288 and 11), Julius Thomas (65 for 788 and 12) and Wes Welker (73 for 778 and 10) are all capable of game-changing plays. Sherman & Company thrived on staying in the team’s cover-three scheme regardless of the opponent, but they have not faced a team with as many reliable threats as Denver. Cornerbacks Byron Maxwell and Walter Thurmond will have to raise their games. But the Super Bowl will be decided when Seattle has the ball. Russell Wilson, the dynamic second-year quarterback, does not have the size or the background of an elite N.F.L. quarterback (he once left college to play professional baseball) although his ascent has been rapid. At 25, he is the fifth-youngest quarterback to start a Super Bowl, and his talent and demeanor have taken age out of the equation. “He’s an incredible competitor in every way,” Seahawks Coach Pete Carroll said. “In preparation, in game day, he’s the epitome of what you want in your competitor.” Image Free safety Earl Thomas is a key part of the Seahawks’ Legion of Boom secondary. Credit John Froschauer/Associated Press Behind Wilson is Lynch, who seemed to wear down during the season before rediscovering Beast Mode in the playoffs. In Seattle’s two postseason games, Lynch rumbled for 249 yards and 3 touchdowns, averaging 5 yards a carry while punishing defenders who got in his way. Although his reluctance to answer questions annoyed the news media, Lynch, 27, has remained remarkably popular among his teammates and Seahawks fans. “He doesn’t talk any more to us than he talks to you, really,” Carroll told reporters. “He is a live wire though at times, because he has a great energy about him; for the most part, it isn’t with his words, it’s with his actions, and we respect the heck out of that.” Denver’s defense improved as the season went along, but the unit still appears overmatched by the youthful and exciting Seattle offense. With a little help from his friends on defense, Wilson could easily turn the discussion of Manning’s legacy into one about his own. Pick: Seahawks


Ford Lowers Gas Mileage on 6 Models, All 2013-14s

Abstract: For the second time in less than a year, the Ford Motor Company is lowering the fuel-economy ratings for some of its vehicles. The automaker said on Thursday that it would reduce the mileage rating on six new models, most of them hybrids, and pay $125 to $1,050 to customers who own or lease about 200,000 of the cars in the United States. The vehicles include four versions of the 2014 Ford Fiesta, as well as the hybrid and plug-in hybrid versions of the 2013-14 C-Max and Ford Fusion and the hybrid version of the 2013-14 Lincoln MKZ. Most of the vehicles’ combined city and highway rating will be lowered by one to five miles per gallon; the MKZ will be reduced the most, by seven miles per gallon, to 38 from 45. The announcement came during increasing federal scrutiny of automakers over safety and fuel-economy standards. Michelle Krebs, senior analyst at AutoTrader.com, said that Ford’s actions came “against two significant backdrops: G.M.’s recall mess, which has prompted all automakers to address issues quickly so as not to be accused of dragging their feet, and automakers addressing fuel economy misstatements.” Last August, Ford lowered the ratings on the 2013 C-Max hybrid to 43 miles a gallon from 47 in combined city and highway driving. After that announcement, the Environmental Protection Agency said it would update its labeling rules, which date to the 1970s, to resolve disparities among hybrid and electric vehicles . “We apologize to our customers and will provide good-will payments to affected owners,” Alan R. Mulally, Ford’s chief executive, said in a statement. “We also are taking steps to improve our processes and prevent issues like this from happening again.” Ford is not alone is overstating the fuel efficiency of its vehicles. In November 2012, after an E.P.A. investigation into consumer complaints that their cars were underperforming, Hyundai and Kia Motors said that they would begin to reimburse consumers and restate gas mileage estimates for about 900,000 vehicles sold in the United States. The automakers, which are both controlled by the Hyundai Motor Group, set aside about $400 million to settle consumer lawsuits and compensate drivers that were affected by the incorrect ratings. Christopher Grundler, director of the E.P.A.’s office of transportation and air quality, said Ford notified the regulatory agency of the issue on March 28, after internal testing had revealed the error, and the agency began retesting vehicles with Ford. “The E.P.A.’s investigation into this matter is ongoing,” Mr. Grundler said. “We are interested and will continue to look for underlying causes of the error.” Mr. Grundler said that Ford, which was not fined, has agreed to apply stricter standards on fuel economy testing, which would, essentially, require the company to double-check its tests before manufacturing vehicles. Federal regulators are considering rules that would require all automakers to go through this process, he added. Jack R. Nerad, editorial director at Kelley Blue Book’s KBB.com, said Ford’s action may spur the E.P.A. to be “more directive and restrictive in how its fuel-economy rules and ratings are administered.” “At the very least we expect tighter auditing of the process, so that substantial discrepancies over a sizable number of vehicles do not occur in the future,” he said in an email. “Certainly this will gain attention in Congress as well.” Some consumers have taken to online forums to complain about the gas mileage on these models. In September, one driver of a 2013 MKZ wrote at Edmunds.com that the mileage was “closer to 36 m.p.g.” than the advertised 45. Jacob Barros, a real estate agent from Phoenix, said his 2014 Lincoln MKZ hybrid averages 33 to 35 miles per gallon. He finds that disappointing, but isn’t too upset. “I’m an automotive enthusiast,” he said. “I love the car in general so it more than makes up for a few miles per gallon.” Ford has emphasized fuel economy in its marketing. A Super Bowl commercial in February, for example, trumpeted the Fusion hybrid as having “nearly double the fuel economy of the average vehicle.” With Thursday’s announcement, the rating on that vehicle was reduced to 42 miles per gallon from 47.

Ford Motor
EPA
Oil and Gasoline
Fuel efficiency


House Panel Appointed in Ethics Inquiry Into Nevada Lawmaker

Abstract: WASHINGTON — Representative Shelley Berkley’s bid for a Senate seat in Nevada will most likely remain under an ethics cloud through Election Day after the House ethics committee disclosed Monday that it had appointed a formal investigative panel to look into allegations that she used her office to help her husband’s medical practice. The move by the ethics committee suggests that a preliminary investigation found at least some evidence of wrongdoing. This is only the second time in nearly two years that the committee has formally opened a full, new investigation into a sitting House member. Ms. Berkley’s campaign said in a statement released late Monday that she welcomed the deeper inquiry and remained confident that she would be cleared. “Congresswoman Berkley’s one and only concern was for the health and well-being of Nevada’s patients,” said her campaign manager, Jessica Mackler. But Republicans in Nevada said this could be a deciding factor for Ms. Berkley, a Democrat, in her intensely competitive election contest against Senator Dean Heller, a Republican former House member who was named to the seat after Senator John Ensign resigned in 2011 under his own ethical cloud. “This will put that extra little doubt in the minds of swing Democrats and independents that Berkley needs to win,” said Ryan Erwin, a Republican political consultant in Nevada. “Because as much as she doesn’t want to talk about this, it smells bad.” Ms. Berkley has been accused of wrongly intervening with Medicare officials in 2008 after they threatened to close a troubled kidney transplant center in Las Vegas where her husband’s kidney-care practice served as consulting physicians. Ms. Berkley over the last five years has also played a leading role in the House in pushing an agenda advocated by the Renal Physicians Association, while her husband, Dr. Larry Lehrner, served as a national leader in the group. That included appealing to House colleagues to prevent cuts in Medicare reimbursement rates for doctors like her husband who perform dialysis. The investigation was started last year after an article in The New York Times examined the overlap between Ms. Berkley’s actions in Washington and her husband’s business affairs. The article noted that the contract between Dr. Lehrner’s medical practice and the kidney transplant center, University Medical Center, was expanded to a $738,000-a-year deal after the transplant center was saved. Ms. Berkley has argued that she is an advocate for kidney care patients in her home state. She also noted that she was joined by other members of the Nevada Congressional delegation, including Mr. Heller, in objecting to the planned shutdown in 2008 of Nevada’s only kidney transplant center. Federal officials ultimately allowed the transplant center to remain open, and conditions at the center, where a number of deaths had occurred, have since improved. The ethics committee first disclosed in March that it was looking into the allegations against Ms. Berkley, based at least in part on a referral it had received from the Office of Congressional Ethics, a quasi-independent body that serves as the equivalent of a grand jury on Capitol Hill. The case has already drawn attention in the Nevada Senate race. In the last month, American Crossroads, a leading conservative “ super PAC ,” broadcast a television advertisement questioning Ms. Berkley’s ethics, which was followed up by an advertisement by the Berkley campaign rejecting the charges. The ethics committee, which voted unanimously for the full investigation, is unlikely to comment further for several months and perhaps not until after Election Day; inquiries typically take more than six months, and in some cases, more than a year. In this case, four House members have been appointed to a special committee that will examine the allegations, with Representative K. Michael Conaway, Republican of Texas, serving as chairman. The committee’s jurisdiction will end when Ms. Berkley leaves the House, as she will do by the end of this year, either to join the Senate or to begin at least a temporary retirement from politics. Dan Schwager, chief counsel for the ethics committee, declined to predict how long this inquiry might take. A statement issued by the ethics committee also emphasized that its decision does not mean it has reached any conclusions about wrongdoing. “The Committee notes that the mere fact of establishing an investigative subcommittee does not itself indicate that any violation has occurred,” the statement said. The only other appointment of an investigative subcommittee involved Representative Laura Richardson, Democrat of California, who is being investigated based on allegations that she used House resources for personal purposes, or to help with her re-election campaign. That committee, created in November 2011, is still looking into the matter.

Berkley Shelley
House Committee on Ethics
Ethics (Institutional)
Nevada
Heller Dean
United States
Elections Senate
Congress


Guerin, Aging Captain, Weathers Islanders’ Ups and Downs

Abstract: SYOSSET, N.Y. — A banner-size photo of Bill Guerin , the team captain, hangs on the wall of the Islanders ’ practice rink, not far from a vintage picture of the former captain Denis Potvin raising the Stanley Cup above his head. Guerin once raised the Stanley Cup, too, but that was in another time and place, when he was a 24-year-old member of the 1995 champion Devils. Now Guerin is a 38-year-old right wing playing for a young, injury-riddled team fighting to rise from the bottom of the N.H.L. standings, even after its current four-game winning streak. All he can do is try to produce goals and provide an upbeat example, especially for the younger Islanders, while coping with the sharp pain of a losing season and questions about his future. “You have good days and bad days,” Guerin said after practice last week at Islanders Iceworks. “Some days are tougher than others. But you have to try to come to the rink with a good attitude every day and expect the best.” This is Guerin’s second year with his seventh team over 17 N.H.L. seasons. Going into the Islanders’ road swing at Florida and Tampa Bay on Thursday and Saturday, he has scored a team-high 15 goals — giving him 402 for his career — to go with 18 assists. He has led the team in more ways than one. The Islanders made him their captain right after he signed as a free agent in July 2007. “It’s always easier to be a captain on a successful team,” Coach Scott Gordon said. “I think that once coming to grips with our situation, he’s handled it pretty good.” These days, there is another situation for Guerin to handle: trade speculation (the trade deadline is March 4). Teams with Cup aspirations may be willing to part with young players or draft picks for a solid 6-foot-2, 220-pound player and leader like Guerin, who is in the last year of a contract that pays him $4.5 million this season. There is a complication, though. “Bill Guerin has a no-move clause,” General Manager Garth Snow said. “For me, he’s a New York Islander, and he’s extremely valuable in our locker room, especially with a lot of young players that we have.” Guerin left open the possibility of lifting that clause. But his preference, he said, is to stay, explaining that he likes playing for the Islanders and that a move would be hard on his family. A native of Massachusetts, Guerin has made Long Island his year-round home with his wife, Kara, and three girls and a boy, ages 6 to 11. “If something comes up, some things you can just flat out say no and some you really have to think about,” Guerin said. “But nothing has happened, so it’s hard to give you an answer. I can’t say, ‘Yes, I’ll lift it.’ Or, ‘No, I definitely won’t.’ ” Younger Islanders may miss him most if he departs. Guerin goes out of his way to make them feel at home, even inviting them over to his home on Long Island. Oct. 2, for example, was Josh Bailey night at Guerin’s house in Oyster Bay. Bailey, a rookie center from Ontario, had turned 19. “His kids sang ‘Happy Birthday’ to me,” Bailey said. “He’s treated me great.” Like Bailey, Kyle Okposo is a former first-round draft pick. He arrived at Nassau Coliseum as a 20-year-old right wing last March. Guerin, who was taken fifth over all by the Devils in the 1989 draft, helped him right away. “I wasn’t really too comfortable, but he made the transition real easy,” Okposo said. “He pulled me aside and just kind of talked to me about what to expect out there and just to relax and play your game. He’s a great leader. First and foremost, he’s a great guy.” One new teammate has provided more of a comfort level for Guerin during this difficult season. Doug Weight is also 38, an alternate captain and center who is a close friend of Guerin’s. They have been together on three N.H.L. clubs, three United States Olympic teams and one United States World Cup team. “He’s very intense and emotional, but he’s very quick-witted,” Weight said. “Billy has got the ability to bring guys toward him, and he makes you very comfortable. He’s a funny guy. We both try to feed off each other in that regard, keeping it loose in the room.” No matter what happens from here, Guerin will always have the snapshot in his mind from the night of June 24, 1995, at the Meadowlands, the night the Devils clinched their first Stanley Cup. “It was the pinnacle of my career, at such a young age, too,” Guerin said. “I appreciated it, but now I really do.”

Guerin Bill
New York Islanders
Hockey Ice


Vyapam Corruption Case Mystifies India

Abstract: NEW DELHI — Nobody died today. At least not as we went to press. This is newsworthy for millions of Indians who are following the unraveling of a system of corruption in a state government examination board — widely known by its Hindi acronym, Vyapam — that conducts tests for college admissions and jobs. Dozens who were associated with the case have dropped dead. Some activists who accuse politicians and government officials of killing those who might rat on them insist that more than 50 have been murdered or died under suspicious circumstances. Several news reports put the figure at more than 40. Investigating officials say it’s around 25. One politician has said that the figure is above 150. It is not easy for a corruption case to mystify Indians, but this one, in which politicians and officials in Madhya Pradesh are accused of taking bribes in return for helping candidates get high scores, is extraordinary. More than 2,000 people have been charged, hundreds are in jail, hundreds more are on the run and scores have asked for police protection. But these are not the figures that have the nation’s attention. Over the past few months, media outlets have been drawing attention to the fact that some of the accused, most of whom were under the age of 40, have died in possible murders, suicides, accidents or other, unexplained, ways. If most were in fact not murdered, the story suggests an even more frightening possibility. In late June, as national interest in the case was escalating, a 29-year-old suspect died in police custody. The official cause was heart failure. The same day another suspect died of a medical ailment. Last week, a television journalist who was investigating the story died of what officials say was a heart condition. At the time of his death, he was talking to the father of a young woman who was listed in 2014 among those suspected of using fraudulent means to pass an exam. The investigators later discovered that she had died in 2012 in unclear circumstances. A day after the journalist’s death, a professor who was believed to have been helping with the investigation was found dead in his hotel room. The autopsy results were not conclusive, but doctors speculated that his death may have been caused by a combination of alcohol and medicines. A day later, a young policewoman who had gotten her job through the tainted process died in what was called a suicide. Her family said her in-laws had been harassing her. On the same day, a policeman who was being investigated in the case hanged himself. The police said he was depressed and had debts. A scandal of this nature says more about India than is at first apparent. It is not just that Indian politicians and government officials can be extremely dangerous, or that corruption is so widespread that it would be wrong to call it an anomaly because a way of life is not an anomaly. The case also suggests that official statistics may not accurately capture the full scale of untimely deaths in India. Anand Rai, an activist who had gone to court asking for an investigation into the corruption, told The Economic Times : “Ten of the deaths that have occurred so far are in suspicious circumstances. The rest may be a matter of coincidence.” It does appear that not everyone who has died was murdered. There could have been other causes. As a minister said, “Whoever is born has to die one day.” It is possible that the suspects who committed suicide had reasons that had nothing to do with being investigated. About 2,500 have been charged or questioned by investigators, and if this were a sample for a study on how Indians, especially those under the age of 50, die, then the number of the dead in this sample suggests that at least 12 in every 1,000 Indians perish in suicides or traffic accidents, or because of illness or alcoholism, which is higher than the official overall death rate for the nation — about 7.4 per 1,000. In a reasonable conjecture, the high death rate among those tied to the case suggests that more Indians die before their time than is commonly believed. Follow Manu Joseph, author of the novel “The Illicit Happiness of Other People,” on Twitter at @manujosephsan .

India
Corruption
Fatalities,casualties
Madhya Pradesh India
Tests


Ray LaHood Sees a Change of Attitude at Toyota

Abstract: TOYOTA CITY, Japan — Toyota faced “very, very serious credibility problems” in the wake of its safety crisis, but changed its attitude toward American regulators after its president, Akio Toyoda, visited the United States, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said Monday. Speaking after a meeting with Mr. Toyoda at the company’s headquarters in Japan, Mr. LaHood said his department was looking through 500,000 pages of documents to determine whether to levy additional fines against the Japanese carmaker, a process that could take months. Speaking in a conference call later, Mr. LaHood said Mr. Toyoda’s appearance at a Congressional hearing in February was a turning point for the company founded by his grandfather. “I think he understood for the first time that Toyota was facing some very, very serious credibility problems in the United States,” Mr. LaHood said. “He has listened and paid attention.” Earlier this year, Mr. LaHood sharply criticized Toyota as acting “a little safety deaf” in its slowness to address problems with sticking accelerator pedals on cars sold in the United States. While he praised steps taken by Toyota, including the assembling of a global quality assurance team, “The bottom line is whether he’ll listen to these people,” Mr. LaHood said during the conference call. “The most important part is what happens from here on out.” Mr. LaHood’s visit to Toyota headquarters, where he appeared at a news conference with Mr. Toyoda, came in the wake of recalls of more than nine million Toyota vehicles worldwide for faulty accelerator pedals and other problems that have tarnished the automaker’s reputation for quality. The recalls prompted a series of Congressional hearings, including the one at which Mr. Toyoda testified. There, he apologized for problems with sudden unintended acceleration on Toyota vehicles that led to series of accidents. The House Committee on Energy and Commerce plans another hearing on Toyota next week, while lawmakers in the House and Senate have drafted legislation aimed at safety reforms . On April 18, Toyota agreed to pay a $16.4 million fine , the largest allowed by law, imposed by the Transportation Department, which charged that the company hid information about one of the pedal-related recalls. It was the largest such penalty ever handed out to an automaker in the United States. Toyota has not admitted fault. But it faces the possibility of at least two more such fines, although Mr. LaHood said it could be several months before action is taken. “If we find that something is not quite the way it’s supposed to be, we’ll address that,” Mr. LaHood said in Japan. Amid the uproar over its recalls, Toyota appointed a chief quality officer and has vowed to improve communications within the company and with federal safety regulators. It promised to speed up recalls by giving more authority to regional offices, although the final decisions still rest in Japan. The company also set up a quality advisory panel for North America, headed by former Transportation Secretary Rodney Slater, to make sure complaints are relayed back to headquarters more quickly. “As I told Secretary LaHood, Toyota places utmost importance on customer safety,” Mr. Toyoda said at the news conference. “I believe we are making strong progress delivering on our commitments. Our entire company has mobilized to ensure that Toyota vehicles remain safe and reliable.” He said the new regional focus on safety would “act as a voice of the customers in North America and work to ensure that customer concerns are swiftly addressed.” He pointed to the company’s swift handling of a recall of the Lexus GS 460 , a luxury S.U.V. It stopped selling the model briefly when Consumer Reports magazine issued a “do not buy” warning last month, related to problems with the cars’ electronic stability control systems. Mr. LaHood praised Toyota for its response, Mr. Toyoda said. Meanwhile, Mr. Toyoda pledged to cooperate fully with federal investigations. “I hope you understand that we have never hidden anything, and we have never misled,” he said. Though Toyota has been the main target of criticism over its recent recalls, American regulators have also come under fire for reacting too slowly to potential problems at Toyota. Because federally required recalls are a lengthy and cumbersome process, virtually all recalls are voluntary actions by the carmakers. Last week, Congress took the first steps toward a comprehensive auto safety bill that would require devices like event data recorders and brake override systems in cars sold in the United States. The measure would also strengthen federal regulators’ enforcement powers. The bill is Congress’s first serious look at auto safety in a decade since reforms passed after fatal accidents involving Firestone tires on the Ford Explorer . Inquiry Over 2005 Recall Federal regulators are investigating a 2005 recall by the Toyota Motor Corporation for a steering-related problem in trucks over a possible breach of rules for alerting authorities about flaws. The department is investigating the timing of the September 2005 recall for steering-relay rod defects in vehicles including 4Runners after an October 2004 recall in Japan for the same flaw. Carmakers have five days to report safety flaws to regulators under federal law. At that time, Toyota told regulators that the defect was isolated to vehicles in Japan and the company had not received similar information in the United States, the agency said. In 2005, Toyota informed the agency the steering-relay rod defect was in models sold in the United States and conducted a recall.

Toyota Motor Corp
LaHood Ray
Automobile Safety Features and Defects
Automobiles
Regulation and Deregulation of Industry
Accidents and Safety


National Briefing

Abstract: SOUTH Florida: Ship’s ‘Black Box’ Found Nearly six months after a United States cargo ship sank off the coast of the Bahamas during a hurricane, the National Transportation and Safety Board has found the vessel’s “black box,” which investigators hope will provide evidence that will help them understand why the vessel sank. The 790-foot vessel, El Faro, sank Oct. 1 during Hurricane Joaquin on trip from Jacksonville, Fla., to San Juan, P.R., killing all 33 crew members. A previous effort to find the ship’s voyage data recorder, which records conversations and sounds on the navigation bridge, had failed. Investigators and scientists using remotely operated undersea search equipment found the device early Tuesday in 15,000 feet of water, about 41 miles northeast of Acklins and Crooked Islands. FRANCES ROBLES Virginia: Governor’s Action On Felons’ Voting Is Questioned Republican leaders of the General Assembly are calling on Gov. Terry McAuliffe, a Democrat, to convene a special legislative session to discuss his recent restoration of voting and other civil rights to more than 200,000 convicted felons. Speaker William J. Howell of the House and the Senate majority leader, Thomas K. Norment Jr., said the governor’s actions last week to restore certain civil rights to convicted felons was a “matter of great consequence” to Virginians that deserves a thorough debate. Mr. McAuliffe issued an order restoring the rights of 206,000 felons to vote, saying the move would help undo Virginia’s long history of trying to suppress the black vote. (AP) MIDWEST Ohio: Slain Family Members Were Shot Multiple Times Seven of eight relatives who were found dead in their southern Ohio homes last week had been shot multiple times, including one who was shot nine times, according to autopsy results released Tuesday. The Hamilton County coroner said the victims — three women, four men and a 16-year-old boy — had wounds to their heads, torso and other parts of the body. Six of the victims had three or more wounds. Attorney General Mike DeWine has called the deaths carefully planned slayings carried out at four locations in rural Piketon. He has also said there were marijuana growing operations at three of the locations. The authorities have said members of the Rhoden family were targeted in the slayings. (AP) MID-ATLANTIC Pennsylvania: Arrest Made In 2003 Arson Deaths A man who got into a fight with a boxer outside a Philadelphia club went to the boxer’s home in the city later that night with friends and threw gasoline bombs at it, igniting a fire that killed the boxer and four relatives, police said Tuesday in announcing an arrest in the 2003 case. The man, Abdu Rivera, 32, was arrested Monday on five counts of murder, arson and related offenses. Capt. James Clark of the Philadelphia police said the boxer, John David Santiago, had gotten into a fight with Mr. Rivera and others in the early evening. Mr. Rivera and his friends tracked down Mr. Santiago’s address and used accelerants to set fire to the home, he said. “This is over a bar fight and pride,” Captain Clark said. Mr. Santiago, 23, a four-time Pennsylvania Golden Gloves state champion, was killed with four others. Captain Clark said two detectives reopened the case in 2014. (AP)

Murders and Homicides
Arson
Boat Accidents
Terry McAuliffe
Virginia
Piketon
Philadelphia
Voting


Tempered Expectations for the Market in 2010

Abstract: IN hindsight, it makes perfect sense that equities started to surge last March. Stocks often move in anticipation of shifts in the economy — they’ve generally rallied four to six months before recessions have ended. By the third quarter of last year, the economy was expanding again. It picked up steam toward the end of the year, validating the market’s earlier optimism. But move to the present. If the market is a predictor of economic trends, investors are now handicapping the performance of the economy and corporate profits in the spring and summer of this year. On that count, the market seems to be predicting bumps ahead. For example, even though the Standard & Poor’s 500 index of blue-chip stocks soared 62 percent from early March to mid-October, the rally has slowed. Since Oct. 15, the S.& P. 500 has risen by a more modest 4 percent. Jeffrey N. Kleintop, chief market strategist at LPL Financial in Boston, says he still expects equities to advance at the beginning of the year. But “somewhere between January and June, the rally will probably peter out,” he said. He added that “it may be the opposite of 2009, which started off falling sharply — much like the market did in 2008 — only to bottom out and rally for the remainder of the year.” Only this time, the market may reverse course by going lower later in the year. Why are some strategists predicting a potential pullback? For starters, the good economic news that spurred 2009’s rally is expected to moderate as the year progresses. That’s not to say the economy — or for that matter, Wall Street — will turn outright bearish. But the bullish case is not expected to be so clear. Consider gross domestic product. Last year, investors focused on directional change. In the second half of 2009, the economy is believed to have grown at an annual rate of roughly 3 percent, after contracting at an annual rate of more than 6 percent in the first quarter. But the euphoria is starting to die down. A recent survey by the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia indicates that forecasters expect the rate of economic growth to slow somewhat this year — to 2.3 percent in the first quarter and 2.4 percent in the second. Moreover, in dollar terms, the economy is still smaller than it was at the end of 2007. The outlook is similar on the corporate profit front. Last year, investors focused on forecasts that S.& P. 500 earnings would grow nearly 200 percent in the fourth quarter of 2009, versus the same period in 2008. But that stunning growth rate is expected to come down to earth in 2010. S.& P. 500 profits are projected to rise around 38 percent for the first quarter, 23 percent for the second quarter, and 22 percent for the third, according to John Butters, director for United States earnings at Thomson Reuters. To be sure, earnings growth above 20 percent is still well above the norm. But in dollar terms, corporate earnings are expected to be lower in the third quarter than they were in the same period in 2006. Another concern is that some of the tail winds that propelled stocks in 2009 — including government stimulus spending around the world — are expected to reverse course later this year. “The market could start to run into some of those head winds around the second quarter,” said Timothy W. Hayes, chief investment strategist at Ned Davis Research in Venice, Fla. Mr. Hayes says that if stock prices continue to climb at the start of the year, rising optimism and equity valuations may leave the market more vulnerable to bad news, like the threat of rising interest rates. Already, long-term market interest rates have begun to climb, with the yield on 10-year Treasury notes up to 3.79 percent, from 3.20 percent at the start of December. And central banks around the world are expected to start raising short-term rates as their economies recover and inflation fears surface. For its part, the Federal Reserve has indicated that it expects that rates can stay low for “an extended period.” Right now, the markets seem to be betting that a rate increase may occur as early as August. But Liz Ann Sonders, chief investment strategist at the Charles Schwab brokerage firm, says, “I wouldn’t be surprised if it happens a little sooner than that.” IF that’s the case, many market strategists think that the market could suffer a setback. Mr. Kleintop at LPL Financial is betting that the S.& P. 500 could surge to around 1,250 early this year, which would represent a gain of about 9 percent from current levels. But he thinks that the market could give back about half those gains in a correction toward the end of the year. Be careful what you wish for, Mr. Kleintop said. Last year, investors were praying for better-than-expected economic news. But now that a recovery may be at hand, they are beginning to fear the consequences: less fiscal stimulus from governments around the world, coupled with rising rates.

United States Economy
Stocks and Bonds
Economic Conditions and Trends
Banks and Banking
Standard & Poor's 500-Stock Index


An Icon of Indian Roads Is Set Out to Pasture

Abstract: DELHI, India — When the Ambassador car was born in 1957 to a newly independent India, it was the height of style and status. It was standard issue to senior civil servants and government officials; its possession implied status, and its ubiquity was a sign of an earlier, seemingly simpler India. The country’s highly protectionist economy also made it one of the few cars on the road, with a singular design that has often been compared to a bowler hat. But that icon of the Indian road may have reached the end of the line, pushed from its dominance by changing consumer tastes, an opening marketplace for automobiles and fierce competition. In May, the car’s manufacturer, Hindustan Motors announced that it would suspend production of its Ambassador, the final stage in a long decline. As far back as 1999, Hindustan Motors reported a $9.5 million loss from the lone plant in West Bengal, partly because of an outsized work force. In the year ending March 2014, just 2,200 Ambassadors were sold, according to Reuters. In the year ending September 2013, the company reported losses exceeding its net worth. In their statement announcing the shutdown, Hindustan Motors cited a “lack of demand” for the Ambassador and a shortage of funds, as well as “growing indiscipline” among factory workers at the West Bengal plant. Video After more than 50 years, Hindustan Motors ended production of the iconic Ambassador, the first car solely sourced and produced in India. Credit Credit Manjunath Kiran/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images In the 1980s, Maruti introduced the Alto 800, an underpowered but inexpensive hatchback that brought car ownership to the masses. In the 1990s when the economy was liberalized, the Indian car market slowly opened up to faster, more convenient options. “The death of the Ambassador may have formally been announced earlier last month, but in reality the Ambassador vanished from Indian roads 10 years ago,” said Siddharth Varadarajan, a journalist who owns three Ambassadors. The virtual monopoly that Hindustan Motors possessed for decades, he said, was the car’s undoing. “There was never any incentive for Hindustan Motors to improve the product,” Mr. Varadarajan said. “They were a highly myopic company.” The company, however, has maintained that the halting of its production is temporary, and that the plant in West Bengal will eventually reopen. It is the car of Nehruvian India, its white, be-curtained iteration the conveyance of dignitaries including, at times, the president. In this sense, the Ambassador holds the singular distinction of being one of the few vehicles whose mention evokes power, elegance and something pleasingly retro, even as its manifestation, in the form of taxis and government vehicles in Kolkata and Delhi, often borders on disrepair. Image The Ambassador car, born in 1957 to a newly independent India, was once the height of style and status. Credit Deshakalyan Chowdhury/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images Drivers complain that pedals break off after a few thousand miles, that the air-conditioners malfunction. Some use turmeric to stop up holes in the radiator — anything to avoid servicing with expensive and increasingly rare parts. Many carry water bottles to cool off radiators that frequently overheat. But the fondness for some drivers, whose cars took them through decades of India’s history, seems to overpower any inconvenience. V. P. Verma, a retired engineer, parks his mint green Ambassador proudly outside his south Delhi home. He said the waiting list for the car when his father, a district administrative officer in Bihar, bought it in 1962 was five years. “To possess an Ambassador in 1962 was like possessing an Audi in India now,” said Mr. Verma. “It was status, prestige.” He recalled how they packed in the entire family — 14 people — on road trips between Darbhanga, a town in north Bihar, to Patna, its capital. Twenty years ago, the car took him and his wife on a 1,000-kilometer trip from Ranchi in present-day Jharkhand State, through Uttar Pradesh, up to the hills of Almora at the foot of the Himalayas, and did not break down once. Though friends have pressed him to replace it, it remains his only car. “It needs a face-lift now and then,” said his wife, Sabine Verma. “But its heart is still strong.”


U.S. Budgets Cash to Treat Heroin Abuse in Northeast

Abstract: CHILMARK, Mass. — Faced with a surge in heroin abuse in recent years, especially in the Northeast, the White House on Monday announced a program aimed at improving the government’s response to the drug across 15 states in that region. The Office of National Drug Control Policy said it would spend $2.5 million to hire public safety and public health coordinators in five areas in an attempt to focus on the treatment, rather than the punishment, of addicts. The funding — a sliver of the $25.1 billion that the government spends every year to combat drug use — will help create a new “heroin response strategy” aimed at confronting the increase in use of the drug. A recent study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that heroin-related deaths had nearly quadrupled between 2002 and 2013. “The Heroin Response Strategy will foster a collaborative network of public health-public safety partnerships to address the heroin/opioid epidemic,” said the announcement by the policy office. “The aim will be to facilitate collaboration between public health and public safety partners within and across jurisdictions, sharing best practices, innovative pilots, and identifying new opportunities to leverage resources.” Once thought of as a drug used only by hard-core addicts, heroin has infiltrated many communities, largely because of its easy availability and its low price, officials said. The problem has become especially severe in New England, where officials have called for a renewed effort to confront it. Gov. Peter Shumlin of Vermont devoted his entire State of the State Message in January to what he called “a full-blown heroin crisis” in his state. Like the new White House effort, the governor called for a new, treatment-based approach to the drug. “The time has come for us to stop quietly averting our eyes from the growing heroin addiction in our front yards,” Mr. Shumlin said then, “while we fear and fight treatment facilities in our backyards.” The increase in heroin abuse, and its effect on middle-class communities, has been documented in the news media in recent years. A report by The New York Times showed how a mother on Staten Island became addicted to the drug. An article in The Washington Post focused on the drug’s impact in Maine. Federal officials said on Monday that the new funding would be directed to communities that have already been designated as “high intensity drug trafficking areas,” under a program started by Congress in 1988. The five areas to receive the heroin funding are: Appalachia, New England, Philadelphia/Camden, New York/New Jersey, and Washington/Baltimore. Coordinators in those five regions will form what officials called a “15-state network of experienced, connected law enforcement contacts.” They said they hoped the new program would support law enforcement efforts while focusing on treatment. The Washington Post first reported on the administration’s plans. Michael Botticelli, the director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, said in a statement that the new heroin strategy demonstrates the administration’s “strong commitment” to addressing the surge in what he called the opioid epidemic in the United States. “This administration will continue to expand community-based efforts to prevent drug use, pursue ‘smart on crime’ approaches to drug enforcement, increase access to treatment, work to reduce overdose deaths, and support the millions of Americans in recovery,” Mr. Botticelli said. But some critics said the new effort was far too small to be thought of as a serious attempt to combat the rise of heroin abuse. Mayor Ted Gatsas of Manchester, N.H., a Republican, said the new program would not be enough to confront the heroin deaths in his city, which numbered 50 in the first half of the year. “Anything that we do to fight this epidemic is a great thing,” Mr. Gatsas said, “but I don’t think we need coordinators. We need funding to make sure that people have the opportunity to get into rehab.”

Office of National Drug Control Policy
Northeastern States
Heroin
Drug Abuse
New England
CDC
US Politics
Michael Botticelli


Trade Gap Falls, Hinting At Pickup in U.S. Growth

Abstract: WASHINGTON — A sharp decline in the trade deficit with other nations suggests the American economy grew this spring at a faster pace than previously estimated, helped by a record level of exports. The Commerce Department said on Tuesday that the United States trade gap fell more than 22 percent, to $34.2 billion, in June from May. That is lowest level since October 2009. American companies shipped more aircraft engines, telecommunications equipment, heavy machinery and farm goods. As a result, exports rose 2.2 percent to a record high of $191.2 billion. Imports declined 2.2 percent to $225.4 billion, in part because oil imports fell to the lowest level in more than two years. Economists said the steep drop in the trade deficit would most likely lead the government to revise its economic growth estimate for the April-June quarter. Image Credit The New York Times “We could see a sizable upward revision,” said Jennifer Lee, a senior economist at BMO Capital Markets. Last week the government said the economy grew at a lackluster 1.7 percent annual rate in the second quarter, in part because trade cut nearly a full percentage point from growth. But after seeing the June trade figures — which were not factored into last month’s growth estimate — some economists said growth could be closer to a 2.5 percent annual rate. The government reports its second estimate of growth for the April-June quarter on Aug. 29. A smaller trade deficit lifts economic growth because it means consumers and businesses are spending less on foreign goods than companies are taking in from overseas sales. Many economists say they think overall growth has started to rebound in the July-September quarter. Some say growth could come close to a 3 percent annual rate. A crucial reason is that several export markets, including Europe, are seeing improvement. For June, United States exports to the 27-nation European Union rose 1.5 percent. That helped shrink the deficit with the region to $7.1 billion. The deficit with China fell 4.3 percent, to $26.6 billion, while America’s deficit with Japan rose 2.2 percent, to $5.5 billion in June.

US Economy
International trade
US
China
Europe


Cambodia: Khmer Rouge War Criminal Appeals Sentence

Abstract: The man who admitted to overseeing the torture and killing of 16,000 people as the Khmer Rouge ’s chief prison warden returned to court on Monday to appeal his sentence for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Kaing Guek Eav , also known as Duch, is the only person so far to be tried by the United Nations-backed tribunal set up to investigate and prosecute officials of the Khmer Rouge, whose four-year rule in the 1970s led to the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million people. Duch, 68, was sentenced in July to 35 years in prison for war crimes and crimes against humanity, but the sentence was commuted to 19 years.

War Crimes Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity


One Last Game in Orange Bowl

Abstract: MIAMI, Jan. 26 — Joe Rose, a tight end for the Miami Dolphins in the 1980s, agreed to play in a flag football game Saturday between the Dolphins and the Miami Hurricanes that would serve as a ceremonial final game in the Orange Bowl. Yet Rose, now a radio and television broadcaster in South Florida, was not confident about his conditioning. “I’m just hoping not to pull a muscle, blow out a knee or get hit in the back of the head by a Dan Marino pass,” Rose said before the game. Kim Bokamper, a former Dolphins linebacker whose nine-year career ended in 1985, knew exactly what approach he would take. “Self-preservation,” he said without hesitation. “I think a lot of the guys feel that way.” More than 20,000 people were at the Orange Bowl on Saturday for a final goodbye. They listened to players from the Dolphins’ unbeaten 1972 team and from the University of Miami’s 1983 national title team talk about their accomplishments. Nostalgia filled the air while memorabilia was sold and fans mulled whether to purchase a souvenir seat from the stadium when it is taken down next month. Then came the flag football game. The star attraction was Marino, the Hall of Famer whose 17-season career, spent entirely with the Dolphins, ended after the 1999 season. But the Hurricanes came with a virtual army of quality quarterback depth. They started Jim Kelly, another N.F.L. Hall of Famer, but also played Bernie Kosar, the 1992 Heisman Trophy winner Gino Torretta, Ken Dorsey, Steve Walsh and Craig Erickson. All but Kelly won a national title at Miami. The Hurricanes, who wound up winning, 65-51, also had the unusual specter of the former Giants nose tackle Jim Burt not only playing wide receiver but catching a touchdown pass. Burt said he had not been a receiver since sixth grade, but he did not hesitate when game organizers invited him down from Bergen County, N.J. “It was a chance to see all the guys, meet the ’72 Dolphins and say goodbye to a historic stadium,” Burt said. Marino did not disappoint. With his rapid-fire delivery, he threw touchdown passes on the Dolphins’ first three possessions — two to the current Dolphins defensive end Jason Taylor — then allowed Don Strock, his longtime backup with the Dolphins, to play the next two series. Strock threw interceptions that were returned for touchdowns in each series. “Marino looks like he never left,” Don Shula, who has the N.F.L. record for coaching victories, said at halftime. Of Strock, Shula told the crowd with a chuckle, “You won’t see any more of Strock in the second half.” In the nostalgia play of the game, Marino arched a long pass to Mark Duper that barely eluded him. As teammates, they hooked up for 59 touchdowns. “I even dove for it,” Duper said. “I’ve never dove for a football in my life.” Kosar, who played at Miami and briefly for the Dolphins, suited up in the first half with the Hurricanes, then switched teams. As a Dolphin, he threw an interception that was returned for a touchdown. Several Dolphins jokingly accused him of deliberately failing. When the game ended, the players hugged and shook hands. It was the last chapter for the Orange Bowl, which opened in 1937 and served as the stage for many significant football games. Five Super Bowls were held there, including the third one —the game that Joe Namath guaranteed that the Jets would win. They did, defeating the Baltimore Colts, 16-7. The Orange Bowl was known as a difficult place for road teams to play, in part because of the deafening noise created when fans began stamping on the steel flooring. The Dolphins once won 31 straight games there, from 1971 to 1975. In 1987, they began playing at a stadium near the Broward County line named after Joe Robbie, the team’s owner at the time. The Hurricanes won an N.C.A.A. Division-I-record 58 consecutive games at the Orange Bowl from 1985 through 1994. They decided to move to Dolphin Stadium after last season. The Florida Marlins are interested in building a stadium on the site.

Orange Bowl
College Athletics
Bowl Games
Miami (Fla)
Rose Joe


New Mexico: Judge Signs Off on $1 Billion for Tribes

Abstract: A judge has approved a nearly $1 billion settlement between the Obama administration and Native American tribes over claims the government shorted tribes on contracts to manage education, law enforcement and other federal services. Lawyers for the tribes learned Wednesday that a federal judge in Albuquerque had approved the agreement, about five months after the Interior Department and tribal leaders announced they had reached a proposed $940 million settlement in the class action. Nearly 700 tribes or tribal agencies are expecting compensation, ranging from about $8,000 for some Alaska Native villages and communities elsewhere to $58 million for the Navajo Nation. Some underfunded federal contracts in the case reportedly dated back to the 1970s.

Native Americans
Albuquerque
Navajo Indians
Interior Department
Alaska
Barack Obama


Readers Drawn Into Debate Over U.C.L.A. Student’s Jewish Background

Abstract: In Kerckhoff Hall, the bustling student union building at the University of California, Los Angeles , a student council meeting was underway. Not exactly newsworthy, one would argue, if not for what came after. The fuss over Rachel Beyda, a candidate for a student board position, started with a question: “Given that you are a Jewish student and very active in the Jewish community, how do you see yourself being able to maintain an unbiased view?” The question, posed by Fabienne Roth at the meeting nearly one month ago, was directed at Ms. Beyda’s ability to remain objective on a campus where the student council voted to support the Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions movement aimed at pressuring Israel. Whether anti-Semitism was at play and the implications of Ms. Roth’s question have been debated on the U.C.L.A. campus for weeks. An article about the incident landed on The New York Times’s home page on Thursday night, and by late Friday evening, more than 2,500 comments had been submitted to NYTimes.com , and over 500 comments posted on The Times’s Facebook page. The majority of Times readers were outraged by the questioning of Ms. Beyda. Many of them called for the resignation of the four students who initially objected to Ms. Beyda’s confirmation. “What an absolutely despicable thing to say,” David Ricard wrote . “If anyone asked this same question of a Muslim, Catholic, or Hindu it would be condemnable.” The nature of Ms. Beyda’s political views was never discussed by the student council. The apparent assumption that all Jewish people have inherent political ties struck many readers as blatant anti-Semitism. For others, the article was proof of something they already suspected — that the United States has become more anti-Semitic than ever. “I can honestly say that the undercurrent of anti-Semitism in this country has never been stronger, never more prevalent, never more virulent than it is right now,” wrote Ira , who identified himself as a Jewish man in his 60s raised in New York City. Ms. Roth later apologized for her phrasing of the question, and several readers came to her defense, saying that because of a language barrier (Ms. Roth is Swiss) she was not aware of the implications of her question. “Colossally stupid phrasing, for sure,” wrote Y , a reader who watched video of the student council meeting and read the minutes. “But the fact that the entire board unanimously approved Ms. Beyda just minutes after clearing up the conflict of interest issue, as well as the public apology quickly issued, belies the assertion that this panelist ‘hated Jews.’” To others, blaming the incident on poor phrasing felt like a poor excuse. “It’s not about how she ‘phrased’ her question,” scottpiro14 , a reader in New York, wrote in the reader comment ranked most popular. “The words and syntax used isn’t the problem. It’s about why her mind asked the question in the first place.” Others did not believe that the question, as it was phrased, was offensive in the first place. Tom Paine wrote, “Ms. Beyda is not just Jewish (which is the unfortunate component of the question) but a leader in Jewish based organizations — ones which hold power and influence. In fact, any activism — secular or religious — is open to inquiry. So, Ms. Beyda should have expected an interest by the reviewing board, and been prepared.” Some comments about the article made frequent reference to historical religious and ethnic prejudice, with many readers recalling Europe’s slide into Nazism. To others, the issue of prejudice involves more than just history — it is something Americans continue to grapple with, from Los Angeles to Ferguson, Mo., and New York. The routine meeting of students managed to set off a furious debate about built-in prejudices and conflicts of interest. Lisa Rothstein wrote, “Everybody comes from somewhere, and unless born yesterday, has accumulated a lifetime of affiliations, beliefs and preferences. If that’s the basis for determining whether someone has the ability to be impartial when impartiality is called for, then no one is.”

Antisemitism
University of California
Los Angeles
Rachel Beyda
Discrimination


Amid Drought, Water Board in New Mexico Confronts State Over Supply

Abstract: A small water agency in southern New Mexico has moved to force state agencies that control water distribution to deprive some users of their supplies. The local agency, the Carlsbad Irrigation District, or C.I.D., acted to ensure that its alfalfa farmers receive the supplemental deliveries to which they say they are entitled. The irrigation district voted unanimously last week to make what is known as a “priority call” on the Pecos River , a move that could force New Mexico’s Office of the State Engineer to reallocate supplies, relying on a longstanding priority list and assigning water to all the users of the river based on their seniority. On Tuesday, the district was pressing its case at meetings with state officials. This year, Carlsbad farmers have been told that they will receive only 10 percent of their normal water allotment, in part because of the lack of supplemental water from state-run wells. The priority call, in the midst of the worst drought on record in the Pecos River Basin, which runs almost the full length of the state from north to south, could mean a loss of water for newer but more economically robust industries, including oil and gas extraction and cheese production. The oldest claims on water across the West tend to belong to the heirs of the farmers who first seeded the land in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Last month, Estevan R. López, the director of the New Mexico Interstate Stream Commission , warned the Carlsbad agency against taking the action. “I understand the frustration of the C.I.D.’s farmers given the lack of water and the disappointing future climate forecasts,” he wrote in a letter to the district. “However, a priority call may not result in improvement. “I caution you to be realistic in your expectations of the amount of water that is available for delivery to the C.I.D. under the current drought conditions.” But the Carlsbad district is determined to make the state engineer enforce a priority call. As the district’s lawyer, Steve Hernandez, said, “New Mexico has to do what the law says, bite the bullet and start cutting people off.”

Pecos River NM
Drought
Water
Agriculture
Irrigation
New Mexico