Strong Second Half Helps North Carolina Beat Florida Gulf Coast

Abstract: PROVIDENCE 70, SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA 69 Rodney Bullock hit a layup with 1.5 seconds left and Providence beat Southern California in the first round in Raleigh, N.C. Ben Bentil scored 19 points and Bullock finished with 16 points and 10 rebounds to help the ninth-seeded Friars (24-10) earn their first win in the tournament since 1997. They will face top-seeded North Carolina on Saturday. Jordan McLaughlin had 15 points for eighth-seeded Southern California (21-13), which missed the front end of two one-and-ones in the final minute. NORTH CAROLINA 83, FLORIDA GULF COAST 67 Brice Johnson scored 18 points, and No. 1-seeded North Carolina needed an overwhelming second-half start to put away 16th-seeded Florida Gulf Coast (21-14) in Raleigh. Isaiah Hicks added 12 points off the bench for the Tar Heels (29-6), who led by just a point after a frustration-filled opening 20 minutes in which the Eagles stayed right with the East Region’s top seed. KENTUCKY 85, STONY BROOK 57 Jamal Murray led five players in double figures with 19 points and fourth-seeded Kentucky routed 13th-seeded Stony Brook (26-7) in Des Moines, setting up a showdown with its rival Indiana in the second round. Isaiah Briscoe scored 13 with 11 rebounds for the Wildcats (27-8), who have not faced the Hoosiers since beating them in the round of 16 in 2012. INDIANA 99, CHATTANOOGA 74 Yogi Ferrell had 20 points and a season-high 10 assists, O. G. Anunoby pitched in 14 points, and fifth-seeded Indiana (26-7) took charge against Chattanooga (29-6) on the way to a victory in Des Moines. The Hoosiers shot 37 of 57 (64.9 percent) from the field.

College basketball
UNC
Florida Gulf Coast University
USC
NCAA Men's Basketball,March Madness


Judge Orders Pittsburgh to Allow Tent City During G-20 Meeting

Abstract: PITTSBURGH — A federal judge on Thursday ordered the City of Pittsburgh to allow a group’s tent city protest during the Group of 20 meeting next week, but he denied two other requests for permits for demonstrations, saying the city’s goal of “protecting visiting foreign leaders is of the highest interest.” The judge, Gary L. Lancaster of Federal District Court, made his ruling just over a week before the leaders of 20 of the world’s largest and emerging economies meet here in a gathering that has become a rallying point for a variety of protesters. Six groups sued the city, state and federal governments last week after being denied permits after months of discussions. Since their lawsuit was filed, the city granted permits to three of the groups: for an interfaith march by the G6 Billion group; for another march by the group Bail Out the People ; and for permits for a group of artists to use a city park. Judge Lancaster granted one of the remaining groups, CodePink , the right to use Point State Park in downtown Pittsburgh to hold a tent city demonstration Sunday night through Tuesday night. The city had tried to deny the permit, saying it would conflict with a run in the park, as well as a free-speech festival being organized by a group supported by former Vice President Al Gore. Denying CodePink the right to hold its tent city “would result in the loss of CodePink’s First Amendment freedoms,” Judge Lancaster ruled. Jules Lobel, a lawyer with the Center for Constitutional Rights , which was representing the organizations along with the American Civil Liberties Union , said the ruling for use of the park “shows that it’s not just for the powerful, but for everyone.” Judge Lancaster denied a request from the Thomas Merton Center to end a march through the city on Sept. 25 with a rally on the Seventh Street Bridge, near the convention center where the meeting will be held. He said the city’s view that such a rally, with 5,000 to 7,000 people on a bridge, would be unsafe was valid. The judge also denied a request from the 3 Rivers Climate Convergence to camp out overnight in a city park all of next week because it would put too much of a burden on the city to clean up after the campers, and set a precedent for other groups.

Group of Twenty
Freedom of Speech and Expression


U.S. Geologists Sharply Cut Estimate Of Shale Gas

Abstract: WASHINGTON — Federal geologists published new estimates this week for the amount of natural gas that exists in a giant rock formation known as the Marcellus Shale, which stretches from New York to Virginia. The shale formation has about 84 trillion cubic feet of undiscovered, technically recoverable natural gas, according to the report from the United States Geological Survey . This is drastically lower than the 410 trillion cubic feet that was published earlier this year by the federal Energy Information Administration. As a result, the Energy Information Administration, which is responsible for quantifying oil and gas supplies, has said it will slash its official estimate for the Marcellus Shale by nearly 80 percent, a move that is likely to generate new questions about how the agency calculates its estimates and why it was so far off in its projections. The decision by the agency to lower the estimates comes amid growing scrutiny from Congress about how the administration calculates its numbers and why it depends on outside and industry-tied consultants to produce some of its reports. Accurate estimates are important for lawmakers who are making long-term decisions about subsidies and policies relating to the nation’s energy mix. They are also essential for landowners and investors as they decide where and whether to lease their land to drillers or invest in gas companies. Some market analysts say that the large differences between public estimates for natural gas resources provide further evidence that there may be more risk and uncertainty involved with gas drilling than many investors realize. Amid growing questions about the administration’s research, Howard K. Gruenspecht, the agency’s acting director, appeared before Congress in July to reiterate that, despite some uncertainties, his agency’s estimates were accurate. But on Tuesday, the administration said it would sharply downgrade those estimates. “We consider the U.S.G.S. to be the experts in this matter,” said Philip Budzik, an operations research analyst with the Energy Information Administration, according to Bloomberg, which was the first to report the decision by federal officials to downgrade their estimates. “They’re geologists; we’re not. We’re going to be taking this number and using it in our model.” A spokesman for the administration added that while the new estimates were very important, drilling costs and well performance may have a larger impact on future natural gas production. The new federal numbers are also much lower than the roughly 350 trillion cubic feet estimated to be technically recoverable in the Atlantic region, home to the Marcellus Shale, by the Potential Gas Committee, a nonprofit group of industry experts and academics, in an April report. Still, industry association officials cheered the new report. Kathryn Z. Klaber, president of the Marcellus Shale Coalition, described them as “further affirmation that the Marcellus Shale will continue to safely produce prolific amounts of clean-burning American natural gas for generations to come.” The new estimates are much higher than the last assessment by the Geological Survey in 2002. Those estimates — which suggested the Marcellus contained only about two trillion feet of recoverable gas — were provided before new technology had drastically increased drilling for natural gas in shale formations. In their report this week, federal geologists focused on “resource” estimates, which refer to the amount of gas that is in the ground and technically can be extracted. They did not focus on what are known as “reserve” estimates, which refer to how much of this gas can be profitably extracted from the ground. The geologists also did not discuss how high gas prices will have to rise before companies can make enough money to justify increased drilling. Natural gas resource estimates like those produced by the federal Geological Survey and the Energy Information Administration have been criticized by market analysts and energy experts because they often give an overly optimistic and simplistic view of how useful natural gas will be as a source of fuel that can replace oil and coal . Resource estimates often include gas in pockets that are so small or so deep that it may never be drilled or produced at any price. The gas may also be in areas that are off limits or impractical to drill. In April 2010, the Energy Information Administration revised its methodology for estimating natural gas production. Despite the change, some energy analysts say that in Texas significant discrepancies remain between the federal numbers and estimates produced by state regulators. Some energy analysts have also faulted regulators in Pennsylvania, which is the only gas-producing state to publish oil and gas production data every six months rather than providing it monthly. This practice, according to the energy analysts, limits the ability to accurately assess well performance and provide more exact long-term estimates for how much gas that part of the shale formation can actually produce over time. “If the country is going to embrace natural gas as the fuel of the future,” said Bill Powers, the editor of the Powers Energy Investor, an energy research publication, “there needs to be a lot more transparency in how these estimates are calculated and a more skeptical and informed discussion about the economics of shale gas.”

Marcellus Shale
Natural Gas
Drilling and Boring
Geology
Energy Information Administration
United States Geological Survey


Senators Take Auto Agency to Task Over G.M. Recall

Abstract: WASHINGTON — The nation’s top auto regulator faced withering criticism across Capitol Hill on Tuesday over its failure to identify a deadly defect in General Motors cars — even as its top official tried again and again to shift the blame back to the automaker. Hours after a House committee released a scathing report about the agency’s yearslong failure to spot the ignition-stalling defect that has now been linked to 19 deaths, a Senate subcommittee hearing turned angry and tense. Lawmakers from both parties accused the agency, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, of overlooking evidence that could have saved lives and of deferring to the auto industry rather than standing up to it. The agency was ”more interested in singing ‘Kumbaya’ with the manufacturers than being a cop on the beat,” said Senator Claire McCaskill, the subcommittee’s chairwoman, in sharp questioning reminiscent of her interrogation of G.M.’s chief executive, Mary T. Barra, in a hearing before the same panel in the spring. David Friedman, the deputy administrator of the agency who serves as its de facto head, gave little ground in contending that its failings were largely the result of uncooperative automakers, as in the case of G.M., which he said had illegally withheld critical information from the agency. “N.H.T.S.A. was actively trying to find the ball,” he said. “G.M. was actively trying to hide the ball.” Even as senators agreed that G.M. was mostly at fault, they were persuaded by little Mr. Friedman had to say. Over and over, they took aim at Mr. Friedman, saying that the agency failed to use its full authority over automakers and that it did not figure out defect trends that consumers themselves had alerted the agency to. G.M.’s Ignition Problem: Who Knew What When Events leading to G.M.’s recall of 2.6 million cars because of a defective ignition switch. “You want to obfuscate responsibility, rather than take responsibility,” Ms. McCaskill, a Missouri Democrat, said, her voice rising. “We’ve all said shame on G.M.” She added, “You’ve got to take some responsibility that this isn’t being handled correctly.” The tone was markedly different from the last time Mr. Friedman appeared on Capitol Hill to discuss the agency’s role in the G.M. ignition switch. Then, in early April, nearly all the fire was directed at Ms. Barra for the company’s decade-long failure to recall 2.6 million cars for the ignition-switch problem, which can stall the engine and disable air bags. Since then, G.M. has faced more than 100 lawsuits and a half-dozen civil and criminal investigations, as well as a $35 million fine from the safety agency for not reporting the defect to regulators in a timely manner. But increasingly, questions have been raised about the safety agency’s role. A recent investigation by The New York Times, cited at the hearing, found that the agency was tentative to act, slow to identify problems and reluctant to use its full legal powers against the industry it regulates. (Mr. Friedman was sharply critical of the article and challenged its conclusions.) In question after question, senators expressed incredulity over some of the agency’s procedures and actions. Why did regulators ignore a 2007 Wisconsin state police report that found that the air bags in a Chevrolet Cobalt had not deployed and that the ignition had shifted from the “run” mode in an accident that killed two teenagers? Why — months after Ms. McCaskill first asked the question in a hearing in the spring — could Mr. Friedman not answer how many times the agency has issued subpoenas? Video Laura Christian, the birth mother of Amber Rose, a teenager who was killed when her car’s air bag failed to deploy, reacted to testimony by David Friedman, the acting head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Why did they allow companies to opt out of saying what may have caused a fatal accident? Mr. Friedman said that he had ordered that policy changed and that the agency would now require automakers to answer a question about the cause of fatal accidents — something it had not required for years. Senator Kelly Ayotte, citing a Times investigation , took Mr. Friedman to task over G.M.’s refusal to answer questions about three fatal crashes because the agency made them optional. In one case, the company cited attorney-client privilege and in another, it simply told the agency it opted not to respond. “If I got that answer, it would make me even more adamant,” said Ms. Ayotte, Republican of New Hampshire. But Mr. Friedman declined a request from Senator Edward J. Markey, Democrat of Massachusetts, that he apologize to the public for the agency’s failure to act on thousands of driver complaints about stalling in Cobalts and other G.M. vehicles. “There is no doubt that stalling can be a serious safety issue,” Mr. Friedman said. But he added: “We get many, many thousands of complaints about stalling. In this case, when we looked at the data, these cases did not stand out. If a consumer can pull a car over to the side of the road and restart it,” he said, that is not a safety problem. The hearing was held on the same day that a House committee released its own report scrutinizing the agency’s performance on the G.M. ignition issue. That inquiry found many of the same problems for which Mr. Friedman chastised G.M., including that the safety agency repeatedly overlooked information that would have allowed it to detect the ignition flaw as early as 2007. In addition, high-ranking agency officials did not even seem to understand how the air bag systems worked, with one stating he believed the Cobalt’s air bags were devised not to go off if the driver was not wearing a seatbelt, the report said. Another agency investigator lamented that continuing to revisit the Cobalt’s air bags was like “beating a dead horse.” Image Senator Claire McCaskill, Democrat of Missouri. Credit Lauren Victoria Burke/Associated Press But Mr. Friedman repeatedly defended his agency’s actions at the hearing, citing the $35 million penalty imposed on G.M., and new oversight of the automaker as it changes its safety practices. Mr. Friedman also said his agency was seeking to bolster its staff that examines potential defects with six new investigators. Automakers have recalled more than 48 million vehicles in the United States so far this year, easily surpassing the previous record of about 30 million in 2004. Watching from a seat just behind Mr. Friedman was Laura Christian, the birth mother of Amber Rose, a teenager who was killed in 2005 when her Cobalt ran off the road, into a tree, and the air bags did not deploy. As Mr. Friedman continued to speak, Ms. Christian said she could feel herself getting flushed and increasingly upset over the agency’s lack of remorse. “It was extremely frustrating to hear David Friedman go on about how his agency was this wonderful thing,” she said. “All along they missed the glaringly obviously defects.” In an interview after the hearing, Ms. McCaskill vowed to continue working on legislation to overhaul the agency and make it more effective. With the overall highway funding deadline pushed back until May, that larger legislation would also be a “last resort” opportunity to include critical reforms of the agency, she said. “This is really a time of crisis for auto safety, where Americans are wondering whether they’re adequately protected,” she said. “Something has to change, and will change.”


Los Angeles Art Museum Buys Nearby Land

Abstract: LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles County Museum of Art , which is undertaking a multipart expansion, has extended its grasp by buying a commercial site across Wilshire Boulevard from its 20-acre campus. Michael Govan, the director of the museum, said in an interview on Thursday that the museum did not have an immediate purpose in mind for the land. But since his arrival at the museum in 2006, he said, “People have been saying to me, ‘Aren’t you going to do something about that eyesore across the street?’ ” The parcel includes a five-story office building and a partly finished but stalled construction project that had been planned for residential use. The museum purchased the 30,000-square-foot property for about $12 million, said a person who was briefed on the transaction but was not authorized to discuss the purchase price. It was bought through Museum Associates, the corporation that finances the nonpublic parts of the county museum’s business. The parcel sits directly across from the new Broad Contemporary Art Museum, a $56 million building that opened last month. That building was designed by Renzo Piano, who is overseeing the master plan for the museum’s building projects, and was financed by Eli Broad, a museum trustee and philanthropist. Mr. Govan said the purchase, which was reported by The Los Angeles Times on Wednesday night on its Web site, latimes .com, was financed through the museum’s current fund-raising campaign but was not related to the Broad opening. A spokeswoman for Mr. Broad said he was not involved in the purchase. “Museums grow,” Mr. Govan said, “and while it looks like we have a lot of space,” much of that land is accounted for by expansion plans for the campus. Those plans include a new exhibition pavilion as well as renovation of the former May Company department store building, which the museum purchased in 1994. Mr. Govan cited that purchase as an example of an acquisition that did not have a specific purpose at the time but has since benefited the museum, as, he said, he hopes the new acquisition will.

Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Museums
Govan Michael


For Broncos, Very Little Bright Side

Abstract: ENGLEWOOD, Colo. (AP) — The last time the Denver Broncos finished below .500 was 1999, when John Elway was learning what it was like to sleep late on Sundays and Terrell Davis blew out a knee. This year, the Broncos (6-9) will post a losing record for only the second time in the 13-year Mike Shanahan era. Injuries and key departures again played a part. Eight years ago, a letdown was expected after back-to-back Super Bowl titles. This season, however, the Broncos began with high hopes after an off-season spending spree and roster shuffle brought in Dre’ Bly, Daniel Graham, Travis Henry, Simeon Rice, Sam Adams and Brandon Stokley. With Monday night’s 23-3 loss at San Diego, the Broncos were assured of a losing season. The festering frustration finally broke free when safety John Lynch ripped off LaDainian Tomlinson’s helmet early in the game and flung it 10 yards, drawing an unsportsmanlike-conduct penalty. “Obviously, frustration figures in,” an embarrassed Lynch said after the Chargers completed their season sweep by a combined 64-6. “I think you’re trying to put some juice in your team and just playing intense. It is something I’ve never done in my career. I am embarrassed by it.” Lynch thought coming back for a 15th N.F.L. season was going to give him a shot at a second ring. Instead, it has been one of his most disappointing seasons and has him wondering if it is worth returning in 2008. “We had very high hopes coming into this year,” he said. “It’s been an extremely frustrating year. And to get whupped a couple of times by a division opponent is no fun, and you’re out there trying to do everything you can to win.” The Broncos finish the season against Minnesota (8-7), which can still sneak into the National Football Conference playoffs with a win and some help from Dallas. So the Vikings could send Denver to its second 6-10 mark under Shanahan, who also had that record in 1999. The Broncos, who have allowed 30 or more points six times this season, have not been able to recapture the emotional leadership of two spark plugs who left Denver after last season. Al Wilson, the leading tackler and a team captain, was sent packing because of concerns about his injured neck and high salary. D. J. Williams was moved from outside linebacker to the middle to replace him, and although he leads the team in tackles, he is not the heart and soul of the unit the way Wilson was. Jake Plummer, who lost his starting quarterback job to the rookie Jay Cutler with five games to go last season, retired in the spring, refusing to report to Tampa Bay, who traded with Denver for his rights. Although Cutler has shown promise, the offense has not rallied around him they way it did Plummer. The offense lost Rod Smith to hip surgery in the off-season and Ben Hamilton to a concussion in training camp. Tom Nalen went down early in the season and was followed by Stephen Alexander and Nate Jackson. Javon Walker and Henry have been hurt most of the year, too. And poor drafts have come back to haunt the Broncos this season. Instead of producing plenty of players in their primes, the drafts of 2002-4 have proved forgettable. Williams is the only one of the 28 players selected in those years still on the team. This year’s draft class consisted of four defensive linemen, including the top pick Jarvis Moss, who is on injured reserve. The team’s top rookie is the undrafted running back Selvin Young. The Broncos are pinning their turnaround hopes on a strong 2006 draft class that features Cutler; wide receiver Brandon Marshall, who could finish with 100 catches; the pass rusher Elvis Dumervil; the athletic tight end Tony Scheffler; and the promising offensive lineman Chris Kuper.


Nuclear Talks With Iran Need ‘Intensive Work,’ Envoys Say

Abstract: Iran and the group of six major powers negotiating a permanent agreement to resolve the Iranian nuclear dispute concluded a two-day round of talks in Vienna on Wednesday, asserting that “a lot of intensive work” remained to complete a draft accord by their self-imposed deadline in three months. The lead negotiators, the Iranian foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, and Catherine Ashton, the top foreign policy official of the European Union, made the assertion in a joint statement that said the next round of talks would be held May 13. The statement suggested that both sides were still struggling with extensive disagreements and described the further negotiations as an attempt to “bridge the gaps in all the key areas.” The talks took place against rising tensions surrounding Iran’s estranged relations with the West, punctuated by new flare-ups with both the United States and the European Union on nonnuclear issues. The Americans have objected to Iran’s choice for a new United Nations ambassador, contending that he participated in the seizure of American hostages in Tehran in 1979. Iran has expressed anger at European criticism of the country’s human rights record. The tensions have been further complicated by the crisis in Ukraine, which has alienated the West from Russia, a member of the six-nation group negotiating with Iran, raising questions about Russia’s commitment to the success of the nuclear talks. The other five members of the group are Britain, China, France, Germany and the United States. The group reached a six-month agreement with Iran in November that took effect Jan. 20 and under which Iran suspended some nuclear activities in exchange for modest relief from sanctions imposed by the West that have impaired Iran’s economy. The temporary accord was intended to give negotiators more time to complete a permanent agreement — meaning they are hoping to achieve that goal by July 20. The permanent agreement is aimed at allaying foreign concerns that Iran will build atomic bombs with the enriched uranium from centrifuges it has constructed over the years, or from plutonium that can be harvested from a heavy-water reactor it has been building. Iran has repeatedly denied that it wants nuclear weapons but insists that it will never relinquish the right to nuclear power and technology. That theme was reinforced on Wednesday in Iran, where the conclusion of the talks in Vienna coincided with the celebration of the annual National Nuclear Day, held to exalt Iran’s indigenous nuclear advances. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the country’s supreme leader, used the occasion to denounce what he called longstanding American malevolence toward Iran and asserted that the Iranian nuclear program would never be curtailed. The official Islamic Republic News Agency quoted the ayatollah as saying that the “camp of arrogance” — a reference to the United States and its allies — had used the nuclear issue “as a pretext to forge lies and raise hues and cry against the Islamic republic.” He made the remarks at a reception with officials of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran.

Iran
Nuclear weapon
Sanctions
Mohammad Javad Zarif
Catherine Ashton
EU


For Knicks’ Jackson, Lakers’ Buss Is Companion and Competition

Abstract: While the sports world stopped Tuesday to size up Phil Jackson in his latest incarnation, as Knicks president and savior , Jeanie Buss was nowhere near him. “Just getting ready to feed my dog,” Buss said from her home in Los Angeles while Jackson was nearly 3,000 miles away preparing to take the stage at Madison Square Garden . New York did not need much of an introduction to Jackson, who was a player on the Knicks’ 1973 championship team and tormented the Knicks for two decades as a coach, with the Chicago Bulls and the Los Angeles Lakers. But as the city gets reacquainted with its prodigal son, New Yorkers will also get to know Buss, Jackson’s fiancée and, now, his rival. Jackson’s romantic partner since 1999, Buss is the president of the Lakers and an owner of the team. Jackson’s new job makes them perhaps the first two-president household in professional sports, setting up an unusual family dynamic that could prove to be highly fraught and will certainly be closely watched. Buss, 52, is the daughter of the flamboyant Jerry Buss, who bought the Lakers in 1979 and died last year. She has been part of Los Angeles royalty since she was a teenager. She posed for Playboy in 1995, and she wrote a much-discussed memoir, “Laker Girl,” that aired some of the team’s dirty laundry. Despite the Lakers’ recent troubles, she has become a popular and important fixture in Los Angeles, admired for her business savvy in a town that reveres the art of the deal. “There’s two entities that the people trust in L.A. when it comes to the Lakers: That’s Kobe Bryant and Jeanie Buss,” said Magic Johnson, a former Lakers star who is a part-owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Johnson also called her one of the major power players in the city. Although Los Angeles will remain her home, Buss said she would be making her way to New York more frequently. “I’ll try to get in a lot more weekends there and stay close and connected to Phil while doing my job,” she said, adding that she had a “real soft spot in my heart for the Knicks.” It makes for a delicate, and potentially awkward, balancing act — juggling a relationship with a basketball legend who is heading east while she serves as a rival executive on the opposite coast at a moment when her team needs her. Buss emerged on the Los Angeles scene in 1979 when she won a “Miss Palisades” beauty contest. The next year, when her father bought the famed Los Angeles estate Pickfair, “it seemed to transform all of us into Hollywood royalty,” she wrote in her memoir. Jeff Pearlman, the author of the new book “Showtime: Magic, Kareem, Riley and the Los Angeles Lakers Dynasty of the 1980s,” said of Buss, “Back in the day, she was known as one of L.A.’s most eligible.” The Lakers’ championship runs kept her elbow to elbow with celebrities — she celebrated her 20th birthday with Michael Jackson — and she dated John McEnroe and the former hockey player Jay Wells. She was married to an Olympic gold medalist, the volleyball player Steve Timmons, from 1990 to 1993. In 1995, around the same time she attended her first N.B.A. Board of Governors meeting, she posed nude for Playboy, a spread that included photos of her throughout the Forum, the Lakers’ arena at the time. (Her father, who owned a Playboy Club in Phoenix, said, “This is the first issue of Playboy I will not read.”) Three years later, she posed provocatively for Sports Illustrated; she now uses a photo from that shoot as her Twitter avatar . Over the years, though, she has also emerged as a well-respected business mind. She began her career with her family’s team tennis and roller hockey teams — she was “tossed lame sports by her father and yet made something of each of them,” John McEnroe told Sports Illustrated in 1998 — before running events at the Forum and getting an executive role with the Lakers in 1999. “She’s not just a pretty face,” Johnson, the former Lakers star, said. “It’s those sponsors, the new TV deal, which she cut — that’s $3 billion right there. She means everything to the Lakers.” Buss began dating Jackson in 1999, just as he became the Lakers’ coach (and soon after the end of his six-championship run with the Bulls). They have been engaged since December 2012 . In the last decade, she has settled into a sort of low-key domestic routine with Jackson, 68. He cooks — otherwise “I’d never have a home-cooked meal,” she wrote in her memoir. They once appeared on Cesar Millan’s “Dog Whisperer” to shape up their 10-pound Maltese, Princess. (Jackson calls the dog Cujo.) Image Jeanie Buss during a 2010 ceremony to celebrate a Lakers title. She has had an executive role with the team since 1999. Credit Chris Carlson/Associated Press She has also served as something of an informant for Jackson after watching games or following gossip on Twitter. In her book, she described the time she told Jackson that Ron Artest, now known as Metta World Peace, had written “defense” in his hair in three languages , which she saw on Twitter. “She always sat one row up and away from the team bench because she and Phil would always make eye contact throughout the game,” said Linda Rambis, the wife of the Lakers assistant Kurt Rambis and Buss’s close friend, who also works for the Lakers. Buss said she would probably share a little less information with Jackson involved with another team, although she does plan on attending Knicks games, she said. (Her seating assignment at Madison Square Garden remains a mystery.) N.B.A. officials are well aware of the potential conflicts posed by their household. “To avoid even the appearance of a conflict, we have addressed the issue with the Knicks and Lakers to ensure that the relationship between Jeanie Buss and Phil Jackson will not affect how the teams operate,” said Mike Bass, a league spokesman. Buss said she already spent five or six days a month in New York, where both the N.B.A. headquarters and the Lakers’ broadcast partner, Time Warner Cable, are located. But Jackson is on the hunt for a permanent residence in New York, and she will spend more time there than ever. “Certainly he loves the Upper East Side,” Buss said. Still, she has plenty to deal with back in Los Angeles. The Lakers were 22 games under .500 entering Wednesday and in last place in their division. Angst is approaching peak levels in Los Angeles, a city not used to this situation: The team has missed the playoffs only twice in the last 37 years. Buss’s relationship with her brother, Jim, the Lakers’ executive vice president for basketball operations, has been strained. Many agree that she remains the more popular of the two. “If you ask anybody, they’re going to give you the same answer: They would love to have Jeanie running the whole thing,” Johnson said. He added that “they’d be better served” with her entirely in charge. Jerry Buss envisioned that his daughter would one day run the team, although he pictured Johnson as her partner, Johnson said. When Johnson sold his minority stake in the team in 2010 , he said, Jerry Buss was “really devastated.” “I called Jeanie, and basically she was saying the same thing: ‘I thought you and I would be running the Lakers one day,’ ” Johnson said. “It was probably the most emotional time since I announced H.I.V. with them.” Johnson, referring to James L. Dolan, the Knicks’ owner, added that Jim Buss should “take a page from what Mr. Dolan just did” and hire a basketball eminence to be a face of the franchise. Among fans in Los Angeles, a question has been circulating: If Jackson wanted to return to basketball, why couldn’t his fiancée get him to work for the Lakers? “She’s one of the owners of Lakers, she dates Phil Jackson, but they didn’t hire Phil Jackson when everybody wanted the team to hire Phil Jackson — it’s confusing,” Pearlman, the author, said. Jeanie Buss sounded sanguine when she said that Jackson’s time with the Lakers had ended. “I was hoping that maybe it would work out for Phil to be here, but there’s really no role for him,” she said. She was not always so even-tempered. In 2012, the Lakers flirted with the possibility of rehiring Jackson as their coach — he won five championships with the team from 2000 to 2010 — only to tap Mike D’Antoni instead . It “practically destroyed me,” Buss wrote in her memoir. “It felt like I had been stabbed in the back,” she wrote, blaming her brother. “It was a betrayal. I was devastated. I felt that I got played. Why did he have to do that? Why did Jim pull Phil back into the mix if he wasn’t sincere about it?” Buss said Jackson’s move to the Knicks should release any tension between her and her brother. “Now people don’t have to ask me, When is Phil coming back to the Lakers?” she said. “Now that’s an easy answer: He’s not available. Maybe everyone can move on.” Jackson’s move will also give Buss a chance to explore his new city. “I love New York,” she said. “I feel like when I’m in New York, you can accomplish anything. It’s a city where I haven’t unlocked all mysteries, and hopefully I’ll learn even more.” Buss said that she and Jackson did not have a wedding date and that they would think about it after this summer. How will they wind up managing the distance? “We’ll be fine in terms of how much we’ll see each other,” she said. “We’ve managed that throughout our whole relationship. As a coach, he’d be gone 10 to 12 days a month on the road with the Lakers. It’s not like we’re so used to spending every day together; that’s for sure.”

Phil Jackson
Lakers
Knicks
Basketball
Dating
Jeanie Buss


White House Bid? Giuliani Is Still Undeclared

Abstract: Former Senator John Edwards stood in the Ninth Ward of New Orleans and declared, “I’m a candidate for the presidency of the United States.” Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton proclaimed on her campaign Web site: “I’m in. And I’m in to win.” Former Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts plans to formally announce his White House run in Michigan on Feb. 13. Rudolph W. Giuliani , the former mayor of New York, took two steps closer to a presidential run on Monday, and yet stopped short, once again, of unequivocally throwing himself in the ring. After filing a candidate statement with the Federal Election Commission, he appeared on Fox News Channel’s “Hannity & Colmes” for an interview, and Sean Hannity asked, “You are then officially running to be the next president of the United States?” Mr. Giuliani’s response was cautious: “We still have to formally announce it and do a few more things. But this is about as close as you’re going to get.” When asked if he believed he could defeat Mrs. Clinton — if they received their respective parties’ nominations — Mr. Giuliani said, “Well, I’m in this to win,” but he added, “I have no idea who is going to get the nomination.” A few skeptics have wondered whether Mr. Giuliani, who has been crisscrossing the country over the last few months and signaled his interest in the presidency again and again, may ultimately back out — as he did in 2000, when he contemplated a race for the Senate but withdrew. Aides to Mr. Giuliani yesterday dismissed the notion that he was equivocating. “The response across the country has been extremely encouraging, and Rudy has made clear he is moving toward making an official announcement,” said Katie Levinson, a spokeswoman for Mr. Giuliani’s not-yet-official campaign. Mr. Giuliani established a federal presidential exploratory committee on Nov. 20 to “test the waters,” meaning that he could raise and spend money on polls, focus groups and travel but not declare a candidacy or build a substantial war chest. On Monday, Mr. Giuliani stopped testing the waters when he filed the statement of candidacy. “From the F.E.C.’s perspective, he’s running for president of the United States,” said Karl J. Sandstrom, an election lawyer and a former Democratic member of the Federal Election Commission. Typically, he said, a statement of candidacy and a formal announcement of a run occur around the same time. Bradley A. Smith, an election lawyer and a former Republican member of the commission, said that filing a candidate statement was not a definitive step. “People in the past have filed that form and then decided not to run,” he said. “Filing the form may just mean that he’s planning to raise some serious money that would put him outside of what the F.E.C. considers testing the waters.” Mr. Giuliani has recently moved to sell Giuliani Capital Advisors, an investment bank that is part of his consulting business, Giuliani Partners. But a candidacy would not necessarily complicate any sale of his assets. Candidates for president are required to file personal financial disclosure statements with the federal Office of Government Ethics. Those who declare between Jan. 1 and May 15 must file by May 15. Those who declare their candidacies between May 15 and Dec. 31 must file the statement within 30 days of the declaration, according to Vincent J. Salamone, associate general counsel for the ethics office. The statements require candidates to disclose financial interests, including sources of income, investment holdings and outstanding loans, going back a year from the filing date. Corporate directorships, partnerships and consulting contracts must be disclosed for the previous two years. Fred Siegel, a historian at Cooper Union who has written admiringly about Mr. Giuliani, said he thought the former mayor was simply being deliberate. “He moves at his own pace,” Mr. Siegel said. “He thinks these things through very carefully, and I think he’s playing this out for tactical advantage.” Katon Dawson, chairman of the South Carolina Republican Party, said it was “a lot easier to get in the race than to get out of the race,” and called Mr. Giuliani’s actions so far “a natural progression of how you would enter a race for president.” Mr. Dawson, who spoke warmly of Mr. Giuliani but has not endorsed any candidate, speculated that the former mayor might simply be choosing the right time and place to make an announcement. “This is not unusual,” he said. “Whether it will be at ground zero, or in California or New Hampshire or Iowa or South Carolina, he will announce on his own terms, and pick his own turf.” In his Fox interview, Mr. Giuliani affirmed his support for abortion rights but said he would “appoint judges that interpreted the Constitution rather than invented it.” He said he approved of domestic partnership laws, but not same-sex marriage. He said repeatedly, “We’ve got to get beyond Iraq,” and called for more attention to Iran, Syria, Pakistan and Afghanistan. He called for tightening the country’s borders and requiring prospective citizens to learn English, but also said that deporting illegal immigrants in large numbers was impractical.

Giuliani Rudolph W
United States Politics and Government
Presidential Election of 2008


Japanese Earthquake Crisis Hits Electronics Suppliers

Abstract: Last week, chips that store eight gigabytes of data — for digital cameras, smartphones and other devices — cost as little as $7.30 each on the spot market, where many manufacturers buy components. On Monday, the cost was around $10. That jump in price illustrates how the disaster in Japan has immediately affected the supply of all sorts of components used in myriad consumer electronics and other products. The earthquake and tsunami there have damaged factories and disrupted the country’s power and transportation infrastructure. Factory closures are already creating problems in the tech industry. Toshiba, which produces roughly a third of the world’s chips used to store data in cameras, smartphones and tablet computers, said on Monday that it had closed some factories and that its production would be affected. The daily spot market for those chips rose 10 to 27 percent, said Jim Handy, founder of Objective Analysis, a semiconductor manufacturing research firm in Silicon Valley, who has been tracking these prices. Analysts said small companies in Japan, China and other Asian countries would bear the brunt of those price increases, as larger companies tend to have long-term contracts for parts. But even giants like Apple could be affected. Over the last year, Apple has had a difficult time meeting demand for the iPad and the iPhone , and the new iPad 2, which went on sale Friday, sold out quickly. “Toshiba, which is one of their suppliers, has been impacted, and I think it will create more of a challenge in meeting their demand,” said Dale Ford, vice president for market intelligence at IHS iSuppli, a research firm. Apple declined to comment. At the same time, nearly all automakers, even those with no plants in Japan, could be forced to halt production of some models in the weeks ahead if Japanese suppliers are unable to quickly resume making electronics or other parts used in the vehicles, analysts said Monday. Toyota and other Japanese automakers said that they hoped to restart production at most of their domestic plants this week, but that they were still evaluating how much the disaster had damaged some factories and nearby roads, railroads and ports. If shipments cannot be made, dealerships in the United States could start to run short of some small cars , hybrids and luxury models. “In a couple of weeks we could start feeling the effects,” said Rebecca Lindland, an analyst with the research firm IHS Automotive in Lexington, Mass. “It could be something that’s really pretty minor, but if it’s specific to that vehicle you’re not going to be able to produce that vehicle.” More immediately, Toyota will miss out on building 40,000 vehicles by keeping all of its plants in Japan closed through Wednesday. Plants that build the subcompact Yaris and two small cars for the company’s Scion brand are expected to be closed longer because they were closer to the epicenter. The overall impact of the unfolding crisis on the consumer electronics supply chain remained hard to assess, as companies gave few details about damage. The extent and duration of disruptions in electric power and transportation remained impossible to predict, as well. But Japan is a major global supplier of chips, flat-panel displays and other components used in devices like computers, tablets, digital cameras, Blu-ray players and televisions, as well as a major exporter of consumer electronics. Companies big and small are beginning to feel the pain. On Monday, Sony, Canon and Fujitsu — which, like Toshiba, supply parts as well as make finished products — also said they had shut some factories. Canon said its plant in Utsunomiya suffered extensive damage, including collapsed ceilings, electrical, gas and water damage, and breakdowns in water, electrical and gas supply, that will take some time to restore. The plant makes a variety of specialized lenses used in camcorders, office machines and other devices. Makers of chips and flat-panel displays may be among those most immediately affected, said Richard Doherty, president of the Envisioneering Group, a technology research and consulting company in Seaford, N.Y., in part because the manufacturing of those products depends on lengthy, multistep processes that cannot be interrupted. “It is hard to have an interruption of power supply in the middle of the manufacturing process,” he said. While high-tech goods rely on a complex network of suppliers that help keep inventories of parts low, most manufacturers whose factories are still operating have enough parts to continue operating for some time. “There usually are buffers of several weeks,” Mr. Doherty said. “Unless there are rolling blackouts that last several weeks, the impact will be limited.” About 1.4 million, or 15 percent, of the vehicles sold in the United States last year were assembled in Japan, and nearly all cars and trucks contain some parts manufactured there, including computer chips and navigation systems. Hyundai and BMW are the only major carmakers that do not use Japanese-made electronics, according to the research firm IHS. The disaster occurred during the peak season for automotive production in Japan. Carmakers were scheduled to build about a million vehicles this month, and Ms. Lindland of IHS estimated that the stoppages could cut output by up to 250,000. Toyota officials on Monday were unsure how much damage had occurred at one plant, operated in a joint venture with Panasonic, that builds battery packs for the Toyota Prius hybrid car, although the plant that builds the Prius itself was not hit. Some American dealers have said they were running low on the Prius, whose sales have been surging as gasoline prices rise toward $4 a gallon. But a Toyota spokesman, Javier Moreno, said supplies would be sufficient unless shipments of the Prius were disrupted longer than expected. “The pipeline was full when this happened,” Mr. Moreno said. He added that it was too soon to know whether Toyota might have trouble obtaining parts for models built in North America, including the top-selling Camry and Corolla sedans, but “we’re hoping that the impact will be minimal.” Still, he said the company had canceled all overtime shifts indefinitely. Toyota is especially vulnerable, analysts said, because it builds more of its vehicles in Japan — 3.3 million last year, or 43 percent of its global output — than its rivals do. Its Lexus brand of luxury cars gets all but one model exclusively from Japan. In contrast, analysts said Honda should have fewer problems satisfying demand in the United States. Honda said it was keeping most of its Japanese plants closed through this Sunday. They build the Fit subcompact, all Honda hybrid cars and several Acura models, among others. Nissan said that six of its plants had been damaged but that they would reopen either Wednesday or Friday. In a statement Monday, it said supplies of most nameplates were sufficient but warned that “some Infiniti models and Nissan GTR and 370Z may experience delays in shipment.” Mazda and Mitsubishi said they had suspended production in Japan through at least Wednesday, while Subaru and Suzuki intend to reopen plants Thursday. But several of the companies said they were concerned about acquiring all the parts they need. General Motors, which does not build vehicles in Japan, issued a statement saying that it buys components from Japan and was still determining how its production might be affected.

Japan Earthquake and Tsunami (2011)
Electronics
Automobiles
Factories and Manufacturing
Shutdowns (Institutional)


Filling Pages Not Difficult With a Life Lived Large

Abstract: Graphic novels often depict men in colorful garb performing great feats of strength. But the heroes of those stories are usually fictional. That is not the case with “Andre the Giant: Life and Legend,” an illustrated biography published this month by First Second. The cartoonist Box Brown has woven his love of comics and wrestling to tell the life story of Andre Rene Roussimoff, better known as Andre the Giant. “I wanted to tell a story about professional wrestling and its appeal for me,” Brown, 34, said during a recent telephone interview. “I thought Andre was the perfect guy to tell that story with.” Brown took a scholarly approach to examining Roussimoff, who died of heart failure at 46 in 1993. “I thought his whole life was this beautiful, tragic story,” he said. Image Credit Box Brown Readers of this graphic novel will learn plenty about Andre the Giant: his acromegaly, a disorder that causes an excessive secretion of growth hormones, which caused him daily pain; his estranged daughter, Robin; his role in the film “The Princess Bride”; and his taste for carousing and women. Brown also peers behind the curtain of wrestling, revealing staged antics and assigned rivalries of the ring. Brown also wrote and illustrated “Everything Dies,” a comic book series about world religions. He combed through a variety of sources to shape his tale: sports articles, wrestling biographies, talk-show clips and television shows. Brown received help from his fellow wrestling fans, including one known as the Claw Master, who compiled a comprehensive win-loss record for the Giant. “It’s not like baseball, where you can look up stats at any given time,” Brown said. The victories and defeats were not as important as the dates and locations of the matches, which helped shape the tale’s chronology. The stats also proved to be a testament to Andre the Giant’s work ethic. Brown said, “My plan wasn’t to include any wrestling, but when I got to see his schedule and how often he worked, I thought it would be disingenuous not to include because he spent so much of his life doing it.” Image Credit Box Brown One year, Andre the Giant went to Japan three times, something not comfortably achieved, even in first class, by a passenger more than 7 feet tall and weighing more than 500 pounds. “It showed a dedication to his craft,” Brown said. “Life and Legend” opens with an interview of Hulk Hogan, whose respect for Andre the Giant’s prowess is apparent. “I watched when he’d walk ahead of me at the airport,” Hogan said. “I heard people say horrible things and make fun of him. He lived in a cruel world.” The story then flashes back to Andre’s youth. At 12, he is too big to fit into the bus that takes him to school, though his size makes him an ideal goalie for soccer. Image Credit Box Brown In 1970, during a trip to Japan, he learns of his disorder and is told he will not live past 40. He is undaunted, more concerned about being cleared to wrestle that night. On the flight home, he orders eight double screwdrivers. This is one of many examples of adjustments to account for his size, like his ordering an omelet made with a dozen eggs. Before a back operation, which necessitates pushing two operating tables together, an anesthesiologist asks, “How many drinks does it take to get him drunk?” The response: He feels “tingly” after the first bottle of vodka. It is no surprise that the scenes in the ring are some of the most kinetic in the graphic novel: An extended sequence of a match in 1976 against the boxer Chuck Wepner, who may not have been clued in on the legitimacy of the event. There is also a WrestleMania III clash in 1987, when an ailing Andre the Giant loses to Hogan. Brown studied footage of these fights in slow motion, frame by frame, and noted the Giant’s wink to the audience, which he depicts in an illustration. The larger-than-life antics and exaggerations are a large part of wrestling. Brown had to use his best judgment in evaluating stories, some of which are apocryphal. Image Credit Box Brown He said: “Everyone was always working — working each other, working the boss, working the fans. It’s hard to tell what’s true or not.” Brown likened Andre the Giant to comedians and musicians who are continually on the road. “That’s when you learned about the business, in those long car rides,” Brown said. “The older guys would tell their stories, talk about their fights and how they would interact with the crowds. It was a craft, like becoming a magician.” Despite having to filter through hyperbole, Brown said he hoped he had captured the essence of Roussimoff. He said, “I would like to think that, if a wrestler or someone who knew him picked the book up, they would see that it’s coming from a place of respect.”

Wrestling
Graphic novel
Andre the Giant
Comic strip
Cartoons
Books


Saquib Khan, Staten Island Wholesaler, Pleads Guilty to Bank Fraud

Abstract: A Staten Island man who wrote $82 million in worthless checks over a two-week period as part of an ambitious fraud scheme pleaded guilty on Tuesday to several counts of bank fraud. Saquib Khan , who owns a wholesale cigarette and grocery business on Staten Island that supplies delis and gas stations around the city, admitted to carrying out the shell game in which he wrote millions of dollars of bad checks to himself, deposited them and transferred the money to other accounts he controlled before the banks realized the fraud. He said he used the money to support his business. In Federal District Court in Brooklyn on Tuesday, Mr. Khan held his head low during the hearing and slouched in his chair at the defendant’s table. In a faint whisper, Mr. Khan said eight times that he was guilty, after the magistrate judge, Ramon E. Reyes Jr., asked him his plea on each count of bank fraud. By the end, his voice cracked. “I know, judge, it was wrong to present checks like that,” Mr. Khan said. “Now I understand what I did was a crime and I’m sorry about that.” Mr. Khan faces up to six and a half years in prison under the federal sentencing guidelines. As part of a plea agreement with the government, he agreed to pay $4.8 million in restitution; he has already repaid the rest of the money to the banks. Mr. Khan, who is not an American citizen, will also be deported to Pakistan. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 27. His crimes were of a scale that only a person of means could have pulled off. On one day, for example, Mr. Khan deposited $3.5 million of worthless checks into one his banks, according to a complaint against him. On that same day, he made four wire transfers, totaling $3.6 million, to another of his accounts. The relative ease with which he moved fake money between accounts — a fraud called check kiting — pointed to gaping holes in the way banks authorize checks. His business, Richmond Wholesale Company, which he built with his family, recorded $125 million in sales last year, according to Dun & Bradstreet, a financial information provider. Mr. Khan had lived a life of extravagance, with a luxury car and a large house in the tony Todt Hill neighborhood. In an unrelated criminal case, Mr. Khan had testified that a soldier in the Genovese crime family pressured a deli owner to sell his business to him, suggesting that some of his business success was ill gotten. Still, Mr. Khan, who came to the United States in the 1980s, held stature among Pakistanis on Staten Island, serving as chairman of the board of a prominent Staten Island mosque. And he gave tens of thousands of dollars to political campaigns.

Saquib Khan
Ramon E Reyes Jr
Staten Island
Fraud
Plea bargain
Deportation
Pakistan


Another Killing in Ferguson Leaves a Family Grappling With the Unknown

Abstract: FERGUSON, Mo. — Just up the road from the memorial of stuffed animals and candles that has become a place of pilgrimage and protest over the shooting death of Michael Brown, there is an empty parking lot where another young black man was killed last week on the night this city erupted in rage. There are no rallies or news cameras there, no signs or ribbons to mark the spot where, the police say, Deandre Joshua, 20, was shot once in the head and then set on fire inside his car. He was the only person killed during the fires, looting and riots that shook the city after a grand jury declined to indict a white police officer in Mr. Brown’s killing. But in the days since, Mr. Joshua’s death has largely become a footnote to Ferguson’s story — an open homicide case and a bitter mystery for his family. “The unknown is what scares me,” his mother, Maria, 39, said in an interview at her home in nearby University City, where her son and his identical twin brother, Dont’A (Don-TAY), shared the basement. “I don’t know what happened to him.” The police have offered few details about the killing. Chief Jon Belmar of the St. Louis County Police suggested last week that there could be “a nexus” between the broader unrest and Mr. Joshua’s death, but a police spokesman said it remained unclear whether there was any direct link. The police have not named any suspects, and have said it was unclear precisely when Mr. Joshua was killed or why his body was burned. Last Tuesday, the morning after the riots, Ms. Joshua was watching the news, she said, when she saw reports of a body found inside a white Pontiac Grand Prix near the Canfield Green Apartments, in the neighborhood where Mr. Brown had been killed. The news cameras focused in to reveal a crack in the car’s bumper and a missing front license plate. And Ms. Joshua said: “I knew it was him. It was him.” She and Dont’A rushed to the scene. His mother and brother described Mr. Joshua as a young man who liked to joke, worked nights stocking shelves at Walmart and dreamed of becoming a rapper. He graduated from Jennings Senior High School in 2012, according to Tiffany Anderson, the district superintendent. He lived with his mother, brother and two younger sisters, and was still trying to figure out his way in the world, his family said. He considered joining the Army or applying to community college, but let both options slide. His family said Mr. Joshua had never joined the marches and protests over Mr. Brown’s shooting, even though, in a twist of fate, the twin brothers were childhood friends with a crucial figure in the case, the witness who was walking with Mr. Brown when he was killed. Image Deandre Joshua was found shot to death and set afire in his car. Credit Nick Oza/Usa Today “It was just something that happened,” Dont’A Joshua said of the Brown shooting. The area where Mr. Joshua and Mr. Brown died is one of the more violent corners of Ferguson, accounting for 18 percent of all serious crimes reported from 2010 to August 2012, according to an analysis of crime statistics by The St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Mr. Joshua never told his family that he felt threatened there, and he did not seem to have any enemies, his mother and brother said. But as Ferguson grew tense as the grand jury prepared to decide the fate of Darren Wilson, the officer who shot Mr. Brown, Ms. Joshua worried about Deandre, she said. “I kept calling him that day, to tell him to be careful with this Ferguson riots,” she said. “And I never got an answer. I couldn’t get an answer.” That night, Ms. Joshua said, Deandre watched the grand jury announcement with his aunt and two cousins on Winkler Drive, about a mile east of where his body was found. He was happy because Walmart had canceled his shift in anticipation of unrest. Around 2 a.m., as a dozen buildings along West Florissant Avenue were burning and gunshots were crackling through the city, Ms. Joshua said, her son left his aunt’s home to make the short drive to the apartment of a girl he had been seeing for about a month. It is unclear how he ended up in the nearby parking lot of the Northwinds Apartments. His death became fodder for online speculation, caught in the fervor over the unrest in Ferguson. People sifting through thousands of pages of redacted grand jury testimony from the Brown case posited that Mr. Joshua was one of the unnamed witnesses. But Mr. Joshua’s family said he had known nothing about Mr. Brown’s death and never testified before the grand jury. A former girlfriend, Chasity Jones, a student at Southern Illinois University, said she and Mr. Joshua were at a St. Louis-area beauty salon in August when they heard news of Mr. Brown’s death. Missouri court records show that Deandre Joshua was arrested once, on a misdemeanor charge of resisting arrest, in April 2013, and had completed his sentence of community service and a year’s probation. A full record of the incident was not immediately available from the St. Louis County Police. As it waits for answers, his family has started a GoFundMe campaign to raise money to cover his funeral and burial. The family scans the online speculation about him, but tries to look beyond it. And Ms. Joshua said she found herself driving past that ordinary-looking parking lot. “I don’t know why I go there — I just ride by,” she said. “That was the last place he was at.”

Murders and Homicides
Deandre Joshua
Civil Unrest
Black People,African-Americans
Michael Brown
St Louis
Ferguson


Stars Easily End Liberty’s Streak

Abstract: Kayla McBride matched her career high with 30 points, and the San Antonio Stars never trailed in an 80-66 victory over the visiting Liberty. Danielle Adams scored 16 points and Danielle Robinson added 13 for San Antonio (11-9). Sugar Rodgers had a career-high 21 points, and Cappie Pondexter added 17 points for the Liberty (7-12), who ended a three-game winning streak. The Liberty were 2 for 11 on 3-pointers and finished 38 percent from the field. The Stars scored the game’s first 14 points. The Liberty finally scored with 4 minutes 19 seconds left in the first quarter.

Basketball
New York Liberty
Kayla McBride
Danielle Adams
Cappie Pondexter


E-Newsletter Tracks Job Changes of Business Journalists

Abstract: Late in 2006, a free e-mail newsletter sent by a company with an unusual name began to reach the overstuffed in-boxes of business reporters and editors, many of whom either skimmed it — or just deleted it. Now, to some of them, that message has become a must-read. Known as Gorkana, it keeps tabs on job-hopping in the smallish world of business journalism, as well as job openings and new publications that people might not otherwise know about. The punch line is that few American journalists who read the newsletter know that it is put together by a class of people they generally consider highly suspicious: publicists. Gorkana is a British public relations firm that is seeking a toehold in the United States and has managed to keep its newsletter largely free of what its sponsoring company does. “It’s a good way to keep track of where your friends are going,” said Caroline Waxler, the managing editor of MainStreet.com , a new business-meets-pop-culture Web site run by TheStreet.com . In its Feb. 13 newsletter, Gorkana contained an item about Main Street that included the names, e-mail addresses and phone numbers of the editorial employees. “I got a lot of notes from old Forbes colleagues,” Ms. Waxler said. Among business journalists, Gorkana created awareness of the people on the advisory board of Pro Publica, a new and closely watched investigative journalism service run by Paul E. Steiger, the former top editor of The Wall Street Journal. Gorkana also reported on a new business newspaper that is expected to start in Abu Dhabi later this year, and listed editorial staff members. The newsletter — which reaches the in-boxes of about 5,000 journalists and will come out five times a week starting March 1 — is the American counterpart to a British version, which was started as a service to public relations firms and journalists, said Rob Ingram, director of the Gorkana office in Lower Manhattan. (According to the company’s Web site, the name Gorkana means “food for thought” in Hindi and is drawn from a military experience of one of the founders.) In 2003, the two British public relations people who set up Gorkana started sending e-mail messages to publicists that listed reporters’ moves, and their popularity grew by word of mouth, Mr. Ingram said, adding that the goal of the newsletter, and the database of journalists and contact information that Gorkana sells to public relations firms, is to cut down on what reporters and publicists hate: the embarrassing and awkward phone call. “You can’t do anything about bad P.R.,” he said, “just like you can’t do anything about bad reporters, but at least you can try to help around the margins.” When Julia Berris, a British journalist working for The Lawyer in London, moved to its New York offices about a month ago, Gorkana quickly listed her transfer. “They’re pretty much hot off the mark,” she said. She looks to Gorkana to find out where her journalism school friends have ended up. “People do respect it and use it as sort of a hub” in Britain, she said, noting most of her moves in British business journalism were listed by Gorkana almost immediately. Bob Herguth, the new managing editor of The Business Journal of Milwaukee, said he received e-mail messages from friends around the country after his move from The Chicago Sun-Times (he took a buyout last month) was listed in the e-mail message. “I guess I read it now because I’m wondering if I know anybody who’s on there,” he said.

Computers and the Internet
Gorkana
News and News Media
Electronic Mail


All Your Favorites, All the Time When the Radio Taps Your Memory

Abstract: With the LG Electronics LX550 Fusic phone, every song you request is certain to play on the radio, and you don't even have to call a station. The phone can transmit songs from its memory card to any FM radio. The Fusic, available from Sprint for $330, also plays video and can receive on-demand music, TV or subscription radio services like Sirius and Rhapsody over Sprint's high-speed data network. The phone has other features that are by now expected on a jazzy handset. It has speakerphone ability, Bluetooth wireless to sync contacts and calendars with your computer and a 1.3-megapixel camera with built-in flash. Music, video and subscription radio can be purchased à la carte, or bundled with some phone plans. Songs from the Sprint Music Store are $2.50 each. You can also transfer your MP3's onto the phone's 64-megabyte Micro SD card. Be prepared for at least one tech disappointment: the phone can't transmit your Sirius radio stream to an FM receiver, only songs stored on the memory card. ROY FURCHGOTT


In Big Ways and Small, the Giants Grew Into a Team

Abstract: All around the Giants are signs and symbols of change and progression, from the once-isolated head coach, who was spotted Sunday night triumphantly bearhugging a player, to the acutely boyish quarterback, who stepped to the podium wearing the flattering look of whiskered grunge. Tom Coughlin , channeling Dick Vermeil, thanked Amani Toomer for his two touchdown catches against the Cowboys, and Eli Manning looked well on the way to leaving behind his Opie years and becoming the rugged outdoorsman he will need to be this weekend against the Packers at what is forecast to be a frigid Lambeau Field. Hair today, going to Green Bay on Sunday for the N.F.C. championship game. “Let’s keep playing, that’s been a big theme for us,” Coughlin, suddenly as inspirational as he is punctual, said Monday on a conference call. That the Giants have grown at a faster rate than the Manning stubble since they began the season with their last road defeat, at Dallas, and by being blown out at home by the Packers, is no longer a contestable matter. How much and why, well, those are indeed intriguing questions, the former to be answered against Brett Favre & Company on Sunday in the penultimate game and the Giants’ first postseason appearance in Green Bay since Dec. 31, 1961. As for how the Giants have transitioned from fractious and underachieving in 2006 to a solid playoff team that failed against most quality regular-season opponents to the conqueror of successive divisional champions, including the conference’s No. 1 seed, on the road, Coughlin said, “It had to do with a group of men who have come together as a team and fought their way through anything that has come their way.” Sounds good, but does that fully explain how a team can improve this much after losing a primary weapon (Jeremy Shockey), with its secondary held together by sticks and glue, and with a quarterback who after 15 games was widely considered to be, in game-show parlance, the weakest link? “The last three weeks, the way that he’s played, the way that he’s led, the poise, the taking care of the football ... ” Coughlin said. He went on in praise of Manning, who outlasted his big brother Peyton in the postseason with a second straight turnover-free performance and as strikingly efficient a playoff drive as you’ll ever see over the final 47 seconds of the first half. The rookies Kevin Boss, Ahmad Bradshaw and Steve Smith have emerged to ease the Shockey loss, diversify the offense and raise the profile of the first-year general manager Jerry Reese. But for all the inevitable scrutiny of Manning and the offense, a defense that began the season without a pass rush and finished Sunday night by obliterating the Cowboys’ touted offensive line and chasing Tony Romo out of the playoffs has been the Giants’ most important transformational aspect. Finally, there is Coughlin’s point about coming together, and the contributions he has made by attempting to be less the autocrat, more the leader and recently the believer that his players were not only good enough to challenge the Patriots, but tough enough for their regulars to sacrifice the week of pre-playoff rest they had earned.  Of the many e-mail messages I received after urging the Giants not to hand the Patriots their 16th victory, to play that regular-season finale for their own competitive honor and development, one that came a day after the game impressed me most. It was from a former editor, who admitted to being uplifted by the Giants’ failed bid to stop the Patriots, contending that the night in itself, unscripted and unsoiled, was a rare qualitative triumph in sports. The Giants say there was never a discussion about their approach, or any doubt. “We went into the New England game trying to win just like we go into every game,” Reese said via e-mail. “There are many things that can go wrong when you don’t approach a game full tilt.” Asked if he believed the Giants had derived intangible benefits from refusing to take the safe, conventional route, Reese wrote, “It’s hard to get some cause-and-effect out of a loss for a pro football team, but we did find a little bit of a rhythm.” Beyond the obvious measures, the four touchdown passes thrown by Manning, maybe the Giants found a togetherness they never really had. Was it cause and effect when the injured veteran cornerback Sam Madison feverishly worked with the patchwork secondary on the sideline Sunday? When the Giants’ defense tapped its inner reserves on Dallas’s two final thrusts when it had every excuse to give in? When Plaxico Burress gutted out another game on a bum ankle? Virtually ignored by the Pro Bowl selectors, “written off” (in Reese’s words) as a team last summer, the Giants discovered at least they could be one. From the head coach now capable of a little-boy hug to the quarterback who has suddenly grown comfortable in his own skin, and beyond, even if they should finish one game short of the Super Bowl.

New York Giants
Football
Manning Eli
Dallas Cowboys
Coughlin Tom


French Plan for Middle East Peace Talks Hits a Familiar Snag

Abstract: JERUSALEM — A new, French-led effort to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has gotten off to a predictably contentious start: The Palestinians are in favor; Israel is strongly opposed. Prime Minister Manuel Valls of France is scheduled to arrive in Israel this weekend, a week after the French foreign minister, Jean-Marc Ayrault, visited Ramallah to update the Palestinians, and Jerusalem to try to get the Israelis on board. Mr. Valls has been granting interviews to the Israeli news media before his visit in an attempt to go above the head of a reluctant Israeli government and appeal directly to the public. “We think that the status quo works against the Israelis, the Palestinians and peace,” Mr. Valls, who is generally considered friendly to Israel, told the Yediot Aharonot newspaper. Details of the French initiative to move beyond the current stalemate have emerged slowly: There was a plan for a meeting of interested foreign ministers to be held in Paris, without the Israelis or Palestinians in attendance. That meeting was intended to lead to an international conference to establish new parameters for negotiating a Palestinian state alongside Israel. President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority has welcomed the idea. But that plan has already been complicated by competing interests. These include internal Israeli political machinations as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seeks to broaden his right-wing government, which rules with a majority of one in the Israeli Parliament; regional considerations of neighboring states, including Egypt; and an apparent ambivalence by the Obama administration, which has facilitated previous rounds of Israeli-Palestinian talks without success. President François Hollande of France said in a radio interview on Tuesday that the meeting of foreign ministers scheduled for May 30 had been postponed because Secretary of State John Kerry could not attend. Mr. Hollande said the meeting would take place “in the course of the summer,” without specifying a new date. Briefing reporters in Washington on Tuesday, the State Department spokesman, John Kirby, said the Americans were continuing to talk with the French about a new date. “We are not going to turn up our nose at any opportunity to have a constructive dialogue and to perhaps come up with ideas and solutions to get us to a two-state solution,” he said. Israel has been trying to turn the Americans off the French plan. After meeting with the French foreign minister in Jerusalem last week, Mr. Netanyahu said, “I told him that the only way to advance a true peace between us and the Palestinians is by means of direct negotiations between us and them, without preconditions.” He added: “They simply avoid negotiating with us as part of their desire to avoid resolving the root of the conflict, which is recognizing the nation state of the Jewish people, i.e. the state of Israel.” Dore Gold, the director general of Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and a close aide to Mr. Netanyahu, said the conference that France was trying to convene would “provide a new escape route for Abbas to avoid direct talks with Israel.” Though France and Israel are allies, Mr. Gold said, “there is a disconnect on this issue.” Speaking to reporters in the West Bank city of Ramallah this week, Rami Hamdallah, the Palestinian prime minister, said, “Our previous experiences directly negotiating with the current right-wing Israeli government were ineffective and redundant.” The French effort aims to resolve a stalemate in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process since American-brokered talks collapsed in acrimony in 2014. Since then, international players have been preoccupied with other issues, including the battle against the Islamic State. But the Palestinians say that more than 20 years of failed negotiations have persuaded them to seek a more international approach in their struggle for statehood. Mr. Hamdallah said that more than 20 countries had agreed to attend the foreign ministers conference in Paris, and that the international conference to follow would set a timetable for negotiations and, perhaps, a deadline for the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the occupied territories. Mr. Hamdallah cited the accord reached last year between world powers and Iran on curbing its nuclear program as a guide for talks to resolve longstanding disagreements — “a model, actually,” he said. That analogy was not likely to be welcomed by Israel, which vehemently opposed the Iran deal. Saeb Erekat, a senior Palestine Liberation Organization official and the Palestinians’ chief negotiator, told Voice of Palestine Radio on Wednesday that the French had informed the Palestinians that the meeting would be convened in the first week of June, before the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Many Israelis were skeptical that that would happen. Efraim Inbar, an Israeli professor of political studies at Bar-Ilan University near Tel Aviv, said that “saying ‘in the course of the summer’ is like saying ‘when the Messiah will come.’” In an additional twist, President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt made an unusual appeal on Tuesday for the Israelis and Palestinians to make peace and called for Israel’s fractious political parties to unite in an effort to achieve that goal. Many Israeli commentators speculated that Mr. Sisi’s move was somehow coordinated with Mr. Netanyahu and Isaac Herzog, the leader of the center-left Zionist Union and the head of Israel’s parliamentary opposition, who has been engaged in intense but ultimately unsuccessful negotiations over joining the government. Both Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Herzog rushed to praise Mr. Sisi’s appeal, and Israeli politicians and analysts suggested that an alternative initiative for a regional conference convened by Middle Eastern leaders might be shaping up behind the scenes. “I listened closely to what Egypt’s President el-Sisi said yesterday,” Mr. Herzog said, adding, “I have repeatedly said there is a historic opportunity for a rare regional development which could change the face of the Middle East.” But by Wednesday evening, those plans seemed doomed after Mr. Netanyahu met with Avigdor Lieberman, to discuss the possibility of Mr. Lieberman’s hard-line Yisrael Beiteinu party joining the government instead of Mr. Herzog, with Mr. Lieberman in the role of defense minister. At a news conference, Mr. Herzog said Mr. Netanyahu faced a stark choice between “heading to war and funerals” or “a journey of hope” for Israel’s citizens.

Palestinians
Israel
France
Manuel Valls
Middle East
International relations
Francois Hollande


Pettersen Wins in Playoff

Abstract: Suzann Pettersen won the L.P.G.A. Lotte Championship in Kapolei, Hawaii, beating Lizette Salas with a par on the first playoff hole after Salas’s approach shot went into the water. ¶ Charley Hoffman’s quick start gave him a two-shot lead over Webb Simpson after three rounds of the RBC Heritage on Hilton Head Island, S.C. ¶ Esteban Toledo, a rookie looking for his first win on the Champions Tour, has a one-stroke lead heading into the final round of the Greater Gwinnett Championship in Duluth, Ga.

Golf
LPGA
Suzann Pettersen
Lizette Salas


The 75-Year-Old Arm Wrestler

Abstract: WEST BRIDGEWATER, Mass. — In a musty, dungeonlike basement here, more than a dozen sweaty men and women descend the steep steps every Thursday night to grunt and groan while they work on their arm-wrestling techniques. A first-time visitor might write off Norm Devio, 75. At his age, the 5-foot-7, 155-pound Devio, of Hopkinton, Mass., does not look like the godfather of arm-wrestling. But he has dominated the sport for much of the past 40 years. In the cramped basement, the arm wrestlers jostle among tables. Someone bumps into Devio. “Hey, watch it; that’s abuse of the elderly,” he shouts, and everyone laughs. They know it is a joke because, on the table, Devio transcends his age, defeating opponents twice his size and 50 years younger. Image Devio is said to have won more than 25 national arm-wrestling titles in various leagues in the 150-pound weight class. He has won with his right arm and his left arm, while sitting down and standing up. He represented the United States in the 1996 world championship in Virginia, where he placed second. Plenty of great arm wrestlers, known as pullers, have dominated the sport at various times throughout the years, but what sets Devio apart is his longevity. No other puller has been as competitive as Devio has for so long. At an age when other top arm wrestlers have long since retired, Devio can enter a tournament anywhere and still be a top competitor. “Norm is a legend,” said Bill Cox, director of the International Armwrestling Federation, which organizes arm-wrestling tournaments around North America. “The other arm wrestlers, they all look up to him and respect him.” Image Image Devio entered his first professional arm-wrestling tournament on a whim in 1975. It was the New England championships in Nashua, N.H., and Devio, a former gymnast, won the event, defeating other pullers who had been in the sport for years. In the decades since, he has competed, practiced and worked with other arm wrestlers in countless basements like this one across New England, along with out-of-the-way places like a pizza parlor in Middleborough, Mass., and the backroom of a kitchen-supply store in Manchester, N.H. “He’s an idol, an icon, an inspiration and a true gentleman with an incredible legacy,” said Michael Shalhoub, who has won multiple national arm-wrestling titles. During his prime in the 1980s and ’90s, Devio was unstoppable, no matter the weight class, Shalhoub said. “Norman would walk into a tournament, and it was awe-inspiring to watch,” Shalhoub said. “Everyone knew he would win in the left, right and over all. At that point, all the guys knew they were only shooting for second place, at best.” Image Image Devio and some of his peers taught Sylvester Stallone a few arm-wrestling techniques for the 1987 movie “Over the Top,” which was partly filmed during a real tournament in Las Vegas. Devio said Stallone had not been quite the champion he portrayed in the film, and that he had beaten Stallone in a practice match. “I could tell he wasn’t very good,” Devio joked. Through a spokeswoman, Stallone declined to comment for this article. Despite Devio’s formidable accomplishments, Shalhoub said, few will ever know of his greatness. “In his weight class, people will still get nervous when they see that Norm is competing,” Shalhoub said. “It’s a shame that the young guns today may never know who and what Norm was. This was before the internet.” Image Image With a wall of arm-wrestling trophies acting as a gilded backdrop in his otherwise dark basement, Devio talked about his time in the sport. To maintain his competitive edge, Devio, a former high school gym teacher, follows a strict workout routine that includes daily aerobic exercise combined with weekly weight lifting. He curls a 110-pound barbell in three sets of 10, a feat most men his size and age would struggle to accomplish. “I think my work ethic has been the main reason I’m still competing,” he said. “So many people, as they get older, they just think they can’t do as much as they used to do, and that’s just not true.” Image Image Still, the physical nature of the sport has taken its toll. Devio has had multiple arm and shoulder operations, as well as a hip replacement. These days, he competes only with his right arm because of an injury to his left elbow. Doctors would not operate on him, in part because of his age and also because the arm was still functioning properly — except when he was arm wrestling. Devio said he had lost track of how many tournaments he had won; he said he knew for certain, however, that there were more than 500 trophies in his basement. His collection has grown to such an extent that he has started giving them away to friends and family members who come to visit. “The trophies don’t really mean anything to me,” he said. “A lot of times, I don’t even take the trophies home. My grandson has about 15 of them.” Image Image Cox recalled an occasion when Devio was asked for an autograph after a tournament victory. Instead, he handed the young fan his trophy. According to Devio’s friends in the sport, that is just the type of guy he is. “Everyone has a ton of respect for him, win or lose — most of them lose to him — but everyone loves him,” Cox said. “All they talk about is what a great guy that Norm Devio is — everyone always roots for him.” While Devio’s reputation in the sport is mostly confined to the United States, he is also known in other countries. “There are a bunch of world champions in Turkey and other parts of Eastern Europe who know Norm,” Cox said. “They’re all aware of his accomplishments.” At a recent arm-wrestling tournament in South Portland, Me., Devio quietly entered the loud restaurant hosting the competition. Immediately, arm wrestlers new and old, some of whom he had never met, approached him to say hello. Newcomers to the sport who had only watched Devio on YouTube turned to one another, whispering, “I think that’s Norm Devio over there.” Devio became slightly uncomfortable with the attention, but it was nothing new. At the table, all the distractions faded away as he again proved that he would not let age stand in the way of another shot at victory.


Smallest State Grapples With Oversize Problems

Abstract: PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Rhode Island is in the midst of an especially grim economic meltdown, and no one can pinpoint exactly why. The smallest state, it is saddled with some of the nation’s biggest problems: the second highest unemployment rate, at 10 percent, according to the latest federal figures; and among the highest foreclosure rates, widest budget gaps and most-vulnerable pension systems. Rhode Island is arguably the most economically hobbled state after Michigan, whose troubles and 10.6 percent unemployment rate are far easier to explain as the auto industry collapses. Now, as Rhode Island contends with a foundering economy and a stagnant, aging population, its leaders are scrambling to determine how to make the state more resilient and put it on a par, finally, with its more prosperous neighbors. In several dozen recent interviews, Rhode Islanders agreed on this much: Their state’s smallness has contributed to its problems, but could be its best asset if properly exploited. Saul Kaplan, who until December was executive director of the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation, called the state’s size a “secret sauce” that could help businesses develop products or services quickly. But many of those interviewed said that, instead, the smallness has trapped the state in parochialism, insecurity and outdated traditions that block change at every turn. “The whole political system is based on back scratching and getting things for your friends,” said Robert Whitcomb, editorial page editor of The Providence Journal. “That’s true for every place, but more so here because of the intimacy — you keep bumping into people you know.” As the lyrics of University of Rhode Island’s fight song suggest — “We’re Rhode Island born and we’re Rhode Island bred, and when we die we’ll be Rhode Island dead” — natives of the state, including lawmakers, rarely cast a curious eye outside it, Mr. Whitcomb and others said. “They focus primarily, if not exclusively, on us and on the here and now,” said Leonard Lardaro, an economics professor at the university. “We need to be looking at a lot of other states — what they do and how we compare.” One striking difference is that Rhode Islanders are less educated than much of the country. The state has the lowest high school graduation rate in the Northeast and ranks 38th nationally. Its average private-sector salary in 2007 was $39,827, compared with $55,819 in Massachusetts and $59,174 in Connecticut. Unlike its neighbors, Rhode Island continues to rely heavily on blue-collar and service-industry jobs. Its largest employment sectors are health care, manufacturing and retail, which pay $27,000 to $46,000 a year on average. “In that way, we look more like a rust belt state than Connecticut or Massachusetts,” said Laura Hart, a spokeswoman for the State Department of Labor and Training. Rhode Islanders also tend to cling to old stereotypes about the state, like its mob culture and corrupt politicians, others said. “A lot of Rhode Islanders overestimate how uniquely bad we are,” said Scott Wolf, executive director of Grow Smart Rhode Island, a nonprofit group, “and underestimate how uniquely good we are.” Gov. Donald L. Carcieri, a Republican, and the overwhelmingly Democratic General Assembly have often found themselves at loggerheads, with the legislature more focused on supporting social programs and Mr. Carcieri on shrinking government since he took office in 2003. Organized labor remains a powerful force, and the state’s unfunded pension liability, $7 billion, is among the worst in the country. Mr. Carcieri has proposed a minimum retirement age of 59 for government workers and eliminating 3 percent annual increases in their pensions. The proposals are part of his plan to close a $357 million gap in this year’s budget, one of the largest in the country as a percentage of state spending. But several people said Mr. Carcieri should be more focused on the private sector, particularly on creating more high-paying jobs. More than a quarter of Rhode Islanders who earned more than $100,000 in 2006 claimed an out-of-state tax credit, indicating that they might work for companies based elsewhere. Mr. Carcieri does want to change the tax structure, which is generally considered uncompetitive with those of neighboring states. State leaders cringed last fall when Jack Welch, the former chairman of General Electric, said on Fox News that Rhode Island’s tax structure made it “the 48th-most-acceptable state for business.” In fact, a study last fall by the Tax Foundation, a nonpartisan group in Washington, ranked Rhode Island’s business climate the fifth-worst in the nation. Notwithstanding its northern neighbor’s reputation as “Taxachusetts,” Rhode Island’s top personal income tax rate is higher, 9.9 percent. The top rate in Massachusetts is about 5.3 percent, and in Connecticut, 5 percent. Mr. Carcieri, whose spokeswoman said he was too busy to be interviewed, wants to phase out Rhode Island’s corporate tax. The rate, 9 percent, will soon be higher than in Massachusetts, where it is 9.5 percent but will drop to 8.75 next year. Connecticut’s rate is 7.5 percent. “People sell their businesses and leave because the taxes are so punitive,” said Dan Shedd, president of the Taylor Box Company in Warren, which has laid off more than half its employees since Thanksgiving and faces, he said, “a nonstop challenge to try to stay relevant.” As in other New England states, manufacturing used to be the pillar of Rhode Island’s economy, but the state has lost jobs to lower-cost Southern states and other countries. Unlike some of its neighbors, however, Rhode Island has not found lucrative replacements. Health care is Rhode Island’s largest employment sector and one of the few expected to grow in the short term, driven in large part by the state’s aging population. About 14 percent of Rhode Island’s one million residents are over 65, compared with 12.4 percent nationally. Rhode Island Hospital is the state’s largest private employer, followed by the CVS drug store chain, which has its headquarters here; Citizens Financial Group; Bank of America; and Brown University. A number of people interviewed said the state had focused on recruiting large corporations at the expense of the kind of small businesses that employ most Rhode Islanders. Two major corporations that Rhode Island courted with tax breaks, Bank of America and Fidelity Investments — which built the largest office complex in the state — recently announced layoffs. Mr. Wolf, of Grow Smart, said the state should capitalize more on its 11 colleges and universities, including Brown and the Rhode Island School of Design, and give their graduates more incentives to stay. “State government hasn’t been aggressive enough about saying to the universities, ‘What’s your research right now, and how can we make it easier to use it to grow businesses in Rhode Island?’ ” he said. Mr. Kaplan, who now heads a nonprofit group in Providence that encourages entrepreneurs to exchange ideas, said he saw boundless energy in what he called the “geek community” — young, technology-savvy entrepreneurs who are quietly opening small companies. Jack Templin, a consultant who founded Providence Geeks, a networking group for people in digital media and information technology, said the energetic group could help shape a new economic development model. Over dinner recently, several of its members echoed the view that the state is small enough for individuals to effect change. “I don’t think there’s a lot of places where you can pick up the phone and talk to the governor or the mayor,” said Allan Tear, who moved to Providence from Atlanta after making a spreadsheet about the pros and cons of eight cities around the country. Many of those interviewed said the innovative spirit that fueled the Industrial Revolution here must return if the state is to bounce back. Perhaps most crucially, many existing companies need to reinvent themselves to survive. Mr. Shedd’s company has done just that: it first provided boxes for the state’s once-dominant jewelry industry, then for the software industry, and most recently for gift cards. He stays, he said, because he loves the state’s beauty and its quirkiness, both of which keep drawing people like Marjory Garrison, a 30-year-old consultant to nonprofit groups. Ms. Garrison moved to Providence last summer from Brooklyn and became so captivated that she started her own recruitment campaign, plastering neighborhoods in Atlanta, Boston, Brooklyn and Seattle with posters that shout “Move to Providence!” “It has so much going for it, and so much of that is still under the surface in a lot of ways,” she said. “I think people here believe that once you crack that open, anything is possible.”

Rhode Island
Economic Conditions and Trends
Layoffs and Job Reductions
New England States (US)
Labor