Joe Girardi and Alex Rodriguez Part on a Poignant Note

Abstract: On a night overflowing with good will, affection and even some joy, Joe Girardi broke down in tears on Friday following Alex Rodriguez’s final game as a Yankee. “I know how much he loves this game, and I feel for him,” Girardi said in a trembling voice during a postgame news conference. “He’s not going out a champion, and he’s not going out on a 30-home-run season.” No, Rodriguez went out a .200 hitter. But he also went out as a third baseman, thanks to Girardi, who, after an awkward week of refusing to start the former superstar in Boston, granted Rodriguez’s sentimental request to play his old position for one batter. For all the strain that had developed between the two men over the last several weeks — especially on Wednesday, when Girardi expressed anger at members of the news media for their coverage of it — Rodriguez absolved Girardi on Friday, essentially forgiving his manager for not having played him earlier. “After the game, I went up to him, shook his hand and gave him a big hug and said, ‘Thank you for letting me play third base,’” Rodriguez said. “I am forever grateful. That was quite a moment.” The idea that Rodriguez was being magnanimous toward Girardi might have been the catalyst for the stream of tears. Girard said there was a range of emotions. And for all the support that Girardi showed toward Rodriguez a few years ago when he was a pariah within the organization and in major league baseball, it was an appropriate gesture by Rodriguez. At one point, Girardi had to pause for 20 seconds before he could speak again. “I’m going to miss him,” Girardi said. “I’m going to miss this guy. This guy did a lot of great things. I got to see a lot of neat things, and he helped us win a lot of games.” Girardi has made managing the farewell games of star players into a niche industry, having created similar moments with Mariano Rivera, Andy Pettitte and Derek Jeter. In the top of the ninth inning, Girardi sent Rodriguez to his familiar position for one batter, then sent Ronald Torreyes to replace him, allowing Rodriguez to hear two more ovations from the fans and get hugs from teammates. “If this is the last time he ever plays,” Girardi said, “I wanted it to be something he would never forget.” When asked his favorite moment of the night, which including a run-scoring double, a 6-3 win over the Tampa Bay Rays, and numerous ovations from an adoring, sold-out crowd, Rodriguez said his favorite moment had been playing third base again. “It’s been awkward and tough,” Rodriguez said. “I was disappointed. But we are family, and family sometimes disagrees. In the long-term, Joe and I are going to be just fine.”

Baseball
Joe Girardi
Alex Rodriguez
Yankees
Coaches


Obama, in Wisconsin, Takes On Scott Walker

Abstract: LA CROSSE, Wis. — President Obama came to this city on the Mississippi on Thursday and launched a frontal assault on Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin, who filed papers earlier in the day that moved him closer to joining a crowded Republican presidential field. Mr. Obama likened Mr. Walker and the “bus full” of Republican candidates to an “Uncle Harry” at Thanksgiving dinner who says something that makes no sense. “You still love him,” the president said. “He’s still a member of your family. Right? But you’ve got to correct him. You don’t want to put him in charge of stuff.” Mr. Obama compared the recent economic performance of Wisconsin under Mr. Walker with that of its neighbor Minnesota, where Democrats have been in charge. He pointed out that Minnesota had raised taxes on the wealthy, increased the minimum wage and expanded its Medicaid program to offer health insurance to more of the needy — none of which has happened in Wisconsin. Minnesota’s unemployment rate is lower, he said, and its median income is higher. “Minnesota’s winning this border battle,” Mr. Obama said. Mr. Obama said the Democratic Party had healthy competition among presidential contenders. “But I’ve lost count of the number of Republicans running. They have enough for an actual Hunger Games,” he said to raucous cheers. “But I’ve come here because why should they have all the fun?” Who Is Running for President? Donald J. Trump officially accepted the Republican party's nomination on July 22. Hillary Clinton was officially nominated on July 26 at the Democratic Convention. Earlier in the day, Mr. Walker greeted Mr. Obama at the La Crosse airport. Mr. Walker spoke for some time; Mr. Obama listened and responded. The two men smiled and shook hands again. The governor, who has been leading polls in early-voting Iowa, wrote an article for the website Real Clear Politics, titled “Welcome to Wisconsin, Mr. President,” in which he said that Wisconsin’s fortunes had improved “in spite of — not because of — the president’s big-government policies.” In his address Thursday, Mr. Obama said his administration had tackled a lot of difficult problems, including a terrible recession and a broken market for individual health insurance policies. “But the last seven years, shoot, the last seven days, should remind us there’s nothing America can’t do,” Mr. Obama said to wild cheering from the crowd of about 2,300 at the University of Wisconsin, La Crosse. Mr. Obama highlighted a rule change that his administration announced this week that would raise the salary threshold, to $50,440 a year from $23,660, below which workers automatically qualify for time-and-a-half overtime wages. That would lift wages for up to five million people as soon as 2016. He also defended his push for a trade agreement with Pacific countries, but agreed that adjusting to global trade “is hard.” Like the move to raise the federal minimum wage, the overtime rule change is supported by labor groups and opposed by business groups. The trade agreement is, by contrast, supported by business groups and opposed by labor. Mr. Obama’s trip came on a day when the Labor Department reported that the economy added a healthy 223,000 jobs last month and the unemployment rate fell to 5.3 percent. But the department also found that labor force participation fell, while average hourly wages stayed flat. Jared Bernstein, senior fellow at the left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, said the jobs report powerfully demonstrated the need for an updated overtime rule. “The president has a solid job market at his back for which he can legitimately claim some credit,” Mr. Bernstein said. “But the recovery still isn’t reaching everyone, and initiatives like the overtime update can help change that.” Jack Mozloom, spokesman for the National Federation of Independent Business, said the report was a powerful demonstration of why the administration’s overtime rule was so poorly timed. “This is a very new recovery, and we think it’s jeopardized by policies like this,” Mr. Mozloom said. Mr. Obama’s trip to Wisconsin was part of what some have called a victory lap after what was widely seen as one of the best weeks of his presidency. The Supreme Court upheld a crucial part of his health care law and found a right to same-sex marriage, and Congress passed pivotal legislation giving the president authority to negotiate a legacy-defining Pacific trade deal. After declining for years to support same-sex marriage , Mr. Obama has changed his stance and celebrated the Supreme Court’s decision last week allowing such marriages nationwide by lighting the White House in rainbow hues and calling the ruling a “thunderbolt” of justice. In contrast, Mr. Walker called the ruling “a grave mistake” and reiterated his call for a constitutional amendment that would allow states to ban same-sex marriage. Mr. Walker has abandoned his support for an immigration overhaul and spoken out against the Common Core national education standards — both Obama administration priorities.

Barack Obama
Scott Walker
Wisconsin
2016 Presidential Election
US Economy


Maine Dam Removal a Start to Restoring Spawning Grounds

Abstract: BRADLEY, Me. — Under a bright sky here, a convoy of heavy equipment rolled onto the bed of the Penobscot River on Monday to smash the Great Works Dam, a barrier that has blocked the river for nearly two centuries. Before the destruction began, a tribal elder from the Penobscot Indian Nation used an eagle wing to fan smoke from a smoldering smudge of sage, tobacco and sweet grass over the crowd that had gathered to watch. “Today signifies the most important conservation project in our 10,000-year history on this great river that we share a name with, and that has provided for our very existence,” said the tribal chief, Kirk Francis. The Penobscot River’s once-abundant runs of salmon, shad, sturgeon, alewives, eels and smelt were nearly wiped out because for years the dams — there are three in the river’s first 10 miles alone — impeded migrations to their spawning grounds. “Returning these species of fish to their historic habitat, we will see the river continue to come back to life in a major way,” Mr. Francis said. The long-delayed start of the dam-removal project is expected to end years of rancor and uncertainty. Plans to dismantle the dams began in 1999, when PPL Corporation, a power company, bought a series of Penobscot River dams from Bangor Hydro Electric Company. Wanting to avoid the conflicts that had accompanied dam-licensing efforts on the river, PPL began negotiating with the Penobscot Indian Nation and several conservation groups. They agreed on a deal that allowed PPL to sell several dams for removal or decommissioning, while increasing power generation at six other dams to offset the power losses. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission signed off on the agreement in 2004. “The backdrop for the negotiations was total rancor on the river, over every individual dam relicensing,” said Laura Rose Day, executive director of the Penobscot River Restoration Trust, a coalition formed by the tribe and conservation groups to buy and remove the dams. Still, not an ounce of concrete had been touched until Monday. First, the trust had to raise $25 million to buy the dams from PPL, which it accomplished in 2010. Then it had to raise more money to take them down. The Penobscot still has the nation’s largest run of Atlantic salmon, which are listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act. The fish are trapped at a fish ladder on the Veazie Dam, between the Great Works Dam and the ocean, and trucked upriver or to hatcheries. More than 3,000 salmon returned to the river in 2011, the largest run in 25 years, but historic runs were most likely 20 times that size. Project supporters say the endangered salmon will get a boost when the dams come down, but other fish may benefit even more. Pat Keliher, commissioner of the Maine Department of Marine Resources, said migratory fish rebounded quickly on Maine’s Kennebec River when the Edwards Dam was removed in 1999. That river now has a run of more than three million alewives. Mr. Keliher said the Penobscot also has great potential for shad. “Shad can provide a great angling opportunity, and our biologists predict that over time this river could support a run of over one million fish,” he said. It may be a few months before the river flows freely here. The next steps will come when the Veazie Dam, at the head of tide near Bangor, comes down, perhaps as soon as July 2013. Meanwhile, Black Bear Hydro, the power company that bought PPL’s Penobscot interests in 2009, will build a fish lift at the Milford Dam, which will then be the first barrier to migrating fish. And farther upriver, the trust will decommission and build a bypass around the Howland Dam. In all, supporters say, Atlantic salmon and other fish will have improved access to more than 1,000 miles of river. The total cost of buying and removing the dams will be $62 million, a nearly even split between private and public money. At the river on Monday, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced $2.5 million in new federal support from the federal Fish and Wildlife Service. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration contributed an additional $1 million. “For those who say we have to choose between taking care of our planet and conservation on the one hand, and jobs on the other hand, let’s all remind them that it’s a false choice,” Mr. Salazar said. “And we’re proving it right here today on the Penobscot River.”

Levees and Dams
Salmon
Endangered and Extinct Species
Maine
Environment
Fish and Other Marine Life
Penobscot River (Me)


Some Protesters in Middle East Regret Anti-U.S. Outbreaks

Abstract: CAIRO — Ahmad Aggour is a 24-year-old Egyptian activist who was shot in the face by the police during clashes last November on Mohammed Mahmoud Street in Cairo and again in his legs in February at protests that followed soccer riots in Port Said. In short, he has no qualms about protesting. Yet Mr. Aggour said he was embarrassed when a mob of angry protesters breached the United States Embassy’s walls in Cairo on Sept. 11 to protest a short trailer for an amateur film mocking the Prophet Muhammad. “The movie defaming Muhammad wasn’t a movie, it was just a trailer,” Mr. Aggour wrote to his Twitter account the Friday after protests began. “We are the movie.” Liberal activists like Mr. Aggour started the Arab Spring revolts. Now they are taking to the social media to express their dismay that a contentious film trailer could generate more attention and outrage than bloody oppression and threats to the freedom that they have risked their lives to obtain. Some liberal activists say the latest unrest is further proof that Islamists have seized the gains of the revolution. Others, though, suspect that far-right provocateurs are fueling the rage and argue that the protests highlight the continuing struggle between moderate and extreme Islamic forces. “While you are outraged, remember the Bahrain regime, along with other regimes, have attacked mosques, burned Korans and killed,” Maryam Alkhawaja, acting president of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, wrote on her Twitter account. Many activists are expressing similar sentiments on the social media. They are saying that the demonstrations against the anti-Islam film epitomize the focus on religious issues instead of on continuing repression. Nowhere is frustration and disillusionment louder than in Syria. “We begged our Arab ‘brothers’ to protest against Bashar’s crimes against humanity and Islam. Nope, they’d rather protest against Obama!” Shakeeb al-Jabri, an editor of a Syrian activist news site who is based in Beirut, wrote on Twitter, referring to the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad. The circumstances surrounding the film have fueled activists’ suspicions. It was a crude film promoted by a shadowy assortment of right-wing Christians in the United States and posted on YouTube in June, then picked up three months later by ultraconservative Salafist groups in Egypt . Protests were called for the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. “My feelings are that there is something very manufactured about this, on both sides, very shady characters setting out to provoke,” Hani Shukrallah, a political writer and managing editor of Al Ahram, an Egyptian daily newspaper, said in a phone interview in Cairo. “You have to look at who stands to benefit.” Some online activists drew attention to the role played by Nader Bakkar, the official spokesman of Egypt’s ultraconservative Nour Party, which is politically at odds with the Muslim Brotherhood, the party of President Mohamed Morsi , in calling for protests at the United States Embassy in Cairo on social media. In an opinion article for The National, an Abu Dhabi daily, Issandr El Amrani, a journalist based in Cairo who blogs as the Arabist, said Mr. Bakkar had announced on the widely watched Al Jazeera television channel that the American media had broadcast the film. Mr. Aggour, the activist, said: “Why didn’t these people later interfere to try and stop the fights? They give these guys a reason to be angry, then they tell them to protest, get them close to the police, then clashes break out and they run away and say, ‘No, no, we didn’t have anything to do with it.’ ” “There is an ambassador dead because of this, and I blame Bakkar,” he said, referring to the roughly simultaneous violence in Benghazi, Libya, that left Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans dead. After the attacks on the embassy in Egypt, Mr. Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood have been pressed by conservative Islamic groups to take a firm stance against the United States for allowing the film’s release. In a country where more than 60 percent of the population sees Islam as playing a major role in the political life of the country, Mr. Morsi has been careful not to offend his Islamic base. “Now the Salafists are back on the stage,” said Mr. Shukrallah, continuing with a reference to the protests in Tahrir Square in Cairo that came to symbolize the Arab Spring. “They can push the Muslim Brotherhood to the wall, embarrass them or challenge how Muslim they are in order to push their agenda.” “This is the exact opposite of what was in Tahrir,” he continued, referring to Tahrir Square, the location of the Arab Spring protests in Egypt. “This was just the golden opportunity for them to strike against the values of the revolution that they are so against.” Other observers think Islamist extremists are provoking unrest in an attempt to gain political ground. Frederic Wehrey, a senior associate in the Middle East program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said the attacks in Libya that left Mr. Stevens and the other Americans dead had been a symptom of the Salafist militants’ isolation from the mainstream and a sign of division among their own groups. “Libyan Salafis who returned to Libya from abroad during or after the revolution are grasping for traction by resorting to the usual slogans: rooting out idolatry, whipping up anti-Americanism, and sending volunteers to Syria,” Mr. Wehrey said by e-mail from Doha, Qatar. “There has been an enormous backlash against the Salafis’ attempt to muscle their way to prominence: by civil society groups, women’s organizations, other Islamists like the Muslim Brotherhood, tribes and the grand mufti of Libya.” In an effort to strike back after the attacks in Benghazi, many Libyans took to the social media in a counterprotest of apology — uploading photos to Facebook of Libyans carrying hand-lettered signs condemning the violence and expressing contrition for the attacks on the United States Mission. The question then turns to who the protesters are and why they took to the streets. In Cairo, protesters overwhelmingly said they were rallying to the defense of the Prophet Muhammad, but analysts say the reasoning was more complex. Robert Malley, the Middle East and North African program director for the International Crisis Group, said there were socioeconomic causes behind the recent events. “There is a large number of unemployed, politically unanchored, socially marginalized youth, many who may have played a part in the Arab Spring,” he said. “They haven’t benefited, and are likely not to benefit for some time, making them easy prey for the Salafist movement.”

Egypt
Cairo (Egypt)
Demonstrations Protests and Riots
Morsi Mohamed


No Detail Overlooked as China Prepares Celebration

Abstract: BEIJING — Domesticated pigeons of this city, take note: Until Oct. 1, you are prohibited by government edict from flying over the center of China ’s capital. Do not take it personally, however. The government is preparing to observe the 60th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China with a parade that will make 76 trombones look like a child’s plastic kazoo. And nothing — not unauthorized window-peeping, nor marchers’ mental health, nor even the chance that pigeons might muck up displays of aerial might — is being left to chance. China’s government at times resembles an exasperated parent trying to rein in a pack of rebellious children. Its edicts are persistently flouted by censor-dodging Internet users, wayward local officials and rioting Uighurs . But when it comes to the impending National Day celebration in Beijing, the government appears fully in control. When swarms of soldiers, throngs of tanks and flocks of floats roll past Tiananmen Square on Thursday, 10,000 police officers and security guards will monitor Beijing street corners and checkpoints for evidence of potential party-spoilers. As many as 800,000 volunteers have also been enlisted to help maintain security. Knife sales have been banned in at least some stores. Beijing’s international airport will be closed Thursday for three hours. Along the parade route, the authorities have forbidden parade-watchers from opening windows or standing on balconies. Three journalists from the Japanese Kyodo news agency said that when they stood on a hotel balcony to cover a Sept. 18 parade rehearsal, the authorities stormed into the room and assaulted them . A spokeswoman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry said the journalists ignored explicit instructions not to report the event, apparently out of concern that details of the spectacle would be revealed. And it will be a spectacle. Nearly 5,000 of China’s 2.3 million soldiers will march past the nation’s leaders. They will be grouped partly according to height, with no variation of more than six centimeters, or about two and a half inches. Next will come rows of rumbling tanks and vehicles mounted with missiles, satellites and military equipment. More than 150 planes will fly in formation overhead, some trailing colored vapors. Liang Guanglie, the Chinese defense minister, has said the parade will demonstrate that China now has weaponry as sophisticated as developed nations have — and that the matériel is now manufactured in China. “This is an extraordinary achievement that speaks to the level of our military’s modernization and the huge change in our country’s technological strength,” Mr. Liang said in remarks posted on his ministry’s Web site . Another senior military commander said intercontinental missiles capable of bearing nuclear warheads would be “remarkable symbols” of China’s military might. The Olympics that dazzled spectators last year showed China’s knack for meticulous preparation. Participants in the Thursday parade have engaged in similarly intense drills for months, according to reports in the Chinese news media. Soldiers have practiced endless hours to hold their rifles at precisely the same level. Photos show their instructors holding threads as rifle guides, or sticking needles in soldiers’ shirt collars, pointed at their necks, to correct poor posture. They have trained to stand motionless for a solid hour, to refrain from swaying during the second hour and not to collapse after three hours, reported Xinhua, the state-run news agency. They have been schooled in shouting phrases in perfect unison: “Serve the people!” and “Hello, senior leader!” They are also expected not to blink for 40 seconds at a time. Mental-health professionals have been called in to help those whose performance is not up to snuff. As of Sept. 12, 1,300 soldiers had received counseling, Xinhua reported. To limit the risk of a security lapse, cities and provinces outside Beijing have been told to cancel plans for parades or mass gatherings on Oct. 1. Foreign tourists have been banned from Tibet, the site of violent protests last year, until Oct. 8, according to media reports. Chinese news media have reported that the government has limited parade participants in Beijing’s celebration to 187,000 — at least 300,000 fewer than in the last decennial celebration. Performers have been carefully screened. Even the workers who are decorating the city with tens of millions of flowerpots had to undergo “political inspection,” according to news reports. Given all that, the grounding of tens of thousands of pigeons since mid-September — to avert any interference with practice for the military flyovers — may seem like a minor issue. Flying kites and model airplanes in Beijing has also been temporarily banned, to the distress of kite enthusiasts. “Originally, they were all very excited about the holiday,” said Ming Ming, manager of the Sijimantian Kites Cultural Exchange Center, which sells kites and organizes competitions. “Now, they are stuck at home. People are feeling a little annoyed.” He is not sure what they will do instead. “Most of the people who are interested in kites aren’t really interested in much else,” he said. The pigeons’ captivity will be temporarily broken on Thursday: 60,000 are to be released simultaneously as part of the celebration. Then it is back to their coops for another week. Dong Jingbei, president of the Dongcheng District Carrier Pigeon Association, said he understood China’s desire for flawless festivities. But he wondered what shape the pigeons would be in. “This is totally unfair,” Mr. Dong said. “This is like locking up an athlete in a tiny little room. When they finally let them out on Oct. 1 at Tiananmen, they won’t even know which way is north!” Mr. Dong is doing his best to soothe angry pigeon owners in the association. “We’re a government entity,” he said to a reporter. “It’s not like we are going to complain to you, right? I’m trying to work on their mentalities, but they are definitely annoyed.” Still, he said, they understood that for a flawless parade day, no detail could be overlooked. Even the pigeons were undergoing security checks. “I don’t know what kind of stuff you have in New York,” Mr. Dong said. “But people could strap all sorts of minibombs to pigeon legs.”

China
Communism (Theory and Philosophy)
Parades


An Artist Takes His Pay in Coffee and Community

Abstract: David Ellis is painting what could be his biggest commission ever — assuming he lives long enough, since he’s being paid in coffee and tobacco. For the last few weeks, he and a rotating cast of assistants and friends have been painting a mural of green, orange and yellow waves wrapped around the walls of Ralph’s, an ancient bodega south of Fort Greene Park in Brooklyn. Though his other work — large outdoor paintings or sculptures of found objects that integrate music — can fetch tens of thousands of dollars, he is passionate about this corner bodega project. He sees it as his way of giving back not just to the neighborhood, where he has crashed with friends on and off for the last 10 years, but to Ralph Jawad, the bodega’s owner who for years gave him juice and cigarettes, or lent him money with no paperwork save for a hastily scribbled note on a paper bag. The payback is in art and community. “If I don’t have to pay for orange juice, coffee or anything else, this could be big,” Mr. Ellis, 43, said. “Even if it only amounts to $20 a day for the rest of my life, that would be huge. And people will see it here. Man, I could get 50 grand for something like this for a museum, but nobody would see it. But here, at least 500 people pass through each day.” Many passers-by were curious, since the store had been shuttered for a while. In late 2012, Mr. Jawad was arrested on drug and weapons charges , a turn of events that shocked his neighbors. He pleaded guilty to misdemeanor weapons and drug charges and served less than seven days. “We’re good,” said a smiling Mr. Jawad, whose father had opened the store in the 1960s. “It’s O.K.” He once had his own doubts about Mr. Ellis — “a nut” — whom he remembers coming by the store talking about his art and asking for free stuff. In an area that had been rapidly gentrifying, a lot of people called themselves artists. “I always get guys who come in here telling me what they can do,” Mr. Jawad said. “But one day David comes here and shows me a newspaper story about a big drawing he did in Dumbo . I asked him, When are you going to paint my store?” Mr. Ellis found the time a few weeks ago, between trips to New Orleans, where he is collaborating with the musician Dr. John, and to Taipei, Taiwan, where he is painting the atrium of a luxury hotel. Inside Ralph’s, he spends his time rooting through sketches, regaling visitors with grand plans for future projects, and playing a lot of blues and soul music. Though he seldom picked up a brush, he paid close attention to the painters who were executing his designs. In a way, it was a lot like music, which shaped him when he was a teenager at the North Carolina School of the Arts. “Everybody was creative,” he said. “That planted the seed in my mind to work collaboratively. I’d get the best people together to do something. I mean, look at jazz, like Monk or Ellington. They brought people together.” A bodega, too, is where people come together. Every day, he spends a chunk of it bantering with Evander “Buster” Mcrae, one of his assistants who is a stickler for detail. “There’s money to be made here,” Mr. Mcrae said. “A lot of money.” Mr. Ellis agrees, and he speaks seriously about showing more of his work at Ralph’s, even designing some household products for sale, like toilet paper. For him, it is about community. “There are some neighborhoods in New York where you don’t even know who lives next door to you,” Mr. Ellis said. “This is open, and I treasure that.” Ralph’s is a throwback to an era that is fading — some say being driven into extinction — as the brownstone-lined streets become ever more gentrified. The old-timers who hang out by the bodega admit as much, but said they liked seeing Ralph’s hanging on, even as it gets a makeover. “Ralph was down, but he’s making a comeback,” Michael Gaynor, who calls himself Mr. Fort Greene, said. “When you fall you got to get back up. That’s for real. This looks for real. And David got a lot of people involved in this. Everybody got their little bit here and there.” Some people who grew up in the area when it was predominantly African-American understood that the changes sweeping over the area have led to tensions. Recently, Spike Lee, Fort Greene’s most famous native son, warned against the newcomers pushing out old-timers. Mr. Jawad just chuckled. “Spike can say what he wants about gentrification,” he said. “But he was one of the first to sell and move to Manhattan. I’m still here.”

Art
David Ellis
Supermarkets
Fort Greene Brooklyn
Ralph Jawad
Mural


Settlement Plan Drafted as Trial Nears for 9/11 Lawsuits

Abstract: With a firm trial date looming for thousands of lawsuits brought by workers at ground zero against the city, lawyers for both sides are engaged in intensive talks aimed at settling some or all the cases. The first 12 cases are scheduled for trial on May 16 in Manhattan . But Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein , who is overseeing the litigation, said at a recent hearing that a detailed settlement plan about 70 pages long had been drafted. “There have been intensive discussions going on looking to settlements of individual cases and globally of all cases,” he said. Lawyers for the plaintiffs and the city declined to comment on the negotiations. “The parties have been working very hard,” said Judge Hellerstein, of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. “The settlement is complicated.” The lawsuits against 90 government agencies and private companies were filed beginning in 2004 by more than 9,000 rescue and cleanup workers who sued over illnesses and injuries they say stemmed from working at the World Trade Center site in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attack. Several hundred lawyers are working on the cases, and the court documents run to tens of millions of pages. The plaintiffs claim that the city, along with its contractors and other major defendants like the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey , offered inadequate safety procedures and supervision to shield them from exposure to contaminants while working amid the debris in a 16-acre area at the site. Plaintiffs are seeking compensatory damages for pain and suffering and economic loss, as well as, in certain cases, medical monitoring. They may also seek punitive damages in appropriate cases, said Paul J. Napoli , one of the lead lawyers for the plaintiffs. James E. Tyrrell Jr. , the lead lawyer for the defendants, contends that no link can be proven between the illnesses of plaintiffs and exposure at ground zero, and that some are making false claims. If the cases come to trial, juries will have to decide whether the defendants are at fault, whether the plaintiffs are actually sick and whether their conditions were caused by their work at the disaster site, Mr. Tyrrell said. The litigation is complex and politically charged. Among those suing are firefighters, police officers, construction workers and other responders who draw public sympathy. Many elected officials and advocacy groups are demanding compensation, long-term medical treatment and monitoring for the workers from the federal government. Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg supports a bill pending in Congress that would offer federal relief to people harmed by work at the site. But the city has, at the same time, been fighting the workers in court, arguing, among other things, that it is immune from damages in cases involving a civil defense disaster or a national emergency. At issue is how great the city’s liability would be if it lost the cases. “We would rather stand with the responders before Congress than fight them in the courtroom,” said Jason Post, a spokesman for the mayor. “Responders and workers should not have to prove that the city or the contractors are somehow responsible for their harms — which plaintiffs are obligated to prove and which the city thinks is not the case.” Still, in 2007, Mr. Bloomberg said the city was willing to explore settling the cases. Although the cases have been consolidated, they are being considered separately and not as a class-action lawsuit. The court, lawyers for the plaintiffs and the city are selecting a small group of sample cases to bring to trial in the hope that the verdicts will guide settlement of the remaining lawsuits. “No one seriously thinks that all of these cases would ever be tried,” said Richard A. Nagareda , a law professor who teaches complex civil litigation at Vanderbilt University Law School. “Ultimately, everybody understands there’s going to be some sort of comprehensive settlement. The question is, what is the price?” The city is arguing that its liability is capped at $350 million under federal law, but lawyers for the plaintiffs are disputing that figure. If they prevail, the city could face an enormous cost for its share of the compensation. The city and its contractors are covered by an insurance fund of almost $1 billion financed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency . The private contractors named as defendants have their own insurance, although the coverage available has not been determined. “We believe there’s sufficient coverage to pay all claims with money to spare,” Mr. Napoli said. As in other cases involving exposure to environmental hazards, establishing cause and effect is likely to be difficult. The plaintiffs have been asked to fill out lengthy questionnaires that ask about pre-existing diseases, their medical history as far back as 1995 and other exposures that could have caused the illnesses, like the use of tobacco products. But what makes the 9/11 cases even more daunting, some legal experts note, is that the collapse and conflagration of the two towers in 2001 created an unfamiliar toxic soup from the dust and fumes. “There’s not a lot of experience with this kind of risk,” said Anthony J. Sebok , a professor who specializes in mass torts at Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law. “It may be very difficult from a technical point of view to get testimony from experts.” The cases also involve thousands of people claiming hundreds of different ailments of varying severity. Many of them were subject to different types of exposure over different periods. To make the litigation more manageable, a severity chart has been created to classify injuries in six major disease categories by type and seriousness, a classification scheme that will help the court pick a sample of cases. The trials could still be delayed as lawyers continue to request documents, file motions and work their way through hearings to decide which expert testimony will be allowed. No decision has been made on whether to try the first cases separately or together, but Judge Hellerstein has said that he is not “enamored of the idea” of grouping the cases and that he may bring in other judges to conduct simultaneous trials. Some of the plaintiffs said they hoped for a fair resolution. Glen Klein, 51, a former police officer from Centereach on Long Island who blames his respiratory and gastrointestinal problems on the hundreds of hours he spent on recovery work at ground zero, said that any money would go to pay about $30,000 in credit -card debt he had acquired since his ailments forced him to stop working in 2005. Anything else he would invest, he said. “If I woke up one day with a rare cancer , I’d like to take care of my family,” said Mr. Klein, who is married and has three children. “I feel I’m just waiting for the hammer to drop on me.”

World Trade Center
Medicine and Health
Lawsuit
9/11,Sept 11
Alvin K Hellerstein


An Architect Works With a Source of Inspiration: His Father

Abstract: When he was growing up in San Juan, P.R., Jonathan Marvel would often visit his father’s architecture studio, awe-struck by the work around him. Schools, churches, hotels, apartment buildings, plazas and boulevards — seemingly all the things of daily life had come from the pen of his father, Thomas Marvel , one of the most prolific designers of his generation on the island. These inspired Jonathan Marvel to follow his father’s path to Harvard and into architecture. When it came time to practice, as much as he wanted to return to Puerto Rico to work, he decided to establish himself on the island of Manhattan instead. “I worried if I went back, I would be working for my father, or at least in his shadow,” he said. “Like him, I wanted to carve out my own trajectory.” Mr. Marvel has become a successful architect in his own right, so much so that he is now helping his father. With Puerto Rico going through perhaps the worst economic crisis in its history, and work in the building industry drying up, Mr. Marvel, 55, is giving his father’s firm a role in some of his numerous projects in New York. “I think we each respect each other and what we have achieved on our own,” Thomas Marvel, 80, said in a phone interview last week. “Twenty years ago, it might have been harder — what’s this kid telling me to do? But he has proven himself. And I’m looking for new challenges, to keep working, and to keep my firm working.” Their partnership comes at an important time for both men. Two years ago, Jonathan Marvel started a new practice , which has already doubled in size to 65 designers, with no space left to grow. Thomas Marvel has plenty of room at Marvel & Marchand Architects , where the head count has shrunk to nine, from 25, over the past five years, with those remaining now working only three days a week. Image Marvel & Marchand Architects helped renovate the Condado Vanderbilt Hotel in San Juan, P.R. Credit José Jiménez-Tirado for The New York Times “I’m not so much interested in working in San Juan as bringing work to San Juan and helping a community that did so much to shape me as an architect,” Jonathan Marvel said. “I started looking at expanding my office here, but when I got to talking to my dad, we thought why not expand there instead?” Their hope is to someday return to the Caribbean for work, especially with the recent decision by the United States to begin normalizing relations with Cuba, where the Marvel family has roots. But for now, the focus is strictly 1,600 miles to the north. In a sense, it is a homecoming; Thomas Marvel grew up in Newburgh, N.Y. His great-grandfather, Juan Jacinto Jova, immigrated there as a failed sugar trader turned red brick baron. Jonathan Marvel likes to root through demolition sites in New York City looking for bricks stamped with the Jova family name , while his father playfully jokes about how the family built half the city then and is working toward building half of it now. After studying architecture at Harvard, the senior Mr. Marvel went to work for Buckminster Fuller, who was the uncle of his wife, Lucilla, and then Nelson A. Rockefeller, whose International Basic Economy Corporation sent him in 1959 to develop affordable housing, first in Iran, then in Puerto Rico. When his three-month assignment in Puerto Rico was over, he decided to make it a permanent one. “I phoned Lucilla and told her to buy a plane ticket,” he said. “It was still a very rural society, and there weren’t a lot of architects working at the time. Plus, I just adored the climate.” This allowed for a very pure form of architecture, since the buildings in Puerto Rico did not require heating and few had air-conditioning at the time. It offered the perfect environment for the muscular and acrobatic forms of poured concrete Thomas Marvel preferred to the harsher glass-and-steel style then gaining in popularity across the United States. Work was plentiful and as satisfying as the weather. “He was not from here, but he sure did not build that way,” said Mike Soto , president of the Center for a New Economy and a longtime family friend. “And he was so generous with his time, mentoring an entire generation of architects. Thomas’s fingerprints are all over the island.” Image Among the projects underway for Marvel Architects, which Jonathan Marvel helped found in 2013, is the Pierhouse, on Furman Street in Brooklyn. Credit Hilary Swift/The New York Times Yet even the most successful architects cannot succeed when there is no work. In the last decade, construction cranes seemed to outnumber palm trees on beaches until they vanished when the global economy collapsed. As work has thinned, the number of registered architects in Puerto Rico has fallen to 11,000 today from roughly 14,000 in 2010, according to the Puerto Rico College of Architecture and Landscape Architecture , the state-affiliated organization that licenses architects. Permitting fees have fallen to $350,000 in 2014 from about $1 million in 2007, according to the group. “Construction cranes, nowadays when you see one, you almost want to celebrate,” said Richard Cuebas , president of the local chapter of the American Institute of Architects. New York also saw such declines but quickly recovered. Construction spending reached $36 billion in 2014, near its peak in 2007, and the 98,000 new building permits issued in 2014 exceeded the 74,000 issued in 2010, according to city figures. This has kept Marvel Architects, which Jonathan Marvel founded in 2013 with the partners Lissa So and Guido Hartray, quite busy. Among the projects underway are a renovation to the Harvard Club, a new green-tech research and manufacturing center at the Brooklyn Navy Yard , and a pair of housing developments: the Pierhouse in Brooklyn and a 38-story tower that will replace (but also include) a Brooklyn Public Library branch at Cadman Plaza. Jonathan and Thomas Marvel, with Jose Marchand-Sifre, Thomas Marvel’s partner, are still determining exactly how projects will be handled, but they are grateful for the new work their alliance will bring. “I think even if it wasn’t Jonathan, this would be a good thing for us,” Mr. Marchand-Sifre said. “I don’t know how long before it is back to normal in Puerto Rico, and I have enough gray hairs already to be leaving or giving up.” And for Jonathan Marvel, it is the realization of those dreams from his childhood. “I finally get to work with my hero,” he said.

Real Estate
Housing
Architecture
Jonathan J. Marvel
Thomas S. Marvel
San Juan Puerto Rico
NYC


Alcoa Narrows Its Loss, but Fails to Meet Analysts’ Forecasts

Abstract: Alcoa , the aluminum producer, reported fourth-quarter profit on Monday that trailed analysts’ estimates as the company faced higher energy and currency costs. The net loss of $277 million, or 28 cents a share, narrowed from a loss of $1.19 billion, or $1.49 a share, a year earlier, Alcoa said. Sales fell 4.5 percent, to $5.43 billion from $5.69 billion. Excluding one-time items, Alcoa earned 1 cent a share, below analysts’ estimates for earnings of 6 cents a share. Profit was hurt by higher energy prices and by the dollar ’s decline against the euro and the Brazilian real, a Deutsche Bank analyst, Jorge Beristain, said. Alcoa’s primary aluminum production rose 1.8 percent from the previous quarter, to 897,000 tons, and the company said it bought an additional 207,000 tons on the open market to satisfy purchase commitments. “This quarter was disappointing, especially with the energy costs, and having to buy primary aluminum on the open market,” said John Stephenson, an investment manager at First Asset Investment Management in Toronto. The miss on earnings was significant, he said. Alcoa, the first company in the Dow Jones industrial average to report results for the three months through December, fell 75 cents, or 4.3 percent, to $16.70 a share in after-hours trading. Alcoa’s sales benefited from aluminum prices that rose 18 percent in the quarter, to $2,230 a ton on the London Metal Exchange. The price Alcoa charged customers for the metal increased 9.3 percent from the previous quarter, the company said. Revenue exceeded the $4.84 billion expected by analysts. Alcoa, which is based in New York, cut about 21,500 jobs from June 2008 through December 2009 as the deteriorating global economy reduced demand for aluminum. “This was a tough year for the aluminum industry — a price crash, demand destruction and credit crunch,” the chief executive, Klaus Kleinfeld, said in the earnings statement. The company is “facing continued headwinds from energy and currency costs.”


Obama Faces a Frustrated Hispanic Electorate

Abstract: As President Obama heads into the main stretch of his re-election campaign, his immigration policies have produced few gains for Latinos, whose votes could be crucial for him in November. The Department of Homeland Security reported last week that only about 4,400 deportations of illegal immigrants had been halted nationwide under a major initiative started a year ago. In a strategic shift, immigration authorities had said they would focus on deporting criminals and people who cheated the visa system, while sparing illegal immigrants with clean records. But after an administration review of more than 288,000 deportation cases before the immigration courts, the total suspended by prosecutors so far is less than 2 percent. That is not the only policy that has been a jarring disappointment for Latinos. Mr. Obama, who easily won a majority of their votes in 2008, promised to move in his first year to overhaul the immigration system and to give legal status to illegal immigrants. As it becomes clear that Mr. Obama faces a tight race against the presumed Republican nominee, Mitt Romney, pressure is building for him to do something more for Latinos. Early in his term, Mr. Obama put a stop to raids in factories and fields that snared many illegal immigrants who were working to support families. But quiet inspections of employers’ hiring records have accelerated, forcing many thousands of unauthorized workers to leave their jobs. The Department of Homeland Security has aggressively expanded a fingerprinting program , which vastly increases the chances for an illegal immigrant to be detained, even for minor offenses like traffic violations. In January, administration officials announced a measure that would make it easier for Americans who are married to illegal immigrants to gain legal residence for their spouses. Although it awakened great hopes — there are hundreds of thousands of couples in that situation — the measure is making its way through the bureaucracy and will probably not take effect before November. At the same time, Mr. Obama’s record on deportations has not been matched since the 1950s, with nearly 400,000 foreigners removed in each year of his term. “People are saying, ‘What gives?’ ” said Clarissa Martínez de Castro, director of immigration issues for the National Council of La Raza, or N.C.L.R., the nation’s largest Latino civil rights organization. “Immigration is deeply personal for many of our voters, and there is disillusionment out there.” Hispanics tend to have low rates of voter registration. Polls show that they place a higher priority on jobs and education than on immigration. But many Hispanic immigrants have family or friends who are here illegally. Despite his immigration results, Mr. Obama enjoys a wide lead over Mr. Romney among Hispanics. A recent Gallup poll, based on nationwide telephone interviews conducted from May 14 to June 3, found that Hispanic voters favored Mr. Obama over Mr. Romney by 67 percent to 26 percent. In the 2008 and 2010 elections, Latinos mobilized late but in large numbers against Republicans who took a hard line against immigration, handing victories to Mr. Obama and other Democrats in closely contested states. This year, Mr. Obama’s supporters are warning, it may be much harder to prompt that late turnout, even though many Latinos have been dismayed by attacks on illegal immigrants by Mr. Romney and other candidates in the Republican presidential primary race. “There is ambivalence about the president, where there really should be none,” said Angelica Salas, executive director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles. During Mr. Obama’s first two years, he leaned hard on enforcement, seeking to build credibility with Republicans to attract their votes for an immigration overhaul. But with the economy lagging and millions of Americans out of jobs, Republicans backed away from proposals that would aid illegal immigrants. In 2010, they rebuffed a bid by Mr. Obama to pass the Dream Act, a bill to give legal status to students who are illegal immigrants. Since then, the administration has tried to soften the impact of deportations on communities by focusing on expelling criminals. But the effect has been limited. “I do believe the administration has the right intention, prioritizing deportations,” Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey, a leading Democrat on immigration issues, said after seeing the low figures from the deportations review. “But these abysmal numbers raise serious questions about whether the Department of Homeland Security is making that vision a reality.” The White House defends its programs for Latinos, saying they go far beyond immigration. On Saturday, senior administration officials gathered in Arlington, Va., for the latest in a series of town-hall-style meetings the White House organized with local Hispanic leaders to discuss jobs, education and health, as well as immigration. Also, Cecilia Muñoz, the White House domestic policy council director, has made it clear that the administration will try to blame Republicans for Mr. Obama’s failure to pass his immigration overhaul. Democratic leaders are saying that is not enough. Mr. Menendez called on the administration to expand the reviews to stop deportations of many more immigrants who are close relatives of citizens. Senator Charles E. Schumer, a New York Democrat who is the chairman of the Senate Judiciary subcommittee on immigration, said prosecutors should give work permits to immigrants who are allowed to remain here under their case reviews. Students who would be eligible for legal status under the Dream Act are demanding that Mr. Obama grant them a general reprieve from deportation. One group of students staged a sit-in protest last week at the Obama campaign office in Denver. Latino leaders are worried. Ms. Martínez de Castro said, “Our immigration policy cannot continue to be at war with our beliefs and our needs.”

Dream Act (Development Relief and Education for Minors Act)


Rodriguez Will Play for U.S. in Tournament

Abstract: After Alex Rodriguez wondered and wavered and wondered a little more about whether he should play in the World Baseball Classic, he eventually changed his mind last night and decided to compete for the United States. Yesterday afternoon, Rodriguez telephoned Gene Orza, the chief operating officer of the players union, to say that he would not participate. Orza said Rodriguez, the third baseman for the Yankees, sounded definitive after agonizing over playing for the United States or the Dominican Republic. But a few hours later, Orza, who had spent several weeks trying to persuade Rodriguez to commit to playing for either nation, found out that Rodriguez was questioning his decision. As a roster deadline of midnight approached, Scott Boras, Rodriguez's agent, said that Rodriguez would play. "Alex has made the decision to participate in the World Baseball Classic for the United States," Boras said. "He decided that he should honor the country where he's a citizen." In a statement on Arod.com, Rodriguez's Web site, Rodriguez mentioned how he made his decision after discussions with his family, Boras, Commissioner Bud Selig, the players union and players from both teams. Once Rodriguez said last month that he would not participate, Boras said, Rodriguez was inundated with calls trying to persuade him to reverse his decision. "The World Baseball Classic offers baseball and its fans an exciting new forum and I look forward, if selected, to representing the United States in what will be baseball's greatest international competition," Rodriguez said. There was some international intrigue surrounding Rodriguez because his participation in the 16-team tournament developed into a tug of war between the United States and the Dominican Republic. Both nations wanted Rodriguez and included him on their provisional rosters. Boras said that Rodriguez, perhaps the premier player in baseball, felt obligated to play. "With all of the talks he had with American and Dominican players, he got a feel for this and made the right decision," Boras said. "I think he understood the importance of a player of his stature competing in this event." When teams voted on staging the World Baseball Classic, the Yankees were the only team that voted against it. Now Rodriguez, Derek Jeter, Johnny Damon, Robinson Cano and Bernie Williams are scheduled to participate, leaving a void in spring training that will irritate George Steinbrenner, the team's principal owner. The tournament runs from March 3 to 20. Because Rodriguez did not want to offend either country and is maniacal about maintaining a precise spring training schedule, he announced last month that he would bypass the event. He had originally said he would probably play for the Dominican Republic, where his parents were born. Rodriguez's statement about not playing could have ended his association with the event, but it did not. Orza continued lobbying Rodriguez because of the importance of having him in the inaugural tournament. Rodriguez listened to the recruiting pitches until the day rosters were due. After deciding he would stick to his plan and not compete, Rodriguez hedged, then surprised many by saying he wanted to play. "If someone who is one of the best players on the planet isn't playing in the tournament, then there's something wrong with the tournament," Orza said. "I think it's the right conclusion." The Dominicans wanted Rodriguez so badly that they included him on their provisional roster, even though they had no guarantee he would participate. The United States originally did not put Rodriguez on its provisional roster, but team officials quickly added him. "What we're going to do is save a roster spot for him," Bob Watson, the general manager of the United States team, said before Rodriguez agreed to play. "He can't make up his mind." After Rodriguez's decision became official, Watson was hesitant to get too excited about the addition. "If he decides he's going to play, I'd love to have him," Watson said. "Every 10 minutes, something else comes out. When we toe it up in March, if he wants to play, he'll be on our squad." When Rodriguez initially said he was sitting out the event, Orza alerted Buck Martinez, the United States manager. Martinez said that he was disappointed about Rodriguez, but that the United States had other options at third. "We'll play someone at third," Martinez said at the time. "It won't be Alex Rodriguez, but it'll still be a very good player." Martinez said that third baseman Eric Chavez of the Oakland Athletics was among 10 players being added to the roster last night, increasing the total to 52 players.

NEW YORK YANKEES
RODRIGUEZ ALEX
BASEBALL
WORLD BASEBALL CLASSIC


Devils Hire Peter DeBoer as New Head Coach

Abstract: The Devils hired Peter DeBoer on Tuesday as the latest member of their head-coaching carousel. He replaces Jacques Lemaire , who announced after the season that he would retire once again. In hiring DeBoer , General Manager Lou Lamoriello stepped out of the franchise’s family. Lamoriello tried to stay within that realm when hiring a new coach last year, but the team got off to a disastrous start under John MacLean, a former player for the team. MacLean was fired after 33 games , and Lemaire was brought out of retirement to finish the season. The Devils have made 13 head-coaching changes since Lemaire left after the first of his three stints as coach, in 1998. DeBoer, 43, was fired as the Florida Panthers’ coach in April after three seasons of failing to lift the franchise from its 10-season playoff drought. His first season had been promising; the Panthers finished third in the Southeast Division and narrowly missed the playoffs, but the team regressed the past two seasons. Florida finished last season with the third-worst record in the N.H.L., and the team began trading many of its veteran players in favor of draft picks and prospects. “I’m very excited about the opportunity to be part of any organization of winning and to work with Lou,” DeBoer said at a news conference Tuesday. “It’s always nice when a coach can have a G.M. that has had a coaching background. I think it’s a great asset for me as a coach.” The Devils also missed the playoffs last season, largely because of their horrendous start. It was the first time they missed the postseason since 1996. Lemaire led the team on a spirited run at a playoff berth, only to fall short at the end of the season, when he announced his third term as coach of the team would be his last. DeBoer was not on the short list of candidates considered to be the Devils’ front-runners. Larry Robinson, a Hall of Fame defenseman who has coached the Devils twice, was not called on a third time. The former Penguins coach Michel Therrien was also considered. DeBoer went to Newark to interview only in the past few days, but Lamoriello said he had long been on his radar. “I’ve known Pete and watched Pete coach for many years,” Lamoriello said. “He’s technically as sound as anyone.” DeBoer said he was comfortable with the Devils’ trademark defensive style, even though the team is now built largely around the offensive superstar Ilya Kovalchuk . “My plan here is I want to keep the defensive structure that’s made this organization so successful, and at the same time try to create some more offense,” he said.

DeBoer Peter
New Jersey Devils
Hockey Ice
Lemaire Jacques
National Hockey League


Crafting the Perfect Crossword

Abstract: PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Natan Last is making a crossword puzzle. “The theme,” he says as he opens his laptop, “is Dr. Seuss books” — in particular “Yertle the Turtle,” “Green Eggs and Ham” and “Horton Hears a Who,” whose 15-letter titles will fit exactly across the blank grid he summons onto his screen. He writes one title across near the top, another at the middle and the third near the bottom. “Now we have to put in the black squares,” he says. By the conventions of crossword making, or “constructing,” the design must be symmetrical. That is, it must look the same upside down as it does right side up. The trick with black squares is to put them under letters that often end words, like T’s and S’s, says Joey Weissbrot, like Mr. Last a member of the Brown University Puzzling Association (the ambiguity is deliberate). He and some other members of the group have gathered with Mr. Last in a student lounge to collaborate. A junior at Brown and a creative writing major from Brooklyn, Mr. Last has been making crossword puzzles since he was in high school, and he was, for a time, the youngest constructor ever to have a puzzle in The New York Times. Eventually, The Times’s puzzle editor, Will Shortz, took him on as an intern. His crosswords were “extraordinary,” Mr. Shortz said in an interview, especially for someone so young. “Crosswords have this reputation of being for older people,” Mr. Shortz went on. “That’s just not true anymore.” There are similar groups at places like Yale, Harvard, Princeton and Texas Christian University. But Mr. Shortz says Brown’s is the largest, and at Mr. Last’s suggestion he gave it the task of producing a week’s worth of puzzles in September . (Disclosure: This reporter is a Brown alumna and an emerita member of its board.) Constructing puzzles is “mathematical,” said another kibitzer, Aimee Lucido, a sophomore from Chicago who had her first puzzle in The Times during the Brown week. “You can do it for hours and kind of have your mind go away. But it’s creative — you are making something.” Like about a third of the puzzling students, Ms. Lucido is a computer science major. “A very large percentage of crossword puzzle constructors are into computers or math as professions,” Mr. Shortz said. He thinks that is because “crossword making involves having this huge amount of data and synthesizing it into a grid.” But constructing puzzles is like writing, too. “You want the perfect word , ” he said, “le mot juste.” David Kwong agrees. Mr. Kwong, who in his day job develops projects for DreamWorks Animation, is another constructor. Solvers “are drawing from their knowledge base and trying to figure out the gimmick,” he said. “The constructor is pushing the envelope and trying to come up with a new, clever way to create something within the constraints.” These constraints, which the Brown group and many other constructors embrace, are the rules of The New York Times, requirements that Mr. Shortz, who is also the “puzzle master” at National Public Radio, says evolved like a kind of common law. Among them are grid size (usually 15 by 15 for a daily paper, 21 by 21 for a Sunday puzzle), minimum word length (three letters) and a ban on “unchecked letters” (“Every square has to be part of two answers, across and down,” Mr. Shortz said). And the answers must be actual words. “You cannot make stuff up,” Mr. Shortz said. “You would be surprised how many submissions I get like that.” On the other hand, sometimes the fun is breaking the rules. Mr. Kwong said he and his fellow constructor Kevan Choset, a lawyer in New York City, are proud of a puzzle they had in The Times that he described as an homage to the Fold-In feature in Mad Magazine . Once the solvers filled in the grid, “they had to fold the puzzle over to find the hidden words,” Mr. Kwong said. “It was a fine example of pushing the envelope.” Another time, he said, they designed a puzzle around the theme “think outside the box.” It ran on April Fool’s Day, and it involved writing the word “think” in the margin, outside the grid. Mr. Last’s puzzle is conventional. He has his theme words and his grid and he is getting suggestions from the other puzzlers — Ms. Lucido; Mr. Weissbrot, a senior classics major from Edgemont, N.Y.; Jonah Kagan, a sophomore computer science major from Los Angeles; and Zoe Wheeler, a third-year English major from Easton, Conn. They are considering what to put in a space calling for a nine-letter word. Like many constructors, Mr. Last uses a computer program — in his case, Crossword Compiler — which has a database of words. For one nine-letter spot, the computer suggests “cablegram.” But as is often the case with accomplished constructors, the students reject it. “I don’t know what that is,” Mr. Kagan says. Instead, they choose a pop singer in their own age group: Katy Perry . “She’s all the rage, and the letters work perfectly,” Mr. Last says. In another space, though, they settle on the phrase “in cahoots.” It is old-fashioned, Mr. Kagan concedes, “but it’s hilariously old-fashioned.” In still another place the computer suggests “frogman.” The students decide on “wingman” instead. “It’s kind of a cool word,” Mr. Last says. Mr. Shortz says that even the best constructors use such databases, and that their widespread use has improved crossword quality. But they modify the programs by adding their own words, sometimes by the tens of thousands. The puzzling students collaborate on such a list, Mr. Kagan said. “It’s really nice to have this thing that everyone is working to make better.” Now they have a spot for a five-letter word beginning with “qu.” Someone suggests queen, but it won’t work. “Try quail,” Ms. Lucido suggests. She is thinking about “quail man,” a character she remembers from a television program she watched as a child. “As you put words in, it’s fun to think how you would clue them,” she says. For Ms. Lucido, who found herself signing autographs on campus after her puzzle appeared, another fun part is “gridding,” or filling in the corners. “It’s kind of a perfectionist’s dream — or nightmare,” she said. These “fill” words “can be anything,” Mr. Weissbrot said. “You just try to make them as interesting as possible. It’s no fun to solve a corner that has a bunch of three-letter abbreviations.” They also strive to avoid words like “olla” (a pot used by Pueblo Indians), familiar only in the crossword world. There are also crossword perennials like the four-letter town in Oklahoma (Enid) or Iowa (Ames). “Short words that are vowel-heavy are very useful for puzzle makers,” Mr. Shortz said. Another is Asta, the terrier in the “Thin Man” movies. Even though the films are more than 60 years old, Mr. Shortz has no intention of banning the dog. The films, and the Dashiell Hammett novel they are based on, “are still part of our culture,” he said. On the other hand, he is eager to rid the puzzles of items like SLA, which is not only an abbreviation but an abbreviation for the Symbionese Liberation Army, a violent leftist group that has been out of the news for decades. He would ban it and similar items, he said, “but sometimes you have a fantastic puzzle, and it hinges on that answer. So you say, ‘O.K., I’ll allow it once more.’ ” Puzzlers disagree about whether it is acceptable to use reference works to solve puzzles. As a solver, Mr. Kwong said, “I never look things up.” “You want to get to that ‘Aha!’ moment,” he said. “It allows you to feel smart as a solver and recognize the cleverness that went into constructing the piece.” But Mr. Shortz said: “It’s your puzzle. Do what you want.” After all, crossword addicts are “my favorite people,” he said, and he knows what draws them. “By solving puzzles we make order out of chaos and bring things to a conclusion. Which is nice.”

Puzzles
Magic and Magicians
Crossword Puzzles
Brown University
Science and Technology


Bowe Bergdahl Should Not Be Imprisoned, Army Investigator Says

Abstract: SAN ANTONIO — The general who led the Army’s investigation into the disappearance of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl from his remote outpost in Afghanistan in 2009 said on Friday that sentencing the sergeant to prison would be “inappropriate.” Maj. Gen. Kenneth R. Dahl, who interviewed 57 witnesses during his 59-day investigation, testified that Sergeant Bergdahl had unreasonable, or even delusional, expectations about his deployment to Afghanistan and about the soldiers in his unit and his command. But General Dahl testified that he found Sergeant Bergdahl truthful during the day and a half he spent interviewing him as part of the investigation. General Dahl also said that Sergeant Bergdahl had shown remorse about how his decision to leave his base could have endangered others in his platoon. “I do not believe there is a jail sentence at the end of this procedure,” General Dahl said. “I think it would be inappropriate.” His testimony came on the second day of a preliminary hearing here. Another defense witness, one of the military’s top debriefers of prisoners of war, suggested that Sergeant Bergdahl’s captivity was the worst any American had endured since the Vietnam War. The hearing will help determine whether Sergeant Bergdahl will be court-martialed for desertion and for endangering the troops who searched for him. Sergeant Bergdahl, now 29, faces the possibility of life imprisonment on the endangerment charge — formally known as misbehavior before the enemy — and a maximum five-year sentence if convicted of desertion. Held in a windowless basement room at Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston, the hearing was adjourned Friday afternoon. The hearing officer, Lt. Col. Mark Visger, will now make a recommendation on whether there is probable cause for a court-martial, the most serious option available to the Army officers who will decide how to pursue the case. But the unequivocal statement by General Dahl, which was elicited during questioning by Sergeant Bergdahl’s lead defense lawyer, Eugene R. Fidell, could play a significant role going forward. If the Army officers responsible for prosecuting Sergeant Bergdahl were to decide later to seek prison time, they would contradict General Dahl, whose investigation forms the basis for the case. In his testimony, the first time he has spoken publicly about his investigation, General Dahl also impeached much of the news coverage of Sergeant Bergdahl since President Obama approved exchanging him for five Taliban detainees at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, in May 2014. For example, despite claims that a half-dozen soldiers died in the search for Sergeant Bergdahl , General Dahl testified that he had found no evidence that any soldiers had been killed while specifically engaged in the effort. And Sergeant Bergdahl did not intend to walk to China or India, as some other soldiers had suggested. Instead, the general said that while Sergeant Bergdahl might have made the comment, it was simply typical idle chatter among privates with time to kill on a lonely combat outpost. Nor, he said, did Sergeant Bergdahl ever intend to desert and join the Taliban. When he mailed his computer home, it was not because he intended to permanently flee, the general said, but because he knew that he might be imprisoned once he left his post, and he wanted his personal items to be in good hands. Image Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl Credit U.S. Army, via Associated Press The general, who was not cross-examined, laid out the reasons that he said Sergeant Bergdahl — who was then a private first class — decided to leave his base, leading to a manhunt involving thousands of troops across thousands of square miles of rugged eastern Afghanistan. General Dahl testified that Sergeant Bergdahl had grossly unrealistic and idealistic expectations of others, and even identified with John Galt, the hero in Ayn Rand’s novel “Atlas Shrugged.” From the earliest stages of his Army career, General Dahl said, Sergeant Bergdahl felt that nearly everyone he came into contact with fell far short of his expectations. He said, Sergeant Bergdahl often found nefarious intent in the actions taken by his commanders, decisions that other soldiers viewed differently. “He absolutely believed that the things he was perceiving were true,” General Dahl said of Sergeant Bergdahl, describing those beliefs as “unwarranted but genuinely held.” So, at the end of June 2009, Sergeant Bergdahl left his base between 10 p.m. and midnight, with the intention of walking about 18 miles to a larger American base, known as Forward Operating Base Sharana. There, he planned to tell a general about what he believed were serious leadership problems within his unit, General Dahl testified. He believed the “problems were so severe that his platoon was in danger,” General Dahl said. Sergeant Bergdahl realized that simply showing up at the other base as part of a scheduled rotation would not get him a meeting with such a senior officer. But he knew that leaving his outpost without permission, and setting off a huge reaction, would probably get him that meeting, General Dahl testified. “He wanted to create that event,” General Dahl testified in explaining why Sergeant Bergdahl set off alone. General Dahl said that he believed that Sergeant Bergdahl walked for 10 to 12 hours before he was captured, and that he had also tried to escape on the first day of captivity. “He probably could have gotten to speak to a general, if he had made it to F.O.B. Sharana,” General Dahl added. After his capture, Sergeant Bergdahl endured the worst time in captivity of any American since the Vietnam War, said Terrence Russell, who debriefed him as a senior official at the Joint Personnel Recovery Agency, the principal Defense Department agency responsible for recovering service members. “His conditions in captivity were as horrible as you could imagine,” Mr. Russell said, including beatings with rubber hoses and copper cables. He also said Sergeant Bergdahl suffered from uncontrollable diarrhea for more than three of the five years he was held captive. Anyone who treated a dog the way Sergeant Bergdahl was treated, he said, “would be thrown in jail for pet abuse.” Mr. Russell, whom prosecutors declined to cross-examine, also condemned much of the criticism of Sergeant Bergdahl since his release last year, saying “the level of wildly inaccurate speculation is outrageous.” In captivity, “He did the best job he could do, and I respect him for it,” Mr. Russell added, pausing as he choked up.

Bowe Bergdahl
Kenneth R. Dahl
Afghanistan War
Desertion
Afghanistan
Court-martial
US Army
Prisoner of war


Review: Tikkaway Grill in New Haven

Abstract: In 2008, when the restaurateur Gopi Nair was working as managing partner for Fairfield County’s Coromandel group of Indian eateries, he had what he calls “a 2 a.m. eureka! moment.” He had spent three years trying to entice more discerning customers into trying Indian cuisine, partly by hosting special events like wine-pairing dinners at Coromandel’s South Norwalk location. But one night, he had the sudden realization that he needed to refocus his efforts. Image A whole-wheat roti wrap with chicken, beets, carrots, cabbage, green peppers and tomatoes. Credit Christopher Capozziello for The New York Times “I was teaching a 601 course,” said the Kerala-born Mr. Nair, referring to a graduate-level class, “when I should have been teaching a 101! I needed a new, simple way to make Indian food approachable.” Thus was the seed planted for Tikkaway Grill , where Mr. Nair has aimed to demystify Indian cuisine for the uninitiated. His first location, a small shop opened in downtown New Haven in August 2013, was an immediate hit with the university takeout crowd. He opened a second, larger outpost last year on Howe Street, near the Yale-New Haven medical complex. The atmosphere at the Howe Street location, I discovered, was radically different from what I’ve experienced at other Indian restaurants — and I’ve eaten at dozens of them. Gone was the customary dim lighting, the framed art panels of Hindu deities like Shiva and Ganesha, the sitar and tabla background music, the exotic cooking aromas. Instead, I found a brightly lit, contemporary space, where the gleaming surfaces, rock ‘n’ roll soundtrack and cafeteria-style serving line immediately reminded me of a Chipotle franchise. It’s a comparison Mr. Nair has heard before. But he’s come to see it as a good thing. “The assembly line is a concept that Americans understand,” he said. “It’s an American idea. And as a way to introduce Americans to something unfamiliar, it works.” Image Post-it notes of praise from customers line one of the restaurant’s walls. Credit Christopher Capozziello for The New York Times So it does. Tikkaway Grill’s simple, straightforward fare is produced in a way that takes all the unknowns out of Indian cuisine by breaking traditional preparations down into their component parts and letting patrons assemble them to their liking. Friendly staffers behind the counter build meals for diners by spooning up different proteins, vegetables and sauces, all of which can be wrapped inside roti (rounds of whole-wheat Indian flatbread) or piled atop basmati rice or salad. Most of the options I tried during several daytime visits (lunch and late afternoon seemed to be the highest-volume times) were very tasty. The roti — warm, fresh and distinctly ungreasy — made nourishing packages when filled with cubes of grilled chicken, chana masala (spiced, stewed chickpeas) or flash-fried, tumeric-seasoned aloo (potatoes). I tried each of these layered with various plain sautéed vegetables — chopped cabbage and bell peppers, julienned carrots and beets — a rarity for Indian cookery, where vegetables are often simmered to the point of being unrecognizable. I also tried all five of the basic sauces offered. While the tomatoey masala and nutty korma were a bit bland for my palate, the madras, vindaloo and signature Tikkaway sauces all had higher degrees of heat and better depth of flavor. All of my choices were enlivened by dashes of zippy mint cilantro, tamarind chutney or tangy raita (yogurt sauce), which staffers administered with squeeze bottles. I found the single housemade beverage, a frothy, sweet mango lassi, a fine accompaniment in every case. Not every creation I sampled hit the mark, however. Though healthful in theory, salad greens when heaped with hot chickpeas became wilted and unappetizing. Diced grilled lamb, which I tried with various toppings over basmati rice, had an unpleasant, stringy texture. And cubes of paneer — Indian curd-style cheese, served à la carte from a chafing dish — were as insipid as tofu. Tasting these, I couldn’t help but feel a bit wistful for a more traditional Indian kitchen, where slow-cooking many ingredients together allows them to develop complex, nuanced flavors. Then again, I am something of a classicist when it comes to Indian food, and not quite the target audience for Tikkaway Grill. And the clusters of appreciative customers I saw there not only cleared their plates and carted takeout home with them, but left their marks in the form of adoring Post-it notes stuck to the restaurant’s Tikkaway Wall: “I love this place more than my g.f.!” “I felt my hunger tikkaway!” “Peace, Love, and Tikkaway.” The new recruits have spoken.


Holder Faces New Round of Criticism After Leak Inquiries

Abstract: WASHINGTON — Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., a lightning rod of Republican attacks during President Obama’s first term, is now contending with a new round of criticism over the Justice Department’s campaign against leaks to the news media. This time it is the news media and even some Democrats who are upset with Mr. Holder, who in recent days has taken steps seemingly aimed at assuaging them. He endorsed the enactment of a “media shield” law and invited leaders of news organizations to meet with him Thursday to discuss tightening rules on warrants and subpoenas for reporters’ records as part of leak investigations. Even as Mr. Holder has sought to regain his footing, Republicans have resumed their criticism, accusing him of misleading Congress in testimony over whether the Justice Department has considered prosecuting journalists under the Espionage Act for publishing government secrets. In a letter Wednesday, the House Judiciary Committee chairman, Representative Robert W. Goodlatte of Virginia, and a Republican colleague, Representative Jim Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin, expressed “great concern” about Mr. Holder’s testimony before the committee this month, saying it “appeared to be at odds” with court documents that have come to light involving a warrant for e-mails of James Rosen, a Fox News reporter. The prospect of a new round of perjury accusations from Congress has underscored that the furor over the leak investigations might pose a new threat to Mr. Holder, who surprised many Democrats by choosing to stay on after Mr. Obama’s re-election. For now, Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee are standing by Mr. Holder, even though the ranking member, Representative John Conyers Jr. of Michigan, pronounced himself “deeply troubled” by some of the investigative tactics used in recent leak cases. “Certainly, it is fair to ask additional questions about the Rosen investigation, and any role the attorney general may have played in it, but I do not believe it credible to level charges that he may have intentionally misled the committee on this matter before we know the facts of the case in question,” Mr. Conyers said. In his only recent interview, Mr. Holder told The Daily Beast that the investigations obeyed existing laws and guidelines, but he also said the rules “need to be updated.” He called the furor “an opportunity for the department to consider how we strike the right balance between the interests of law enforcement and freedom of the press.” The Daily Beast article also paraphrased unnamed aides as saying Mr. Holder was “also beginning to feel a creeping sense of personal remorse.” Reid Weingarten, a lawyer who has been a friend of Mr. Holder’s for three decades, said Mr. Holder had discussed no such feelings with him. Rather, Mr. Weingarten said, the disclosure to Fox News of the existence of a rare intelligence source in North Korea was “a horrible leak and he was charged with the responsibility to get at it.” That raised what he said Mr. Holder described to him as a trade-off between press freedoms and the need to identify leakers — a problem for which there are no easy answers because it pits “two laudable goals” against each other. “He’s not immune from the criticism, but I think he sees this First Amendment-security conflict as almost impossibly difficult,” Mr. Weingarten said, adding: “He hasn’t confessed or cried to me, that’s for sure. What I sense in conversations with him is how horribly difficult the dilemma is when you have this situation. It’s important to get it right, and if we didn’t get it right — and that’s a big if — let’s button up the process now.” Image Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. is at the center of an inquiry into leaks. Credit Manuel Balce Ceneta/Associated Press Matthew Miller, a friend and former top aide to Mr. Holder, portrayed the attorney general’s proposal to tighten laws and guidelines on when news media records may be obtained as coming out of a realization that one cannot expect law enforcement officials to do anything less than what the rules permit when pursuing a particular case. Meanwhile, Mr. Holder has invited representatives from several major news organizations to discuss whether and how the Justice Department’s regulations for leak investigations should be modified. Some news organizations, including The New York Times, declined. “We will not be attending the session at D.O.J.,” said Jill Abramson, its executive editor. “It isn’t appropriate for us to attend an off-the-record meeting with the attorney general. Our Washington bureau is aggressively covering the department’s handling of leak investigations at this time. Evidently, there will be a future session with department officials on the substance of how the law should be applied in leak cases and I am hopeful that our counsel, David McCraw, will be able to participate.” However, Martin Baron, the executive editor of The Washington Post, said that while he would prefer the meeting be on the record, he would go “in order to represent our interests as journalists and to raise our concerns. I’ll also listen to what the attorney general has to say. I trust that our journalists will report on this as vigorously as they would any other subject.” A representative of The Associated Press said the executive editor, Kathleen Carroll, would attend only if the session was on the record. Mr. Holder at first appeared to sidestep the furor over leaks. It began on May 13 with a disclosure by The Associated Press that the Justice Department had obtained calling logs for its reporters’ phone lines in connection with a 2012 leak involving a foiled bomb plot in Yemen. The subpoena was controversial because the department did not provide any advance notice to The A.P., which would have allowed it to negotiate or challenge it in court. But Mr. Holder quickly revealed that he had recused himself from overseeing that investigation and so it was his deputy, James M. Cole, who had approved the subpoena. In testimony on May 15, Mr. Holder also distanced himself from the notion that reporters who write about national security secrets should be indicted under the Espionage Act, saying: “With regard to the potential prosecution of the press for the disclosure of material, that is not something that I’ve ever been involved in, heard of or would think would be a wise policy.” Since then, however, a 2010 search warrant for e-mails of Mr. Rosen, the Fox News reporter, came to light in connection with a leak investigation into a State Department analyst. An affidavit says there was probable cause to believe Mr. Rosen had violated the Espionage Act. Mr. Holder approved the warrant. Law enforcement officials said the affidavit included that language to invoke an exception to a law that otherwise bars search warrants for reporters’ work product, and noted that while the analyst accused of leaking, Stephen Kim, was indicted in August 2010, Mr. Rosen was not charged. On Wednesday, a Justice Department official said that Mr. Holder’s “testimony concerning the potential prosecution of the press was consistent with the underlying facts with respect to the investigation and ultimate prosecution of Mr. Kim.”

Eric Holder
News media,journalism
Freedom of the press
Justice Department
US Politics
Fox News Channel
James Rosen
AP
Classified Information


South Africa Could Oust Its President in Party Coup

Abstract: JOHANNESBURG — The presidency of Thabo Mbeki teetered precariously near an ignominious end on Friday, as members of his party’s national executive committee met late into the night deciding whether to tell him to resign before his term expires next year. “The debate is actually in the middle of nowhere,” Gwede Mantashe, the secretary general of the African National Congress , told reporters who had been expecting a far more fateful announcement. “Everyone is expressing their view and after we finish the debate, we will come and tell you the news.” All week, South Africa ’s news media have been filled with speculation about whether the A.N.C. would summarily dispatch the man who succeeded Nelson Mandela and who is himself a hero of the nation’s struggle for liberation. Friday morning’s headlines signaled that “Mbeki was on the brink” and contemplated whether his departure at the hands of a party that has turned against him would bring a “cabinet meltdown.” Various options were mentioned: if Mr. Mbeki were called on to resign but refused to do so, would he face a vote of no confidence in Parliament or an effort to impeach him? Last December, Jacob Zuma , who was once Mr. Mbeki’s deputy, defeated his former boss for the leadership of the A.N.C. in a vote that showed how deeply rent the party was between two antagonistic factions. With that victory, and with the party so dominant in South Africa, Mr. Zuma was solidly in line to become the nation’s president next year. There was one big hurdle, however: lingering allegations that Mr. Zuma had for many years been on the take in return for political favors. Criminal charges to that effect had once been dropped on procedural grounds, and within two weeks of Mr. Zuma’s ascension in the party they were refiled. Mr. Zuma’s most ardent supporters cried foul, and last week a judge not only threw out the revised charges on yet other procedural grounds but also suggested that the Mbeki government had meddled in the case. That prompted Mr. Zuma’s loyalists to renew their exhortations for Mr. Mbeki’s early ouster. For months, Mr. Zuma had publicly resisted this idea in the interest of party unity and a smooth transition. But on Friday he and more than 80 other members of the national executive committee began to debate the matter. The meeting is scheduled to continue through the weekend. Mr. Mbeki, who is an ex officio member of the committee, did not attend. Prosecutors say they intend to appeal last week’s court decision, and that announcement, on Wednesday, led to more venomous assaults on the president, especially from Zuma allies from the A.N.C. Youth League, unions and the Communist Party. In response, Mr. Mbeki’s office on Friday issued an indignant denial that it had played any role in the decision to appeal. The statement bemoaned all the “insults” and “lies” being casually dispensed and wondered, “what kind of society are we building, informed by what value system and with what long-term effect to the political and overall moral health of the nation?” Mr. Mbeki faces disgrace within the same week that some African leaders have praised him for what they hail as a landmark achievement, the brokering of a deal signed Monday in Zimbabwe between President Robert Mugabe and his opposition.

South Africa
Mbeki Thabo
Zuma Jacob G
African National Congress
Appointments and Executive Changes
Politics and Government


For Sibling Formula One Teams, Winning Isn’t Everything

Abstract: It is generally accepted that Formula One teams exist to win. But for the Red Bull and Toro Rosso teams, which are both owned by the Austrian energy drink company Red Bull , there has been a different approach since their founding in 2005 and 2006, respectively: Red Bull is meant to win, while Toro Rosso is expected to be a training ground for young drivers. At times, however, the feisty training outfit has overshadowed its big brother. This season, although Red Bull is currently higher in the championship, in fourth position with 52 points, while Toro Rosso is in eighth position, with 15 points, the numbers are not representative of their overall performance. Toro Rosso has outshone Red Bull several times this season and taken the spotlight at almost all of the races. That is largely thanks to a car that has more successfully incorporated the weak Renault hybrid engine. But it is also thanks to the extraordinary results of its young drivers, the rookies Carlos Sainz Jr., 20, and Max Verstappen, 17. But two weeks ago in Monaco, at one of the most difficult races in Formula One, order was restored: While the Red Bull drivers, Daniil Kvyat and Daniel Ricciardo , finished fourth and fifth — their best result of the year — Sainz and Verstappen both made costly errors. Sainz was penalized for not obeying an order to take his car to the weigh-in area and was forced to start at the back of the grid. Verstappen drove the race like the teenager without a driver’s license that he is, crashing out in a foolhardy effort to overtake a car where it was impossible to do so. He was given a penalty of five grid positions at the Canadian Grand Prix this weekend and was criticized by other drivers as not being ready to race in the elite series. Until then, however, Verstappen had been widely praised for his maturity and driving. Problems, mostly with the car, have meant that he has scored points in only one of the six races. Sainz, on the other hand, has scored consistently, in four of six races. At the Red Bull team, the promising Ricciardo and Kvyat have disappointed because of a relatively poor car and engine. Kvyat, particularly, had been expected to do better than he has. Another year in which Toro Rosso outshone Red Bull was 2008. At the time, Red Bull had not yet won any races, and it suffered a sudden dip in the quality of its chassis and struggled. Toro Rosso, meanwhile, was using a chassis based on the 2007 Red Bull, and it captured the first Formula One victory for the energy drink company when Sebastian Vettel won the Italian Grand Prix at Monza. It was slightly embarrassing for the energy drink empire, as it was the Toro Rosso name, and not the Red Bull name, that was broadcast around the world, as the team and marketing roles were reversed. Vettel moved to Red Bull the following year, and he and the team went on to win four world championships , from 2010 through 2013. Toro Rosso, based in Faenza, Italy, has a factory with a much smaller staff and less up-to-date workshops than those at Red Bull’s base in Britain. But its two rookies this year have sometimes outqualified and outraced the drivers at Red Bull, including at the Spanish Grand Prix in May, when, on the last lap, Sainz passed Kvyat, moving up from 10th to ninth position and thus winning 2 points instead of just 1 in the process. “It was tricky because I didn’t want to crash with a Red Bull — it is the last thing that I want,” Sainz said. “But it was my home Grand Prix, and it was P9, and 2 points for Toro Rosso are crucial this year, and I wanted to get them.” Image The Belgian-Dutch driver Max Verstappen in his Toro Rosso car. Credit Andrej Isakovic/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images The notion of using Toro Rosso as a training team actually came, to a degree, from the team upon which it was built: Minardi. The Italian team had for years raced at the back of the grid, failing to score a single podium in its 20 years in the series. But it was recognized as a training ground for future winners, from Fernando Alonso, a two-time champion, to Mark Webber, the Australian driver who would go on to race at Red Bull, primarily as teammate to Vettel until 2013. “Since 2006, we have been the finishing school for the Red Bull junior program,” said Franz Tost, the Toro Rosso team director. “We are highly experienced at managing young drivers, and it’s a source of great pride that the current Infiniti Red Bull Racing line-up both learned their craft here, as did quadruple F1 world champion Sebastian Vettel.” The Red Bull driver system, in fact, is a highly competitive one in which there have been surprises as management makes few concessions. If this year the two young drivers at Toro Rosso are making the Red Bull drivers look less interesting, last year Ricciardo, who had graduated from Toro Rosso to Red Bull, outperformed his teammate Vettel, winning the only three races not won by the Mercedes drivers, Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg. Ricciardo has said that most of his problems this year, however, have to do with the failure of the Red Bull car. “I think the car is pretty much the same,” he said of the car compared with last year. “I think everyone else has found some improvements for their weaknesses. Why we haven’t made that step, I don’t know. Obviously we’ve got good resources in the team, and all the financial side and the workshop; everything we’ve got there is of good quality.” Kvyat, who spent only one season at Toro Rosso before graduating to Red Bull this year as a replacement for Vettel, who made a surprise move to Ferrari, has been overshadowed by Ricciardo. “Daniil Kvyat’s had a tough run so far,” said Christian Horner, the Red Bull team director. “Things haven’t gone cleanly on his side of the garage; he’s had some good races and he’s had some times that he’s struggled. But he’s young; he’s developing all the time. We can see a great deal of potential in him.” Kvyat remains philosophical. “The team knows much better than you what I’m capable of,” he said when asked about his relatively poor results. “All the laps, the qualifying, the race — they see much more because they have the data and they know what I can do.” Comparing the two teams, Ricciardo said the biggest difference is the larger staff and infrastructure at Red Bull. “The pure size, the size and numbers — the factory and the workshops are a lot bigger,” he said. “On paper — again, I think the team knows it — on paper we should be significantly quicker than Toro Rosso.” Toro Rosso’s Tost agreed, pointing out that his team remains a smaller structure with a different goal. “We must be realistic,” he said. “There are teams and cars in front of us. They have double of the budget as us. They have a fantastic, good competitive package, and it’s not easy to compete against them.” Horner has been watching the Toro Rosso drivers closely this year. “I think it’s one of the positive stories in Formula One at the moment, those two young rookies that Red Bull have given a chance,” he said. “They’re here on merit, and it shows that the junior program is most definitely working.” So, with an often better car, does a Toro Rosso driver still aim to join Red Bull? “For sure,” Sainz said. “That ambition doesn’t change. I am here to prove myself, and to prove to Red Bull what I am capable of. I know that Red Bull is going through a tough time right now, but I’m sure that in two or three races — or if it is not this year, then next year — they will go back to where they belong. And I want to be in that car when that comes.”

Formula One
Car Racing
Red Bull
Canada
Montreal