In a Fictional Pub, a Tale of a Bombing. A Block Away, a Very Real Explosion.

Abstract: The curtain had gone up on the play “ Quietly ” about 25 minutes earlier. On stage, two middle-aged men in a pub, Jimmy and Ian, spoke about the atrocities they had lived through. They sat at a bar that was the portrait of ordinariness, a place no one would have given a second thought or glance. “You look younger than me — life done you less damage,” Jimmy said. “We’ve seen the same thing,” said Ian. At that instant, a tremendous bang echoed through the theater. The stage shook, the seats trembled. Was it the thunderclap of a late summer night? Perhaps a sound effect? It was neither. Exactly one block north, a bomb had just exploded outside 135 West 23rd Street, on an unremarkable street in the Chelsea section of Manhattan. In the Irish Repertory Theater, at 132 West 22nd Street where “Quietly” was playing, everyone heard and felt it. The subject of the play was two men meeting decades after the bombing of a pub. A real bombing, during a play about a bombing. “We did not know, and we had no time to be scared,” said Robert Zawadzki, an actor who plays the bartender in “Quietly.” “I presume the audience thought it was part of the show. The story of our play, we’re talking about an explosion.” The weekend’s bombs were not left at glamour targets: They were placed near the train station in Elizabeth, N.J.; in a trash can in Seaside Park, N.J.; on West 27th Street in Manhattan; and on West 23rd Street. “That’s what I can’t understand,” said Ciarán O’Reilly, the producing director of the Irish Rep. “Twenty-third Street is about as boring a street as you can get.” Without the amplification provided by iconic targets, the bombs leveraged everday-ness. “I’m imagining that having bombs going off in places that people consider normal is about disrupting people’s sense of normalcy,” said Owen McCafferty, the author of “Quietly.” As a whole, the burdens or blessings of memory are not in the baggage of New Yorkers. The tides bring thousands of new residents to the city every week, and carry thousands of others away. Image From left, Declan Conlon, Robert Zawadzki and Patrick O’Kane in “Quietly.” The play is running at the Irish Repertory Theater on West 22nd Street, one block away from the bombing on Saturday. Credit Hiroko Masuike/The New York Times Of the 8.55 million people now living in the city, about three million were not living here in 2001. Half the people in the city had not been born by 1980 . So not many city residents can remember, directly, that in the late 1960s and into the early 1970s, an extraordinary number of bombs were set off or planted in New York — 370 in one 22-month stretch , or an average of more than one every other day, most related to anti-Vietnam War protests. “Bombing has reached gigantic proportions,” Howard Leary, the police commissioner, testified in 1970 at a congressional hearing. In the 1970s and ’80s, the palette of political causes expanded, with nearly 300 terrorist attacks . Bombings were carried out by, among others, the FALN, a Puerto Rican separatist group; the Jewish Defense League, an extremist advocacy group; Omega 7, anti-Castro Cubans; and Croatian separatists. Most, but not all, were not lethal. A still unsolved bombing at La Guardia Airport killed 11 people in 1975. It got to the point where people would not remember one from another unless something terrible happened. Sometimes, not even then. “I’ve heard it said that the people living in Niagara Falls can’t hear the falls,” Mr. McCafferty, the playwright, said. “It becomes part of the fabric.” Mr. McCafferty, 55, lives in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and spent most of his early years there, during a period of violent conflict. “Belfast is quite small, so you could hear the bombs going off, or shots being fired,” Mr. McCafferty said. “The more that accumulates, the more you don’t hear.” On a Friday in September 1976, five Croatians seeking independence from Yugoslavia hijacked a plane leaving La Guardia Airport, and said they would blow it up if their demands for publicity were not met. As proof of their ability to carry out the threat, they left a bomb in a locker at Grand Central Terminal. A bomb squad removed it. That evening, I stood outside a pizza parlor on Third Avenue in Manhattan and watched a procession of police vehicles roll past, with the device in the back of one. At a range in the Bronx, when the police tried to defuse the bomb, it went off, killing Officer Brian Murray and partially blinding a sergeant, Terence G. McTigue. The passage of time has erased the memories of those days for nearly all but those directly affected. This weekend, 10 bombs were attributed to the same person. Two went off. It is always a good day to be lucky, and to be able to hear with fresh ears, to know what is theater and what is just down the block.

Terrorism
Chelsea Bombing
Theater
Irish Repertory Theatre
Owen McCafferty
Manhattan
Quietly
Bombs
NYC


A Rolling Stone Party to Celebrate the Sheepdogs - Nocturnalist

Abstract: “Wanna see my picture on the cover / Wanna buy five copies for my mother / Wanna see my smiling face on the cover of the Rolling Stone ...” sang the band Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show in the 1973 hit “The Cover of the Rolling Stone,” on just how hard it was to get the top spot in the magazine. Now all you have to do is win a contest. On Wednesday night at the Empire Hotel in Midtown, the Sheepdogs, a little-known band from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, celebrated landing the cover spot . But the cover wasn’t the only thing missing a true rock star: we couldn’t find one at the party. A musty odor on the rainy rooftop made us think there must an unwashed musical genius somewhere. Guests had to practically bodysurf to reach the bar and mosh their way to the bathroom. So we searched. But we were disappointed. “Usually for a rock event, there would be, like, rock-looking people,” said Ice-T, who graced the cover in 1992, surveying a sea of button-down shirts. He was with his wife, Coco Austin, with whom he stars in a reality TV show, “Ice Loves Coco.” “I don’t think either of us got married for any reason other than we liked each other,” he said. He described Ms. Austin’s prodigious physical attributes to our correspondent and said he tried to dissuade Ms. Austin from becoming involved with him. “You could go to the Upper East Side,” he said he had told her. “I mean, let’s be serious, you could go to a yacht — go to a boat show! I’m a rapper. I may be doing all right, but don’t get it twisted.” In a corner, the crowd swarmed around a figure. Lady Gaga? Steven Tyler? A real rocker at last? It was Larry David, the professional nebbish who was featured on Rolling Stone’s cover this year, surrounded by fans as ardent as Kiss groupies. We approached him. “You can ask me a question,” he said. “I just might not answer it.” We did. He didn’t. Which — come to think of it — was the most rock-’n’-roll-like moment of the night. Not Even the B List As we drove up to a party at a Lily Pond Lane estate in East Hampton last Friday, a tornado warning blasted over the radio, telling people to stay home. We should have listened. Big names were splashed across the e-mail invitation to a fund-raiser for the New York Stem Cell Foundation. We were enthusiastic. Would Paul McCartney sing a stem cell song? Would Lorne Michaels produce a stem cell sketch? Visions of crafting with Martha Stewart flashed before our eyes (not to mention the look on our mother’s face when we gave her the resulting stem cell tea cozy). Too bad not one of the big-name guests on the invitation showed up. And after a chat with a host, John Eastman, we felt we’d been spectacularly had. Mr. McCartney was prominently mentioned on the invite, we noted to Mr. Eastman. Is Mr. McCartney a big supporter? “It’s one of the many charities he supports,” said Mr. Eastman, whose sister was Mr. McCartney’s first wife, Linda. “But he shouldn’t have been mentioned so prominently.” Oh, so Mr. Michaels is a supporter of the foundation, too? Is that why his name was in bold on the invite? “Lorne does not contribute to stem cell research that I know of, but he’s a very close friend,” Mr. Eastman said. “He’s been to these events before.” What about Ms. Stewart? Was she even invited? “I’ve never seen Martha at any events related to stem cell research,” Mr. Eastman said, before seeming to become miffed at the audacity of a person who reports on celebrity night life wondering where all the boldface names were. “But this is not about the gossip. This is about the science.” Perhaps we should have reminded him that Nocturnalist is a night life column when we R.S.V.P.’d. (A publicist for the event told us an assistant for Ms. Stewart had responded yes on her behalf. We checked with Susan M. Magrino, Ms. Stewart’s longtime publicist, who said she was not aware that any assistants had done so. “I can’t imagine why they would have R.S.V.P.’d,” she said, “because Martha had been planning another event that weekend for some time.” That other event was Ms. Stewart’s 70th birthday party, in Maine.) “Stem cells just need more razzle dazzle,” said Patrick McMullan, the society photographer, sitting idle, like us. We headed to the powder room to collect our thoughts. There, at last, we came face-to-face with Paul McCartney. He hung in a photograph on the bathroom wall.


With Johnson Out, Williams and Nets Show They Can Still Win

Abstract: NEW ORLEANS — Forty minutes before the opening tip between the New Orleans Hornets and the Nets on Tuesday, the decision had finally been made: Joe Johnson, battling a heel injury, would not play. It came after deliberation with the training staff and an extended warm-up by Johnson, who does not miss games often. Before Johnson sat out Friday’s game against the Houston Rockets, he had made all 55 starts since joining the Nets in the off-season. So it has not been a comforting sight for Nets Coach P. J. Carlesimo to see him on the bench as he was Tuesday, in uniform but immobile, with the game getting tight in the fourth quarter. Johnson, who leads the N.B.A. in shooting percentage in the last minute of games that are within 3 points, could not bail out the Nets from there. On Sunday, they failed to pull out a win after being tied, 72-72, with 26 seconds to go against the Memphis Grizzlies. On Tuesday, the Nets managed to deliver just enough baskets to get past New Orleans, 101-97. The significance was not lost on the locker room. “Win without Joe Johnson?” guard Keith Bogans said, glancing with a smirk at Johnson to his right. “It’s big. Joe’s such a big part of this team, we look to him on the offensive end. I think Deron did a great job making big shots. That’s what those guys are there for, to step up and make the big shots.” He was referring to point guard Deron Williams, who scored 11 fourth-quarter points, including 6 at the free-throw line in the final minute to secure the win. It was an especially encouraging display. Williams finished with 33 points, his most since Dec. 4, including two pivotal jump shots in the final 90 seconds. Before that, Williams had made only 2 of 18 field-goals attempts in the final two minutes of games that were within 5 points, according to NBA.com, compared with a year ago, when he finished 7 of 21. But on Tuesday, the ball was back in Williams’s hands, and he delivered. “It felt good to get going, especially down the stretch, and be able to close out a game,” Williams said. “That’s something I’ve kind of struggled with this year. I was really successful at it most of my career. It feels good to have a game like that.” Entering Tuesday, the Nets were 4-8 this season when playing without one of their three stars — Johnson, Williams and Brook Lopez — a sign of the team’s reliance on its stars to play and play well. That is probably why, before the game, Carlesimo described Johnson’s absence as “one of those silver-lining deals,” where the loss of one player tests the depth and mettle of some of the others, like guards C. J. Watson and MarShon Brooks, who saw more time on the floor. “It’s always a good exercise to go through,” Carlesimo said. Watson especially seemed to benefit, rediscovering some confidence in his jump shot. The Nets rely on his shooting ability coming off the bench. Watson shot just 38.5 percent from the field before the All-Star break but has averaged 13.2 points on 52 percent shooting since. Bogans, too, played the entire fourth quarter Tuesday and camped out in the corner, where he buried three key 3-pointers. Johnson said he expected to return to the lineup Friday against the Dallas Mavericks, but the Nets are approaching the injury with caution, understanding that plantar fasciitis — or inflammation of the tendon at the base of the foot — can become problematic if not appropriately healed. The Nets caught a glimpse of life without Johnson and, after Tuesday’s win, learned it just might not be as unbearable as initially feared.

Basketball
Brooklyn Nets
P J Carlesimo
Joe Johnson


Sepp Blatter and Other Top Officials Are Suspended, Deepening FIFA’s Turmoil

Abstract: The leadership of world soccer’s governing body plunged into chaos on Thursday as three of the game’s most powerful figures, including Sepp Blatter, the longtime president of FIFA, were suspended amid a corruption investigation by the Swiss authorities. In addition to Mr. Blatter, Michel Platini, who is a FIFA vice president and the head of European soccer’s governing body, and Jérôme Valcke, FIFA’s secretary general, who was already on disciplinary leave, were “provisionally banned” from the sport for 90 days by FIFA’s independent ethics committee. By Thursday evening, Mr. Blatter, who has led FIFA since 1998 and worked at the organization since 1975, had been driven away from the organization’s headquarters in Zurich — perhaps for the last time — having filed an official appeal against what he contended was brusque, and unfair, treatment. The New York Times obtained a copy of the appeal, which one of Mr. Blatter’s lawyers, Lorenz Erni, sent by letter to Hans-Joachim Eckert, the German judge who leads the adjudicatory chamber of the ethics committee. In the letter, Mr. Blatter’s legal team demands the opportunity to see the case file the ethics committee reviewed during its proceedings — a request that reflected a belief that the ethics committee’s decision was based almost entirely on the fact that the Swiss attorney general’s office recently opened an investigation into Mr. Blatter. Assuming a presumption of innocence, Mr. Blatter’s lawyers argue, it is premature to impose any kind of suspension, especially if the investigation is subsequently dropped for lack of evidence. The letter also demands a hearing that would allow Mr. Blatter and his lawyers to argue the merits of their case in full; before the suspension was announced, Mr. Blatter was allowed to defend himself only in a short interview with investigators. Additionally, the appeal notes — with some disgust — the treatment Mr. Blatter received, pointing out that he learned of the decision to suspend him only after FIFA had announced it publicly. According to a person with knowledge of the events, Mr. Blatter read the decision of the ethics committee on his office computer. Image Sepp Blatter, right, with Michel Platini, the UEFA president, in Zurich in May. Credit Fabrice Coffrini/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images The suspensions took effect immediately, though Mr. Platini challenged his ban, and the governing body for Europe, UEFA, released a statement implying that it would not enforce it. A person with knowledge of the situation said Mr. Platini was expected to follow a path similar to Mr. Blatter’s with regard to his appeal. A fourth executive, the former FIFA vice president Chung Mong-joon, was barred from the sport for six years on Thursday and fined 100,000 Swiss francs, or about $103,000. Mr. Chung, a South Korean billionaire whose family heads the Hyundai conglomerate, had, like Mr. Platini, been a candidate to replace Mr. Blatter in a February special election. But he was found to have violated FIFA’s ethics code in connection with the bidding processes for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, FIFA said. Mr. Platini, who had been seen as the favorite to replace Mr. Blatter, filed paperwork Thursday morning to officially become a candidate for president, but it was unclear whether he would be permitted to run. The suspensions for Mr. Blatter, Mr. Platini and Mr. Valcke can be renewed for an additional 45 days after the initial 90, and it was believed that they would require a complete separation from FIFA. In a statement, FIFA said Mr. Blatter “is not allowed to represent FIFA in any capacity, act on the organization’s behalf, or communicate to media or other stakeholders as a FIFA representative.” According to a person close to Mr. Blatter, he may dispute whether that prohibits him from going to his office each day. The title of FIFA president was quietly removed from his Twitter account . Mr. Platini pushed back too, releasing a statement through UEFA, in apparent violation of his suspension hours earlier from “all football activities on a national and international level.” In the statement, he dismissed the allegations against him as “astonishingly vague” and the process that led to his ban as “farcical.” “I am driven by a profound feeling of staunch defiance,” he said. “I am more determined than ever to defend myself before the relevant judicial bodies.” UEFA’s executive committee also defied the FIFA suspension, announcing in its own statement that it would not invoke rules of succession in its leadership — effectively leaving Mr. Platini in place as UEFA president. It later clarified that Mr. Platini would not perform his official duties or attend meetings, but it did not name an acting president. The Rise and Fall of Sepp Blatter Scandal and accusations have dotted the FIFA reign of Sepp Blatter. Still, the suspensions leave FIFA, as well as UEFA, in disarray. David Gill and Wolfgang Niersbach, two members of FIFA’s powerful executive committee, called for an emergency meeting as soon as possible. All 54 member associations of UEFA were also expected to have their own hasty summit, as soon as next week. FIFA will now be run by an interim president, Issa Hayatou , who is the Cameroonian leader of African soccer’s governing body and the most senior FIFA vice president. Mr. Hayatou was reprimanded in 2011 by the International Olympic Committee’s ethics commission after he admitted to receiving payments from a marketing company, which was, in the commission’s view, a conflict of interest. Mr. Hayatou said that “extraordinary circumstances” led to his elevation in power and promised that he would not seek the FIFA presidency permanently in February. “I myself will not be a candidate for that position,” he said. If UEFA removed Mr. Platini, even temporarily, it would be led by Ángel María Villar of Spain, who is facing pressing issues of his own: Mr. Villar is believed to be facing an inquiry by FIFA’s ethics committee over allegations that he was not forthcoming during a previous investigation into allegations of corruption in the 2018 and 2022 World Cup bidding processes. “Football, not just FIFA, stands on the precipice of disaster,” Chris Eaton, the executive director of the International Center for Sport Security, said in a statement. Mr. Eaton and his organization renewed the call for an independent body to take over the governance of international groups that oversee sports, like FIFA. Thomas Bach, the president of the International Olympic Committee, called for FIFA to allow an “external” candidate, from outside its traditional base, to run for the presidency. “Enough is enough,” Mr. Bach said. “We hope that now, finally, everyone at FIFA has at last understood that they cannot continue to remain passive.” Mr. Blatter had for years largely avoided any direct effect from the various scandals that have enveloped top soccer officials during his tenure. This spring, however, 14 soccer and marketing officials were arrested in connection with investigations by Swiss and United States authorities. Several were arrested as they gathered in Zurich for FIFA’s annual congress, on charges that included racketeering, wire fraud and money laundering, and a few have been extradited to the United States . Mr. Blatter was not among those charged in the American indictments. But less than a week later, he announced — only days after winning a fifth term as president — that he would voluntarily relinquish his position. He called for a special election to choose his successor, and it was later scheduled for February. Mr. Blatter said then that while he had not done anything wrong personally, it was clear that FIFA needed immediate reform. Late last month, however, officials from the office of Switzerland’s attorney general surprised Mr. Blatter at FIFA’s headquarters, seizing documents from his office and questioning him about two transactions that they were investigating. The first was a 2005 agreement for World Cup television rights that FIFA — with Mr. Blatter leading — sold to Jack Warner, the former president of Concacaf, for a price seen as well below market value. Mr. Warner later resold the rights at a significant profit. The second transaction was a payment of two million Swiss francs that Mr. Platini received in 2011. Mr. Platini has claimed the payment was for work he performed for Mr. Blatter nine years earlier. Mr. Platini, Swiss prosecutors said, was “in between” a witness and an accused person. Mr. Platini has vehemently denied any wrongdoing and, earlier Thursday, pre-emptively released the statement saying that he still intended to run for FIFA’s presidency, despite what he termed an effort to “smear” his campaign. In recent days, Mr. Blatter has rejected calls from major sponsors demanding that he step down. This week, the German magazine Bunte printed an interview with him in which he labeled the Swiss investigation “ outrageous .” Mr. Valcke, who was Mr. Blatter’s longtime deputy, has also denied wrongdoing, and his lawyer released a statement Thursday saying that “Jérôme Valcke has unequivocally denied the false allegation made against him.” “He is confident that when all the facts come out, it will be clear that he did absolutely nothing wrong or improper in carrying out his duties for the good of FIFA and the sport,” the statement said. It was not immediately clear how Thursday’s suspensions would affect the special presidential election. Prince Ali bin al-Hussein of Jordan, who lost to Mr. Blatter in May’s election, has declared his intention to run again. Shortly after Mr. Platini’s suspension was announced, he replaced Mr. Platini as the odds-on favorite to be the next president by several British bookmakers.

Soccer
FIFA
Bribery and Kickbacks
Sepp Blatter
Michel Platini
Jerome Valcke
Chung Mong Joon
Jack Warner


Hofstra University Exhibit Marks 75th Anniversary

Abstract: Hempstead, N.Y. STEPHEN DUNN , the Pulitzer Prize -winning poet, said it was where he “was first exposed to good talk.” Lainie Kazan, the actress and singer, recalled it as a “fertile environment” for a shy girl with talent. Both artists attended Hofstra University , and they are among the students, faculty, administrators and others whose words and images form “75 Stories for 75 Years,” an exhibition that is part of the university’s yearlong celebration of its anniversary. With photographs, documents and objects, “75 Stories” traces Hofstra’s history starting with its earliest days as an extension of New York University. The show is on view through Feb. 4 at the Hofstra University Museum’s David Filderman Gallery, in the Axinn Library. The exhibition is not strictly organized by categories or a timeline. “I wanted to tell the story of Hofstra using the people who make up Hofstra,” said Geri Solomon, the university archivist and assistant dean of special collections, who curated the show. To do that, she chose figures both celebrated and lesser known, and objects both nostalgic (a cheerleader’s megaphone, circa 1940) and noteworthy (a draft of the script of the 1974 film “The Conversation” by Francis Ford Coppola, another alumnus). Past students include Olive Plunkett, who graduated in 1939, with the first four-year class of what was then Hofstra College. (It separated from N.Y.U. that year.) Voted “most popular,” “most ambitious” and “most likely to succeed,” she was one of the few women to become an advertising executive in the pre-“Mad Men” 1950s. Ms. Plunkett was also a Hofstra trustee from 1962 to 1965. A more renowned trustee was the master planner Robert Moses , who is shown in a 1948 photograph receiving an honorary doctorate from Hofstra. Also on view is a 1955 letter from Mr. Moses to Hofstra’s president expressing approval of the possible acquisition of land from the nearby Mitchel Air Force Base and urging that Hofstra “go out for an absolute minimum of 100 acres.” (The university acquired 110 acres of Mitchel Field in 1963; today, the campus encompasses about 240 acres in all.) Mr. Dunn, the poet (class of 1962), learned as a history major that events might be told from different perspectives, he said in a phone interview from his home in Frostburg, Md. This epiphany later influenced his poetry, in which “the point of view of the teller means everything,” said Mr. Dunn, whose Pulitzer-winning collection “Different Hours” is on view. Other writers featured include the novelist Nelson DeMille , a 1970 graduate, whose 1990 thriller “The Gold Coast,” set on Long Island’s North Shore, is in the exhibition. The late alumna, onetime Hofstra teacher and feminist activist Marilyn French , author of the 1977 bestseller “The Women’s Room,” is represented with a photo and two letters thanking her former English professor, William Hull, for his support. The show also features Oscar Hijuelos , who was a member of the English department faculty in 1990, when he won a Pulitzer Prize for “The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love,” a copy of which is displayed here. Hofstra’s drama department is represented by faculty and alumni, including the 1960 graduates Mr. Coppola and Ms. Kazan. Then known as Lainie Levine, the actress and singer did “everything from musical comedy to drama to Shakespeare,” she said in a phone interview. Visitors can see a photo of Ms. Kazan, in sultry rather than Shakespearean mode, and a backstage pass to an alumni show in which she performed. As for Mr. Coppola, a photo here shows him, circa 1960, as a bespectacled student with a slight pompadour, apparently being fitted for a costume for a school production. (He has made a video — posted by the university on YouTube — telling of his “magical time at Hofstra,” where he was the first student to direct a major campus production.) For sports fans, the show includes the former New York Jets wide receiver Wayne Chrebet, class of 1994, and the retired basketball point guard Craig Claxton (known as Speedy), who graduated in 2000. There’s plenty of rah-rah, but visitors may also find poignancy in some displays. One exhibition shows Lt. Col. Charles W. Dryden, one of the Tuskegee Airmen — the celebrated black fighter pilots of World War II — posing with a model plane. His autobiography, “A-Train: Memoirs of a Tuskegee Airman,” is also on display. Though he led the first engagement by black American pilots against enemy aircraft, Colonel Dryden, who died in 2008, continued to experience racial prejudice, which “stuck in his craw for many years,” Ms. Solomon said. The retired colonel was honored at a 1998 Hofstra alumni achievement award dinner, and Ms. Solomon said that such recognition “healed some of the feelings he had held for so long.”

Colleges and Universities
Art
Libraries and Librarians
Long Island (NY)
Hofstra University


Bills’ Lynch Returns to Practice and Could Face Patriots

Abstract: Running back Marshawn Lynch returned to practice Thursday as the Buffalo Bills prepared to close their season hosting New England on Sunday. Lynch, fourth in the American Football Conference with 1,036 rushing yards, missed Wednesday’s practice with a sore shoulder. Linebacker Kawika Mitchell (knee) also returned, but the Pro Bowl left tackle Jason Peters (knee) and the No. 3 receiver Roscoe Parrish (knee) missed practice for a second straight day. Bills Coach Dick Jauron did not give any indication of the playing status of any of the injured players. The Patriots must win to stay in the postseason hunt. ROMO IS BACK Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo returned to practice a day after being sent home with flulike symptoms. Romo shuffled through the hallway on his way to a quarterbacks meeting before the workout. Asked if he felt better, Romo said: “Oh, yeah. I feel like a hundred dollars.”


Motorola’s Loss Widens as Cellphone Sales Plunge

Abstract: Motorola has had its ups and downs. Fifteen years ago, a gray brick Motorola handset was synonymous with mobile phone. Sales slipped, but the company came back five years ago with the sleek Razr, the must-have cellphone. Motorola’s cellphone sales are now falling almost 50 percent a year. Bereft of a smash hit, the company finds itself in its darkest hour. Once responsible for half of the cellphone sales in the world, its share of the market has plummeted to 6 percent. Industry analysts are questioning not whether Motorola will again become dominant but whether the handset division will survive. “They’re stuck heavily in the handset death spiral,” said Edward Snyder, an analyst with Charter Equity Research. “If they have tens of billions of dollars they want to pour into this black hole, they might be able to save it. Even then, there are no guarantees.” Sanjay K. Jha, Motorola’s co-chief executive who was brought in from Qualcomm last year, still contends he can fix the handset business. He said that for now, he was not interested in market share or hit products — not with losses mounting. “I’m interested in break-even performance,” he said in an interview. “I’m trying to build a stable machine.” “We need to have profits under all circumstances, and then have hits on top of that,” he said Thursday after Motorola announced that the operating loss in the handset division grew to $509 million in the first quarter from a loss of $418 million a year ago. These are seemingly modest goals for a company that has strong brand recognition. But new tough competitors like LG, Samsung and Apple have transformed the market with phones that can do anything a computer can do and more. Motorola’s first-quarter results demonstrated how challenging Mr. Jha’s task is. The company said mobile device sales dropped 45 percent to $1.8 billion. It sold 14.7 million handsets, down from 27.4 million a year ago. The company, including a more successful unit that makes set-top boxes and other electronic equipment, said the quarter’s net loss grew to $231 million, or 10 cents a share, on revenue of $5.37 billion. A year ago, Motorola, based in Schaumberg, Ill., had a net loss of $194 million, or 9 cents a share on revenue of $7.4 billion. A consensus of Wall Street analysts compiled by Thomson Reuters had projected Motorola would lose 11 cents a share, excluding one-time charges. On that basis, the company reported a loss of 8 cents a share. The analysts projected sales of $5.6 billion for the quarter. Shares of Motorola fell 7.2 percent on Thursday to close at $5.53. Todd Koffman, an industry analyst with Raymond James, who said he has a strong buy rating on Motorola stock, said that skeptics were judging the company too quickly. Mr. Koffman said that Mr. Jha should be given more time to prove himself. “This quarter’s results are not relevant,” Mr. Koffman said. “The June quarter’s results are not relevant.” The real test for Motorola’s handset division will come in the second half of this year, he said, when the company releases handsets that have Mr. Jha’s prints all over them. “To draw some sort of conclusion based on today’s products is shortsighted,” Mr. Koffman said. Mr. Jha said that he needed to cut the losses and simultaneously build a series of new phones. In the current and next quarter, he said in the interview, Motorola will begin shipping touch-screen phones, the kind Apple, Samsung and LG already have. In the fourth quarter, Motorola will release “a few” phones based on Google’s Android operating system, he said. He declined to specify how many new phone models the company would release this year. Introducing a host of phones is critical to Motorola’s survival. Phone makers that do not come up with big hits or a constant flow of midtier successes begin to lose the pricing power and influence with the mobile phone carriers like AT&T or Verizon that determine which phones get into consumers’ hands. Roger Entner, an industry analyst with Nielsen, said a vivid example of Motorola’s struggles was the release early this year of its phone called the Evoke. The device, meant to compete in the growing smartphone category, was not picked up by the big carriers, like AT&T, Verizon, Sprint or T-Mobile, but by smaller carriers, like Alltel. “The niche that Evoke is filling is already filled by several other phones,” Mr. Entner said. Motorola “continues to develop late on products.” Motorola is pushing its first touch-screen device as other companies are working on second- and third-generation devices, he said. “Motorola is not one of those companies that can blame its woes on the economy,” he said. “It’s purely self-inflicted.” James Kelleher, an analyst with Argus Research, said Mr. Jha’s more modest goals are appropriate. Success, Mr. Kelleher said, might be defined as being a strong regional player that settles for less than 10 percent of worldwide market share. “The analogy is General Motors,” he said. “They once had 50 percent market share and they’re not getting it back.”

Motorola Inc
Cellular Telephones
Company Reports


Funds Meant for Charters May Be Diverted to Pre-K

Abstract: New York City’s schools chancellor announced her intention on Friday to shift money away from charter schools to help pay for Mayor Bill de Blasio’s expansion of prekindergarten programs. The chancellor, Carmen Fariña, in describing the Education Department’s $12.8 billion capital plan, said she would seek to redirect $210 million that had been reserved for classroom space for charter schools and other nonprofit groups. The money, spread out over five years, would instead be used to create thousands of new prekindergarten seats, helping fulfill Mr. de Blasio’s signature campaign promise. The decision was an opening salvo in what many expect to be a long battle between the de Blasio administration and charter schools. The mayor is an unabashed critic of the schools, which are publicly financed but privately run. He has argued that the city should focus its resources on traditional public schools. Charter school advocates quickly denounced the administration’s decision. “Once again, thousands of minority and low-income students and families have their educational future unfairly put in jeopardy,” Jeremiah Kittredge, executive director of Families for Excellent Schools, an advocacy group, said in a statement. Ms. Fariña said the money for charter schools, combined with a $310 million infusion from a state bond proposed last month by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, would be used to build space for about 2,100 prekindergarten students and expand existing programs. “These are important steps that will dramatically improve educational outcomes for our students,” she said in a statement. Over the next two years, Mr. de Blasio hopes to add some 41,000 full-day prekindergarten seats across the city, one of his top priorities as mayor. He is lobbying state leaders to raise taxes on high-income New Yorkers in order to pay for the expansion. Former Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, who made charter schools a centerpiece of his strategy to overhaul education in the city, had set aside the money for construction. Over the years, prominent groups like the Harlem Children’s Zone had used it to open new buildings, a welcome benefit since charter schools are not allowed to spend public dollars on new facilities. With the money unavailable, advocates said their focus would shift to persuading Mr. de Blasio to allow charter schools to operate prekindergarten programs, currently prohibited by state law. “If they’re interested in results, they will make sure high-performing charter schools are fully included in the pre-K program,” James Merriman, chief executive of the New York City Charter School Center, said in a statement. “Otherwise, it will be clear that their move to push pre-K is more about ideology than about helping children.” In the coming weeks, charter school leaders worry there may be more setbacks to their cause. More than a dozen new charter schools are scheduled to open this fall inside traditional school buildings, according to a plan approved in the final months of the Bloomberg administration. Ms. Fariña, a tough-minded educator, has pledged to review each case.

Carmen Farina
Charter school
Preschool
Budget
Bill de Blasio
NYC Department of Education
NYC
K-12 Education


Vote Fails to Settle Dispute on Secession by Catalonia

Abstract: BARCELONA, Spain — For three years, Catalonia has been at loggerheads with the central government in Madrid over whether the prosperous northeastern region — a fifth of Spain ’s economy — could secede. The latest round in that struggle, a Catalan parliamentary election held on Sunday in which separatist parties won almost 48 percent of the vote, fell short of the decisive victory secessionist forces had hoped for. But neither did it do much to defang an issue that has become one of the most vexing for Spain’s conservative prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, threatening to destabilize Spain just as its economy has come out of a lengthy recession and banking crisis. Instead, the outcome has left an exceptionally volatile issue to simmer on the front burner for Spain — and all of Europe — at a time when the European Union ’s ability to find a unified response to crises has already been called into a question, whether on refugees, Greek debt or the euro. Catalonia’s future will now become a more critical factor in year-end national elections in Spain, even as the issue continues to generate deep wariness in Brussels and across Europe, where the prospect of an independent Catalonia lends energy to separatist claims in other regions. “The independence movement has come out reinforced, but if this election is to be treated as the kind of referendum that separatists wanted to get real legitimacy, they didn’t quite succeed,” said Javier Cercas, a Catalan writer. “Catalonia is also a European problem,” he added, “because if it spins out of control, it could set off a chain reaction and trigger more of the divisions that the European Union was in fact created to prevent.” Still, the prospect of a breakaway Catalonia remains far from certain. Sunday’s election left the two figures at the center of the drama — Mr. Rajoy and the Catalan regional leader, Artur Mas — bruised rather than able to claim a victory. By now, their feud has become at once intensely personal and central to both their political futures. Catalonia’s importance to Spain is hard to overstate. The region, which has a distinct language and cultural identity, spearheaded Spain’s industrial revolution and has since attracted investments from more than 5,000 multinational companies, mostly European. The feuding between Mr. Rajoy and Mr. Mas started in 2012 as a dispute over the financial contribution that Catalonia should make to a Spanish system that redistributes tax income from Catalonia and other wealthy regions to poorer parts of the country. Mr. Mas then turned his frustrated demand for fiscal concessions into a full-fledged drive for independence. “The separatists have managed to turn Catalonia into the main issue for Spain, but that isn’t enough for Mas to launch a unilateral process of secession,” said Josep Ramoneda, a Catalan philosopher and political columnist. On the other hand, “Rajoy went from trying to ignore completely Catalonia to launching a campaign of fear about the consequences of secessionism — but all these strategies have proved disastrous for him,” Mr. Ramoneda said. Video Castell competitions in Catalonia feature human pyramids that build community and celebrate culture as the region debates independence from Spain. Credit Credit Arnau Bach for The New York Times On Monday, Mr. Rajoy told a news conference that he was “ready to listen and talk,” but only as long as any discussion about Catalonia’s future did not challenge the principles of Spanish law and sovereignty. He put the onus on Catalan politicians instead to mend the divisions that they have created within their own society. But the Catalan vote was a special rebuff to the prime minister and his Popular Party. It lost its place at the helm of the anti-secessionist movement in Catalonia to a party called Citizens, which hopes to oust Mr. Rajoy from office in national elections in two months. Mr. Rajoy’s conservative Popular Party is hoping to use the national election to win another mandate and follow the lead of the Conservatives of Prime Minister David Cameron in Britain, who won re-election in May on the back of an economic recovery. But Mr. Cameron also allowed Scotland to hold a referendum last September. While the Scots ultimately voted against breaking away from Britain , they were permitted to debate the issue and make their own choice — something Mr. Rajoy has denied to Catalonia. Similar to Mr. Cameron, “Mr. Rajoy will also be helped by Spain’s economy” in the national elections, Mr. Cercas predicted, “but his terrible management of Catalonia is now going to be a serious problem.” Many already expect the elections to result in a significant overhaul of Spanish politics, as Citizens and another emerging force, the far-left Podemos party , are preparing to challenge the longstanding two-party dominance of Mr. Rajoy’s Popular Party and the main opposition Socialists. Whatever the outcome, the next Spanish government is likely to have to make concessions to Catalonia, probably as part of a broader Spanish constitutional overhaul that could ease the territorial conflict. “The Catalan conflict has become a lot more intense and radical, but it remains a stalemate that is problematic for everybody,” said Jordi Alberich, the director general of the Cercle d’Economía, a Catalan business association. “No solution can be found if the two sides continue to rely on threats, of unilateral independence on the one hand and Rajoy responding by warning of terrible consequences for Catalonia,” he added. Mr. Rajoy’s government recently unveiled a law that would make it easier for Spain’s constitutional court to suspend from office Mr. Mas and other Catalan secessionist politicians deemed to have violated Spain’s Constitution. Mr. Mas and other separatists hailed Sunday’s returns as sufficient to allow them to form a new Catalan government that can lead Catalonia to statehood within 18 months. But the returns — which did not produce a popular majority — failed to give the secessionist project the kind of legitimacy needed to overcome Spanish legal hurdles and skepticism in the rest of the European Union. While Mr. Mas may yet be able to form a majority coalition in Parliament, he will first face a struggle to convince like-minded separatist parties that he should remain as head of the next Catalan government. On Monday, Mr. Mas played down the tensions over his leadership, telling a news conference that his own political future was “not a transcendental topic” as long as the new separatist lawmakers managed to forge ahead with their secessionist project. Mr. Ramoneda, the political columnist, said, “I think the solution to the Catalan problem is going to require new political leadership on both sides.”

Spain
Catalonia
EU
Mariano Rajoy
Election
Artur Mas


Spying Scandal Is Called South Korea’s Watergate

Abstract: SEOUL, South Korea — An unfolding political scandal ahead of Wednesday’s parliamentary elections has many South Koreans drawing comparisons to Watergate: illicit surveillance, an attempted cover-up, destruction of evidence, arrests of people connected to the president — and questions over what the president himself may have known. Recent disclosures have fueled a public furor, forced prosecutors to reopen a 2010 investigation and dominated the election season, with opposition leaders calling for President Lee Myung-bak ’s apology and even resignation. The case centers on an ethics team from the prime minister’s office that monitored public officials for possible corruption. In 2010, seven of the team’s members were convicted of having conducted illegal surveillance in 2008 of two private citizens — a businessman who had posted a video clip ridiculing Mr. Lee, and the wife of a legislator from the governing party — and of destroying computer files before prosecutors raided their office. At the time, prosecutors failed to determine the scale of the ethics team’s operations or who told it to monitor the private citizens. But on March 30, journalists at the Korean Broadcasting System , South Korea’s leading television network, posted online files retrieved from a team member’s memory stick. They represented some of the 2,691 files that prosecutors had submitted to the court in the case and revealed that the team kept reports on a broad range of people beyond the public servants it was mandated to watch, including politicians, journalists, civic groups and labor activists. The files also showed that the ethics team carried out many missions under an “instruction” from the Blue House, the presidential office, the network said. The ethics team did not shrink from comprehensive surveillance. It kept nearly minute-by-minute records of a senior government official’s extramarital affair, noting the facial expressions of the man (“entreating”) and the woman (“impudent”) during one evening tryst. The ethics team members warned that the man the government had backed to lead the Korean Broadcasting System was “too sure of himself.” But they praised an acting president of YTN, an all-news cable channel, calling him “loyal to the government” and recommending that the government use its influence over the network’s major shareholders to help make him president. (He did go on to assume the post). It was unclear how much of the information in the files was collected by illegal spying. Mr. Lee’s office pointed out that 80 percent of the files dated from the tenure of his predecessor, Roh Moo-hyun , whose supporters are now in the opposition. “The Blue House is countering its critics by likening them to the pot calling the kettle black,” said Hahm Sung-deuk, an expert in political science at Korea University. “If the ruling camp doesn’t handle this properly, it could become a Korean Watergate. It’s not just what they did, but how they lied to cover up lies.” Suspicion of the presidential office’s involvement in spying against citizens has intensified in recent months. In a series of interviews, a former ethics team member, Chang Jin-soo, said that the team had reported directly to the Blue House and that he and his colleagues had erased computer files during the 2010 investigation by order of Lee Young-ho, then the presidential secretary for labor affairs. Last month, Mr. Chang released a recording of a telephone conversation he had in 2010 with another presidential aide, Choi Jong-seok, in which Mr. Choi pleaded with him to not divulge any sensitive details during his trial. “If you need money, I’ll find a way,” the aide said, adding, “It’s not just me but others who may go down as well.” Lee Young-ho, who resigned 2010, then called a news conference and admitted ordering the destruction of the investigators’ files “to prevent a disruption of state affairs.” But he insisted that the affair went no higher, and that the president was not involved. He also admitted giving Mr. Chang about $17,700 as financial “help.” (Mr. Chang later returned the money when he started speaking publicly about the surveillance.) Facing accusations of a whitewash in their 2010 investigation, the prosecutors reopened the case, arresting Lee Young-ho and Mr. Choi last week on charges of conspiring to destroy criminal evidence. They are also investigating an additional $44,200 that Mr. Chang said he received from another presidential aide. Now, politicians and journalists are focusing on whether the ethics team and former presidential aides were overzealous or were following instructions from above. “If anyone is found to be responsible as the result of this investigation, he will be held responsible no matter what his rank is,” President Lee’s spokesman, Choi Geum-rak, said March 31. The scandal has given the opposition a new weapon to use against the president’s New Frontier Party, which was already facing a challenge in maintaining its National Assembly majority in the elections on Wednesday. “The specter of the past military dictatorship is still haunting our country,” Han Myung-sook, the leader of the main opposition Democratic United Party, told a crowd of voters last week. “You are living in a country where the government snoops into your life, following you around and listening in anytime they want.” Park Geun-hye, the head of the governing party and its expected candidate in the presidential election this year, has been keeping her distance from President Lee, saying that she, too, was a target of surveillance. “It’s become clear that all governments have conducted illegal investigations,” she said at a campaign stop last week. “This is a vestige of the old politics.” Every South Korean president has maintained a special task force whose official brief is to investigate accusations of misconduct by public servants and to vet political appointees, often enlisting help from the police, prosecutors and tax auditors. Over the years, presidents have been accused of using these teams against political enemies. The main government spy agency and military intelligence unit have been found to have kept political dissidents under surveillance as late as 2003. In the last such case to have been made public, two former spy chiefs were arrested in 2005 and convicted of authorizing illegal wiretapping of government critics, politicians and other prominent figures between 1999 and 2003.

Wiretapping and Other Eavesdropping Devices and Methods


U.S. to Seek $16.4 Million Fine Against Toyota

Abstract: DETROIT — The Transportation Department said Monday it would seek a $16.4 million fine against Toyota , the largest allowed, because the company had failed to promptly notify the government about potential problems with accelerator pedals. The fine, which Toyota has two weeks to contest, would be the largest civil penalty assessed by the government against a car company. In taking the step, federal authorities are sending the strongest signal yet that they believe the carmaker deliberately concealed safety information from them. “We now have proof that Toyota failed to live up to its legal obligations,” Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said in a statement. “Worse yet, they knowingly hid a dangerous defect for months from U.S. officials and did not take action to protect millions of drivers and their families.” Mr. LaHood said documents obtained by the department showed Toyota had known of the potential pedal defect since at least last Sept. 29, when it issued repair procedures in 31 European countries and Canada to address complaints that accelerator pedals could stick and cause sudden, unintended acceleration. The documents also showed that the company received complaints at that time from owners in the United States who were experiencing the same problems. The company, however, did not recall vehicles in this country for the pedal problem until late January, although it issued a recall for floor mats last fall. Auto companies are legally obligated to notify the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration within five business days if they determine that a safety defect exists. The agency itself has come under criticism for being too lenient in the past with Toyota when defects occurred. Under law, Toyota has two weeks to accept or contest the proposed fine. The company has not replied to the department, a transportation spokeswoman said Monday. If Toyota chooses to fight the penalty, the government can sue to have it imposed in court. A Toyota spokeswoman, Cindy Knight, said in a statement that the company had not yet received a letter from the agency about the fine. “We have already taken a number of important steps to improve our communications with regulators and customers on safety-related matters as part of our strengthened overall commitment to quality assurance,” Ms. Knight said. The fine is the latest development in an episode that has shaken Toyota’s once-sterling image and made it the subject of lawsuits seeking billions of dollars in damages. In the last six months, Toyota has recalled more than eight million vehicles worldwide, about six million of them in the United States, for pedals that could stick or for floor mats that could become entangled in the pedals. The company briefly halted production and sales of some vehicles sold in the United States until it could prescribe a repair. The recalls led to a series of prominent hearings in Congress this winter that included the company’s president, Akio Toyoda, as well as relatives of those killed in crashes and owners who said they had experienced unintended acceleration. Mr. Toyoda, the grandson of Toyota’s founder, has apologized repeatedly for the accidents and vowed his company would reorganize to prevent future safety problems. Officials at Toyota’s American operations said during Congressional testimony in February that they had not known about the sticking accelerator issue until this winter, even though Toyota had received complaints about it in Ireland and Britain in late 2008, and began changing production methods in Europe last August. Further, Toyota had already completed making the changes on cars sold in Europe before the January recall took place in the United States. The N.H.T.S.A. is still investigating two other Toyota recalls to see if more fines should be imposed. That investigation began on Feb. 16. It can impose a similar fine in each recall. “We will continue to hold Toyota accountable for any additional violations we find in our ongoing investigation,” David Strickland, the agency’s administrator, said in a statement. The agency decided to seek the fine on Monday based on a preliminary investigation of more than 70,000 pages of documents received as part of its investigation of Toyota. During Congressional testimony, Toyota officials admitted that information about recalls and defects in other countries was not routinely shared, although it could be obtained by visiting a company database. They said the authority to make recall decisions rested with company officials in Japan. Since then, Toyota has created a global quality committee, with 70 representatives from around the world, which will be responsible for assuring that problems are shared among the company’s units in various regions. The safety agency also was criticized at the Congressional hearings for failing to be more aggressive in pursuing Toyota. Company documents showed the N.H.T.S.A. reached agreements several times in recent years that allowed Toyota to take less-extensive recall steps. In one 2007 presentation, headlined “Safety Wins for Toyota,” the company said it had saved $100 million by negotiating a smaller recall campaign. The $16.375 million penalty is the largest allowed per recall under the Tread Act, which was enacted after accidents involving Firestone tires on Ford Explorers. Though it would be a record in the auto industry, the fine pales in comparison with those the government has levied against other companies. For example, the Justice Department reached a $2.3 billion settlement last September with Pfizer, the pharmaceutical giant, over fraudulent marketing issues. Sid Shapiro, a law professor at Wake Forest University and vice president of the Center for Progressive Reform, a legal research organization, questioned whether the Toyota fine would be effective. “It’s good news that N.H.T.S.A. is being an aggressive regulator, but you have to have doubts whether a $16 million fine is going to have a deterrent effect on automobile companies that are worth billions of dollars,” Mr. Shapiro said. Mike Rozembajgier, director of recalls for ExpertRECALL, a consulting firm that helps manufacturers conduct product recalls, said the amount of the fine might be less important than the reasoning behind it. Toyota reported strong March sales, helped by incentives it introduced in the wake of the recalls. But Mr. Rozembajgier said its customers could be less supportive should it turn out Toyota had tried to hide the defects, as the government contended. “If it was done knowingly,” he said, “then it certainly becomes a game-changer for consumers.”

Fines (Penalties)
Toyota Motor Corp
Automobiles
Transportation Department (US)
Accidents and Safety


New Diplomatic Avenue Emerges, in 140-Character Bursts

Abstract: UNITED NATIONS — Countries all over the world, dictatorships and democracies alike, have in the last few years sought to tame — or plug entirely — that real-time fire hose of public opinion known as Twitter. But on the sidelines of the General Assembly meeting over the last couple of weeks, ministers, ambassadors and heads of state of all sorts, including those who have tussled with Twitter the company, seized on Twitter the social network to spin and spread their message. At the height of the diplomatic negotiations last week over a United Nations Security Council resolution that would require Syria to turn over its stockpile of chemical weapons, the American ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, used Twitter to pre-empt criticism of the measure as lacking teeth because it had no automatic enforcement provision. Wrapping up meeting of #UNSC , which is finally ready to impose measures under Chapter VII if #Syria does not comply. #VerifythenTrust — Samantha Power (@AmbPower44) September 27, 2013 The British ambassador, Mark Lyall Grant, took to Twitter to break news about when the Security Council would vote on it. “White smoke in The Hague,” he wrote last Friday, shorthand for approval from the Office for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. Ninety minutes later came an update, “about to vote in #UNSC.” An aide to the prime minister of India, which has sought to tame incendiary language on Twitter in the past, posted glimpses into his closed-door meeting with his Pakistani counterpart last weekend. Most improbable, the new president of Iran, where Twitter is banned, has used Twitter prolifically to convey that he was ready to make a nuclear deal with the West and even, briefly, to break the news that he had spoken to President Obama on the phone, the first such exchange between Iran and the United States in 34 years. As nations jockeyed for influence and standing here in recent days, several diplomats pointed out Twitter’s advantage. One government aide, who would not speak for attribution, said that it could be used to pre-empt journalists from being the first to get their interpretation of events before a wider audience. Carl Bildt , the Swedish foreign minister who is among the most deft and most prolific in the diplomatic Twitterverse, said he found it useful for gaining an uncensored and unmediated view of public opinion during important events — and also as a bullhorn. “In today’s society, Twitter is maybe the most rapid and efficient channel if you want to feed out messages or other information you want to share,” Mr. Bildt said by e-mail. “Either broad scale or carefully targeted.” Ken Roth , who as executive director of Human Rights Watch posts on Twitter virtually every hour even on a slow news day, said its immediacy enabled officials to cut through bureaucratic review and media filters. “That means a leader is much more in control of his or her message,” he said. “Most leaders want the media to cover a statement, but they also want the public to be able to read what they say without the media’s interpretation.” In other words, leaders gain immediate spin. Twitter seems to be equally useful for officials from countries that block Twitter altogether — Iran, for instance — and countries that have tried to get the social network service, which is based in San Francisco, to stanch the flow of certain kinds of posts. France has forced Twitter to turn over information about users whom France accuses of posting anti-Semitic content that is illegal in that country. India last year pressed Twitter , with only modest success, to shut down certain accounts because of what it said were incendiary posts that could lead to ethnic violence. Whether government officials’ own use of Twitter will soften their stance on their citizens’ use of it remains to be seen. If so, it will certainly be a lucrative prospect for Twitter, which filed on Thursday for its initial public offering on Wall Street. Access to Twitter was the subject of an extraordinary public conversation, on Twitter, between a company co-founder, Jack Dorsey ( @Jack ) and President Hassan Rouhani of Iran ( @HassanRouhani ). Mr. Dorsey, with 2.4 million followers, first posted a rhetorical question on Tuesday: “Good evening, President. Are citizens of Iran able to read your tweets?” In fact, they are, but only if they are savvy enough to work around the country’s official ban on Twitter, by using a proxy that masks their location. This may be how Mr. Rouhani — or most likely, an English-speaking assistant — can post from inside Iran. Several hours later came a polite, vague, jargon-laden reply from the @HassanRouhani account, which has more than 100,000 followers. “Evening, @Jack. As I told @camanpour , my efforts geared 2 ensure my ppl’ll comfortably b able 2 access all info globally as is their #right.” It has been shared with retweets 2,289 times. The @HassanRouhani post was referring to a television interview that Mr. Rouhani had with Christiane Amanpour, the CNN anchor. She had asked whether he would open up social networks like Twitter to the people of Iran. He said he would try. The exchange exploded on Twitter. Many pointed out that @HassanRouhani was not a “verified” account, meaning that Twitter had not confirmed whether @HassanRouhani was who he said he was. (Citing privacy concerns, the company would not say if anyone had asked for verification.) Iran’s experiments with social networks blossomed during the elections earlier this year, with Mr. Rouhani seizing on Twitter on the campaign trail. He and his foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, continued to use it as a platform to cast their party as a moderate and reasonable alternative to end a nuclear impasse with the West. Iran did open up to social networks one day last month , only to close access immediately. Navid Hassanpour, a doctoral candidate in political science at Yale who has studied the use of Twitter in Iran, called the latest trend “retweet diplomacy.” The White House used its Twitter account to share Mr. Rouhani’s post about the conversation with President Obama. Mr. Rouhani returned the favor by sharing the State Department post. The final decision on whether Iran will open up to Twitter may come from above the president’s office, from the chambers of the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. His office too maintains a Twitter account (@khamenei_ir), also unverified by Twitter. One of its 22,299 followers is @HassanRouhani.

UN General Assembly
International relations
Social Media
Barack Obama
Samantha Power
Hassan Rouhani
State Department
UN


As Lead Shrivels, Mets’ Mettle Grows

Abstract: PHILADELPHIA — There were several thousand empty seats at Citizens Bank Park when Billy Wagner entered Monday night’s game, empty because the departed never expected the Mets to need Wagner. “You forget,” he said. “I played here.” The Mets, leading by nine runs entering the bottom of the sixth, watched the Phillies shrink the deficit to eight, to seven, to five, to three, and finally to one. Jayson Werth, Wagner’s nemesis Sunday, walked to the plate with the tying run on second base. This time, his fly ball did not carry for a home run. Instead, it settled in Endy Chávez’s glove for the final out of the Mets’ exhausting 10-9 victory. “All this is just a part of building character and strength and letting them know that, Hey, this is going to be a difficult task, and we have to be ready to do it,” Manager Jerry Manuel said. “We got to man up and keep pushing.” The Mets won three of four games from the Phillies and reached a modest milestone by rising above .500 (45-44) for the first time since June 6. They have won 7 of 10 against the Phillies, and are within two and a half games of the National League East lead. “We are fortunate to be where we are,” Carlos Beltrán said. “We could have been in the worst place if the Phillies would have taken advantage.” Manuel did not watch the stressful ninth inning from his usual perch in the dugout. He was ejected in the seventh for arguing a reversal of Ryan Howard’s two-run homer — initially ruled a ground-rule double — that cut the Mets’ lead to 10-5. The Phillies added two runs in the eighth against Aaron Heilman on pinch-hitter Geoff Jenkins’s two-run homer. When the ninth inning began, Manuel paced around the clubhouse, “trying to find a place where I could get an out,” he said. Wagner had his sixth blown save of the season Sunday, when Werth blasted a two-out, two-strike, game-tying homer, and the chances of getting another chance to torment Wagner improved when Shane Victorino led off with a double and Eric Bruntlett followed with a walk. After retiring Howard and Pat Burrell, Wagner gave up a single up the middle to Pedro Feliz, scoring Victorino. Beltrán hardly had a chance to nab Bruntlett at third, but he unleashed a throw anyway, and his one-hopper bounced past David Wright, allowing Bruntlett to score and Feliz to scamper into scoring position. “I felt like I had a chance,” Beltran said. But he did not, and up came Werth. Having moved to the coaches’ room, Manuel hoped he found an out. Werth took a fastball for ball one before lofting another one to medium right field. “If you would have lost this game, obviously, it would have been a devastating thing,” Manuel said. “But again, it’s a tremendous foundational thing to teach. And to know that this game is not over until you get the last out. There are a lot of things you still have to do right.” The Mets have scored at least seven runs five times in their last seven games and tied a season high Monday with 17 hits. That resurgence has coincided with excellent starting pitching. Through this latest turn through the rotation, Mets starters have allowed eight runs in 33 innings, and have won four of five games. Pedro Martínez ’s outing Monday could be best described as encouraging, if not overwhelming. Staked to an 8-0 lead after three innings, Martínez needed only to throw strikes, which he generally did. He displayed improved command of his breaking pitches — just ask Chase Utley, who stared at a full-count curveball when he struck out to end the fifth. But Martínez also ran up a high pitch count and was removed with a 10-2 lead, having thrown 105 pitches. Martínez reached base twice, on an error and a single, in typifying how easy the Mets’ offense made it seem Monday against Adam Eaton, who had been 5-0 in nine previous starts against them. They scored six of their eight runs against Eaton with two outs, with the key hits coming from Wright (two-run double) and Chávez (two run-scoring singles), and added two off R. J. Swindle. It had been a while since Martínez had received that run support and he looked comfortable as he continued striving to regain his feel for pitching. Martínez had allowed 17 runs in his past 15 innings entering Monday’s start. In discussing his recent performance, Martínez has sounded increasingly despondent, and he dramatically vowed after his last start, Wednesday in St. Louis, that he would overcome his latest challenge. “Regardless of any man, regardless of his success, baseball has a way of humbling everyone,” Manuel said. “And in that humility there’s probably a question of confidence at some point. Is that with Pedro — that is what I what believe. I could be wrong.” It is almost unthinkable to consider whether Martínez, one of the most intimidating pitchers of his time, could ever lose confidence, but he agreed with that assessment afterward, saying, “It’s still an issue. You have to regain your confidence with just a short outing where you happen to have a big lead.” But most importantly, Martínez is healthy, and they need him if they are to continue climbing in the standings. With 73 games remaining and a big homestand on deck, the Mets are the closest they have been to first place since May 20. “When you play 162 ballgames, no lead is safe,” Wagner said. “I mean, the seasons playing in Citizens Bank Park. No lead is safe.”

Baseball
New York Mets
Philadelphia Phillies
Wagner Billy
Church Ryan
Randolph Willie
Martinez Pedro


Chris Carpenter Gives Cardinals 2-1 Series Lead Over Nationals

Abstract: WASHINGTON — Chris Carpenter battled shoulder pain for much of the year, an injury that was addressed this summer with the removal of a rib. He returned to the St. Louis Cardinals on Sept. 21, pitched only 17 innings and did not record a win. Yet anyone who questioned whether the Cardinals should have handed him the reins for the pivotal Game 3 of their National League division series should have known better. Carpenter, 37, possesses one of baseball’s most undeniable pedigrees — three All-Star selections, two World Series rings, one Cy Young Award — and a reputation as a premier big-stage pitcher. He stole the show on Wednesday, oozing class and confidence as he led the Cardinals to an 8-0 victory over the Washington Nationals , who were playing host for this city’s first postseason baseball game since 1933. “It was a fantastic day,” Carpenter said. “Great weather. The crowd was amazing. This is what you play for, and I took it in a little bit, yeah, no question.” After entering the postseason with baseball’s best record, the Nationals are on the precipice of elimination, down, two games to one, in the best-of-five series. Game 4 is Thursday afternoon at Nationals Park. “We are not out of this by a long shot,” Nationals Manager Davey Johnson said. “Shoot, I’ve had my back to worse walls than this.” Johnson regretted that his team could not capitalize on the energy of the pregame ceremonies, which felt like a coming-out party for the team’s still emergent fan base. The announced crowd of 45,017 — the largest in the five-year history of Nationals Park — arrived early to witness the pageantry, which included a flyover by four F-16 jets; the delivery of the game ball by Gen. Ray Odierno, the Army chief of staff; and a ceremonial first-pitch strike from Frank Robinson, the Hall of Fame player who managed the team in 2005 and 2006. The momentous aura persisted as the fans hung on every pitch. But the joyous element was excised rather quickly as the Cardinals took advantage of Edwin Jackson’s early shakiness. In the first inning, Allen Craig sent a double rattling into the left-field corner, which allowed Matt Holliday to score easily from first base. In the second, Pete Kozma, batting eighth, belted an inside fastball into the first row of seats in left field for a three-run homer, putting the Cardinals ahead, 4-0. “If he was being aggressive, and looking to turn and burn, it’s the perfect pitch for him,” said Jackson, who did not give up another run in three more innings of work. Carpenter, meanwhile, was the savvy professional, well trained to wriggle from problem spots. Coolly, he provided five and two-thirds shutout innings, scattering seven hits and two walks and striking out two. Carpenter, who won the deciding games of the Cardinals’ division series and the World Series during the 2011 championship run, improved his career postseason record to 10-2. Afterward, Cardinals Manager Mike Matheny marveled that Carpenter, whose pain was traced to a nerve issue, which resulted in radical surgery in July to remove a rib, could return to form as quickly as he did. “It’s hard to believe not too long ago they took a rib from this guy,” Matheny said, “and as soon as they did, he was still talking about how he was going to help this club.” The Nationals put runners on base in each of the six innings Carpenter started — they were in scoring position for five of them — and yet a feeling of danger never percolated the ballpark. Even a bases-loaded jam in the fifth, which aroused the increasingly frustrated crowd, ended with a feeling of inevitability as Michael Morse floated the third out to right. The Nationals were 0 for 8 with runners in scoring position and left 11 men on base. “Carp’s been a dominant pitcher his whole career — a big-game pitcher,” Nationals outfielder Jayson Werth said. “He’s playoff-proven. He’s been doing it his whole career.” St. Louis, conversely, was ruthless, piling onto its lead from all angles. Daniel Descalso drove in his third run of the series with a sacrifice fly in the sixth. The next inning, Yadier Molina drew a bases-loaded walk from Christian Garcia to send home the Cardinals’ sixth run. In the eighth, Holliday laced a single to right, tacking on two more runs. As they did last year, the Cardinals seem to be meshing at the perfect time. If so, the long-awaited return of October baseball to Washington could be short-lived.

Baseball
Washington Nationals
St Louis Cardinals
Carpenter Chris


For Cornell Broadcaster, Play-by-Play Is Only One Part of the Job

Abstract: JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The Badger Network was set up and spread out over a courtside table at Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Arena. There was an array of digital boxes and a pile of headphones neatly in place when Cornell ’s Barry Leonard rolled in with all of his gear, stuffed in one bag. He is the Cornell Radio Network. An engineer had set up the Wisconsin equipment, and the play-by-play man and color analyst for Badger basketball could stroll out and commence to call the game at the tip-off of the N.C.A.A. tournament. A producer had lined up a pregame interview and would help it be wrinkle-free. Leonard, the play-by-play man for Cornell basketball, admired the neatness of the Wisconsin spread, then hoisted his bag onto a chair and did not wait for an engineer. He is the engineer. He is also the producer, so after he sorts through wires and plugs this into that, he has to hustle off and get pregame interviews. “There are times when I wished I could have taken off the headset, put it down and walked out and left all the equipment behind for someone else to pack up,” Leonard said. “I remember a former coach a few years back for Cornell who got so mad after a loss he came out and screamed that I had 10 minutes to get on the bus or he was leaving without me. “Geez, it takes at least 10 minutes to pack all this stuff up.” Leonard then said, “I’m a one-man band, but I love this job.” Leonard, 51, is the eyes and ears of the audience, and he is also the legs — setting up the broadcast just as it was done in another era before jeans were designer. He gets approximately $225 per game, just enough pay for one person, but hardly enough for the work of three, which he does on game day. Leonard, a native of Forest Hills, Queens, first got on the air at Ithaca College at the student radio station. He graduated from Ithaca in 1980 and had his first stint for Cornell radio broadcasts from 1982-87. He changed his name from Barry Lowenhar to Barry Leonard so it would roll off his tongue easier. Leonard went off to a bigger market in Providence, R.I., but went back to Ithaca, waited 10 years for his old job to open up, and has been broadcasting Big Red games since 1997. His day job is as a sales representative for a pharmaceutical company, and he also handles radio duties for football and lacrosse. Leonard checks his own sound levels during the broadcast. He does not have an analyst, so he offers his own insight. When Cornell clinched the Ivy League title, Leonard had to fill 20 minutes while the nets were being cut down. There was no network studio to throw him a lifeline. Leonard writes lineups, statistics and notes to use during the broadcast on a manila-colored file folder. The broadcasters from bigger colleges use laptops. Leonard is a virtuoso, but he is not always virtuous. In a game several seasons ago, his phone line was kicked out by a member of the band, and he suddenly heard a dial tone, meaning he was off air. Leonard launched into a stream of curse words. One problem: He was still on the air via the Internet. So he was dubbed Barry Bobby at the team’s postseason banquet, nicknamed for the former Indiana coach Bob Knight, who was known for spicy language. At most colleges, the outburst might have brought a scolding, or worse, but Leonard has endeared himself to the Big Red family. The lacrosse team has given him a ring and a watch; the athletic department was in on his 50th birthday surprise party. Steve Donahue, the Cornell basketball coach, had Leonard in mind when he scheduled the Big Red for the E.C.A.C. Holiday Festival at Madison Square Garden. Donahue knew that Leonard’s idol was Marv Albert and Leonard’s team was the Knicks, so he wanted him to broadcast a game at the Garden. “I don’t know if the bonds at the higher levels of Division I basketball are this strong where coaches take you in like they do with me,” Leonard said. “I wouldn’t trade anything for all these years. It’s a lot of work, but it’s a blessing.”

College Athletics
Basketball
Radio
Leonard Barry
Cornell University


An Exiled Editor Traces the Roots of Democratic Thought in China

Abstract: Hu Ping is the editor of the pro-democracy journal Beijing Spring , based in New York. But in 1975, he was 28 and living in the southwestern Chinese city of Chengdu, a recently returned “educated youth” who had been sent down to labor in the countryside during the Cultural Revolution . While waiting to be assigned to a new workplace, he wrote an essay that would become a classic of modern Chinese liberalism. The essay, “ On Freedom of Speech ,” could at first be circulated only through handwritten posters on the city’s streets. In 1979 it appeared in the underground magazine Fertile Soil , and it went on to influence a generation of democracy advocates. Mr. Hu was admitted to Peking University in 1978 and in 1980 was elected as a delegate to the local people’s congress. In 1987, he began doctoral studies at Harvard, then moved to New York a year later to serve as chairman of an organization supporting China’s burgeoning democracy movement. The Chinese government canceled his passport, consigning him to exile. In his new book — “ Why Did Mao Zedong Launch the Cultural Revolution? ,” published in Taiwan by Asian Culture — Mr. Hu argues that contemporary Chinese concepts of democracy and freedom are not imports from the West, but a response to political oppression at home and a growing appreciation of the need for restraints on state power. In an interview, Mr. Hu discussed how the Cultural Revolution shaped his thinking, the unexpected course of President Xi Jinping’s career and why he rejects assertions that democracy is a foreign concept and therefore inappropriate for China. How did the Cultural Revolution shape your political thinking? My generation was imbued with official ideology from childhood. As a supporter of communist theory and the communist system, I enthusiastically participated in the Cultural Revolution at first. But I became very disillusioned by the extreme brutality that emerged during the movement, especially because the vast majority of victims were targeted merely for expressing alternative views. I myself was denounced more than once because I had different views stemming from my disgust at the persecution of people for speech crimes. This led me to gradually form a concept of freedom of expression. Image “Why Did Mao Zedong Launch the Cultural Revolution?” Credit Asian Culture Later I went to the United States and read Harvard Prof. Judith N. Shklar ’s essay “ The Liberalism of Fear .” Professor Sklar pointed out that modern Western liberalism arose from a revulsion against religious and political persecution and led to an insistence on protecting human rights and limiting political power. The Chinese rediscovery of liberalism was based on a very similar experience. The Cultural Revolution gave rise to a widespread and deep-seated horror that led a few people to formulate an explicit concept of freedom and gave the majority the desire and basis to accept this concept. Even quite a few Communist leaders developed an appreciation for freedom because of their personal suffering. For example? One example is Xi Jinping ’s father, Xi Zhongxun , who was purged in a literary inquisition in the 1960s but re-emerged after Mao died [in 1976]. While serving as vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, Xi Zhongxun proposed drafting a “law protecting alternative views.” He said the history of the Chinese Communist Party demonstrated the disastrous consequences of suppressing dissident opinions. The prevailing view at that time was that it was wrong to treat “opposing the party and opposing socialism” as a crime because there was no clear standard for what constituted opposition, and any alternative political viewpoint should be tolerated. Xi Zhongxun probably had never read John Locke , John Stuart Mill , Isaiah Berlin or Friedrich Hayek . His concept of tolerance and freedom arose mainly from personal experience, especially the horrors of Mao’s Cultural Revolution, and his reflections on that experience. How would you compare the liberalism of the 1980s with political thought after the suppression of the 1989 Tiananmen movement ? The failure of the 1989 democracy movement made ordinary people negative or indifferent toward politics, and cynicism ran wild. This created a strange phenomenon: The concept of liberalism spread much wider than before 1989 but carried far less power. In the years since 1989, although there have been quite a few liberal scholars, dissidents and rights defense lawyers making heroic efforts to practice and promote the concept of freedom — beginning with the concept of freedom of speech — harsh political suppression and an indifferent social climate have prevented a breakthrough and made it very difficult to build up the kind of social mobilization that existed in the 1980s. With political reform now stalled or even in retreat, some people in China are worried about a recurrence of the Cultural Revolution. Why has Xi Jinping declined to follow the example of his father in promoting democratic change and instead concentrated power even further? Image Hu Ping, the editor of Beijing Spring, in New York in 2013. “I enthusiastically participated in the Cultural Revolution at first,” he said. “But I became very disillusioned by the extreme brutality that emerged during the movement.” Credit Todd Heisler/The New York Times The Cultural Revolution in its strictest sense can never occur again. The fact that people are worried about its recurrence reflects how Xi Jinping has strengthened dictatorial rule, suppressed civil society and tightened controls over expression. In the past, many people thought that Xi Jinping might have inherited his father’s open-mindedness, little imagining that once he took power, his manner and actions would make him more like Mao’s grandson than Xi Zhongxun’s son. Xi Zhongxun proposed drafting a “law to protect alternative views,” whereas Xi Jinping has banned “ improper discussion ” [of central party policies]. Many people once believed that economic development and the growth of a middle class in China would be accompanied by progress in human rights. But by the logic of the Chinese government, economic development was built on the suppression of human rights, so how can it now abandon this suppression? In other words, the Chinese government thinks: “We’ve only done so well because we’ve been so bad. If we hadn’t been so bad, things wouldn’t be so good.” Your generation’s experience of the Cultural Revolution fostered the emergence of politically liberal ideas in China. Could remembrance of the Cultural Revolution contribute to the development of liberalism and political change today? A sensitive topic such as the Cultural Revolution should become less sensitive with the passage of time, and the authorities should be expected to gradually relax restrictions on discussion of the Cultural Revolution. But the reality is just the opposite: The authorities are controlling discussion of the Cultural Revolution even more harshly than they did 10 or 20 years ago. Xi Jinping wants to revive the personality cult and dictatorship of that era, so he’s particularly unwilling for people to reflect on the Cultural Revolution. Half a century has passed since the Cultural Revolution was set in motion, and the “young militants” of that time are entering their twilight years. As the authorities continue to suppress discussion of the Cultural Revolution, the average person, especially the young, has only the vaguest impression of that time. Throw in the events and changes China has experienced in recent decades, and the collective experience of the Cultural Revolution has become less of a force for promoting China’s liberalization. Even so, we have to keep at it. It is a lack of freedom that allows us to understand what freedom is. It is in ourselves that we discover why people have been willing to risk so much for freedom. Taking a further step toward joint action, we discover that we are not alone and that our voices can resonate far and wide. We don’t start out believing that an unseen force guarantees freedom’s victory, but we fight for it all the same.


Hasidic Man Found Guilty of Gang Assault in Beating of Black Student in Brooklyn

Abstract: A Brooklyn man was convicted on Friday of participating in a racially charged beating of a black college student in fall 2013 that left the victim without vision in his right eye. Justice Danny K. Chun of State Supreme Court in Brooklyn issued the guilty verdict after a bench trial that included video surveillance footage, DNA evidence and testimony from the victim, Taj Patterson, who described being set upon by up to 20 men as he walked through the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn early one morning. Appearing before a hushed gallery that was filled to capacity, Justice Chun announced that he found the defendant, Mayer Herskovic, 24, guilty of unlawful imprisonment, menacing and gang assault. The last charge carries a penalty of three and a half to 15 years. The brutal beating of Mr. Patterson in a primarily Hasidic neighborhood drew comparisons to previous attacks on black men in white ethnic enclaves, like one that occurred three decades ago in Howard Beach, Queens . The assault in Williamsburg also raised questions about the private security forces known as shomrim, a Hebrew term meaning guards, which patrol ultra-Orthodox parts of Brooklyn. While some have said the groups provide a sense of safety, others have said they sometimes act like vigilantes. Members of one such group, known as the Williamsburg Safety Patrol, encountered Mr. Patterson early on the morning of Dec. 1, 2013. Mr. Patterson, a fashion student, said he was passing through Williamsburg after a birthday party where he said he had drunk two margaritas and a shot of brandy and was planning to walk home to the Fort Greene section of Brooklyn. The patrol members said they were responding to reports — later deemed unfounded — that someone had vandalized cars. Believing that Mr. Patterson was the culprit, they chased him, held him down and beat him, breaking an eye socket and causing him to lose sight in his right eye. Image Taj Patterson, center, testified in August that he had been beaten by a group of Hasidic Jews in Williamsburg. Credit Victor J. Blue for The New York Times The attackers scattered when a passing bus driver and others intervened. Responding police officers spoke with four witnesses and had the license plate number of a car that one attacker used to flee, but the case was closed without any arrests. After Mr. Patterson’s mother went to the media with her son’s account, the police reopened the investigation. Initially, five men — Pinchas Braver, Joseph Fried, Mr. Herskovic, Aharon Hollender and Abraham Winkler — were charged in connection with the assault. Prosecutors dismissed charges against Mr. Fried and Mr. Hollender, saying the witnesses who had identified them had recanted their statements. Mr. Winkler and Mr. Braver pleaded guilty in May to the lesser crime of unlawful imprisonment. They were sentenced to probation and community service. Mr. Patterson testified that he remembered being chased by a crowd and then punched and kicked by men, including one who drove a thumb into his right eye. Mr. Herskovic did not take the stand. The defense questioned a crucial piece of evidence, a black Air Jordan sneaker belonging to Mr. Patterson that was found on a nearby roof after the assault, which prosecutors said bore Mr. Herskovic’s DNA. An expert witness testifying for the defense suggested that the testing method used on the sneaker had been imprecise. Prosecutors countered with another expert who testified that the method was reliable. During closing arguments, Mr. Herskovic’s lawyer, Israel Fried, said Mr. Patterson had minimized the amount of alcohol he had drunk before the beating and accused other witnesses of embellishing their accounts. He added that his client was being blamed for the actions of other Hasidic men because “they all appear and look the same,” suggesting at one point that the DNA identified as belonging to Mr. Herskovic could have come from another Hasidic man, because people who are part of the “same substructure of the culture” could have similar DNA profiles. “He’s not in the video,” Mr. Fried said of his client. “Not one witness sees him there.” A prosecutor, Timothy Gough, said in his summation that Mr. Patterson and another witness had testified that one attacker had dragged him by a foot, pulled off a sneaker and hurled it onto a roof. That Mr. Herskovic’s DNA had ended up on Mr. Patterson’s Air Jordan could be interpreted only one way, he said, adding, “This defendant was not only involved in the attack but he was the one who pulled it off and threw it.”

Assault
Shomrim Volunteer Patrol
Taj Patterson
Williamsburg Brooklyn
Mayer Herskovic
Judaism
Brooklyn
NYC
Black People,African-Americans


Braun and Pujols Dominate N.L.C.S.

Abstract: ST. LOUIS — Big-name players can shrink under the hot glare of the postseason spotlight. Ask any fan of the Yankees. But that has been a foreign concept thus far for the sluggers in the National League Championship Series, who are turning these October games into something resembling an extended batting practice session, thwacking balls around the field with apparent ease. Although things could change on Wednesday in Game 3, a matchup of both team’s aces that is expected to turn into a pitchers’ duel, the series for now has been a free-swinging showdown, with both teams’ offenses revolving around their stars in the third slot, Milwaukee’s Ryan Braun and St. Louis’s Albert Pujols. “The anchors in both lineups,” said Jerry Hairston Jr., a veteran Brewer. “It’s pretty impressive what they’re doing.” Braun got things started in Game 1 on Sunday when he came up in the first inning and lashed a first-pitch fastball an estimated 463 feet into the left-field stands at Miller Park in Milwaukee. The swing appeared effortless, and Braun put his head down and jogged around the bases, confident that he had slammed a two-run homer. He added a two-run double later in the game, which the Brewers won, 9-6. Braun had a stellar regular season capped by a hot finish, which put him just short of Jose Reyes in the race for the league batting title, and he has carried that performance seamlessly into the playoffs. In seven games this postseason, he is 13 for 26 with 2 homers, 8 runs batted in and a slugging percentage of .962. “Everybody calls it a hot streak, but that’s just him being him,” Hairston said. “I mean, he’s just that good.” Pujols had a series of counterpunches in Game 2. Starting with a two-run homer in the first inning, he finished the game, a 12-3 win for the Cardinals , with five runs batted in and became the fourth player in postseason history to have four extra-base hits in a game. “The funny thing about what he did last night is that you really do just expect he can go out and do it again,” said David Freese, Pujols’s teammate. “That’s the type of player he is.” Pujols is batting .414 in the postseason, and 7 of his 12 hits have been for extra bases. Freese added, “He’s got a lot on his shoulders, but he takes that pressure with the best of them.” Pujols’s and Braun’s teammates have not slouched, either. Braun in particular has been buffeted by the play of the team’s cleanup hitter, Prince Fielder. Fielder, who like Pujols is a free agent after this season, is batting .333 this postseason with three home runs, two in the championship series. “They have got one of the deepest lineups there is,” said Chris Carpenter, who will start Game 3 for the Cardinals. “They have two M.V.P. candidates surrounded by All-Stars.” Although the two lineups combined to score 30 total runs in the first two games of the series, that offensive onslaught could finally be stanched by a pair of aces in Game 3. Carpenter pitched a three-hit shutout in Game 5 of the Cardinals’ division series against the Philadelphia Phillies. The Brewers will counter with Yovani Gallardo, who allowed one run in his team’s decisive Game 5 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks. “It’s a great feeling for us, and it’s the same exact feeling Milwaukee has with Gallardo, a top-of-the-rotation guy,” Cardinals Manager Tony La Russa said. Carpenter said he would exercise caution navigating the heart of the Brewers’ lineup. Gallardo, too, said he would be wary of facing Pujols after watching him dismantle the Brewers in Game 2. “We made some mistakes out over the plate,” Gallardo said of the Brewers’ approach to Pujols that game. “I’m going to try to limit those, especially with runners on, him being as good of a hitter as he is.” Brewers Manager Ron Roenicke said: “As good a hitter as he is, if you put the pitch exactly where you want it to, he’s still going to have a tough time to continue to hurt us like he has. I’ve said it before: there’s not too many holes you can find in his swing. We hope we get it to a better spot, and we hope he misses.” Still, Roenicke predicted that the pitchers would finally have their day. “You would think it would be a low-scoring game,” he said. “You never know, but we expect to have to scrap out runs to be able to win the game.” That is, unless Pujols and Braun have something to say about it.

Baseball
Milwaukee Brewers
St Louis Cardinals
Braun Ryan
Pujols Albert
Playoff Games