Jets Acquire Lito Sheppard as Ryan Continues Renovation

Abstract: At his first news conference, Jets Coach Rex Ryan promised a punishing defense in the mold of those he led in Baltimore and an “all-weather” offense that would run the ball. The Jets fortified both Saturday, trading for Philadelphia cornerback Lito Sheppard and re-signing right guard Brandon Moore two days after releasing him. In Sheppard, the Jets receive a two-time Pro Bowler whose playing time and production slipped last season. In Moore, they return a punishing run blocker who solidifies an offensive line that Ryan has repeatedly referred to as the team’s strength. Ryan seems determined to reshape the Jets into a tough defensive-minded team. He has made bold proclamations about how this latest experiment in the team’s tortured history will turn out. “He’s a great motivator,” Moore said on a conference call, referring to Ryan. “He’s bringing a dynamic to this team that I feel was really needed — the motivation, the passion.” Entering the free-agency period, the Jets ranked cornerback high among their needs. It was thought they would select one with the 17th overall pick in the draft or pursue a veteran free agent. Instead, the Jets traded for Sheppard, sending the Eagles their fifth-round pick in next month’s draft and a conditional pick in 2010, according to a Jets employee who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Ryan, in a statement, said: “We acquired a veteran corner with Pro Bowl ability. We think he can match up with some of the best receivers in the game.” The Eagles selected Sheppard, who turns 28 in April, late in the first round of the 2002 draft out of Florida. He has returned two interceptions for more than 100 yards, tying him with Ed Reed for the most such returns in N.F.L. history. When the Eagles acquired cornerback Asante Samuel last off-season, Sheppard became expendable. In 2008, he had only 23 tackles and 1 interception. “It is a fresh start, a new coach and a new system,” Sheppard said in a statement. “I am looking forward to getting back to playing top-notch football.” Sheppard will start opposite the Pro Bowl cornerback Darrelle Revis. The Jets may also try to land the free-agent cornerback Corey Ivy, who played for Baltimore when Ryan was the Ravens’ defensive coordinator. If he signs, Ivy, who visited with the Jets on Friday, will most likely be the nickel back. If they can combine those players with the ball-hawking safety Kerry Rhodes, the free-agent safety Jim Leonhard (also from Baltimore and who was scheduled to have dinner with the Jets on Saturday) and the second-year cornerback Dwight Lowery, and the Jets’ secondary looks much improved from last season. At least on paper. Moore’s return means the Jets will return all five starters from the offensive line that paved the way for Thomas Jones to lead the American Football Conference in rushing and set team single-season records for touchdowns (15) and rushing touchdowns (13). The Jets converted Moore from a defensive lineman to a guard in 2002, and he has started 73 consecutive regular-season games there. The team released him Feb. 26 to avoid paying a $7 million bonus Moore was due this week. After Pittsburgh guard Chris Kemoeatu turned down an offer from the Jets on Friday, the Jets resumed their pursuit of Moore, who at that point labeled his chances of returning as “pretty slim.” But Moore also said he did not want to make several free-agent visits. He agreed to a four-year deal worth about $16 million. Asked if the Jets’ offer to Kemoeatu bothered him, Moore said, “Honestly, at the end of the day, who did they come back to and who ended up there?” He added, “I was confident in what type of player I was.”

New York Jets
Philadelphia Eagles
Football
Moore Brandon


Morgan Stanley Profit Jumps on Higher Trading Revenue

Abstract: Morgan Stanley reported its best quarter in years on Monday, thanks to the same active trading conditions that have helped its competitors on Wall Street. The bank said that its revenue in the first quarter jumped to the highest it had been since 2007, pushing profit for the firm well above analysts’ expectations. The results helped Morgan Stanley return just over 10 percent on its equity on an annual basis, a measure of profitability that the bank has been trying to achieve for the last few years. The bank’s chief executive, James P. Gorman, positioned the bank’s quarterly results as an outgrowth of years of efforts to reshape the bank after it almost went under during the financial crisis. “We had early confidence that the transformation of Morgan Stanley’s business and balance sheet would deliver returns to all of our stakeholders, and I am proud that the levers we articulated are increasingly evident,” he said on a call with analysts Monday morning. As was the case at a rival, Goldman Sachs, much of the improvement came from increased revenue at the bank’s stock and derivative trading desks, where revenue jumped 35 percent from a year ago. The firm attributed the jump to an increase in client activity. Morgan Stanley executives have been pushing to make the bank less reliant on its trading operations, but the results in the latest quarter underscore how important trading still is for the firm. Revenue rose more modestly for its wealth management division, Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, which the company has emphasized as a source of more steady growth. The bank’s stock ended the day up 0.6 percent, after rising higher earlier in the day. The firm earned $2.31 billion in profit for the quarter, or $1.18 a share, compared with $1.45 billion, or 74 cents a share, in the period a year earlier. Adjusted for certain one-time items, the earnings were 85 cents a share, compared with the 78 cents expected by analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters. Net revenue rose to $9.91 billion, from $9 billion in the period a year earlier. The earnings announcement was the last one for Morgan Stanley’s chief financial officer, Ruth Porat, who recently said she would be leaving the firm to take the same position at Google.

Morgan Stanley
Earnings Reports
Smith Barney
James P Gorman


Songwriter’s Open Mic: Something to Sing About

Abstract: MAPLEWOOD IT will come as no surprise that a bar was the inspiration for a song called “Tanqueray Tango.” Bob Carr, a singer-songwriter from Montclair, said the country-style tune about a gin-soaked one-night stand was sparked by his former hangout in Bloomingdale that carries the double-entendre name, DT’s Stumble On In. Mr. Carr reflected on his muse recently as he stood outside Café Meow, where a group of songwriters meet monthly for what is known as the Saturday Afternoon Song Swap. He had just finished performing the song, which includes the line, “She had a husband in the U.S.M.C./a saggy couch and a flat screen TV.” Mr. Carr and the other five songwriters who performed that Saturday said that inspiration for their songs comes from many places, but that there were few places where they could perform their works. They said there was a particular magic when a song went from the writer’s solitude to the warmth of an audience. “Music is meant to live among people,” said Deena Shoshkes, a songwriter from Millburn. Ms. Shoshkes and a friend, Rebecca Turner, a songwriter from Springfield, created the Saturday Afternoon Song Swap in January so songwriters could fine-tune their material. Each month features different songwriters, and others are welcome at an open microphone after the program. The swaps are held the second Saturday of every month, and the next one is planned for June 14. At the April swap, about two dozen people crowded into the cafe, which sold organic cupcakes and lattes in mismatched cups. Patrons sat on overstuffed chairs and tapped their feet or bobbed their heads in time to the music. Paula Carino introduced her song, “Rough Guide,” with the wry comment, “This next song is part of my divorce cycle.” The song laments the end of her marriage to a man who wrote travel guidebooks, telling the story through the lens of a confused tourist who can’t navigate the map of her former partner’s soul. “My dollars are falling like pesos,” she sang. “No value left in these besos.” Afterward, Ms. Carino, of Brooklyn, said she got a little choked up. “I usually perform that song with a band but being out there all by myself makes me aware of the emotional content,” she said. Some songwriters featured at the gatherings make a living from their music; others rely on day jobs. Many are in bands. Most have recorded their own music, including Peter Sando, of Ringwood, who joked about his “vanity CD.” He has been performing since his days with the psychedelic rock band Gandalf. Mr. Sando said writing a song is a little like writing a very short novel, except that instead of being able to spool out a story over a few hundred pages, songwriters “have to get it all through in three verses and a bridge.” “And make it rhyme,” he said. “And make it musical.” Ms. Turner said her desire to perform stems from her teenage years, which she spent listening to Linda Ronstadt records in her bedroom in Los Angeles, singing into her hairbrush along to “You’re No Good.” Performing at the April session, Ms. Turner sang, “I Like This Town,” which touches on her move to the suburbs from New York City, including lines about Mechanic Street in Millburn and the trees that shade her backyard. She is not the only songwriter to incorporate Jersey themes into her work. Many of Ken Shane’s songs celebrate the Jersey Shore, where he spent much of his youth. In “Sonora,” he sang about the first woman to ride the diving horses at the Steel Pier in Atlantic City — and evoked another famous Jersey balladeer. We all have to grow up sometime And everybody pays some dues I’ve gone spinning ’round this great big world But I never got the sand out of my shoes. Mr. Shane said New Jersey is filled with songs waiting to be written. “It’s such a diverse and populous state,” he said, as he packed up his guitar and dashed off to another gig. “There is plenty of inspiration here. It’s a microcosm of the whole world.”


Frank Quattrone to Step Down as C.E.O. of Qatalyst

Abstract: Nearly a decade ago, Frank P. Quattrone , the star investment banker who took Amazon and Cisco Systems public in the 1990s, returned to the deal scene with a boutique investment bank catering to Silicon Valley. After re-emerging as a major force in the technology industry, Mr. Quattrone is now yielding day-to-day management to one of his top lieutenants. His firm, the Qatalyst Group, announced on Wednesday that George Boutros would take over as chief executive, overseeing overall management. The appointment is the first major leadership change at Qatalyst since Mr. Quattrone, 60, began the firm in March 2008, seven months after clearing his name in a bitter legal fight with the federal government. A veteran of Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank and Credit Suisse, Mr. Quattrone became known as a banker of choice for the dot-com boom. Yet he was waylaid by charges of hindering a government investigation into initial public offerings at Credit Suisse. Those charges were dropped in 2007 . Instead of decamping to an investment firm, Mr. Quattrone chose instead to set up a boutique investment bank. It is a niche that has gained prominence in recent years, as firms like Centerview Partners, PJT Partners and Evercore Partners have secured roles on some of the biggest deals around. Since 2008, Qatalyst has grown from three employees to 53, and it says it has advised on more than 90 deals, including the sales of OpenTable, Motorola Mobility and Dropcam. Naming Mr. Boutros, 55, chief executive is a promotion that formally recognizes the role that the banker — who has worked with Mr. Quattrone since 1992 — has been playing at Qatalyst. “George is one of the most experienced and accomplished M.&A. advisers on the planet,” Mr. Quattrone said in a statement. “He is very highly regarded by both our clients and team members at all levels, and I am confident that his leadership will propel Qatalyst to exciting new heights in the years ahead.” Mr. Quattrone will become executive chairman and focus on strategy. Other bankers at Qatalyst received promotions as well, including Jason DiLullo and Jonathan Turner, who have been named co-presidents.

George Boutros
Qatalyst Group
Frank P Quattrone
Appointments and Executive Changes


Adam Nagourney - Election 2008 - Politics

Abstract: Senator Barack Obama had come to Granby High School in Norfolk, Va., last week to talk about education . But first, he said, “I’ve got to spend just a brief moment talking about politics.” For the next few minutes, he offered one of his most scathing attacks on Senator John McCain , accusing his Republican opponent of “lies and Swift boat politics,” denouncing his campaign tactics as insulting to the American public. Yet that attack barely broke through the day’s crush of blog postings, cable television headlines, television advertisements, speeches by other candidates and surrogates, video press releases, screaming e-mailed charges and counter-charges — not to mention the old-fashioned newspaper article or broadcast report on the evening news. So on Friday, Mr. Obama tried again, this time with a rollout that began with the 6 a.m. release of two new attack advertisements, followed by a memorandum from Mr. Obama’s campaign manager, David Plouffe, telling the world exactly what Mr. Obama was doing and why attention must be paid That episode reflects what has emerged as one of the most frustrating challenges that Mr. McCain and Mr. Obama are facing going into the final weeks of this campaign: the ways in which the proliferation of communications channels, the fracturing of mass media and the relentless political competition to own each news cycle are combining to reorder the way voters follow campaigns and decide how to vote. It has reached a point where senior campaign aides say they are no longer sure what works, as they stumble through what has become a daily campaign fog, struggling to figure out what voters are paying attention to and, not incidentally, what they are even believing. Matthew Dowd, who was the chief strategist for President Bush’s re-election campaign in 2004, said that given a proliferation of news sources — and the fact that so many once-trusted news organizations are under attack — campaigns would be wise to discard the standard playbook. Mr. Dowd went so far as to suggest that Mr. McCain and Mr. Obama were wasting their money on television advertisements, and that they would be better off preparing for the coming debates. Those encounters, he said, are likely to be the only chance the candidates have at capturing the undivided attention of the public. “At this point, the ability to create and drive a message narrative is all but impossible,” he said. “There’s just so much stuff. The average person has 90 channels. They all get the dot-coms. They all get a newspaper. There is so much flow of information that they just to begin to discount it all.” Beyond that, he suggested, in this increasingly partisan atmosphere — one in which the dueling campaigns are accusing each other of lying, and where Mr. McCain has made an orchestrated attempt to discredit news organizations — voters are no longer as apt to accept what they hear as truth. “They distrust — more and more — the marketplace of the campaign,” Mr. Dowd said. The formula was once transparent and established. Voters learned about the candidates through campaign advertisements, what they saw on the evening news, and what they read in national newspapers — like The New York Times and The Washington Post, which tended to influence what the networks covered — but also, even more importantly, on the front pages of local newspapers. With the addition of so many other sources of information, the old formula, while not quite dead, is no longer so dominant in communicating information and shaping opinion. Mr. Obama and Mr. McCain have responded to this challenge in vastly different ways. Mr. McCain’s campaign, reflecting the influence of Steve Schmidt, his day-to-day campaign chief, sees opportunities in this chaos. The McCain campaign is the more aggressive of the two, throwing out information, often frivolous and often stretching the bounds of truth, to try to keep things churning (and draw attention away from the kind of attacks Mr. Obama made in Norfolk). For example, Mr. McCain’s campaign resurgence has come over a summer in which he has regularly released what are presented as hard-edged, provocative — even entertaining — advertisements attacking Mr. Obama. In truth, Mr. McCain in many cases never buys television time to actually air these advertisements (that would be too Old School) and instead puts them out there with the knowledge that cable news and Web sites will seize on them. That could draw even more attention than Mr. McCain can hope to get from a speech — and all of it nearly free. Some bloggers have said they will no longer pay any attention to these ads — Marc Ambinder of The Atlantic calls them video press releases and is leading the charge for news outlets to ignore them — but they have proved to be a highly effective way of getting things into the campaign conversation. Still, aides to Mr. Obama and Mr. McCain said they were not certain how much these kinds of attacks are noticed beyond the audience that spends its time watching CNN, MSNBC and Fox News, or clicking on the latest post on any of the numerous political blogs out there. In this Wild West atmosphere, Mr. McCain’s campaign was able to get attention by leaping on a colloquial remark that Mr. Obama made about “putting lipstick on a pig” — he was referring to Mr. McCain attempting to present himself as an agent of change — and the campaign charged that he had meant that as an attack on Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska, Mr. McCain’s running mate. Mr. McCain’s associates said that at the very least, they were able to distract attention from Mr. Obama. Yet at the end of the day no one was really sure how much those charges broke through or mattered to regular voters. Mr. Obama’s response is comparatively more routine, although it reflects the fact that a simple speech or angry statement will no longer do: Thus, two television advertisements, a speech by Mr. Obama, alerts to various political Web sites, and a series of satellite interviews with Mr. Obama by television news stations in battleground states. Mr. Obama’s advisers said the outcome was the best they could hope for. Which might not be much. If Mr. Dowd is right, this glut of information has created, at least for now, a level playing field where voters are taking in all this information, but ultimately will believe most of what they see with their own eyes. “The only things that are going to change the equation of the election are the four debates,” Mr. Dowd said, referring to the three presidential debates and one vice presidential debate. “That’s it. “

Presidential Election of 2008
Obama Barack
McCain John


No-Hitters Become Rarer, Perfect Games Less So

Abstract: Dallas Braden’s perfect game for Oakland has generated plenty of press, and only partly because of his feud with Alex Rodriguez . A perfect game is celebrated with bold headlines because it is one of baseball’s rarest achievements . But somehow, without anyone noticing, the perfect game has started to become more common, while no-hitters over all have become harder to come by. Before 1998, only 6 percent of no-hitters were perfect games, but from 1998 to 2003, 20 percent were, and since then 27 percent have been. From 1900 through 1980, baseball witnessed only seven perfect games, including two in the dead-ball era and three during the glory days for pitchers in the mid-1960s. But in the 30 seasons beginning with 1981, nine pitchers have achieved perfection . And, oddly, regular no-hitters have decreased in frequency while becoming more erratic in their appearance. “There is probably a fair amount of chance involved” in the jump in perfect games, said Rob Neyer, a baseball columnist with ESPN. He says the rise of free-swingers helps because strikeouts mean fewer balls in play and thus fewer possible hits and errors — although he noted that fewer balls in play should also mean more no-hitters. Improved fielding has probably helped as well, he said. In the 20 years before Babe Ruth and the live ball era of 1920, no-hitters were far more common, with pitchers hurling 48 of them. In the two decades that followed — the most explosive offensive period before the steroids era — there were just 16 no-hitters, one of which was a perfect game. Baseball found an equilibrium in the 1940s and ’50s and that span yielded 30 no-hitters. Not surprisingly, the swinging (and missing) ’60s produced an astonishing 30 no-hitters, along with three perfect games, but even after baseball lowered the pitching mound, pitchers churned out 31 no-hitters in the 1970s. In other words, from 1960-1979, baseball averaged more than three no-hitters per season yet only one perfect game about every seven years. Since then, the pattern has shifted: There have been 48 no-hitters over the past 30 years, meaning it now takes two seasons to produce three no-hitters. In the last decade, there were only 13 — none in 2000 and only one (a perfect game) from June 11, 2003, through Sept. 6, 2006. That decline might make sense considering that the strike zone, the ballparks, the ball and steroids all conspired to boost offense, yet there have been 10 perfect games in that span, meaning they are now coming along every three seasons on average instead of every seven. In fact, perfect games before this year were fairly evenly spaced out, appearing in 1981, 1984, 1988, 1991, 1994, 1998, 1999, 2004 and 2009. As for this year’s big events, it makes sense that Ubaldo Jimenez would pitch the no-hitter and Braden the perfect game — 25 of 35 no-hitters since 1988, including Jimenez’s, have been pitched by right-handers while six of the eight pitchers to retire all 27 hitters they faced, including Braden, have been southpaws. The only question now is whether Braden can live up to his place in baseball history. While pitchers of all stripes have pitched no-hitters — Justin Verlander pitched one in the last decade but so did Anibal Sanchez and Bud Smith — the perfect-game club is more selective. Of the 17 members, five are Hall of Famers (Cy Young, Addie Joss, Jim Bunning, Sandy Koufax and Catfish Hunter) while Charlie Robertson (who never had a winning season) is forgotten and Don Larsen is remembered only for his one magical day in the 1956 World Series. And while the 1980s had one undistinguished pitcher (Len Barker) and two solid but unremarkable ones (Mike Witt and Tom Browning) pitch perfect games, that has changed since 1990. For in the last two decades, every perfect game has come from a pitcher with an impressive résumé. Randy Johnson is headed for a first-ballot election to the Hall of Fame. (He also pitched a no-hitter.) Dennis Martinez won 245 games and an earned run average title; David Wells won 239 games and had a 10-5 record with a 3.17 E.R.A. in the postseason; David Cone had two 20-win seasons, one Cy Young Award, two strikeout crowns and five All-Star Game appearances. Even Kenny Rogers, who is despised by many New York fans, won 219 games. Last year’s perfect-game pitcher, Mark Buehrle, has a chance to end up in that circle, having already racked up 137 wins and four All-Star Game appearances at age 31. So while we await the next perfect game, which might be here sooner than we think (pay attention to those lefties), keep an eye on Dallas Braden: given that his E.R.A., walks, hits and home runs per inning pitched have steadily declined over the past four years, this perfect game may not be an aberration but the start of something big.

Baseball
Braden Dallas
Baseball Hall of Fame
Rodriguez Alex
Neyer Rob
Jimenez Ubaldo
Verlander Justin


13th-Century Alleyways and a Modern Plague of Illegal Renovations

Abstract: BEIJING — Wang Xue stood in the middle of his courtyard house, next to a pomegranate tree. It could have been a scene out of a Tang dynasty poem but for the sound of a jackhammer and a layer of construction dust that thinly caked the rows of potted plants and vine-covered awnings. “The weather is warm, and with that comes construction season,” Mr. Wang, 53, said with a grimace at his home northeast of Tiananmen Square, in the middle of a Beijing neighborhood still filled with hutongs, or traditional Chinese alleyways. Beijing’s courtyard homes and hutongs have been disappearing rapidly since China opened its economy in the 1980s, robbing the capital of some of its character. In recent years, historians and residents have expressed concern over the razing of hutongs. They have been replaced by large-scale commercial projects, like the ones that went up around Qianmen Street in the south and are now being constructed around the Drum and Bell Towers north of the Forbidden City. But just as threatening to the character of the hutongs are the small-scale construction projects, many of them ad hoc, that sidestep local planning laws and alter the atmosphere of the neighborhoods, say hutong historians and old-time denizens of Beijing. Some longtime hutong residents are complaining about their neighbors’ outsize renovations and discussing how the government is or is not cracking down on illegal construction that violates the aesthetics of Beijing’s hutongs. Beijing’s astronomical housing prices make it tempting for homeowners to build up and out, even though it is illegal to change the exterior appearance of properties in designated heritage zones. The result is a shoddy mess of concrete, plastic awnings and tarpaulins, with an extra few floors or an extension going up in a day or two of surreptitious construction. Disgruntled neighbors complain of a history of lax enforcement, but there are signs that Beijing officials may be trying to stop the illegal construction. Before the end of July, the local government in Dongcheng District, home to many of the hutongs, plans to demolish 192 of the haphazard construction projects, according to The Beijing Evening News , a state-run newspaper. Posters that warn against illegal construction are plastered along some alleyway walls. To complicate efforts to contain the problem, Beijing’s courtyards are still a jumble of private and public housing — a legacy of the Mao era, when private property was seized by governments and families were forced to move. Historians estimate that more than half the properties in Beijing’s hutongs are classified as public housing, so those behind the illegal projects include both wealthy property owners and more humble local residents. For some public-housing dwellers assigned to the hutongs, four generations are crammed into one or two rooms of a courtyard home. With no kitchens, they cook in the alleyways. With no indoor plumbing, many residents trek to public bathrooms each morning, delicately balancing full plastic buckets that served as overnight chamber pots. During the summer heat, alleyways resemble living rooms, with whole families congregating outside. With space at a premium, families can either apply to move to public housing on the outskirts of Beijing or improvise in their current courtyard by building extensions to accommodate growing families. Tensions are still high at No. 5 Dongsiliutiao Hutong, where city officials at the end of April ordered the bulldozing of a row of illegally constructed houses in which poorer residents lived. Furious, residents went to work within weeks to rebuild the structures. Image One man said that because Beijing real estate was so costly, “we can only build up.” Credit Gilles Sabrie for The New York Times “People are angry because this is a country where the rich get richer and the poor get poorer,” a 35-year-old man who lives in the neighborhood said on the condition of anonymity, because of fear of reprisal, as he puffed on a cigarette and leaned against a door frame across the street, next to piles of bricks and sand. “Those people at No. 5 aren’t wealthy and aren’t well connected,” he added. “If they were, their place wouldn’t have been demolished at all.” Those engaged in the construction describe it as a way of squeezing more relatives into a confined space. “I’m building a second floor for my daughter,” said one 60-year-old who lives in a hutong just off bustling Ghost Street, which is filled with late-night restaurants lighted by red lanterns. “She’s about to get married, but real estate in Beijing is so expensive that we have no option. We can only build up.” Across the street from Mr. Wang’s courtyard house, a two-story concrete monstrosity is almost complete, built by a local official, Mr. Wang said. “It’s not just the dust, noise, and loss of privacy and direct sunlight,” he complained. “At a deeper level, this is about the loss of a fundamental part of Beijing’s character and culture.” He said nothing had come of his attempts to report the building violation to the authorities. The local neighborhood committee and city management officials declined to be interviewed. A man answering the door at the home with the illegal construction said he planned to rent the place for about $1,400 per month, perhaps to expatriates. “I know foreigners like having a rooftop terrace, and look at the view — there are traditional courtyard houses everywhere you look,” he said. “This is a very unique property.” Hutongs can be traced back to the Yuan dynasty in the 13th century, when Kublai Khan ruled China. Back then, they were passageways between Mongolian yurts, some historians say. When the Communists founded the People’s Republic of China in 1949, some historians also considered Beijing the best-preserved medieval city in the world. But soon Mao Zedong and other officials ordered the destruction of vast parts of old Beijing, including the ancient city walls. Owners were evicted. After the Cultural Revolution, officials were often unable to return the hutong homes to their rightful owners because those owners were terrified of retribution or had fled Beijing or been killed. Some preservationists argue that the government needs to privatize all hutong courtyards and revert Beijing’s property laws to pre-Communism statutes. This recent round of attempted demolitions is a step in the right direction, said He Shuzhong, the founder of the Beijing Cultural Heritage Protection Center. “But it is crucial for the government to prevent these constructions from even being erected in the first place,” he said. “Most important, it shouldn’t just be average residents who are targeted in this round of demolitions. Government offices, large corporations, the military — they must all be treated the same way.”

Construction
Historic preservation
Beijing
China


Ex-Minister in Greece Is Found Guilty in Bribery Case

Abstract: ATHENS — In a landmark verdict, a former Greek defense minister and co-founder of the country’s once-mighty Socialist Party, Akis Tsochatzopoulos, was found guilty on Monday of setting up a complex money-laundering network to cover the trail of millions of dollars in bribes that he is said to have pocketed from government weapons purchases. After a five-month trial — the highest-profile case against a Greek politician in more than two decades — judges convicted Mr. Tsochatzopoulos, 74, along with 16 other defendants, including his wife, his daughter and several business partners. All were found to have colluded with him to launder the bribe money using a network of offshore companies and property purchases. Mr. Tsochatzopoulos was sentenced to 20 years in prison, said his lawyer, Leonidas Kotsalis, who added that his client would appeal. Regardless of the sentencing decision on the money-laundering charges, Mr. Tsochatzopoulos will not escape prison. He was sentenced in March to eight years for concealing assets from the authorities, chiefly for failing to report the purchase of a house near the Acropolis, one of several properties connected to the money-laundering scheme. Mr. Tsochatzopoulos, who has been in custody at Korydallos Prison in the capital since his arrest in April 2012, accused the authorities of political persecution and state violence during the trial, which featured vicious exchanges between him and his former associates. Image Akis Tsochatzopoulos, a former Greek defense minister, on Monday. Credit Alkis Konstantinidis/European Pressphoto Agency He is the most senior government official to stand trial since 1991, when former Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou was acquitted on charges of accepting bribes in return for forcing state companies to prop up a troubled private bank. In a telephone interview after the verdict, Mr. Kotsalis said he had “strong reservations about the legal substantiation” of claims that his client accepted bribes. The court heard that Mr. Tsochatzopoulos pocketed nearly $75 million in bribes while serving as defense minister from 1996 to 2001, signing two major deals worth an estimated $4 billion for a Russian missile defense system and German submarines. Mr. Tsochatzopoulos had repeatedly called for members of a political and defense council that co-signed those contracts — including two former prime ministers, Costas Simitis and George A. Papandreou — to testify at his trial. But the request was rejected by the judges, who said the bribery accusations, not the arms deals, were under scrutiny. The conviction on Monday was unusual in a country where top-ranking state officials are rarely prosecuted. But over the past year, the government of Prime Minister Antonis Samaras has intensified a crackdown on corruption among the political elite, blamed by most Greeks for a dysfunctional state system that created the country’s huge debt problem and led Greece to dependence on foreign rescue loans. In February, Vassilis Papageorgopoulos, a former mayor of Thessaloniki, the country’s second-largest city, was sentenced to life in prison for embezzling about $24.5 million from the city.

Akis Tsochatzopoulos
Athens
Money laundering
Greece
Bribery and Kickbacks


News From the Advertising Industry

Abstract: Accounts ■ Microsoft, Redmond, Wash., consolidated tasks around the world — including advertising, direct marketing, digital advertising and media planning and buying — with agencies owned by the Interpublic Group of Companies and the Dentsu Aegis Network division of Dentsu. Spending was estimated at $1 billion. The creative duties will be handled by Interpublic agencies like Erwin Penland, the Martin Agency and McCann Erickson Worldwide. The media and digital duties will be handled by Dentsu Aegis Network agencies like Carat. Agencies owned by two big agency holding groups, the Publicis Groupe and WPP, will lose their assignments in the consolidation. ■ Burger King, Miami, expanded its relationship with David, part of WPP, by naming David as its global creative lead agency; no agency had had that designation for three years. Spending was estimated at more than $300 million. Burger King has worked with David in markets like Argentina, Brazil and the United States. The company said it would continue to work with agencies in local markets, among them Pitch in the United States. ■ Kao USA, Cincinnati, part of the Kao Corporation of Japan, named Arnold Worldwide, Boston, as global creative agency of record for two large brands, John Frieda hair care products and Jergens skin care products. Combined spending last year was estimated at $100 million. The account had previously been handled by Kirshenbaum Bond Senecal & Partners, New York, part of MDC Partners. Arnold Worldwide is part of the Havas Creative division of Havas. Kao USA is still seeking a creative agency for two other skin care brands, Bioré and Curel. People ■ Peggy Conlon, who has served since 1999 as president and chief executive of the Advertising Council, New York, is retiring, the organization said. A search for a successor is being handled by Spencer Stuart, with a goal of having someone in place by early next year. Under Ms. Conlon, the organization expanded the purview of the public service advertising campaigns that it coordinates and produces, addressing contemporary issues like texting and driving, bullying prevention and childhood obesity, and became known for relief campaigns that appeared soon after disasters, among them the Haiti earthquake, the Indian Ocean tsunami and Hurricane Sandy. ■ Eric Johnson will join Self magazine, New York, as associate publisher for marketing, effective on May 21. He succeeds Renee Lewin, who left, the company said. Mr. Johnson had most recently been vice president for ad sales marketing at the NBC News Digital Group, New York, part of NBCUniversal. Self, part of the Condé Nast division of Advance Publications, recently underwent a shake-up that included the hiring of a new publisher, Mary Murcko, who hired Mr. Johnson, along with a new editor in chief, Joyce Chang. Miscellany ■ Toyota Motor Sales USA and its creative agency, Saatchi & Saatchi Los Angeles, have decided to write into the scripts of coming commercials the pregnancy of Laurel Coppock, the actress who portrays a receptionist named Jan in a series of commercials for what Toyota calls sales events like annual clearances. The Jan character will be pregnant starting in a commercial for a “Toyota Time” sale that is scheduled to begin running Tuesday — in time for Mother’s Day, which is Sunday. The decision is reminiscent of the decision by the stars of “I Love Lucy,” Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, to write her pregnancy into scripts of the series during the 1952-53 season. ■ Avenue Brand, Boston, and Crunch Brands, Charlestown, Mass., have merged under the Crunch Brands name. Financial terms were not disclosed. ■ Twist Image, a Canadian digital marketing agency with offices in Toronto and Montreal, was acquired by WPP. Financial terms were not disclosed. ■ CW, the broadcast television network owned by the CBS Corporation and Time Warner, said that its advertising sales department would work more closely with the advertising sales department of the CBS Television Network division of CBS, under the leadership of Jo Ann Ross, president for network sales at CBS. Rob Tuck, executive vice president for sales at CW, will continue to report to Mark Pedowitz, president of CW, with what the companies called “added direction” from Ms. Ross. CW and CBS will coordinate and share resources like research, beginning with the efforts to sell commercial time in the 2014-15 upfront market. ■ Dentsu Aegis Network, part of Dentsu, acquired a majority stake in PPR Profissionais de Publicidade Reunidos, the official name of the Brazilian advertising agency NBS, which has 380 employees in offices in Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo and Brasília. Financial terms were not disclosed. ■ Revenue Frontier, Santa Monica, Calif., a direct response company, was acquired by Havas, Paris. Financial terms were not disclosed. Revenue Frontier will report into the Havas Edge division, which specializes in direct response advertising. ■ Stealth SME, New York, acquired six agencies for undisclosed financial terms. Cenergy Marketing and Communications, East Aurora, N.Y., will become part of the Stealth Media House division of Stealth. The other agencies — the Crimson Marketing Group, Dutt Sports Services, Envision Sports Agency, LifeSports Management and the Sloan Sports Group — will become part of the Stealth Sports division of Stealth.

advertising,marketing
TV
Mergers and Acquisitions
Campaign advertising


Indian State in Mourning After Graft Conviction

Abstract: CHENNAI, India — Rarely have tears of despair flowed so copiously at a swearing-in ceremony as they did last week, when officials in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu prepared to govern without Jayalalithaa Jayaram, an iron-fisted leader known as Amma, or Mother, who has been sentenced to four years in prison on corruption charges. After taking the podium, the man who will replace Ms. Jayaram as the chief minister of Tamil Nadu pulled a photograph of her out of his shirt pocket, bowed reverently and began to weep . (“ Soaked hankie takes the brunt ,” read a headline in The Telegraph the next day.) The housing and urban development minister was sobbing so uncontrollably that her oath was barely audible. The minister of handlooms and textiles was said to have “wailed.” If this sounds melodramatic, that is a matter of perspective. On the day the verdict was read, a 58-year-old electrician named Venkateshan walked out of the shop where he had been watching the news coverage all morning, soaked himself with gasoline and set himself on fire, shouting, “My Amma has failed in the court,” according to the police inspector who investigated the death. Huge posters have appeared on the streets showing Ms. Jayaram’s face and the image of a broken chain, with the words, “How can a human being punish a god?” In a country that has long tolerated brazen corruption in its regional leaders, Ms. Jayaram’s conviction will stand as a benchmark. Despite her wealth, power and friendship with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, she has become the first sitting state leader to come under a new, tough Supreme Court ruling that bars her from remaining in office while appealing a conviction, as officials here have done for decades. And she is barred from running for office for 10 years, bad news for a woman of 66. Now in her third term as chief minister, she is at the blazing height of her popularity; her party, the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, won a remarkable 37 of the state’s 39 parliamentary seats in spring elections. Last week, most people in Chennai expressed serene confidence that she could maintain political control, even if it meant running the state from a jail cell. Her lieutenants, whether out of love or fear, were jockeying to prove their fealty. Her voters were passionate in her defense, saying the verdict was driven by a political vendetta. “They are panicked,” said A. S. Panneerselvan, the reader’s editor for The Hindu, a daily newspaper based in Chennai, the capital of Tamil Nadu. “Behind the bravado is actually a very, very hopeless reality that they don’t know what their next step is going to be. This is something they were not mentally prepared for. The reality is that your electoral fortunes are different from your legal fortunes.” That Ms. Jayaram enriched herself in office should not come as a complete surprise. In 1995, during a period when she professed to earn a salary of 1 rupee per month, she staged an opulent waterfront wedding for her foster son that included 40,000 guests and a formal sit-down dinner for 12,800, according to court documents. An imperious leader, she terrified her underlings, who, during her early days in office, would regularly stretch facedown on the ground and touch her feet. Multistory images of her face were erected throughout the state capital; an American diplomat, in a cable published by WikiLeaks, recalled one that was captioned “Amma is God.” Subramanian Swamy, a onetime confidant who went on to file the corruption charges against Ms. Jayaram, said she seemed to be compensating for brutal treatment that she suffered as a teenage girl, thrust into working as a film actress in Kollywood, Tamil Nadu’s homegrown film industry. “Suddenly everything was at her command, and she went berserk,” he said. “She really thought she was going to be the queen of India.” Mr. Swamy, then the leader of the Janata Party, filed a case against his former friend in 1996, after she lost a bid to serve a second term. He alleged that, after coming to power with little wealth, she had illegally accumulated 660 million rupees, or about $10 million, during her first term, funneling large sums of money through a series of shell companies. A search of her home at the time found that she possessed more than 10,000 saris and some 66 pounds of gold, matter-of-factly itemized under headings such as “one gold waist belt studded with 2,389 diamonds, 18 emeralds and nine rubies weighing 2.3 pounds.” But the case inched its way forward through a blizzard of delays and motions. After winning election a second time, Ms. Jayaram returned as chief minister in 2002. In the decision released on Sept. 27, Judge John Michael Cunha noted that after she regained her office, the accused recalled 76 prosecution witnesses, and that “64 of them casually, without any rhyme or reason, backtracked from their earlier version,” including a high-ranking police official, a development he called “amazing and shocking.” A turning point came in 2003, when India’s Supreme Court granted prosecutors a change of venue to neighboring Karnataka State, something Ms. Jayaram’s political rivals had pursued. Mr. Cunha concluded his 1,136-page ruling with a quotation from former Vice President Al Gore, that “if political and economic freedoms have been siblings in the history of liberty, it is incestuous coupling of wealth and power that poses the deadliest threat to democracy.” “Heady mix of power and wealth is the bottom line of this case,” the judge wrote. The verdict, which included a fine of $16 million, clearly came as a jolt to the party faithful. After the flamboyance of her first term, Ms. Jayaram had become more careful, and for all her imperiousness, Tamil Nadu is a well-run state. The poor have benefited greatly from a flotilla of public welfare programs she has introduced: Nutritious meals are available for a few pennies at “Amma canteens,” subsidized medications at “Amma pharmacies,” to say nothing of “Amma salt,” “Amma water,” “Amma cinema” and “Amma cement.” Lakshmi Shrika, 40, lived next door to the electrician who self-immolated, and she shook her head in bafflement when asked about his act. She, too, has a soft spot for the jailed leader, whom she called “a very bold female.” Under Ms. Shrika’s table was one of the party’s famous freebies: a new food processor emblazoned with Ms. Jayaram’s face. Still, she said that she had been shocked by the reaction of her mother’s friends, whom she overheard saying that the judge and his family should be killed. “They are so angry, so aggressive,” she said. “Older people, they have taken it to their heart. They are more devoted.” It was hard to say how many people had committed suicide over Ms. Jayaram’s conviction; by the middle of the week, officials from her party had a list of 37, but the circumstances were impossible to independently confirm. Some officials seemed to be counting heart attacks. After the death of the party’s founder, the matinee idol Marudhur Gopalan Ramachandran, dozens of suicides were reported; skeptics in Chennai said that the party incentivized such acts with payments to surviving family members. The Times of India reported the self-immolation on Thursday of a 23-year-old woman in a village in the southern part of the state who doused herself with gasoline after putting her baby daughters to sleep. She was in serious condition, with burns on 60 percent of her body. Family members told the newspaper that she had spoken of little but the verdict since Saturday. On Wednesday, a group of followers lighted candles and chanted over Mr. Ramachandran’s grave, which overlooks the Bay of Bengal, and a thin, gray-haired woman beat on her breast with her fists. “Today, our madam is in jail,” said their leader, a lawyer named N. Nevalinathan. “We ask our god to help us overturn all obstacles.” In an interview after the ceremony, he called Ms. Jayaram “a living god.” He said he could fully understand why her admirers might consider suicide. “You see, they do it for love, because of affection,” he said. “If there is ever a situation in which the mother is gone, all of her children are left in the road.”

Tamil Nadu
Jayalalithaa
India
Corruption
Chennai


Latino Leaders Push Census, to Avoid Undercount

Abstract: MIAMI — Fearing that millions of illegal immigrants may not be counted in the 2010 census, Latino leaders are mobilizing a nationwide drive to urge Hispanics to participate in the survey, including an intense push this week in evangelical Christian churches. Latino groups contend that there was an undercount of nearly one million Latinos in the 2000 census, affecting the drawing of Congressional districts and the distribution of federal money. Hispanic organizations are far better organized for next year’s census, but they say that if illegal immigrants — an estimated eight million of whom are Latino — are not included, the undercount could be much greater. One study suggests that Congressional delegations in eight states with large Hispanic populations could grow if all Latinos — the nation’s largest minority at some 47 million — are counted. But the obstacles to an accurate count are significant. Many illegal immigrants are likely to be reluctant to fill out a government form that asks for their names, birthdates and telephone numbers. And the count comes three years into an immigration crackdown that was initiated by President George W. Bush but has continued apace, though less visibly, under President Obama . Several of the nation’s largest associations of Hispanic evangelical churches have agreed to join the census campaign. But it has caused dissension among others, with one evangelical pastor leading a call for a boycott of the census, saying it would put pressure on the Obama administration and on Congress to grant legal status to illegal immigrants. Some Roman Catholic leaders, moreover, have said they are reluctant to urge Latino parishioners to participate without greater assurances from the administration that illegal immigrants will not be identified or detained through the census. The Constitution calls for all residents to be counted, and last month the Senate rejected a measure by Senator David Vitter , Republican of Louisiana , that would have included only United States citizens in the official tally. In October, census officials said they would not ask the Department of Homeland Security to suspend immigration raids during the census period, reversing a policy from 2000, when an immigration moratorium was observed. But census officials say there is no change in a longstanding policy that they do not share identity data with the Department of Homeland Security or any other agency. Latino political leaders see full participation in the census as the culmination of heightened activism that began in the spring of 2006, when hundreds of thousands of Latinos marched in the streets to protest legislation then in Congress that would have toughened laws against illegal immigration. In 2007 they held a nationwide campaign to have Latino immigrants become United States citizens. That was followed last year with a huge voter registration drive. “We want to tap into that same spirit,” said Arturo Vargas, executive director of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials Educational Fund, known as Naleo , a bipartisan group that is a main organizer of the census drive. “We have to go back to everybody and say, ‘Just as you marched, just as you naturalized, just as you voted, now you have to be counted.’ ” One strategy is to encourage Latino immigrants to return the census forms by mail, rather than waiting for a census taker’s knock on the door, which could frighten illegal immigrants wary of immigration agents. To that end, groups like Naleo, the National Council of La Raza and others are moving to tap the expanding social networks and the power of persuasion of evangelical churches, which have seen huge growth among Latinos in the last decade. At a recent meeting with religious leaders in Miami , Naleo unveiled a poster for churches to use during the Christmas season to talk up the census. It depicts Mary and Joseph, recalling that they went to Bethlehem to participate in a census. “Así nació Jesus,” the poster says. “That’s how Jesus was born.” Evangelical leaders said last Wednesday that the poster would be displayed in more than 7,000 evangelical churches this week. Among the evangelicals to embrace the effort is the Rev. Samuel Rodríguez Jr., a pastor from California who is president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference , which includes more than 25,000 evangelical churches. “I believe we pastors have a moral responsibility to educate our flock in an action that will help our communities move forward on the path of political empowerment,” Mr. Rodríguez said. A new ally in Miami is Pastor José Victor Dugand, who can be found most days in his church in the southwest part of the city singing Christian rock music with a Latin lilt and expounding bilingually on the Bible. Even on hectic weeknights, worshipers come by the hundreds to pray at his Ekklesia Global Church , bringing worries about lost jobs in South Florida ’s battered economy as well as fears of immigration authorities. Lately, Mr. Dugand tells his followers they can increase their political influence and draw federal money to the community by participating in the census. “I think we need to come to the light — we need to be counted,” he said. “Right now, I believe the government is totally off in the figures. We need to have a number that is closer to reality, so we can have better representation politically.” When illegal immigrants in his church express worries, Mr. Dugand advises them that they should trust the census. “I tell them, ‘Don’t flee, don’t just escape,’ ” he said. “Help us build something here for our children.” But the Rev. Miguel Angel Rivera, a New Jersey pastor who heads a smaller coalition of evangelical clergy, has called for a boycott of the census. “We need to empower the undocumented immigrants by asking them not to participate,” Mr. Rivera said, “as a way to protest the lack of commitment from this Congress to do what is right and moral, which is comprehensive immigration reform.” He is touring the country with his boycott call, and he has gained the support of some community leaders, including Nativo López, a Mexican-American activist in Los Angeles . Nearly 12 million Latinos voted in November 2008, an increase of two million votes over 2004, according to an analysis by Andres Ramirez, a researcher at NDN , a Democratic advocacy organization. Now, in the first census since Hispanics passed blacks to become the second-largest population group in the United States, Hispanics want to extend that voting power with a census count that would support more elected representatives for their communities. An analysis by NDN and America’s Voice , an immigrant advocacy group, projected that a full count of Hispanics would lead to a significant redrawing of the Congressional map, with six states picking up one Congressional seat ( Florida , Georgia , Nevada , Oregon , South Carolina and Utah ), while Arizona would add two and Texas as many as four.

Census
Hispanic Americans
Minorities
Illegal immigration
Evangelical
Census Bureau


Yukos Investors Settle With Rosneft, Russia’s State Oil Company

Abstract: Yukos , the defunct Russian oil giant whose dismantling a decade ago came to define a country’s flawed property rights system, announced on Wednesday that it had reached a final legal settlement with Rosneft , the state oil company that prospered from the breakup. Rosneft had absorbed most of Yukos’s valuable oil fields, refineries, gas stations and pipelines just before the oil boom kicked off in Russia in a series of bankruptcy auctions after Yukos’s founder, Mikhail B. Khodorkovsky, was arrested in 2003. The breakup of Yukos unfolded over a period of years as the central drama in Russian business. The fight by Yukos shareholders seemed improbable, given the Kremlin’s reluctance to concede in foreign courts that its bankruptcy process was flawed or that the case was politically motivated because of Mr. Khodorkovsky’s sponsorship of opposition figures, including Boris Y. Nemtsov, who died in February in a contract killing. The shareholders, including American retail investors and pension funds that had committed about $6 billion to the company, sued both Rosneft and the Russian government. While the claims against Rosneft are settled, the claims against the government remain, including a recent $50 billion award that the Kremlin is appealing. Video As the price of crude oil fluctuates, why some countries are faring much better than others. Credit Credit Carlos Garcia Rawlins/Reuters As of Wednesday, Yukos shareholders in courts outside of Russia had managed to retain or recover about $4.4 billion from Rosneft and the Russian government, including an award that the Russian government has exhausted all appeals on but has not yet paid. “It’s a tidy sum,” Claire Davidson, a spokeswoman for the Yukos shareholders, said in a telephone interview. Rosneft, which is majority-owned by the Russian government but is publicly traded on stock exchanges in London and Moscow, emphasized that it would not be required to make additional payments and was now clear of the long shadow of Yukos lawsuits. “According to the agreement, the sides have rejected all mutual claims and will halt all existing legal and other disputes, and are also obliged not to make any future claims related to the bankruptcy and liquidation of Yukos,” which happened in 2006, Rosneft said in a statement. The settlement ended lawsuits in Russia, the United States, the Netherlands, Britain and other countries. To defend the shareholders’ claim to the company even as the Russian government liquidated it as a legal entity inside Russia, the overseas branch of Yukos had needed to transform itself into foundations in the Netherlands. These organizations, called stichtings, protected the assets but at the cost of surrendering some control over management. The foundations represent the interests of shareholders but are not directly controlled by them. And under Dutch law, the proceeds from the legal victories that Yukos was clocking up against Rosneft could not be distributed to shareholders until all claims on the foundation’s holdings were resolved, something that could have taken years or even decades. Under the settlement, Rosneft in effect is no longer able to block the release of those awards by drawing out the litigation, while Yukos shareholders give up the remaining $2 billion to $3 billion in claims. However, a lawsuit unrelated to Rosneft remains an obstacle to Yukos shareholders’ seeing a payout. And the shareholder suits against the Russian government continue in various places. The largest shareholder, the Menatep Group, which owns about 70 percent of the shares, won the $50 billion award last July against the Russian government under a European energy investment treaty, the Energy Charter, though the Kremlin is appealing. That ruling by a tribunal in The Hague — the largest award ever in international arbitration — portrayed the seizure and breakup of Yukos as “devious and calculated expropriation” and a politically driven campaign to neutralize Mr. Khodorkovsky. It is unclear what, if anything, the company’s founder, Mr. Khodorkovsky, who spent a decade in Russian prison camps working in a sewing shop among other jobs, will receive from these lawsuits. Mr. Khodorkovsky surrendered his shares to a business partner while still in prison in Russia.


On the Jets’ Day After, Platitudes Abound

Abstract: FLORHAM PARK, N.J. — Rex Ryan looked like a man deprived of sleep as much as victories. His eyes drooped. His shoulders sagged. On the monotone scale, his voice registered somewhere between Bill Belichick and Ben Stein. “We might be counted out,” Ryan said, “but we’re not dead.” The morning after his Jets absorbed their fifth consecutive defeat — by 31-17 against the Denver Broncos — Ryan’s message brimmed with positivity, if not persuasion. When he and some of his players spoke, it was as if they were trying to convince themselves, and others, to still believe. “There is a shot,” Geno Smith said. “It’s definitely one that’s a stretch, but as long as we’ve got a stretch, we’ve got an opportunity.” The Jets have forced the fewest turnovers in the A.F.C. (three) while committing the second most (10). They have allowed nine touchdown drives of at least 80 yards, including two on Sunday. They rush to set up the pass, but they have a running game stuck in traction, a quarterback they do not seem to trust to throw the ball downfield and receivers struggling to get open. It is why the Jets are 1-5. It is why Ryan, in encountering the lowest point of his coaching career, felt moved on Monday to spout the sort of motivational sayings found in conference rooms and guidance counselors’ offices. ■ If you’re fighting a guy that never quits, he’s hard to beat. ■ As we say, we’ve just begun to fight. ■ They know what they’re going to get — they’re going to get our best shot. They, in this case, refers to the resurgent Patriots (4-2), who are surely relishing the chance to bury the Jets at Gillette Stadium on Thursday night. Led by six touchdown passes (and no interceptions) from Tom Brady, they have scored 80 points in thrashing Cincinnati and Buffalo the past two weeks to reclaim the A.F.C. East lead. Deep into Monday morning, the Jets’ staff reviewed the loss to Denver and began preparing for New England, whose own coaches no doubt recognize what Ryan called a fundamental axiom of the league. “If somebody’s having success against you,” he said, “then you’ve got to anticipate that you’re going to get something like it.” Image The Jets’ Jace Amaro catching a 2-yard pass in the first quarter to put the Jets ahead, 7-3. 1 / 12 That somebody having success has been the tight ends employed by the Bears. And the Lions. And the Chargers. And the Broncos. Combined, they have gouged the Jets for seven touchdowns, and New England just happens to feature Rob Gronkowski, who has 13 receptions for 194 yards and a touchdown in his last two games. The player most likely to shadow Gronkowski is Antonio Allen, who limited him to five catches on 13 passes in the Jets’ Week 7 victory against New England last season. At least that was before the starting cornerback Dee Milliner tore his right Achilles’ tendon on Sunday, denying Allen positional stability once again. Converted to cornerback from safety in training camp, Allen has played the last two weeks. “I’m in between, man,” Allen said. “But I know the defense pretty well already. I’m just doing my assignment, whatever I’m called upon to do. Hopefully, I’ll get a shot at him.” A Gronkowski-size challenge confronts the Jets on their own practice field. In this short week, their offensive line, under siege for its inconsistent play, must integrate a new left guard, Oday Aboushi, who slides into the starting lineup after Brian Winters sustained a season-ending knee injury against Denver. Aboushi has taken 33 career snaps, 24 on Sunday. “We’ve got to figure something out,” said right guard Willie Colon, who expressed confidence in Aboushi. “I don’t know what it is. We’ve got to play better up front. We know that. The effort’s there, the heart’s there, the fight’s there. The attention to detail and execution could be better at times.” Any hope the Jets have of functioning on offense rests, in large part, on the offensive line, which has struggled to create running room for Chris Ivory and Chris Johnson and give Smith time to pass. Denver exposed the Jets with its pass rush and by stuffing the box, daring Smith to throw, and center Nick Mangold said he would not be surprised if teams adopt a similar strategy until the Jets prove they can counter it. “A team tries to take one thing away — if you can do the other thing, that would help,” Mangold said. Yes, it would. So would a victory. Or three. Said Ryan, “The morale, anytime you have the record we have, it’s not going to be the happiest place, obviously.” EXTRA POINTS With Dee Milliner and Brian Winters placed on injured reserve, the Jets signed cornerback Josh Thomas, who last played for Seattle, and offensive lineman Wesley Johnson, a fifth-round pick of the Steelers.

Football
Rex Ryan
Geno Smith
Patriots
Antonio Allen
Oday Aboushi
Jets


Even More to Admire From a Heavy-Duty Camera

Abstract: A September surprise, the Canon 5D Mark II popped up Wednesday at the big biennial battleground for camera makers, the Photokina trade show in Cologne, Germany. The original 5D, though three years old, is still the heavy-duty camera of choice for a legion of admirers thanks to its full-frame sensor, which produces colorful, detailed images. Cosmetically the same, the new version shoots full HD video and even better still pictures. The larger data stream from a 21-megapixel sensor is handled by more efficient amplifier circuitry and a new signal processor, the Digic IV, for a reduction in digital noise. Pictures are clearer and sharper, and a light sensitivity setting up to ISO 25,600 produces good pictures in very low light. MPEG4 video can be shot for up to 29 minutes, depending on the content, at the high-definition resolution of 1920 by 1080 pixels at 30 frames per second. A stereo external microphone can be connected, but the built-in mike is mono. The camera, which will ship in November, will sell for $2,699 for the body alone. For $3,499, Canon will throw in the newly updated 24-105 series II all-purpose zoom lens. MARTY KATZ


Celtics Top Knicks to Spoil Harvard Grad Lin’s Return to Boston

Abstract: BOSTON — In the 30 days that passed between trips to New England, the Knicks added players, momentum, confidence, a bench and a global sensation, raising their profile and their expectations to unwieldy heights. It took the Boston Celtics just five minutes to puncture the hype balloon and present a healthy reminder of the distances the Knicks still must travel to consider themselves contenders. On a raucous afternoon at TD Garden, the Celtics muted Jeremy Lin, withstood Carmelo Anthony and — as they have so often done — converted the most critical plays, dealing the Knicks a 115-111 overtime defeat. Paul Pierce hit a 3-pointer that forced overtime, then handed off to Ray Allen, who scored 5 straight points to give Boston the lead for good. Along the way, Rajon Rondo made modern statistical history, with 18 points, 20 assists and 17 rebounds — the N.B.A.’s gaudiest triple-double since Magic Johnson had 24, 17 and 17 in 1989. Although the details were different, the result felt a lot like the Knicks defeat here Feb. 3, and the playoff losses they sustained here last spring. The Celtics (19-17), for all of their struggles, remain the model for what the Knicks hope to become by the end of April. “We will,” Anthony said after scoring 25 points. “That takes time. That takes time. They’ve been through the wringer long enough. They’ve been around long enough to know how to close out games. That’s something that we can take from that.” Anthony and Pierce dueled all afternoon, until Pierce hit the shot that mattered most — a 3-pointer that tied the game at 103-103 with 4.9 seconds left in regulation. Anthony had a chance to win the game but missed a 17-foot jumper at the buzzer, then missed all four shots he took in overtime. But the Knicks (18-19) were mostly undermined by careless play, including 22 turnovers, as they lost for the 11th straight time in Boston. “We always play them tough,” Anthony said. “It’s just some little things that we have to get better at.” The game presented a sentimental moment for Lin, as well as a difficult challenge. He starred nearby at Harvard, and his former coach Tommy Amaker and the university president, Drew Galpin Faust, were in the crowd. But Rondo hounded Lin with his length, and the Celtics kept throwing extra bodies in his path. Lin finished with 14 points, 5 assists and 6 turnovers, his second-worst game as a starter. He was 1 for 7 in overtime and 6 for 16 over all, alternately hearing boos from Celtics fans and light cheers from pockets of supporters. The Celtics, like the Miami Heat two weeks ago, were determined not to let the N.B.A.’s newest star beat them. “Definitely a target,” Lin said, “but I think that’s fine, because I think we have such a well-rounded team. It’s just going to take time. It’s my, whatever, 11th, 12th game, 13th, I don’t really know. Early on, so I’m learning a lot and absorbing information right now.” Coach Mike D’Antoni lifted Lin for defensive purposes twice in the last 30 seconds of regulation. Still, he stuck with Lin through most of the fourth quarter and overtime despite his struggles, using him over the more seasoned Baron Davis. Davis also had a mixed game, with 8 points, 7 assists and 6 turnovers. Sticking with Lin nearly paid off as the Knicks came back from a 15-point deficit in the second half. Lin scored 6 straight points late in the fourth quarter, including a 3-pointer that cut the deficit to 96-95. Anthony took over from there, scoring 6 straight points for a 101-100 lead with 35.4 seconds to play. Steve Novak added two free throws for a 3-point lead. Then Pierce did what Pierce does, raising up for an off-balance 3-pointer over Iman Shumpert. “The thing about Jeremy, he’s going to make some mistakes, and he’s got a learning curve,” D’Antoni said. “There’s no way you can throw him in here, the first time he ever does it, and expect it to be perfect. But he finds a way to be very positive at the end of games.” D’Antoni did not rule out using Davis to close out a game but said, “I’m comfortable going with Jeremy.” REBOUNDS Bill Walker will have surgery on his left elbow on Monday and is expected to miss four to six weeks, possibly wiping out the rest of the regular season. He could be available for the playoffs. Walker was a rotation player for the first 30 games of the season, but he had been squeezed out by the additions of J. R. Smith and Baron Davis and the emergence of Steve Novak. “It’d have been tough,” Mike D’Antoni said Sunday of finding a role for Walker. “But for sure if he’s hurt and not playing well, then there’s no way.” ... Tyson Chandler is wearing a protective brace on his injured left wrist, which continues to bother him two weeks after falling on it. “I think it’s something that he’s going to have to live with for a month, two months,” D’Antoni said. ... The Knicks plan to recall Jerome Jordan from the Development League on Saturday after their four-game trip. Jordan was sent to the Knicks’ affiliate in Erie, Pa., on Friday. ...The Knicks’ last victory here was on Nov. 24, 2006, behind 22 points from Steve Francis and 21 points and 10 rebounds from Eddy Curry. The next summer, Boston acquired Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen. “They’ve been the best, and they’re smart,” D’Antoni said, adding, “We’ve been young and dumb and we haven’t done it.”

New York Knicks
Boston Celtics
Basketball


Prisoners' Ruse Is Suspected at Guantánamo

Abstract: WASHINGTON, June 11 — Three detainees at the United States military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, tried to conceal themselves in their cells — behind laundry and through other means — to prevent guards from seeing them commit suicide, a senior military official said Sunday. One of the prisoners hanged himself behind laundry drying from the ceiling of the cell, and had arranged his bed to make it look as if he was still sleeping, said the official, Lt. Cmdr. Robert T. Durand of the Navy. The other two detainees who committed suicide also took steps to prevent guards from seeing that they had put nooses around their necks, he added. The deception by the prisoners raises questions about how long it took military guards to discover the bodies. Regulations at Guantánamo call for guards to check on each inmate every two minutes. Military officials said one focus of an investigation into the suicides would be the need for procedural changes, like barring prisoners from doing laundry in their cells. Gen. Bantz J. Craddock of the Army, who oversees Guantánamo as commander of the United States Southern Command, told reporters on Sunday that the investigation into the deaths "kind of boils down to two things: Are the procedures that you have in place adequate, and then were the procedures followed to the standards?" The Pentagon identified the three detainees as two Saudis, Mani bin Shaman bin Turki al-Habardi, 30, and Yasser Talal Abdulah Yahya al-Zahrani, 22, and a Yemeni, Ali Abdullah Ahmed, 33. Reaction around the world seemed muted, though the Liberal Democratic leader in Britain, Sir Menzies Campbell, said he was thinking about touring Guantánamo and repeated his criticism of the policy of detaining suspects without sending them to trial. Democrats in the United States said little, apparently concerned about appearing to be sympathizing with detainees who could turn out to have significant terrorist connections. White House officials described the three men as committed terrorists, and military officials said that none had been among the handful of prisoners whose cases had been brought before military commissions for prosecution. The Pentagon released a statement describing Mr. Ahmed, the Yemeni, as a "mid to high-level Al Qaeda operative" who was close to Abu al-Zubaydah, a senior figure for Al Qaeda who has since been captured. The statement also said that Mr. Habardi was a member of a terrorist group that recruits for Al Qaeda, and had been recommended for transfer to another country, presumably Saudi Arabia. The Pentagon said that Mr. Zahrani had been "a frontline fighter for the Taliban" and had participated in the prison uprising in 2001 at Mazar-i-Sharif in Afghanistan that resulted in the death of Johnny Micheal Spann, a C.I.A. operative. The suicides renew the question of what the Bush administration will do with the detention center at Guantánamo, which President Bush has told interviewers recently that he would like to close at some point in the future. The timing appears postponed, however. "You can't have a final disposition about Guantánamo until the Supreme Court has ruled on the Hamdan case," said Tony Snow, the White House spokesman, referring to a pending decision on whether detainees at Guantánamo may be tried as war criminals before military commissions and whether they may challenge their detentions in federal courts. Military officials said they had translated notes left by the prisoners, but the officials refused to describe the contents of the messages. All three men were in the same cellblock in 6-by-8-foot cells that were not adjoining but had wire-mesh walls, which might have enabled them to communicate, officials said. Speaking by telephone from the Saudi holy city of Medina, Talal Abdallah al-Zahrani, 50, the father of Mr. Zahrani, said that when he heard from his son in a recent letter, he sounded in good spirits and appeared to be more optimistic than before about being released soon. "Nothing suggested that he would commit suicide, nothing," Mr. Zahrani said. He said that the account of his son's suicide was "100 percent concocted." His son was 17 in 2001 when he was apprehended in Afghanistan, where he worked with Islamic charities, he said. He had memorized the Koran since his imprisonment and said he had been behaving, Mr. Zahrani added. Mr. Zahrani said hundreds of people attended a wake for his son on Sunday night after he had received word of his death from Saudi authorities. His comments about the turnout of mourners underscored the possibility that the return of the bodies to Saudi Arabia and Yemen — should the government allow it — could turn into anti-American events. Jennifer Daskal, advocacy director for Human Rights Watch, said Sunday that the three suicides "are an indication of the incredible despair that the prisoners are experiencing" after many of them have been "completely cut off from the world." Her comments were echoed by other critics as well. General Craddock speculated that the suicides may have been timed to affect the Supreme Court decision on the Hamdan case. "This may be an attempt to influence the judicial proceedings in that perspective," he told reporters, according to a transcript of his comments during a brief visit to Guantánamo on Sunday. The investigation into how the three prisoners were able to hang themselves and whether changes in procedures are necessary will be conducted by the commander of the prison, Rear Adm. Harry B. Harris. "There will be an after-action report that will look at whether there was failure of S.O.P.'s or adequate S.O.P.'s that were not followed," said Lieutenant Commander Durand, using the military acronym for standard operating procedures. The inquiry will probably look at whether procedures requiring guards to observe prisoners at least every two minutes were followed the night of the suicides. Until now, prison officials have voiced confidence that the safeguards were adequate, pointing to the fact that despite dozens of attempted suicides in the last four years, none had been successful. Guards will now collect bed linens every morning to prevent prisoners from secretly making nooses, Lieutenant Commander Durand said. In addition to possibly revoking permission for detainees to do their own laundry, prison officials are looking at withholding toiletries and other items that might be used in suicide attempts, he added. "We've got to determine and find the balance between the comfort items that we would like to provide and the point at which comfort items in the possession of a few determined detainees will be turned into something that could contribute to taking their lives," General Craddock said. There have been recent signs of growing unrest among the prisoners, including an episode in May in which at least two prisoners attempted suicide and another was said to have faked a suicide to lure guards into an ambush. Several Guantánamo officers said some prisoners had spread the idea of suicide, claiming to have had visions that the prison would not be closed until after three prisoners had died, a possible explanation for the decision by the three men to kill themselves at the same time. James Yee, a former Islamic chaplain at Guantánamo, said the suicides signaled "an important failure there." Mr. Yee, who served at Guantánamo when the first of 41 previous suicide attempts occurred said, "The military guards on the block are supposed to check each detainee visually every two minutes or so." The suicide attempt that came closest to being successful, involving a Saudi schoolteacher who was arrested in Pakistan, where he had attended a militant training camp, was foiled by those procedures, he said. "At least one guard would have to walk up and down the corridor," he said. "That saved the Saudi detainee. who was in a coma for months." Although the Saudi detainee was not expected to survive, he recovered and has since been sent home. Mr. Yee, a West Point graduate, was arrested on suspicion of espionage but the charges were dropped. He left the Army after being found guilty of minor infractions and amid overwhelming evidence that the suspicions of espionage were groundless. Joshua Colangelo-Bryan, a lawyer representing Jumah Dossari, a Guantánamo inmate who has attempted suicide numerous times, said he had been told that guards were expected to keep close watch on prisoners, observing them every 30 seconds. But he said the procedures were difficult to follow in practice. While visiting his client last November, he said he found Mr. Dossari in a bathroom trying to hang himself and slit his wrists. Even though a video camera had been installed in the bathroom, Mr. Colangelo-Bryan said guards did not respond until he called them. Though the Bush administration has been under pressure — from the United Nations, European countries and the International Committee of the Red Cross — about the Guantánamo detention center, White House officials did not indicate that they viewed the suicides as a major political problem. The State Department alerted American embassies in Europe and the Middle East, and asked them to contact government officials. But White House officials said Mr. Bush did not make calls to world leaders. "We haven't heard much response," one senior official said. The United Nations was also notified of the suicides, the White House said. The U.N.'s Human Rights Commission declined to visit the detention center last year after the Bush administration refused to allow commission members to interview or talk with detainees.

Guantanamo Bay Naval Base (Cuba)
Suicides and Suicide Attempts
Defense Department
United States Armament and Defense


NBC Looks Beyond TV for a Prime-Time Revival

Abstract: NBC, eager to improve its ratings and advertising sales, is counting on digital media as much as television for a comeback in the 2006-7 season. In a two-hour presentation yesterday to advertisers and agencies at Radio City Music Hall, executives at NBC, which is finishing fourth again in ratings for the 2005-6 season, emphasized the breadth and depth of their digital offerings as they talked up the prospects of their new dramas and sitcoms. The NBC presentation kicked off what is called the upfront week, when the big broadcasters offer previews of their prime-time lineups ahead of the fall season. "No longer is content just for the television screen," said Jeff Zucker, chief executive at the NBC Universal Television Group, part of the NBC Universal unit of General Electric. "We have put a ton of thought and a ton of effort into the digital world," Mr. Zucker told a theater filled with marketers and advertising agency employees and executives. "We want to be your digital partner." Analysts are calling this upfront week a watershed because the broadcast networks are significantly expanding their presence in the new media, whether through Webisodes, video downloads, podcasts or mini- series created for cellphones. Commercial time is being sold for much of the additional content, which Mr. Zucker acknowledged by telling the agencies and advertisers, "We want to make it easy for you to solve your needs using our content." So lengthy was the list of new-media opportunities described — "we have more than 100 ideas, ready to go," Mr. Zucker said — that some members of the audience grew restive, wondering when Kevin Reilly, president at NBC Entertainment, would return to discuss the prime-time schedule. These are some of the initiatives outlined by Mr. Zucker, all intended to complement the new and returning series on the schedule: ¶A broadband comedy channel ( dotcomedy.com ), offering computer users archives of shows like "Leave It to Beaver" and a chance to create their own content to podcasts. The Web site will also help promote sitcoms like "My Name Is Earl" and "The Office" as well as "Saturday Night Live" and NBC's late-night lineup. ¶A broadband preview channel ( nbcfirstlook.com ), where episodes of new series will make their debuts before they arrive on NBC. ¶Thirty Webisodes of the returning sitcom "The Office" that will appear beginning in the summer on the NBC Web site ( nbc.com ). ¶An online contest, also on nbc.com, for viewers of the returning drama "Law & Order: Criminal Intent," who can study clues about the murder in each episode before the episode appears on TV. The contest prize will be "determined by whoever would like to sponsor it," Mr. Zucker said, drawing laughter. ¶An animated digital comic book based on characters and plot lines from "Heroes," a drama series being scheduled for 9 p.m. Mondays. "Heroes," featuring young actors like Ali Larter and Milo Ventimiglia, is one of six dramas that NBC will add to its prime-time lineup for 2006-7. The others are "The Black Donnellys," "Friday Night Lights," "Kidnapped," "Raines" and "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip." The dramas will be "the cornerstones of the new fall schedule," Mr. Reilly said. For two decades, NBC was known for its sitcoms like "Cheers," "Frasier" and "Friends." But the recent precipitous decline in ratings and ad sales is leading the network to try Plan B, the dramatic genre. NBC tried a smaller-scale version of the strategy for 2005-6, but those dramas failed to catch on. The new dramas "are much better than what they've had," said Shari Anne Brill, a vice president and programming director at Carat USA in New York, a media agency that is part of the Carat unit of the Aegis Group. She singled out "Friday Night Lights," based on the book and movie of the same name, with Kyle Chandler ("Homefront," "Early Edition") as a high school football coach in a Texas town. NBC is adding four sitcoms: "Andy Barker, P.I.," "The Singles Table," "30 Rock" and "20 Good Years." The similarity in subject matter between "Studio 60" and "30 Rock" — both are about a TV series strongly evocative of NBC's own "Saturday Night Live" — made for some good-natured ribbing. "Every year, an idea comes along that is so unique, NBC has only two of them," said Alec Baldwin, a cast member of "30 Rock." Here is a look at some of the other highlights, lowlights and sidelights of the opening day of the upfront week. A TIVO VOTE For the first time during an upfront week, a large agency company has made a deal with TiVo, the digital video recorder company. Interpublic Media, a division of the Interpublic Group of Companies, announced an agreement to buy advertising on behalf of clients of its media agencies like Initiative and Universal McCann. The agreement is "a seven-figure deal," said Mark Rosenthal, chairman of the Interpublic Media in New York, declining to be more specific. It offers "an opportunity for all our agencies' clients, and several have signed on already," he added, again declining to provide details. The deal, which includes TiVo features like interactive commercials, is indicative of the increasing interest among advertisers in expanding beyond traditional media like broadcast television to digital venues like D.V.R.'s, Web sites, iPods and cellphones. The deal with TiVo, Mr. Rosenthal said, is the first of several to come between Interpublic Media and "other providers of new marketing solutions." GEE WHIZ? NO, G4 Each year during the upfront week, which is devoted to elaborate presentations by the broadcast networks, some cable networks seek to take advantage of the attention that Madison Avenue gives to television. Yesterday, it was G4, a cable network owned by the cable giant Comcast, which sought to capture the eyes of media executives with an elaborate stunt. The stunt involved a flatbed truck that drove around Manhattan, outside the offices of media agencies like OMD, part of the Omnicom Group. Four young men were duct-taped to the truck, meant to demonstrate the "stickiness" of G4's programming for the elusive younger-male viewer. "Two of them had video iPods," said Neal Tiles, president at G4, who is based in Santa Monica, Calif., to make the point that "six of our shows are in the top 25 in iTunes." BYE-BYE, UPFRONT? Even as the upfront week for the 2006-7 broadcast season got under way, a group of major advertisers began exploring an alternative to the upfront. The advertisers, all members of the Association of National Advertisers, an industry trade organization, are developing a pilot project for an electronic marketplace that would handle the buying and selling of commercial time. The advertisers exploring the auction model include giants like Hewlett-Packard, the Masterfoods division of Mars, Microsoft, the Lexus division of Toyota Motor Sales USA and Wal-Mart Stores. Robert D. Liodice, president and chief executive of the advertiser association, said it would work with the member group to consider developing a system to be called the Online Media Exchange. "We need to see if there's consensus among advertisers that implementing a digital exchange will indeed benefit the industry as a whole," Mr. Liodice said. The trade publication Advertising Age, which reported the formation of the member group last week, said that major marketers like Kellogg and Procter & Gamble opposed the idea. The leader of the exploration into an upfront alternative is Julie Roehm, senior vice president for marketing communications at Wal-Mart, who has long advocated a stock exchange model for buying and selling commercial time. Ms. Roehm is asking 10 members of the advertiser association to contribute $50 million to study an auction-type online trading system.

Television
Computers and the Internet
Advertising and Marketing
National Broadcasting Co


After Vikings’ Comeback Succeeds, Childress’s Humor Fails

Abstract: EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. — Cracking a joke that requires context can be tricky, especially for a coach whose job is a topic of national debate. Brad Childress remained the Minnesota Vikings ’ coach on Monday, which was uncertain Sunday until the Vikings scored two touchdowns in the final five minutes of regulation and beat Arizona in overtime, 27-24. After the game, Childress tried to make light of his tenuous situation by referring to a midweek wisecrack from Brett Favre . Asked if Childress was a compassionate coach, Favre joked: “Like, give us a hug or something like that? I sure could use one, too. He hasn’t given me one.” With that in mind, Childress said Sunday that he did not require assurance from the owner Zygi Wilf about his future. “I’m not going to stand here like Brett Favre and tell you I need a hug,” he said. “I’m all right.” Unfortunately for Childress, the line bombed with the NBC analysts Rodney Harrison and Tony Dungy. “What is he talking about? He needs to grow up,” said Harrison, thinking that Childress was insulting Favre. Dungy, the former coach of Tampa Bay and Indianapolis, questioned the timing after a week in which Childress waived Randy Moss and argued Friday at practice with wideout Percy Harvin. Childress and Harvin said they disagreed about Harvin’s needing a magnetic resonance imaging test on his sprained left ankle. Harvin had the test, which showed no other damage. On Sunday, he caught nine passes for 126 yards, both career highs. “They have had a lot of drama with the whole Moss situation, Percy Harvin situation,” Dungy said. “Don’t make a joke, go hug the quarterback. You just won a game.” Childress said he did not mean to disrespect Favre, who threw for a career-best 446 yards Sunday while playing with small fractures in his left ankle and heel. “You guys who were here, you understand the context it was in,” Childress said Monday. “The guy just played a tremendous game. To throw for that many yards and hang in there and lead the team, there would be no reason to do that at all.” The victory left the Vikings (3-5) with some hope of turning around a disappointing season heading into Sunday’s game in Chicago. After the crowd of 64,120 at the Metrodome booed him during warm-ups and chanted, “Fire Childress!” during the game, Childress said: “I think they came expecting to see an execution. And it ended up a pretty good football game at the end.” The result ended a tumultuous eight-day stretch that began with a 28-18 loss at New England, when Moss reportedly told Wilf to fire Childress before conducting a bizarre news conference in which he asked his own questions and praised the Patriots and their coach, Bill Belichick . That set in motion the events that jeopardized Childress’s job — waiving Moss without Wilf’s approval, misleading reporters about it so that players were left to comment before he did, and failing to explain the decision at his next scheduled news conference. Wilf spent Thursday and Friday talking to players and his staff about Childress while reportedly deciding whether to retain him. Childress, a former offensive coordinator for the Philadelphia Eagles , has struggled for credibility and respect in his locker room since replacing Mike Tice in January 2006. Vikings fans called for his ouster after a 1-3 start in 2008. The Vikings finished 10-6 and won the N.F.C. North. But Childress never fully regained the fans’ support, in part for questionable game-management decisions . Last August, Childress’s credibility suffered when Ryan Longwell, Jared Allen and guard Steve Hutchinson flew to Hattiesburg, Miss. , to talk Favre into returning. Childress told the offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell and the special-teams coordinator Brian Murphy not to disclose the players’ whereabouts , even though word about the trip had leaked. Childress apologized for asking them to lie. Linebacker Chad Greenway said Monday he was tired of Childress speculation. “Obviously you guys want that, because you continue to prod me,” he told reporters. “That’s not what it’s about. It’s about staying strong and trying to get to the playoffs. Hopefully, that’s all in the past and we can move forward now.”

Childress Brad
Football
Coaches and Managers
Minnesota Vikings
Favre Brett


Russian Families Seek Information on Plane Crash in Egypt

Abstract: MOSCOW — Relatives of people killed in a Russian airplane blown up over Egypt in October have filed a legal complaint to compel investigators to reveal their lines of inquiry into the cause of the crash. The complaint, filed in a Russian court, is the first sign of anger over an investigation that critics say has been influenced by politics. The Kremlin has played down links between the crash and Russia’s air war in Syria, even though an affiliate of the Islamic State group claimed responsibility for downing the plane in retaliation for Russia’s involvement. The lawyer for the relatives of the victims, Igor Trunov, said that the initial inquiry focused on mechanical problems and that the families had not been informed about whether the investigators had formally opened a terrorism case. The families could be entitled to additional insurance payments from a state insurer if investigators formally acknowledge that terrorism was the cause of the crash.

Russia
Plane Crash
Terrorism
ISIS,ISIL,Islamic State


Branson Company to Enter Satellite-Launching Business

Abstract: FARNBOROUGH, England — Virgin Galactic, the space venture founded by Richard Branson , the British billionaire, said Wednesday that it planned to develop a rocket that would carry small satellites into orbit at a fraction of the current cost. The news came on the third day of the Farnborough International Airshow , where Airbus and Boeing, the world’s two largest commercial jet makers, announced nearly $7 billion in aircraft orders. “I believe this new vehicle will create a long overdue shake-up of the whole satellite industry, disrupting current norms and limitations,” Mr. Branson said at a ceremony that also served to present formally a full-size model of SpaceShipTwo, a bullet-shaped craft that Virgin Galactic expects will carry its first tourists into space as early as next year for $200,000 each. The chief executive of Virgin Galactic , George T. Whitesides, said four customers had already put down deposits to book satellite launchings on the new vehicle, called LauncherOne, which Virgin Galactic said could begin by 2016. LauncherOne is a two-stage rocket capable of carrying payloads of up to 500 pounds into orbit for less than $10 million a launch. Like SpaceShipTwo, LauncherOne will be carried to an altitude of about 50,000 feet by the company’s twin-fuselaged WhiteKnightTwo. LauncherOne will then fire its engines and lift the satellite into its final orbit. The Virgin Galactic venture is part of an accelerating shift of the business of spaceflight — once the near-exclusive domain of government space agencies — to private enterprise. In May, Space Exploration Technologies of California became the first private company to send a cargo rocket to the International Space Station. Mr. Branson’s announcement came amid a break in the clouds and rain that have plagued much of the Farnborough show this year, a metaphor for the general gloom across the aerospace industry. The environment of economic uncertainty, particularly in Europe and North America, has kept most airlines from signing significant aircraft orders. The world’s two top plane makers added a handful of deals to their order books on Wednesday. Airbus said it had received a new order from CIT Aerospace, an American leasing company, for five more of its twin-aisle A330 aircraft, a deal worth $1.1 billion at list prices. The purchase follows a previously undisclosed order for five of the planes. China Aircraft Leasing, of Hong Kong, agreed to buy 36 single-aisle A320 jets from the European company in an order worth $3.3 billion at list prices. Boeing won a commitment from another leasing company, Avolon of Ireland, to buy as many as 30 single-aisle 737s valued at about $2.3 billion at list prices. Of those planes, at least 15 will be equipped with the next generation of more fuel-efficient engines.

Branson Richard
International Space Station
Private Spaceflight
Satellites
Virgin Galactic