Two Public Schools in New York Are Spared the Tear-Down of Development

Abstract: After being considered as sites for new high-rise apartment buildings, two public schools near Lincoln Center have been saved from the wrecker’s ball, city education officials said on Friday. Erin Hughes, a spokeswoman for the city’s Education Department, said Public Schools 191 and 199 would not be torn down and offered to developers but that the city would go ahead with plans to develop a third site on East 96th Street, where the School of Cooperative Technical Education, a vocational high school, is now located. “We have chosen to develop one site at this time,” she said in an e-mail, giving no elaboration. The decision was reported online on Friday by The West Side Rag . Government-financed agencies like those running libraries and schools are trying to raise money by capitalizing on the land value of aging institutions in highly desirable neighborhoods. In almost every case, the school or library is torn down, and a high rise, housing a new school or library, is built by a private developer. Plans to replace two Brooklyn libraries, one in Brooklyn Heights and one near the Barclays Center, are still on track. But the concept has been met by angry resistance by parents of children attending the schools and users of the libraries. They are concerned about losing beloved buildings and services during the years of construction. Parents on the Upper West Side staged rallies and collected petition signatures. One of the schools saved, P.S. 199 on West 70th Street, was designed by the modernist architect Edward Durell Stone . Laurie Frey, a member of the Community Education Council in District 3, said that as a liaison to P.S. 191 on West 61st Street, she was relieved because under the plan that had been considered, half a playground would have been destroyed and children would have been attending classes on two floors below ground level in the new building. “Asking 6-, 7-, 8- and 9-year-old children to walk past the demolition of their schools and then see a high rise go up is not a good way to engage with the core curriculum,” she added. City Councilwoman Gale Brewer, who represents the West Side, expressed concern that plans remain to tear down the school on East 96th Street, which she said was a well-run school for construction, carpentry and other trades. Still, she said, “I’m delighted that 199 and 191 are spared because it made no sense to tear down two excellent schools and compromise light and air for the neighborhood. We have tall buildings going up throughout that area.”

K-12 Education
Historic preservation
Buildings
Upper West Side Manhattan
Brooklyn
Real Estate
Housing
Commercial Real Estate
NYC


Soldier Sentenced to Life Without Parole for Killing 16 Afghans

Abstract: JOINT BASE LEWIS-McCHORD, Wash. — Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, who pleaded guilty to slaughtering 16 Afghan civilians inside their homes, will spend the rest of his life in prison, a military jury decided on Friday. The decision came after three days of wrenching testimony that painted a moment-by-moment, bullet-by-bullet account of one of the worst atrocities of the United States’ long war in Afghanistan. The six-member military jury considering Sergeant Bales’s fate had two options: sentence him to life in prison with no possibility of parole, or allow him a chance at freedom after about 20 years behind bars. His guilty plea in June removed the death penalty from the table. In pressing for mercy, the defense team said Sergeant Bales had been a good soldier, a loving father and a stand-up friend before snapping after four combat deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. But prosecutors said he was a man frustrated with his career and family, easy to anger, whose rage erupted at the end of his M-4 rifle. “He liked murder,” a prosecutor, Lt. Col. Jay Morse, said in closing arguments on Friday. “He liked the power it gave him.” Image A military jury decided that Staff Sgt. Robert Bales will spend the rest of his life in prison, as prosecutors described him as a “methodical killer,” on Friday. Credit Peter Millett/Reuters In the end, the jury sided with that argument. It deliberated for about 90 minutes before returning to a courtroom packed with soldiers, relatives of Sergeant Bales, and nine Afghan men and boys who had testified earlier in the week about the harm Sergeant Bales had inflicted on them and their families. As the sentence was read, an interpreter gave a thumbs-up sign to the Afghans. On the other side of the courtroom, Sergeant Bales’s mother wept, holding her face in her hands. Sergeant Bales, 40, showed no reaction. He responded with polite “yes, sirs” to the judge’s questions about his appellate rights, before being led away. He will be dishonorably discharged. Outside the court, the Afghan villagers told reporters that the sentence did little to ease their anger and loss. Many wanted Sergeant Bales to be executed, and said his crimes represented the barest fraction of the pain and death that Afghans have endured over the last decade. The men tugged at the maroon pants of a boy named Sadiqullah, revealing a leg scarred and disfigured by bullet wounds. “We came all the way to the U.S. to get justice,” said Haji Mohammed Wazir, who lost 11 members of his family in the massacre. “We didn’t get that.” The killings took place in the Taliban stronghold of Kandahar Province, in two villages that were little more than an assortment of mud-walled homes, with no electricity or running water, where residents cultivated wheat and other grains. On March 11, 2012, after a night of drinking and watching movies with other soldiers, Sergeant Bales slipped away from his combat outpost and set off toward the villages. Image Staff Sgt. Robert Bales Credit Spc. Ryan Hallock/DVIDS, via Associated Press What happened next was brought into vivid detail by the testimony of the nine Afghan men and boys. Wearing traditional Afghan shalwar kameez and turbans as they faced a wall of crew cuts and crisp blue military dress uniforms, the Afghans spoke in Pashto of this unknown American who burst into their lives like a camouflaged grim reaper. They recalled how he hit and kicked members of their family, gunned down defenseless old men, mothers and children, and set their bodies on fire. Several American service members also testified to the massacre’s outward ripples, describing how a wounded 7-year-old girl named Zardana had to be taught to walk and use the bathroom again, how Afghans seethed with outrage in the Panjwai district, and how the American military had to suspend operations in the area after the killings. On Friday, prosecutors described Sergeant Bales as a “methodical killer,” uncaring and unrepentant. In a closing argument illuminated by graphic videos and photos of the dead and wounded, Colonel Morse said Sergeant Bales had shown no mercy to the Afghan families, and deserved none from his military peers. “Sergeant Bales not only had no remorse, but knew everything he was doing,” Colonel Morse said. “He decides to take out his aggression on the weak and the defenseless.” Even as Emma Scanlan, a lawyer for Sergeant Bales, asked jurors to grant him and his family “a sliver of light” with the possibility of parole, she did not provide an explanation for the murders. For months, his defense had suggested that post-traumatic stress or a brain injury had played a part, but it did not present any medical experts during the sentencing hearing. Even Sergeant Bales, speaking to jurors on Thursday, balked when trying to explain his actions. All anyone could do was guess. In a letter read to jurors on Friday, a former supervisor of Sergeant Bales said that the heavy toll of combat tours, growing stress and personal problems seemed to reach a critical mass that night in Kandahar. “I believe he was finally overwhelmed by witnessing the deaths and injuries of the soldiers he loved so much,” the officer wrote. “The darkness that had been tugging at him for the last 10 years swallowed him whole.”

Robert Bales
Afghanistan War
Murders
Decisions and Verdicts
Criminal Sentence
Kandahar


A Double Dose of Water Delights at Barretto Point Park

Abstract: The Miser has gone off on vacation; he didn’t say where, but we imagine that he is perhaps surfing the waves somewhere sandy. Maybe we just have water on the mind — it sure seems to call in the summertime. Or, as E. E. Cummings put it, more poetically : “For whatever we lose (like a you or a me)/it’s always ourselves we find in the sea.” But for those of us stuck in the sweltering city this weekend, we do have our own places to get in the water, of course, starting with the city’s many free outdoor pools . One of the neatest, where you can be both on the water and in the water, is the floating pool in a converted barge at Barretto Point Park in the Bronx. There’s also plenty more to do there, whether it’s fishing from the pier, canoeing, kayaking or sunbathing with a view of the East River waterfront. (Daily, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., and 4 to 7 p.m., Tiffany Street and Viele Avenue, Hunts Point; 718-430-4601.) Just being near the water while staying dry has an appeal, too, and nature lovers can stroll along the Hudson on a walking tour on Sunday morning that starts at the Christopher Street Fountain and wanders for almost two miles in Hudson River Park . A pair of guides will share their knowledge about plants, birds and butterflies. The event, “Hudson River Park Wild!,” takes place every Sunday through the end of September. (And no dogs on this walk, please; barking scares away the smaller critters we’re out there to see.) (Sundays through Sept. 29, meeting at 9 a.m. at the Christopher Street Fountain, Christopher Street and West Street, north of Pier 40, West Village, hudsonriverpark.org; free.) Prefer something tougher than walking? How about a Zumba class at the West Harlem Piers? There you can join this combo dance-and-exercise craze and sweat it out on the shore of the Hudson. The class is one of many in the Shape Up NYC program, run by the Parks Department, offering a slew of classes in all five boroughs that teach aerobics, African dance, yoga and more — even self-defense. (Saturdays through Sept. 28, at 9 a.m., West Harlem Piers Park, West 125th Street and Marginal Street, 212-408-0219, riversideparknyc.org; free.) ACROSS THE POND We Long Island City residents are well aware that Gantry Plaza State Park is a great summer hangout outside of Manhattan. It juts into the East River, and there are a decent breeze and a gorgeous view of Midtown from this ever-developing neighborhood in Queens. On Saturday night, the Hip to Hip Theater Company will offer a free production of Shakespeare’s “Love’s Labour’s Lost” on the park’s northern lawn at 7:30 p.m. And on Tuesday, the continuing free summer series Live at the Gantries will feature the Dahdoo Middle Eastern Ensemble on the plaza at 7 p.m. (Gantry Plaza State Park, 49th Avenue and Center Boulevard; nysparks.com/parks/149.)


New York City Public Housing Gets $230 Million for Repairs

Abstract: The city’s largest landlord has secured desperately needed financing that could help steer it out of the red. Under a labyrinthine deal that federal and state lawmakers and city officials raced to complete in less than six months, the landlord, the New York City Housing Authority , will receive about $230 million for rehabilitating 21 developments that have received no subsidies for the past seven years. The money will come from federal stimulus money and public and private sources, and another $75 million from the federal government for the buildings’ annual operating costs. The 21 developments were built by the city or state and, unlike the city’s 313 other public housing complexes, received no federal financing. In 1998, the state cut off its share of financing for the developments, and in 2003, the city followed suit. To compensate, the public housing authority diverted some money from its federally supported buildings to cover operating and capital costs at the 21 unaided sites, about $1 billion since 1998. This accounted for two-thirds of the agency’s current deficit of about $150 million, officials said. Part of the federal financing was obtained though an obscure provision in Congress’s economic stimulus package. It enabled the agency to bring the 21 developments onto its federally financed roster, or “federalize” them, though a “mixed finance modernization plan.” The upshot is that the complexes will be sold to a limited partnership of the housing authority and Citigroup’s community development arm. The authority will continue to manage the developments and own the land they sit on, and part of the money they receive will come through the New York City Housing Development Corporation’s sale of bonds. The housing authority said the mixed public and private partnership was the only way to obtain the financing. The ownership transfer, which was closing this past weekend, would not affect the public housing status of the complexes, officials said, or make them vulnerable to privatization. “People were worried at first that existing residents would be displaced, or that rents would be jacked up to some form of market rate housing,” said John B. Rhea , chairman of the authority. “That won’t happen. Per the partnership agreement, it ensures they remain low-income housing in the future.” The bank will not receive any profits from rents, but through the partnership can earn tax benefits and credits under the Community Reinvestment Act, which requires lenders to support low-income neighborhoods. Rehabilitation at the 21 developments would include repairing roofs, brickwork and elevators, creating jobs for public housing tenants, he said. Lawmakers and politicians heralded the plan, some more cautiously than others. Mr. Rhea described its realization as “a home run.” Shaun Donovan, secretary of the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development , which oversees and finances the authority, said it was “the most significant effort to preserve public housing in New York City history.” It required close collaboration between city agencies, state lawmakers, who passed legislation enabling the authority to sell the developments to the new partnership, and the work of United States Senator Charles E. Schumer and Congresswoman Nydia M. Velázquez . Senator Schumer, who led the effort to get money for the 21 complexes’ operating costs into the federal budget , said the plan “pulled these abandoned Nycha complexes back from the brink.” But City Councilwoman Rosie Mendez, chairwoman of the Council’s Subcommittee on Public Housing, voiced concerns that a loophole might exist to pave the way for deregulation or privatization of the developments at some future date. The new ownership marks the first time in the authority’s history that some of its public housing buildings will be partly owned by a private bank. “Talk to me in 30 years,” she said. If the 21 developments were still public housing, she said, “I’ll say I’m glad I was proven wrong.”

Public housing
NYC
Housing Authority NYC
HUD
John B Rhea
Nydia M Velazquez
Shaun Donovan


After the Death of Their Daughter, a Verdict Looms

Abstract: DOHA, Qatar — Matthew and Grace Huang spend five hours a day on Skype home-schooling their two adopted sons, now living with Mrs. Huang’s mother back home in the United States. The Huangs are also using the Internet to connect with an American counselor, who is helping them attempt to repair their psyches after nearly a year of separate incarcerations in Qatar’s penal system. Mostly they just wait in a rented apartment here, the capital of Qatar, a tiny, affluent Persian Gulf emirate with a mix of multiculturalism and Muslim orthodoxy, for the verdict, scheduled for Thursday, in a murder trial in which they are accused in the death of their adopted daughter by depriving her of food and water for four days. The Huangs have asserted that they are innocent, victims of a gross miscarriage of justice. The daughter, Gloria, who was 8, had an eating disorder, a legacy of her impoverished childhood in Ghana, in which she would sometimes fast, binge-eat or steal food. Friends said she and the boys, who were also adopted from Africa, had seemed healthy and happy. The precise cause of the child’s death has never been established. But the case has revealed what the Huangs and their lawyers and supporters have called deeply ingrained prejudices here about adoption and multiracial families, based on the presumption that the girl must have been abused. “This whole country is very confusing to me,” said Mr. Huang, 37, an engineer from Los Angeles who had been helping build Doha’s water and sewer systems, as he sat with his wife for an interview on Sunday, the first since their daughter’s death. “I feel that a lot of our situation has been caused by ethnic misunderstanding, by religious misunderstanding.” Mrs. Huang, 36, described it as a Kafkaesque journey in which neither of them could fully understand what was happening. “The hardest part was being suddenly separated from my family, not seeing the kids, just at the time when I needed them the most,” she said. The Huang case began in January of last year with their arrest after the couple rushed Gloria, unconscious, to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead. Their two boys, now 8 and 12, were temporarily placed in an orphanage. The news quickly spread among their circle of friends, mostly Christians like the Huangs, members of a small expatriate congregation, the Grace Fellowship Church. Angela Verrips, a neighbor who testified on their behalf, said nobody could believe it. “This was a huge shock,” she said. “Our friends in prison — bizarre.” The case has attracted widespread attention among Qatar’s broader expatriate population and is regarded by some as a test of the country’s commitment to open-mindedness and the judiciary’s ability to consider all the facts. It has also been a constant issue for the embassy of the United States government, which considers Qatar an important ally. Qatar is home to America’s largest military air base in the Middle East. Dozens of American corporations and organizations have established themselves in Doha, where one of the American-style shopping malls features a skating rink, and wealthy Qatari women covered in black burqas sip Starbucks lattes while surfing the web on their smartphones. Prosecutors initially based part of their case on the suggestion that the Huangs were child traffickers, questioning in court how people of Asian descent could possibly want African children as their own. The judge in the case, Abdullah al-Emady, who has a reputation for independence and fairness, appeared to sense the possibility that a grievous oversight was committed, eventually giving custody of the two other children to Mrs. Huang’s mother, who lives in Washington State. The judge also released the defendants on their own recognizance in November. Still, there is no assurance that they will be acquitted, and under Qatari law they could receive the death penalty if convicted, although long prison sentences would be more likely. Image Grace and Matthew Huang, whose daughter died in January 2013, during an interview Sunday. A verdict in their murder trial is scheduled for Thursday. Credit Tara Todras-Whitehill for The New York Times They were not permitted to leave the country pending the verdict in the trial, which has proceeded extremely slowly. In his final argument, on Feb. 5, the lead prosecutor, Ashoor Farah, cited unidentified witnesses who asserted that the Huangs had locked Gloria in her room, something the defense has disputed. He also invoked an Islamic prohibition on adoption, according to an English translation of his remarks: “Allah has banned it as it leads to assembling of foreigners with each other, which leads to extremely bad outcomes.” A serious allegation was made last month by the defense team, which includes the California Innocence Project , a San Diego-based group that helps defendants it considers wrongly accused, and the David House Agency , a group in Los Angeles that assists Americans ensnared in legal crises abroad. They said prosecutors had presented a fabricated pathology report, and asked Qatar’s attorney general to investigate. Telephone and email requests for comment from the attorney general’s office were not returned. In their interview, the Huangs said they had initially been seduced by what they called Qatar’s veneer of multiculturalism when they agreed to come here a few years ago. “People were curious, but in a friendly way,” Mrs. Huang said. “I could see them trying to figure us out.” They spoke nervously about their time in prison, where Mrs. Huang found herself in the midst of about 50 other women, suspected in a range of nonviolent crimes, almost all poorly educated Asian expatriates with limited English skills. They had found work here as maids or in other service jobs. One, she said, had been raped and was then accused of extramarital sex. They were all curious about Mrs. Huang’s family, she said. “Mostly I think we were very confusing to people because we looked Chinese and yet we are American,” she said. “It took a lot of explaining.” The only time she saw her husband while they were incarcerated, she said, was in the court hearings that constituted most of their trial. They could not sit together, and she was required to wear a head cover and robe. But she was permitted to keep a Bible in prison. Mr. Huang said he was confined with up to 150 prisoners, charged with crimes ranging from adultery and drunkenness to assault and murder. His asthma was aggravated by all the cigarette smoke, he said, and fights would often break out over who could use the remote control for the single television set. He said he was often afraid but was also struck by the number of nationalities, mostly Asians and Africans among the prison population. “I actually met people from 57 countries inside,” he said. “I kept a list, just because it was so global.” The Huangs appeared fraught during the interview, not holding hands or exhibiting other signs of affection. They said they rarely go outside and had to sell their Los Angeles home to pay their legal bills and other expenses. Mrs. Huang called Skype “a wonderful invention” that had enabled them to maintain a semblance of relations with their sons. “We Skype pretty much any time that they are awake and we’re awake,” she said. Daniel Chin, a brother of Mrs. Huang who was flying from Los Angeles to Doha as the verdict approached, said in a telephone interview that the family was hopeful for an acquittal. “What’s the alternative?” he said. “The only alternative is to be in despair. All of us have crept up to the cliff and looked over.”

Matthew Huang
Grace Huang
Qatar
Murders
Child Abuse
Adoption


Wimbledon 2011: Nadal’s Turn to Feel Anguish

Abstract: WIMBLEDON, England — By the final points of his fifth Wimbledon final, Rafael Nadal had the same hollow-eyed expression he usually sees in his opponents. His last stroke Sunday, a backhand that sailed long, ended his 20-match winning streak at the All England Club and his mastery in the majors over Novak Djokovic, who cemented his No. 1 ranking with a 6-4, 6-1, 1-6, 6-3 victory. Nadal, a two-time champion, was beaten by someone who took his playbook and executed it better. Djokovic, who was winless in five previous Grand Slam matches against Nadal, retrieved nearly every ball that came his way, forcing Nadal to hit one or two or three shots after striking what would have been a clean winner against anybody else. In the first two sets, Nadal put 81 percent of his first serves in play — and was broken three times by Djokovic, the reigning Australian Open champion who has a match record of 48-1 this year. Nadal, who had not lost here since the 2007 final (he missed the 2009 event with an injury), knows what it is like to catch a wave like the one Djokovic is riding, his game so dialed in that the tennis ball looks like a beach ball. For six months last year, Nadal was virtually unbeatable. From April to September, he went 43-3 and won six titles, including three majors: the French Open , Wimbledon and the United States Open . The title at Flushing Meadows came at the expense of Djokovic, whom Nadal beat in four sets in the final . The laws of physics and of sport dictate that all waves eventually crest and come crashing to shore. “My experience says this level is not forever,” Nadal said. “Even for me, when I was last year winning three Grand Slams, my level of last year is not forever. Probably the level of Novak today is not forever. I am going to be here fighting all the time, waiting for my moment.” On Friday, Andy Murray was the one doing the soul-searching in the wake of his crushing four-set semifinal defeat to Nadal . Two days later, it was Nadal’s turn to plumb the depths of his misery. In the English-speaking portion of Nadal’s postmatch news conference, a journalist started, “You’ve lost to Novak five times this year. ...” Before the question was finished, Nadal smiled quizzically and arched his eyebrows. His eyes, dark as coal, bored in on his inquisitor. “I know that,” he said, adding: “We have to find how I can bother him another time. I did in the past. He’s in the best moment of his career. That’s true, too. I am in one of the best moments of my career. Still not enough for him. I have to play longer. I have to play more aggressive. I have to make less mistakes.” Djokovic, 24, played better on the big points. Nadal, 25, was serving at 4-5 and 30-30 in the first set when he hit an errant forehand to end a long rally and then, on set point, sent another forehand wide to dig himself a hole. In the fourth set, Nadal was broken again, at 3-4, when he missed a backhand on a 14-stroke rally. On those points, he said, his four previous defeats this year to Djokovic — in the finals at Indian Wells, Miami, Madrid and Rome — came into play. “Probably the mental part is a little bit dangerous for me,” Nadal said, “because when I arrive to the 5-4, I played a bad game with 30-love. When I arrived to 4-3 of the fourth set, I played another bad game with my serve.” How does he change that? “Probably be a little bit less nervous, play more aggressive and all the time be confident with myself,” he said. “That’s what I’m going to try next time.” It was a remarkable admission by Nadal, one that violated the ethos of elite athletes, who would sooner endure a public flogging than own up to a loss of confidence, an intrusion of nerves or a failure of will. “When one player is better than you, at this moment, the only thing you can do is work, try to find solutions and try to wait a little bit for your time,” he said. “I’m going to wait and I’m going to try a sixth time. And if the sixth doesn’t happen, a seventh. It’s going to be like this. That’s the spirit of sport.”

Wimbledon Tennis Tournament
Tennis
Nadal Rafael
Djokovic Novak


Japan Shrine Offering Angers China

Abstract: BEIJING — The Chinese government denounced Prime Minister Taro Aso of Japan on Thursday for making an offering earlier this week to a war shrine in Tokyo that has been a source of continuing conflict between Chinese and Japanese leaders. On Tuesday, Mr. Aso made an offering of a potted tree worth about $500 to commemorate a spring festival at the Yasukuni Shrine, which honors Japanese soldiers who have died during wars in the last 150 years. The honored soldiers include 14 “Class A” war criminals convicted in trials established under the command of Gen. Douglas MacArthur after World War II. On Wednesday, dozens of Japanese lawmakers visited the shrine. Mr. Aso did not go there himself. “ China has already used diplomatic channels to express its strong concern and dissatisfaction, and stressed the high sensitivity of historical issues,” Jiang Yu, a spokeswoman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, said in a statement read on Chinese state television news. “Any erroneous actions by Japan will have grave negative consequences for bilateral relations, and we demand that the Japanese side exercise caution in its words and actions and appropriately deal with this,” she added. Mr. Aso is preparing to travel to China next week for a two-day meeting with top leaders here. They are expected to discuss responses to the recent missile test by North Korea. The shrine has a history of fanning outrage among the Chinese, who are taught as students the history of Japanese atrocities in China during World War II. In 2005, China engaged in diplomatic sniping with Japan over visits to the shrine by Junichiro Koizumi, then the prime minister. Two years later, a new prime minister, Shinzo Abe, did not visit the shrine, though he made an offering similar to Mr. Aso’s. Mr. Abe’s successor, Yasuo Fukuda, was openly pro-China and also never visited the shrine. Mr. Aso, who took office in September 2008, has not publicly stated his views on shrine visits. South Korea has also criticized Mr. Aso for making the tree offering. In China, a big-budget movie released nationwide on Wednesday has again galvanized emotions over the Japanese invasion and occupation in World War II. The movie, “City of Life and Death,” is set during the massacre of Nanjing in 1937, in which Japanese soldiers killed about 300,000 people, according to official Chinese estimates. Many Chinese demand that Japan apologize for the massacre. Xinhua, the state news agency, reported that Lu Chuan , the film’s director, said the movie was much harder to make than he first thought because he “had underestimated the capacity and sensitivity of that part of history.”

China
Japan
Aso Taro
World War II (1939-45)


Stocks Drop Sharply; Banks Lead Decline

Abstract: Widespread fear about the financial sector brought a dramatic end to the recent stock rally, as investors scrambled to take profits from bank shares and sent the Dow Jones industrials down more than 280 points, its worst loss in a month. Financial shares, coming off a six-session winning streak, plunged after the regional bank National City and Washington Mutual, the nation’s biggest savings and loan, were besieged by gloomy analyst reports. WaMu was forced to take the unusual step of issuing a public statement about its financial strength, for the second time in a week. Investors are worried that the worst of the tight credit market still lies ahead. The nation’s banks have struggled to escape the cascading effects of paralysis in the debt markets and the decline in home values. Sales of previously owned homes declined in June at nearly double the rate that economists had expected, according to a report on Thursday. The sell-off in financial shares brought down the broader market, with the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index finishing down 2.3 percent. The Nasdaq composite index slipped 2 percent. All the major indexes headed downward at the opening bell and never recovered. “We’ve had such a strong run especially in the financials,” Ryan Larson, a trader at Voyageur Asset Management, said. “A lot of people are taking money off the table.” Big bank stocks like Citigroup and Lehman Brothers, which had seen record gains in the last week, plunged again. As a group, shares of financial firms listed in the S.&P. 500 lost 6.3 percent on Thursday alone. National City shares lost 2.1 percent after the holding company reported a $1.8 billion loss for the second quarter. Washington Mutual was off 13.3 percent after losing more than 20 percent on Wednesday. Oil prices also moved higher. Crude oil futures rose $1.05, to $125.49 a barrel in New York trading. The painful home sales report, released before the markets opened, started the day off on a sour note. Sales of previously owned homes, which make up most of the housing market, tumbled 2.6 percent in June after a 2 percent increase in May, according to a private trade group. The report from the National Association of Realtors reinforced fears that the weak job market and scarcity of credit are discouraging Americans from buying homes. Those who may be in the market for a house may find it harder to take out a mortgage. Housing-related stocks were among the day’s worst performers. Shares of Fannie Mae, which had recovered in recent days, dipped 20 percent. Its sister company, Freddie Mac, was off 18 percent. The declines came a day after the House passed legislation aimed at shoring up the beleaguered mortgage buyers. The bill will potentially help hundreds of thousands of Americans avoid foreclosure with an infusion of government-backed loans and state financing. The Senate is expected to take up the bill this week and President Bush has said he will reluctantly sign it. But the Realtors’ report suggested that the woes in the housing market would not end soon. June sales slowed to an annual rate of 4.86 million, adjusted for seasonal variables, after a 2 percent increase in May. Total sales were 15.5 percent below their level in June 2007. Western states reported higher sales, with a 1 percent increase. But every other region saw declines, with sales falling 6.6 percent in the Northeast, 3.4 percent in the Midwest and 3.1 percent in the South. Across the country, the decline came from a 3.2 percent drop in sales of single-family homes; apartment and condominium sales increased 1.7 percent for the month. The report was “a little bit of a catalyst” for the stock market, said Richard Sparks, an analyst at Schaeffer’s Investment Research. But he said the declines in the Dow were more likely attributable to profit-taking after the market’s recent gains. “No one in a general sense was really expecting anything great out of those numbers anyway,” he said, referring to the home sales report. At the current sales rate, it would take more than 11 months to sell off the current inventory of unsold homes, and some economists thought that estimate may be understated. “Inventories are very high relative to sales rates, and would probably be even more so if all those wishing to sell their home actually had the house on the market instead of pulling it off in the face of weak demand and eroding prices,” wrote Joshua Shapiro, chief domestic economist at the research firm MFR. Home prices have risen modestly for the last four months, but they remain 6.1 percent below their level from a year ago. The median price of a previously owned home in June was $215,100. Many Americans expect home prices to fall further in the next year, the Realtors group said, which means many would-be buyers are holding out. Weak job prospects are also having a dampening effect. In a separate report on Thursday, the Labor Department said that new unemployment claims rose 34,000 last week to 406,000, the highest level since the month after Hurricane Katrina .

Economic Conditions and Trends
Housing
Stocks and Bonds
Unemployment


Brooklyn: Case Advances in Infant Death

Abstract: Justice Neil J. Firetog of State Supreme Court denied a motion yesterday to appoint a special prosecutor to review the disclosure by the district attorney’s office of grand jury testimony in a case involving the disposal of a newborn. His decision allows prosecutors to continue their case against Andria Sergio, 27, of Bay Ridge, who has been charged with hindering prosecution and improperly disposing of a body in the death of a girl delivered by her sister Laura, 25, in April. The baby was found on the back porch of the family home. The cause of death was found to be asphyxiation and hypothermia, and Laura Sergio has been charged with murder. After prosecutors, in a court filing, disclosed a summary of grand jury testimony by Andria Sergio, defense lawyers asked Justice Firetog to dismiss the charges, arguing that the disclosure was improper. Prosecutors successfully argued that the disclosure was meant to ensure that the testimony would be accepted as evidence at trial.

Murders and Attempted Murders
Brooklyn (NYC)
Children and Youth


Peyton Manning and Andrew Luck Plagued by Reductionism

Abstract: DENVER — Oh, God, he failed again. Andrew Luck, the superstar-almost quarterback for the Indianapolis Colts, faced Peyton Manning, the Old Man River of N.F.L. quarterbacks, in a Sunday evening clash of the titans. Luck fell a touchdown short. What a disappointment; get me the fraud department! As Rolling Stone put it last week in “ The Case Against Andrew Luck ”: “In a make-or-break N.F.L. season, the Colts’ quarterback must finally be elite.” Really? Says who? So much is silly and reductive in the way we turn sports stars, from LeBron James to Kevin Durant to Luck and Manning, into characters in fate-driven morality plays. Luck, a quite young quarterback, walked into the interview room Sunday night, red-faced, with grass stains on his pants after having been tossed to the turf by various and many 300-pound men. He sounded like a perp copping a plea. His decision-making, he confessed, had been “stupid.” He tried a quarterback sneak and “got stoned,” by which he meant half of the Broncos defensive line had jumped and mauled him. “It didn’t work. Didn’t get in. My fault.” Then he offered this: “They won that one. I didn’t. We didn’t.” All this self-flagellation came after Luck had completed 35 of 53 passes against a ferocious defense. After his team had a near-death experience in the first half, trailing by 24-7, Luck turned into a lupine carnivore and nearly tied the game. If anyone understands the tongues in which critics yip and yap, it’s the tall, sandy-haired fellow in the other locker room. Peyton Manning, one of the most successful quarterbacks in the history of the game, is shadowed by complaints that he fails to win enough big games. Manning’s postseason record, we’re told, has become a referendum on his greatness. Articles, studies and statistical theses are devoted to his supposed psychological and physical failings. He has lost more playoff games than he has won. (He has played few chumps; nearly half of his losses came against teams that went on to win the Super Bowl.) He gets intercepted more in the postseason. Then you place him alongside Hall of Fame masters, and shockingly, it turns out most were human and flawed. In fact, the Luck-Manning duel made for a weirdly entertaining start to the pro football season. In an inauguration in characteristic High Imperial N.F.L. style, Denver offered giant American flags, marching bands and a lass who rode a white horse up and down after Broncos touchdowns. All that was missing was an orange zeppelin to drop off the Archduke of Boulder at midfield. The first half featured the Denver Broncos at their commanding best. The crowd, standing as one to the highest rafters, pounded its feet so hard it felt as if the D train were passing beneath press row. Then, as a full moon rose, Peyton was Peyton. Which is to say he threw and threw again; the prettiest were the soft twirlers that landed like bread in the baskets of his receivers. And there was his game-calling, which is his own eccentric performance art. Late in the first half, Manning took the Broncos to near the Colts’ goal line. Then it was as if he had convened a kaffeeklatsch. He began wagging his hands and barking words. He motioned to a receiver, who wandered over to him and walked back. The running back strolled in. The center turned and looked at his quarterback, as a co-conspirator or in puzzlement. Then the ball was hiked, and Manning stepped back and tossed a beauty of a pass for a touchdown, his third of the half. The game appeared to be over. Except now it was Luck’s turn. His first half had been a continuous mugging at the hands of the Broncos. His offensive line then stiffened, and a top quarterback with an extra second or three is a dangerous animal. He began spinning passes. And the Broncos stumbled into a Twilight Zone, dropping passes, tripping, fumbling. With two minutes left, the Colts were a touchdown short and driving. In the field boxes, an older Broncos fan had painted his bald pate blue and orange. He turned to an usher and rolled his eyes and mimed a heart attack. He was joking. I think. Luck’s final pass went askew. The Colts lost, 31-24. All that was left were mea culpas. Asked about a turning point, Luck interrupted: “Again, my fault.” Does your team take away good lessons? He shook his head. “A loss is a loss; a loss is a loss.” Down the hall, the older Manning fielded those oh-Peyton-we-love-you-so-much questions that are a staple of news conferences. Luck was supposed to supplant you; did you just serve notice that the future will happen in slow motion? Manning hiked an eyebrow. “That’s a little deep for a Tennessee grad,” Manning said. “Hey, I’m on record a number of times, what a great quarterback he is and what a great career he is going to have. Our defense was in for a tough challenge tonight.” Maybe, after all the warnings of characterological referendums and autopsies, that’s as deep as it should get.

Football
Andrew Luck
Peyton Manning
Broncos
Colts


Sticky Notes Bearing Election Hopes and Fears Removed from Subway

Abstract: The thousands of sticky notes lining a subway station wall in Manhattan bearing messages about the 2016 presidential race came down on Friday, marking the end of one of the most significant public expressions of emotion in response to the election results. But the notes will not be forgotten. A trove of them will be preserved by the New-York Historical Society, officials said. The notes were part of a spontaneous public art forum that began after an election that jolted the country, especially in areas like New York that generally sided against President-elect Donald J. Trump. The first notes went up in the tunnel linking the 1/2/3 and F train platforms at 14th Street in Manhattan, and soon spread to Union Square and other subway stations in the city and beyond, including Boston , San Francisco and Toronto . The wall at Union Square remained a vibrant spot, attracting commuters as if it were a formal art exhibition, until its final day. A Desnuda-style woman appeared there one day with the images of sticky notes painted all over her body. Image Matthew Chavez, a street artist known as Levee, had started the project with a simple prompt — “express yourself” — spelled out at the 14th Street installation. Credit Alex Wroblewski for The New York Times Matthew Chavez, a street artist known as Levee, had started the project with a simple prompt — “express yourself” — spelled out at the 14th Street installation. He tried to ensure that all viewpoints would be honored, including those that differed with the majority of the messages, which expressed anger or sadness after Mr. Trump’s victory. But like many good things, the project had to come to an end. For one, the sticky note wall was probably against the rules of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which forbids posting written materials in the subway system without permission. Other problems had developed, too. One man who walked by on a number of occasions leaned his shoulder into the wall and knocked down dozens of messages. Other visitors left with fistfuls of notes and unclear motives. And some people began to put up what Mr. Chavez called “propaganda,” the type of materials that would be familiar to anyone who spends enough time on the internet: posters with conspiracy theories about 9/11, printed pages with images of Hillary Clinton’s head spliced onto President Obama’s body, sticky notes calling the financier George Soros the devil, and more. Though a majority of messages expressed hopes, fears, quotations and other simple expressions of solidarity, these other messages derailed the project from its original intent, Mr. Chavez said. “Because of things like that, it could change the energy of the project from something that’s amazing — about peaceful expression — to conspiracy or propaganda,” he said. The M.T.A. had allowed the messages to stay up with some wariness about the potentially sticky First Amendment implications. Thomas F. Prendergast, the authority’s chairman, said in November that the wall, and the expression it represented, was the “American way.” But he said that if it were to continue or create a disturbance, the authority would reassess. Image Thomas F. Prendergast, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s chairman, said in November that the wall, and the expression it represented, was the “American way.” Credit Kena Betancur/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images The New-York Historical Society had already been in touch with Mr. Chavez about preserving the wall. And at some point, the authority spoke to the historical group about finding an alternate home for the notes, said Margaret K. Hofer, the museum director for the society. “It was growing a bit unmanageable for the subway, for them to maintain,” Ms. Hofer said. Mr. Chavez said that after the authority told him that it was going to take down the wall, he chose to help rather than have it proceed without him. Governor Andrew M. Cuomo, who visited the wall at Union Square in November and left a note quoting Emma Lazarus’s famous “ Give me your tired ” line, announced the wall’s removal and preservation on Friday. Mr. Chavez spent much of the day working with volunteers and five people from the historical society to take down some 20,000 or more sticky notes. Of those, the historical society took about 5,000, the entirety of one swath of the wall. The notes will be preserved in clear protective material and eventually used for an installation, Ms. Hofer said. “Right now the project is still alive and it seems premature to post it,” Ms. Hofer said. “I see it as a living and breathing thing at this point.” Ms. Hofer likened the wall to the fence that grew around ground zero after Sept. 11 with missing posters, teddy bears, flowers and many notes of condolences and other heartfelt expressions. The two events were hard to compare, she said, but the sticky note wall represented the “same kind of spontaneous public outpouring of emotion.” Mr. Chavez said that he had been touched and surprised by the project’s success. He planned to keep archiving the notes and would like to digitize them as well. He said he hoped to continue the project on a small scale at the tunnel where it started — when he can be around to supervise it and take the notes down each night. He did not see the issues the wall raised and its eventual dismantling as a failure of free expression. “I think freedom of expression is absolutely what it is cracked up to be,” he said. “It is a blessing that this happened. And vast majority of messages were so hopeful.”

Subway
Art
2016 Presidential Election
New York Historical Society
Manhattan
Matthew Chavez,Levee
NYC
Union Square Manhattan


New Leader Takes Oath of Office in Indonesia

Abstract: JAKARTA, Indonesia — Joko Widodo, a commoner who was born in a Javan slum, was sworn in on Monday as president of Indonesia , completing an improbable political rise from hometown mayor to leader of the world’s fourth most-populous nation. Mr. Joko, 53, is the first Indonesian president not to have emerged from the country’s political elite or to have been an army general. He succeeded Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono , who stepped down on Monday after serving two five-year terms. With a Quran held above his head, Mr. Joko took the oath of office during a nationally televised special session of the People’s Consultative Assembly, a legislative superbody dominated by the House of Representatives. Indonesia, an emerging democracy, is the world’s largest Muslim-majority nation and has the largest economy in Southeast Asia. Mr. Joko’s vice president, Jusuf Kalla, also took the oath of office during the session. Among the foreign dignitaries attending the ceremony were Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong of Singapore, Prime Minister Tony Abbott of Australia and John Kerry, the American secretary of state. The inauguration provided a respite for Indonesia from a tense political period that has endured since the country’s July 9 presidential election. Mr. Joko defeated Prabowo Subianto , a former general and son-in-law of Suharto , the late authoritarian president who was forced from office amid pro-democracy demonstrations in 1998. Mr. Prabowo, however, leads a coalition of opposition parties that control a majority of seats and all the leadership positions in the House of Representatives and that has vowed to challenge Mr. Joko’s policy agenda at every turn. Some opposition leaders have vowed to be obstructionist and have even called for corruption investigations against the new president from his time as mayor of Surakarta, in Central Java, and as governor of Jakarta. Image Indonesians in Central Java celebrated the inauguration of Mr. Joko as president. Credit Mohammad Ali/European Pressphoto Agency Following a meeting last Friday between the pair to ease tensions, Mr. Prabowo attended Monday’s inauguration. Mr. Joko referred to him as “my good friend” during his speech. The new president has promised more “people-centric” government programs in a country where, despite membership in the Group of 20 major economies, more than 100 million people live on $2 a day or less, and the disparity between the rich and poor is at a record high, according to economists. Many characterized the unlikely presidential victory by Mr. Joko over Mr. Prabowo as a battle between a commoner and someone from Indonesia’s political elite and authoritarian past. Mr. Joko, a former carpenter and small-business man, made mention of the masses that rallied around him during the election campaign in his 10-minute inaugural address, during which he called on national government officials and the Civil Service to work to improve the lot of the country’s poor. “This is a truly historic moment for all of us to come together,” the new president said. “Through hard work and cooperation, we will be able to help all Indonesians,” he added later. Despite having a minority governing coalition, Mr. Joko has said he expected members of Mr. Prabowo’s coalition to eventually switch sides and join his administration, in that way giving him a majority and increasing his ability to pass legislation. The new president has promised more government programs for farmers, fishermen and other traditional laborers, and more spending on health care and social services for the poor. Mr. Joko also gave an indication in his address of his foreign policy plans to turn Indonesia into a “maritime power,” noting that the country is the world’s largest archipelago. After the swearing-in ceremony, Mr. Joko’s presidential motorcade traveled through central Jakarta to greet the public before he was taken to the Presidential Palace in a traditional horse-drawn carriage. A number of inaugural events were planned for later in the day and evening.

Indonesia
Joko Widodo
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono
Prabowo Subianto
Inauguration
Jusuf Kalla


China Could Learn From Henry Ford

Abstract: BEIJING — “Little” Xie says he wants to own one of the vehicles he helps build at the Ford assembly plant in the Yangtze River city of Chongqing. With his mortgage payment taking about 60 percent of his 2,000 renminbi monthly pay, that won’t happen soon. “It isn’t even worth talking about company incentives to help buy a car, since I can’t afford one in the first place,” said Xie, 28, a six-year Ford employee, as he approached the factory gates for his night shift. Xie, whose nickname comes from his youthful age, asked that his full name not be used. Higher wages for people like Xie would help resolve China’s biggest economic challenge: shifting away from growth fueled by exports and investment and moving toward an economy driven more by domestic consumers. China’s Communist leaders might learn a lesson about how to create a more prosperous working class from the American industrialist Henry Ford. The founder of the auto manufacturer that bears his name generated headlines around the world in January 1914 by doubling the average autoworker’s pay to $5 a day. The move made Ford’s Model T more affordable, created a more stable work force and helped stoke the growth of the U.S. middle class, according to Bob Kreipke, the historian for the company, based in Dearborn, Michigan. “This allowed people to increase their buying power and, at the same time, they produced a better product,” Mr. Kreipke said. Low wages in the world’s third-largest economy are slowing the rise of a consumer culture that Premier Wen Jiabao and President Hu Jintao have said China needs to maintain expansion at the 8 percent a year that will generate jobs for its 1.3 billion people. The current growth pattern is “unsustainable,” Mr. Wen said Dec. 27. That hasn’t stopped China’s auto industry from booming, with sales last year of 13.6 million vehicles, eclipsing the United States as the world’s top market for the first time, according to figures from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers in Beijing. The surge in purchases was driven partly by government subsidies to help farmers buy vehicles. Encouraging higher pay might help sustain the boom and bolster consumption, which currently accounts for about 35 percent of China’s gross domestic product, compared with 70 percent in the United States. It would also help ease income gaps between the rich and poor, which are greater than those in South Korea and Taiwan at similar stages of development and have led to riots and other labor unrest. Ford’s $5 daily pay allowed an employee to buy a Model T that cost $440 with the equivalent of about four months of wages. Chinese factory workers averaged 24,192 renminbi, or $3,544, a year in 2008, according to figures from the National Bureau of Statistics in Beijing, so it would take more than three years of wages for them to afford the cheapest car advertised on the company’s Chinese-language Web site: a four-door hatchback with a 1.3 liter engine listed for 78,900 renminbi. While the auto company declined to comment on worker pay, Ellen Hughes-Cromwick, Ford’s chief economist, said Ford was projecting growth 10 years into the future for the countries where it operates, and it saw China’s economy in a period of expansion characterized by rapid rises in employee compensation similar to South Korea’s economy starting in the 1960s. “We are at a situation where wages are moving up and doubling in a very short period of time,” Ms. Hughes-Cromwick said in a telephone interview from Dearborn. “We do expect takeoff to generate pretty substantial wage gains.” One way the Chinese government might help raise pay would be to increase the value of the renminbi, said Nicholas Lardy, who studies the Chinese economy as a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington. U.S. and European officials have said that China keeps the renminbi artificially low to improve sales in foreign markets. An undervalued currency encourages manufactured exports at the expense of developing the more labor-intensive service sector, depressing job growth and keeping wages low, Mr. Lardy said. “Appreciation would lead to more rapid growth in the demand for labor and thus to more employment growth and more wage growth,” he said. China should also spend more on education for peasants and migrants to raise their skill levels and employment prospects, said Xiao Geng, director of the Brookings-Tsinghua Center for Public Policy in Beijing. Henry Ford employed some of the millions of East European immigrants who poured into the United States a century ago, as well as migrants from the South and Midwest lured by high wages. China’s leaders must deal with hundreds of millions of rural laborers coming to cities, who put downward pressure on salaries. “Unskilled workers are condemned for generations to low wages,” Mr. Xiao said. Even a skilled worker like Gong — who also asked that his full name not be used — said he makes only 6 renminbi an hour as a welder at Ford’s Chongqing plant, 9 renminbi an hour for overtime. “I have a dream of someday buying a car,” said Gong, 29, as he walked home in the rain after a 10-hour shift. “I guess it will take six years of saving.”

Automobiles
China
Factories and Manufacturing
Wages and Salaries
Labor and Jobs


In Missouri, City Asks What Made Killer Snap

Abstract: KIRKWOOD, Mo. — The day after a gunman opened fire at City Hall, killing five people before the police fatally shot him, residents of this affluent suburb southwest of St. Louis struggled to come to terms with what they called the unthinkable. And the question on everyone’s mind was: What caused Charles Thornton, a friendly town gadfly known as Cookie, who for years had been a fiery opponent of City Hall, to snap? A contractor who routinely ran afoul of the authorities, Mr. Thornton was well-known and had an openly contentious relationship with the town government, particularly those who worked in code enforcement and zoning. Beyond that, however, people described him as affable. Mr. Thornton had hundreds of dollars worth of outstanding fines for violations and had twice been arrested for disorderly conduct at City Council meetings. He appeared to have hit a tipping point 10 days ago, when he lost a free-speech lawsuit against the city stemming from the two disorderly conduct arrests. “A lot of people are in denial; they can’t believe this has happened,” said David Bennett, senior pastor of Kirkwood United Methodist Church, after conducting a prayer vigil attended by roughly 500 people in this city of 27,000. “We needed to come together and remind ourselves that this is not who we are.” The authorities said Mr. Thornton arrived at City Hall around 7 p.m. on Thursday and encountered a police officer, Sgt. Bill Biggs, in a parking lot. Mr. Thornton shot Sergeant Biggs, then retrieved the fallen officer’s service revolver and entered the Council chambers yelling, “Shoot the mayor!” Once inside, he turned his guns on the assembled crowd. Three city officials — Councilwoman Connie Karr, Councilman Mike Lynch and Kenneth Yost, the public works director — and a police officer, Tom Ballman, were killed in the chamber. Sergeant Biggs died in the parking lot. Mayor Mike Swoboda was wounded and remains in critical condition at St. John’s Mercy Medical Center in Creve Coeur, Mo. A newspaper reporter, Todd Smith, was also wounded and was in stable condition at a hospital. Ms. Karr had been busy in recent weeks planning a mayoral bid and was regarded as a top contender. Mr. Lynch was a zoning specialist whom friends described as gentlemanly and sociable. Mr. Yost was responsible for enforcing the ordinances related to zoning. A former Kirkwood police chief, Dan Linza, said Officer Ballman was a polished young man with a positive attitude. Mr. Linza said he also knew Sergeant Biggs, a former professional cowboy, and said the sergeant had been looking forward to the day when he could raise cattle and have a quiet life in the outdoors. “You’ve just got to grieve with these people,” said State Representative Rick Stream, a Republican who represents this area, mirroring the disbelief of many. “I just couldn’t believe it was Cookie that had done this. He was such a friendly guy. Obviously, he had some problems with the city, and for whatever reason, he just snapped.” For years, Mr. Thornton had feuded with the city, saying it excessively ticketed his company’s vehicles and harassed him by saying he lacked proper permits. A former Kirkwood mayor, Herb Jones, said he knew Mr. Thornton from his tenure and had attended Mr. Thornton’s wedding reception. While he once admired Mr. Thornton, Mr. Jones said, he had noticed that Mr. Thornton was unwilling to play by the rules. “He was running a commercial building business in a residence with heavy equipment and running afoul of the law,” Mr. Jones said. “It escalated into all sorts of problems from that. He was not willing to abide by the rules that apply to the whole community.” To Mr. Thornton’s family, however, he was a persecuted man who felt he had been deeply disrespected by a city he loved. “He tried to peacefully resolve issues,” said Mr. Thornton’s brother, Gerald Thornton, 54. After the shootings, Mr. Thornton said he had found a note on his brother’s bed that read, “The truth will win in the end.” Just one line, unsigned. Only after growing frustrated did his brother become violent, Gerald Thornton said, adding “He chose to do a first strike against the enemy that would be overwhelming.” Mr. Thornton was black, and several residents of Kirkwood’s poor and mostly black Meacham Park neighborhood said Friday that the attack at City Hall was a sharp reminder of the racial division they say has plagued the city for decades. They were not willing to condemn Mr. Thornton, a Meacham Park resident, for what he had done. “We are grieved, we are sorry, but they share in the responsibility,” Ben Gordon, a black man from nearby Webster Groves, said of city officials. “Cookie Thornton is to me a hero. I don’t condone murder. But as long as there is this separation, you’ll see more of this.” Mr. Gordon spoke at a standing-room-only meeting in Meacham Park that had been called to talk about the killings. While no one else at the meeting was as outspoken as he, many expressed a frustration with what they called a double standard for black and white residents of Kirkwood. They said they thought Charles Thornton lost his tolerance of that reality. “Cookie had anguish built up in him for the neighborhood,” said Charles Reynolds, a childhood friend. Others in the city did not give the Meacham Park residents much support for their theory. “They were all dedicated public servants,” Mr. Jones, the former mayor, said of the victims. “They were all very caring people, and Mr. Thornton, who we’ve known since he was in high school, felt he was being ill-treated by the city. That was not the style of the city or the Council members. They did not go into these types of things heavy-handed. It was unbelievable that Cookie Thornton thought he was being persecuted.” Mr. Thornton had a long and troubled history with authority including one 2002 incident in which a St. Louis County judge found him guilty of the assault and battery of Mr. Yost, whom Mr. Thornton killed on Thursday. But most of Mr. Thornton’s legal battles involved violations of city ordinances. He is named in as many as 15 cases in St. Louis County for violating such ordinances, like operating his construction business without the proper permits, and for numerous traffic-related infractions. A longtime critic of City Hall, Mr. Thornton was often disruptive in Council meetings, referring to Kirkwood as “having a plantation mentality,” according to court filings. Though the Council considered banning him from future meetings, it decided against such a step. In May 2006, the police removed Mr. Thornton in handcuffs from a Council meeting and later charged him with disorderly conduct, according to court filings. He sued the city, saying his removal from the meeting had violated his civil rights. Last week, a federal judge ruled against Mr. Thornton.


Turkish Leader Says U.S. Airdrop Aided ISIS Militants

Abstract: ISTANBUL — President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey criticized on Wednesday an American airdrop of supplies and weapons near the Syrian town of Kobani, saying the United States had mistakenly aided the militants besieging the town instead of the Kurdish fighters defending it. “What was done here was wrong,” Mr. Erdogan said at a news conference in Ankara, the capital. “Why? Because some of the weapons they dropped from the C-130s were seized by the Islamic State.” American military aircraft dropped ammunition, small arms and medical supplies into Kobani on Sunday. Before the airdrop, Mr. Erdogan said he opposed any United States assistance to the Kurdish fighters affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, a separatist group in Turkey that Ankara and Washington regard as a terrorist organization. Iraqi Army Retakes Government Complex in Central Ramadi Efforts to stem the rise of the Islamic State. “It would be wrong for the United States, with whom we are friends and allies in NATO, to talk openly and to expect us to say yes to such a support to a terrorist organization,” Mr. Erdogan said on Sunday, according to the semiofficial Anadolu news agency. Video images circulated on Monday that appeared to show Islamic militants with some of the airdropped supplies. The Pentagon said the vast majority of the airdrops had reached the Kurdish fighters defending Kobani, but on Wednesday a Pentagon spokesman said some supplies might have fallen into the hands of the militants. Turkey announced on Monday that it would start to allow Iraqi Kurdish forces, known as pesh merga, to cross into Kobani from Turkish territory to help defend the town. Mr. Erdogan said on Wednesday that he had proposed the idea in a recent conversation with President Obama. “I have difficulty understanding why Kobani is so strategic for them, because there are no civilians there, just around 2,000 fighters,” Mr. Erdogan said. The Turkish foreign minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, said on Tuesday that the logistical arrangements for the pesh merga to pass through Turkey into Syria were still being worked out.

Turkey
Recep Tayyip Erdogan
Syria
ISIS,ISIL,Islamic State
Kobani Ayn al-Arab


Port Authority Officials and Ground Zero Developer to Discuss Their Latest Impasse

Abstract: Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg is busily dampening expectations that his summit meeting on Thursday will produce a sudden resolution to the latest impasse at ground zero between the Port Authority and the developer Larry A. Silverstein over the construction of office towers. Protocol holds that politicians do not publicly announce a high-profile engagement until after the outcome is assured. But two weeks ago, Mr. Bloomberg surprised everyone, including Port Authority officials, Mr. Silverstein and especially Gov. David A. Paterson, when he called for the meeting at Gracie Mansion. Since then, all sides have dug in deeper, with Mr. Silverstein insisting that the authority guarantee as much as $3.2 billion in financing for two skyscrapers, while the authority maintains that it is not the responsibility of the public to support speculative office space. Earlier this week, seven of the city’s most active civic groups sided with the Port Authority, saying that additional public funds should be invested in the Sept. 11 memorial, a downtown transit hub and other transportation projects, not the office space. On Wednesday, Mr. Bloomberg warned reporters that “there will not be a grand announcement at the end of tomorrow afternoon that the days of wine and roses are here again.” Given the “limited contact” between the Port Authority and Mr. Silverstein, he said that the city would simply like to serve as “a catalyst and provide a forum for them to get together.” Officials involved in the negotiations say that Deputy Mayor Robert C. Lieber has spent as much time trying to calm the warring parties as he has trying to come up with an acceptable compromise. The best outcome of the Gracie Mansion summit, many say, may be an agreement to meet again. The city, the state and the Port Authority want to avoid having the dispute tumble into an extended arbitration proceeding. The planned office buildings are deeply entwined with every other element on the 16-acre site. Nearly eight years after the attack on the trade center, the fear among many of those involved is that a deadlock over the office buildings could mean “progress on the transit hub and the memorial goes down the drain,” as one city official put it, enraging the public. Under a 2006 development agreement, Mr. Silverstein is to build three large office towers along Church Street, using insurance proceeds, tax-free bonds and private financing. But the real estate market has soured, with downtown vacancy rates, now at about 12 percent, expected to rise to 16 or even 20 percent next year and lenders refusing to finance real estate projects. Mr. Silverstein recently asked the Port Authority to serve as a guarantor of the construction loans for two of his three towers. The authority, which is already building its own $3 billion office tower known as 1 World Trade Center and the hub, offered to help with only one of Mr. Silverstein’s towers. The other two towers, the authority said, could be built as the real estate market improves. Or, Mr. Silverstein could proceed with private financing. Mr. Silverstein has since assailed the authority for what he said was its pessimistic view of the real estate market, which he says will rebound by the time the towers are completed in 2015. Two weeks ago, Mr. Bloomberg and Sheldon Silver, the Assembly speaker whose district includes Lower Manhattan, said that work should proceed on two of Mr. Silverstein’s three towers and the developer should invest some of his own money in the buildings. Mr. Silverstein, who regards the insurance proceeds as his money, has shown no intention of doing so. He has told officials that he has already shared the proceeds with the authority. At the same time, Governor Paterson and Gov. Jon S. Corzine of New Jersey, who control the Port Authority, have expressed wariness about pouring additional public funds into the office towers. “It is in the interest of this city and this country to get development going at the World Trade Center site,” Mr. Bloomberg said on Wednesday. “The reality is, however, that the marketplace is not there the way it was before, and we’re going to deal with that.”

Port Authority of New York and New Jersey


Rangers Fall Short in Quest for Best Start

Abstract: The Rangers entered Wednesday night’s game at Madison Square Garden having to explain how they were one victory from their best start in franchise history. They had hardly overpowered opponents. Their top line — Chris Drury, Scott Gomez and Markus Naslund — had struggled. Their big-name acquisitions had not put a stamp on the team. Even Coach Tom Renney suspected the Rangers had stolen a few victories. Yet 5-0 they were. “I’m not giving any points back,” Renney said with a shrug. But the blazing start came to a crashing halt against Buffalo, and the 3-1 loss seemed to lay out their weaknesses for all to see. “We knew we could do a lot better, even though we won the first five games,” Naslund said. “We have not played our best. It’s important for us not to fool ourselves. I think it was a reality check for us tonight.” The reality check did not end with the first line. The defense left goalie Henrik Lundqvist vulnerable, and Lundqvist left a few ugly rebounds for Buffalo to score on. He made only 16 saves. Still, the first line remains the team’s biggest concern. Renney moved Drury from his usual position at center to play right wing with Gomez, his best playmaker, and Naslund at left wing. Naslund is trying to fit in with a new team after 12 seasons in Vancouver while he attempts to rediscover an elusive scoring touch. After a promising start in the first two games, against Tampa Bay in Prague, the line has regressed. “In Prague we created chances by coming up together and having lots of options with passes,” Naslund said. “Now it seems like we’re attacking one at a time and it doesn’t seem like we can get any sustained pressure. We don’t have the puck enough. We’re chasing the puck more than we should.” None of them had scored since returning home and they sat frozen at two goals and seven assists as a unit until Gomez scored in the first period against Buffalo. But he was not on the ice with Drury or Naslund. In the midst of a line change, Gomez skated up ice, left a pass behind him for defenseman Michal Rozsival, then tipped Rozsival’s shot into the net. That was the Rangers’ only highlight. The Sabres had power-play goals from Ales Kotalik and Thomas Vanek, and Vanek scored a short-handed goal in the third. Drury had failed to cover Vanek on the rush and defenseman Wade Redden — another off-season acquisition finding his way — watched the rush go right by him. Even before the loss, Renney was discussing his first line’s woes. He said he still believed in them as a combination. All three, after all, are team leaders. Drury is the captain and Gomez and Naslund are alternate captains. “We’ve all gone through it before,” Gomez said. “We know the potential. We’ve seen it. For whatever reason, I think we’re just pressing too hard. The team’s been winning and we’ve been doing all right, but we’ve got to pick it up now. I still like the makeup of the line and hopefully we’ll stick together.” After Wednesday, they no longer have an undefeated record to hide behind. SLAP SHOTS Last season, Buffalo forward Patrick Kaleta flew across the ice and hit Rangers defenseman Paul Mara high, a hit that broke bones in Mara’s face and ended his season. That was why Mara began pummeling Kaleta after another high hit in this game. Kaleta refused to fight back, so Mara earned a five-minute major and a game misconduct. Mara said Kaleta asked him how his face was. “You don’t want to hurt guys in this league and to have him say something like that, it’s classless,” Mara said. “I will always remember that. I did what I had to do and it’s over now.” ... Buffalo ended the Rangers’ perfect penalty-killing streak. The Rangers had not been scored on in their first 23 short-handed situations.

New York Rangers
Buffalo Sabres
Hockey Ice


Leicester Misses Chance to Clinch Title but Gains Draw

Abstract: Leicester City missed its first chance to clinch the Premier League title, drawing, 1-1, at Manchester United on Sunday to move to within 2 points of the most unlikely championship in English soccer . Second-place Tottenham, which is 8 points behind Leicester, must beat Chelsea on the road Monday to stay alive in the title race. Leicester fought back after falling behind on Anthony Martial’s eighth-minute goal when its captain, Wes Morgan, headed in a free kick to tie the game in the 17th minute. A win would have sealed the title for Leicester, a modest team from central England that narrowly escaped relegation last season and entered bankruptcy protection only seven years ago while in the third tier. Leicester’s remaining games are home against Everton and at Chelsea. United’s failure to win kept the team in fifth place and dented its ambitions of qualifying for the Champions League. But this game was all about Leicester and whether Claudio Ranieri’s team — a 5,000-to-1 long shot with British bookmakers before the season — could achieve the seemingly impossible, a feat that would rank among the biggest underdog stories in sports. It would be the most implausible top-flight title since Brian Clough’s Nottingham Forest won in 1978. The Foxes are still heavy favorites — their vocal, flag-waving traveling contingent chanted, “We’re going to win the league” over and over after the final whistle — but Spurs still have hope ahead of their match at Stamford Bridge. United took the early lead when Antonio Valencia cut inside from the right and sent a cross to the feet of Martial, who scored powerfully past Kasper Schmeichel at the far post. Ranieri’s team, which has been confounding the doubters all season, hit back with its first genuine chance of the game. Morgan was just too strong for Marcos Rojo as he barged his way into the six-yard box to meet midfielder Danny Drinkwater’s free kick with a header past goalkeeper David de Gea. “We had to dig in and be resilient,” Morgan said. “It’s a point and it’s a step in the right direction.” United was lucky to finish the first half with 11 men after the referee missed Marouane Fellaini lashing out at Robert Huth, first with his forearm and then with his elbow. Fellaini could get a retrospective ban, which might rule him out for the rest of the season. In the second half, Leicester looked more dangerous on the counterattack and from open play. But de Gea wasn’t seriously tested aside from long-range efforts, and United came closest to scoring when Chris Smalling glanced a header against the post. Drinkwater was sent off in the 86th for a second yellow card, pulling back Memphis Depay as he raced toward the penalty area. MANCHESTER CITY FALLS Manchester City dropped to fourth place by losing, 4-2, at Southampton as manager Manuel Pellegrini’s risk of fielding a weakened team backfired. Key players like Sergio Aguero, Kevin de Bruyne and Vincent Kompany were rested ahead of the second leg of the Champions League semifinal against Real Madrid on Wednesday. Sadio Mane scored a hat trick for seventh-place Southampton, while Kelechi Iheanacho scored both of City’s goals. Swansea guaranteed Premier League football for another season by beating Liverpool, 3-1, with two goals by Andre Ayew. VILLARREAL CLINCHES BERTH Villarreal warmed up for Thursday’s decisive Europa League semifinal at Liverpool by clinching a berth in Europe’s top competition. Villarreal’s 2-0 win at its regional rival Valencia guaranteed it will finish in fourth place in the Spanish league, giving the club a Champions League playoff spot next season. Roberto Soldado set up goals by Samuel Garcia in the 14th minute and Adrian Lopez in the 33rd. JUVENTUS STAYS SHARP Juventus celebrated its fifth consecutive Serie A title, which was clinched last week, with a 2-0 victory over Carpi in Turin. Hernanes scored his first goal for the club before the substitute Simone Zaza added another. Juventus has won 25 of its last 26 matches.

Soccer
Premier League
Leicester City Soccer Team
Manchester United


Putting Environmentalism on the Urban Map

Abstract: YES, there are sweeping views of the Hudson River, 35 acres of parkland and waterfront promenades. But what gets James Cavanaugh especially jazzed about Battery Park City is the reclaimed toilet water, processed by a waste-treatment plant in the basement of an apartment building at 20 River Terrace. In fact, Mr. Cavanaugh, the president and chief executive of the Battery Park City Authority, has tasted it. The plant is located in the base of the Solaire, the first residential high-rise building in New York City to be certified by the U.S. Green Building Council. The Solaire, certified in 2004, is still the exception in the city; only recently have architects, developers and construction managers begun to integrate so-called sustainable design into their high-rise projects. But in Battery Park City, the Solaire has become the rule. By 2009, when all the available sites on its 92 acres will be developed, Battery Park City will have eight green residential buildings and a green Goldman Sachs headquarters. All these projects are expected to be certified gold — with three potentially rated platinum — under the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design ratings system. The LEED ratings were established by the Green Building Council to evaluate a building's efforts to use renewable materials, conserve energy and water consumption and enhance indoor air quality. This makes Battery Park City an experiment in creating an all-green neighborhood, which so far appears to be unmatched in the United States. "It's looking at the way an entire built community comes together — Battery Park City is visionary in that regard," said S. Richard Fedrizzi, president and chief executive of the Green Building Council, a coalition of building industry leaders who promote environmentally responsible — or sustainable — design. "It's a beacon for what communities all over the country and all over the world are doing." The greening of Battery Park City started in 1999, when the authority — a New York State public-benefit corporation — drafted its own green building guidelines, which require that every residence in the area meet strict sustainability criteria. (The guidelines for commercial properties followed in 2002.) Battery Park City is now insisting that developers retrofit their existing pre-guideline buildings to make them green, a process under way at the New York Mercantile Exchange's building. "We have the opportunity in Battery Park City — because our authority is in control — where we can make it a condition for all future development," said Gov. George E. Pataki, in a telephone interview. People have come from all over to learn from Battery Park City, including contingents from the Czech Republic, China and Korea. The authority recently made a presentation to the United States Conference of Mayors in Albuquerque and was part of an international green building challenge at the international Sustainable Building Conference in Oslo. "This is a movement that is taking hold and moving forward," said Timothy S. Carey, the former president and chief executive of the Battery Park City Authority. The visitors come not only because of the high concentration of green buildings there, but also because the authority's green guidelines are so stringent. In many cases, the guidelines exceed those of the Green Building Council. The buildings also have to be 30 percent more energy efficient than New York State building code demands for all types of construction. The authority requires photovoltaics, which capture heat from the sun and turn it into electricity. Green roofs are required for 75 percent of a building's nonmechanical roof area. All the parks are run organically, using horticultural soap instead of pesticides, and the ball fields feature waterless urinals and composting toilets. In evaluating developers' proposals, the authority gives almost as much weight to the environmental pitch as it does the financial. "We expect potential developers to go beyond our guidelines and do even better," Mr. Cavanaugh said. "We're not just looking for top dollar, but also sustainable design. The developers are really on notice. They've got to push the envelope every time we engage them to be as aggressive as they can." Mr. Carey said that at first the authority's board did not know what to make of the idea. "Some thought I meant green bricks." Mr. Pataki said the initial resistance among developers was also strong; some New York City developers still have not joined the bandwagon. "You really had to convince people that they weren't out of their minds to take this dramatic step," Mr. Pataki said. Russell C. Albanese, the president of the Albanese Organization, said he remembered being in a room with about a dozen other developers, listening to the requirements for the Solaire in 2000. "It was new for all of us," he said, adding, "It seemed to make sense as far as building for the future." Mr. Albanese developed the Solaire, completed in 2003, and now has two more projects in Battery Park City — one to be finished this year, another in 2008. Other developers building in the area are the Related Companies, Millennium Partners, the Sheldrake Organization and Goldman Sachs. Finding materials was more challenging six years ago than it is now. Battery Park City requires 35 percent certified wood in the buildings' interiors (wood that has been harvested sustainably). To meet this standard, Mr. Albanese said he had to marry a wood manufacturer in California with a cabinetmaker in Canada. He also had to find materials that would be environmentally acceptable but also aesthetically pleasing. Porcelain or ceramic tile, for example, "didn't meet marketing criteria," Mr. Albanese said. "It was environmentally O.K., but not what consumers would want." These kinds of materials have become more widely available these days. While chemical-free paint was once hard to find, it is now used by the average consumer. Products that were custom made for the Solaire — adhesives, appliances, enamels — are now sold at Home Depot. The cost of making things green has also dropped. Whereas 15 to 17 percent of the $120 million Solaire went toward sustainability, Mr. Albanese's next building, the Verdesian — also a rental — has an added green cost of 8 percent, the developer said. Still, the extra cost of building green is higher in Battery Park City than the national average, which is now believed to be around 2 to 5 percent, in part because of the authority's tough guidelines. But developers, in turn, can get higher rents and sales prices. Green apartments sell at an estimated 5 percent higher than market, Mr. Cavanaugh said. A 2005 survey of Battery Park City residents found that almost half said they would be willing to pay a premium to live in a building with green features. "Pretty soon there will be no more 'green buildings,' because all buildings will be green," said James F. Gill, the chairman of the Battery Park City Authority. "People are willing to pay up to live in a healthier environment." The air is filtered twice — outside the building and inside the apartment — humidified in the winter and dehumidified in the summer. "Nobody ever opens their windows," Mr. Cavanaugh said. In the Solaire, the tenants also save money, 50 to 60 percent of every air-conditioning bill, because the cooling source is centralized. Mr. Albanese said he was able to go beyond 35 percent energy efficiency using additional heat-recovery technologies. The building reuses heat exhausted by fans in the kitchens and bathrooms, which saves a lot on energy costs. The filtration plant in the Solaire treats all the water in the building as a large treatment plant would, with micro-organisms eating the waste. The building also has motion sensors in the corridors, where lights are dimmed by half from midnight to 6 a.m. When a door or an elevator opens during those hours, the lights go to full level. The Verdesian runs on a natural-gas microturbine that creates electricity, which helps power the building. The heat given off in this process is used to create the hot water. Mr. Albanese said this amounted to overall efficiency of 80 to 85 percent for the building. A typical power plant — which burns fossil fuels like oil, gas or coal — is about 30 percent efficient. Over the years, the authority has tightened its guidelines. Originally, 60 percent of all construction waste had to be recycled, for example. That requirement is now 80 percent. Buildings were first required to recycle gray water — from the laundry or shower — and reuse it for irrigation. Now all water must be recycled, including toilet — or "black" — water, which is reused for toilet flushing, air-conditioning, irrigation and central laundry. This has resulted in buildings that use about 50 percent less potable — drinking — water than standard buildings do. The authority has also toughened how it tracks construction. Now developers are required to educate their construction teams about why they are being asked to do things differently. Developers must demonstrate how they are meeting the green guidelines. After a project is done, developers must file annual reports that account for their energy and water savings. The green building movement is catching on in pockets nationwide. The Rose Smart Growth Investment Fund I, a real estate investment fund run by the developer Jonathan F. P. Rose, buys buildings and makes them green. Last month, the fund bought two buildings in downtown Seattle and planned to reduce their energy costs, operating expenses and improve the air quality for tenants. In October, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg signed into law in New York City the Green City Buildings Act, which requires that nonresidential projects costing $2 million or more meet silver LEED standards. (Schools have to be only LEED certified.) Still, mandating green building remains an emerging concept. "I still haven't seen that commitment to using government authority to have an entire community," Mr. Pataki said. "There is still more to do to encourage governments to build these into their codes and standards, to encourage manufacturers to make materials and to encourage consumers to look for it."

Buildings (Structures)
Environment
Energy Efficiency
Gardens and Gardening


Citigroup to Sell Japanese Retail Banking Unit to Sumitomo Mitsui Banking

Abstract: TOKYO — Citigroup has agreed to sell its Japanese retail banking operations to the Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation in a retreat from unprofitable businesses around the world, the companies announced on Thursday. The acquisition price was not disclosed. “This decision furthers Citi’s global strategy of focusing our resources where we feel we have a competitive advantage,” Peter B. Eliot, chief executive of Citibank Japan, said in a statement . He added that the Institutional Clients Group businesses in Japan would be part of that focus. Sumitomo Mitsui Banking will merge the Citibank unit, which has 1,600 employees and 32 branches, with its private banking subsidiary SMBC Trust Bank , the companies said. Citibank Japan has about 740,000 retail customers and 2.44 trillion yen, or $20.3 billion, in deposits, according to a joint statement. The companies said that customers of Citibank Japan would continue to have access after the acquisition to Citigroup’s global A.T.M. network, one of the most popular services among Japanese customers. Sumitomo Mitsui Banking said that Citibank Japan’s affluent customer base was very attractive. “Its customer base is different from that of Japanese banks,” Nobuaki Kurumatani, senior managing director of Sumitomo Mitsui Banking, said at a news briefing. He also said that Citibank Japan’s ¥1 trillion worth of foreign currency deposits from customers was valuable for his bank, which is aggressively expanding overseas lending and needs more stable sources of dollar funding. The companies said the deal was expected to close next October, subject to regulatory approval. Citigroup said this past fall that it was pulling out of consumer banking in 11 markets, including Japan, to cut costs. Its Japanese consumer banking business has been hurt by weak loan demand and falling interest margins.

Banking and Finance
Mergers and Acquisitions
Citigroup
Sumitomo Mitsui Banking


U.S. Ties El Salvador, Ending Olympic Hopes

Abstract: NASHVILLE — The American players, almost to a man, sank to their knees in shock and exhaustion. Seconds from earning the victory it needed to retain hope of qualifying for the London Olympics, the United States had victory slip through its grasp Monday night. Thanks to the menacing creativity of Freddy Adu , the Americans were leading El Salvador by a goal late in their must-win qualifying match at LP Field. But then, in injury time, Jaime Alas booted a long, hopeful shot that skipped once before bouncing devastatingly off the hands of goalkeeper Sean Johnson and into the goal for a 3-3 tie. The Americans, who found themselves on the verge of elimination after a shock loss to Canada over the weekend, needed a win to advance to the semifinals of the regional qualifying tournament. A victory there would have sent them to London. Now, their elimination from Olympic contention becomes the latest setback for a national program that continues to make strides but seems in perpetual search of global respect. “It’s a painful moment,” said Coach Caleb Porter, clearly shaken up during his postgame news conference. “I’m sorry for the fans, and I’m sorry for U.S. Soccer, that we didn’t get the job done.” Porter waved away the suggestion that his players were unprepared for their opponents. “Our team was ready to play,” he said. “You saw that from the opening whistle.” The first goal came just 61 seconds after the opening whistle, when Brek Shea turned inside one defender on the left side and surged past another before curling a cross toward the 6-yard box. There, Terrence Boyd met the ball with a slashing run and pounded it out of the air and into the net with a left-footed volley. But the United States midfielders conceded possession far too easily after that, opening a window for El Salvador. In the 35th minute, Lester Blanco outleaped Kofi Sarkodie to glance a header inside the right post. The goal tied the score, and it seemed to cause the American defense to quiver. Two minutes later, Alas, alone among a crowd of defenders, spun and smacked a harmless, blind shot through the penalty area. But neither the starting goalkeeper, Bill Hamid, nor any American defender stepped forward, allowing Andres Flores to slip through and fire the go-ahead goal under Hamid. El Salvador’s first two goals came against a hobbled Hamid. About 30 minutes into the match, he appeared to hurt his ankle thwarting a breakaway. Two goals later, he limped off the field and was replaced by Johnson. With the United States trailing at halftime, 2-1, Porter did not make any changes, a curious decision for a team in need of a lift. But the trust he showed paid off in the 65th minute. After spinning off his man, Adu sent an incisive pass between three defenders and into space for Boyd, who made a cool, sliding finish to tie the score. Adu, the United States captain, had probed and prodded the Salvadoran defense all match, providing spark and invention for an otherwise unimaginative attack. Three minutes later, Adu again provided the impetus from the right side, creating space with a shimmying dribble, then floating a cross to the far side of goal. The ball hung ominously in the air before Joe Corona rose over the shoulders of Alexander Mendoza to knock it into the bottom left corner of the net. The feeling of triumph did not last. Porter said afterward that his players were devastated. Johnson, in particular, was inconsolable in the locker room. “I just hugged him and cried with him,” Porter said of Johnson. “What more can you do?” Among the boisterous crowd of 7,889, American fans were outnumbered and drowned out by supporters of El Salvador. But the two contingents cheered in unison earlier in the night when Maykel Reyes scored a goal in injury time to give Cuba an unlikely tie with Canada in the night’s first match. Beyond the odd sight of hundreds of Americans chanting: “Cuba! Cuba!” the result ensured that the winner of the second game would top Group A and earn a more favorable berth — specifically a chance to avoid Mexico — in the semifinals. The United States team, after a wild but ultimately devastating game, will not enjoy that luxury.

Soccer
Olympic Games (2012)
United States
El Salvador
Johnson Sean
Adu Freddy


Jury Awards New York Firefighters $183 Million in 2005 Blaze

Abstract: It was a day in New York City that no firefighter could forget: Six of the department’s own, battling a blaze in a Bronx apartment building on a brutally cold Sunday in 2005, became trapped on the fourth floor, hemmed in by illegal drywall partitions and unable to find the fire escape. Two would die after jumping out of the building . Four others were severely injured, one of whom died six years later. On that same day, Jan. 23, 2005, another firefighter would die while fighting a house fire in Brooklyn. Those fires, which claimed the lives of Lt. Curtis Meyran and Firefighter John Bellew in the Bronx, and Firefighter Richard Sclafani in Brooklyn, made that day the deadliest for firefighters in New York City since Sept. 11, 2001. On Monday, more than a decade after what came to be known as Black Sunday, a State Supreme Court jury in the Bronx awarded five of the firefighters who battled the Bronx blaze and their families $183 million in damages from the city and the building’s owner, a result their lawyer called long-awaited vindication. The family of the sixth firefighter had settled its case before the verdict. About $140 million will be paid by the city, which the firefighters’ lawyer, Vito Cannavo, had argued was at fault because it had failed to equip firefighters with the proper ropes to escape. The rest will be paid by one of the building’s former owners, 234 East 178th Street L.L.C., which settled with all six firefighters and their families before the verdict. The judge has some discretion over the final amount. During the trial, whose opening arguments were held in November, Mr. Cannavo said he had argued that not only had the city done away in 2000 with the ropes it once issued to firefighters for their safety, but it had also failed to make any effort to replace them, a choice he said had fatal consequences. A spokesman for the Fire Department said that a number of policy changes resulted from the fire, and that all firefighters are now issued ropes. A spokesman for the city’s Law Department said the jury had placed too much of the blame on the city. “The city has always viewed this incident as a tragedy for the firefighters and their families, but we believe that the jury’s verdict does not fairly apportion liability in view of compelling evidence that established that the landlord’s numerous building code violations were directly responsible for this horrible event,” the spokesman, Nick Paolucci, said in a statement. “We will review the record and evaluate our legal options.” A lawyer for 234 East 178th Street L.L.C. could not be reached for comment. A criminal trial in 2009 against 234 East 178th Street L.L.C. and another former owner of the building, which focused largely on the illegal partitions, resulted in convictions on charges of criminally negligent homicide and reckless endangerment. But a judge overturned the conviction a year later. That, said Mr. Cannavo, who represented five of the six firefighters, is why the verdict on Monday was “such a big case for them, because they finally got some vindication and some satisfaction.”

Fires
Fire Department NYC
Lawsuits
Bronx