In Ambitious Assault on Brooklyn Drug Trade, Limited Victory

Abstract: It was a big show of force: 60 people under arrest, 5 gangs vanquished, more than 200 criminal charges, a $1.5 million narcotics enterprise shattered and an urban village of 3,500 liberated. The 2002 raid on the sprawling Cypress Hills housing project in East New York, said Charles J. Hynes, the Brooklyn district attorney, shut down “a historic conspiracy.” His choice of words signaled an aggressive change in prosecution tactics. Prosecutors planned to file felony conspiracy charges. That approach, long used against Mafia suspects, could produce sentences unheard of among the housing project’s pushers, lookouts and addicts: life in prison. Again and again in the years to come, similar raids concentrated on housing projects in Coney Island, Fort Greene and East New York. The numbers peaked with the arrest of more than 140 people at the Red Hook Houses in 2006. Nearly all the defendants were charged with first-degree conspiracy, their bail set at $100,000, sometimes $1 million. Tenant associations and community boards lavished praise on the district attorney. But soon, the strategy stumbled at the courthouse steps. Judges rebuked the prosecution tactics. Juries rejected the conspiracy charges. And after six years, eight major operations and more than 500 arrests, no one has been convicted of first-degree conspiracy. Instead, many defendants have spent a year or more on Rikers Island , awaiting trials that in the end never come. Typically, they plead guilty to lesser crimes, are sentenced to time served and then are released. Prosecutors say that the mere threat of their novel conspiracy charge has resulted in longer prison terms, some through plea bargains, keeping accused dealers off the streets as the system moves along. But defense lawyers have routinely advised their clients to stall, waiting for the favorable plea deals that eventually come. And they call the whole program a miscarriage of justice, an upside-down world where sentences end up being handed out after time has been served. The lawyers argue that prosecutors have abused the use of the conspiracy charges — using the more significant counts to withhold evidence from defendants, and to exact jail terms they might never have won otherwise. A portrait of the Cypress Hills case, drawn from hearings, interviews, court records, police reports and secret grand jury testimony transcripts provided to The New York Times, offers insights into the goals of prosecutors and the police. And it indicates an outcome that allows both sides to offer competing claims of just what has been achieved. A Shifting Battleground By the numbers, Cypress Hills is 1,430 families, 261 of them with a man in the house, living on an average of about $19,000 a year. In the surrounding community, 31 of every 1,000 men have been in jail, among the highest rates in the borough, according to the independent Justice Mapping Center. By other measures, Cypress Hills is the roar of the jetliners soaring over 15 blunt seven-story rectangles of weathered red brick, the windows barred even on the top floor, the small satellite dishes and ragged foreign flags poking through the slats like letters in a neglected mailbox. For decades, the project’s gangs have grown in sophistication. A generation ago, the police pursued housing project drug dealers with the buy-and-bust method: An undercover officer buys some drugs, then other officers arrest the seller. By the late 1980s, the authorities acknowledged they were losing ground to violent crack cocaine gangs. A supervisor, Sgt. Donald Flynn, told a grand jury what was happening: Dealers had begun retreating from the courtyards into the buildings, farther from the reach of surveillance. “They become, as I like to call it, unholy alliances between some of these groups and agreements as far as who would control what side,” Sergeant Flynn testified. With graffiti on the walls and color-coded caps to mark vials of drugs, the groups staked their territory, the EU organization, the Front Boys, the Ruffryders and the A Team dividing up the 29 acres of Cypress Hills. Buy-and-bust operations became more difficult to perform, Sergeant Flynn explained. At Cypress Hills, “a lot of people have grown up together, go to school, junior high or elementary, and an undercover not being from the development would be known pretty much right away, as would, of course, any surveillance vehicles.” So the police devised a more aggressive, long-term approach. On April 3, 2002, two undercover detectives, Gilwyn Ferguson and Michelle King, moved into a Cypress Hills apartment on Fountain Avenue. Posing as a drug abuser, Detective Ferguson began to wander the courtyards in a bandanna and a nylon do-rag. “I was sometimes dressed with dirty clothes,” he recalled in testimony. “Sometimes I would have my beard grow out to the point that when I eat, when I am eating food, I have, like, mayonnaise on my beard. Sometimes I would be, like, stumbling or dragging my feet.” Inside the apartment, the detectives kept records of their purchases. Outside, uniformed officers stopped, questioned and frisked residents of the project several times a day, recording names, heights, weights, eye colors. Investigators compared their observations over a period of six months. A Plan of Infiltration As the police worked the streets, the district attorney began developing a strategy to take the case to court. Mr. Hynes promoted Suzanne M. Corhan to chief of the Major Narcotics Investigations Bureau. Raised in the borough and educated at Brooklyn Law School, she embraced Cypress Hills as the first major challenge of her new assignment. Many of the drug gangs had evaded traditional police tactics by employing children, who could not be turned into cooperating witnesses. “They use kids to shield themselves,” Ms. Corhan said in an interview. And so she set out to turn the tables by showing that using minors to sell drugs constituted a conspiracy. By such reasoning, those arrested would be hit with impossible-to-raise bails of $100,000 or more and, if convicted, would face much longer sentences than anything they had encountered before. Her strategy borrowed techniques from racketeering prosecutions. Federal agents routinely conduct long-term surveillance, pressing low-ranking criminals to carry recording devices or testify against crime syndicate organizers. “The basic philosophy was to create an investigative plan to determine hierarchy, scope, identify acts of violence, infiltrate and then ideally dismantle them through a prosecution of the entire enterprise,” Ms. Corhan said. Connecting the Dots The Ruffryders worked the middle section of Cypress Hills. They stocked drugs in an apartment at 1140 Blake Avenue for sale at three spots around the neighborhood. They excavated crown moldings in lobbies to hide Ziploc bags of cocaine. And they made a robust profit, paying workers $30 to sell $130 worth of drugs. But by early 2002, the Ruffryders were spending themselves into trouble, smoking their supply of marijuana and fighting another group for control of a sales spot a block west of the project. “They were selling drugs on the block, but they was also gambling and smoking trees and everything else, but spending their money, so they couldn’t buy more drugs,” a drug suspect named Bernard Roachford later testified. Detectives Ferguson and King did not seem to worry gang members when they moved in on April 3, 2002. Less than a week later, Detective Ferguson bought three small bags of crack cocaine from a teenager. This time the boy was walking with a man named Rolando Leon, known around the projects as Face. Investigators identified him as a leader of the Ruffryders. The investigation moved methodically. With each interaction, the detectives were building evidence to chart the hierarchy of the Ruffryders and the other gangs. Connecting Mr. Leon to the teenage boy — just as Ms. Corhan envisioned — was a crucial element of the conspiracy charges. Five months later, the investigation complete, the police raided the project. A grand jury handed up charges of first-degree conspiracy against 60 people, including Mr. Leon. This was meant to be the first major string of arrests in Ms. Corhan’s plan. Hundreds would follow, right up until the 2006 raid in Red Hook. A Familiar Pattern These days, every Wednesday, defendants and their mothers and their crying babies pack a Brooklyn courtroom for a familiar ritual: The clerk calls cases one by one, the defense lawyers say they have not seen evidence for conspiracy charges, the prosecutor says the evidence is secret, then the defendants nod to their families and return to Rikers Island. This rotating clearinghouse, meant to handle the backlog of cases stemming from the raids at Cypress Hills and the other projects, is overseen by Justice Danny K. Chun of State Supreme Court. “These cases, they’re just picking up slops from the streets, users, and hammering them to make pleas,” said one of the defense lawyers, Larry Wright. “Anybody who buys or sells drugs, obviously there’s an agreement. It’s taking a legal theory and expanding it.” In the end only five defendants from Cypress Hills were tried on first-degree conspiracy charges, and some were convicted of lesser charges. The rest of the cases were eventually settled with plea bargains or dismissed. Other first-degree cases from other housing projects have ended the same way. Judges have been dubious of the prosecution’s theory; other times, juries have been unpersuaded. In a case at the Vanderveer Estates in East Flatbush, an undercover officer recorded six purchases of cocaine from her downstairs neighbor Deran Spencer. Rejecting an offer to plead guilty for as little as six months in jail, Mr. Spencer chose to go to trial. He, too, was acquitted. “Everything they alleged against him was absolutely true,” said his defense lawyer, David S. Jacobs. “The jury cut him a break. We walked down the courthouse steps together.” The formula for a typical plea bargain is simple: Prosecutors display overwhelming evidence, then defendants plead guilty to reduced charges. But in the conspiracy cases, prosecutors have argued that their evidence involves secret negotiations and must be withheld. But defense lawyers have adjusted. Instead of rushing to accept deals, they have become emboldened. Many now warn their clients not to plead guilty to any sort of conspiracy. “If you just hold out and wait a year and a half,” said John B. Stella, a veteran defense lawyer who has represented many clients in these cases, “you’re going to get a better offer when the fire sale happens.” Many of the defendants at Cypress Hills eventually pleaded guilty to traditional sale and possession charges. Some of the plea bargain negotiations outlasted the sentencing terms: By the time the last deals were finally struck, more than two dozen of the defendants from the earliest cases had already been paroled. Among those arrested at Cypress Hills was Elijah Bussey, a clean-cut young man with a firm handshake, who asked not to be photographed for this article for fear of reprisals from the police. His defense lawyer, Paul Madden, said he had been charged with first-degree conspiracy but not with any overt act, like selling drugs. The evidence disclosed to Mr. Madden showed that another defendant in the case had waved to Mr. Bussey as he played basketball, prompting Mr. Bussey to leave the court and wait in front of a building. Mr. Bussey was 18 at the time. His bail was set at $100,000. Unable to raise it, he was held for four months. The charges were eventually dismissed. ‘Not Perfect, but Better’ By the numbers, Cypress Hills is a marginally safer place since the raid in 2002. And prosecutors believe they have succeeded in sending a message to drug dealers, even if the triumph fell well short of their initial ambitions. “It’s not always foolproof,” Ms. Corhan said of the conspiracy strategy. But she added, “Drug dealers believed they were in control. I think we flipped that a little bit.” Thick metal gates cover the doors of the Cypress Hills senior center. Inside, Rita Newsome organizes music programs and lunches of chicken and string beans. On gloomy days, she sometimes passes the hours alone. On sunny days, women come to sing and trade gossip, but they take care to get home before dark. “It’s nice out there now. Just once in a while they do a little shooting up, a little shooting the guns,” said Herman Buchanan, a retired welder who lives in the project on Linden Boulevard. “Not perfect, but better.” Last spring, the police returned to Cypress Hills for another raid. In June, a grand jury indicted 31 people on charges of first-degree conspiracy. This time the district attorney made no public announcement.

Decisions and Verdicts
Drug Abuse and Traffic
Rikers Island Prison Complex
Cypress Hills (NYC)


Hit and Run Kills Girl, 6, in Bronx

Abstract: A 6-year-old girl was killed after she was struck by a hit-and-run driver and possibly by a second vehicle on Monday evening in the Bronx, the police said. The accident happened about 6 p.m. on East 166th Street, between Sheridan and Sherman Avenues. The police were sorting through conflicting witness accounts of the accident well into the night, but believed the girl, whom they identified as M’mah Bangoura, was struck by a dark-colored minivan, possibly a maroon Toyota Sienna, and then by a livery cab. The police said they were questioning the driver of a livery cab Monday night at the 44th Precinct station house. The driver scooped the girl up, put her in his cab and took her to Bronx-Lebanon Hospital Center, where she was later pronounced dead, the police said. The identity of the hit-and-run driver was unknown, the police said. Darianny Marte, 14, who lives near the scene of the accident, said she came home from school to a neighborhood rife with activity and anguish. “I came from school about 6 o’clock and I saw the ambulance and a lot of people crowded around. I knew something had happened,” Darianny said Monday night in a phone interview. “Then I heard a little girl died.”


Katy Perry’s Halftime Show at the Super Bowl

Abstract: Given the agonizing over air pressure that has racked the N.F.L. in recent weeks, it was appropriate that the halftime entertainment at Super Bowl XLIX was Katy Perry, a queen of our deflated pop times. Ms. Perry is a Technicolor cipher, a singer who takes on the shapes and tones she is given with aplomb and cheer but maybe not wit. That hasn’t hampered her success — her “Teenage Dream” of 2010 (Capitol) was the first album by a female artist to land five songs atop the Billboard Hot 100, and her 2013 album “Prism” had two thunderous hits. Ms. Perry is a pop perennial, one of the few left. And the Super Bowl halftime show is a massive stage, one that requires the sort of pop stars that aren’t being minted regularly anymore, ones with wide cross-demographic appeal. In this environment, Ms. Perry will do. Image During the show, which included fireworks, Ms. Perry did a duet with Lenny Kravitz and danced with Missy Elliott, who performed some of her own hits. Credit Chang W. Lee/The New York Times During her 12 or so minutes on the University of Phoenix Stadium field on Sunday, she held her own, navigating a handful of her smashes and three wardrobe changes in a performance that resisted bad mood, spanning all of Ms. Perry’s modes: the triumphant “Roar,” the spooky “Dark Horse” (sadly without the rapper Juicy J), the chipper “California Gurls,” the beacon of pure uplift “Firework.” Ms. Perry generally doesn’t move much onstage, so she was presented in a series of setups that masked that fact — atop a pseudo-tessellated mechanical lion, among a sea of dancing chess pieces and attached to a shooting star hoisted high above the field. And she was gifted with guest artists who provided her with strategic cover. Take “I Kissed a Girl,” a dim song about experimenting with bisexuality that was Ms. Perry’s first Billboard Hot 100 chart topper, in 2008. She sang it in duet with Lenny Kravitz, who opened the song, presumably to help the subject matter go down more easily for unprepared, unforgiving viewers. After about a minute of shouty singing and guitar angst, Mr. Kravitz was gone, leaving barely a mark, having been on stage largely to soften that song and to reassure those who still require the sight of a guitar, even one not plugged into anything. Ms. Perry benefited far more from her second guest, the rapper Missy Elliott, long out of the spotlight but still easily the most modern-sounding artist on the stage. She ran a speed course through three hits — “Get Ur Freak On,” “Work It,” “Lose Control” — and easily doubled the energy onstage. Image Tom Brady throwing during the first half of Super Bowl XLIX at University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Ariz. Brady won his fourth Super Bowl. 1 / 24 At one point, Ms. Perry tried to dance next to Ms. Elliott, to get some refracted shine, but she was lost amid the jumpsuit-clad backup dancers marching in military lock step. Ms. Elliott herself was casually tough, and even slipped into a grin on a couple of occasions. All in all, this was a halftime show that was notably unafraid of the feminine; in that regard, it was on par with the Beyoncé spectacular of two years ago (although vocally and performance-wise, Ms. Perry is no Beyoncé). With that Beyoncé show, this performance helped bring a definitive end to the several-year drought filled with dad rock that followed the 2004 Janet Jackson-Justin Timberlake wardrobe debacle: Paul McCartney, the Rolling Stones, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, the Who. In that stretch, only Prince approached something like youth, or raunch, or joy. Since then, the halftime show has skewed younger and more colorful. But it is now running up against the limits of the marketplace. Last year, the slightly underfed Bruno Mars was the main attraction, a reflection of the utter dearth of viable contemporary male pop stars. Assuming that Mr. Timberlake would not be asked back, and that someone like Justin Bieber would be too much of a wild card, there may be no male singers in pop ready to step on this stage. So let the female reign continue. Sign up Taylor Swift — nemesis of Ms. Perry, and the most competitive person in pop — for 2016, and don’t even worry about whichever teams are warring it out on the field before and after her. She’ll be the victor.

Music
Football
Missy Elliott
Lenny Kravitz
Katy Perry
Super Bowl


China Cuts Rates to Halt a Slide in Its Economy

Abstract: SHANGHAI — Hoping to shore up a weakening economy, China said on Sunday that it would cut benchmark interest rates for the third time in five months. The nation’s central bank said in its announcement that the one-year lending rate would be reduced by 25 basis points, or a quarter of a percentage point, to 5.1 percent, and that the one-year deposit rate was also being cut 25 basis points, to 2.25 percent. The government announced weaker-than-expected trade figures on Friday, with exports dropping 6.4 percent in April compared with a year earlier, and with persistent signs of weakness in other parts of the economy. On Saturday, the government reported tepid consumer inflation, which ran at a rate of 1.5 percent in April. By reducing interest rates, the government hopes to spur lending to businesses and create more momentum for the economy, the world’s second-largest after the United States. Although China is still growing faster than any other major economy, the slowdown has worsened in recent months. China reported last month, for instance, that its economy grew just 7 percent in the first quarter of this year, one of the lowest rates in a decade and far below the double-digit growth the country had become accustomed to over the past few decades. This year, the government has targeted growth of about 7 percent, but policy makers are concerned that the pace is falling too rapidly and that growth much lower than 7 percent could create huge disruptions in the economy. While China’s stock market has suddenly come to life, the property market has been weak, exports have fallen and there are worries about the huge debt that has built up over the past decade, particularly from local government borrowing for infrastructure. The authorities have said they are comfortable with a lower, more sustainable rate of growth and have pushed to restructure the economy in favor of more household consumption and away from state-owned companies. And as part of that strategy, some officials have insisted that the government will not fund a stimulus package, the way it did in late 2008 and 2009, after the onset of the global financial crisis. Many economists, but not all, are gloomy about China’s prospects in the coming years. Nicholas Lardy, a China specialist at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington, said that while indicators like electricity generation, rail freight car loadings and industrial production had slowed, growth in the service sector had at least partly offset difficulties in manufacturing and in investment-led sectors like construction. “The traditional relationship between electric power generation and G.D.P. growth has changed,” he said in an interview in Washington in late April, referring to gross domestic product. Fred Hu, a Hong Kong economist and financier who is an informal economic adviser to the Chinese government, also contends that the Chinese economy’s weaknesses are sometimes exaggerated, and that growth might not slip much below the government’s target of about 7 percent. “It may fluctuate, but 7 percent is about the right number,” he said. But an ever-growing body of downbeat economic statistics has prompted other economists to worry that Chinese policy makers now face an unappetizing choice. They can continue to cut interest rates and bank reserve requirements in a bid to stimulate bank lending and keep the economy growing fairly strongly. But that extra lending would only expand further a debt load, particularly at local governments and state-owned enterprises, that has been surging as a share of economic output ever since the global financial crisis in 2008 and 2009. Friday’s trade figures showed that exports unexpectedly dropped 6.4 percent in April from the same month last year; they had been expected to show a slight increase. Some economists said the drop was partly the result of the declining attractiveness, as the Chinese renminbi gradually weakened against the dollar, of overstating exports to Hong Kong so as to evade currency controls and speculate on exchange rate movements. Other economists said the weakness in exports showed that China’s fundamental competitiveness had weakened as a result of surging labor costs and a rise in the renminbi’s value over the preceding decade. China’s imports also plunged 16.2 percent in April from a year earlier, a fall that economists attributed partly to low commodity prices and partly to weak demand within China’s economy.


Campbell Revives N.F.L. Mom Ad With Giants’ Victor Cruz

Abstract: CAMPBELL’S CHUNKY soup introduced its Mama’s Boy campaign in 1997 with a commercial featuring the N.F.L. star Reggie White on the sidelines as his mother (played by an actress) sneaks onto the field dressed as a cheerleader to make sure that he has eaten his soup. In the years that followed, commercials featured players including Jerome Bettis, Donovan McNabb and DeMarcus Ware being urged by their mothers — sometimes their actual mothers — to eat a bowl of soup. The campaign spawned a parody on “Saturday Night Live,” while numerous sportswriters jokingly cited the Chunky Soup Curse , which has its own Web site, a theory that players are hobbled by injuries and poor performances after being spokesmen for the brand. Revenue for Chunky, which was introduced in 1970, doubled from 1997 to 2002 , but in 2008, after at least three years of sales declines, the brand dropped the campaign. Since then, commercials for Chunky, which is pitched primarily to men in their mid-30s, have featured regular Joes . In some, after a day working a job in a shipyard or on a farm, men return home to their delighted children and a bowl of soup; in others, they opt for soup instead of fattier foods, and are more energized to play outdoors with their children. Now the Mama’s Boy campaign is back, featuring Victor Cruz of the New York Giants. In a commercial introduced on Wednesday, Mr. Cruz is surprised when his mother (an actress) gains access to the field by dressing as a mascot and pushes a bowl of soup at him. In another spot, which the brand plans to introduce in November, she pops out of a bag of footballs. Like the original, the new campaign is by Y&R New York, part of Young & Rubicam Brands, owned by WPP. Mark Materacky, the senior brand manager of Chunky soup and chili at the Campbell Soup Company , said that even though the brand stopped featuring football players in ads, it continued to sponsor the National Football League. (It has been the official soup sponsor of the league since 1997.) “Because it was so successful and iconic, we just kept coming back to the Mama’s Boy campaign,” said Mr. Materacky. “We thought there was definitely an opportunity to resurrect the campaign and leverage our relationship with the N.F.L.” Other companies sponsoring the N.F.L. , whose season began Wednesday, include Procter & Gamble, whose Tide brand is the league’s official laundry detergent; Anheuser-Busch, whose Bud Light is the official beer; and General Motors, whose GMC trucks are collectively the official vehicle of the league.  Consumers have not exactly been bowled over by soup in recent years. Between 2009 and 2011, sales fell 2.8 percent in the $6.4 billion American soup market, according to Mintel, a market research firm. Hardest hit was the largest soup segment, ready-to-serve (which includes Chunky), which fell 10.5 percent; condensed soup (which includes the original Campbell’s brand) fell 3.8 percent. Helping to offset those losses were gains in smaller segments: dry soup, bouillon, broth, refrigerated soup and frozen soup. Chunky, and Chunky Healthy Request, with reduced fat and sodium, had a 27.4 percent share of the ready-to-serve soup segment in the 52 weeks ending Aug. 12, a drop of 2 points over the period, according to SymphonyIRI Group, whose data does not include Walmart. Over the same period, Progresso, a General Mills brand, increased its share by 4.7 points, for a 40.1 percent share. Only 55 percent of canned soup purchasers said that anyone in their home eats soup year-round, according to Mintel. To promote year-round consumption, Campbell has in recent campaigns for several of its lines, including Chunky, promoted pouring thicker soup varieties over foods like noodles, biscuits and mashed potatoes. One of the new commercials featuring Mr. Cruz, for example, suggests pouring the chicken with country vegetables variety over rice. Such suggestions not only make “soup more relevant year-round” but also address consumers’ overwhelming tendency to eat soup only for lunch, said Mr. Materacky, the brand manager. Serving soup over a starch on a dinner plate “helps us tap into a different need-state, the dinner-meal occasion,” Mr. Materacky said. Along with suggesting combinations on the Chunky Web site and on packages, the brand also partners with Uncle Ben’s rice, a Mars Food brand, to feature the products side-by-side in end-of-aisle displays in supermarkets.  Eric Glickman, a creative director at Y&R who worked on the introduction of the Mama’s Boy campaign when the agency first won the Chunky account about 15 years ago and also worked on the latest iteration, said the approach remained effective because it cast athletes in an unexpected light. “Football players in advertising normally are put on a pedestal, but the truth is that even these guys who are multimillion-dollar sports stars are still their mothers’ little boys,” Mr. Glickman said. “Their mothers will do anything to make sure they’re eating well and to nurture them.” Nick Hahn, who as a senior partner with the New York office of Vivaldi Partners Group, a marketing strategy consulting firm, advises food brands (including the original Campbell’s soup brand several years ago), lauded Chunky for resurrecting the campaign. “The overall Campbell’s brand is associated with moms serving it to their children when they need it most, like when they’ve come in from sledding,” said Mr. Hahn. “It has this kind of warm and inherently caring image.” The Mama’s Boy campaign “is sort of a riff on that core mother equity because Mom is still serving it to her kid,” said Mr. Hahn. “Only now her son is a wide receiver with the New York Giants.”

Advertising and Marketing
Campbell Soup Company
National Football League
Cruz Victor
Soups


Jury Finds Parmalat Defrauded Citigroup

Abstract: A New Jersey jury found that Parmalat, the Italian food and dairy company, had defrauded Citigroup and awarded the bank $364.2 million in damages. The 6-to-1 verdict cleared Citigroup of any wrongdoing after a five-month civil trial that delved into complex, off-balance-sheet accounting that enabled Parmalat to artificially raise its earnings. The verdict was returned on Monday in New Jersey Superior Court in Hackensack. For Citigroup, the decision will most likely be the last in several accounting scandals that entangled it earlier this decade. The bank previously reached settlements over its roles in Enron and WorldCom. But more litigation is coming. The bank is expected to face billions of dollars in legal claims over its role in the subprime mortgage market and is engaged in another battle with Wells Fargo over the takeover of the Wachovia Corporation. Parmalat’s new management, including its chief executive, Enrico Bondi, had sought up to $2.2 billion in damages from Citigroup, contending its bankers designed a series of complex transactions that helped Parmalat “mask their systemic looting of the company” while collecting tens of millions in fees. The Italian company collapsed in 2003 under billions of dollars of debt. Citigroup said it was a victim of Parmalat’s fraud and countersued for damages. On Monday, Citigroup said it was delighted that a jury had vindicated its position. “We have said from the beginning that we have done nothing wrong,” the bank said. “Citi was the largest victim of the Parmalat fraud and not part of it.” Officials from Parmalat could not be reached, but the company is expected to appeal the decision. Citigroup was the first financial services firm to go to trial in the United States over Parmalat’s accusations. Parmalat is pursuing separate claims against the Bank of America and Grant Thornton, the accounting firm, in Manhattan federal court. That case is expected to go to trial next year; both companies have denied any wrongdoing. Citigroup was represented by Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison. Parmalat was represented by Quinn Emanuel Urquhart Oliver & Hedges.

Citigroup Incorporated
Parmalat SpA
Decisions and Verdicts
Frauds and Swindling


Thursday’s Matchup: Colts (6-3) at Titans (4-5)

Abstract: 8:25 p.m., NFL Network It was easy to write off Trent Richardson’s struggles with Cleveland. The Browns were inconsistent at quarterback and often had to abandon the run after quickly falling behind. But Cleveland’s willingness to trade a player it had drafted with the No. 3 pick a year earlier probably should have raised a red flag for Indianapolis. Many thought the risk was worth the potential reward, but after seven games, it appears that the problem was less the Browns and more Richardson. He has eclipsed Donald Brown for the Colts’ rushing lead (250 yards to 243), but it has taken Richardson more than twice as many carries (88 to 41). Richardson has gained 60 yards or fewer in each game, and his 2.8 yards a carry is hardly worth his advance notice. He bottomed out Sunday, when he rushed for 2 yards in a loss to St. Louis. This could be the game for Richardson to gain some traction. Tennessee has a soft run defense, ranked 21st in the N.F.L., and has yielded the second-most rushing touchdowns. Richardson will need more than one good game against a bad defense to prove that he can be the Edgerrin James to Andrew Luck’s Peyton Manning, but the Colts will probably take what they can get. Line : Colts by 3 Pick : Colts BENJAMIN HOFFMAN


Philippine Clashes Continue as Troops Set Sights on Muslim Rebels

Abstract: MANILA — Government troops pushed ahead in an offensive aimed at driving Muslim rebels out of the poor coastal communities outside the southern city of Zamboanga, where they have been holding hostages since Monday. Officials said that nearly 100 rebels had been killed or captured. Officials also said many of the rebels, members of the Moro National Liberation Front, had cast off their military fatigues in an effort to blend in with the civilian population. The weeklong standoff with the rebels in Zamboanga, one of the most vibrant trading cities in the southern Philippines, was believed to have killed at least 55 people, most of them rebels. It has also raised fears of a setback in the government’s efforts, backed by the United States, to calm insurgencies and combat terrorism. Most of the dead were rebels who took cover in several seaside neighborhoods, the government said, where Philippine forces were firing mortar rounds and battling house to house. The interior secretary, Mar Roxas, said 42 rebels had been captured. The situation was serious enough that the country’s top civilian and military leaders traveled to the city over the weekend, despite the violence, to plan their strategy. President Benigno S. Aquino III arrived Friday, with one of his escort helicopters taking small-arms fire as he landed. The crisis has crippled the once-peaceful city, a mostly Christian enclave on the island of Mindanao, and displaced more than 67,000 people. There were conflicting reports about how the standoff began last Monday morning. The police said several hundred armed men from the Moro National Liberation Front landed by boat in Zamboanga and tried to raise their flag over City Hall and declare independence from the national government. When police officers and the military tried to stop them, the police said, the insurgents took hostages and retreated to the city’s Muslim slums. Rebel leaders have said that their march to City Hall was peaceful and that the military attacked them. Since then, government officials said, they have tried to evacuate civilians in the affected area, but it remained unclear on Sunday how many hostages were still being held. Hopes for a cease-fire briefly emerged Saturday when the vice president — a political rival of Mr. Aquino’s — announced an informal truce with the rebels. But the fighting never let up, and the president’s aides said subsequently that Mr. Aquino would coordinate military actions as well as any efforts to engage the rebels in talks. During a briefing on Sunday, Zamboanga’s mayor, Beng Climaco, said she was not aware of any negotiations with the rebels. Ramon Zagal, a military spokesman, said at the briefing that the rebels would have to surrender if they sought to end the standoff. Less than a year ago, Mr. Aquino achieved relative peace in the region by winning a deal with a much larger rebel group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. The various insurgencies in the region are driven in part by Muslims’ beliefs that the Christian-dominated national government has left them out of economic development. In addition to Mr. Aquino and Mr. Roxas, attendees at a strategy planning session on Saturday included the vice president, Jejomar Binay, and the secretary of national defense, Voltaire Gazmin. Mr. Roxas told reporters that the military’s plan had been to prevent the violence from spreading to other parts of the city. That was accomplished, he said, and though he declined to offer details, he said the military was trying to clear the rebels out of the neighborhoods they were holding. According to Mr. Roxas, three civilians were killed in the fighting and 28 were wounded. In addition, three police officers and two members of the military were killed. Mr. Roxas said that the bodies of 21 rebels had been recovered, and that 26 others had also been reported killed. Some of the bodies, he said, were burned in fires the government said the rebels had set. Military officials said Sunday that about 100 rebels were still in the area. More than 400 homes in the rebel-held areas have been burned, and major sections of the city were impassable. The airport had been closed for six days, and commercial ships have been asked to move away from the port area for security reasons.

Military
Moro National Liberation Front
Philippines
Mindanao
Benigno S Aquino III


Regulators Examine Two Ford Sedans for Pedal Problems

Abstract: DETROIT — Federal regulators are examining whether one of the problems that caused Toyota to recall millions of vehicles also exists on two Ford sedans, and they warned drivers of all vehicles to make sure their floor mats were properly installed. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said it opened a preliminary investigation into the Ford Fusion and Mercury Milan after verifying complaints from three drivers who said the accelerator pedal had become trapped under a rubber all-weather floor mat. The investigation covers almost 250,000 vehicles and shows that the potential for accelerator pedals to stick is not limited to Toyota, which has recalled more than eight million vehicles since November, damaging its sales and reputation. But the complaints about the Ford sedans differ because they involve two floor mats stacked atop each other — something that Ford specifically discourages customers from doing — whereas Toyota’s floor-mat recall related to vehicles with one properly installed mat. “We do not recommend stacking floor mats in any vehicle from any automaker,” Said Deep, a Ford spokesman, said Tuesday. “We’re not aware of any customer complaints or accidents in vehicles with properly installed floor mats.” The safety agency, which has opened inquiries faster since Congress criticized it for not discovering the Toyota problems sooner, said none of the Fusion and Milan complaints involved crashes or injuries. Regulators have received reports of 89 deaths in accidents in which Toyotas accelerated out of control. One of the complaints about the Fusion was filed in April by Dan Edmunds, the director of vehicle testing at Edmunds.com, a Web site that provides information on buying cars to consumers. Mr. Edmunds, a former engineer at Toyota and Hyundai who is not related to the Web site’s name, wrote on the site at the time that he had experienced unintended acceleration for several seconds on a Los Angeles freeway. Mr. Edmunds said he had put the all-weather mats in the trunk but that a mechanic or car wash attendant might have replaced them over the regular mats without his knowledge. After passing another vehicle on Interstate 405 and removing his foot from the accelerator pedal, the car kept speeding up for several seconds before there was a click as the pedal dislodged itself from the mat, Mr. Edmunds said. He later re-enacted the problem with the car parked and posted a video and photos online. In one of the photos, the message “Do not place on top of existing floor mats” can be seen inscribed on the rubber mat. Mr. Deep of Ford the company was aware of Mr. Edmunds’s complaint and attributed the incident to the mats being improperly stacked, which defies the warning printed on them. The Fusion, which was redesigned for the 2010 model year, is now Ford’s best-selling car, with sales up 50 percent this year. Of the cars Toyota has recalled worldwide, it said 5.4 million had the potential for the accelerator pedal to get stuck in the mat and 4.5 million were made with a defective pedal. To reduce the risk of what it calls mat entrapment, it is removing some padding from the floor and shortening the pedals on affected vehicles. Toyota first blamed floor mats for unintended acceleration, after four people died in the crash of a Lexus near San Diego last August. The police contend an incorrectly installed mat caused the accelerator pedal to stick.


Thursday’s N.F.L. Matchups

Abstract: Bears (5-6) at Lions (7-4) 12:30 p.m. Line: Lions by 7 Last season, Detroit ended a longstanding Thanksgiving Day tradition by winning a game, after nine consecutive losses on the holiday. The Lions, who have played on Thanksgiving Day since 1945, have lost 11 of their last 13 such games. Although coming off two losses in which the team scored a combined 15 points, Detroit has the personnel to take care of Chicago. Still, with the Bears’ defense buckling down the last two weeks, it appears this game will be more competitive than it would have been a couple of weeks ago, when the Lions were among the N.F.L.'s top teams and the Bears had allowed a combined 106 points in back-to-back losses. If Chicago wins to reach .500, fans can begin checking out playoff possibilities. If the Bears lose, there will be calls for Coach Marc Trestman to be fired. Despite those stakes, the Lions should take care of business at home. Pick: Lions Eagles (8-3) at Cowboys (8-3) 4:30 p.m. Line: Cowboys by 3 Mark Sanchez and Tony Romo should get together and commiserate about being quarterbacks who seem to disappoint so many people. For all his faults, Sanchez led the Jets to two A.F.C. championship games. For all his December collapses, Romo has a 71-47 career record as a starter and a respectable 80.8 passer rating in his four playoffs starts for Dallas. This game could go a long way to determining the N.F.C. East champion, and the deciding factor could be Sanchez’s propensity for interceptions. He has shown himself to be more than capable of moving the ball with Philadelphia’s fast-paced offense. But Nick Foles was a master of efficiency last season, and Sanchez has thrown six interceptions in his last four games. The Cowboys do not have a particularly good secondary, but they have players who can pick off an errant pass, and Sanchez will probably throw at least a few. Pick: Cowboys Seahawks (7-4) at 49ers (7-4) 8:30 p.m. Line: 49ers by 1 These teams were popular preseason picks to make it to the Super Bowl in Glendale, Ariz., so their records are somewhat disappointing. But they have dealt with a variety of distractions, and their play has been inconsistent for the first time since Russell Wilson and Colin Kaepernick took over and heated up the N.F.C. West rivalry three seasons ago. Wilson and Kaepernick are dynamic quarterbacks who have occasionally put on quite a show, but neither is doing enough on offense to help his top-tier defense. That needs to change if either expects to make the playoffs. Bolstered by the return of defensive end Aldon Smith, who has two sacks since coming back from a suspension in Week 11, San Francisco should continue its home unbeaten streak against Seattle, which dates to 2009. Pick: 49ers

Football
Chicago Bears
Detroit Lions
Marc Trestman


Digital Casting, Poised for a Role Beyond Hollywood

Abstract: LOS ANGELES THE everyday business of what are politely called “creative” executives in Hollywood mostly involves lists. Lists of cheap-enough writers. Lists of available directors. Ever shorter lists of possible financiers. But the entertainment industry’s trickiest compilation remains the actors’ list. Coming up with six or a dozen candidates for every role in every movie and television show is so complex that it has spawned an entire profession: that of the casting director. Recently, the art of list building among those who cast roles has been altered by a little-noticed technological revolution that should have even those of us who don’t know stage left from stage right paying attention. The change involves using digital techniques to compile, swap and assess lists of actors — techniques that have the potential to be used more generally when people apply (or “audition”) for jobs. Around 2000, start-ups and database builders began looking for ways to use the Internet to connect hundreds of thousands of actors with jobs. But the casting profession was really swept by change only about two years ago, when a general step-up in bandwidth converged with the efforts of a small company called Cast It Systems. Around then, the company — which last year was involved in casting about 250 movies, more than 100 television pilots and nearly 400 television episodes — persuaded big independent casting directors and the casting departments at most of the major studios and networks to sign onto its service. The service lets the list builders upload a digitally recorded audition, match it with a résumé and other addenda and add a critique (“not her best,” “he’s a favor to the producer”). Then they can share the results through access to a password-protected site, very privately and instantly, with interested parties. “It changed things drastically,” said Gary Zuckerbrod, president of the Casting Society of America and a casting director whose recent credits include the CBS series “Without a Trace.” Think of it as an actors list on steroids. Or, from an actor’s point of view, as an online community that lets a casting director, producer, director and studio or network executive — each with a different level of access, so nobody but the casting professional gets everything — talk confidentially and efficiently behind your back. Cast It Systems has only about 10 employees and counts its revenue in the millions, not tens of millions, of dollars. The production companies — not the actors — pay for the service. According to Cast It Systems’ founders, Eric Hayes and Chris Gantos, a breakthrough occurred when they began providing each customer with a Sanyo camera whose removable storage chip could instantly transfer a short audition video to a user’s computer. Lists and accompanying DVDs that were making their way around town by messenger only a few years ago were suddenly flying back and forth in seconds. That turned the casting process into a rolling conversation, with more, and faster, input from the companies that do the hiring. According to Mr. Zuckerbrod and others, as much as two days of logistical back-and-forth was wrung out of the casting work on a typical television episode. More significantly, candidates from around the world can now compete for roles in a film like Steven Spielberg’s “Munich” — one of Cast It’s early users — without geographic disadvantage: They simply record an audition abroad, upload it and level the playing field with actors in Los Angeles. Occasionally, as with the coming third installment in the “Twilight” series, from Summit Entertainment, the system has also been used for open casting calls that build buzz among aspiring actors who submit their own videos, and may or may not receive serious consideration. “You often find with actor searches that they wind up with someone at C.A.A.,” said Mr. Hayes, referring to Hollywood’s Creative Artists Agency. He is a techie type whose interest in casting was helped along by the experience of his wife, Robinne Lee, an actress whose credits include “Hitch” and “Seven Pounds.” Having persuaded Hollywood to sign on — a major hurdle was demonstrating adequate security, since those at Studio A have no interest in sharing their lists with rivals at Studios B and C — Mr. Hayes and Mr. Gantos have been warily prodding at their system’s potential elsewhere, for instance, in sports or job recruiting. Video swapping, though not unknown in executive recruitment, has been a limited tool outside the entertainment industry, largely because of legal considerations. “Some people don’t care for it — they don’t want personal details recorded for discrimination reasons,” explained Robert L. S. Boroff, chief executive of Reaction Search International, an international placement company. In fact, many of the visual traits that are essential to casting decisions — race, age and even demeanor — might trigger a lawsuit or government action if they leaked into another sort of hiring. Mr. Boroff says companies in the United States will sometimes conduct a video conference with a candidate, but are extremely reluctant to store visual images, lest they be accused of cutting the deck by some illegal criterion. By contrast, everything Cast It does is stored for the ages, so an audition for an episode last year can help, or hurt, when a casting director is trying to decide if an actor has the right look or delivery for a current role. Still, technology, once uncorked, is not easily denied. “It’s just like the cellphone,” Mr. Boroff predicted of digital auditioning and the world outside of Hollywood. “It’s going to take off.”

Hiring and Promotion
Hollywood (Calif)
Computers and the Internet
Actors and Actresses


A Way to Make Motor Fuel Out of Wood? Add Water

Abstract: A Georgia company says it has overcome a major roadblock in turning agricultural waste into vehicle fuel and other useful chemicals by experimenting with a technology that treats the waste with compressed water heated to very high temperatures. The company, Renmatix , plans to cut the ribbon on a research and development center on Tuesday in King of Prussia, Pa., near the heart of the nation’s chemical and refining industry, to complete development of the process. The goal is to accomplish something that has eluded a dozen companies in recent years despite big government inducements: to commercialize a technology for making use of cellulosic biomass, or wood chips, switchgrass and the nonedible parts of crops. If it works, the technology could reduce the nation’s reliance on oil imports for gasoline in favor of a cleaner-burning and less expensive source of energy. A company with a workable technology would have a guaranteed market, given that Congress has set quotas for the consumption of cellulosic fuel but so far, hardly any is being produced. What is more, the supply of cellulosic biomass is far larger than the amount of corn available for making ethanol, and it does not involve diverting many resources from food production. Cellulose is made up mostly of sugars that can be fed to microorganisms to make ethanol or be chemically processed into other fuels or chemical feedstocks. Yet those sugars are locked up in a form that makes them mostly useless to anything but grazing cows and termites. The process developed by Renmatix involves putting hardwoods into a small pressurized chamber. One class of sugars, the type with five carbon atoms, is broken off and harvested. The remaining material is pumped into a second pressurized vessel for a longer period to release the remaining sugars. A solid component of woody biomass called lignin remains and is burned to provide energy for the process. In both phases, the cellulosic material is treated by water at a pressure and temperature that is so high that the water is neither steam nor an ordinary liquid but in a form known as “supercritical.” Competitors use various combinations of steam, acid and enzymes to convert the woody waste into fuel. But the enzymes are far more expensive than water, and the acid residue must be removed from the resulting product. Some companies have tried to blast the cellulose into very small molecules and then recombine them as alcohols or other chemicals, but they have had trouble controlling the mix that results. Renmatix uses only pressurized water. When the water is in the so-called supercritical phase, the company says, its pH level can be adjusted to turn it into an acid. When it is depressurized, it reverts to pure water with a neutral pH level. Renmatix began its lab-scale process in late 2008. A year later, it began operating a pilot-scale plant in Kennesaw, Ga., that processes three tons a day of mixed wood chips. “We use no significant consumables, like enzymes or acids,” said Fred Moesler, a company engineer who is in charge of scaling up the process. But scaling up and reaching competitive prices have tripped up several competitors in the field. “It’s not unimaginable that it would work,” said Thomas L. Richard, a professor of agricultural and biological engineering at Penn State University and the director of its Institutes for Energy and the Environment . Yet he cautioned, “I’m quite confident that they will face some challenges moving from a lab success to a tens-of-millions-of-gallons commercial refinery.” Renmatix’s process stops at the point that the wood waste is transformed into useful sugars. Other companies would convert the sugars into feedstock chemicals or motor fuels.

Wood and Wood Products
Renmatix
Alternative and Renewable Energy


Annie Lennox Blurring the Line Between Donor and Activist

Abstract: LONDON — On a balmy morning in May 2007, Annie Lennox was in her west London garden, drinking tea with her right-hand woman, Tara Goldsmid, and Claire Lewis, who runs celebrity ambassadors for the charity Oxfam. They were brainstorming about a new female forum Ms. Lennox, the former Eurythmics star, wanted to create. Something global. Something long-term. Something connecting women who have it all with women who have barely anything. What would such a group be called? They joked: A flock of women? A school of women? A pride? A mob? “I know,” Ms. Lennox cried. “A circle! No sharp edges, no hierarchy, just a circle of women.” Less than a year later, the Circle was launched as an intimate web of 16 influential women that has grown into a network of 150-plus, raising more than £1.1 million, or $1.72 million, for women’s projects around the world. Celebrity philanthropy is neither new nor particularly female. The Beatles donated to Oxfam in the 1960s. Rockstars like Bono of U2 and Bob Geldof have campaigned for poverty relief in Africa for more than a decade. High-profile business leaders like Bill Gates have made billions available to development-related causes. Ms. Lennox and her Circle embody another trend: As more women acquire the financial muscle to support a cause, they seem to feel a special pull to help other women — and get actively involved in the process. Their empathy with less fortunate sisters, often rooted in shared female experiences like motherhood or the stubborn barriers to gender equality that persist from Pakistan to the United States, is quietly blurring the traditional line between donors and activists. On Forbes’s list of the world’s biggest givers — individuals who have donated at least $1 billion — all 19 are men. Bill Gates leads the pack at $28 billion. Lower down the scale, women are more likely to give and give more than men, according to a 2010 report by the Women’s Philanthropy Institute at Indiana University. The number of campaigns and foundations run by and for women has risen rapidly. If in 1985 there were only 32 dedicated women’s funds in the world, today there are at least 165, spanning 27 countries on six continents, according to Women Moving Millions, a group of 160 donors who each pledge at least $1 million to empower women and girls. This international sisterhood is still evolving, at times feeling almost a little too fashionable, like a must-have handbag that fades from favor next season. But by effectively making the battle for gender equality a global one it has created an ambitious new frontier for 21st century feminism, “roll-up-your-sleeves feminism,” as Ms. Lennox says. In many ways, Ms. Lennox was a feminist icon before she was a feminist. In 1985, sporting a man’s suit and peroxide blond crew cut, she roused teenage girls with “Sisters Are Doin’ It for Themselves,” giving “the conscious liberation of the female state” her husky soul treatment. “Mothers, daughters, and their daughters too, whoa yeah,” she roared. “Woman to woman, we’re singing with you.” But if her outfit was a conscious statement — “to show people that my partner and I were equals” — off-stage feminism still intimidated her. “I didn’t identify enough to be a fully paid-up member,” she recalled one recent afternoon in a soft Scottish burr. “I liked putting on lipstick. I somehow thought that disqualified me.” At 57, Ms. Lennox still has the chiseled androgynous look that was the hallmark of her 1980s stage persona but she “no longer has any issue with that word — except that so many still have an issue with that word.” At a ceremony in 2010, where she received the Barclays Woman of the Year award, she asked those in the mostly female audience who considered themselves feminists to stand up. Half the room stayed seated. Shocked, she created Equals, a campaign for gender equality grouping 26 organizations, and raised money with two charity concerts. This spontaneous compulsion to “do something” is characteristic of Ms. Lennox. Scoffing at words like charity and philanthropy, she is, in the most literal sense, an activist. “I see myself as a musician, a campaigner, a mother,” she said describing how she came to invest fame, time and money in many causes — most notably helping HIV-infected women and children in developing countries. In that journey, motherhood has been a powerful ingredient. In Ms. Lennox’s local cafe, on trendy Portobello Road, the conversation now turns personal. Before having her two daughters, she had a stillborn son in 1988. If she feels for women in South Africa or Malawi who fear losing their children more than their own life, it is also because she knows both: the joy of seeing a child grow up and thrive — and the pain of losing one. “It throws your life upside down. You’re stunned like a truck just hit you. You can’t believe this just happened,” she said. “It really brings home the temporariness of life. But that is the everyday reality for so many women in the world.” In 2003, after meeting then President Nelson Mandela in South Africa, she went to the townships to visit AIDS victims — many of them women and children. It was there that she decided to dedicate resources and her star power to this cause. “It found me as much as I found it,” she says. Growing up in a two-bedroom apartment in Aberdeen, Scotland, Ms. Lennox always thought she knew what poverty was. Her father worked in a shipyard, her mother was a cook. Playing in a school orchestra at 11, her flute was held together with elastic bands. “I don’t come from a wealthy background. We were working-class,” she said. “But seeing chronic generational poverty in Africa is something else. Your reference points shift.” As a performer, Ms. Lennox can be daring, exuberant, playful even. She relished the fact that her masculine outfits in the 1980s had people wondering about her sexuality — she is not gay — because in one small way she had challenged stereotypes. More recently, when she sang for Queen Elizabeth II at the diamond jubilee celebrations, she sang “There Must Be an Angel” wearing a pair of outsize feathery wings. In life, Ms. Lennox is as deliberate, but far more earnest in airing her views. “We were horrified by the Holocaust,” she noted. “But the genocide that goes on on a daily basis, wiping out women and children — illness, poverty, rape as a weapon of war. This is not fiction. Where is the value of a women’s life?” Although she says “I was always in the glass-half-empty category,” she clearly believes change is possible. In 1999 she donated the proceeds of a Eurythmics reunion tour to Greenpeace and Amnesty International. A year later she worked with Amnesty to lobby for the release of a Tibetan ethnomusicologist from a Chinese jail. She has recorded an album of Christmas carols and written two songs entirely for charity. In 2007 she set up the SING campaign, a charity aimed at preventing the spread of H.I.V. The main beneficiary has been the Treatment Action Campaign in South Africa. A century or so ago, few wealthy women supported the suffragette movement, and many made donations to institutions that actually discriminated against women, like their husbands’ universities, historians of philanthropy note. Even in the 1970s and 1980s, wealthy female donors often shied away from female causes. But in the past decade, said Jacki Zehner, chief executive of Women Moving Millions, “gender equality has moved from the margin to the center of the political debate — it’s no longer considered strange to invest in women and girls. It’s considered smart and actually kind of cool.” So cool that at times stars find themselves under scrutiny for championing a cause, accused of either opportunism, naïveté or vanity. “The general concern is that celebrities take up a lot of time, it’s all about them, it’s resource intensive,” said Kenneth Roth, president of Human Rights Watch. But several stars he has come across are credible spokespeople for their cause, he said, citing Angelina Jolie and George Clooney. At Oxfam, where Ms. Lennox has been a celebrity ambassador since 2007, Ms. Lewis said that the rock star is as knowledgeable about H.I.V. as any Oxfam activist. “She is definitely not some bored or image-conscious celebrity,” Ms. Lewis said. “When you’ve won a Grammy and an Oscar you don’t need to polish your image.” Ms. Lennox acknowledged “there is a sort of fatigue” with celebrities. “It’s always Bono or Bob. Africa and the rock stars again,” she sighed, and paused. Then her piercing blue eyes look up and her left index finger shoots forward. “But if it wasn’t for the stars, you wouldn’t be there,” she said of the media. “Would you show up for the thousands of NGO workers trying to draw attention to a cause?” Women have a special role to play in changing the world, Ms. Lennox said. “We are mothers. We are the portals. The next generation comes through our bodies.”

Lennox Annie
Women and Girls
Philanthropy
Oxfam
Women's Rights


‘Restaurant Recession’ From Health Care Act? Little Evidence

Abstract: Of all the policy positions taken by Andrew F. Puzder, the fast-food chief executive whom Donald J. Trump has chosen to be his secretary of labor, one he returns to with regularity is his passionate disdain for the Affordable Care Act and its effect on businesses and workers. In the last few months, Mr. Puzder has spoken out multiple times — in a speech before restaurant executives, on Fox Business, on the editorial page of The Wall Street Journal — about what he calls a “government-mandated restaurant recession.” He says the law has led to rising health insurance premiums, “reducing consumer spending, resulting in a reduction in restaurant visits.” He has also argued that the act has given businesses an incentive to cut back on full-time workers to avoid the costs of providing them with insurance, as the act frequently requires. The problem is that the available data largely disagree. In his Wall Street Journal op-ed, Mr. Puzder leaned on a recent survey by the market research group Civic Science, which found that of those consumers spending more per month on health care than they were a year ago, 47 percent were spending less money patronizing fast food restaurants. But industry numbers don’t indicate this is having much of an effect. According to the National Restaurant Association, sales across the industry will be about $780 billion in 2016, up roughly 5 percent over the previous year. If you restrict the focus to fast food, sales are projected to be higher, too — just under 6 percent, to about $223 billion, though the group notes that individual companies and regions may be struggling. While there were some signs of weakening in the third quarter, the group expects next year to look similar to this one. And it would be hard to blame a change in third-quarter performance on premiums that only adjust at the beginning of each year. Neither does the data on restaurant industry employment suggest many ill effects. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, employment in the “food services and drinking places” industry is up roughly 200,000 this calendar year, and by nearly one million since Americans began buying health care through the Affordable Care Act. Ben Spielberg of the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, a liberal think tank in Washington, looked at the rise in premiums that a 27-year-old would pay for a common low-cost insurance plan under the health law. He compared that with employment in food services and drinking establishments over the same period. The analysis looked at the 33 states in which data on both was available and concluded that there was no correlation between employment growth in the industry and premiums. States where premiums increased more did not tend to have lower employment. The study’s finding may seem counterintuitive, but it is consistent with the experience of at least some large fast-food outlets. Todd Penegor, the chief executive of Wendy’s, said in an interview on Friday that while health care and rent costs have eaten into consumers’ budgets, his company added stores in 2016 for the first time in years after previously scaling back stores. Mr. Penegor attributed the development to a successful new marketing program and a package of low-cost menu options. To the extent that some restaurants are struggling, one explanation may be shifting consumer tastes rather than health care costs. A recent survey by the National Restaurant Association suggests that healthier offerings are gaining popularity, which could disadvantage traditional fast-food outlets. “Traffic has been incredibly strong for us,” said Nic Jammet, co-founder and co-chief executive of the salad chain Sweetgreen. “It’s been a great year for us, not just with new store growth and customer acquisition but also our same-store sales have grown nicely, too.” Even if health care costs are having an impact on certain restaurants, it’s hard to directly point to the Affordable Care Act as the culprit. For one thing, fewer than 7 percent of Americans receive health coverage through the individual state marketplaces, where premiums have jumped, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation , which tracks insurance coverage. “The fact that you had spikes in the premiums of about 7 percent of the people is not going to be determinant of those outcomes,” said Jared Bernstein, a former economic adviser to Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. Mr. Puzder’s second complaint, that the law raises labor costs by mandating that employers cover full-time workers, appears more grounded in reality. It certainly would increase costs for employers who did not previously provide insurance coverage to full-time workers. “We took a big hit initially from what we had paid previously,” said Xavier Teixido, who owns three restaurants in Delaware and had provided full health coverage only to salaried managerial employees before the Affordable Care Act, though he offered a catastrophic illness plan to hourly workers. Still, it does not appear that the potentially higher costs are motivating employers to reduce the size of their full-time work force, as Mr. Puzder feared. According to data analyzed by Nick Buffie of the left-leaning Center for Economic and Policy Research , the percentage of people who are forced to work part-time even though they prefer to work full-time has fallen dramatically since the Affordable Care Act was enacted. Perhaps more important, worker advocates say, even if the health law raised costs for business, considering only these costs leaves the analysis incomplete. The cost to businesses in the restaurant industry must be balanced against the benefits to workers, which have been significant in many cases. “The restaurant industry has historically represented one of the largest segments with workers without health coverage,” said Paul Sonn, general counsel at the National Employment Law Project, which advocates on behalf of low-wage workers. “The A.C.A. has had a huge impact expanding access to low-cost and in many cases zero-cost coverage for restaurant workers.” A question for Mr. Puzder, who has declined requests to comment since he was chosen for the post, is whether his view of labor — and national policy — will be overly shaped by his experience within one corner of one industry. “We see different goals between a business owner trying to hold down costs and a national policy maker who ought to be focused on making sure that the benefits of growth are fairly and broadly shared,” said Mr. Bernstein. “For a guy like Puzder, suppressing labor costs is a good day at work. For the labor secretary, that’s not the goal.” Lawrence H. Summers, the former treasury secretary under President Bill Clinton and an economic adviser to President Obama, argues that one key to policy making is to avoid the fallacy of composition, in which what hurts or helps one actor does not necessarily produce the same effect when everyone does it. “If one firm raises wages, that firm may be less competitive,” he said. “But if wages are raised at all firms, spending power may rise, and that may stimulate the economy.” Mr. Summers added: “This isn’t a left-wing truth or a right-wing truth. You can’t calculate all the effects of a policy just by generalizing from the experience of a business.”

Restaurant
Obamacare,Affordable Care Act
Andrew F Puzder
Labor Department
US Economy
Jobs
Donald Trump


Justice Dept. Denies Plan to Settle UBS Tax Case

Abstract: The Justice Department issued a statement on Tuesday denying a New York Times report that it was considering dropping a closely watched lawsuit against the Swiss bank UBS , seeking the names of 52,000 wealthy American clients suspected of offshore tax evasion. The Times said in its report, citing a United States official briefed on the matter who spoke on Monday, that a settlement in the case could be reached by mid-July, ending an unusually aggressive effort by Washington to force Switzerland to lift its veil of banking secrecy. Saying there was “no basis for the report,” Charles Miller, a Justice Department spokesman, said in the statement, “While the department is always willing to consider settlement in any case, the suggestion that the department is planning to drop this suit is simply untrue. The department is continuing with the case against UBS and will file its brief asking the court to enforce the summons on June 30.” Even so, the Swiss finance minister, Hans-Rudolf Merz, told Swiss radio on Tuesday that UBS and the American authorities were trying to reach a settlement. “I can confirm that efforts are under way,” Mr. Merz said from Berlin, according to news agency reports. UBS and senior Swiss government officials have mounted a fierce lobbying campaign to persuade Washington to drop the case. UBS argues that disclosing client names would cause it to violate Swiss financial secrecy laws and open its executives and bankers to prosecution in Switzerland. In February, the Justice Department sued UBS in a federal court in Miami to compel the bank to turn over the names, just a day after UBS agreed to pay $780 million to settle accusations that it had defrauded the Internal Revenue Service by allowing wealthy Americans to hide billions of dollars in taxes in secret offshore bank accounts. Since the settlement, UBS and the Swiss government have pressed their case with Washington, citing rising tensions in the diplomatic relations between the two nations. “To have a complete meltdown in Swiss-U.S. relations and go to the mat with Switzerland three years from now when money is getting back into the system doesn’t make sense,” the American official, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the matter, told The Times on Monday. While the bank has legal avenues to challenge the lawsuit, it risks possible indictment if it exhausted those options without turning over the names. Judge Alan S. Gold of the United States District Court in Miami, is expected to hold a short trial on the government’s complaint against UBS on July 13. “The Swiss do not want this to be litigated, and it is possible it will settle before then,” the United States official told The Times on Monday. Washington and Switzerland signed a new tax treaty Friday that would fight tax evasion by enhancing information sharing. But prosecutors are more likely to learn the identities of UBS clients after some filed legal papers in Swiss courts contesting the Justice Department’s names summons. Swiss government officials are considering conveying these Swiss-based filings to the Justice Department as part of a deal in which the United States agency would drop the entire case, something that would allow Switzerland to say that it has not breached its own secrecy laws. Scores of wealthy clients, worried about being prosecuted, have come forward in recent months to declare their accounts, one reason that the Justice Department was said to be thinking of dropping the case. In addition, the agency would face a lengthy appeals process of up to three years if UBS appealed any adverse rulings by Judge Gold. Of the 52,000 clients on the agency’s original list, prosecutors are focused on several thousand ultrawealthy Americans with offshore accounts containing from tens to hundreds of millions of dollars. Some 30,000 of the accounts are smaller, cash-only accounts, and many of those have been repatriated to American-based banks in recent months, the official said. Adding to the pressure on UBS is a June 30 I.R.S. deadline requiring offshore banking clients to file certain disclosures, known as F-bars. “If you look at the repatriations and F-bar filings and voluntary disclosures, and if these are big numbers, then it would make sense to settle this case,” said the official. When The Times was preparing its original report on the possibility of a settlement, a Justice Department spokeswoman, Beverly Lumpkin, and a UBS spokeswoman, Karina Byrne, each declined to comment.

UBS AG
Banks and Banking
Justice Department
Suits and Litigation
Switzerland


A Review of Cottage Restaurant and Café, in Plainville

Abstract: A restaurant that has flourished for 17 years must be doing something right. Cottage Restaurant and Café , in Plainville, does numerous things right, and its primary drawback — overly generous portions that some may find off-putting — is something many diners will enjoy. Cottage’s interior approaches the antiseptic, with taupe walls, dark wainscoting and a dearth of decoration, but that is easily overlooked, given the colorful nature of so many of its dishes. Patty Queen, with 32 years of kitchen experience, is Cottage’s executive chef and a co-owner of the restaurant with her brother Dave Queen, who serves as bartender; and her mother, Dorothy Queen, the hostess. Several of Cottage’s dishes are prepared with just enough frills to complement the main ingredients without overwhelming them. Such was the case with an appetizer of ginger-fried calamari. Its circular slices were dredged in flour, delicately deep-fried and arranged around a small salad of red pepper, carrots, daikon and scallion. Image Apple fritters, with diced apple and cinnamon. Credit Lisa Wiltse for The New York Times An entree of organic salmon, well marinated with lemon and dill and latticed with grill marks, reflected similar restraint. The large square fillet was flaky, moist, dotted with capers and paired with mashed potatoes (pleasingly seasoned with dill, scallions, parsley and a dash of sour cream) as well as single slices of grilled yellow squash, zucchini, eggplant and tomato. It was straightforward enough to allow each component on the plate to shine. A cranberry salad included a garden of delightful ingredients — dried cranberries, arugula, radicchio, green-leaf lettuce, toasted pine nuts, spiced pecans, roasted sweet potatoes, thin cuts of Asian pear and crumbled goat cheese — with only the oily sweet potato seeming out of place. In pulled-pork-and-fried-oyster sliders, Patty Queen has hit on an unexpectedly winning combination, one further enhanced by corn relish, fried pickles and a mildly zesty pepper aioli. Two of these double-size sliders would make a fun but filling appetizer; the kitchen goes further by providing three. Chili-rubbed shrimp, another starter, was expertly grilled, with crispy edges and moist, peppery flesh, perched on a mound of vinegared vegetables tucked into iceberg wedges. Such massive servings, even when shared, don’t leave much appetite for entrees. Image The restaurant’s slow-roasted beef short ribs. Credit Lisa Wiltse for The New York Times Given the ample size of those entrees, the best approach may be to skip the appetizers altogether. Certainly a meal could be made of grilled lamb kebab, which consisted of three skewers of meat pounded flat and flavored with lemon and mint and an enormous yogurt-and-feta-dressed salad of grilled eggplant, roasted red pepper, arugula, cherry tomatoes and chickpeas, all on a bed of large-kernel couscous. The same might be said of MarWin Farm duck two ways. In addition to the lime-marinated breast meat and competently prepared confit of leg, there were so many items crowding the plate (whipped avocado, burger-size bean and yam cake, watermelon pico de gallo, roasted pasilla-pepper coulis, chimichurri sauce) that it was difficult to appreciate any one of them. The Cottage’s kitchen is clearly talented, but greater restraint might allow its efforts to shine all the more. An entree of slow-roasted beef short ribs was as varied and copious a plate as the duck. The meat was so extraordinarily succulent, steeped in cumin and other spices, and falling off the bone, that it stood out well above the accompaniments — blue corn tortilla chips, pinto beans, tempura-fried avocado, pico de gallo and coleslaw. Baby back ribs, a special, were equally tender, though the meat was laced with too much fat and overloaded with a dense sauce. Sweet potato fries were better but, because they were nestled under the ribs, quickly grew soggy. The best things on the plate were twin balls of fried creamed corn, prepared with onions and béchamel, that were surprisingly light and savory. Similarly, the accompaniments of crunchy-crusted corn pudding, a superb oven-dried-tomato relish and gently sautéed red Swiss chard were the highlights of an entree of Maryland-style crab cake that tasted more like fish than crab. If you still have room for dessert after all that, Cottage offers several fine choices. The house specialty, apple fritters, were two crispy balls studded with diced apple and a whiff of cinnamon. A Key lime tart draped in a rhubarb-strawberry compote had a crunchy, nutty graham-cracker crust that almost stole the show. And a coconut cheesecake, with the same graham-cracker crust and modestly endowed with coconut (and a hint of white chocolate), was a delicious model of simplicity.

Cottage Restaurant and Cafe Plainville Conn


A Review of Thai Coconut in Wantagh

Abstract: In recent years, new Asian restaurants on Long Island have resembled palaces, each more dramatic than the last. Thai Coconut is a different story: a modest storefront, set across the street from the Wantagh station of the Long Island Rail Road. The vibrant flavors, tender meats and sparkling seafood, not the setting, are what make Thai Coconut stand out. The year-old spot is owned by Xingtan Sun, a first-time restaurateur. Born in China, he lived in Thailand for several years when he was younger; he arrived in the United States more than 10 years ago and has worked as a cook in Chicago and New York. His son, Kevin, is the manager here, and the chef is Guan Lin. The décor is cozy and pleasing if not grand. Walls are wainscoted below the chair rail and painted pale green above. Tables are dark wood and high-backed; black leather chairs are cushy-soft, not the numbingly hard ones found in most storefronts. On the walls are large, framed, color photographs of Thai food. Image Thai salads on the menu include one with steak. Credit Phil Marino for The New York Times Servers were friendly and willing, but on busy nights they were sometimes overwhelmed. Entrees were delivered to the table before appetizers were cleared. It sometimes took a nudge to get clean plates after each course. Our favorite openers were the spicy Thai salads. The meltingly tender, freshly grilled steak arrived atop onions, tomatoes and cucumbers, all flavored with lime. Even better was a salad of six, still-warm-from-the-grill jumbo shrimp over a mix of lettuce, red onion, tomatoes, cucumbers and Thai basil. From the roster of hot appetizers, we were most impressed by the shrimp noodles, four large shrimp wrapped in thin noodles and deep-fried till crunchy. The pork and vegetable steamed dumplings, a generous serving of eight, were feather-light and tasty. Choose the familiar, large spring rolls, which contained a crisp mixture of bamboo shoots, cabbage, carrots and bean threads, over the more expensive mini rolls, which were all crunch with little filling. The noodle dish I’d go back for is the thin, crisp, pan-fried egg noodles topped with shrimp, tender nubs of calamari, chicken and vegetables, in a soothing yet tasty garlic-scented oyster sauce. Image Appetizers include shrimp wrapped in thin noodles and fried until crunchy. Credit Phil Marino for The New York Times Entrees were led by a dish of very tender sautéed, sliced beef (or chicken) with two kinds of mushrooms, scallions, ginger and black beans over a bed of just-wilted baby spinach. Our waiter kept referring to it as No. 55; that’s a lot easier than “nuer pahd nam mun hoey.” Ultrathin grilled pork chops, which had been marinated in a sauce dominated by lemon grass, were a surprise hit. The chops had a vibrant flavor and a pleasingly crisp texture. They were fun to pick up like finger food, and munch on the bone. Another excellent choice was the spicy jumbo shrimp tossed with flavorful, crisp-tender string beans. Many of the dishes on the menu are designated as spicy (with a red chili pepper), but the restaurant will tone down the heat on request. Such was the case with the velvety garlic chicken tossed with shiitake mushrooms and bamboo shoots, which we requested moderately spicy. We also tried a green curry with big chunks of eggplant, chicken, basil and coconut milk. We didn’t specify the heat level this time, and it was Thai-style spicy, yet soothing at the same time (and tasty). On both our visits, servers tried to deliver the check before we could order dessert. Take the hint: Skip dessert. Thai Coconut offered the usual three. The fried banana enclosed in a spring-roll wrapper and topped with honey and sesame seeds was the best of them. Thai coconut cake, really three small bowls of coconut pudding, was O.K., but the fresh mango paired with sweet sticky rice was not. The fruit was unripe. We found little else to complain about at Thai Coconut. This very agreeable place is serving nicely turned out, well-seasoned food.

Restaurant
Wantagh NY
Thai Coconut
Xingtan Sun


Energy Secretary Calls Oil Export Ban Dated

Abstract: Houston — Signaling a possible break with 40 years of energy policy, Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz has suggested that it may be time for the Obama administration to reconsider the nation’s ban on exporting domestically produced crude oil. Congress made most oil exports without a license illegal in the 1970s to conserve supplies at a time when OPEC oil embargoes produced long lines at gas stations and threatened the American economy. But over the last five years a frenzy of oil drilling in shale rock formations in Texas and North Dakota have produced a glut of crude in the Midwest and Gulf of Mexico states. “Those restrictions on exports were born, as was the Department of Energy and the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, on oil disruptions,” Mr. Moniz said in remarks to reporters at the Platts Global Energy Outlook forum in New York on Thursday. “There are lots of issues in the energy space that deserve some new analysis and examination in the context of what is now an energy world that is no longer like the 1970s.” The Energy Department does not have the power to relax restrictions on exports but Mr. Moniz said the it would be willing to produce technical analysis on the issue for the Commerce Department which issues the export licenses. Oil companies are lobbying to allow exports, arguing that the United States could substantially increase export earnings from selling high-quality crudes abroad. That type of crude oil is not always easily refined by American refineries that were outfitted for processing lower-quality crudes imported from Mexico, Venezuela and the Middle East. The lobbyists argue that such exports could lower global oil prices, which would bring relief for American consumers. But others, including influential members of Congress, say that oil exports would actually raise domestic gas prices and threaten domestic oil supplies during times of crisis in the Middle East or in Africa. Mr. Moniz’s remarks were welcomed by oil company executives as a sign that the administration may be moving in their direction on exports. “If the Department of Energy and others push on Commerce, then maybe they can get it over the hump,” said Chip Johnson, president and chief executive of Carrizo Oil and Gas, a midsize Texas-based oil company active in the shale oil fields. “I think we should keep national security first, but we should export oil just like anything else.” Oil companies are already beginning to export more oil to Canada since those export licenses are relatively easy to obtain. Canada is the largest exporter of oil to the United States, but since many grades of American oil are selling at a discount to global benchmarks, eastern Canadian refiners are buying American crude to process into diesel and gasoline. Over the first 10 months of the year, the United States exported an average of 95,000 barrels of crude oil a day, mostly to Canada, according to the Energy Department. Over the same period in 2012, the United States exported an average of 67,000 barrels a day and 23,000 barrels a day in 2007, when American oil production began its expansion. Some analysts predict that exports to Canada will soon approach 200,000 barrels a day. But some Democratic lawmakers are already voicing concerns about exports. Senator Edward J. Markey, Democratic of Massachusetts, said in a statement this week, “The growing chorus from the oil industry to change longstanding U.S. law to permit the export of American crude oil is a disturbing trend.” He added, “This oil should be kept here in America, to benefit our consumers and to reduce our dependence on imports from the Middle East.”

Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries


New Jersey Park’s Spring Is Prized. Polluted, Too.

Abstract: MILLBURN, N.J. — In a densely populated place, people prize their slivers of nature and links to a pastoral past. Which might explain why David Giannakopoulos disregarded the signs, rounded the fence, stuck his head under a rock and took a drink. Among the trees here in the South Mountain Reservation , for longer than anyone can remember, water has burbled out of the rocks and people have stopped for a gulp. The same is true in countless places, but this is one of those springs that became a local treasure, with fans who came to fill buckets and swore that the water was better-tasting, healthier or just more natural than what they could get from their suburban taps. But last December, the State Department of Environmental Protection tested the spring, in the Locust Grove section at the southern end of the reservation, a county park, and found bacteria from animal feces. The Essex County Department of Parks posted signs saying “unsafe for human consumption.” That did not deter devotees like Mr. Giannakopoulos, a 40-year-old college student who lives in West Orange. Pointing to his 14-year-old dog, Mango, Mr. Giannakopoulos said, “Drinking that water, I think it’s helped her live this long. There’s nothing wrong with this water.” The first signs posted on the spring were quickly torn down. Park workers replaced the signs and pushed boulders onto the spot, but someone rolled them away. The county hired a contractor to erect a chain-link fence around the spring, with a locked gate, and someone took the gate off its hinges. The gate was repaired, and it remains securely closed with not one padlock but two. But about a month ago, someone cut away one of the fence’s four sides, and it is still missing; bits of chain link are scattered on the trail where hikers, dog walkers and picnickers pass a few feet away. Some of these hikers, dog walkers and picnickers still happily drink from the small pipe that was installed long ago to channel water out of the rocks, despite three signs warning them not to. And they all seem to have stories of friends and neighbors who have consumed the water for decades without any ill effect. “I used to come here with a bottle, and I’d have to wait in line,” said Jim Fittin, who admitted that he had taken a sip or two since the signs went up. “There’s not as many people now, but some of the people who come here on a regular basis, they weren’t going to let anything stop them.” It was the spring’s popularity that led the state to test it and the county to fence it; ordinarily, the authorities do not worry about such sources because they are not considered part of the drinking water supply. But animal waste is always a potential threat in untreated ponds and streams — and the reason generations of Boy Scout leaders have warned their charges not to drink at Locust Grove and countless similar spots. “I haven’t touched that water in 25 years,” said Bruce DeVita, the chief project coordinator for the Parks Department. “I don’t drink water that comes out of the ground.” But among people who recently passed through Locust Grove multiple times, the consensus was that the bacteria could not be much of a threat — or no worse than the chemicals found in tap water. “You can’t come to the woods and not have bacteria on your hands,” noted Elizabeth Ebinger. South Mountain Reservation, a sea of green covering 2,047 acres, almost two and a half times the size of Central Park, includes parts of Millburn, West Orange and Maplewood. The park envelops visitors, obscuring all visible signs of being in the nation’s largest metropolitan area. It is a cherished illusion, but still an illusion. No part of the park is even three-quarters of a mile away from a suburban neighborhood; it contains roads, the ruins of an old factory and a reservoir for the city of Orange. Just a few hundred yards away from the Locust Grove spring lie a library, a bank and a New Jersey Transit train station. Still, “It feels like you’re out in the forest like it used to be, out in nature,” Mr. Giannakopoulos said. “I like that.”

Parks and Other Recreation Areas
South Mountain Reservation
Essex County (NJ)


Swine Flu Is Confirmed in 67 Cadets at the Air Force Academy

Abstract: DENVER — Sixty-seven Air Force cadets have tested positive for swine flu and are being isolated at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, a spokesman for the academy said Tuesday. The outbreak is the single largest in Colorado, which up until last week had 146 confirmed cases of the H1N1 virus, according to the State Public Health and Environment Department. Academy officials first became concerned last week when a growing number of incoming freshman cadets, who began basic training in June, started falling ill with flulike symptoms. One hundred cadets have been isolated in a dormitory, and test results from an Air Force epidemiology laboratory in Texas found that 67 had contracted swine flu. Results are still pending for dozens of cadets, said John Van Winkle, a spokesman for the academy. Seventy who fell ill were cleared to return to training. None of the sick cadets have been hospitalized so far, and Mr. Van Winkle described all of the cases as “moderate.” Nonetheless, academy officials said they would not take any chances and called off the annual “Doolie Day Out,” in which freshman cadets, who are known as doolies, are allowed to leave campus. Mr. Van Winkle said it was nearly impossible to determine the source of the outbreak because some cadets had fanned out across the world for various Air Force-related programs. There are 1,341 cadets in the incoming freshman class. “Our priority right now is treating those that are ill, limiting the spread and educating our entire base population about what we have done and will continue to do,” Mr. Van Winkle said. Joe Quimby, a spokesman for the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, said the centers were working with the Defense Department to investigate the outbreak. In Colorado, which has seen a relatively low number of swine flu cases until now, a summer youth camp at the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley was stopped after 10 students and three staff members exhibited flulike symptoms over the weekend. There have been about 37,000 confirmed cases of swine flu so far in the United States and its territories. Earlier this month, the Obama administration warned that the illness could resurge in the fall and announced plans to start vaccinations in October.

Swine Influenza
Epidemics
United States Air Force Academy
Colleges and Universities