N.B.A. Finals: LeBron James and Cavaliers Hold Off Warriors

Abstract: CLEVELAND — The game operations staff at Quicken Loans Arena chronicled Stephen Curry’s slow walk back to the visitors’ locker room late Tuesday by showing a few of his halting steps on the Humongotron, the enormous, flame-spewing video board that looms over the court here. Curry had done nearly everything for the Golden State Warriors in the fourth quarter, shooting and scoring and muffling a crowd that had spent the first three quarters cheering his every miss and mistake. But despite his late-game pyrotechnics, he still left in defeat as the Cavaliers — the injured, undermanned Cavaliers — escaped with a 96-91 victory in Game 3 of the N.B.A. finals to seize a two-games-to-one advantage in the best-of-seven series. “You can’t rely on your comeback abilities every game to win a series like this,” Curry said. Curry needs only minutes to change the tenor of a game or an entire series, and he nearly erased 36 minutes of lackluster basketball by scoring 17 points in the fourth quarter, helping the Warriors whittle a 20-point deficit to 1. But the Warriors left themselves with too much work, and LeBron James — who else? — left his ferocious imprint on another pivotal win. James, who has hauled the Cavaliers to within two wins of their first N.B.A. championship, finished with 40 points, 12 rebounds and 8 assists. He has now scored, assisted or created 200 of the Cavaliers’ 291 points through the first three games of the series, according to Synergy Sports Tech — the sort of production that is hard to fathom. Curry, who seldom looked unsure of himself during the regular season, when he was the league’s most valuable player, scored just 3 points in the first half before finishing with 27. He shot 10 of 20, a positive sign amid another otherwise bleak effort for the Warriors. Harrison Barnes and Draymond Green combined to shoot 2 of 16. “I didn’t like our energy,” said Steve Kerr, the coach of the Warriors. “I didn’t like our body language for much of the first three quarters. This is what we have to fight through. Things aren’t going our way? It doesn’t matter. You’ve got to fight through.” James, who shot 14 of 34, sealed the win by sinking two free throws after Curry buried his seventh and final 3-pointer with 18.9 seconds left. Matthew Dellavedova, a plucky point guard who is fast becoming a folk hero in Cleveland, scored 20 points when he was not diving into courtside seats as he pursued loose balls. “Delly’s the most Cleveland-like Australian I’ve ever met in my life,” said David Blatt, the coach of the Cavaliers. “And if you’re from Cleveland, you know just what I’m talking about.” Game 4 is scheduled for Thursday night at Quicken Loans Arena. It was the first finals game in Cleveland since 2007, when the Cavaliers were in the process of getting swept by the San Antonio Spurs. James spent three more championship-free seasons in Cleveland before he left for the Miami Heat in search of an elusive title, eventually winning two. So his return to Cleveland has been both celebratory and expectant, as the city waits and hopes and dreams of an end to its decades-long championship drought. Image LeBron James, dunking over Golden State’s Klay Thompson in the fourth quarter, had 40 points, 12 rebounds and 8 assists for Cleveland. Credit Jason Miller/Getty Images The crowd roared 17 minutes before the tip when the Cavaliers took the court for warm-ups, the arena already full, James bobbing his head to the beat of a hip-hop track. He drove for a layup on the game’s opening possession, and the building shook. In previous playoff runs, James often operated as a facilitator, creating open shots for teammates and taking his own when they materialized. He was not known as a high-volume shooter. He would take his healthy share, of course, but the ball tended to move from one set of hands to the next. Back in Cleveland, as the only remaining boldface name on a roster stricken by season-ending injuries to Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love, James has been left with a hodgepodge cast of role players and aging parts. And so he has taken matters into his own hands, launching shots with gluttonous ferocity — for better or for worse. “This is a totally different challenge,” James said. After attempting 73 shots through the first two games of the series, James seemed determined to match that output in Game 3. He attacked again and again, shooting over defenders, absorbing contact, seeking the rim. “LeBron’s making some crazy plays,” Curry said. In a game that quickly turned into another defensive tussle, the Cavaliers led by 24-20 after the first quarter. James was 3 of 10 from the field, and Curry was 1 of 5. The Warriors shot 34.1 percent in the first half and trailed, 44-37. They looked half bewildered, half exhausted. About eight hours before the game, after the Warriors’ morning shootaround, Curry sat at the center of 40-some reporters and answered about a dozen questions that were mild variations on the same, well-established theme: his shooting woes. Curry, who entered these finals with a growing reputation as one of the greatest shooters the planet has ever known, assured everyone that he felt fine, that his shoulder was healthy, that he was not dealing with any adverse effects from a hard tumble in the Western Conference finals. His recent struggles? His 5-of-23 effort in Game 2? Just one of those things, he said. He would find a way out of it. “Just got to shoot better,” he said in what qualified as an expansive moment. He finally did, with an assist from his teammates. Early in the fourth, Klay Thompson and Andre Iguodala made consecutive 3-pointers to cut the Cavaliers’ lead to 72-63. The crowd, so hyped from the start, murmured. Concern grew into panic. “We became the aggressors,” Curry said. The Cavaliers’ lead melted to 6 when Leandro Barbosa scored on a runner, to 5 when David Lee rebounded a miss and dunked, to 4 when Curry hit a 3-pointer, to 3 when Curry (again) sliced through a maze of defenders for an up-and-under layup. The lead was 1 when Curry sank another 3-pointer, but Dellavedova got inside for a layup and a foul. After Curry threw a pass out of bounds, James buried a 3-pointer with less than two minutes remaining to give the Cavaliers some breathing room — just enough. Curry said he thought he figured out how he might be able to attack pick-and-rolls as the series moved on. “I’ll keep that in the memory bank,” he said.

Basketball
Stephen Curry
LeBron James
Matthew Dellavedova
Cavaliers
Golden State Warriors
NBA Championship


Search Continues After Oil Rig Blast

Abstract: NEW ORLEANS — An explosion on an oil drilling rig off the coast of southeast Louisiana left at least 3 people critically injured and 11 others missing as of Wednesday night. Rescue teams were searching the area in the Gulf of Mexico by helicopter, plane and boat, Coast Guard officials said. “We have no idea where the 11 unaccounted-for personnel are at this time,” Rear Adm. Mary Landry, the commander of the Coast Guard’s Eighth District, said at a news conference. The explosion occurred Tuesday night, and on Wednesday afternoon crews were still fighting the fire, which was largely contained to the rig but in photographs provided by the Coast Guard appeared to be shooting enormous plumes of flame into the air. Admiral Landry estimated that 13,000 gallons of crude were pouring out per hour. Officials said the pollution was considered minimal so far because most of the oil and gas was being burned up in the fire. “But that does have the potential to change,” said David Rainey, the vice president in charge of the Gulf of Mexico exploration for BP, which is leasing the rig. Seven oil-spill response vessels were en route to forestall any spreading of the oil in the ocean, Mr. Rainey said. The rig was taking on water from the firefighting efforts, causing it to list up to 10 degrees, but company officials said they did not expect it to collapse. Firefighting crews intended to use a remote-controlled vehicle to plug the well and cut off the fuel for the fire, but it is unclear how long such an operation would take. Seventeen crew workers were injured, three of them critically, and were taken to hospitals in the region, said Adrian Rose, an executive for Transocean, the company that owns the rig. The injuries included burns, smoke inhalation and broken legs. At least eight people were treated and released from hospitals. It was unclear what caused the explosion. “We’ve had hurricanes and fires on the rigs, but I can’t remember that we ever had this type of explosion and definitely not on this type of rig,” said Billy Nungesser, the president of nearby Plaquemines Parish, where some oil rig workers live. “This is one of the largest, deep water, off-shore drilling rigs.” Officials from the Minerals Management Service, a bureau of the Department of Interior, were assembling an investigation team and planned to interview the crew members — those who were unscathed or sustained only minor injuries, said Deputy Secretary David Hayes of the Interior Department. Those workers were being transported to Port Fourchon on Wednesday night. Mr. Hayes said the Minerals Management Service had performed three inspections of the rig this year, including one in the past month, and found no cause for concern. The explosion occurred at about 10 p.m. Central time on Tuesday night, and came without warning, Mr. Rose said. “This would have happened very, very rapidly,” he said. Most of the 126-person crew was able to evacuate onto lifeboats; some were picked up by other offshore vessels in the area. Most of the crew worked for Transocean, though a small team of Transocean and BP executives had flown out to the rig before the explosion. Officials said about 40 of the people on the rig worked for different companies. The oil drilling rig, called Deepwater Horizon, is positioned about 50 miles southeast of Venice, La., in water nearly 5,000 feet deep. Transocean, a Swiss-based company, said the rig, one of the largest and most sophisticated in the world, has been under contract to BP since September 2007. It is a drilling rig, and was not producing any oil. The rig had drilled a well in the sea floor and was in one of the last phases of the operation, building a cement casing to reinforce the well. This can be a delicate phase given the potential for an uncontrolled gas release that could lead to what is called a blowout. Mr. Rose said it was too early to say that this is what happened, but that it was a possibility. The Deepwater Horizon can operate in water depths up to 8,000 feet, according to Transocean’s Web site. It is 396 feet long and 256 feet wide and was built in 2001 by Hyundai Heavy Industries Shipyard in South Korea. “It’s been generating substantial day rates, in the neighborhood of $500,000 a day,” said Greg Panagos, a spokesman for Transocean. Local officials had said earlier Wednesday that the missing crew workers had been found. But that report, along with one that they had been seen at one point in a life raft that had since been lost, turned out to be untrue. “I’ve been an analyst since 1999 and I can’t recall another incident like this one," said Robert MacKenzie, managing director of the energy and natural resources group of FBR Capital Markets. "There are rigs that burn down, but it’s usually during the drilling process and not when the rig is close to finishing the well.”

Oil (Petroleum) and Gasoline
Offshore Drilling and Exploration
Accidents and Safety
Explosions
Gulf of Mexico
BP Plc
Transocean Inc


Favre Offered Associate Role

Abstract: Brett Favre ’s reinstatement was put off again by Commissioner Roger Goodell on Friday while the team and Favre tried to find a way to end their standoff. Although Favre, who filed reinstatement papers earlier this week, has insisted for the last month that he wants to play again, he indicated in a text message to ESPN late Thursday that he was also considering accepting a multiyear, multimillion-dollar personal services contract. It would keep him associated with the team, but not as a player. Packers Coach Mike McCarthy said that the contract, which would involve promotional work for the team, was first proposed to Favre when he retired in March. The team president, Mark Murphy, reiterated the offer when he met with Favre in Mississippi this week. “Mark Murphy had talked to me about it in the past, how important it was for Brett to continue to be part of the organization after he was done playing,” McCarthy told reporters at training camp. “And frankly, it’s good for Brett, because Brett needs to stay part of football, and obviously he’s a part of the Green Bay Packers.” If Favre declines the offer and decides he wants to play, the Packers will have a tough decision.

Football
Favre Brett
Goodell Roger
Green Bay Packers


Nacchio Jury Ends 3rd Day

Abstract: DENVER, April 16 (AP) — Jurors went home Monday after a third day of deliberations in the $101 million insider trading trial of Joe Nacchio, the former head of Qwest Communications International . ”You’ve put in another long day so I’m going to let you go home for the evening,” the presiding Judge, Edward W. Nottingham, of United States District Court, said. The eight men and four women, wearing small bright yellow buttons designating them as jurors, arrived before 9 a.m. to begin their work behind locked doors in a 10th-floor office suite that belongs to Judge Nottingham. Mr. Nacchio, 57, is charged with 42 counts of insider trading.

Nacchio Joseph P
Suits and Litigation
Qwest Communications International Inc


Drug War Apparently Has Mexican President’s Attention

Abstract: MEXICO CITY — Even before he took office in December, Mexico’s president, Enrique Peña Nieto, made clear that he saw the drug war as his predecessor’s problem: a political liability best pushed aside to make room for his sunnier plans to overhaul the economy, education and energy. But crime and violence have returned to the spotlight. Over the past month, Mr. Peña Nieto has experienced a series of enforcement highs and lows that have experts on both sides of the border scratching their heads and wondering: what exactly is the security strategy of Mexico these days? Is it really all that different, or has Mr. Peña Nieto fallen (or been pushed) back into the same old approach? The Mexican military’s capture of a top leader with the Gulf Cartel on Saturday — as 23 bodies appeared in a pair of western states where the authorities have been battling gangs and vigilantes — has added to the sense of déjà vu. The arrest of Mario Armando Ramirez Treviño, a major drug boss in Reynosa, came just a few weeks after Mexican marines picked up an even more powerful capo : the leader of the Zetas, Miguel Ángel Treviño Morales, known as Z-40. What the detentions suggest, to some, is that Mr. Peña Nieto is no longer quite so opposed to making use of the American-led strategy of taking down cartel kingpins. It is, after all, what the system he inherited is set up to do. “Every Mexican administration has presided over the takedown of at least one major leader of organized crime,” said Alejandro Hope, a former government intelligence analyst. “There was no reason to believe this administration would be an exception.” Image Mario Armando Ramirez Treviño Credit Marco Ugarte/Associated Press The arrests may also be an effort to appease the United States, which had been growing frustrated with Mr. Peña Nieto’s decision to push American authorities into a position of on-call support: when the Mexican government needed help, it would ask. Some experts say the arrest of Z-40 on July 15 was a way to bring both sides back together. “They couldn’t have taken out Treviño without the United States,” said David Shirk, the director of the Trans-Border Institute at the University of San Diego . “That wasn’t a target of opportunity. That was Mexico saying: ‘What do the Americans want? What can we give them?’ And going after the Zetas is a mutual win.” By that point, security concerns were also demanding that attention be paid. In the states of Guerrero and Michoacán, masked men calling themselves community police were waging war with various gangs, including the Knights Templar, a reconstituted branch of the old La Familia cartel (known for rolling severed heads into a bar a few years ago). Mr. Peña Nieto’s response has been unequivocal. The federal government has sent in military troops, as his predecessor, Felipe Calderón, had done when the area spiraled out of control. Some Peña Nieto officials have even started using a form of Mr. Calderón’s famously militaristic rhetoric, using words like “traitors” to describe those who pass information to the Knights Templar. “The Michoacán strategy is very much what we saw with Calderón,” Mr. Hope said. Mr. Peña Nieto has emphasized that his approach is different because it includes better coordination across government institutions. On Sunday, Eduardo Sanchez Hernandez, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry, made a similar argument regarding Saturday’s arrest of Mr. Ramirez, noting that not a single shot was fired in a joint operation involving the army, federal police and attorney general’s office. But if control is a sign of competence — as Mr. Peña Nieto and his party, the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or P.R.I. — have long maintained, what should be made of the release on Aug. 9 of a drug lord who had been one of the United States’ most despised criminals? Rafael Caro Quintero had spent 28 years in prison for the murder of Enrique Camarena, known as Kiki, a Drug Enforcement Administration agent who was abducted, tortured and killed in 1985. But, without advance notice, a Mexican judge set him free on a technicality . Image Miguel Ángel Treviño Morales Credit Mexican Navy, via Associated Press Current and former American officials were stunned. “This is a particularly difficult one for us to just take lying down because it’s about a federal agent,” said John Negroponte, the American ambassador here from 1989 to 1993. “The U.S. government almost always feels obliged in that instance to take a very firm stance.” Still, he said, the links between Mexico and the United States are now too strong to be “walked back.” The question is how to move forward. Mr. Shirk said Mr. Peña Nieto had been quietly trying to address judicial reform by pushing for a new federal code of criminal procedure that could help solve the procedural issues that led to Mr. Caro Quintero’s release. But many experts say his administration is still too loyal to the dark arts of his party, which was Latin America’s ultimate political machine — only occasionally deigning to explain what was really going on during its rule from 1929 to 2000. If President Peña Nieto and the P.R.I. have evolved, Mr. Shirk said, it may be hard to know the scope of that evolution. “They came into this hoping they could use the ‘ostrich strategy’ and things would just go away,” he said, adding that even as crime once again refuses to go quietly, Mr. Peña Nieto and law enforcement officials may choose to keep the public in the dark. “I don’t think they want us to know what exactly they’re planning and what they are hoping to accomplish,” Mr. Shirk said in an interview. “It’s useful to keep their strategy close to the vest so they can control people’s perceptions.” In other words, without a clear target to shoot for, who can say Mr. Peña Nieto has missed?

Drug Abuse
Drug cartel
Enrique Pena Nieto
Mexico
Gulf Cartel
Zetas
Felipe Calderon
DEA


Rain Postpones Daytona Race

Abstract: Steady rain forced Nascar to postpone the Sprint Cup race at Daytona International Speedway. The Coke Zero 400 was rescheduled to start at 11 a.m. Sunday, about 14 hours after officials postponed the event.


At Vatican, Mayors Pledge Climate Change Fight

Abstract: VATICAN CITY — About 60 mayors from around the world gathered here on Tuesday and pledged to combat global warming and help the poor deal with its effects, at a conference swiftly organized by the Vatican barely a month after Pope Francis ’ sweeping encyclical on the environment. The two-day conference, which also focused on fighting forms of modern slavery, was not the first time that the Vatican had organized a meeting on the issue. But it was the first time that it specifically invited local officials, hoping to mobilize grass-roots action and maintain pressure on world leaders for action ahead of a global summit meeting on climate change scheduled for December in Paris. In Tuesday’s declaration, the mayors pledged to urge world leaders to pass a “bold climate agreement that confines global warming to a limit safe for humanity, while protecting the poor and the vulnerable from ongoing climate change that gravely endangers their lives.” Welcomed with great excitement, and some silence, Francis took the stage on Tuesday to thank the mayors for coming as protagonists from the “peripheries,” in his usual emphasis on the world’s forgotten areas and their people. “We can’t say that the person is here, and the care for the environment is there,” he explained in Spanish during his brief appearance to salute the conference attendees. “This is what I was trying to express in the encyclical “Laudato Si’, ” We can’t separate man from all else. There is a mutual impact.” “It’s not a green encyclical; it’s a social encyclical,” Francis said, commenting on his own much-debated work and explaining that creation and humanity are deeply intertwined. Francis told the audience he was worried about the uncontrolled growth of poverty belts around expanding cities with no care for the environment, and the ensuing suffering for those who inhabit the areas. He also expressed his concern about the “rebound effect” for human beings of the deforestation of the Amazon in Brazil, and for how the trafficking of people, forced labor and prostitution thrive in poor areas. And he urged the mayors sitting in front of him to pay increasing attention to the problem of environmental destruction. The mayors had, in fact, taken their task very seriously. “His Holiness did not convene us here to ratify the status quo, but in fact to upend it,” Bill de Blasio , mayor of New York, said in his 10-minute speech . “It’s increasingly clear that we, the local leaders of the world, have many tools, more than we may have in fact realized, and we must use them boldly even as our national governments hesitate.” In most countries, mayors can impose regulations to make buildings more energy efficient, encourage public transit and promote a green culture among residents, all crucial components of the larger challenge to combat climate change. “Political and business leaders are not taking climate change seriously enough,” Gov. Jerry Brown of California said in an interview before the conference. “The hope is that local government leaders can create pressure on the national leaders.” On Tuesday, some leaders recounted their cities’ experiences with natural catastrophes worsened by environmental degradation. Others spoke of social emergencies, like the mayor of the smallest town invited, Lampedusa, the tiny Italian island close to Tunisia where migrants crossing the Mediterranean have arrived by the thousands in recent years. The mayor of Stockholm, Karin Wanngard, took the opportunity to urge climate negotiators to eliminate the use of fossil fuels and switch to renewable energy sources. On Planet in Distress, a Papal Call to Action Pope Francis is issuing an encyclical focusing on an issue of grand scope, the care of the planet. And though he sees the poor as most affected by the economic and political systems underlying the crisis, his 184-page document is an urgent call to action. Some of those invited announced new measures for their cities, like Mr. de Blasio , who pledged to reduce greenhouse emissions in New York by 40 percent by 2030. Many local legislators voiced their frustration with opponents of action against climate change and people who reject established science on the issue. Mr. Brown, governor of the state with the strictest greenhouse emission standards in North America, chastised the denialists, saying they were trying to “falsify the scientific record” to convince officials and ordinary people that global warming was not taking place. The final declaration of Tuesday’s meeting defined human-induced climate change as a “scientific reality” and its control a “moral imperative for humanity.” The scientific community here welcomed the conference as a positive contribution to the international debate, albeit not one crucial for research purposes. “Of course the Vatican’s erudite contribution doesn’t add much to the scientific debate, but it has a great media power; no politician can completely ignore it,” said Enrico Brugnoli, director of the Department of Earth System Science and Environmental Technologies at Italy’s National Research Council. For many, the conference was a sign of Francis’ continuing interest in reaching out to ordinary people, as well as his commitment to pushing the message for radical changes contained in his encyclical, “Laudato Si’, ” or “May Praise Be To You,” published last month. “The Vatican wants to create proximity between what the pope says and people’s everyday life, and this is a first step,” said Paolo Rodari, a Vatican expert with the Italian daily newspaper La Repubblica. Alberto Melloni, a liberal scholar and Vatican historian, said the aim of the conference was “not to act as a third party with the U.N.” Rather, he said, “it’s more a call for action for mayors, for those who are really close to ordinary people, and make them responsible as well.” In his encyclical , Francis had already addressed “every person living on this planet,” calling on ordinary people to press for a grass-roots transformation of politics, economics and individual lifestyles to confront environmental degradation and climate change, in a critique of both consumerism and irresponsible development. Francis, who took the name of St. Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of animals and the environment, personally carried his message abroad during his recent trip to Latin America . There, he handed over a copy of “Laudato Si’ ” to President Evo Morales of Bolivia. In Ecuador, he delivered his first wide-ranging environmental message , calling on the nation to protect the Amazon rain forest. In most of his speeches, he stressed the importance of sustainable and equal development. “We need a moral dimension to the climate change debate, and Pope Francis is providing that,” Mr. Brown said. “That would add weight and force to the cause of dealing with climate change effectively.” Concluding his speech to the mayors, Francis took a moment to encourage international leaders. “I have great hopes for the Paris summit in December,” he said. “I have great hopes that a fundamental agreement is reached and that the United Nations takes a strong stand on climate change.”

Catholic Church
Climate Change
Global Warming
Pope Francis
Mayor
Vatican City
Environment
Poverty
Bill de Blasio


U.S. and Canada Urge New Safety Rules for Crude Oil Rail Shipments

Abstract: In a joint move that highlighted growing concerns about the safety of crude oil transportation by rail, officials from the United States and Canada issued a series of recommendations on Thursday, including that oil-laden trains avoid populated and sensitive areas. The recommendations, by the National Transportation Safety Board and the Transportation Safety Board of Canada, follow several catastrophic accidents and derailments of trains carrying crude oil in the last year, including one that killed 47 people last July in Lac-Mégantic, Quebec. According to these recommendations, oil carried on trains should be treated the same way as other dangerous materials like explosives or toxic materials. In those cases, rail carriers perform a more detailed security and safety analysis and look for alternative routes to avoid highly populated areas, iconic buildings, landmarks or environmentally sensitive regions. Railroads should also be required to develop spill-response plans similar to those that are required from pipeline operators, the recommendations said. Those plans would help emergency workers and could help reduce the impact of any spill. In addition, the safety officials also recommended making sure that hazardous cargo was properly classified. Investigators looking into the Lac-Mégantic accident found that the crude oil in transit had been mislabeled into a less hazardous category. Crude oil shipments by rail have soared in recent years, mostly because of the rapid rise in production from the Bakken shale region, which straddles North Dakota, Montana, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, as well as from Canada’s oil sands. Because of a lack of pipelines there, energy companies have turned to railroads to move their supplies to refineries. “The large-scale shipment of crude oil by rail simply didn’t exist 10 years ago, and our safety regulations need to catch up with this new reality,” said Deborah A. P. Hersman, the United States safety board’s chairwoman. “This is a huge change in what is being transported, and how it is being transported.” The safety board’s recommendations to the Federal Railroad Administration and the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, both part of the Department of Transportation, are not binding. But they have been made as regulators and industry officials have come under increasing pressure to improve safety standards. Last week, railroad executives met with transportation officials in Washington, including Anthony Foxx, the transportation secretary, and pledged to review safety procedures within 30 days. Among the measures being considered, Mr. Foxx said at the time, are ways to reroute crude oil trains around large cities. The Transportation Department said it was looking at all measures to ensure the safe transport of oil. Regulators have already been investigating the proper classification of crude shipments and said that more measures would be announced in coming weeks. Some experts said that rerouting trains was not as straightforward or practical as it sounded. “It is very difficult in many places because towns are often built around the main rail line, and there are not many alternatives around it,” said Brigham A. McCown, a former administrator of the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration. “And an alternative route might be twice as long and subject to other difficulties.” Canadian officials said that when rerouting was not practical or possible, railways should limit the size of trains carrying flammable liquids and reduce their speed. Safety officials in both countries also repeated their warnings about the type of tank cars, known as DOT-111s in the United States, that are used to carry crude oil and ethanol. Past investigations found that these tank cars do not provide sufficient protections in case of derailment and are prone to break or puncture too easily. But the United States and Canada have largely avoided taking effective action despite warnings for about 20 years. Oil trains derailed in Alabama in November and in North Dakota last month, though no one was injured. In both cases, there were large explosions after the tank cars ruptured and spilled large quantities of oil. “Derailments are not unusual, but what we have now is a very different commodity, and very different risk,” Ms. Hersman said in an interview. “These are high-consequence events. So far, we’ve had a lot of talk. We need to see action.” The large death toll and incineration last summer in Lac-Mégantic has created widespread unease in Canada, and made further inaction politically difficult. “Clearly based on the science in Lac-Mégantic, these materials should not be carried in class 111 tank cars,” Wendy A. Tadros, chairwoman of the Transportation Safety Board of Canada, said in Ottawa Thursday. In a statement, Lisa Raitt, Canada’s minister of transport, who is ultimately responsible for railroad regulation, said she had told her department, Transport Canada, “to review the recommendations on an urgent basis.” Removing or replacing older tank car models is also likely to be hard. The rail industry has proposed new standards for cars built after 2011 and regulators in the United States are reviewing what to do with the older models. In Canada, Ms. Tadros declined to propose a specific deadline for the removal of the older tank cars, saying that was an issue for Transport Canada and the industry to resolve. The agency estimates that 228,000 of the cars are in use on North American railways. “We know it can’t be done tomorrow,” she said, but added, “A long and gradual phaseout of older model cars simply isn’t good enough.”

Regulation and Deregulation
NTSB
Train wreck
Oil and Gasoline


Spaniard Wins Third Stage to Capture Vuelta Lead

Abstract: Alejandro Valverde of Movistar took the overall lead at the Vuelta a España after winning the third stage in a photo finish. Valverde edged a fellow Spaniard, Joaquim Rodriguez, at the end of the 96-mile mountain stage in the Basque town of Eibar, Spain. Valverde, who won the 2009 Vuelta before serving a two-year doping ban, took the red leader’s jersey with a 19-second lead over Rodriguez. ¶ Tyler Farrar of Wenatchee, Wash., bolted to the front in the final 100 yards and sprinted to win the opening stage of the USA Pro Cycling Challenge. The 125.7-mile stage finished in Telluride, Colo.

Bicycles and Bicycling
Vuelta a Espana (Bicycle Race)
Valverde Alejandro


Obama Makes Case for ‘Buffett Rule’

Abstract: BOCA RATON, Fla. — All but certain now that his Republican opponent will be Mitt Romney , President Obama has made his proposed “Buffett Rule” minimum tax for the wealthiest Americans like Mr. Romney a centerpiece of his re-election campaign, defying the political risk of being seen as a tax-and-spender by wary voters. With a rousing speech on Tuesday to a receptive university audience of about 5,000 in this battleground state, Mr. Obama defined the coming contest as a clash of philosophies: His argument that tax fairness and the common good demand the richest Americans pay at least as much as middle-income taxpayers do, contrasted with Republicans’ opposition to any tax increases as job killers and class warfare, even at the cost of deep cuts in domestic programs. While voters have not often rewarded candidates who advocate tax increases, Mr. Obama and his campaign advisers, in league with Democrats in Congress, express confidence that voters are on their side, with polls showing that Americans overwhelmingly agree that wealthy taxpayers should pay more and that they favor spending for programs like education, research and health care. The Democrats’ offensive, not coincidentally, is tied to the likelihood that Mr. Romney will be the nominee. Even as Mr. Obama was speaking at Florida Atlantic University, Mr. Romney’s chief Republican rival, former Senator Rick Santorum , was announcing that he is leaving the race. In past months Mr. Romney’s Republican rivals had caricatured him as a Wall Street investor raking in millions with job-cutting corporate takeovers and slashing his taxes through loopholes and Swiss bank accounts, so he was hardly likely to get off more easily with Democrats. At bottom, Mr. Obama seeks to talk about the still-weak economy and job creation in a way that plays to Mr. Romney’s weaknesses, and Republicans’ generally, and underplays his own political liabilities at a time of continued high unemployment and gas prices. “These folks, they keep telling us that if we just weaken regulations that keep our air or our water clean or protect our consumers, if we would just convert these investments that we’re making through our government in education and research and health care — if we just turned those into tax cuts, especially for the wealthy, then somehow the economy is going to grow stronger. That’s the theory,” Mr. Obama said, to applause and cheers. “And here’s the news: We tried this for eight years before I took office.” But despite anemic job growth in that period and then a recession and financial crash, Mr. Obama added, “A lot of the folks who were peddling these same trickle-down theories — including members of Congress and some people who are running for a certain office right now, who shall not be named — they’re doubling down on these old broken-down theories.” Even before Mr. Obama spoke, Mr. Romney and other Republicans were firing back, making clear they will try to make the president’s political gamble a loser. “President Obama is the first president in history to openly campaign for re-election on a platform of higher taxes,” the Romney campaign said in a statement from a spokeswoman, Gail Gitcho. “He has already raised taxes on millions of Americans, but he won’t stop there. He wants to raise taxes on millions more by taxing small businesses and job creators.” Before the Florida trip, the White House released a report by Mr. Obama’s economic team making the substantive case for what is essentially a political proposal since it has no chance of advancing in Congress before the election. The Buffett Rule would set a minimum tax rate of 30 percent for individuals on their annual income above $1 million. The report argued that the minimum tax would restore some fairness to the tax code and reduce economically inefficient gaming of the system. Over five decades since 1960, it said, the average tax rate paid by the wealthiest Americans has dropped much more than the rate for middle-income taxpayers, even as the income of those at the top of the scale has grown significantly more than for everyone else. “Look, I want folks to get rich in this country,” Mr. Obama said. “I think it’s wonderful when people are successful. That’s part of the American dream.” “But understand,” he added, “the share of our national income going to the top 1 percent has climbed to levels we haven’t seen since the 1920s. The folks who are benefiting from this are paying taxes at one of the lowest rates in 50 years.” And Mr. Romney will personify that issue if the Obama campaign has its way. With income mostly from investments, Mr. Romney paid a tax rate of about 14 percent on about $21 million in income in each of the past two years. That effective tax rate was far below the 35 percent top rate on the highest incomes because much of his income is from capital gains and dividends, which are taxed at 15 percent, and because he claimed an assortment of tax deductions. Hedge fund managers and private equity investors similarly pay the 15 percent rate on their income. On a White House conference call with reporters, one asked administration officials why they did not simply call it the Romney Rule, given the political overtones. Yet the politics are not clear-cut. “If the focus is making the wealthy pay their fair share to reduce the deficit, or even fairness more generally, Democrats do well,” said Mark Mellman, a Democratic pollster. “If the issue is taxes, Democrats can have trouble. It’s a delicate line to walk.” “But here,” Mr. Mellman added, “Republicans are on the defensive because they have proven willing to sacrifice anything and everything to protect tax breaks for millionaires.” While Republicans are reviving the label of tax-and-spend liberal to tar Mr. Obama, David Winston, a Republican pollster who advises House leaders, said the president’s bigger risk was that voters would decide “that he doesn’t have a solution to the problem of jobs and the economy.” “The No. 1 issue is jobs and the economy, so any proposal put forward has to look like it will advance that,” Mr. Winston said, adding, “I don’t think anybody believes that raising taxes ever grows the economy and creates jobs.” Mr. Obama’s speech was billed as official business — and thus his trip was partly billed to taxpayers — yet it was sandwiched between his appearances at political fund-raisers, including with donors who would be hit by the tax increase. The speech, too, seemed like a campaign rally with Mr. Obama in rolled-up shirt-sleeves and shouting at times, and his audience — full of the young voters whose support he seeks again — shouting back his slogan, “Yes we can!” and “Four more years!”

Income tax
Barack Obama
Mitt Romney
US Politics
2012 Presidential Election
HNWI,Wealth,Billionaires,1 Percent


South Africa’s Poor Demand Basic Services

Abstract: SIYATHEMBA, South Africa — This country’s rituals of protest most often call for the burning of tires, the barricading of streets and the throwing of rocks. So when the municipal mayor here went to address the crowd after three days of such agitation, the police thought it best to take him into the stadium in a blast-resistant armored vehicle. Chastened by the continuing turmoil, the mayor, Mabalane Tsotetsi, known as Lefty, penitently explained that all of the protesters’ complaints would be given his full attention. But by then official promises were a deflated currency, and rocks and bottles were again flying as he retreated. The reasons for this community’s wrath — unleashed first in late July and again briefly a month later — were ruefully familiar to many South Africans. “Water, electricity, unemployment: nothing has gotten better,” said Lifu Nhlapo, 26, a leader of the protests here in Siyathemba, a township 50 miles east of Johannesburg. “We feel an anger, and when we are ignored, what else is there to do but take to the streets?” Civil unrest among this nation’s poor has recently gotten worldwide attention , and is often portrayed as unhappiness with South Africa’s new president, Jacob Zuma. Actually, these so-called service delivery protests have gone on with regularity for a long time. They vary in intensity — mild, medium and hot — and their frequency seems to rise and fall without a predictable pattern. Oddly enough, the protests can be seen as a measure of progress as well as frustration. Since the arrival of democracy 15 years ago, the percentages of households with access to piped water, a flush toilet or a connection to the power grid have notably increased. Those people left waiting are often angry, and so far their ire has not usually been directed at the president — who has been able to use the protests to his political advantage — but at municipal officials they consider uncaring, incompetent and corrupt. “No one wants to be worse off than their neighbor,” said Kevin Allan, managing director of Municipal IQ , a company that monitors the performance of local government. “People get impatient.” The places most ripe for unrest are neither the poorest communities nor those with the longest backlog in setting up services, he said. Most commonly, the protests are rooted in informal settlements that have sprung up near urban areas, where the poor who do not receive government services rub up against the poor who do. Whatever the causes for the protests, the governing African National Congress appears to take them quite seriously. Party leaders have been dispatched to hot spots, where they usually end up investigating their fellow party members. Local government, like national government, is largely dominated by the A.N.C. In Siyathemba, the emissary from on high was Mr. Zuma himself. On the afternoon of Aug. 4, his helicopter set down on a rocky soccer field, with bodyguards and a BMW waiting. He eventually proceeded to the town of Balfour, the seat of municipal government. Mayor Tsotetsi, at home at the time, rushed back to the office to meet his unannounced visitor. Commentators had a good laugh about that, presuming the mayor a goldbrick who likes to knock off early. “There is no place that will be hidden from me,” Mr. Zuma announced, leaving the impression he was now a sort of caped superhero who would pop up wherever malingerers were not earning their government paychecks. Though the president also denounced lawbreaking by protesters, his visit seemed an endorsement to those here who had vented their anger. “Zuma agrees with us, that all these mayors and councilors who are not performing have to go,” said Zakhele Maya, 26, another leader of the demonstrations. Siyathemba has a population of about 6,000 and an unemployment rate of 82 percent, more than triple the nation’s rate, according to official statistics. Most here live in shacks of corrugated metal, the roofs kept in place with strategically placed rocks. Many of the dwellings sag in the middle as if they were melting in the hot sun. Clusters of shacks here look about the same, but some are settlements that have been “formalized,” which means that the hovels, however dilapidated, have electricity inside and a water tap and flush toilet nearby. Those people living in communities without this imprimatur must light their homes with kerosene or paraffin and wait in lines, pail in hand, at a single communal spigot. “This is no way to live,” said Mercy Mbiza, 38. “We have to dig a pit for a toilet, and when it’s full, we dig another. They tell us we are on a waiting list to get services. Whether I will die first, I don’t know.” Rumors — true or not — are dangerous combustibles in places like this. People are suspicious that money meant for them is being stolen or wasted by the big shots in Balfour. Some goings-on simply make no sense. For instance, Arlene Moloi’s house has four pillars and a roof and only emptiness in between. The municipality paid someone to construct it in 1996, but the builder suddenly disappeared after starting the job. “The officials tell me they are waiting for the same man to come back and finish,” said Ms. Moloi, a 54-year-old widow. “But it already has been 13 years.” The Siyathemba protests began with a meeting of disgruntled young people, some of them members of political youth groups, others players on sports teams. They compiled a list of their many grievances. They wanted more water and electricity, yes. But they also wanted better roads, a local hospital and a police station. Beyond that, they wanted jobs. This list of demands was left at the municipal hall in Balfour. “Some of these things — hospitals, police stations — these are matters to take up at the provincial level,” said the municipality’s spokesman, Mohlalefi Lebotha. “Where is the money for these things, not just to construct them but to sustain them?” At first, Mr. Tsotetsi did not meet with the disgruntled. Nor did he call a special session of the municipal council as the protesters had demanded. This slow, even indifferent response seemed to mock the petitioners’ seriousness. After a mass meeting on a Sunday, many protesters took to the streets. The police confronted them, relying on a rather indiscriminate spray of rubber bullets. The crowd fought back, shouting “azikhwelwa,” meaning that everything must shut down: no one goes to work, no one attends school. “People knew how to act from the days of the liberation struggle,” said Mr. Maya, the protest leader. “We sang the songs, telling those who are scared to step aside so the brave can move ahead and advance the struggle. “In South Africa, the struggle is not yet over.”

South Africa
Demonstrations and Riots
Politics and Government


Heralding a Vampire Sequel, Week After Week

Abstract: While theater owners are celebrating a bespectacled wizard this week, a television channel devoted to movies, ReelzChannel, is looking ahead to another hit book-and-film franchise, one of the vampire variety. Next month, ReelzChannel will introduce a weekly prime-time show about “Twilight” in advance of the second film in the series, “New Moon,” which arrives in November. Executives at the channel, a unit of the Hubbard Media Group, say they believe it is the first weekly TV show dedicated to an individual movie. Take that, Harry Potter . “Twilight Weekly: Spotlight” is a testament to the audience demand for news and behind-the-scenes views of the vampire love story, said Stan Hubbard, the chief executive of ReelzChannel. “It really is a phenomenon,” he said. It also shows just how fragmented TV can be, with room on cable now for a TV show about a single movie. The three-year-old ReelzChannel, which says it is available in about 47 million cable and satellite homes, is unlike TCM or AMC in that it does not primarily show feature films; instead, it previews them, talks about them and pays respect to them. “Twilight Weekly,” which is scheduled to begin on Aug. 10, is an offshoot of “Spotlight,” a movie documentary series. It will be produced independently of Summit Entertainment, the studio responsible for the “Twilight” films, even though the episodes are likely to indirectly market them. Mr. Hubbard said that Summit had not bought advertisements during the series. For a channel in search of attention, “Twilight” is an obvious attraction. Worldwide, the four books have sold more than 50 million copies combined. The first film, released last fall, has sold more than $380 million in tickets to date. No wonder ReelzChannel executives are enthusiastic. “We call ourselves ‘Twi-hards’ because we’re so deep into this,” Mr. Hubbard said. The “Spotlight” documentaries about other films have spurred interest from studios and distributors, Mr. Hubbard said. An edition about Harry Potter had its premiere last week. A year or two ago, the channel would have considered a Potter series, Mr. Hubbard said, but “right now ‘Twilight’ is in a league of its own with its fan base.” BRIAN STELTER

Twilight (Movie)
Movies
Television
Vampires
Twilight Weekly (TV Program)


Baseball Has a New Policy on Netting, but There’s a Catch

Abstract: Joe Nocera is the new sports business columnist for The New York Times. You can read more of his columns here . Last week, during the Major League Baseball owners’ meeting, the commissioner’s office issued a news release outlining its new netting policy. While he explained that he did not want to rob fans of the “unparalleled proximity and access to our players,” Commissioner Rob Manfred also said that was important “that fans have the option of sitting behind protective netting” in those areas of the ballpark where (and these are my words) a screaming foul ball coming into the stands at 85 miles an hour might crush the skull of a child. After a spate of recent injuries from foul balls and broken bats, resulting in both heightened awareness and lawsuits (one of which I wrote about last month ), the league clearly felt it had to do something. Image In 2014, an 8-year-old boy was struck in the head by a foul ball at a game between the Atlanta Braves and the Milwaukee Brewers. He was treated at a hospital and released. Credit Todd Kirkland/Associated Press What Manfred announced, however, could not have been more lame. Under the new policy, teams are “encouraged” to extend the netting behind home plate a mere 70 feet or so down the foul lines, to the “near ends of both dugouts” — that is, the end of the dugout closest to home plate. Note that this is not a mandate but merely a recommendation. It also calls on teams to “explore ways to educate their fans” on the inherent dangers of sitting close to the action and the importance of paying attention. And it wants teams and ticket vendors to make clear to the fans which seats are protected when they are buying tickets. There is so much wrong with this policy it is hard to know where to start. “Encouraged?” Something as serious as protecting fans from life-altering injuries should not be left to the teams themselves. Major League Baseball should insist on protective netting, just as the National Hockey League did in 2002 after a 13-year-old girl was killed by a flying puck. And the 70-foot extension baseball is suggesting is absurd. Think about it: Where do the hardest-hit foul balls land? The area between home plate and the beginning of the dugout certainly has its share of danger. But a large majority of foul balls that are truly crushed land beyond the end of the dugout; the injured fan I recently wrote about, Andy Zlotnick, who sustained severe facial and eye damage when he was hit by a ball at Yankee Stadium in 2011, was sitting some 50 feet past the end of the dugout. (Dan Halem, Major League Baseball’s chief legal officer, said in response to emailed questions that baseball studied data “regarding where foul balls and bats enter the stands.”) On Wednesday, the Minnesota Twins disclosed that by next season their netting would extend to the far end of the dugout, not the near end. That’s still not good enough, but it is better than the league’s new policy. It seems clear that the commissioner’s office and the teams have two primary concerns that are preventing them from extending netting all the way down the foul line. Image Fans watched the Columbus Blue Jackets play their first exhibition game at home with new safety nets. In 2002, the N.H.L. mandated safety netting at its arenas after a girl was struck in the head by a puck and died from her injuries. Credit Chris Putman/Associated Press The first, which is implicit in the news release, is that baseball’s treasured intimacy between fans and players will be lost with additional netting. But that is a fixable problem. As anyone who sits behind home plate can tell you, netting technology is significantly improved, so the experience of watching the game through a net is not nearly as degraded as it once was. Besides, would it really be that difficult for teams to install netting that could be hoisted like a theater curtain between half-innings, thus still allowing the first baseman to toss a ball to a child as he trots to the dugout? The netting could then rise again as a batter steps up to begin the next inning. (Halem said that retractable netting would be “unfeasible and impractical in many ballparks.”) The second concern, I’m convinced, is that M.L.B. is worried that netting will make some of the most expensive seats, the ones around the dugouts, less desirable. One way some clubs took care of that problem with the seats behind home plate was to establish V.I.P. “clubs” for those fans. Many teams already treat the fans in those expensive dugout-area seats like V.I.P.s. With netting, they might be moved to add a few additional benefits. In any case, I seriously doubt that netting would degrade the economic value of those seats, though Halem says that “many fans desire seats that are not behind netting.” Image Get the latest tweets from @NYTSports , including breaking news, analysis and live updates. Now let’s tackle the part of the release that discusses the importance of fan vigilance. This has been baseball’s longstanding policy: it is up to the fans to pay attention , and when they come to the ballpark, they do so knowing that they are assuming the risk they might be hurt. As I have noted previously, this “assumption of risk” doctrine — also known as the Baseball Rule — has been accepted by most courts, and is the reason that ball clubs have escaped legal liability, even as some fans have racked up hundreds of thousands of dollars in surgical costs, along with permanent injuries, after being hit by a foul ball. But, as E. Michael Moran, an Atlanta lawyer, told me recently, “The game is different now. Ballparks are configured differently than they were 20 or 30 years ago; the foul lines are closer to the stands. Pitchers throw harder. Batters hit the ball harder. All these things increase the risk.” A sharply hit foul ball can reach the stands in a second or less. Can even the most attentive child really be expected to get out of the way in a second? Moran represents a young girl who was hit in the head by a Melky Cabrera foul ball during an Atlanta Braves game in 2010, resulting in a shattered skull and traumatic brain injury. Although the Braves tried to use the assumption of risk doctrine to get the case tossed, the Georgia court of appeals ruled last year that the case could go forward. After doing some discovery — and realizing, among other things, that the players union has tried to bargain for additional netting but had always been shot down by the league — Moran added Major League Baseball as a defendant. The lawsuit also notes that Cabrera has been a steroid user, he was suspended two years after hitting the little girl, which was a risk no fan could be expected to assume. Image At Fenway Park, fans are warned. An "assumption of risk” doctrine — also known as the “Baseball Rule” — has been accepted by most courts, and is a reason teams often escape legal liability when fans are injured. Credit Michael Dwyer/Associated Press In fact, baseball’s assumption of risk doctrine is under legal assault. Zlotnick, the fan who was hit in 2011, argues that his vision was blocked by umbrellas during a rainy game; his case is pending. Last month, an appeals court in Ohio reversed a lower-court ruling in favor of the Cleveland Indians in a fan injury case. In Boston, an injured fan is suing the Red Sox owner John Henry; according to her lawsuit, she was seated in an area above home plate that was supposed to have protective glass, but it had been removed for renovation. In Idaho, the State Supreme Court ruled a few years ago that a man who lost an eye — yes, lost an eye — during a minor league game could continue his lawsuit. As The Associated Press put it , the court decided not to impose the Baseball Rule, “instead choosing to let a jury decide if watching baseball is an inherently dangerous activity done at the spectator’s own risk.” It’s only a matter of time before the Baseball Rule collapses of its own immoral weight. In truth, if baseball started thinking more about the fans and less about its legal liability, much of the litigation around fan injuries might well go away. Zlotnick has spent his career as a real estate lawyer. In the years since his injury, he’s thought a lot about how teams might compensate fans for the medical cost of serious injuries (plus pain and suffering when the injuries are lasting) without creating a financial windfall for a fan who sprains a finger trying to catch a foul ball. To my mind, his most inspired idea is to use a method called, of all things, “baseball arbitration.” If you are a close follower of baseball, you know what baseball arbitration is. It is most commonly used in the three years before a player has full free-agency rights, during which he nonetheless can contest his team’s salary offer in arbitration. Here’s how it works: Both he and the team submit a dollar figure to an arbitrator. After a hearing, assuming the two sides don’t settle, the arbitrator must pick one of the two numbers. He’s not allowed to split the difference. Baseball arbitration is frequently used in the real estate industry. “It keeps everybody honest,” Zlotnick told me. Neither side has an incentive to submit an outrageous figure because doing so will virtually guarantee a loss to the more reasonable party. Applied to fan injuries, baseball arbitration would work the same way: the fan would submit medical bills and other documents relating to loss of work and the permanence of the injury. He or she would cite a dollar amount for proposed compensation. The team would submit its number. The arbitrator would decide. Personal injury lawyers would most likely turn down frivolous cases because they would be too expensive to prepare for, and would rarely be won. And teams would spend significantly less money than if they had to defend a lawsuit. Indeed, the amount of money needed to compensate for fan injuries would be peanuts for baseball, which generated $9.5 billion in 2015, according to Forbes, and hopes to increase that to $15 billion in the coming years. Image The Braves' Eury Perez collected himself after a foul ball hit a fan in the stands during a game at Milwaukee in July. Credit Icon Sportswire, via Associated Press Zlotnick also believes that this compensation scheme should apply not only to fans who are hurt in the future, but also to those who have suffered in the past. Like Laura Turek, the single mom who was hit in the eye last season during a game between the Braves and the Milwaukee Brewers, and now has some $200,000 in medical bills. Or the woman who was struck in the face by a ball in 2011 during a game between the Houston Astros and the Baltimore Orioles. Ten operations later, she has permanent scars, facial paralysis and medical bills that exceed $500,000. There are more just like them. There’s another benefit that would arise from a compensation scheme for injured fans: Baseball would finally get religious about protecting fans with additional netting. The new policy announced by Manfred would be seen for what it is: a fig leaf. In addition to answering my specific questions, Halem sent me a statement late Thursday afternoon. “The recommendations strike a balance between providing a reasonable inventory of seats behind protective netting at each stadium while at the same time accommodating fans who desire seats with unobstructed access to players and on-field activity,” it reads. “Both fan safety and fan choice are extremely important to M.L.B., and these recommendations reflect those principles.” If only it were so.

MLB
Accidents and Safety
Stadiums Arenas
Baseball
Sports injury


Somalia: Gunmen Attack State Government’s Headquarters

Abstract: Gunmen attacked the headquarters of the South Western State government in Baidoa, killing at least four government soldiers and two civilians, a Somali official said Thursday. Three of the gunmen were also killed in the morning attack, said a local official, Ahmed Mohammed. Two explosions went off at the gate of the headquarters of the government offices followed by gunmen shooting their way onto the premises, said Capt. Hassan Hussein, a police official in Baidoa. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack but it is similar to those carried out by the Shabab, an Islamist extremist group. Mr. Mohamed said two civilians believed to have been trying to steal the attackers’ car died after it was detonated by remote control.

Civilian casualties
Somalia
Murders and Homicides


Overtime Win Puts Blackhawks in Control

Abstract: Jonathan Toews scored on a breakaway 7 minutes 36 seconds into overtime, giving the visiting Chicago Blackhawks a 3-2 victory over the St. Louis Blues and a 3-2 series lead. Marian Hossa and Ben Smith also scored for the Blackhawks, the defending Stanley Cup champions.

Ice hockey
Chicago Blackhawks
St Louis Blues
Jonathan Toews


Nigerian Insurgents Bomb Independence Celebration

Abstract: DAKAR, Senegal — At least eight people were killed Friday by two bombs at an independence day ceremony in Nigeria ’s capital, Abuja. A Nigerian group linked to discontent over poverty in the country’s oil-producing region claimed responsibility. The bombs, which had been placed in cars, exploded near where President Goodluck Jonathan and other politicians and diplomats were celebrating the country’s independence from Britain in 1960. None of the politicians were hurt in the two blasts, which went off within minutes of each other, with the second apparently intended to injure responders to the first. The militant group, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, has been waging a low-level insurgency for much of the last five years against the oil industry , which produces most of the country’s wealth. But Friday’s attack was the first time it struck the heart of Nigerian power, aiming a clear blow at Mr. Jonathan, who is running for re-election next year, and signaling the failure of a government effort to end the unrest. The militants issued a warning shortly before the bombs went off and later claimed responsibility for them. “There is nothing worth celebrating after 50 years of failure,” the group said in an e-mail to reporters. “For 50 years, the people of the Niger Delta have had their land and resources stolen from them.” The e-mail warned that the group’s “operatives working inside the government security services” had planted “explosive devices.” The bombs went off about an hour later as citizens gathered for the celebration, and they exploded on an artery that symbolizes the Nigerian power elite — the road between the Hilton Hotel, where the rich and powerful stay, and the complex of government buildings, Eagle Square, where they conduct business and where the ceremony was to take place. A witness, Tosin Ogundare, said police officers trying to help victims of the first blast were struck down by the second a few cars away on the busy road near the plaza. “Suddenly, all those people that were helping the initial victims were also down,” Mr. Ogundare said. A reporter said he saw 19 bodies being loaded into ambulances of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defense Corps after the blasts, but a police spokesman, Moshood Jimoh, insisted that the death toll was only eight. A higher number was “not possible,” Mr. Jimoh said. Friday’s bombing was the first time the group had struck Nigeria’s capital after several years of attacks aimed mainly at oil company installations in the south. Analysts saw the latest attack as indicating serious trouble for a government amnesty program begun last year for thousands of Niger Delta gunmen. Other militants have fought a guerrilla campaign against the oil industry, fueled by longstanding grievances over underdevelopment in the region and lucrative side benefits from kidnappings and oil theft. The Nigerian government, which derives most of its revenue from oil and had been hobbled by the low-level insurgency that at times cut production in half, has tried to make resolving the insurgents’ grievances a priority. As a Delta native, Mr. Jonathan has focused on the conflict, making Friday’s attack a sharp blow against him. But the analysts said the bombs were a sign that the region’s problems — chiefly deep poverty despite years of producing a significant percentage of the world’s oil — remain unresolved. The amnesty program promised cash and retraining for the militants, but has delivered little of either. “There’s lots of disgruntlement with the post-amnesty,” said Michael Watts, a specialist on the Niger Delta at the University of California, Berkeley. “A lot of dissatisfaction with the whole program.” Friday’s attack appears to signal the end of a year of comparative calm, accompanied by an increase in oil production, in Nigeria. “The amnesty has significantly reduced violence and created a certain stability in oil production, but there’s no question it hasn’t resolved issues in the delta,” said Peter Lewis, of Johns Hopkins University. “The questions of political representation, environmental degradation, and development have not been settled,” he said. Diplomats said the Hilton, full of visiting dignitaries and African heads of state, quickly emptied out after the attack, with many leaving Abuja in a hurry. “It’s like a ghost town,” a Western diplomat said. “It’s unprecedented in Nigerian history to have such a brazen attack in downtown Abuja,” the diplomat said. “It’s a tremendous black eye for Nigeria.”


The Foreclosures That Try a Judge’s Patience

Abstract: CARL C. ICAHN chases deals the way a dog chases cars. The guy just won’t quit. Talk to him for three minutes, and you get the feeling he couldn’t quit if he wanted to. “What else would I do? Play shuffleboard somewhere?” Mr. Icahn grumbles into the phone from his vacation home in Indian Creek, Fla., the rarefied enclave near Miami. It’s an old line, the one Mr. Icahn huffs, with over-my-dead-body pique, just about every time the subject of retirement comes up. No, at age 75 and a billionaire several times over, Carl Icahn will not go quietly. Mr. Icahn has spent four decades making trouble for corporate America — and making a lot of money for himself and his investors. But now, midway through his eighth decade, he has begun to contemplate his legacy, and the future of the Icahn empire hangs in the balance. What will they say about him? He bristles at being called a corporate raider, though if you Google the phrase you’ll soon find his name. He prefers something friendlier: activist investor. So behold the raider — or the activist, take your pick — in winter: rich, yes, but so entranced by the game that he can’t quite let go. One of his chief lieutenants, an up-and-comer, recently abandoned him: Keith A. Meister, widely considered his right-hand man, left the fold late last year. Mr. Meister was a pivotal player at Mr. Icahn’s multibillion-dollar hedge fund, as well as at his flagship Icahn Enterprises, his investment holding company. But with $250 million from George Soros, Mr. Meister opened a hedge fund of his own. He was joined in January by Rupal Doshi, formerly chief operating officer of the Icahn Group. (Both declined to comment for this article.) Shortly afterward, Mr. Icahn abruptly announced he would close his own hedge fund. He had opened the fund, to much fanfare, in 2004. But Mr. Icahn lost so much money during the financial crisis that he is still a bit shaken by the experience. He is returning all outside investors’ money. Henceforth, Carl Icahn will manage money only for Carl Icahn. In a March 8 letter to his fund’s investors, Mr. Icahn said he was still unsettled by the events of 2008, when his fund plummeted 35 percent. “Given the rapid market run-up over the past two years and our ongoing concerns about the economic outlook, and recent political tensions in the Middle East, I do not wish to be responsible to limited partners through another possible market crisis,” Mr. Icahn wrote in his letter. Managing other people’s money was a headache, Mr. Icahn says. Besides, he thinks the markets are headed for a fall. “You’ve got to be a fool if you don’t think there will be a correction,” he says. And so, with Mr. Meister gone, Mr. Icahn’s son, Brett C. Icahn, waits in the wings. The younger Icahn, 31, entered the family business after graduating from Princeton and spending a few relatively fruitless years directing movies. Carl Icahn says his son is ready for more. But he denies he has anointed him as his successor, as many outsiders suspect. “I give him more and more responsibility because he’s earned it, but it’s not nepotism,” Carl Icahn says of his son. “He’s got good instincts.” Brett Icahn — or whoever succeeds his father, if anyone really can — has some big shoes to fill. “When it’s a company that’s so identified with the style, personality and skills of a single owner, you really don’t know how it will evolve,” says Stephen M. Davis, executive director of the Millstein Center for Corporate Governance and Performance at the Yale School of Management. “Carl Icahn has a skilled team — there’s no doubt about that — but it really does rest upon his leadership.” CARL ICAHN runs his investment business from elegant offices 47 floors above Fifth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan. He declined to be interviewed in person for this story. Instead, he spoke by phone, from his offices in New York and his home in Florida, over the course of several weeks, a dozen or so conversations in all. He orchestrated the interviews as if he were cutting a deal, which, in some ways, he was: he spoke on the condition that he could vet every quotation. What, really, is left to say about Carl Celian Icahn? Even those who are too young to remember his exploits in the 1980s know the stories. Born and raised in Queens to parents of relatively modest means, Carl helped pay his way through Princeton with winnings from poker. His parents wanted him to become a doctor, so the obedient son went to medical school. Then a patient with tuberculosis coughed on him. “I said,” he recalled, “I’m done — I quit.” A wealthy uncle, Elliot Schnall, encouraged him to head to Wall Street in 1960, against the wishes of his parents. His mother was distraught. “She said Wall Street was for gamblers,” Mr. Schnall recalls. Mr. Icahn’s father, a cantor, offered to help his son open a grocery store instead. But by 1968, Mr. Icahn had started Icahn & Company and, with a loan from his uncle, bought a seat on the New York Stock Exchange. At long last, his success won him his father’s approval. The rest is history. RJR Nabisco, the disaster that was TWA, Phillips Petroleum, Viacom, Uniroyal, Marshall Field, American Can, USX, Marvel Comics, Time Warner, Yahoo, Motorola, Lions Gate Entertainment — the list of hits, and misses, runs on. Mr. Icahn has been particularly active in recent years. Since 2004, he has begun 91 activist campaigns involving 79 American companies, according to FactSet SharkRepellent, a firm that tracks corporate takeover defenses and investor activism. One of his biggest wins was ImClone Systems, the drug maker at the center of the Martha Stewart stock-trading scandal. Mr. Icahn jumped into the stock in 2006, initiated a proxy fight, arm-twisted the board into rejecting a $36-a-share takeover offer and assumed the position of chairman. Two years later, ImClone accepted a $70-a-share bid from the Eli Lilly & Company. Mr. Icahn pocketed $418 million on his $196 million investment. Then there was the National Energy Group, which included the TransTexas Gas Corporation and Panaco, which he purchased out of bankruptcy from 2000 to 2005. He turned that $300 million investment into $1.5 billion when it was sold to SandRidge Energy in 2006. He also scored big in the casino business. From 2000 to 2006, he bought four casinos, including the Stratosphere in Las Vegas, for $300 million. He sold them for $1.2 billion in February 2008, just before the bottom fell out of the economy. “MR. ICAHN is on the line.” That is a phrase to send chills through almost any chief executive. Last December, such a call came through at the Chesapeake Energy Corporation in Oklahoma City. That month Mr. Icahn announced that he had accumulated a 5.8 percent stake in the company. Chesapeake’s chief executive, Aubrey K. McClendon, met with Mr. Icahn to discuss his concerns over how much the company was spending and its valuation. Two months later, Mr. McClendon disclosed plans to sell $5 billion in assets and other changes to increase the company’s value. Mr. Icahn bought in at $21. Chesapeake’s stock price closed at $32.73 on Friday. Mr. McClendon declined to say whether Mr. Icahn had shaped his thinking. “We have appreciated his interest in Chesapeake, are happy he is up almost 50 percent on his investment, and have nothing but the utmost respect for him,” Mr. McClendon says. Mark Hanson, an analyst at Morningstar, says there’s little doubt Mr. Icahn influenced Chesapeake. The plan the company presented in February was drastically different from the one it had in December, before Mr. Icahn arrived on the scene, he said. Often, all Mr. Icahn has to do is make his interest known to send a stock price rising. Last November, for instance, regulatory filings showed that he had taken stakes in the toy maker Mattel and the building products company Masco. Mattel’s shares jumped to a 52-week high. Masco’s are up about 17 percent since he bought the stake. Failures have accompanied these victories, however. Mr. Icahn lost $185 million on Blockbuster, which sank into bankruptcy a few years after he bought in. He also got his clocks cleaned on WCI Communities, a Florida condominium company that went broke. Brett Icahn today sits on the boards of several companies in which his father has invested, including the video game maker Take-Two Interactive, American Railcar Industries and the food company Hain Celestial Group. He also runs a hedge fund that returned 50 percent last year. When you’re Carl Icahn’s son, you get exposed to all things Icahn early on. As a child, Brett Icahn tagged along when his father scouted for real estate in Westchester County, N.Y. He later saw his father conduct corporate raids. The two often play chess, wagering thousands of dollars a game. Brett plays better. “I can’t figure out how he does it,” his father says, adding that a chess pro was coming over to coach him later that day. “Don’t tell Brett. I don’t want him to know.” Like his father, Brett Icahn went to Princeton. He interned at Goldman Sachs but then pursued a career in movie directing, making a couple of small art films. He joined his father’s company in 2002. “I always knew I’d end up in finance,” Brett Icahn says. Like his father, he spoke only by phone. And he has his father’s line down: “Corporate democracy is a myth, and cronyism on boards is rampant,” Brett Icahn says. “That’s why there’s a lot of opportunity as an activist.” He says there are no plans for him to succeed his father, but he wants the Icahn legacy to endure. “It’s my name, too,” he says. OLIVER STONE went to see Carl Icahn when the director was working on his 1987 film “Wall Street.” Gordon Gekko’s advice — “If you want a friend, get a dog” — was actually Carl Icahn’s line. Mr. Icahn has made more than a few enemies and frenemies in his time. He tangled with Donald Trump last year over three casinos in Atlantic City, a battle of big money and bigger egos. Mr. Icahn eventually lost in court. Mr. Trump says he was surprised by the fight because he and Mr. Icahn had been friends. Over the years he had offered Mr. Icahn box seats at the U.S. Open tennis tournament and counseled him on his divorce in the 1990s. “Carl is someone that, unfortunately, will always put the deal ahead of the relationships,” Mr. Trump says. “I am a loyalist, so I don’t see friends fighting friends. But with Carl, the friendship stops where the deal begins.” Mr. Icahn says he likes Mr. Trump — no hard feelings. Then he adds, “I don’t even think he invited me to his daughter’s wedding — so how close can we be?” William A. Ackman, who runs the New York hedge fund company Pershing Square Capital Management, is in some ways one of Mr. Icahn’s figurative heirs in activist investing. But he, too, has crossed swords with Mr. Icahn. For the last seven years, Mr. Ackman has contended that Mr. Icahn owes him more than $8 million stemming from an investment in a Dallas real estate company, Hallwood Realty. The New York Supreme Court ruled in favor of Mr. Ackman in August 2005, as did an appellate court in October 2006. A final appeal is pending. But Mr. Icahn vows he will go all the way to the United States Supreme Court. “How many times have judges been wrong? How many people have gone to the death chamber because they’re wrong?” he asked. “Ackman is dead wrong.” Mr. Ackman says he is confident he will prevail. In the meantime, Mr. Icahn must pay him hefty interest while the payment is delayed. “It grows at about 9 percent a year,” Mr. Ackman said. After so many years and so many battles, you might think Carl Icahn would hang up his guns. You would be wrong. Consider Alexander the Great, Mr. Icahn says. Alexander the Great didn’t stop. “You conquer the countries, you put people in, and then you go on,” Mr. Icahn says. Alexander, of course, peaked early and died at the age of 32. Carl Icahn, at 75, keeps going and going, looking for one more Gaugamela.

Icahn Carl C
Icahn Brett
Hedge Funds
Mergers Acquisitions and Divestitures
Trump Donald J
Ackman William A


In Long Night of Home Runs, Upton’s Sacrifice Pulls Rays Even

Abstract: ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - The Red Sox pushed, but the Rays shoved back. The Red Sox slapped the Rays, but they smacked back. It was a game the Red Sox wanted to win but one the Rays desperately needed to win. The game dragged and dragged, past midnight, past bedtimes and past last call. This was playoff baseball, at its longest. When B.J. Upton's sacrifice fly drove in pinch-runner Fernando Perez, the Rays prevailed, 9-8, in 11 innings in Game 2 of the American League Championship Series. Perez was mobbed by the rest of the Rays, who celebrated winning a five-hour-and-27-minute marathon that tied the best of seven series at one game each. Mike Timlin, Boston's seventh pitcher, walked the first two batters in a tenuous inning in which John Farrell, the Red Sox pitching coach, was ejected for arguing some close calls. After both runners advanced on a groundout, an intentional walk filled the bases. Upton followed by lifting a ball to medium right field. Would the ball be deep enough to score the speedy Perez? J.D. Drew, who was plunked in the right shoulder with a pitch on Saturday, moved to his left and caught the ball near the foul line. Drew has a strong arm, but his throw died after hitting the spongy infield turf. "That is what post-season is about," Upton said. "Time to step it up." Timlin said he did not think Upton had hit the ball deep enough to score Perez, but he was wrong. Leaning against a table in the Red Sox clubhouse, the 42-year old reliever was the last player to remove his uniform. He admitted he was tense after being summoned in the tie game. "I've pitched in about 45 post-season games," Timlin said. "That doesn't mean you don't get nervous." Nervous? Wasn't that supposed to be the Rays? If the Rays want to tweak Boston's David Ortiz, they could boast that they had their game faces on. Ortiz hinted that the Rays had been tense in the opener by saying he had seen different faces on the Rays from the ones he had seen in the regular season. Those faces Ortiz saw were not visible in Game 2. The Rays were lively, energetic and ready. "That's pretty much how they play," Ortiz said Evan Longoria, who has been missing in action, had a homer, two doubles and three runs batted in for a rejuvenated Tampa Bay. The Rays rallied from deficits three times against an ineffective Josh Beckett, pounding him for eight runs and treating the premier playoff pitcher like a middling middle reliever. Then the Rays won it off Timlin, a middling reliever, who ended a streak of six scoreless innings by the bullpen. For more than six merry months, the Rays have used Tropicana Field as their sanctuary. This quirky dome, filled with four catwalks and a dingy white roof, has been as comfortable as the old recliner in the family room. It is the place where the Rays feel relaxed. After a one-night hiatus, the Rays were back in their recliner on Saturday night. They had their favorite drinks and their favorite snacks, and they destroyed Beckett, who was suddenly their favorite post-season pitcher. Tampa Bay is 60-25 in the regular and post-season here. Game 3 is Monday night at Fenway Park. The teams combined for seven homers to set an A.L.C.S. record and tie a post-season record. All of the homers, including two by Dustin Pedroia, were hit in the first five innings. But the Rays celebrated because of three walks and a flyball in the 11th. Catcher Kevin Cash said Perez is so speedy that Drew would have needed a perfect throw to get him. "Like I said, in a straight-up race, I've got him over Seabiscuit," said Tampa Bay Manager Joe Maddon. With the Rays hanging tight to an 8-7 lead in the eighth, the Red Sox had runners on first and second. Dan Wheeler replaced Trever Miller and got Kevin Youkilis to hit into a double play. Pedroia took third, but the double play was significant. The Rays were four outs away from a win. After Wheeler snuffed out Youkilis, he gift-wrapped the tying run. On a 2-0 pitch to Bay, Wheeler uncorked a fastball that seemed to slip out of his hand and sailed over Dioner Navarro's head. Navarro retrieved it and flipped it home, but the throw was errant and Pedroia slid in with the tying run. Although the Red Sox said Beckett's strained oblique muscle would not limit him, his velocity has decreased a few miles, and he has looked sluggish. Normally, Beckett intimidates. These days, he is trying to survive, and he is not succeeding. He was trampled for eight earned runs in four and one third innings. "Well, you know, he made some mistakes and he paid for them," said Red Sox Manager Terry Francona. Beckett did not directly answer a question about whether he could still be at his best during the post-season, but he might be at his worst. After going 4-0 with a 1.20 earned run average last October, Beckett has been battered for 12 earned runs and 18 hits in 9 1/3 innings this season. He lost three leads in the game, the last time coming when Rays scored three in the sixth for an 8-6 edge. While Beckett is slated to pitch a possible Game 6 in the series, the Red Sox might have to adjust their rotation. If Beckett cannot pitch competently for five innings, what he has done in the past will be irrelevant. In past playoffs, a 2-0 lead in the first with Beckett would make the Red Sox feel secure. Not anymore. Longoria, who had been 0 for his last 13, blasted a two-run homer in the bottom of the first to tie the score. "Like I said, I just needed to get a comfort level at bat," Longoria said. "Fortunately, it was the first at bat and it was the old me." Pedroia, who had been 2 for 21 in the playoffs, countered with the first of his two homers in the third to put the Red Sox ahead, 3-2. But, once again, Beckett could not suppress the Rays as he allowed two runs in the bottom of the inning. Upton homered and Longoria doubled and scored on Carl Crawford's single. Cliff Floyd's homer in the fourth put the Rays in front, 5-3. But Scott Kazmir was as unreliable as Beckett and could not hold a lead, either. Pedroia and Youkilis smashed homers in the fifth to tie the score, 5-5. The Rays summoned Grant Balfour, their best reliever, because they figured this was a game they had to win. Jason Bay hit Balfour's 95-mile per hour fastball deep into the left field seats to give the Red Sox three homers in four at bats and push them to a 6-5 advantage. It took Kazmir 38 pitches to trudge through a two-run first. After Kazmir got the third out, he slumped on the mound and shook his head. It seemed like it might be a long night for the Rays. It was a long night, but it was a lot longer for the Red Sox.

Tampa Bay Rays
Boston Red Sox
Playoff Games
American League
Upton B J
Perez Fernando


New York City to Pay Up to $75 Million Over Dismissed Summonses

Abstract: New York City has agreed to pay up to $75 million to settle a federal class-action lawsuit that accused its Police Department of issuing hundreds of thousands of criminal summonses that were later found to be without legal justification, according to a signed copy of the proposed deal filed on Monday. The summonses had been issued for typically minor offenses, like disorderly conduct, trespassing and drinking in public — quality-of-life concerns that had been a major theme of policing in New York for two decades or so. Lawyers for the plaintiffs had asserted that the summonses were part of a policy that was “selectively and disproportionately enforced in minority communities.” That claim was also a focus of earlier lawsuits that had challenged the department’s policing philosophy that relied on stop, question and frisk encounters. The city’s use of stop-and-frisk as a crime-prevention strategy ended in 2013 after a class-action suit resulted in a sweeping decision that found that the city had engaged in a “policy of indirect racial profiling” in minority communities. In announcing three years ago that the city had agreed to reforms, Mayor Bill de Blasio said stop-and-frisk had “unfairly targeted young African-American and Latino men.” The proposed settlement filed on Monday was seen by lawyers for the plaintiffs as another repudiation of a city policing policy. It covers at least 900,000 summonses, issued from 2007 to 2015, that were dismissed on grounds of legal insufficiency, which a federal judge later found was “tantamount to a decision that probable cause was presumptively lacking.” The lawsuit, filed in 2010, alleged that under an unlawful “pattern and practice” enforced by city officials, police officers were told to issue summonses “regardless of whether any crime or violation” had occurred in order to meet a minimum quota requirement — an allegation the city explicitly denied in the proposed deal. But under the settlement, the city agreed to send out departmentwide notifications to reiterate its policy that quotas and numerical performance goals were banned, that supervisors who put them in place could be subject to disciplinary action and that officers who believed they had been threatened or retaliated against for failing to comply with a quota should notify the department’s Internal Affairs Bureau. “Quotas for arrests, summonses or stops have never been used by the N.Y.P.D.,” J. Peter Donald, a police spokesman, said in a statement on Monday. “The department measures success based on the prevention and reduction of crime.” The settlement could be nearly double the $41 million that the city paid to five men in 2014 to resolve the so-called Central Park jogger lawsuit, concerning their overturned convictions in the 1989 beating and rape of a woman. But the amount is less than the $98 million settlement (not including legal fees) reached that same year in a discrimination case against the Fire Department. Because of the large number of potential claims — the 900,000 summonses represent about one-quarter of all such summonses issued during the period — the deal lays out a process of notifying people who are eligible for compensation, which has been set at a maximum of $150 per person per incident. Image The lead plaintiff in the lawsuit, Sharif L. Stinson, received summonses in March 2010 in the Bronx for disorderly conduct and trespassing. They were later dismissed by a judge for being “legally insufficient.” Credit Ruth Fremson/The New York Times The city would set aside $56.5 million for those people, and individual payments could be lowered, depending on how many claims were made. (The number of potential claimants is expected to grow because the settlement will also cover such summonses issued after 2015.) Any settlement funds not paid out would revert to the city, which would also pay $18.5 million in attorneys’ fees. Zachary W. Carter, the city’s corporation counsel, said in a statement that the agreement was “a fair resolution” for members of the class-action lawsuit and was also “in the best interests of the city.” Mr. Carter added, “This settlement reflects the remarkable progress the N.Y.P.D. has made to ensure that summonses are properly drafted and include sufficient details to document probable cause.” A lawyer for the plaintiffs, Joshua P. Fitch, said he hoped the agreement represented “one step in the direction of having the Police Department truly serve the community, versus operating in an us-versus-them mentality.” The deal needs to be approved by a judge, Robert W. Sweet of United States District Court in Manhattan, after a hearing. The Police Department maintained in the agreement that it was already making changes in the summons process well before the settlement, with steps like Justice Reboot , a program announced in 2015 by Mayor de Blasio and Jonathan Lippman, who was the state’s chief judge at the time. The program included a provision to revise the summons form to allow officers to write down more details about an incident so that fewer summonses were later dismissed. “New training and technological advances have reduced the percentage of summonses dismissed as ‘facially insufficient’ every year since 2011,” Mr. Donald, the police spokesman, said. He added that a revised officer evaluation program “measures overall performance standards and does not unduly rely on the level of enforcement activity.” Potential claimants will be notified through the mail, in advertisements in English- and Spanish-language newspapers, and online, a court filing says. The plaintiffs’ law firms that will share the legal fees are Cohen & Fitch; Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan; and the Law Offices of Jon L. Norinsberg. A former federal judge, John S. Martin Jr., served as a mediator in helping the parties reach the settlement. The lead plaintiff in the lawsuit, Sharif L. Stinson, received two summonses in March 2010 in the Bronx for disorderly conduct and trespassing, Mr. Fitch, the plaintiff lawyer, said in an interview in 2015. Both tickets were later dismissed by a judge for being “legally insufficient.” The summons for disorderly conduct accused Mr. Stinson, who was then 19, of using “obscene language and gestures, causing public alarm,” but did not specify what the offensive language and behavior had been, Mr. Fitch said. The trespassing ticket said Mr. Stinson had entered and stayed in a building “without permission or authority,” but he had his aunt’s permission to be there, Mr. Fitch said.


Palm Is Said to Sell Stake to Equity Firm in Revamping

Abstract: Palm Inc., the struggling hand-held device company that makes the Treo , reached a deal yesterday to sell a quarter of the company to Elevation Partners, a private equity firm, for about $325 million as part of a plan to reorganize the company, according to people involved in the negotiations. Jon Rubinstein, a former Apple executive who ran its iPod division, is also planning to join Palm as its executive chairman as part of the transaction. The deal, which is expected to be announced today, includes a plan to pay out about $940 million in dividends to Palm shareholders, worth $9 a share each, these people said. The reorganization comes after several months of unsuccessful efforts to find a buyer for Palm, which is facing increasing competition from all directions including Microsoft, which now dominates the smartphone market with its Windows Mobile software. Research in Motion, which makes the BlackBerry , is also a direct competitor, and Apple will soon enter the cellular phone market with its highly anticipated iPhone. And Google is said to be readying its own software competitor and is building alliances. Palm, which invented the first hand-held organizers in 1992, held preliminary talks with several rivals, including Motorola and Nokia, and private equity firms including Silver Lake Partners and the Texas Pacific Group, but none was willing to buy out the entire company amid such uncertainty over its future, these people said. The transaction with Elevation, a relatively new firm that bought a minority interest in Forbes last year, gives Palm an important cash infusion and also some experienced advisers. In addition to Mr. Rubinstein, Fred Anderson, a former chief financial officer at Apple, and Roger McNamee, a co-founder of Silver Lake Partners, both of whom are managing directors at Elevation, will join Palm’s board. The deal is Elevation’s largest. Palm spent the last few months trying to play down the prospect of a buyout. Just last week, Palm’s chief executive, Ed Colligan, told CNBC, “We’re not focused on figuring out how to sell the company. We’re focused on how to build the company and create long-term shareholder value.” At Apple, Mr. Rubinstein, an engineer who developed high-performance computer workstations at Hewlett Packard, oversaw successful products like the consumer-oriented iMac and oversaw the development of the company’s iPod music player. He retired from Apple in 2005. Mr. Rubinstein will be joining Palm as it tries to break out with new products against its better-financed competitors. Last week Palm introduced a 2.5-pound laptop computer called the Foleo that Palm’s co-founder, Jeff Hawkins, said would serve as a large-screen peripheral for the company’s Treo smartphone and Windows Mobile devices. The introduction was greeted with skepticism by industry analysts who said that the system would find only niche market acceptance because most smartphone owners already have portable computers. Under the terms of the deal, Elevation will purchase $325 million of a new series of convertible preferred stock. The conversion price will be $8.50 a share. Palm will take on about $400 million in debt to pay out the dividend to shareholders. The deal is subject to shareholder approval. If completed, Eric Benhamou and D. Scott Mercer, two current board members, will step down to make room for Mr. Anderson and Mr. McNamee. Morgan Stanley is serving as financial adviser to Palm. Houlihan Lokey Howard & Zukin Advisory Services Inc. provided a fairness opinion to Palm, and JPMorgan is acting as financial adviser to Elevation. The Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati Professional Corporation is serving as outside counsel to Palm, and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett is acting as legal adviser to Elevation.

Palm Inc
Elevation Partners
Mergers Acquisitions and Divestitures
Wireless Communications
Executives and Management