Kenneth Lewis Fights to Keep Bank of America Job

Abstract: Can Kenneth D. Lewis hold on at Bank of America ? The answer to that question, much anticipated on Wall Street, is expected to arrive Wednesday, when Bank of America shareholders are to vote on whether Mr. Lewis, the bank’s the embattled chairman and chief executive, will remain on the board. It looks close. Several large institutional investors, as well as prominent individual shareholders, are calling for Mr. Lewis’s ouster, in part because of his costly and controversial acquisition of Merrill Lynch . Calstrs, the large teachers pension fund in California, said Monday that it had voted its 23 million shares against Mr. Lewis and the rest of the bank’s directors. A preliminary survey of shareholders by the CtW Investment Group, which also opposes Mr. Lewis, found that a significant percentage believed he should lose his board seat. But Mr. Lewis appears to have several major constituencies behind him. Brokers often cast votes on behalf of clients who do not vote themselves, and they usually side with management. If those votes were discounted, Mr. Lewis’s support would be even shakier, according to the CtW, which represents union pension fund investors. A spokesman for the bank declined to comment on the shareholder vote. Several big shareholders also firmly support Mr. Lewis. Though some of these shareholders question Mr. Lewis’s wisdom in acquiring Merrill Lynch — the circumstances surrounding the deal is the subject of an inquiry by the New York State attorney general — many believe he is best positioned to steer the bank to better times. Sovereign wealth funds that were shareholders in Merrill and remain large holders of Bank of America stock are also presumably pleased that Mr. Lewis rescued their investment by purchasing Merrill. “Will he stay in his job? I kind of go back and forth,” said Jason M. Goldberg, the banking analyst at Barclays Capital. “From the people we talk to, we’re definitely hearing mixed things.” Few annual meetings in the financial industry have been as anticipated as Bank of America’s, which will be held at the bank’s headquarters in Charlotte, N.C. Mr. Lewis, who has worked for the bank for 40 years, is expected to face tough questions over Merrill, as well as his long-term legacy of empire building. “For some investors it is a referendum of Mr. Lewis as C.E.O.,” said Amy Borrus, deputy director of the Council of Institutional Investors. “Boards can read the signals of a close election, and it will be up to the board to decide what the right thing to do is if it is a close election.” If Mr. Lewis wins the vote by a slim margin, shareholders may continue to demand that he step down. CtW, for instance, says that Mr. Lewis may keep his job only because of the votes cast by brokers. The Securities and Exchange Commission is considering a rule to disallow the inclusion of such votes, but the change would go into effect next year, according to a person briefed on the matter. On Tuesday, the Service Employees International Union and the activist group MoveOn.org will hold protests outside of Bank of America offices in several cities. The S.E.I.U. has been trying to unionize bank workers and has been battling Bank of America for more than a year. Bank Plans to Pay Back Aid Northern Trust Corporation, a custody bank based in Chicago, said on Monday that it planned to sell $1.25 billion in common stock and senior notes to pay back taxpayer aid. Northern Trust will sell $750 million in common shares and $500 million in senior notes. Northern Trust plans to buy back preferred shares and warrants it gave the Treasury Department in exchange for aid. Under the Troubled Asset Relief Program , the Treasury bought the securities last year for $1.6 billion. The government has injected about $198 billion into banks so far to stabilize financial markets.

Lewis Kenneth D
Bank of America Corp
Executives and Management
Merrill Lynch & Co


The West Turns to Kenya as Piracy Criminal Court

Abstract: MOMBASA, Kenya — In the shadow of Fort Jesus, a 16th-century Portuguese stronghold that truly belongs to the era of slave raiders and pirate ships, is the office of Kenya’s premier pirate lawyer. And these days, the lawyer, Francis Kadima, is very busy. On Thursday morning, his newest batch of clients suddenly arrived: 11 thin-faced, bewildered suspects who were marched into a Mombasa courtroom to face charges of piracy on the high seas. This month, French commandos captured them — and a small arsenal — after they were suspected of trying to commandeer a cargo ship. “When I first started handling pirate cases, I thought these guys would be like kidnappers, strong, you know, and really crafty and sophisticated,” Mr. Kadima said. “But not these guys. They’re just ordinary. If anything, they’re expressionless.” Kenya is emerging as the venue of choice for piracy cases and an important piece of the worldwide crackdown on piracy. The spate of recent hijackings off Somalia’s coast has stiffened international resolve. Just a few months ago, foreign warships would catch suspected pirates cruising around in speedy skiffs with guns and ladders and then dump them back on the Somali beach because of sticky legal questions. Those days are just about gone. Now, the piracy suspects are getting a one-way ticket to Mombasa, a historic port town where Kenyan officials are all too eager to punish the seafaring thugs imperiling their vital shipping industry. Under recent, innovative agreements with the United States, Britain and the European Union, Kenya has promised to try piracy suspects apprehended by foreign navies. In return, the other countries have agreed to improve Kenya’s antiquated courts. Many Kenyan judges still wear wigs and take everything down by hand, making trials agonizingly slow. In a few cases, countries that have caught piracy suspects accused of attacking their own citizens have chosen to prosecute them back home. That was demonstrated this week, when a wide-eyed young Somali man landed in New York to face charges that he had kidnapped an American sea captain. But according to maritime law experts, that is not necessary. “The law on piracy is 100 percent clear,” said Kenneth Randall , dean of the University of Alabama School of Law and an international law expert. “Any country can arrest these guys and prosecute them at home.” When it comes to putting pirates on trial, there are some practical complications, like serving papers to witnesses who may be Filipino or Kenyan sailors with no mailing addresses who spend all year at sea. Or finding a Somali translator in Mumbai, India, or Copenhagen. In light of those problems, most nations have been hesitant to undertake piracy trials. As a result, there is growing support for the Kenyan solution. Today, more than three dozen Somali pirates sit behind bars in Shimo la Tewa, Mombasa’s notoriously decrepit prison, which just so happens to be a few miles up the beach from some of this country’s most magnificent palm-fringed resorts. Western diplomats are hoping that this courtroom effort, coupled with a reinvigorated military response involving warships from more than a dozen nations, will put a dent in Somalia’s stubborn piracy problem. At a meeting in Brussels on Thursday, donor nations pledged more than $200 million for Somalia, much of it for security, on land and at sea. Last year, Somali pirates hijacked more than 40 ships, netting tens of millions of dollars in ransom. Many major shipping companies are now opting to sail all the way around Africa instead of risking the Somali seas. Antti Lehmusjarvi, a legal adviser for the European Union who came to the Mombasa courthouse on Thursday to observe the arraignment of the 11 piracy suspects, said Kenya was the best solution — for now. “Obviously, Kenya needs assistance,” Mr. Lehmusjarvi said. He rattled off all the help the European Union was providing, including computers and money to bring more qualified Kenyan judges to Mombasa. “But the law here is very clear,” he said. “And in Somalia, a stable legal framework doesn’t exist.” Section 69 (1) of the Kenyan penal code reads, “Any person who, in territorial waters or upon the high seas, commits any act of piracy jure gentium is guilty of the offence of piracy.” The punishment can be life in prison. But Mr. Kadima, a former magistrate himself, takes issue with this. Kenya has not ratified international maritime conventions, he said, and the recent agreements signed with other countries were not approved by Kenya’s Parliament and therefore are not enforceable. “You can’t just go around making up laws, you know,” he said. “There is a process.” Mr. Kadima, 50, who took on his first piracy case in March, said he had yet to see a shilling from any of his piracy cases, though he conceded that the publicity was good for business. He said all of his clients had uttered the same excuse for why they had been caught on the high seas with serious firepower. “They said they were just fishermen,” he said. “Fishermen who needed to protect themselves.” Does he really believe that? “A lawyer doesn’t need to believe,” Mr. Kadima explained. “He goes by what he is told.”

Piracy at Sea
Kenya
Mombasa (Kenya)
Courts


On Campus, a Faculty Uprising Over Personal Data

Abstract: IMPROVING health while holding down health care costs is the kind of having-your-cake-and-eating-it combination that most people can get behind. In fact, both ideas are embedded in the Obama administration’s Affordable Care Act. But an uprising among faculty members at Pennsylvania State University over a new employee wellness plan is challenging at least some of the methods designed to achieve those aims. Penn State administrators quietly introduced the plan, called “Take Care of Your Health,” this summer in the deadest part of the academic calendar. But that didn’t prevent some conscientious objectors from organizing a protest online and on their campuses , culminating last week in an emotionally charged faculty senate meeting. The plan, they argued, is coercive, punitive and invades university employees’ privacy. The plan requires nonunion employees, like professors and clerical staff members, to visit their doctors for a checkup, undergo several biometric tests and submit to an extensive online health risk questionnaire that asks, among other questions, whether they have recently had problems with a co-worker, a supervisor or a divorce. If they don’t fill out the form, $100 a month will be deducted from their pay for noncompliance. Employees who do participate will receive detailed feedback on how to address their health issues. At a university where some employees earn less than $50,000 annually, the faculty members contended that an $1,200 annual surcharge for nonparticipation — or $2,400 if the employee has a spouse or domestic partner on the school’s plan when that person has the option of coverage from his or her own employer — amounted to a strong-arm tactic. What’s more, they argued, the online questionnaire required them to give intimate information about their medical history, finances, marital status and job-related stress to an outside company, WebMD Health Services , a health management firm that operates separately from the popular consumer site, WebMD.com. “You can’t force people to disclose the state of their marriage or fine them $100 a month. That’s just wrong,” Matthew C. Woessner, an associate professor of political science at the university’s Harrisburg campus, told me. “There are ways to have a veneer of wellness without coercing people to hand over their private information to third parties.” AS medical costs skyrocket, employers who subsidize health coverage are increasingly turning to wellness plans. The theory is that making employees aware of their own health risks could lead them to, say, eat better or exercise more, hindering diseases like diabetes from progressing to stages that are more expensive to treat. Susan Basso , vice president for human resources at Penn State, said it adopted the wellness program in an effort to slow double-digit annual growth in health expenditures. Penn State is self-insured, meaning that it directly covers the health care costs of about 40,000 employees, spouses and dependents, at an estimated cost this fiscal year of $217 million. The new plan is projected to hold cost increases to 5 percent in 2014, she said, ultimately saving $62.9 million over the next five years. “What we are telling faculty is that the status quo is not an option,” Ms. Basso told me last Wednesday. The wellness trend is likely to grow. Scheduled to take effect next January, the wellness rules for the Affordable Care Act allow companies to offer a reward of up to 30 percent of health coverage costs for employees who complete a participatory program like a health risk assessment, or biometric tests like waist measurement. Now the Penn State uprising is challenging the wellness industry’s data collection practices and the nature of the inducements that employers may use to prod employees to participate. “The tensions between having employers manage health care coverage and employees wanting to have some private space are crashing into each other,” says Matthew T. Bodie , a professor of labor and employment law at the St. Louis University School of Law. “It’s probably going to get worse.” Image Prof. Matthew Woessner, left, and Prof. James Ruiz oppose a Penn State employee wellness plan that asks for medical and other personal information. Credit Kalim Bhatti for The New York Times Many employers — 36 percent of large companies with wellness programs — use financial incentives to nudge employees to participate, according to a new study by the Kaiser Family Foundation. But Penn State’s plan differs from many in that uses a stick, not a carrot, to sway employee behavior. “They could have said, ‘Here are the medical costs if you participate and here are the costs if you don’t,’ instead of saying, ‘We’ll dock your pay,’ ” says Michael O’Donnell, the director of the Health Management Research Center at the University of Michigan. Penn State, Ms. Basso says, did consider alternate ways of introducing a cost-containment strategy — like artificially inflating employees’ premiums by 35 percent and then offering a discount to those willing to participate in the wellness program. But administrators felt that the $100 surcharge was more transparent. “It was an intentional design to drive participation,” Ms. Basso says, “and it is driving participation.” Anna Silberman , vice president for clinical client relations at Highmark Health Services , which administers Penn State’s health care claims and recommended the wellness program, said the Penn State surcharge fell well within industry norms. The Penn State questionnaire asks whether employees have recently had problems with a supervisor, a separation or a divorce, their finances or a fear of job loss; another question asks female employees whether they plan to become pregnant over the next year. Although the form requires employees to answer these intimate questions, Highmark officials said the data was protected by the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, which controls how health plans disclose protected employee health information to employers. “That information is absolutely private,” Michael Fiaschetti, Highmark’s president for health markets, said at the Penn State faculty senate meeting. He added: “We have never leaked that information.” That in no way reassured Kimberly Blockett, one of more than 200 faculty members attending the meeting. “As an English professor, I think I am having difficulty with your definition of ‘private,’ ” Ms. Blockett responded to Mr. Fiaschetti . “For me, discussing my reproductive plans with an unknown entity at an insurance company does not constitute private.” The reaction may have caught Penn State by surprise, because administrators did not extensively examine the WebMD program before signing up for it. When I asked Ms. Basso who at the university had reviewed the questionnaire for scientific validity and ethical propriety, she said: “We have a relationship with Highmark. This is their tool. If we were going to use a health risk assessment, it was going to be theirs.” Because universities have generally lagged behind corporations in adopting wellness programs, the objections of some faculty members may well be explained by the shock of the new, says Ms. Silberman at Highmark. “This is the first time we have experienced this kind of resistance,” she told me. But faculty members offered a different explanation. James M. Ruiz, an associate professor of criminal justice and a retired police officer, told me that he objected because he felt Penn State had failed to do basic due diligence, signing off on the wellness plan without using the rigorous scientific methods that faculty members routinely require of students. He has urged the faculty senate council, of which he is a member, to ask the university to delay the program for one year so that administrators may consult outside experts on wellness plan efficacy, data security and privacy. “Convince people this is necessary and ethical,” Mr. Ruiz said, “and this protest will evaporate instantly.”

Health Insurance
Obamacare,Affordable Care Act
Penn State
Privacy
WebMD Health
Highmark Health Services
College


Mikaela Shiffrin Nears Slalom Title

Abstract: Mikaela Shiffrin won her fourth World Cup slalom race of the season, beating Veronika Velez-Zuzulova by 1.41 seconds in Are, Sweden. Shiffrin extended her lead over Frida Hansdotter in the slalom standings to 90 points with one race left.

Skiing
Mikaela Shiffrin
Alpine skiing
World Cup Skiing
Frida Hansdotter


South Korean Court Orders Arrest of VW Official Over Emissions Cheating

Abstract: SEOUL, South Korea — A South Korean court issued an arrest warrant on Friday for a Volkswagen executive in connection with the company’s cheating on vehicle emissions tests , in another blow to the German automaker’s efforts to move on from the scandal. The warrant is the first to be leveled against a Volkswagen executive after the company in September admitted using software to falsify pollution test results on some diesel cars, spurring legal action in the United States, Germany, South Korea and elsewhere. Volkswagen has admitted that 11 million of its vehicles worldwide were equipped with software designed to cheat on emissions tests. The automaker said in April that it would set aside $18 billion to cover costs from the scandal. The South Korean prosecutor’s office said that the investigation was continuing and that it would cooperate with counterparts in Germany and the United States. The Volkswagen Korea executive, identified by his last name, Yun, faces five accusations, including fabrication of documents and violation of the Air Quality Preservation Law, Shin Jae-hwan, a spokesman for the Seoul Central District Court, said. A Volkswagen Korea spokeswoman declined to comment. South Korea has taken a particularly hard line against the automaker, filing a criminal complaint against two other executives, fining it 14.1 billion won, or $11.97 million, and ordering it to recall 125,522 vehicles. About 4,400 Korean consumers have filed a class-action lawsuit against Volkswagen and its Audi brand, demanding compensation over the false emissions claims. The arrest warrant comes after German prosecutors said on Monday that they were investigating Volkswagen’s former chief executive, Martin Winterkorn, and another executive over whether they effectively manipulated markets by delaying the release of information about the cheating.

Vehicle Emissions
Cars
Volkswagen
Seoul
Air pollution
Diesel engine
Automobile safety
South Korea


For Iowa’s Democrats, Too Many Good Picks

Abstract: AMES, Iowa — If conversations with undecided Democrats here were turned into a play, it would consist of the same dialogue repeated over and over again, with slight variations: Q. Are you leaning toward any candidate? A. Well, I really like (Voter mentions one). President Bush has led this country in the wrong direction, and he ( or she ) could be the best person to fix it. Q. You sound pretty committed. A. Heavens, no! I might vote for ( Voter mentions one or two other Democratic candidates )... Q. The caucuses are about to happen. How are you going to decide? A. Wait, I’m not done. I also really like Joe Biden. For months now, many Democrats here have been in a state of happy paralysis, luxuriating in what they say is an unusually strong set of candidates and plenty of attention from them. Instead of the usual voter complaints about choosing among unattractive options, there are meditative conversations about Senator Barack Obama’s freshness versus Gov. Bill Richardson’s international résumé versus John Edwards’s commitment to the underprivileged versus the historic prospect of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s becoming the first female president. In recent days, all of these candidates and more have passed through Ames. But rather than settling their choices, several voters said, the thrill of seeing the candidates up close, of hearing their appeals in person, has only made their decisions more labored. “There are so many options,” said Julia Zaffarano, a counselor for homeless youths. Republican voters, by contrast, sounded more decisive. Some Republicans said they had been watching the recent sniping between Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee, both former governors. But rather than being offended by the negativity, they remained firm in their choices. “I didn’t appreciate the way Romney was trying to gain back what he feels he’s lost,” said Merrill Henderks, who is retired from farming but still does a bit of truck-driving. He was referring to Mr. Romney’s once-substantial lead in Iowa, which Mr. Huckabee has erased. But Rod Place, who is supporting Mr. Romney, criticized Mr. Huckabee for claiming to have abandoned a negative advertisement about Mr. Romney but showing it to the national news media first. “I don’t think it was a good move on Huck’s part,” Mr. Place said. Randi Peters, a friend of Mr. Place’s who is a Democrat, added, “Especially for someone who is supposed to be a pastor,” mentioning an earlier advertisement in which Mr. Huckabee had emphasized his Christian values. In discussing their choices, Democrats sounded like diners ooohing and ahhing slowly — very slowly — over a menu with too many enticing choices. Lingering after an Edwards rally at Iowa State University, three generations of women from the Zaffarano family wavered between Mr. Edwards and Mr. Richardson. Suzanne Zaffarano said the event had drawn her to Mr. Edwards, because she was touched to see Elizabeth Edwards, his wife, campaigning despite an incurable case of breast cancer. But Ms. Zaffarano’s daughter-in-law and granddaughter said they thought they might — emphasis on the might — caucus first for Mr. Richardson, using Mr. Edwards as a backup. And they had not quite ruled out the other Democrats either. “It’s not fair to discount these people,” said Janice Seibel, Ms. Zaffarano’s daughter-in-law. “They’re smart and experienced and talented.” And though she had arrived at a provisional plan, the younger Ms. Zaffarano, Ms. Seibel’s daughter, could not promise to stick with it. “If you asked her the same time tomorrow,” Ms. Seibel trailed off. Contacted 24 hours later, Julia Zaffarano said that she was undecided again. She had called the local precinct captains for Mr. Richardson, she said, but they seemed a bit scattered to her. “It was kind of a red flag for me,” Ms. Zaffarano said, because she wants a candidate who is organized enough to win the general election. As one way of sorting through the choices, voters wondered aloud and asked at events about the candidates’ vice-presidential and cabinet choices. They seemed to be trying to find ways of somehow voting for more than one candidate at a time. “If Barack Obama and John Edwards were together on the ticket they would have my vote in a second,” said Cecelia Kemmerer, over lunch. It was only her first day out of the house since neck surgery several weeks ago and she gasped with effort through many of her answers. But “I will be at that caucus if I have to crawl,” she said. Waiting the other day to hear Mr. Romney speak in a crowded pub, Mr. Place and Ms. Peters sat at a table with their spouses, sipping beers. In a kind of exchange program, the Peterses, who are Democrats, had brought the Places to hear Mr. Obama the day before, and now the Places had brought the Peterses to a Romney event. The point was not so much to change anyone’s mind, but simply to enjoy the extraordinary procession of candidates through town. Steve Peters had heard no fewer than six candidates speak in recent days — Mr. Romney would make seven — and had chosen Mr. Biden, the senator from Delaware. His decision was based not only on the senator’s long résumé, he said, but also on an unplanned moment during his appearance here. A little boy in the front row started to wail, and instead of speaking over him, Mr. Biden picked him up and the boy quieted. “It’s the personal moments,” Mr. Peters said. A few feet away, Annette Scanlon sat waiting to hear Mr. Romney, hoping his talk would clarify her preferences. One of several voters interviewed who was considering both Democrats and Republicans, Ms. Scanlon said that her decision has been slowed because none of the Iowa front-runners from either side has, in her view, much foreign policy experience. Last week’s assassination of Benazir Bhutto, she said, shifted her in the direction of Senator John McCain. But his age — he is 71, she pointed out — makes her hesitate. On Wednesday, Ames voters headed back to work after the New Year’s holiday to compare their freshly gathered notes with colleagues. But some voters, especially Democratic ones, said they were waiting until the literal last moment to make a decision. “Probably I’m waiting to see which direction the caucus goes in,” said Lisa Sharp, sitting a few tables away from Ms. Kemmerer. She is thinking of voting for Mr. Edwards, but first she wants to look around the caucus room, and check under which candidates’ signs her neighbors are standing. “I want to put my energy into the direction things are moving in,” Ms. Sharp said.

Presidential Election of 2008
Iowa
Democratic Party
Republican Party


Consumer Spending Rose Slightly in August

Abstract: WASHINGTON — American consumers increased their spending slightly last month as their income grew at the fastest pace in six months. The figures point to only modest economic growth in the July-September quarter. Consumers’ spending on goods and services rose 0.3 percent in August , the Commerce Department said on Friday. That was up from a 0.2 percent gain in July. Income rose 0.4 percent in August, the best gain since February and up from a 0.2 percent July increase. Private wages and salaries rose 0.5 percent, while government wages and salaries rose 0.2 percent. The government figures would have been higher if not for forced federal furloughs that reduced wages and salaries by $7.3 billion. Consumer spending drives 70 percent of economic activity. Many analysts say the increases are not enough to accelerate economic growth in the third quarter from the 2.5 percent annual rate in the April-June quarter. Image Credit The New York Times “With more money coming in, consumers spent a little, just a little, more freely,” said Jennifer Lee, senior economist at BMO Capital Markets. Americans grew more pessimistic this month about the economy, their own finances and government budget policies, according to a survey of consumer confidence released Friday. The University of Michigan says its final reading of consumer sentiment dropped to 77.5 in September from 82.1 in August. It was the second straight decline after confidence reached a six-year high of 85.1 in July. Paul Ashworth, chief United States economist at Capital Economics, said the economy has been growing at an annual rate of 2 to 2.5 percent in the July-September quarter. Still, the pickup in August spending could signal stronger growth in the final three months of the year. But other economists were less hopeful. Peter Newland, an economist at Barclays, said that the modest increase did not change the bank’s forecast for growth, at a 1.7 percent rate. There are some signs that consumers may be better positioned to step up spending soon. The number of people seeking unemployment benefits has sunk to its lowest point in six years because few companies are laying anyone off anymore. That has led some economists to predict that employers added 200,000 jobs or more jobs in September, the most since February.

US Economy
Consumer behaviour
Consumer Confidence
Commerce Department


Schumer Endorses Candidate for Public Advocate

Abstract: Starting Monday, Senator Charles E. Schumer will make a rare appearance in a television commercial backing his preferred candidate in a New York City Democratic primary. Not for mayor, even though a former staff member, Anthony D. Weiner, is on the ballot. Nor for comptroller, even though his colleague Senator Kirsten E. Gillibrand has sided with Scott M. Stringer, the Manhattan borough president. Instead, Mr. Schumer is throwing his political weight behind a protégé, State Senator Daniel L. Squadron, in the battle for public advocate. Mr. Schumer’s commercial, which will be initially aimed at cable television, could generate more attention for a race that has so far been largely ignored. A live televised debate on Thursday could also help to change that. The current officeholder, Bill de Blasio, is running for mayor. But the race to succeed him is viewed by many political analysts as being wide open, since Mr. Squadron and the other candidates are little-known. Mr. Squadron, who represents Lower Manhattan and Brooklyn, has raised the most money and qualified for the most public funds. Reshma Saujani, a former deputy public advocate under Mr. de Blasio, is also a strong fund-raiser and promotes herself as a tech-friendly, trailblazing female entrepreneur. City Councilwoman Letitia James of Brooklyn has in her corner many of the city’s most politically potent unions. And then there is Catherine Guerriero, an intense political novice and businesswoman who has racked up a surprising number of labor endorsements, especially from law enforcement. So, enter Mr. Schumer. While Mr. Schumer has been a prodigious fund-raiser for, and vocal supporter of, national Democrats, he has generally been more restrained in local politics. He does not frequently pick sides in local Democratic primaries, reserving his endorsements, usually, for general elections. He has not, for instance, announced who he is supporting for mayor. But Mr. Squadron, who was first elected to Albany in 2008, is a former Schumer aide who helped Mr. Schumer write a book, “Positively American: Winning Back the Middle-Class Majority One Family at a Time.” Mr. Squadron even owes his marriage to the Schumer extended family: Mr. Schumer’s wife, Iris Weinshall, a former city transportation commissioner, introduced him to her former chief of staff, Elizabeth Weinstein. In his commercial for Mr. Squadron, Mr. Schumer speaks directly to the camera, focusing on Mr. Squadron’s role in fighting against assault weapons and battling the National Rifle Association.

Mayoral races
Chuck Schumer
Daniel L Squadron
Public Advocate's Office
Political endorsement
NYC
NYC Public Advocate race


Inquiry’s Trail: From George Washington Bridge to United’s Executive Offices

Abstract: It was a traffic jam that, in the end, rerouted the career of the chief executive of the world’s fourth-largest airline, and how one led to the other is a tale of power, politics and New Jersey wheeling-dealing. Until Tuesday, Jeff Smisek was the chief executive of United Airlines. Mark Sokolich is the mayor of the borough of Fort Lee, N.J., which was gridlocked two years ago this week after allies of Gov. Chris Christie ordered lanes to the George Washington Bridge closed. As improbable as it may seem — as improbable as they were to begin with — the lane closings that were intended to punish Mayor Sokolich set off a chain of events that eventually led to Mr. Smisek’s surprise resignation, and those of two top lieutenants. Like a never-ending thread, the federal investigation into the lane closings led prosecutors to look into the dealings of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which runs the bridge, and its chairman at the time, David Samson. This revealed his close relationship with officials at United, the largest carrier at Newark Liberty International Airport, which the authority runs. They discovered money-losing United flights that left Newark on Thursdays for South Carolina and returned on Mondays. Mr. Samson had a vacation home in South Carolina. At the same time, United wanted the Port Authority to make improvements at the airport. Whether a bribe or a legitimate business deal, it was the investigation of those dealings that United said forced those resignations. Now the question: Where will this bridge lead next? People close to the case said those same prosecutors had been asking questions about the role played by Jamie Fox, a longtime friend of Mr. Samson’s and United’s onetime lobbyist whom Mr. Christie, a Republican, appointed state transportation commissioner last year. Prosecutors are still trying to determine whether there was a crime, and if so, whether the airline and its senior officials were victims of extortion or willing participants in a bribery scheme. “Samson got what he wanted in the flights, and United got what they wanted at the airport,” a person with knowledge of the investigation said. “Was it negotiation or was it bribery?” A lawyer for Mr. Fox, Robert J. Fettweis, would not answer questions about his client’s work on behalf of the airline. But he said in a statement that Mr. Fox “conducted himself with the highest possible professional and ethical standards,” adding that “his conduct was always appropriate, and if prosecutors do have any questions for him, he will be happy to answer them.” United said on Tuesday that it was continuing its own investigation, which could be in the hopes of avoiding prosecution. The airline said it would have no further comment on the investigations. Mr. Samson’s lawyers have declined to comment, with a spokeswoman calling the news this week “a United matter.” Image United Airlines is the largest carrier at the Newark airport, which is run by the Port Authority. Credit Mel Evans/Associated Press The path to Mr. Smisek’s resignation started in September 2013. That is when Mr. Sokolich, a Democrat whose borough had been turned into a parking lot by the lane closings, complained that he was being punished for not endorsing Mr. Christie’s re-election. His accusation set off inquiries by New Jersey legislators and the authority; the case was ultimately referred to the office of Paul J. Fishman, the United States attorney for New Jersey. The inquiries pulled back the curtain on the once inscrutable and patronage-ridden operations of the authority. A first batch of records obtained under subpoena by the Legislature in January 2014 revealed the now-famous email from Bridget Anne Kelly, a deputy chief of staff to the governor, to a Christie ally at the authority: “Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee.” They also showed Mr. Samson — such an éminence grise in New Jersey politics that Christie administration officials addressed him as General in reverent reference to his tenure as the state’s attorney general — angrily pushing back on New York officials at the authority, who he believed were trying to embarrass the governor. While Mr. Christie fired Ms. Kelly and forced the resignations of his other allies at the agency, he remained loyal to the General. When Mr. Samson resigned several months later, Mr. Christie said it was because he was “74 years old” and “tired.” But people familiar with the workings of the Port Authority — including some employees prompted by resentments toward Mr. Christie and his allies at the agency, or longtime tensions between New York and New Jersey factions there — were already talking to federal investigators. They complained about how New Jersey officials had used Port Authority funds to fill holes in the state budget , and accused Mr. Samson, appointed by Mr. Christie as chairman in 2010, of using his position to benefit clients of his law firm. These accusations brought more scrutiny of the Port Authority and Mr. Samson. And then early this year, investigators heard a crazy story. Mr. Samson had dinner at an Italian restaurant in Manhattan in September 2011 with Mr. Smisek, Mr. Fox — whom United had brought on several years before as a lobbyist — a top aide and the two United officials who also resigned on Tuesday. The United officials were renegotiating its lease at Newark and pushing for lower fees. Mr. Samson almost jokingly suggested that in return, the airline could reinstate flights from Newark to Columbia, S.C., near where he had a home. United had also been pushing the agency to make improvements to its terminals, to approve and help pay for a new wide-bodied maintenance hangar and to expand PATH service to allow its passengers a one-seat ride from Lower Manhattan to the airport. The Port Authority board, with Mr. Samson at its helm, approved the hangar, and $10 million toward its construction, at its board meeting three months after the dinner. By the next month, United approached Columbia airport officials about resuming the direct flights. Those flights began in September 2012. The Port Authority board approved the PATH expansion weeks later. In May this year, when Mr. Fishman announced the indictments of Ms. Kelly and others in the lane closings, lawyers who have followed the investigation said there was so much information regarding Mr. Samson that prosecutors had not been able to get their arms around it yet. (Mr. Fishman told reporters only that it was like the television show “Downton Abbey”; you had to wait for a “whole ’nother season.”) Image Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey Credit David Goldman/Associated Press Prosecutors were also moving on United: They had subpoenaed records of communications between the Port Authority and the airline officials regarding the Columbia flight, the PATH extension, improvements to terminals, and the maintenance hangar. They also sought communications on negotiations in which Mr. Christie himself had been deeply involved: his desire to have United begin flights at the money-losing airport in Atlantic City. The Port Authority had taken over the airport, over the objections of the authority’s professional staff, in a move that benefited one of Mr. Samson’s legal clients. United had hired the law firm of Jenner & Block to conduct its internal investigation. Some lawyers close to the case said at the time that federal prosecutors would wait for that investigation to be completed before bringing charges, and that the airline might hand over the results as part of a cooperation agreement. They also predicted that Mr. Smisek and other officials would have to step down. A separation agreement with United , reported by the airline on Tuesday, will pay him nearly $4.9 million in cash, plus stock worth about $3.4 million. But the airline could terminate the deal and require him to repay some of that severance if he is convicted or pleads guilty to any crime stemming from the investigation. In retrospect, even the initial records from the bridge scandal hinted at the twining of the lane closings and the United troubles. As the governor’s allies discussed the traffic jam in texts and emails, they also vented about negotiations between the governor’s office, the Port Authority and the airline over the PATH train, and discussed meetings and plans around the Atlantic City flights, which Mr. Smisek and Mr. Christie announced in November 2013. (The airline ended the flights last year.) Later records unearthed by the investigation show United persistently pressing the authority for lower fees at Newark Airport. A key reason those fees were so high was that the Christie administration had agreed to an unusual plan for a new firefighting force at the airport, which was costing United $25 million. That plan had benefited a police union that endorsed Mr. Christie and in particular, its president, who was helping Port Authority officials secure other endorsements. Those endorsements, like that of Mr. Sokolich, were intended to build a case that the governor was the Republican who could win the broad coalition needed to take the White House. The revelations in the time between Mr. Sokolich’s first complaints in 2013 and Mr. Smisek’s resignation this week have damaged Mr. Christie’s presidential aspirations. And the continuing investigation threatens to bring the governor more grief, by refreshing concerns among Republicans who have long worried that there would be another painful chapter in the scandal. His strategy has been to distance himself from the alleged co-conspirators on the lane closings, isolating them as rogue operators who deceived him. In his monthly radio call-in show on Wednesday night, Mr. Christie reserved judgment on the United resignations — saying you could not believe everything you read — and also on Mr. Samson. “I have to be held accountable for what happens on my watch,” the governor said. But he added, “I wasn’t directly supervising every day.” “The standard you need to hold to is when mistakes are made, how do you react?” Mr. Christie said. “Do you cover them up? Do you make excuses for them? Or do you act?” “I’m very comfortable with how I reacted,” he added. “It was very difficult stuff for me to deal with a couple years ago, but as far as I’m concerned, it’s behind me now. I’ve made those decisions. I’ve moved on.”

GW Bridge
Chris Christie
Jeff Smisek
David Samson
James P Fox
Bribery and Kickbacks
Port Authority
United Airlines
New Jersey
Airlines,airplanes


Temple-Inland to Sell Land and Pass Proceeds to Investors

Abstract: The forest products company Temple-Inland, which is under pressure from the activist investor Carl C. Icahn , said yesterday that it would sell 1.55 million acres of timberland to the Campbell Group for $2.38 billion and then issue a $1.1 billion special dividend. The sale is part of a plan that Temple-Inland announced in February. The reorganization also includes spinning off the company’s financial services and real estate businesses. At that time, Temple-Inland said it expected to return most of the sale’s proceeds to shareholders. Mr. Icahn, who owns more than 8 percent of the company, has been urging Temple-Inland to make changes like selling assets. Temple-Inland said it was on track to complete its reorganization by the end of the year, after which it would own only packaging and building products. The company said the Campbell Group, a timberland investment management company in Portland, Ore., would buy the land with installment notes, which will be pledged as collateral for a nonrecourse loan within 30 days of the sale. Temple-Inland then expects to use some of its expected $1.8 billion in sale proceeds to pay a special dividend estimated at $1.1 billion, or $10.25 a share. It will use the remaining $700 million to reduce debt. The company expects the deal to close in the fourth quarter. The sale is to include 1.38 million acres of land that Temple-Inland owns and 175,000 acres that are covered by leases. The terms of the deal include a 20-year fiber-supply agreement for pulpwood and a 12-year fiber-supply agreement for saw timber, both of which can be extended. Many timber companies, including International Paper and Weyerhaeuser , have made similar forestland sales, streamlining operations in an effort to become more profitable. The sale represents most of the 1.7 million acres that the company had said it planned to sell. Most of the land is in Texas and Louisiana, though some is in Alabama and Georgia. Shares of Temple-Inland were up $3.13, to $57.03, on the New York Stock Exchange.

Reform and Reorganization
Stocks and Bonds
Wood and Wood Products
Weyerhaeuser Co
Icahn Carl C


Cuban Foreign Minister Named to Top Party Body

Abstract: Cuba has elevated its foreign minister, Bruno Rodríguez, to the Communist Party’s Political Bureau, where he will join a handful of other senior leaders who are a generation younger than Fidel and Raúl Castro . Mr. Rodríguez, 54, is a former military officer, law professor and ambassador to the United Nations. He became the foreign minister in 2009. Known for his command of English and his loyalty to the Castros, he delivered a speech last month to the United Nations criticizing President Obama for failing to advance United States-Cuba relations despite the president’s promise to “launch a new chapter of engagement.” The announcement about his rise to the Political Bureau in Granma, Cuba’s state-run newspaper, did not say whether he was replacing one of the 14 current members of the Political Bureau, nor did it signal whether Mr. Rodríguez was being considered as a successor to Raúl Castro, 81. But it did describe the move as part of a generational transition, and as a necessary break from what it called a “blockade of thinking that still persists when the time comes to select and prepare young leaders.”


Mets’ Bats Are Quiet After Big Weekend

Abstract: HOUSTON — The Mets ’ offense, so hot over the weekend in the cool air of Colorado, went cold Monday night in the warmth of Texas. R. A. Dickey carried a no-hitter into the sixth inning, but the Mets’ batters were subdued by Houston Astros starter Bud Norris. Despite Dickey’s best efforts and a rally from a three-run deficit, the Mets lost, 4-3 , at Minute Maid Park. “He threw the ball very, very well, gave us a chance, kept us in there,” Manager Terry Collins said of Dickey. “We just gave him nothing to work with.” The Astros manufactured the winning run in the eighth against Manny Acosta. Jordan Schafer dribbled an infield single down the third-base line, then stole second base one out later. Jed Lowrie came up next and smacked a single up the middle , putting the Astros ahead, 4-3. The game till then had offered a stark contrast to the Mets’ wild weekend in Denver, when they collected 48 hits while taking two of three games against the Colorado Rockies . A balmy night provided a perfect backdrop for Dickey and his knuckleball, which flitted through the air and flummoxed the Astros’ batters. He struck out six and did not allow a hit through five innings. The Astros broke up the no-hitter when Schafer singled to lead off the sixth, then scored the game’s first run on Travis Buck’s fielder’s choice grounder. One batter later, Matt Downs crushed a two-run homer into the left-field stands to make it 3-0. “One more little wiggle to that knuckleball there, he pops that up or he hits it off the end,” Dickey said. “But that was the only pitch I’d take back all night.” The Mets bounced back in the seventh when Andres Torres chopped an infield single toward second that brought in David Wright from third, making it 3-1. Astros Manager Brad Mills elected to leave Norris in the game, and two batters later, with the bases loaded and many in the crowd of 17,536 on their feet, Kirk Nieuwenhuis ripped a two-run single into right field that tied the game, 3-3. Nieuwenhuis on Monday was moved to left field from center as the Mets welcomed Torres back to the lineup for the first time since he injured his calf on opening day. But Collins elected to leave Nieuwenhuis in the leadoff spot, where he had helped spearhead the team’s recent offensive surge. After the game, Nieuwenhuis was disappointed in himself for being picked off first base in the top of the sixth and for allowing a fly ball to drop in front of him for a hit in the bottom of the inning. Even with the loss, the Mets enter May with a 13-10 record and having defied preseason expectations. They had a scintillating start to their season, winning six of their first eight games. From there, they endured a skid in which they lost five of six. Despite Monday’s loss, they seem to have stabilized again and have won five of seven. Their unexpected success has come even as they have dealt with what has become the quintessential Mets problem: injuries. John Ricco, the Mets’ assistant general manager, confirmed that Mike Pelfrey, who was found to have a partial tear of his ulnar collateral ligament, would have season-ending Tommy John surgery Tuesday. Pelfrey went on the disabled list last week after a magnetic resonance imaging test showed inflammation in his elbow. He was examined Monday in Gulf Breeze, Fla., by Dr. James Andrews, who will perform the operation. “We’ve had some of our key guys banged up, we’ve had a couple of our guys who we expected to swing the bats for us that haven’t, and in the meantime some guys have picked up the load and carried us,” Collins said. “We’re sitting here right now going into the month of May in pretty good shape.” INSIDE PITCH Lucas Duda, feeling flulike symptoms, started Monday’s game on the bench, before pinch-hitting in the seventh. He walked. Terry Collins said he did not expect Duda to be ready for Tuesday’s game. Closer Frank Francisco was not available to pitch after feeling soreness in his right hamstring the last two games.

New York Mets
Colorado Rockies
Dickey R A
Baseball
Houston Astros


Ethier Extends Hitting Streak, but Mets Beat Dodgers

Abstract: Just 13 pitches into Friday’s game, the big question of the day was answered virtually without suspense. Andre Ethier, the third batter of the evening, belted a 3-0 fastball into center field for a base hit, and with that his hitting streak moved up a level. With his single off the Mets ’ starting pitcher, Jon Niese, Ethier extended his streak to 30 games. He passed Zack Wheat for second place and is only one behind Willie Davis, who in 1969 set the record for the Dodgers ’ longest hitting streak at 31 games. But the hit and the streak were part of another loss for the Dodgers as the Mets won, 6-3, at Citi Field. It was the third defeat in a row and the fifth in the last six games for the beleaguered Dodgers, who have tried to play baseball as usual amid an unusual struggle for power between their owner and Major League Baseball. As he collects hit after hit, Ethier has at times had to mute his enjoyment of a streak that has occurred against the backdrop of an uncertain team future. “You celebrate it when you get the hit,” he said. “You get the hit: ‘Yay. Yay for me. Here we go, let’s keep going. Let’s figure out a way to play all nine innings.’ ” A left-handed hitter, Ethier went 3 for 5 Friday to raise his batting average to .379, but the biggest hit of the game did not come off his bat. Jason Pridie, the outfielder the Mets called up April 22 to replace the injured Angel Pagan, hit a three-run homer in the sixth inning after the Dodgers’ first-year manager, Don Mattingly, had starting pitcher Hiroki Kuroda intentionally walk Ike Davis. “You always feel like an idiot when he comes up and does that,” Mattingly said. “I still felt like it was the right thing to do.” Mattingly, who played his entire 14-year career for the Yankees, was managing his first game in New York after taking over the Dodgers during the off-season. Mattingly succeeded Joe Torre, who managed the Yankees to four World Series titles. The decision to walk Davis made sense. He hit a booming home run off Kuroda in the second inning off the facing of the upper deck in right field, and Pridie had played in only 23 major league games before Friday. Pridie had shown some power, with two previous home runs in 37 at-bats since the Mets recalled him. He showed it again by launching an 0-1 pitch from Kuroda onto the roof of the Mets’ bullpen beyond the right-field fence to give his team a 5-3 lead. Mattingly said he was enjoying managing in New York, until that point. “Your last thought is a three-run homer there,” Mattingly said, “especially in this ballpark. There were some balls that were crushed that didn’t go out tonight. You make a decision, and it didn’t work.” The game featured two of the National League’s flagship franchises, but the teams face severe financial difficulties and uncertain futures. The Mets borrowed $25 million from Major League Baseball last fall to cover operating costs and still have crushing debt obligations. The Dodgers were recently taken over by Commissioner Bud Selig, who appointed the former Texas Rangers executive Tom Schieffer to oversee their operations, much to the dismay of Frank McCourt, the Dodgers’ owner. There have been reports that the Dodgers might be unable to make payroll at the end of the month, but the players said they were not concerned. “It would become a problem if we didn’t get paid,” said Rod Barajas, the former Mets catcher who hit a home run in the second inning. “But that’s never happened before. I don’t think it’s ever happened that the players don’t get paid. Major League Baseball will make sure we get paid.” Perhaps the only positive aspect to the Dodgers’ season so far has been Ethier’s streak. The streak began April 2, and perhaps the most remarkable thing about it is that he has been held hitless in only one game he has played in this season, on April 1. But as long as it has gone on, he is still 26 games away from Joe DiMaggio’s all-time record. “To say I’ve done it for a month now is tough,” he said. “I couldn’t imagine two months.” INSIDE PITCH Jose Reyes hit two triples and reached base four times. It was the sixth time he has had two triples in a game. ... Angel Pagan had a setback in his recovery from a strained oblique muscle on his left side and returned to New York on Friday to have a magnetic resonance imaging test, which revealed point tenderness in the area. Pagan, who has been on the disabled list since April 22, will not resume baseball activities until the pain is gone.

Baseball
New York Mets
Los Angeles Dodgers
Ethier Andre
Major League Baseball


Red Sox and Rays Are Now Tied - Leading Off

Abstract: If you expected to turn on the television Monday night and find a wheezing sound coming from Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo and his much-debated ribs, the first potential flaw in that logic was assuming you could stand to listen to a broadcast filled with Jon Gruden soliloquies without diving for the mute button. And as it turns out, the inescapable wheezing sound was emanating from someplace entirely different, that being whatever dugout the Red Sox are slouching in at a given moment. Yes, that was in Baltimore, where the Sox used all the incredible, heart-pumping momentum of their dramatic extra-innings victory over the Yankees on Sunday to promptly lose to the last-place Orioles , draining their once huge wild card lead over Tampa Bay to nothing. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly when this transformed from a baseball playoff chase to a Shakespearean tragedy, but the only things missing are the British accents. The loss was typically gruesome , giving weight to the argument — like the one from SI.com’s Chris Corcoran — that the Red Sox are only a pat of butter shy of toast. The most die-hard of Red Sox bloggers had already decided that, which makes a flip through their reactions each day a worthy trip. Drop by the Boston Dirt Dogs blog , which features a Sox jersey on “The Scream,” while the Surviving Grady blog opted for a pictorial reference to the Hindenburg. Meanwhile, the Rays played their part by beating the Yankees and are enjoying their role as extras in someone else’s tragedy, writes John Romano in The St. Petersburg Times . That has sparked a lively debate over whether the Yankees are tanking (or should be tanking) to keep the Red Sox out of the playoffs. The National League is attempting to stage a similar collapse featuring the Braves and the Cardinals, but is not quite pulling it off. As Ken Rosenthal argues on Foxsports.com , the sliding Braves do not quite have the hopelessness of the Red Sox, and the Cardinals blew their chance to star as the triumphant chasers by losing to the horrendous Astros in extra innings Monday night. Baseball managed to throw another worthwhile tempest in the nonplayoff division when Ozzie Guillen’s inevitable departure from the White Sox became official Monday. Guillen’s role as baseball’s most dependable source of tempests was both part of his charm and his undoing in Chicago, writes Gene Wojciechowski on ESPN.com . This also makes his imminent hiring as the Marlins’ new manager a calamity waiting to happen, writes Jeff Passan on Yahoo.com , but the attention-starved Marlins have decided a marketable manager is their only hope for getting anyone to remember they are opening a new stadium, writes Jon Heyman on SI.com , so OzzieWorld is acquiring a 305 area code. Safety harnesses are recommended. Before Monday night’s N.F.L. game, Redskins players were not-so-subtly hinting that Romo might need a safety harness after choosing to play despite his aching midsection. But Romo decided to unveil his tough-guy persona, writes Dan Graziano on ESPN.com , and became the hero of the night, which involved large amounts of slobbering by ESPN’s Gruden unless you successfully employed that mute button. At least for a night it was popular to be a Romo fan again, writes Jennifer Floyd Engel on Foxsports.com , but it was also possible to view it as an ugly game won by the less-hapless quarterback. Monday’s other significant N.F.L. development came from Philadelphia, where the Eagles announced that, oops, they misread Michael Vick’s X-ray and his hand is not actually broken. And Vick backtracked to claim he is not really so upset at the officials for letting him get clobbered. Things were not so conciliatory in the corner of Philadelphia hosting the Flyers-Rangers preseason N.H.L. game, where the Flyers’ Wayne Simmonds has allegedly pivoted from being the target of a banana throw to hurling an antigay epithet at the Rangers’ Sean Avery. This is according to Avery, was caught on video and Simmonds wasn’t exactly denying it. All of this will keep the N.H.L. disciplinarians busy, as if the new suspension czar Brendan Shanahan was not already busy dealing with players trying to knock one another’s head off. In that department, writes Greg Wyshynski on Yahoo.com , he is doing a much-improved job over his universally maligned predecessor, Colin Campbell. For now, most of the maligning is being aimed at the Red Sox, who are working really hard to deserve it. Follow Leading Off on Twitter: twitter.com/zinsernyt


Given Chance in New Roles, Michael Conforto and Kevin Plawecki Show They Can Produce

Abstract: The Mets adjusted to irregular roles on Tuesday. One player, Michael Conforto, started, even though the left-hander Brandon Finnegan was on the mound for the Cincinnati Reds. A majority of Conforto’s success since he moved to third in the batting order April 15 — a .378 average with 10 runs scored, 3 home runs and 8 R.B.I. — has come against right-handed pitchers. More intriguing was the insertion of Kevin Plawecki as the starting catcher. Plawecki got an unexpected audition to stake a claim for extended time behind the plate when Travis d’Arnaud was put on the 15-day disabled list with a right rotator cuff strain. And then there was the curious case of Yoenis Cespedes. A bruised right leg had sidelined Cespedes since last Friday, but in the seventh inning, with the Mets trailing by 3-0, Plawecki hit a key single that moved Juan Lagares to third base with one out. Manager Terry Collins wanted Cespedes to pinch-hit, but could not find him. He asked Lucas Duda to stand in the on-deck circle as Cespedes bided his time. “I said, ‘I’m not putting you in, but go on deck,’ ” Collins said. “So he went up and stood on deck. He could have ordered a hamburger by that time.” Eventually, Cespedes stepped to the plate and smoked a three-run homer on the first pitch he saw, rallying the Mets to a 4-3 win at Citi Field. “All I kept hearing was he’s coming, he’s coming, he’s coming,” Collins said. “He finally got there.” Just as soon as Cespedes made a cameo, he vanished and did not speak to the news media after the game. Cespedes’s personality has been enigmatic at times, similar to the career of d’Arnaud. During Game 1 of last year’s National League Championship Series, d’Arnaud had quite a memorable home run himself, taking Jon Lester deep and bruising Citi Field’s red home run apple in center field. The next day, clever stadium workers placed a large white bandage over the spot where the ball landed. But lately, d’Arnaud, in his fourth season with the Mets, has not been bruising anything but himself. He is now on his third trip to the D.L. since the beginning of last season. Various ailments have been an albatross on d’Arnaud’s promising career. For years, d’Arnaud, 27, has been hailed as an above-average offensive catcher and was a focal point in the trade the Mets made with the Toronto Blue Jays in December 2012 that sent off the reigning Cy Young Award winner R. A. Dickey. (That deal also brought back Noah Syndergaard.) Complicating d’Arnaud’s future is the emerging presence of Plawecki, 25, who is recognized as a sound defensive backstop and who Collins said would become the primary starting catcher in d’Arnaud’s absence. In the fourth inning, with the Mets trailing, 1-0, Plawecki threw out Adam Duvall trying to steal second base. “That’s why he made the team, because the history said there’s going to be playing time here and at-bats here,” Collins said. “I think Kevin does a good job; I think he handles our pitching staff very well.” Even before the Mets acquired d’Arnaud, his medical history included back and knee injuries. In 2013, he began his tenure with the club with a fracture in his left foot. Last April, d’Arnaud fractured his right pinkie finger. Two months later, he sprained his left elbow and struggled at the plate in the second half of the season. His postseason home run was a symbol of what the Mets had always hoped for from him, but those flashes have been too rare. Collins was asked before the game if he was worried he might never see d’Arnaud play at his peak. He said that it had been tough to keep d’Arnaud on the field but that he still believed in his potential. “Are we going to get to see it?” Collins said. “You can only hope the answer to that will be yes.” But Collins, while not wavering in his faith in d’Arnaud, also declared that a prime opportunity now awaits Plawecki. “This is not the first time this has happened to Travis,” Collins said, later adding, “I don’t think he looks over his shoulder, but neither did Wally Pipp,” referring to the Yankee first baseman usurped by Lou Gehrig. “He never looked over his shoulder, either. This is an opportunity for Kevin to show people what he can do. We’ll see how it goes.”

Baseball
Sports injury
Travis d'Arnaud
Kevin Plawecki
Mets
Reds


Rescue Slow as Part of Cliff Flattens Cairo District

Abstract: CAIRO — A huge chunk of a stone cliff that towers over the eastern end of this city crashed down on Saturday morning, crushing dozens of apartment blocks and trapping and killing whole families, residents and officials said. It was difficult to determine how many were dead or trapped because a neighborhood of densely packed apartments was flattened beneath boulders, each the size of a hill, and because government rescue workers were extremely slow to respond. By midday 16 bodies had been recovered, and 27 people had been rescued alive, but residents said that at least 50 homes filled with people had vanished beneath the debris. The collapse occurred around 9 a.m. on Saturday, during the holy month of Ramadan , when most people are at home. “It was like judgment day,” said Ahmed Muhammad Mahmoud, 42, who said he ran out of his house when he heard the first popping sounds. He said that rocks had fallen many times before and that he and his neighbors had complained to the government about the problem. But he and many others said the government never addressed the complaints, instead chastising them for living there. Manshiet Nasser is a so-called informal community, one of several that are each home to millions of Cairo residents. Water, sewage, electricity, whole apartment blocks — all were built and installed by the residents in a process of spontaneous development, and many corners of the neighborhood are extremely poor. The Egyptian government’s inability to deal with catastrophes in a timely fashion has become all too common. Last month, when a fire broke out in the historic building for the upper house of Parliament, the emergency response was ineffective and the building burned until it was gutted, becoming a potent symbol of the state’s impotence. In 2005 a fire in Beni Suef killed more than 35 people, mostly students, and the state responded with riot police to keep the distraught crowds in line. In 2006, a ferry sank with more than 1,000 Egyptians lost, and the police at the scene said their goal was only to keep the crowds calm. When the dust settled after the rocks crashed down here on Saturday, El Dardeery Street was gone. Half of El Amayen Street was gone. The Abu Gharib family was gone. The Morsey family was gone. At 10 a.m., Abdo Said, 32, was helping to pull bodies from the corner of the debris that was accessible — and wondering when the authorities would arrive. At 11:30, Nasser Muhammad Ali, 48, was wondering when the authorities would arrive to help. At 1:30 p.m., crowds started throwing rocks at the riot police, who had arrived long ago, not to help with rescue, but to control the crowds. “Consider these people are your people,” hollered a distraught man as an officer tried to calm the crowds through a bullhorn. “Consider they are your family. Do something!” “Call somebody, call somebody,” shouted Nehmedo Muhammad Ali, 42, whose sister-in-law was gone, under the fallen mountain. Six hours after the collapse, rescue teams from Egypt ’s Division of Civil Defense began to arrive, armed with shovels and hand picks. An hour after that, officials said they had a plan to get heavy equipment to the scene. The neighborhood was sandwiched between the towering yellow cliff and a berm. Railroad tracks ran across the top of the berm. Officials said they would cut a path through the berm to get the equipment in. But the people did not wait. They could not: their homes were gone and their neighbors trapped. Ismail Muhammad Ali, 35, knew where his sister-in-law lived. It was beneath a massive stone, the size of a building. He squatted in the dirt, and shimmied beneath the edge of the stone. He scarred his hands, tripping into the dirt, pulling out hunks of wood, calling her name. “Safa Adel!” he shouted. He pulled out more wood. “Safa Adel!” Tempers began boiling over, because while the neighbors struggled, forming lines to pull debris away, many police officers were present but doing nothing. “You come here to sit in the shade!” a woman screamed at a group of police officers seated on the ground. One officer said, “People are emotional; we have to keep them calm.” He refused to give his name, his rank or even his branch of the Interior Ministry. He said, “We all have our responsibilities.” And of course, the anger mixed with shock. Who lived and who died appeared random. Reham Ismail, 21, and her husband, Emad Said, 25, by chance spent the night at his mother’s house. They were nearly speechless, standing atop a massive piece of the mountain that rested where their apartment block had stood a few hours earlier. “Our whole family and our neighbors, they all are dead,” Ms. Ismail said. “We blame the government. They keep saying we choose to live like this. But tell me, can we do any better?” That theme arose again and again: anger and frustration at having to live amid dirt roads, without proper water or sewage, on paltry salaries, all in the center of Cairo. “Before there was the rich, the poor and people in the middle; now there is nobody in the middle,” said Muhammad Abdel Wahid, 36, an elevator technician who earns less than $50 a month. “There are the rich, they eat and drink; there are the poor, and they die.”

Egypt
Cairo (Egypt)
Accidents and Safety
Rock and Stone
Rescues


What Not to Wear When Worrying About the Flu in New York

Abstract: “Just me,” I chirped to the hostess at Nice Matin , an airy restaurant on the Upper West Side. Perfectly composed, a model of hospitality, she asked, “Inside or outside?” By the window, I decided, and she wished me a good meal. I nodded at the other diners, who smiled politely in return. The waiter brought my salad, then returned to see how I was doing. Just what you would expect at an elegant establishment on a late-summer day. Except I was wearing a white crinkly jumpsuit with hood and feet, plus gloves, goggles and a face mask. I was swabbing everything with antimicrobial wipes. And I was sweating like a lunatic. That’s a situation for which Zagat has no special rating. I was halfway through my experiment in the outer limits of swine flu paranoia, testing the tolerance of New Yorkers and of my own ability to keep a straight face. So far so good, and the chopped salad was delicious, thank you. (Yes, I removed the mask first.) This is a strange moment in viral consciousness, with school back in session but swine flu vaccine not yet available. When one report imagines a possibility of 90,000 dead, and others say there is no reason for panic, where’s the line between an abundance of caution and a side order of crazy? Those who want maximal protection — or who want to assuage their anxieties by spending money — might consider the Pandemic Emergency Defense System, from Flu Armour, a New Jersey company founded in 2005. For $69, the kit includes 20 masks, 50 pairs of gloves, one industrial-strength set of goggles, a tub of germicidal disinfectant cloths and another of antimicrobial hand wipes. The white paper jumpsuit, at $6.75, completes the look. Flu Armour says the kits are for those in direct contact with a sick person. But I decided to take the ambient H1N1 anxiety to its illogical conclusion, and navigate the city in full protective gear. On the subway, passengers were careful not to stare (at least not while they thought I could see), though when the doors opened at Penn Station, people waiting on the platform rushed to the next car. At that point, I thought I really might pass out. It wasn’t the embarrassment. It was the mask, which seemed to be filtering out all the oxygen. My goggles were completely fogged up and my paper outfit was working like the foil wrap on a baked potato. After a few stops, I escaped aboveground, found a bench on Broadway and caught my breath. From 30 yards away, an older woman fixed me in her sights. She started walking toward me, stopping every few steps to stare, hard. Then she’d walk closer. And stare. Finally, standing right in front of me, she uttered one withering question: “Is this for any reason?” I was beginning to wonder, myself. Flu prevention, I told her. She smiled pityingly, and said she would take whatever precautions her doctor recommends, but nothing more. Then she just happened to mention that she was 90 — about 20 years older than anyone would have guessed. Point made, she lifted her chin and walked on. At Fairway, where people are flayed alive for jumping the line at the deli counter, no one gave me a second look. Nor at the Union Square Greenmarket, nor at the High Line park. And at Jeffrey, the rarefied department store in the meatpacking district, people were only as supercilious as they always are. I was bursting with pride for my fellow citizens. Face to (masked and goggled) face with public health paranoia — the kind of fear that is all too often an epidemic in its own right — New Yorkers of every stripe let me know they wanted no part. But back uptown, in the children’s section of Barnes & Noble , a clerk asked where she could buy her own viral terror kit. I explained that it wasn’t recommended for everyday use, only for direct contact with —— She cut me off. “By the time you need it,” she said, “it’s too late to order.” Dr. Thomas A. Farley, the city’s health commissioner, has often said that simple things like washing your hands and staying home if you feel sick are the most important precautions. As for gear, he told me, carefully, “If someone were taking care of a relative who clearly had an influenza -like illness, if they were in constant close contact, there might be some value to them wearing gloves or wearing a mask.” Goggles? “I don’t think the virus gets into the eyes.” Paper suit? “No,” he said, “I don’t think so.” Back to the mask, Dr. Farley noted that it is best worn by those with a virus, not those trying to ward it off. I considered that as I sat, alone, at the Coffee Shop on Union Square. In one of the city’s most enduring people-watching spots, everyone around me was looking away. Maybe, I started to realize, they saw me not as some crazed germophobe, but as someone who was actually sick. Maybe they just felt bad for me. Ordinarily, I am too self-conscious to enjoy the experience of eating in a restaurant alone. But there at the Coffee Shop, regarded as either a freak or a leper, I felt oddly impervious. After all, no one could really see me. Whatever Flu Armour does or does not do for the H1N1 virus, it definitely works as social armor, a fortress for one that keeps New York at bay. Which isn’t necessarily a good thing. No one is seriously proposing that New Yorkers run around town dressed like Dustin Hoffman in “Outbreak” (though I bet I’m not the last to try it). If nothing else, it’s way too hot in that suit. But some people are certain to take their flu fear to extremes, avoiding parks and playgrounds, or staying out of the subway. For an otherwise healthy person, that seems like a violation of New York’s social contract. Back in my normal clothes, I shared a park bench with a junkie who nodded off while holding a lighted cigarette and open coffee cup (predictable results). He didn’t look too hygienic. Meanwhile, at the library, my baby daughter chewed on the same toys a hundred other kids had chewed on. No one was wiping them down with Purell. That’s how we all live: Exposure to other people is both the reward and the risk of life in New York. Just wash your hands before you eat lunch.

Swine Flu
Protective Clothing
NYC
Medicine and Health


Fresh Hot Chocolate

Abstract: Everyone knows that Colombian coffee can be spectacular, and at Quimbaya Colombian Coffee House, in Ossining, the coffee does not disappoint. But it’s something else that attracts many customers to this colorful, pleasant little storefront shop: the Colombian hot chocolate. Made with a syrup derived from panela (a Colombian sugar-cane product) and unsweetened cocoa, the hot chocolate is prepared by hand with each order — “grandmother style,” as Alfredo Uscanga, the owner, puts it. Some versions are made with milk, others with cream, but it’s the flavors rather than the texture that sets them apart. Among the menu’s 17 hot and cold chocolate drinks you’ll find ingredients like cloves and nutmeg, orange zest and cinnamon. There’s a peanut butter version, one made with honey and another made with mint tea. “Colombians love hot chocolate,” Mr. Uscanga said. “It’s a really popular breakfast drink.” The Latin American laborers, Wall Streeters en route to the train and teenagers on their way to high school who patronize Quimbaya often pair the hot chocolate ($2.75 or $3.25) with a warm arepa, a kind of thick pancake made of sweet corn meal and topped with a slice of Colombian cheese ($2). Other food items include an array of house-made baked goods, killer flan, Colombian-style empanadas and sandwiches — from a traditional Colombian ham and cheese on white bread to pressed Cuban versions. They’re all freshly made, but the hot chocolate is perhaps the freshest of all. “This is spoiled,” Mr. Uscanga said of my cup, prepared only 10 minutes earlier. It wasn’t, of course, but I appreciated the sentiment. Quimbaya Colombian Coffee House, 193 Main Street, Ossining. Open Monday to Saturday, 6 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Sunday, 6 a.m. to 6 p.m.; (914) 941-0810.

Chocolate
Westchester County (NY)
Colombia


Fox Joins Network Brethren in Wrapping Up Its ‘Upfront’ Ad Sales

Abstract: Fox Broadcasting has pretty much finished its sales of commercial time before the start of the 2014-15 television season, meaning that all five big English-language broadcasters have completed, or are winding up, their negotiations in what is called the upfront market. Word that Fox had essentially concluded its upfront talks came Wednesday afternoon, a day after two competitors, CW and NBC, finished or almost finished their upfront negotiations. CBS was the first of the big English-language broadcast networks to complete its upfront sales, on June 13, followed by ABC last Friday. In terms of the rates charged to reach each 1,000 viewers — a standard measurement on Madison Avenue known as cost per thousand, or cpm — Fox won increases from advertisers, but they were not as large as the increases it achieved in last year’s upfront talks. Fox’s cpm increases were estimated in the range of 2.5 to 3.5 percent; last year, the increases were estimated in the more robust range of 5 to 7 percent. And in total advertising revenue, Fox, part of 21st Century Fox, took in somewhat less than it did during the upfront market last year before the start of the 2013-14 season. Estimates are that the 2014-15 upfront commitments obtained by Fox totaled about $1.5 billion to $1.6 billion, compared with an estimated $1.8 billion last year. The ad revenue totals for ABC and CBS may also be below those obtained by them last year. CW may also be down slightly, if not flat compared with last year. NBC seems to be the only big English-language broadcaster that took in significantly more total ad revenue in this upfront market than it did in last year’s. Such a tepid performance for the major broadcasters as a whole was expected before the upfront talks began. It underlines a perception that broadcast television has been slogging through a couple of seasons without any breakthrough hits that generate the huge amounts of conversation among consumers that advertisers prize so highly these days. By contrast, there is a long list of such shows on cable television, which in the aggregate took in more total ad revenue in the 2013-14 upfront market than the five broadcasters did. With ABC, CBS, CW, Fox and NBC closing the books or almost closing the books on the 2014-15 upfront sales process, attention turns to cable, along with networks and channels that appeal to Hispanic viewers. Cable ad sales have been quiet so far with the exception of NBC’s parent, the NBCUniversal division of Comcast, which sold commercial time for its many cable channels as it sold commercial time for NBC. ABC is part of the Walt Disney Company. CW is a joint venture of the CBS Corporation, the parent of CBS, and Time Warner.

TV
Upfront
advertising,marketing
Fox Broadcasting


Silva Will Fight in February

Abstract: The former champion Anderson Silva, after finishing a one-year suspension for steroid use, will return to the Ultimate Fighting Championship in a bout against Michael Bisping on Feb. 27.

Mixed martial arts
Doping
Ultimate Fighting Championship


Venezuela: Legal Challenge to Vote

Abstract: Lawyers for the opposition candidate in the recent presidential election, Henrique Capriles Radonski, on Thursday submitted papers to the Supreme Court challenging the result. Mr. Capriles lost to Nicolás Maduro, the handpicked heir of former President Hugo Chávez, by less than two percentage points. Arguing that the voting was marred by irregularities, the lawyers said the goal was to force a new election. Mr. Capriles said this week that he did not expect a favorable ruling from the court, which many say is packed with government loyalists. But he said he hoped that international pressure would impel a change in Venezuela. He has refused to take part in a partial review of digital voting records planned by electoral authorities, calling it a sham.

Venezuela
Election
Decisions and Verdicts
Voting
Nicolas Maduro
Hugo Chavez
Henrique Capriles Radonski


Controversy Builds in Texas Over an Execution

Abstract: HOUSTON — Questions about whether Gov. Rick Perry allowed the execution of a man some arson experts say may have been innocent, and then hindered an investigation into the evidence, continue to reverberate across Texas, where issues surrounding capital punishment have rarely stirred such controversy. On Sunday, Mark White, who as governor himself was a strong death penalty supporter, said he believed that the state should reconsider capital punishment because, among other reasons, there was too great a risk of putting innocent people to death. “There is a very strong case to be made for a review of our death penalty statutes and even look at the possibility of having life without parole so we don’t look up one day and determine that we as the State of Texas have executed someone who is in fact innocent,” Mr. White, a Democrat who was governor from 1983 to 1987, told The Houston Chronicle and The San Antonio Express-News. Mr. White’s remarks came with Mr. Perry, a Republican and staunch backer of the death penalty, under criticism for not granting a 30-day reprieve to Cameron T. Willingham in 2004, when an arson expert working with Mr. Willingham’s defense concluded that the evidence that had put him on death row was seriously flawed. Mr. White said he did not intend for his comments to be taken as criticism of Mr. Perry’s handling of the Willingham case. But, he said, the case is one example “of why I think the system is so unreliable.” Three weeks ago Mr. Perry replaced the chairman and two other members of the State Forensic Science Commission , which was about to hold hearings on the evidence in the case. The new chairman, a close ally of the governor, promptly canceled a hearing at which a second, independent arson expert was to testify. The commission’s expert, Craig L. Beyler of Baltimore, had concluded in a lengthy report that the evidence did not prove that Mr. Willingham set the fire that killed his three daughters in 1991. Since then, the governor has found himself on the defensive, with editorial writers, columnists and political opponents in both parties accusing him of trying to protect his future at the expense of determining the truth. Last week Mr. Perry defended his decision and struck back at his critics. “Willingham was a monster,” he said. “Here’s a guy who murdered his three children, who tried to beat his wife into an abortion so he wouldn’t have those kids. Person after person has stood up and testified to the facts in this case.” The governor has pointed out that just before the execution, Mr. Willingham’s conviction was sustained by appellate courts, including the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. That court ruled that the affidavit of the defense’s arson expert, Gerald Hurst, did not exonerate Mr. Willingham, since there was other physical evidence that contrary to his claims, he had not tried to save his children. Mr. Perry has also refused to release the memorandum from his general counsel on which he based his decision to let the execution proceed. He says the memorandum is protected by attorney-client privilege. Katherine Cesinger, a spokeswoman for Mr. Perry, said that on the night of the execution, the governor’s general counsel thoroughly briefed him on the report of the arson expert and various appellate court decisions. He denied the reprieve, she said, because the courts “all agreed that the Hurst report was no more than an opinion and did not merit reopening the case.” Mr. Willingham’s guilt aside, the governor’s actions have left him vulnerable to accusations that he tampered with the work of a supposedly independent commission for political reasons. The accusations gained weight when Sam Bassett, the Austin lawyer whom the governor dismissed three weeks ago after two terms as head of the commission, said last week that the governor’s general counsel, David G. Cabrales, pressured Mr. Bassett earlier this year to drop the inquiry. Mr. Cabrales has not responded to Mr. Bassett’s account. So popular is the death penalty here that Mr. Perry’s main opponent in next year’s Republican primary for governor, Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison , has taken the rather novel approach of suggesting that his actions have lent ammunition to opponents of capital punishment. “The only thing Rick Perry’s actions have accomplished is giving liberals an argument to discredit the death penalty,” she said in a statement. “We should never do anything to create a cloud of controversy over it with actions that look like a cover-up.”

Capital Punishment
Perry Rick
White Mark
Decisions and Verdicts
Willingham Cameron T.
Hutchison Kay Bailey
Bassett Sam
Texas
Probation and Parole


N.F.L. Lockout Could Cost Former Lineman Care at Dementia Facility

Abstract: SUGAR LAND, Tex. — The potential casualties of the N.F.L. ’s work stoppage include players, owners and, eventually, parking-lot attendants and many others whose work is tied to the sport. The lockout’s first victim, however, could be a former merchant seaman from Brooklyn who once worked on the Apollo lunar module but today lies inert in Room 12 at the Silverado dementia -care facility here. The 78-year-old man, Bruce Schwager, spends most waking hours staring at NFL Network, silently comforted by the images of players running and blocking and tackling the way he did as a lineman for the United States Merchant Marine Academy so long ago. He does not notice his wife, Bette, silently packing his clothes and pictures into moving boxes, and does not understand when she blames the players union in which her husband still belongs. Since July 2009, the charitable arm of the N.F.L. players union had voluntarily paid Schwager’s medical bills, which eventually topped $250,000. Schwager never played in a regular-season game — he joined the union by attending two training camps — and the players association treated him as one of its own. But on March 14, the first day of business after the N.F.L. lockout began and the union prepared for what could be a long and costly work stoppage, a union official called Schwager’s son and said the aid would cease immediately. With his family unable to pay for continuing care at Silverado, Schwager is scheduled to be evicted on July 2. Bette Schwager said she had yet to find a facility that would care for her husband, who remains large, strong and combative when agitated. Schwager’s doctor said in an interview that forcing him to move from his familiar surroundings, given his advanced coronary disease, could bring on a fatal heart attack . The Schwager situation comes as football’s players association faces the prospect of tumbling revenue during negotiations for a new labor contract — in which it is seeking increased benefits for retired players — and while all of football wrestles with how to compensate veterans whose neurological disease is increasingly attributed to football. Three players association officials, including the executive director, DeMaurice Smith, did not respond to messages requesting comment about Schwager’s case. In an April 4 letter to the Schwagers’ lawyer, Cy Smith, DeMaurice Smith wrote, “We have been and remain deeply concerned about the financial and medical well-being of Mr. Schwager and his family during this crisis,” but he added that there was no “agreement to pay those expenses indefinitely into the future.” DeMaurice Smith did not refer to the lockout in his letter. But Schwager’s son, Joshua, said that the aid ceasing so soon after the work stoppage began “cannot be a coincidence.” Bette and Joshua Schwager acknowledged that the union had been under no legal obligation to help their family two summers ago through the Players Assistance Trust. The aid appeared to derive in part from how the union’s director of retired players, Andre Collins, played briefly with Joshua Schwager at Penn State in the late 1980s and knew the family. Bette and Joshua Schwager contend, however, that Collins never mentioned any limit on the assistance the Players Assistance Trust would provide, and that they relied on his promises. In e-mails she shared with The New York Times, Collins initially wrote that “The N.F.L.P.A.’s PAT Fund will be responsible for the hospice bill” and, eight months later, that the union was “still fully committed” to Schwager’s care. “We based everything in our lives on what they told us — that they’d take care of him,” Bette Schwager said while packing her husband’s belongings. “I sold my home and signed a rental lease right around the corner from here so I could be near him. Now my whole world is falling apart.” Schwager grew up in Brooklyn near two soon-to-be prominent football families, the Lombardis and the Paternos, as Jewish as they were Italian. (To this day, good friends call Schwager “ Ben ,” short for his Hebrew name, Binyomin.) He grew to 6 feet 3 inches and 260 pounds and turned down scholarships at several prominent college programs to enroll in the engineering program at the United States Merchant Marine Academy in Kings Point, N.Y., mostly for the discipline a military environment would provide. The Chicago Cardinals selected him late in the 1955 draft, cut him in his first camp, then refused to trade him off their reserve list despite his requests for a chance with another team. The Cardinals kept him under contract throughout his service in the Navy from 1956 through 1958 and refused to release him until April 1959, when teams felt he was no longer in game shape. Schwager played one year in Canada and attended camp with the expansion New York Titans (now the Jets ) in 1960, but he was injured and cut before the season began. He went on to work for Grumman, a prominent supplier of aircraft to the military, then moved to Houston to work with NASA , for which he helped on the design for the lunar landing module that eased Neil Armstrong and others onto the Moon. He later went into the restaurant business, and in his mid-60s he began showing signs of early-onset dementia; he was institutionalized two years ago. A relative technicality kept Schwager from qualifying for the N.F.L.’s retirement program, which would have made him eligible for the league and union’s 88 Plan, which assists the families of veterans with dementia by paying up to $88,000 a year for medical expenses. Knowing this, Joshua Schwager said, Collins arranged for the Players Assistance Trust essentially to treat his father as if he qualified for the 88 Plan and more. At the time, Joshua Schwager said, Collins had been told his father had been given two to six months to live. His living for two years and counting has surprised everyone, he said. “It was amazing the way they stepped up,” Joshua Schwager said. “But the way they did this now, with no warning, just perplexes us. They say they’re going through the lockout to help players from the past, present and future, and that the little guy is as important as the big guy. But are you really going to follow through on that?” DeMaurice Smith did not refer to Schwager’s surprising longevity in his letter, but wrote, “No agreement, either orally or in writing, has ever been made” to pay his hospice-care expenses “for an indefinite period of time.” Silverado, with Schwager’s bills unpaid since May, has given the family until July 2 to find another facility. Even if one is found, however, one of Schwager’s physicians, Dr. David Aguilar of the Baylor College of Medicine, said in a letter that a move from Silverado could lead to “worsening heart and neurologic disease and possible death.” “If he became agitated, he could have a heart attack,” Dr. Aguilar said in a telephone interview. “The Bruce I know, you’d have to hold him down to get him out of there. We don’t know what he understands that could be rationalized.” Bette and Joshua Schwager have told Bruce nothing about the fight with the players association, assuming he would not comprehend it anyway. He is barely communicative. He does not recognize himself in the pictures on his walls, from the shot of him playing line at Merchant Marine to the group photograph of Houston-area N.F.L. veterans from 2005 titled, “Honoring Houston’s N.F.L. Legacy.” The closest he and Bette get to conversing came when he raised his hand, touched her face and mumbled, “I won’t be able to drive home.” Later, seeing Joshua pack up a Nerf football from a shelf, he gestured for him to bring it over and let him hold it. His massive right hand, with fingers mangled from years on football’s lines, gripped the ball perfectly on the seams. As Joshua sat cross-legged on the floor to continue packing, Schwager forced his arm forward and tossed the ball. It went straight to his son, a perfect, downward spiral.

Football
Dementia
Lockouts
National Football League Players Assn
Bruce Schwager
Labor Unions
NFL Super Bowl Super Bowl 2015


A Cruel Turn for Irvington, a Town Already Battling Crime and Blight

Abstract: IRVINGTON, N.J., Oct. 19 — As metaphors go, there are few as apt for this struggling town as what Joyce Dobson saw unfold on Friday. When Ms. Dobson left for her job as a schoolteacher just after 7 a.m., she glanced across the street and saw a new home close to completion, a hopeful sign in a place that is beginning to see the first seeds of development. But when she raced home a short time later after receiving a frantic call from her daughter that the new house had exploded, it seemed that her optimism about a revival in Irvington had melted away on yet another vacant lot. “It’s like every time they try to do something. ...” said Ms. Dobson, 45, not bothering to finish the thought as she sat on her porch watching firefighters and search dogs comb the 15-foot-high pile of debris across the street. “You know Irvington.” The explosion, which killed one person and critically injured four, destroyed a vacant apartment building next door and punched out windows and screens in dozens of houses for blocks around. It was the latest misfortune to visit Irvington, a town of 60,000 that in recent years has been the victim of political scandal and rampant crime. The former mayor, Sara Bost, was forced from office five years ago after being indicted on corruption charges. On Tuesday, the State Police reported that Irvington had the highest violent crime rate of the state’s 15 major urban areas, with 22.4 incidents for every 1,000 residents. It is a municipality where the police force has enlisted the aid of state troopers to fight crime even as its nascent development starts to show some signs of success. Irvington’s twin challenges, fostering growth and a modicum of prosperity while beating back blight, are apparent on 20th Avenue, where the remains of the two buildings smoldered. The blocks around Ms. Dobson’s apartment house are a constellation of vacant lots and homes that are either burned out or boarded up. Yet two doors from Ms. Dobson sits a new three-story row house on the market for $350,000. Hours after the explosion, Willie Crudup, 77, stood on his stoop across the street from the destruction, the windows of his home blown out. He has owned his house for 37 years; he paid $20,000 for it in 1970. On Friday morning, he was awakened by what authorities called a tremendous gas explosion. “I looked out the window, and everything was flat,” he said. His three children have left home, and Mr. Crudup, a semiretired plumber, lives in the three-bedroom house alone, surrounded by abandoned buildings. “I tried to rent it out, but no one wants to come here,” he said. Thirty-five properties in Mr. Crudup’s neighborhood belong to the Schools Development Authority, purchased by the state as part of a plan to build a middle school in the neighborhood, according to Larry Hanover, a spokesman for the agency. But in July 2005, the authority canceled more than 300 school projects because its $6 billion allotment was about to run out, and the plan for the school — along with dozens of others in the state — was abandoned. But by then, dozens of homes on those properties had been vacated. Now many of them have been demolished. The blast that leveled the house at 24 20th Avenue on Friday — three days before the vacant building next to it was scheduled to be properly demolished — left standing the two buildings that remained on the properties owned by the school construction agency, Mr. Hanover said. The demise of the school construction deal, leaving abandoned homes and vacant lots in its wake, put a particularly blighted cast over a neighborhood that seemed to welcome only drugs and prostitution. “Everywhere you looked there were fiends, fiends,” Ms. Dobson said, using an abbreviated version of street slang for addicts: drug fiends. “I felt like I was living in that show ‘The Wire.’ ” The owner of the building where Ms. Dobson lives, Pinky Roberts, said that she and others in the neighborhood had petitioned Irvington officials to use the police to roust addicts out of the vacant buildings and then tear down the eyesores. “The city engineer knows who I am,” Ms. Roberts said. “I know he’s sick of me. I told them to tear that building down. There’s 100 people living in there, all of them drug addicts.” Tensions boiled at the scene of the explosion when about two dozen residents confronted Mayor Wayne Smith, asking why he had not done more to clean up the streets, which they insisted had become worse since he took office in 2002. “This is your fault,” one woman shouted. Mr. Smith countered that his administration was responsible for the new construction, not for the decline. “No one did anything about these streets before I took office,” he said, adding that demolishing buildings is often difficult because the town does not always have the deeds or the money for demolition. Back on Ms. Dobson’s porch, there was a long wait for an insurance adjuster and a search for a digital camera so that she could record the damage to her apartment. She showed a visitor images on the tiny viewfinder: exposed wooden planks in the walls that were revealed when plaster fell, a broken windowsill, a spray of debris in her bedroom. A short time later, an emergency worker arrived and told her that the city would provide wooden planks to board up broken windows but that she might be ordered to evacuate her apartment for the night. She looked at the pile of debris across the street and said, “What are we going to do now?”