Promising to Redirect Budget Money Spent on Those Pet Projects

Abstract: Ross Ramsey, the executive editor of The Texas Tribune, writes a column for The Tribune. In a campaign commercial, Attorney General Greg Abbott rolls down a freeway ramp next to a stalled line of cars, ready with a self-deprecating wisecrack: “A guy in a wheelchair can move faster than traffic on some roads in Texas.” Mr. Abbott, the Republican candidate for governor, proposes to spend billions more for roads “without raising taxes, fees or tolls” — paying for it by “insuring money dedicated for roads will be spent only on roads, and no more taking highway funds by the Legislature to pay for their pet projects.” Perhaps it is not the program he means, but the biggest recipient of those redirected highway dollars is the Texas Department of Public Safety, which not only polices the highways but also, lately, the state’s border with Mexico. Mr. Abbott is not making up the part about pet projects, but one person’s pet project is another’s essential program. A small slice of the transportation pie — $11.9 million — goes to Mr. Abbott’s own office for legal work on transportation and public safety matters. This is one of those rare moments when a bit of budget legerdemain becomes a political issue. To avoid tax increases while keeping state services going, lawmakers have diverted money from its original intended uses. Over the last few years, they have had more money available — thanks mainly to the current oil and gas boom — and have started cleaning up some of their spending habits. Some, like State Senator Kirk Watson, Democrat of Austin, have been harping on this for the better part of a decade, playing the part of the dietitian telling budget writers to lay off the doughnuts. Now it is in vogue. “Nobody wanted to talk about it,” Mr. Watson said. “Now everybody wants to talk about it.” The state actually has enough money to pull this off, especially if lawmakers take care of the shift over several budgets instead of all at once. House Speaker Joe Straus has picked up the idea, suggesting well before Mr. Abbott and other candidates did that lawmakers should stop raiding the transportation budget. But there is a catch: That means the diverted money has to be replaced, and that means more spending. It is a lot of money. One trick involves leaving dedicated money unspent and using those accounts to balance the state budget, in effect borrowing unused funds to pay for other programs. Those accounts had $4.9 billion in them two years ago, up from $3.7 billion two years before that. Diversions — the budget writers’ term for taking money that is intended for one thing and spending it on another — is what Mr. Abbott and others, from both political parties, are chasing. In the current budget, only 83 percent of the $10.9 billion in the state’s highway account goes to the Department of Transportation. The biggest diversion — $812.6 million — goes to the Department of Public Safety, on the grounds that the highway patrol and the highways it is patrolling are closely related. In 2013, Mr. Watson came close to passing legislation phasing out the shell games in the budget over eight years. It fell short, but lawmakers did make some changes. The Lufkin Tourist Information Center used to get $150,000 from the highway account. The Texas Historical Commission was in there, too. About $1 billion was directed back to its stated purpose in the current budget. What was once a budget secret is now a political cause, as this year’s campaign talk demonstrates. Mr. Watson said he would file legislation again after the November election. Meanwhile, Mr. Straus has the House working on a plan to leave $1.3 billion in the highway fund that would otherwise go elsewhere. He has done this before, without success, starting the 2013 session with a plea for budget repairs. This year, he started earlier, and with a new governor and lieutenant governor taking office in January, he might gain some allies. All they have to do is figure out how to either cut the budget to fit or find $1.3 billion to pay for the state police and the Department of Motor Vehicles and other items caught in the “pet projects” net. The issue is ripe, if lawmakers are willing to spend some money or cut some programs.

Texas
Greg Abbott
Budget
Roads and Traffic
Kirk Watson
Joseph R Straus III


Le Monde Seeks a Financial Savior

Abstract: PARIS — In newly liberated Paris in 1944, a French journalist, Hubert Beuve-Méry, founded Le Monde in the spirit of the Resistance, pledging to keep the newspaper “politically, economically and morally” independent. To preserve those freedoms, the reporters and editors were granted extraordinary powers, including a controlling ownership stake and the right to dismiss their editor and publisher. Now, in a distinctively French twist on a story that has been playing out at many newspapers around the world, one of Beuve-Méry’s three pillars of independence, the financial one, is set to fall. When it goes, many of the journalists’ privileges may go, too. That, it appears, is the cost of survival at one of the world’s most renowned newspapers. Le Monde, a frequent critic of global capitalism, has put out an international tender for new investment that could result in the journalists and other employees handing control to an outsider within weeks. Without new funds, the newspaper might not be able to keep printing and paying wages through the summer. Fortunately for Le Monde, several potential buyers have emerged. With key meetings of Le Monde journalists and directors set for the middle of this month, the paper’s reporters, editors and managers are auditioning them to see which would be most likely to uphold the newspaper’s traditions while giving it the stability needed to plan for the future. “The most important thing, two years before a national election, is to maintain editorial independence,” Eric Fottorino, the publisher of Le Monde, said in an interview. “If you don’t make money, you’re not truly independent.” “The goal is to have the maximum number of possible candidates,” he added, though no formal offers have been made. But it is unclear how far any future owner would be willing to go to maintain Le Monde as it is. Among the potential investors, the most vocal expressions of interest have come from Claude Perdriel, owner of Le Nouvel Observateur, a news magazine. Le Nouvel Observateur shares Le Monde’s center-left worldview, which is reassuring to the newspaper’s journalists. But there are obstacles to a deal with Mr. Perdriel. Analysts question, for example, whether he would be able to muster the necessary funds, including an initial investment of perhaps €100 million, or $122 million, to secure a majority stake and keep the paper running. “If the conditions for us to make a profitable company are not satisfied, we will not go there,” said Denis Olivennes, the publisher of Le Nouvel Observateur. Mr. Perdriel’s approach has flushed out other potential bidders, including a team led by Matthieu Pigasse, a banker who heads Lazard France; Pierre Bergé, co-founder of the Yves Saint Laurent fashion house; and Xavier Niel, a telecommunications entrepreneur. Analysts said this group might have more financial wherewithal than Mr. Perdriel, but some people at Le Monde worry that links between Mr. Pigasse, Mr. Bergé and the Socialist Party could threaten the newspaper’s independence. Several foreign publishers have also said they are looking at Le Monde, including Ringier of Switzerland and the Espresso Group of Italy, which publishes the newspaper La Repubblica. Mr. Fottorino said he had no objections to foreign ownership, which can be a sensitive subject in France, as elsewhere. “Le Monde has always been a very European newspaper,” he said. “One would think that, if we share the same sensibilities, why not?” Any new investor would inherit big challenges, including debts of around €100 million. Like other French newspapers, Le Monde struggles with high printing and distribution costs, a problem exacerbated by the tenuous hold that a powerful printers’ union exerts over that side of the business. Analysts say this contributes to low newspaper readership levels in France; some French newspapers are kept alive largely through government subsidies, and several have been sold recently. Like newspapers nearly everywhere, Le Monde has had a hard time generating new revenue from its Web site, which it has struggled to integrate with the print operations. The separation is underlined by a complex shareholding structure, under which another French publisher, Lagardère, owns a 34 percent stake in Lemonde.fr. Lagardère also separately owns 17 percent of Le Monde S.A., which controls the newspaper, the Web site and several other publications, including Télérama, a sort of French TV Guide. Lagardère has said it is not interested in increasing its investment in Le Monde. But it has not said how it might react to a new investment from outside, which would dilute the value of Lagardère’s existing investment, on which it already faces a big loss. Another existing shareholder, the Spanish publisher Prisa, which owns the newspaper El País, is in a similar position. There has long been speculation that Prisa, which owns 15 percent of Le Monde S.A., might be interested in moving to acquire control of the French paper. But any such bid could face opposition from Le Monde employees, who worry about the Spanish company’s reputation for cutting costs. And Prisa, like Le Monde, is already weighed down with debt, which could make it hard to finance a big acquisition. If no new investment is found for Le Monde, the threat of bankruptcy looms. That could result in the separate sale of the company’s assets, including the newspaper, though analysts see little chance that Le Monde would cease publishing. “Like a bank, it’s too big to fail,” said Thierry Dussard, a journalist who teaches at the Institut d’Études Politiques in Paris. “Despite all its failings, it remains the best French newspaper.” Assuming it comes through the immediate crisis, Le Monde will have to find a way to end a slide in readership and advertising. Over the past decade, circulation has fallen by about a quarter, to little more than 320,000. Advertising revenue fell about 20 percent last year. “A newspaper can only survive if people read it,” said Pierre-Henry Beuve-Méry, a son of the founder, who has been watching the developments at Le Monde with apprehension. “That is a reality that is sometimes forgotten. If nobody cares, then it was a very nice story, and that’s the end of it.” Last year, Le Monde revamped its weekly magazine. In January, the newspaper for the first time appointed a woman, Sylvie Kauffmann, as its top editor. Known for weighty political analyses, Le Monde has moved to make its content more accessible. News stories have become more succinct. The paper has prominently featured a series of scoops about a sex scandal involving French soccer stars, for example. The recent changes follow an excoriation of Le Monde’s journalism in a 2003 book, “La Face Cachée du Monde” (“The Hidden Face of Le Monde”), in which the authors, Pierre Péan and Philippe Cohen, accused the paper of arrogance and political bias. The editor at the time, Edwy Plenel, resigned in 2004. Three years later, the longtime publisher, Jean-Marie Colombani, fell victim to a revolt among the journalists, who declined to renew his appointment. The ouster of Mr. Colombani followed complaints that he had endangered the independence of Le Monde by indebting the company through a series of acquisitions, including the purchase of Télérama. Mr. Colombani also negotiated a partnership with The New York Times, the parent of the International Herald Tribune, under which articles from The Times were reprinted in Le Monde in English; that relationship ended this year and Times articles now appear in French, in Le Monde’s rival, Le Figaro. Mr. Fottorino, a former journalist, said the recent changes would have the newspaper on the right track once its immediate financial squeeze eased. He said he would fight to protect editors’ and reporters’ jobs in any agreement with new investors. “It’s difficult to provide a guarantee,” he said, “but we are asking them to consider that the company has already been through a heavy restructuring, and not to take drastic measures.” While the journalists realize that they will have to give up their right to choose the publisher of Le Monde, said Gilles Van Kote, president of the organization that controls the journalists’ stake in the company, they hope to maintain control over the choice of the top editor. They also want guarantees of job protection, after several rounds of job cuts over the past five years reduced the number of newsroom employees by about 25 percent, to 270. Some of Le Monde’s most experienced journalists, like Daniel Vernet, took buyouts and left the paper. In the newsroom, journalists said the mood had improved markedly in recent weeks on news that several potential investors had emerged. The paper has been through other crises. And now that the shock of yielding control has worn off, some of them are looking forward to a change in their status. “It’s like a new page in the book,” Mr. Van Kote said. “We are journalists, not businessmen.”

Newspapers
Le Monde
News and News Media
France


That Awful Mets Bullpen May Be Returning

Abstract: Most witnesses of the Mets ’ bullpen meltdown last season, those who can still see crucial victories squandered night after September night, would probably just as soon not see the names responsible for another missed postseason — Heilman, Schoeneweis, Ayala, Feliciano — ever take the mound at Citi Field. Justified as these fans may be in wanting a completely rebuilt bullpen, they should not hold their breath, or at least as much as they did during the playoff race. Early signs indicate that the Mets’ relief corps could resemble last year’s more than any sadist would recommend. “You’re not going to just trade people for the sake of trading people,” Mets General Manager Omar Minaya said at the just-concluded general managers’ meetings. “It’s not that easy. It’s got to make sense.” The only reliever sure not to be around in April is the injured closer Billy Wagner, whose elbow surgery will sideline him for most, if not all, of 2009. Wagner’s arm problems kept him from pitching after Aug. 2, forcing already suspect relievers into greater responsibility down the stretch, with disastrous results. In the season’s last two weeks, the Mets’ bullpen blew a slew of leads and wheezed to a 5.63 earned run average, with Manager Jerry Manuel often trotting out several relievers just to get two or three outs. The Mets went 5-8 and finished one game behind the Milwaukee Brewers for the National League wild card. Starting over is tricky. Almost all of the Mets’ other primary relievers are under the team’s contractual control for 2009. Aaron Heilman, Duaner Sánchez and Pedro Feliciano are still short of service time for free agency and could go to arbitration; Joe Smith and Bobby Parnell are renewable for low salaries; the contract of the left-hander Scott Schoeneweis has one year remaining. The only free agent is Luis Ayala, the stopgap closer acquired from Washington in mid-August and a pitcher who failed in several key moments down the stretch. As accessories to the Mets’ 2008 disaster, those relievers will probably be difficult to trade, particularly if the Mets are looking for something of value in return. “Nobody’s trading relievers because a lot of teams are looking for relievers,” Minaya said. The biggest splash the Mets could make would be to outbid other clubs for the free-agent closer Francisco Rodríguez, who broke the single-season save record with 62 last season for the Los Angeles Angels. Some executives believe that spending top dollar on closers can be unnecessary, because any number of pitchers can do the job. But Rodríguez is only 26, has proved his postseason mettle and would instantly reduce the load on all the Mets relievers preceding him in the game. Brian Fuentes, another free-agent closer, formerly with the Colorado Rockies, is the only other marquee talent available for purchase. J. J. Putz, the closer for the rebuilding Seattle Mariners, may be available via trade. “New York can be tougher than other markets,” Minaya said, referring to the school of thought that closers can be found through experimentation among hard-throwing setup men or even failed starters. “You have to be mentally tough. I’ve taken Chad Cordero and put him out there and he’s done the job. But that was in Montreal, not New York.” Predicting any reliever’s performance through statistics can be a general manager’s toughest challenge. Earned run average is virtually meaningless for individual relievers because the inherited runners they allow to score are charged to the previous pitcher. Some clubs prefer to look at the percentage of inherited runners who score; others find greater predictive value in the rate at which balls are hit hard. But the small workload of most relievers, 60 or 70 innings, is a meager data set that encourages random fluctuations. And because managers decide when and how a reliever is used, against specific batters and in certain situations, all those statistics can be meaningless when the pitcher starts being deployed differently by another manager. The Cleveland Indians have ridden the bullpen roller coaster harder than any team. They had the American League’s best relief E.R.A. in 2005 (2.80), a poor one in 2006 (4.66), a good one in 2007 (3.73) and then last season they slipped to 5.11, the second worst in the league. “We figured that in odd years we’d be pretty good and in even years we’d be terrible,” Indians General Manager Mark Shapiro said. He said the key to building a successful bullpen was to begin by designating one pitcher as the closer and then having several others who could function in a variety of roles. “I think the key is to have flexibility and to not have a lot of guys with contracts you can’t move,” Shapiro said. “Things are not going to turn out the way you want them to turn out. There’s not a lot of predictability.” He added: “The guys that are the best get abused or overused, 70 or 80 games and warming up 100 times. For most guys that aren’t freaks of nature, there’s some lag effect the following year. The same concept works on the flip side — guys that are bad one year might get underused and might be able to bounce back the next year.” The Tampa Bay Rays reached the 2008 World Series thanks in large part to seemingly minor trades for relievers Grant Balfour, J. P. Howell, Chad Bradford and others. Good scouting can help the Mets identify undervalued arms this off-season. But if the trade market has dried up, the only new relievers the Mets could open with next year are a free-agent closer and another middle reliever, like the free agent Joe Beimel, formerly of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Minaya said that Parnell’s role could expand, and that he was willing to wait until spring training to see how his bullpen comes together. “Bullpen guys, they come into camp and you ride the hot hand,” Minaya said. “We may have our guys. Aaron Heilman, for the past few years, he was one of the better eighth-inning guys out there. It goes hot and cold. Duaner Sánchez is one injury removed from being a guy. Do we have a closer per se? No, we don’t have a guy. But we have other guys. It’s all a matter of coming back and having good years.”

pitchers
New York Mets
Minaya Omar
Baseball


With No Immediate Prospect of Sanctions Relief for Iranians, Support for President Slips

Abstract: TEHRAN — A year ago Iranians danced in the streets after they elected President Hassan Rouhani, mainly because he promised to get devastating sanctions lifted by starting negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program . On Monday, hours after a deadline for those talks set 12 months ago had been extended by 7 months without any clear result, Iranian state television played a prerecorded interview with the president, but Mehdi Mohammadi, a philosophy student who voted for Mr. Rouhani, did not bother to watch. He “could already guess,” he said, what the president would say. “The negotiations are the only way, everything has gotten better and the country will become even more glorious in the future. But I no longer believe him,” said Mr. Mohammadi, who is thinking of leaving Iran. In the background, Mr. Rouhani promised victory in the nuclear talks and a bright future for the Iranian nation. As Mr. Mohammadi’s reaction underscored, the enthusiasm for such promises is growing thinner and thinner, many of his supporters and analysts say, especially since Mr. Rouhani has in the eyes of many failed to deliver on other promises of more freedoms and improving the economy. He has instead doubled down on making a nuclear deal, which puts him in a politically dangerous position. “The people will have to endure yet another seven months of indecision and hesitation, there will be continued economic pressure on their shoulders,” said Mojgan Faraji, a journalist who in the past has supported Mr. Rouhani. “It is a failure for the government that they have not been able to finalize the deal.” While many of his supporters continue to hope for a deal, they increasingly suspect that whatever such an agreement might be, it may not lead to the huge changes they are hoping for. Many of them have grown passive, some cynical. Timeline on Iran’s Nuclear Program Whether Iran is racing toward nuclear weapon capabilities is one of the most contentious foreign-policy issues challenging the West. Those who stood by Mr. Rouhani during his campaign now say that the president has been making too many promises and that it is hurting his credibility. “He has made too many promises in economic and social affairs, but he has failed to honor them. His insistence that the sanctions would be lifted now only prove to be another failure,” said Farshad Ghorbanpour, a political analyst who had long supported the government. “I don’t understand why he continuously raises expectations.” From the beginning, a positive future for Iran has been one of the main messages of the Rouhani government And his government has scored some successes, particularly with the economy, at least compared with his predecessor, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Inflation has dropped to 25 percent from 42 percent a year ago while the currency has been stable after a long period of decline. “Critics should realize that we now manage the country with prudence and wisdom,” said Saeed Laylaz, an economist close to the government. “We are ready and hopeful for the future, but everything needs time.” Mr. Rouhani’s political opponents, a coterie of hard-line clerics and Revolutionary Guards commanders, accuse Mr. Rouhani of planning to “sell out” the country, part of a growing new narrative against him, analysts say. To many, it is clear that the coming seven months, until the new nuclear deadline set for June 30, will determine Mr. Rouhani’s political fate. “At best he will lose the next elections if there is no good deal,” Mr. Ghorbanpour said. “But it could be much worse.”

Iran
Hassan Rouhani
Nuclear weapon
Embargoes Sanctions


For an Evening, No Bitter Words Among Rivals

Abstract: Manchester United won the points in a tight, at times typically ferocious, 2-1 away victory at Anfield stadium in Liverpool on Sunday afternoon. But for once, the rivalry that has bitterly divided these northern industrial cities of England for more than a century mattered less than the communal spirit between their supporters. For once animosity was forgotten and the fans of two teams that share the same red color also shared something far more important than soccer. Before the game, Alex Ferguson, the manager of United since 1986, wrote a letter handed to all the Man.Utd supporters as they entered Anfield. It pleaded with Mancunians to respect Liverpool’s tragic loss of 96 fans who were crushed to death at a cup semifinal 23 years ago. In essence, Sir Alex asked Mancunians to desist from vile chants that a minority of them had used to taunt Liverpudlians ever since that tragedy. In return, Liverpool begged its fans not to utter the despicable ditties some of them — again a minority — have sung concerning the tragedy that wiped out most of United’s wonderful “Busby Babes” team in an air crash at Munich in 1958. Play hard, shout for your team, by all means, suggested the veteran manager. But, his letter urged, no one should go to the stadium with hatred. He got his wish, in spades. Before kickoff, the team captains, Ryan Giggs for Manchester and Steven Gerrard of Liverpool, released 96 red balloons from the center of the field. Bobby Charlton, a survivor of the Munich air disaster, then handed a bouquet of 96 red roses to Ian Rush, one of Liverpool’s great scorers. And at the ritual handshakes before the start, even Luis Suárez and Patrice Evra extended their hands to one another a year after Suárez had racially abused Evra. Their touch was cursory, their eyes never met, but at least they obeyed the protocol. Then, most heartwarming and at the same time most chilling of all, “You’ll Never Walk Alone,” the theme song Liverpool adapted from Rodgers and Hammerstein decades ago, rang out. Liverpudlians have always sung this song with a fervor. Now the emotion could be felt tenfold, augmented by fans in two stands holding up red and white cards spelling out a mosaic that read, “Justice” and “The Truth,” a reference to the fact that after 23 years an independent panel has concluded that the Liverpool fans who were suffocated at Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield in 1989 had been victims, and not in any way the cause of their tragedy. Not one voice of dissent was heard in the 44,000-capacity audience. United fans respected the emotion of the day, and were applauded by the home supporters for doing so. Perhaps inevitably, the sport could not live up to that. It was rip-roaring and raucous, as always. Liverpool dictated the tempo, as it had done a few weeks ago against the other Manchester team, City. But now, as then, Liverpool’s lack of reliable strikers betrayed its endeavors. In every aspect, except for one crucial one, Liverpool was the better team from the start. What let it down was indiscipline. Seven minutes before halftime, Jonjo Shelvey’s mistimed tackle caught the calf of United’s Jonny Evans. The players had rushed toward each other with the studs of their shoes off the ground. Referee Mark Halsey, the most fair-minded of match officials, showed Shelvey a straight red. It was a harsh, but proper judgment. The tackle was reckless, and dangerous, even if it was less intentional than a far worse foul by the Chelsea defender David Luiz that had not been red-carded the previous evening. Inconsistency is the bane of match officiating, and gradually Shelvey’s sending off became crucial to this contest. Initially, Liverpool’s spirit remained strong. Gerrard, its captain, scored the first goal moments after halftime. He received the ball from Glen Johnson, controlled it on his chest, allowed it to drop, and as it did, swiveled to strike it, left-footed, into the net from 12 meters, or about 40 feet. A sweet goal, by a man to whom Liverpool means everything. Gerrard was 8 at the time of the Hillsborough tragedy, but already a committed Red, a follower of the team. He was too young to go to Hillsborough, but his cousin, Jon-Paul Gilhooley, just 10, was one of the 96 who went to that semifinal and never came home. Gerrard’s goal on Sunday became a token in defeat because, gradually, United’s extra player made the difference. After Rafael had spectacularly equalized, 15 minutes later Manchester’s Ecuadorean winger Antonio Valencia intercepted a pass from Liverpool’s young Spaniard, Suso. Neither Johnson nor Daniel Agger was as swift as Valencia. In their haste, they collided, and Agger was hurt. Johnson chased down Valencia, but his tackle from behind felled Valencia and a penalty was awarded. It took four minutes for treatment to Agger before the kick could be made. Four minutes to play on the nerves of Robin van Persie. When, finally, van Persie was permitted to take the kick, he struck it high to goalkeeper Pepe Reina’s left. The keeper guessed it would go in that direction, but though he got a glove on the ball, the sheer pace of it beat him. So Liverpool, winless since the season began, lost again. United, now second in the league standings, won again. But the greater triumph was that rival fans proved decent ambassadors for the game.

English Premier League
Liverpool (Soccer Team)
Manchester United (Soccer Team)


Study Details the Risk to Infants Put on Sofas to Sleep

Abstract: Many cases of so-called crib death , about one in eight, occur among infants who have been placed on sofas, researchers reported on Monday. Dr. Jeffrey Colvin, a pediatrician at Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, Mo., and his colleagues analyzed data on 7,934 sudden infant deaths in 24 states, comparing those that occurred on sofas with those in cribs, bassinets or beds. Previous research had shown that couches were particularly hazardous for infants. The new analysis, published in the journal Pediatrics, tried to identify factors significant in these deaths. “It’s not only one risk that’s higher relative to other sleep environments,” said Barbara Ostfeld, a professor of pediatrics at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School who was not involved in the new study. “It’s multiple risks.” Nearly three-quarters of the deaths occurred among infants age 3 months or younger, the researchers found. Pediatricians have long advised putting infants to sleep only on their backs, alone and on a firm, flat surface without a pillow. The new study found parents were more likely to lay their infants face down on a sofa than, for instance, face down in a crib. There’s a “fallacy that if I’m awake or watching, SIDS won’t happen,” Dr. Colvin said, referring to sudden infant death syndrome. In the study, most parents shared the sofa with an infant they had placed there. But sleep-deprived parents may be more likely than they think to fall asleep on the couch with their newborns. Some sofas slope toward the back cushions, making it easier for infants to get wedged where they cannot breathe. Infants found dead on sofas were more likely than other infants in the study to have been found on their sides, noted Dr. Eve R. Colson, a professor of pediatrics at Yale School of Medicine, who has studied safe sleep for infants but was not involved in the study. When babies “end up with their face in a soft cushion, they may have trouble breathing,” she said. Dr. Ostfeld, the program director of the SIDS Center of New Jersey, said, “Many parents think for safety, ‘I’ll put the baby between myself and the back of the sofa.' ” She added: “The unplanned and unexpected happens. The grief is beyond painful and endures for a lifetime.” Dr. Colvin said infants “need to sleep alone, on their backs and in a crib, and it doesn’t matter if it’s for a nap or overnight.” He continued, “And it doesn’t matter if the parent is awake or asleep.”

SIDS
Pediatrics Journal
Infant bed
Infant mortality
Sleep
Fatalities,casualties
Jeffrey Colvin


Hurdles Are Still High for a New Fed Front-Runner

Abstract: As the favorite to succeed Ben S. Bernanke to lead the Federal Reserve, Janet L. Yellen faces no shortage of hurdles. The first would be to win confirmation from the Senate — an obstacle that doomed the previous front-runner for the job, Lawrence H. Summers. While Ms. Yellen faces much less potential opposition than Mr. Summers did, the White House is not taking Senate approval for granted. Even as the administration informed legislators on Capitol Hill on Thursday that Ms. Yellen probably would be President Obama’s nominee, one official said the point of the calls was not so much to gauge support but to tell Democratic senators they should defend Ms. Yellen if she comes under attack before a formal nomination. The second, even bigger, challenge would be to manage the central bank’s retreat from its unprecedented efforts to stimulate the economy, even as the nation’s job market remains frustratingly weak more than four years after the Great Recession. With the collapse of Mr. Summers’s candidacy, White House officials began calling Senate Democrats about the Fed choice; a senior Congressional aide said the only name they mentioned was Ms. Yellen’s. Since she has become the focus of public discussion, the president’s staff is worried that she could become a target for criticism, just as Mr. Summers was, before the White House actually nominates her and can defend her. Jeff Merkley, an Oregon Democrat who serves on the Senate Banking Committee, said in an interview Thursday that the White House had accelerated the vetting process for Ms. Yellen. “Certainly my impression is the White House is taking a very serious and fast-track examination of her as a potential nominee,” Mr. Merkley said. While Ms. Yellen enjoys strong support from Senate Democrats — a third of the caucus took the unusual step of signing a letter urging the president to nominate her, even before the White House indicated it was leaning toward Mr. Summers — Senate Republicans will be more difficult to persuade. Some, like Senator Richard C. Shelby of Alabama, an influential member of the Banking Committee, have expressed reservations about her leadership in the past. Mr. Shelby voted against confirming her as vice chairwoman of the Fed in 2010. Despite the opposition, Ms. Yellen, if nominated, is expected to win Senate confirmation and assume the leadership of the Fed early next year. Mr. Bernanke handed his successor a gift this week when the central bank surprised Wall Street and many economists by not easing the stimulus effort. Image Ms. Yellen at the International Monetary Conference in Shanghai, in June. Credit Eugene Hoshiko/Associated Press On Wednesday, Mr. Bernanke walked back his earlier suggestion that the Fed’s huge bond-buying effort would cease when the unemployment rate fell to 7 percent, instead leaving the door open for that form of stimulus to continue well into 2014 and perhaps beyond, even if that jobless threshold is breached. That flexibility is something that Ms. Yellen might well take advantage of. As the most prominent member of the Fed’s dovish flank, other than Mr. Bernanke himself, Ms. Yellen has focused more on the dismal state of the labor market and the pressures facing poor and middle-class families than on the potential threat of financial instability and inflation down the road. In a major speech in February, Ms. Yellen highlighted not only the elevated unemployment rate, but also long-term joblessness, the high poverty rate, sluggish wage growth, labor force dropouts and homelessness as major reasons for the Fed to continue the stimulus. “The effects of the recession and the subsequent slow recovery have been harshest on some of the most vulnerable Americans,” Ms. Yellen said. While the unemployment rate has fallen steadily, hitting a five-year low of 7.3 percent in August, much of that improvement has come from workers dropping out of the labor force rather than vigorous job creation. The monthly pace of new jobs has slowed, falling from well over 200,000 new jobs being added each month at the end of 2012 to 169,000 in August 2013. A more telling indicator of the continuing weakness of the economy, analysts say, is the proportion of Americans who are part of the labor force, which in August hit 63.2 percent, a 35-year low. While some of that decline is because of structural factors like the retirement of baby boomers and the continuing shift from industrial jobs, the trend has accelerated significantly since 2007, prompting many economists to conclude it is primarily a cyclical phenomenon that can be cured only by faster economic growth. Mr. Bernanke, in fact, highlighted the falling participation rate in a news conference after the Fed’s decision on Wednesday. “I think there is a cyclical component to participation, and in that respect, the unemployment rate understates the amount of sort of true unemployment, if you will, in the economy,” he said. By stepping back from a threshold that he now says is misleading, Mr. Bernanke indirectly acknowledged just how weak the job market remained, many economists said. “It’s not just about one number reaching a tipping point,” said Doug Handler, chief United States economist at IHS. “The unemployment rate is a key indicator but it is not indicative of the overall health of the labor market. By looking at the participation rate, the Fed is using a more holistic assessment.” The drop in labor participation has affected broad swaths of the job market, but men in particular have been hard-hit. For example, the participation rate among men over the age of 16 fell from 73.5 percent in early 2007 to 69.5 percent in August 2013. That is the lowest participation rate for men since the Bureau of Labor Statistics began compiling the data in 1948. The participation rate for women has also fallen, but not as sharply, hitting 57.3 in August 2013, down from 59.4 percent in early 2007. That disparity was heightened because the sectors that were among the hardest-hit in the recession, like construction and manufacturing, tend to be major employers of men. Other, more robust sectors in the recovery, like health care, tend to employ more women. For Ms. Yellen, or whoever takes over the Fed, reversing this trend will be difficult, even with the option of keeping the additional stimulus going into 2014 and perhaps beyond. While the Fed’s huge bond purchases have helped revive the housing market by keeping interest rates low, the millions of construction jobs that vanished with the housing bust have not returned. The infusion of money into the economy has helped push the stock market to record highs, but companies remain reluctant to hire. In the end, the key to reviving the labor market is for overall economic growth to increase, said Ian Shepherdson, chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, who suggested that plenty of Americans were eager for a chance to work again. “To think they won’t come back,” he said, “is a profoundly depressing view of the American work force.”

US Economy
Quantitative easing
Unemployment
Federal Reserve
Lawrence H Summers
Janet L Yellen
Barack Obama
Appointments and Executive Changes


For the First Time, Yale Is No. 1

Abstract: Yale’s men’s team is ranked No. 1 for the first time after victories over No. 13 Union College and No. 15 Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute over the weekend. The USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine poll ranked the Bulldogs (10-1) ahead of Minnesota-Duluth (12-2-2), New Hampshire (9-2-4) and Boston College (11-5). Yale is the first East Coast Athletic Association team to be ranked No. 1 since Cornell entered the 2003 N.C.A.A. tournament as the top seed. 8.

Yale University
Hockey Ice
College Athletics


Doing the Primary Shuffle

Abstract: Move over, Iowa. Make way, New Hampshire. Four days after the midterm elections, Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts, a former Democratic presidential nominee vying to play that role again, flew to Greenville, S.C. His running mate in 2004, former Senator John Edwards , appeared in Columbia, S.C., the next weekend. Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware addressed about 200 people yesterday at a Rotary Club in Columbia. And Gov. Tom Vilsack of Iowa had plans to swing through South Carolina early next week after appearing in Nevada as he introduces himself to voters as a presidential candidate. It is not that anyone is writing off Iowa and New Hampshire. But the Democratic Party’s decision to shuffle its presidential primary schedule, so that Nevada’s caucus closely follows Iowa’s and South Carolina gets a primary week of its own after New Hampshire’s, is changing the early rituals of campaigning, forcing contenders to extend themselves in more states. The change could hurt candidates like Mr. Vilsack, an Iowan, while benefiting others like Mr. Edwards, of North Carolina. But they are all going to be spending more time on airplanes. “It’s a long trip from Las Vegas to Columbia, S.C.,” said Jeff Link, an aide to Mr. Vilsack. DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK

Primaries
Democratic Party
Kerry John
Edwards John
Biden Joseph R Jr
Vilsack Tom


Times Company Reports Profit for Quarter and Year

Abstract: The New York Times Company stayed ahead of the continued decline in advertising with deep cost-cutting in the fourth quarter, the company reported on Wednesday, as it posted net income of $90.9 million, up from $27.6 million in the period a year earlier. Those results allowed the company to make a modest $19.9 million profit for the year compared with a loss of $57.8 million in 2008. The Times Company’s report mirrored those of other major newspaper publishers, which made big expense reductions as the drop in ad revenue eased somewhat. In a statement, Janet L. Robinson, the president and chief executive of the company, signaled that print advertising would keep shrinking in the first quarter of 2010, albeit more slowly. “We expect the rate of decline for print advertising to continue to improve modestly,” she said. Shares in the Times Company closed Wednesday at $10.62, down 9 percent. Earnings in the quarter were 61 cents a share, compared to 19 cents a year earlier, but one-time factors made the comparison appear rosier, including a gain from freezing pension plans. Excluding such special items, severance and noncash charges, earnings were 44 cents a share, better than the 38 cents predicted by analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters, and an increase from 36 cents a year earlier. Total revenue in the quarter was $681.2 million, down 11.5 percent from a year earlier, but ahead of analyst expectations. Operating costs were $580.7 million, down 15.5 percent. In a conference call with analysts, Ms. Robinson said that in 2009, the company cut operating costs by $475 million, or 17.1 percent, “focusing relentlessly on increasing productivity and efficiency.” During the year, the company closed a money-losing distribution subsidiary, City and Suburban; cut salaries and benefits for many employees, including $20 million in savings from difficult contract renegotiations at The Boston Globe; and eliminated hundreds of jobs. The company paid down its debt load by $290 million last year, to $769 million, and a rising stock market helped cut the pension deficit from $535 million to $420 million. Newspaper ad revenue fell 17.1 percent in the fourth quarter, compared with a 30 percent drop over the first three quarters, and executives said the decline in December was still smaller. They said advertising would continue to fall in early 2010, but at a slower pace. “We do know of advertiser intentions to improve their spending this year considerably, but they are very guarded in the way that they talk about it,” said Scott Heekin-Canedy, the president and general manager of the flagship Times newspaper. Rather than the traditional ad buying in advance, he said, there had been many “last-minute commitments or last-minute pullbacks” by advertisers. A 20 percent drop in print advertising was partially offset by modest increases in ad revenue from newspaper Web sites and in circulation revenue. Total Internet revenue, including advertising on About.com, rose 10.3 percent in the fourth quarter, to $102 million — a big improvement from the deepest part of the recession. For the full year, Internet revenues fell 4.1 percent, to $337.4 million. The Times recently announced that it would begin charging some users for access to its Web site, but that policy is not scheduled to begin until January, and executives at the paper have cautioned that it will not be a major source of revenue in the near future. Ms. Robinson said the company still expected to sell its minority stake in New England Sports Ventures, owner of the Boston Red Sox — which it has been trying to do for more than a year — but that the process was taking longer than expected.

New York Times Co
Newspapers
Company Reports


China Promoting Tourism for Disputed Paracel Islands

Abstract: BEIJING — Tropical islands in the South China Sea have become a major strategic headache between China and the United States. As tensions escalate over China’s construction of military installations on disputed islands, the United States Navy has sent extra warships to the waterway. A Chinese fighter jet recently flew so close to an American surveillance plane that there was nearly a collision. Now, China appears to be taking a softer approach to its claims. Want a wedding on a remote island? Come to the Paracels, says Xiao Jie, who administers that group of islands. If you crave diving and windsurfing, he adds, we have just the spot for you. The Paracels, a cluster of islands on the western edge of the South China Sea where Vietnam and Taiwan also have claims, are perfect for tourism, water sports and romantic weddings, Mr. Xiao told China Daily, a state-run English-language newspaper, in an article published Friday. “We will develop some islands and reefs to accommodate a select number of tourists,” Mr. Xiao said. As mayor of Sansha City on Woody Island, the biggest of the Paracels, Mr. Xiao oversees a community of 1,500 residents complete with a school, a police station and a court. But the mayor also has jurisdiction over other islands in the Paracel chain, as well as the Spratlys. What China Has Been Building in the South China Sea China has been feverishly piling sand onto reefs in the South China Sea, creating seven new islets in the region and straining already taut geopolitical tensions. Some tourism has already started on three tiny islands in the Paracels, Mr. Xiao said. A five-day cruise aboard a 10,000-ton boat that stops at those tiny flecks in the sea — Yinyu Island, Quanfu Island and Yagong Island — is now popular with couples who want tropical-themed wedding photographs but cannot afford Bali or Hawaii, said Liu Shibiao, an agent at Hainan Tourism International Travel Agency in Haikou, the capital of Hainan Province. The three islands’ beaches are more pristine than the litter-strewn, overbuilt coastline of southern China, Mr. Liu said. “On the beaches, the seawater is much cleaner than in any other places in China, and they are very romantic,” he said. “It is cheaper than Hawaii and Bali. “It also bears a special meaning to get married here in Xisha,” he continued, using the Chinese name for the Paracels. “These are our lands.” Under President Xi Jinping, China has been challenging America’s post-World War II dominance in the Western Pacific by fortifying islands it claims in the South China Sea with weaponry, runways and deepwater berths. Artificial islands in the Spratly chain, created by dredging massive amounts of sand onto tiny rocks, now have Chinese soldiers and construction workers bustling about. Surface-to-air missile batteries and powerful radar facilities have been installed on Woody Island, and tourism there is more limited. Tourists must fly in and fly out on the same day. The cruises to the Paracels serve islands that do not have military installations, Mr. Xiao said. But there is a patriotic element to the tours, which are open only to Chinese passport holders. An online advertisement by Mr. Liu’s agency for travel to the three islands says tourists will enjoy “patriotic events” including a “national flag raising ceremony.” Tourists are required to take an oath before the Chinese flag, the advertisement says. The cruise ship, the Star of the Gulf of Tonkin, sails from Sanya, a port in Hainan, and then stops at Yinyu Island, Quanfu Island and Yagong Island over five days. Time spent on the islands is brief because there are no hotels or restaurants, but tourists are encouraged to socialize with local fishermen. The islands do not have the capacity to handle wedding ceremonies for now, Mr. Liu said. Passengers sleep on the ship and spend much of their time drinking and watching movies, he said. Are there plans for cruises to the new artificial islands in the Spratlys, near the Philippines, which now have military runways and deep ports? “Sure, we want to organize trips there. Who doesn’t?” Mr. Liu said. “But it is not our call. We need approval from the government and, more so, the military.”

China
South China Sea
Travel,Tourism
Paracel Islands
Spratly Islands
Woody Island
US Foreign Policy
Military Bases


Defending Champion Holds On to Lead

Abstract: SOLVANG, Calif. — On paper, Levi Leipheimer looked to be facing one of his toughest days ever on the bike Friday at the fifth stage of the Tour of California. As he prepared to take on the world, British and United States time-trial champions in a 15-mile race against the clock, Leipheimer knew he could not lose more than a handful of seconds to any of those specialists without dropping out of the overall race lead. But Leipheimer, who won the final time trial in last year’s Tour de France on his way to taking third place over all, put in another blistering ride, winning the stage by 29 seconds over David Millar, the British time-trial champion, who rides for Slipstream-Chipotle. In third place, 45 seconds back, was Christian Vande Velde, an American rider for Slipstream. Fabian Cancellara, the world time-trial champion who started the day in second place over all, finished in fifth place, 1 minute 5 seconds behind Leipheimer. He fell to fourth place over all. David Zabriskie, the American time-trial champion, finished 1:15 behind Leipheimer, putting him in sixth place for the day and over all. Although he has a comfortable lead of 49 seconds over Millar and 1:08 over Vande Velde, Leipheimer and his Astana team are very likely to face a succession of attacks from several teams over the final two days of racing. Leipheimer said that was fine with him. “We came here to show we’re a fighting team,” he said. Leipheimer, the Tour of California’s defending champion, said he came here intending to keep the crown even though it was early in the cycling season. “I trained all winter for this race,” he said, and therefore gave everything he had in the time trial. “I came into the last corner and told myself not to crash because I was a little bit cross-eyed.” Leipheimer also said his Astana team had something to prove here, and would have extra motivation to hold on to the race lead. Days before the start of the Tour of California, Astana received word that it had been excluded from the Tour de France, the Tour of Italy and several other big races this year because of the team’s problems last season with riders who failed doping tests. “We need to be in the big races,” Leipheimer said. Vande Velde and Millar said they believed several teams, including Slipstream, CSC and High Road, would attack Astana over the next two days, hoping to take advantage of the fact that Astana did most of the work on Thursday’s seven-hour, 135-mile slog through the rain from Seaside to San Luis Obispo. “I don’t know how they could not be tired” after their long effort at the front of the peloton Thursday, Vande Velde said. “It’s most likely going to be guns blazing.” Saturday’s sixth stage features a hilly, 105-mile journey from Santa Barbara to Santa Clarita, with three category 4 climbs and one category 3 climb. It was on that stage last year that the CSC team put in its most potent challenge to Leipheimer. A breakaway featuring Stuart O’Grady of CSC got far enough ahead that O’Grady was theoretically in the race lead. Leipheimer’s Discovery team was forced to chase, and much of the work was done by George Hincapie, who broke his wrist in a fall early in the stage. Slipstream and CSC riders hold five of the top six places. (Cancellara is in fourth place, 1:18 behind Leipheimer; Gustav Larsson of CSC is in fifth at 1:19 and Zabriskie, also riding for Slipstream, is in sixth at 1:19.) Perhaps the biggest surprise of Friday’s stage was Cancellara’s fourth-place finish. Vande Velde, a former teammate of Cancellara’s on the CSC team, said he had expected Cancellara to win, and Cancellara indicated that he expected better. “I did a very good stage to San Jose and I think I paid the price today,” he said, referring to his effort in the third stage, when he stayed with most of the best climbers in the stage over two steep climbs. “It was evident today Levi is a better rider now,” Cancellara said. “We will have to see what’s possible in the next two stages, they are not flat, but Levi is climbing well.” The final two stages include circuit finishes — several laps around a central course — which increases the likelihood of a group sprint at the end of the stage. But each of the last two stages also features a time bonus of 10, 6 and 4 seconds for the first three finishers, as well as two intermediate sprints that will give 3, 2 and 1 seconds to the first three riders across the line.

Leipheimer Levi
Millar David
Tour de France (Bicycle Race)
Bicycles and Bicycling


Fight Brews in Italy Over New Elections

Abstract: ROME — The day after Prime Minister Romano Prodi resigned, Italy ’s leaders began gearing up Friday for a new fight: whether to hold immediate elections, an option considered favorable to former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi , or first fix an electoral law blamed for the current instability. President Giorgio Napolitano, as required by the Constitution, began holding consultations on Friday with the many political parties on how to proceed. That process will last through Tuesday. Though he has remained silent on the crisis that ended Mr. Prodi’s 20-month, center-left government, Mr. Napolitano has spoken of the urgent need to fix the election law. He is thus expected to try to form a temporary government of technocrats, charged with making those changes. But Mr. Berlusconi and his allies on the center-right — leading in opinion polls and eager to regain the power they lost to Mr. Prodi in the 2006 elections — are arguing for an immediate vote. They may have enough power in Parliament to block any temporary government that Mr. Napolitano proposes. “There is no alternative to an immediate return to the ballot box, to give life in the shortest time possible to a strong government,” said Sandro Bondi, the head of Mr. Berlusconi’s political party, Forza Italia. Mr. Berlusconi “knows he can win,” said Roberto D’Alimonte, a University of Florence political science professor who has advised the left on the election law. “He knows he can win with any electoral system, even the present one. All he wants is a date for the elections. So in my opinion he will try to make things difficult.” But the center-left, even if beaten in a weeklong crisis that ejected them from power, vowed to block quick elections, saying they would be in no one’s interest but Mr. Berlusconi’s. “There is a need to avoid quick elections, which would throw the country into a dramatic crisis,” Walter Veltroni, the mayor of Rome, said after Mr. Prodi lost a confidence vote on Thursday night. Mr. Veltroni, head of the new center-left Democratic Party and a likely opponent to Mr. Berlusconi in any elections, added that elections under the current law “would not guarantee the stability and innovation that Italy needs.” In the months before the last elections, in April 2006, Mr. Berlusconi changed the nation’s electoral law, which had been passed several years before by a popular referendum. The law has faced broad criticism because it favors Italy’s many small parties — which critics say fragments and dilutes power — and makes it difficult to obtain a clear majority in Parliament’s upper house, the Senate. Even Mr. Berlusconi’s allies have criticized the law. In fact, his justice minister, Roberto Calderoli, responsible for drafting it, called it an obscenity that roughly means “hogwash.” In fact, many experts believe it is possible that Mr. Berlusconi might also get stuck with the same slender majority in the Senate that helped doom Mr. Prodi, possibly leading to several more years of an unstable government. Meanwhile, several names were floated as a possible interim prime ministers, if such a government wins approval. Mr. Napolitano met Friday with one of them, the Senate president, Franco Marini, a Democratic Party member and a former union official. Others considered as possible interim premiers included Mario Monti, president of Bocconi University in Milan and a former European Union commissioner for competition, and Mario Draghi, head of the Bank of Italy. Despite being opposed to a temporary government, Mr. Berlusconi’s allies floated the possibility of Gianni Letta, a deputy prime minister under Mr. Berlusconi and one of his top aides. One person who has said he would not accept the job is Mr. Prodi, 68, who twice beat Mr. Berlusconi in elections and has fallen twice by defections in his own government. The recent crisis began Monday, after Mr. Prodi’s former justice minister, Clemente Mastella, withdrew his support, leaving the government without a majority. “Even if you lose in Parliament by only one vote, that means this arrangement has lost,” Mr. Prodi told reporters on Friday. “My work now is to be a grandfather.”

Italy
Prodi Romano
Berlusconi Silvio
Napolitano Giorgio
Politics and Government
Legislatures and Parliaments


Rangers’ Numerous Injuries Shelve a Promising Season

Abstract: As he stood on second base Monday night, the Texas Rangers rookie Jim Adduci had a chance to banter with Derek Jeter. For Adduci, a 10-year veteran of the minor leagues, it was a sort of transcendental moment. “He was just asking how I was doing,” Adduci said. “But for me, you know, it’s awesome.” After spending close to a decade in the organizations of the Florida Marlins, as they were then known, and the Chicago Cubs, compiling nearly 3,000 at-bats without a big-league call-up and eating far too many peanut butter sandwiches on long bus trips, Adduci finally got a cameo with the Rangers in September — 31 at-bats. Adduci, 29, a left-handed-hitting outfielder and first baseman, has found more opportunity this year. Nearly two dozen injuries have left the Rangers dealing with some serious attrition since the opening week of the season. Among those who have spent considerable time on the disabled list: a catcher, 6 infielders, 12 pitchers and even Adduci, who broke a finger. The snakebit first half has contributed to an abrupt downfall for the Rangers, who won at least 87 games in each of the past five seasons and played in the World Series in 2010 and 2011. Normally considered a playoff contender in the American League, with money to spend on prized free agents thanks to a lucrative new television contract, Texas instead became the last team in baseball to reach 40 wins this season, doing so with Monday’s 4-2 victory over the Yankees. At one point this year, the Rangers were 22 games behind the A.L. West-leading Oakland Athletics, their largest deficit so early in a season since 2003. None of this seemed remotely possible last off-season when the Rangers signed the coveted outfielder Shin-Soo Choo and catcher J. P. Arencibia and made a blockbuster trade for Prince Fielder , all to load up their offense in anticipation of another postseason run. Image Robinson Chirinos, one of a number of players forced into action for the Rangers, failed to avoid Francisco Cervelli's tag in the fifth inning Tuesday. Credit Barton Silverman/The New York Times “On paper, we had a really good team,” outfielder Alex Rios said. When the season arrived, however, so did a lot of bad luck. Catcher Geovany Soto, second baseman Jurickson Profar and pitchers Yu Darvish, Derek Holland and Matt Harrison did not make it out of spring training healthy. Then Fielder was lost to season-ending neck surgery in May. The disabled list continued to grow from there, reaching 22 players, a major league high, after Soto strained his groin Monday. “I’ve never seen anything like this,” Rios said, adding: “We were bit by the injury bug in a bad way.” The Rangers suddenly went from being winter buyers to summer sellers, with Rios, closer Joakim Soria and the All-Star third baseman Adrian Beltre expected to command the most attention from clubs as the July 31 trade deadline approaches. “We know the situation, how everything has been,” Beltre said. “But we can’t be O.K. with losing. We know we’re not going to win every ballgame, but at the same time we know we have a much better ball club than what we’ve showed.” The feeling around the organization is that the injuries derailed expectations, but that the younger players, when given a chance to play every day, did not necessarily come through, either. And Choo — hitting .240 with 9 home runs and 34 runs batted in after Tuesday night’s 14-inning loss to the Yankees — has found it hard to live up to his seven-year, $130 million free-agent contract. Manager Ron Washington’s first seven seasons with the Rangers had included some challenging moments, including his positive test for cocaine in 2009 and more recent tension with the front office over his contract. Now he has something new to deal with: a team that reminds him of the losing seasons he initially went through when he took over in the Texas dugout in 2007. On Monday, as the four-game series in the Bronx was about to begin, Washington sat in the visiting manager’s office, put his cap on the desk and seemed to be trying hard to keep his frustration at bay. Image Shin-Soo Choo looked on as Leonys Martin hauled in a fly ball in the second inning Tuesday. Before the season, the Rangers thought they had the talent to contend. Credit Barton Silverman/The New York Times “We, more or less, are back in the mode of 2007 to 2008, trying to put something together,” he said. The problem with all of the injuries, he said, was that the Rangers simply did not have enough reinforcements. He used the recent four-game sweep at home by the Los Angeles Angels as an example. “We could’ve won three of those games,” Washington said. “But we just couldn’t keep up with them. They just wouldn’t stop. They kept coming. It was relentless.” He paused. “Same thing happened in Toronto,” he said. The Rangers could be headed for a rebuilding stage. Some minor league prospects, including the slugging first baseman Joey Gallo, looked promising in the Futures Game held on July 13 in Minneapolis as part of the All-Star Game festivities. Other young players could emerge, too. After all, the wave of injuries has allowed 15 rookies to play for the Rangers this season, tied with the Arizona Diamondbacks for the most in the majors. For Adduci, hardly a prospect as he nears 30, the next two months could at least provide a chance to audition for next year’s club. Taking advantage of injuries to other players is not exactly the way he envisioned getting playing time in the big leagues, but he would like to capitalize. “It’s still the big leagues,” Adduci said. “Any of these guys, if you play them in cards or in anything, they want to win. We’re all ultracompetitive people.” Especially when they are not hurt.

Baseball
Texas Rangers
Sports injury
Prince Fielder
Jurickson Profar
Mitch Moreland
Geovany Soto
Shin-Soo Choo


Fed Board Maintains the Status Quo

Abstract: WASHINGTON — Facing an economy that is perking up slightly but still deep in recession , the Federal Reserve left its rescue policies unchanged on Wednesday and said that it would keep interest rates low for “an extended period.” As expected, the central bank said that it would keep its benchmark overnight interest rate at virtually zero — where it has been since December — and signaled that it would continue buying long-term Treasury bonds and other government-backed securities to keep long-term rates low. Policy makers did not announce any expansion of efforts to stimulate the economy, even though government forecasters predicted that unemployment would continue to rise from its already high level of 9.4 percent and would not begin to edge down until next year. In a statement accompanying its decision, the central bank said that the “pace of economic contraction is slowing” and noted that financial markets had generally improved while consumer spending had shown signs of stabilizing. Policies put in place “will contribute to a gradual resumption of sustainable economic growth in a context of price stability,” the statement said. But the Fed warned that “economic activity is likely to remain weak for a time,” and repeated its longstanding vow to use “all available tools” to promote a recovery. In its statement, the Fed said that the economy would remain weak and that inflation would remain “subdued for some time.” The Fed’s announcement came hours after new data offered more evidence that the downturn was slowing, but hardly over. Orders for durable goods jumped 1.8 percent in May, the second consecutive monthly increase and a much stronger rise than forecasters had been predicting. By contrast, sales of used homes slumped 0.6 percent last month and the supply of unsold homes remained at high levels. As a result, analysts said, home prices have probably not stopped falling. The central bank’s caution and the new data highlighted the difficult balancing act that policy makers increasingly face. On the one hand, the economy remains so weak that many policy makers want to keep revving up activity by printing money. On the other, they are under pressure from bond investors, who have signaled growing worry that the Fed’s efforts will eventually drive up inflation. Long-term interest rates have edged up noticeably since the central bank’s last policy meeting on April 29, partly because investors have become worried about the huge scale of government borrowing. Since the central bank reduced the overnight federal funds rate to a hair above zero, it has been forced to focus on lowering long-term rates by buying nearly $2 trillion in Treasury bonds, government-guaranteed mortgage-backed securities and bonds issued by government agencies. Buying bonds drives up their prices and reduces their yields, effectively lowering interest rates. Those purchases did have that effect initially, but long-term Treasury rates have been edging up again, threatening the central bank’s recovery plan. “The Fed is in a box,” said Frederic S. Mishkin, a former Fed governor who recently returned to his post as a professor of economics at Columbia University’s business school. “With an economy that still has so much slack in it, having an accommodative monetary policy that will help promote a recovery is what’s needed right now,” Mr. Mishkin said. At the same time, “The Fed does not want to be seen as enabling fiscal irresponsibility, and the markets are very concerned about that.” Economists estimate that the American economy continued to shrink in the second quarter but much more slowly. Macroeconomic Advisers, a forecasting firm in St. Louis, estimated that the economy shrank at an annualized rate of 1.3 percent from March through June. By contrast, economic output declined 5.7 percent in the first three months of 2009 and 6.3 percent in the last three months of 2008. Largely because of the depth of the contraction, Fed officials and most forecasters see no signs of inflation ahead. Indeed, the fear has been about deflation , a systematic decline in consumer prices of the kind that plagued Japan through much of the 1990s.

United States Economy
Federal Reserve System
Interest Rates
Economic Conditions and Trends


John Kasich, Ohio’s Republican Rebel, Nears Run for President

Abstract: LANSING, Mich. — The last time John R. Kasich contemplated running for president, as an ambitious congressman in 1999, he tried courting Republicans in Iowa only to discover that even the reporter trailing him from his home state, Ohio, was more enthralled with the Texas governor, George W. Bush. “He was like: ‘Yeah! I got to meet him!’ That’s when I knew it was over,” Mr. Kasich said in a recent interview. Of Mr. Bush, who went on to win the White House in 2000, Mr. Kasich said, “He just sucked not only all the money but all the oxygen out of the room.” Today, Mr. Kasich, 63, is the Republican governor of Ohio, an impatient, edgy politician known for his voluble personality and unorthodox views. For months, he has watched the 2016 presidential field as another Bush — Jeb, a former governor of Florida — has tried, with less success so far, to replicate his brother George’s feat. So now Mr. Kasich is on the verge of jumping in himself, hoping his résumé —former chairman of the House Budget Committee, former Fox News host, retired Lehman Brothers investment banker and two-term governor of a swing state — might give him a second chance. “Tell me,” Mr. Kasich said on Tuesday to a marketing executive, Lorri Rishar, who asked what distinguished him from the rest of the crowded Republican field. “Who has national security experience? Who was involved in changing Washington to the tune of a balanced budget and working hard on welfare reform? Who spent 10 years in the private sector and then was an executive of one of the most important states of America and had success? So you tell me — you’re a P.R. person. Does that sound like a good way to talk about it?” But the group of about two dozen Michigan business owners who turned out to greet Mr. Kasich for a lunch of wrap sandwiches and potato chips — on the day that Donald J. Trump announced his candidacy in Manhattan and one day after Mr. Bush announced his to a cheering throng in Miami — was a reminder of just how tough it will be for him to grab what he called “the oxygen in the room.” Who Is Running for President? Donald J. Trump officially accepted the Republican party's nomination on July 22. Hillary Clinton was officially nominated on July 26 at the Democratic Convention. He insisted he did not worry about that. “Look,” he asked Ms. Rishar, “do you play golf? I play my best golf when I don’t even know what my score is. So why would I worry about the rest of the field?” The official line from Mr. Kasich is that he has not made up his mind; in fact, he is widely expected to announce his candidacy in July. He is increasing his travel. On Monday, he was in South Carolina. He will make his fifth trip to New Hampshire on Wednesday, and next week, his first to Iowa, a critical state because its caucuses are the first test for candidates. Other signs that Mr. Kasich is running: He has created a political action committee, New Day for America — John E. Sununu, a former senator from New Hampshire, is on the board — and is courting donors and hiring staff. Analysts say that despite poll numbers showing that just 2 percent of Republicans back a Kasich candidacy, which puts Mr. Kasich about even with Mr. Trump, Mr. Kasich will have instant credibility. “I think the moment that he gets in this race, he is going to get enough lift that he will immediately be in the top five,” said Matthew J. Dowd, who was the chief strategist for President Bush’s 2004 re-election campaign. Mr. Dowd predicts Mr. Kasich will eclipse Jeb Bush as “the establishment candidate.” Part of the argument for Mr. Kasich is his record as a two-term governor in a state critical to winning the presidency. Traveling the country, he promotes what he calls his “Ohio story” of economic recovery; on his watch, an $8 billion deficit has turned into a surplus, he said, of nearly $2 billion. “If we don’t win Ohio as Republicans, it’s doubtful that we’ll be occupying the White House,” said Craig Robinson, the publisher of The Iowa Republican, an independent website. “Here’s a guy who won the state twice.” While Mr. Kasich was here in the Michigan capital on Tuesday, people familiar with his operation say Fred Davis, the news media strategist for his political action committee, was back in Los Angeles, working on how to market the relatively unknown candidate. John Weaver, Mr. Kasich’s newly hired chief strategist, has a frame of his own. “I like to say he’s a rebel who can govern,” Mr. Weaver said. The rebel tag is apt, but it may go only so far with conservatives. Mr. Kasich has expanded Medicaid under President Obama’s health care law, embraced the Common Core educational standards and said he was open to a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants — policies that he might have a hard time explaining to conservatives in Iowa. “I think the big obstacle for him is going to be his record as governor,” Mr. Robinson said. But what looks like an obstacle in Iowa could be an advantage in New Hampshire, said Jeb Bradley, the majority leader of the New Hampshire Senate, citing Mr. Kasich’s “record as a pretty good fiscal conservative and somebody who has grown an economy in a rust belt state.” And Mr. Kasich’s choice of advisers has brought him some grief. Mr. Weaver and Mr. Davis worked for the losing presidential campaigns of other Republican mavericks, Jon Huntsman and John McCain, drawing attacks from conservatives like the commentator Erick Erickson, who wrote, “One does not run for president in the Republican Party by hiring consultants who hate the Republican base.” Mr. Weaver and Mr. Davis dismissed such talk, but Amy Walter, the national editor of the nonpartisan Cook Political Report, says that in Mr. Kasich, a politician with a reputation for shooting from the hip, the two advisers will have their work cut out for them. “Their strategy was ‘Let McCain be McCain, let Huntsman be Huntsman,’ ” Ms. Walter said. “But letting Kasich be Kasich can be dangerous.” Here in Michigan, Mr. Kasich seemed loose and relaxed. At an evening reception, he fielded questions on foreign policy and the budget, and tried out his stand-up skills on a man who said he was an economist. “You know why God made economists?” Mr. Kasich asked. "To make astrologers look accurate.” And in a state that should be comfortable turf for a Republican governor from Ohio, Mr. Kasich picked up at least one friend: Neil Sheridan, the chief executive of a management consulting company, who attended the lunchtime event. “He has a good jobs record, and it wouldn’t hurt to have a Midwestern voice in the White House,” said Mr. Sheridan, who was undecided before Mr. Kasich spoke, but later gave the governor his business card and offered to volunteer. To which Mr. Kasich asked, “How many people do you know?”

John R Kasich
Ohio
2016 Presidential Election
US Politics
Republicans
Obituary


Antigua Dismisses Regulator Charged in Stanford Case

Abstract: HOUSTON — The Antiguan government fired its top banking regulator on Tuesday after the United States government asked that he be detained for extradition on charges of helping the Texas billionaire R. Allen Stanford cover up a $7 billion fraud. The regulator, Leroy King, was indicted last week with Mr. Stanford and other executives and accused of defrauding 30,000 people who had invested in certificates of deposit at Stanford International Bank, based in Antigua. Mr. King was suspended as head of the Antigua and Barbuda Financial Services Regulatory Commission last week. The Justice Department accused Mr. Stanford of paying Mr. King thousands of dollars a month to conduct fake audits and file inaccurate reports to the Securities and Exchange Commission, which began investigating the bank in 2005. Mr. King will not be detained until Antiguan judicial authorities consider the request, the government said. Attorney General Justin L. Simon has said an extradition process could be lengthy. Mr. Simon said that based on an initial investigation of Mr. King, “it appears so far he was not working with anyone.” The commission board could not find copies of various fraudulent reports Mr. King made to the S.E.C. in commission files, suggesting that he alone had written and seen them, Mr. Simon said. But he added, “The matter is not yet over.” Mr. Stanford was expected to be transported Tuesday to Houston by federal marshals for a detention hearing in federal court later in the week. His lawyer, Dick DeGuerin, has said he will plead not guilty. Mr. King was forced to take a leave of absence from the regulatory commission in March, shortly after the S.E.C. closed down Mr. Stanford’s operations and filed a civil suit against him. In a statement, the commission’s board said it had been investigating Mr. King for several weeks and gave him a “final opportunity to provide an explanation for his questionable conduct” in an interview on June 18. It said it suspended him based on its findings that Mr. King had “deliberately or negligently failed to inform the board of various questionable decisions he had taken.” The board recommended his dismissal, and the cabinet agreed on Tuesday, Mr. Simon said. The Houston Chronicle reached Mr. King by telephone but he refused to discuss his case. “My attorneys will do the talking for me,” he said.

King Leroy
Stanford Robert Allen
Frauds and Swindling
Ponzi Schemes
Securities and Exchange Commission


How a Town House in N.Y. Went From Dream to Nightmare

Abstract: The graceful town house on East 62nd Street was more than a home to Nicholas Bartha. It was the culmination of his life’s work, proof that he had realized the classic immigrant’s dream. Dr. Bartha, burned and barely conscious, was pulled from the ruins yesterday morning after the house was nearly leveled by a gas explosion, raining bricks on one of the city’s wealthiest streets and sending up thick columns of black smoke. Even before the fires were extinguished, police began focusing on Dr. Bartha as the most likely person to have caused the blast. Just as his historic town house, a landmark used more than half a century ago by American spies, was no ordinary building, Dr. Bartha, 66, was embroiled in a marital split that by all accounts was no ordinary divorce. But he would have done anything to keep that house, including stay married, his lawyer said. He lost one key battle last year when a court ruled that his wife deserved a share of the building, a decision he fought. Then, in April, he was ordered to sell it so he could pay his wife more than $4 million. In court papers, she said he had repeatedly vowed in ominous tones that he would die in that house and that she would never get it. Now there is no house. “He wanted to stay married,” said Ira E. Garr, Dr. Bartha’s lawyer until last year. “He wanted to maintain the status quo so he could continue to live in this house,” he said, adding, “He wanted nothing other than to remain in this house for the rest of his life.” Dr. Bartha was Romanian, and met his wife, Cordula Hahn, a native of the Netherlands, in 1973. He was studying medicine at the University of Rome, and she had just earned a doctorate in German literature. In 1974, they moved to the United States, and lived with Dr. Bartha’s parents in Rego Park, Queens. Ms. Hahn took a job in the cultural section with the Netherlands Consulate General in New York while he studied for and passed exams enabling him to practice medicine in the United States. The couple were married early in 1977 and soon after had two daughters, Serena and Johanna. His wife stayed home to raise the children while he worked in hospital emergency rooms, where he developed a reputation for being a dour man with a gruff bedside manner. “He only talked about work, a workaholic doctor,” said Dr. Paul Mantia, who shared an office with Dr. Bartha. In 1980, Dr. Bartha first saw what would prove to be the love of his life, the four-story town house at 34 East 62nd Street, between Park and Madison Avenues. According to divorce papers, he and his parents, Ethel and John Bartha, bought the house for $395,000, after cobbling together $199,699 in cash. Dr. Bartha, his young family and his parents moved into the house in 1986. Dr. Bartha’s joy over the purchase was intense and immediate, Mr. Garr said. For him, it symbolized validation, proof of success. “He told me, ‘I stood at the corner of 59th Street and Fifth Avenue and looked north, and said, “This is it. This is where I want to live the rest of my life,” ’ ” Mr. Garr said. Dr. Bartha may have found his dream house, but his home life was far from idyllic. As he worked, he grew increasingly estranged from his wife and daughters, his lawyer said. Silence pervaded the home. “There was two years of noncommunication,” Mr. Garr said. “They were like two ships in the night.” In October 2001, his wife, who has resumed the use of her family name, filed for divorce and moved with her daughters to a small apartment in Washington Heights. The divorce papers described a bizarre, markedly unhappy home life. Dr. Bartha put up “swastika-adorned articles” around the house, according to a court decision, “intentionally traumatizing” her because she is of Jewish descent and was born in “Nazi-occupied” Holland. Dr. Bartha became enraged when she took them down, according to the papers, which also said he ignored his wife as she was treated for breast cancer. A judge granted her the divorce. He was ordered to pay $1.23 million, plus alimony of $2,000 per month for three years. But the referee in the case held that the couple’s home, then valued at $5 million, was not marital property and that Ms. Hahn had no claim to the home. Then Dr. Bartha appealed the decision, a move that would ultimately cost him his house. He wanted to stay married, and would have had to sell or mortgage the house to pay the $1.2 million the court said he owed. “He didn’t love her,” Mr. Garr said. “He was emotionally and constitutionally opposed to divorce. He was a man who worked all the time and couldn’t stand being alone.” Early in 2005, the Appellate Division of State Supreme Court held that the town house was marital property. It was an unusual decision that the New York Law Journal noted on its front page, partly because the appellate court determined that the home was community property “regardless of the form in which the title is held.” After the decision, Mr. Garr tried repeatedly to contact his client through letters and phone calls but failed “He disappeared,” Mr. Garr said. Steadily, Dr. Bartha seemed to be swallowed by his own despondency. He had already begun a series of suicide attempts, according to an official, who would not speak for attribution because the investigation is under way. In one instance, three or four years ago, the official said, Dr. Bartha barricaded himself inside his office and filled it with insecticide, and his secretary found him after breaking down the door. Once, within the last year, his partner found him in the basement, passed out with the gas on, the official said. Finally, Dr. Bartha’s beloved town house slipped from his grasp. In August 2005, Ms. Hahn received a judgment of $3.6 million, plus a property credit and lawyer’s fees, according to court papers. The total of all money judgments in the matrimonial action against Dr. Bartha came to more than $4 million. Ms. Hahn had complained in court papers that he “has fought me every step of the way in the divorce action,” and said she did not expect that he would satisfy the money judgments. The only way to ensure that he complied, she said, was to have the house sold. “I have no doubt that respondent will ensconce himself in the marital residence and refuse to leave it after the auction is held,” she said. “He has said many times that he intends to ‘die in my house.’ ” In April this year, Justice Joan B. Lobis of State Supreme Court ordered that his 75 percent interest in the house be sold at auction. The court also ordered that the sheriff evict him from the house no more than 10 days after the auction, and that the sheriff remove three pieces of property — two antique armoires and an antique desk — and turn it over to Ms. Hahn. The furniture belonged to her family, according to the order. On Friday, a sheriff’s deputy arrived at the house with eviction papers, said Dr. Mantia, who shared his office. If Dr. Bartha was upset, he did not show it, Dr. Mantia said. “He’s been up and down for two years since this divorce started,” Dr. Mantia said. “Sure, he was trying to commit suicide.”

Explosions
Manhattan (NYC)
Divorce Separations and Annulments
Housing
Families and Family Life
Bartha Nicholas


No Pins or Needles on Selection Sunday in N.C.A.A. Men’s Ice Hockey

Abstract: Each year, the N.C.A.A. Division I men’s ice hockey committee gathers to determine the 16-team national tournament. In June. Unlike its much-scrutinized counterparts in basketball, who hunker down in a hotel for a long weekend of analysis and strategy in picking the field, this five-person group essentially lets the statistics do the deciding. Sure, there is a human element to assigning the four regions and seeding the teams before the bracket is unveiled late Sunday. But in contrast to the handful of basketball teams sitting on pins and needles when the draw is announced, rarely is there suspense about which teams get into the hockey tournament. The numbers are there online. All that is left for fans, players and coaches, usually, is to find out where they will be sent. “If there’s any subjectivity involved, it’s in the criteria that we use in that statistics package,” said Tom Nevala, the committee chairman. “So if you want to look at it that way, if we make an impact on which teams make the tournament from a criteria standpoint, that’s done before the season ever starts and how we’ve set up the math when we meet in June. “After that, it’s up to how the teams fare with their record and who they’ve played and their strength of schedule and things like that. Basically, everyone kind of goes into the season knowing how it’s going to turn out based on those criteria and how they perform.” Contrast that with what the men’s basketball committee chairman, Mike Bobinski, said earlier this month about teams under consideration passing the so-called eye test. “We look beyond the pure results and pure numbers,” Bobinski said. “How has that team looked over an extended amount of time? Even among the teams that are generally considered to be among the top teams in the country, if you look at their individual results, there are going to be a couple in there for darn near every team where you say, How the heck did that happen?” In hockey, all the games count the same, whether a first-round exit from the conference playoffs or an October win over a highly ranked team from another part of the country. The Ratings Percentage Index , which factors the winning percentage of teams, their opponents and the opponents of their opponents, plays a significant part in the math. Records against common opponents and other teams under consideration, defined as with an R.P.I. rating of .500 or better, also contribute to the formula that determines where the 11 at-large spots go. The tournament champions for each of the five conferences receive automatic bids. By next season, there will be 59 Division I teams and 6 leagues, meaning one fewer at-large bid available. The Central Collegiate Hockey Association will fold, and the Big Ten and the National Collegiate Hockey Conference will be formed from the core of the Western Collegiate Hockey Association. The W.C.H.A. will play on, with the remnants of the C.C.H.A. The pending shake-up is not likely to hurt the intrigue surrounding this year’s tournament. Neither will the field, which will not have a clear front-runner. “It just wouldn’t shock me if a No. 4 seed bit a No. 1 seed or a No. 2 seed in the rear end and wound up in Pittsburgh,” the CBS Sports Network analyst Dave Starman said, referring to the site of the Frozen Four. If there is a controversy to sort out, it is the future of the four four-team regionals. Next weekend, they will be played in Grand Rapids, Mich.; Manchester, N.H.; Toledo, Ohio; and Providence, R.I. There might not be any of the hosts (Michigan, New Hampshire, Bowling Green State and Brown) in the tournament, and none of those arenas are on anyone’s actual home ice. The committee tries to draw the best crowds by the way it assigns the regions, but coaches in the sport have been pushing for campus sites to create a better atmosphere. Minnesota, for example, could play at a packed Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, which seats more than 18,000, for a W.C.H.A. semifinal game and then see 4,000 fans in the stands at a regional final. Host teams are automatically placed in their region if they are in the tournament, which can provide a significant advantage for a lower seed.


Jordan Spieth Pulls Out of the Olympics

Abstract: Jordan Spieth’s decision to forgo next month’s Rio Olympics assures that golf’s return to the Games after a 112-year absence will proceed without the winners of four of the past six men’s majors and the last four players to hold the world No. 1 ranking. Spieth, 22, a two-time major winner, joined the current world No. 1 Jason Day of Australia , Day’s countryman Adam Scott and Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland on the sideline. Spieth, whose initial enthusiasm for representing Team U.S.A. led him to be featured in NBC and Golf Channel promotional spots, notified officials with the International Golf Federation of his decision ahead of a midnight deadline Monday. Eighteen of the eligible men, based on the world rankings, have withdrawn. Only one woman, the 39th-ranked Lee-Anne Pace of South Africa, has bowed out, citing fears about the mosquito-borne Zika virus. The third-ranked Spieth became the second American men’s golfer, after the world No. 2 Dustin Johnson , to withdraw from the Summer Games, citing health concerns related to the Zika virus. In the absence of Johnson and Spieth, the United States team will consist of No. 5 Bubba Watson, No. 7 Rickie Fowler, No. 13 Patrick Reed and No. 15 Matt Kuchar, who secured his passage to Rio with a closing 66, good for a tie for third, in his last competitive start, Ohio’s Bridgestone Invitational, which moved him into the top 15 in the world rankings. Before last month’s United States Open, Spieth, a two-time winner in 2016 who is playing in the British Open this week, expressed equivocal support for the Olympics. During a pretournament news conference, he said he planned to compete in Rio barring any scheduling issues or health or security concerns that might arise. “I think being an Olympian is just an absolute tremendous honor,” Spieth said. “Do I think being an Olympian outweighs any significant health threat? No. If I thought that the threat was significant, I certainly would not go. But based on what’s come to my knowledge at this point, it seems like it’s going to be an extremely memorable experience, and I look forward to trying to win a gold for the United States.” Spieth’s withdrawal is surprising, not just because of his initial enthusiasm for the Games, but also because he is a global ambassador for Coca-Cola, a longtime Olympic sponsor. Led by Watson, eight of the top 15 men in the world are slated to compete in Rio. The women’s field will feature the top nine. The 10th-ranked women’s player, Ha-Na Jang of South Korea, is ineligible because four countrywomen are ahead of her in the rankings . “There is no doubt that the number of withdrawals hasn’t shed golf in the best light, and we have to accept that,” said Peter Dawson, the president of the International Golf Federation. “But we do understand why these individual decisions have been taken. “Personally, I think there’s been something of an overreaction to the Zika situation, but that’s for individuals to determine, and there’s certainly a great deal of concern about this issue inside the game of golf, no doubt about that,” Dawson added.

Golf
Jordan Spieth
2016 Summer Olympics
Zika Virus


Protests Greet the Olympic Torch in Japan

Abstract: NAGANO, Japan (AP) — The Japan leg of China’s Olympic torch relay began Saturday with thousands of riot police officers lining the streets, helicopters buzzing the skies and demonstrators rallying in a pro-Tibet prayer vigil. Initial skirmishes among protesters and the police failed to disrupt the passing of the torch. Police guards in tracksuits surrounded the first runner, the manager of Japan’s national baseball team, and another 100 uniformed riot police officers trotted alongside six patrol cars and two lead motorcycles. Two men were arrested separately in the first half of the relay, each trying to charge the torch, and a third man was apprehended later after throwing eggs at the flame. All were quickly pounced on by police officers, a Nagano police official, Chihiro Usui, said. The starting point — a last-minute substitution after a famous Buddhist temple pulled out — was closed to the public, as were all rest stops along the way. Japanese officials said the security was unavoidable, and called for calm. But the high-profile police presence dissipated any festive mood in Nagano, which hosted the 1998 Winter Games. The relay — making its 16th international stop — has been disrupted by protests or conducted under extremely heavy security since it left Greece. The protests are largely in response to China’s crackdown last month on protests in Tibet and concerns over human rights issues in China. One person was hurt in a scuffle between Chinese and pro-Tibetan supporters, and a self-proclaimed monk carrying a knife was arrested hours before the relay began. Four more people, including two Chinese men, were slightly injured in scuffles during the relay, according to the Nagano Fire Department. After Nagano, the Olympic torch heads to South Korea on Sunday and then to North Korea on Monday. It then goes to Vietnam and Hong Kong.

Demonstrations and Riots
Olympic Games (2008)
Nagano (Japan)