Before Debris Collapse in China, Safety Fears Were Discussed

Abstract: SHENZHEN, China — Four days before a mountain of dirt and debris collapsed here, killing at least 69 people, the government agency in charge of the construction dump convened a meeting to discuss safety concerns. In attendance were representatives of the company with the contract to manage the site and the independent engineering firm paid to monitor its work. The engineering firm had warned for months that the dump was beset with risks — from damaged drainage ditches to poorly packed waste — that could destabilize the towering pile of debris. Officials finally seemed to listen at the meeting, promising to stop trucks from piling any more waste at the site, according to Bian Yuxiang, a senior construction engineer with the engineering firm, Shenzhen J-Star Project Management Consultants . Yet trucks kept arriving at the dump, and Mr. Bian later learned that some of the participants at the meeting were not who they seemed. He said local officials had introduced them as representatives of a firm that had monitored the dump before Mr. Bian’s firm took over in September, but that firm later said it had nothing to do with the project and knew nothing of the meeting. The Hong’ao Construction Waste Dump gave way on Dec. 20, unleashing a cascade of mud that swallowed homes and factories and that rescue workers were still sifting through. “My first reaction was a feeling of heartsickness, because we were in charge of monitoring this project,” Mr. Bian said in a recent interview. “Then I felt shock and grief.” Much about the Hong’ao dump was not as it appeared on paper, a reconstruction of the disaster shows. The duplicity, involving doctored documents and false identities, illustrates systemic gaps in China’s efforts to prevent industrial and transportation accidents, which claim tens of thousands of lives annually and have galvanized public anger over official corruption and laxity. By many measures, China’s industrial safety record has improved in recent years. But the ruling Communist Party still struggles to impose accountability on local bureaucrats, who face little public scrutiny but come under intense pressure from leaders to meet goals like dealing with building waste. And like the deadly explosions last year at a toxic chemical storage site in Tianjin, a northern port city, the disaster in Shenzhen suggests that dark pools of mismanagement and corruption persist even in the most developed parts of the country. The company that operated the dump in Shenzhen, a relatively wealthy and open city adjacent to Hong Kong, brushed past approval rules, safety warnings and residents’ complaints. Supervision came mostly under a single local government agency, whose oversight was lax at best. Seventeen government officials and company employees have been arrested over the accident , including Long Huamei, a former schoolteacher from Hunan Province whose company operated the dump. “It’s quite often that the goal is to get approval, rather than be truly in compliance with the spirit, whether it’s the environmental impact assessment or safety,” said Dali L. Yang , a professor at the University of Chicago who has studied China’s efforts to strengthen safety regulation. “They think, ‘I can get away with this, so why bother?’ ” How a Hill of Dirt and Debris Collapsed in a Landslide in Shenzhen On Sunday, a man-made hill of dirt and construction debris collapsed in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen. Ms. Long’s Shenzhen Yixianglong Investment Development Company focused on urban projects like garden design, street cleaning and waste disposal, and the company saw an opportunity in Hong’ao Village, on the outskirts of Shenzhen in the Guangming New District, where vegetable patches and lychee groves have retreated in recent years for factories and apartments. An exhausted quarry on the hill over the village offered officials an attractive solution to a persistent problem in Shenzhen and other booming Chinese cities — the volume of construction waste generated by rapid urban growth. The old quarry was one of the few patches of land in the area that could be used relatively cheaply. The thousand or so long-term residents of Hong’ao were also in a weaker position to object or demand compensation than villagers elsewhere. Many of them are ethnic Chinese refugees expelled from Vietnam, and they and other residents were treated as employees of a local state farm, without the collective land rights given to most rural Chinese. Even before the government began accepting bids to operate the new dump, Ms. Long’s company maneuvered to win the contract, which would allow it to charge builders for every truckload of debris deposited at the site. In July 2013, her firm, Yixianglong, persuaded a more established local company, Shenzhen Lüwei Property Management, to enter a bid and then subcontract management of the dump to Yixianglong for 750,000 renminbi, about $144,000, according to a manager from Lüwei who refused to give her name, fearing attention because of the disaster. According to records shown by the Lüwei manager, the deal predated the opening of tender bids, suggesting that both companies were confident that the local authorities would award them the contract. Zhang Juru, the executive director of Lüwei, went missing after the disaster, said the manager, who requested anonymity out of fear of reprisal. The trucks began lining up at Hong’ao, leaving a growing mound of dirt and mud that, planners said, would be covered with trees after it was filled. But villagers and workers nearby complained that the endless trucks filled the air with dust and noise and blocked the roads. Some said they worried that the mound was unstable. “It began to rise slowly, but then it began to grow faster,” said Zhang Guisheng, a factory worker from southwest China. “Especially at night — there were so many trucks.” The dump was in a regulatory wilderness. It was officially deemed to be a transitional project that did not require the more stringent checks of permanent projects on the land. Oversight was largely left to the district urban management bureau, which deals with a hodgepodge of issues, such as hawkers, illegal parking and litter. Image Rescuers slept amid the debris of collapsed buildings during a break in their operations last month in Shenzhen, China. Credit China Stringer Network/Reuters “No other government departments had a responsibility to carry out oversight,” said Mr. Bian, the engineer. Records provided by Mr. Bian showed that a firm with an office in Shenzhen, Guangdong Huaxi Architectural Design, designed the dump and vouched that the design met safety specifications. But He Yanmei, a manager at the design firm, said that Ms. Long’s company appeared to have misrepresented and vastly exaggerated Huaxi’s role. She said the records appeared to have been forged or altered to mislead anyone who examined them. “It was Yixianglong in collusion with the urban management bureau,” Ms. He said of the misleading records. Although it was impossible to verify her claim, on a recent visit to Huaxi the company was operating as normal, unlike Yixianglong, which has been closed. District rules said that the local land administration should approve construction dump sites after a prospective operator applied, The Beijing News said in a report about the disaster. But instead, the district urban management bureau assigned the site and then oversaw approvals. It remains unclear whether there was any systematic monitoring at the dump for more than one and a half years, before Shenzhen J-Star won a contract to monitor it. The whole project was “very abnormal,” Mr. Bian said. “Usually the monitoring entity should be in place when the first tier of a disposal site is compacted,” he said. “When we entered, they’d already filled in to the fifth tier.” Soon after they began working in September, J-Star staff based at the site identified problems that should have been spotted earlier. The dump was far from overflowing but the reports prepared by Mr. Bian’s colleagues described, in the terse words of engineers, unease at cracked drainage, poorly packed waste and other risks that could erode or destabilize the debris. “Quality tests are not in place, and there has not been monitoring of the compactness of the filling on the inclined area,” said a report from October. “Drainage ditches have severely subsided after destruction by rain, and some have cracks,” said another report. “By late November, we had found it had problems with stability, removal of obstructions, compactness and elevation,” Mr. Bian said. “We could see with our own eyes that the waste earth wasn’t packed densely enough.” But the urban administration bureau officials did not act forcefully, Mr. Bian said. “Although we could monitor, we weren’t empowered to enforce the law. Only the urban administration bureau had that power,” he said. Mr. Bian said that he and his colleagues felt torn between their usual keep-your-head-down rules of work, reporting only to the agency that gave them the contract, and their fears about the dump. Professional obedience won out, but J-Star pressed for action. On Dec. 16, one of Mr. Bian’s colleagues discussed the concerns about the dump at a meeting with representatives from Ms. Long’s company and officials from the district urban management bureau, as well as — Mr. Bian said that he believed from his records — someone from Shenzhen Keyu Engineering Consultant Company , which officials had said had overseen the site before Mr. Bian’s firm. “At each meeting, the urban management would introduce these people as from Keyu,” Mr. Bian said. Mr. Bian’s colleagues secured agreement to suspend operations at the dump until measurements and procedures needed to demonstrate its safety were done, he said. But the meeting now appears to have been, at least in part, playacting. A senior manager with Keyu said in an interview after the disaster that his company had never had anything to do with the project, had no idea why government officials told Mr. Bian’s colleagues that it did, and did not know who the man was who had claimed to represent the company. He would give only his surname, Wang. Asked if it was possible that someone had posed as a Keyu employee at meetings, he said: “We’re checking.” Mr. Bian declined to describe the flow of discussion at the meeting, noting that he was not there and that the investigators had the records. But he said there was no dissent from an agreement to stop the trucks until the problems were solved. But the dumping continued after that meeting, according to Mr. Bian and several residents who lived or worked near the site. “I don’t remember it stopping,” said Mr. Zhang, the factory worker. The urban administration bureau and other government offices in Shenzhen refused repeated requests for interviews or comment. The Yixianglong office in Shenzhen was locked and quiet during a recent visit. The Chinese government usually tries to tamp down anger about disasters by making arrests and convictions, and in Shenzhen has done the same. Ms. Long of Yixianglong is now in police custody, along with two dozen other managers and officials. On Friday, the Shenzhen police said that they had formally arrested Ms. Zhang, the boss of the company that won the tender for the dump and promptly transferred it to Ms. Long’s company. Six other suspects had been on the run, but one turned himself in on Saturday, the police said. Xu Yuan’an, who was the head of the district urban management bureau when it approved the dump site, committed suicide after the collapse. “The local government knew what was going on, because people complained,” said Mr. Zhang, the worker. “Nothing happened.”

Shenzhen
China
Landslides,Mudslides
Accidents and Safety
Corruption
Communist Party of China
Engineering
Construction


Sales of Flu Drug Improve Results at Roche

Abstract: Sales of the drug Tamiflu have skyrocketed since the outbreak of swine flu in April, bolstering the profits of the drug’s maker, Roche. Roche, based in Switzerland, said Thursday that sales of Tamiflu in the first half of 2009 tripled to 1 billion Swiss francs ($931 million), spurred by retail sales and the stockpiling of the drug by governments and corporations. For the second quarter alone, Tamiflu sales reached 609 million francs ($567 million), more than 12 times the level of the second quarter of 2008. The second quarter, from April to June, is not usually a heavy season for flu. Despite the increase in orders, Roche is still able to meet demand for the drug, Severin Schwan, the company’s chief executive, said in an interview Thursday. Orders received now could be delivered by the end of the year, he said. Still, Mr. Schwan said that Roche, in cooperation with outside contractors, would increase its manufacturing capacity to 400 million packs a year by the beginning of 2010, about four times the current capacity. He said that should be an ample volume, given that the company sold a total of only 300 million packs during the last five years — a period that encompassed a bird flu scare as well as the current swine flu outbreak. Other pharmaceutical and vaccine manufacturers are also experiencing increased sales and profits because of the outbreak of swine flu, known as H1N1, which the World Health Organization has declared the first flu pandemic in about 40 years. On Wednesday, GlaxoSmithKline said it expected a significant contribution to its profits this year from both its swine flu vaccine and from Relenza, an antiviral medicine that competes with Tamiflu. Glaxo said it planned to triple its manufacturing capacity for Relenza by the end of the year to 190 million treatments annually. Health authorities have said that both Tamiflu and Relenza can prevent the swine flu or reduce its severity, though there have been a few cases of people infected with a version of the virus resistant to Tamiflu. Tamiflu, which is a pill, is used more often than Relenza, which is inhaled. Roche said it expected sales of Tamiflu for 2009 as a whole to triple to 2 billion francs ($1.86 billion). The increased sales mean higher royalty payments for Gilead Sciences, a California biotechnology company that invented the drug and licensed it to Roche. Over all, Roche reported a 9 percent increase in sales to 24 billion Swiss francs ($22.3 billion). Net income declined 29 percent because of special charges related to the company’s acquisition in March of Genentech, the biotechnology company. But Roche’s operating profit, which excludes those charges, rose 13 percent. Mr. Schwan said the integration of Roche and Genentech was going smoothly. “We have made enormous progress within a very short time,” he said. Roche is retaining Genentech’s research operation, known as one of the strongest in the pharmaceutical industry, as a separate unit to try to preserve its culture and track record for innovation. Mr. Schwan said that so far, not one scientist had left Genentech since the acquisition. But there have been departures and layoffs in other areas, like clinical trial planning and oversight, and manufacturing.

Roche Holding Ltd
Company Reports
Swine Influenza
Medicine and Health


Skid in Oil Prices Pulls the Recycling Industry Down With It

Abstract: NEWARK — In a cavernous recycling facility crisscrossed with conveyor belts, enormous bales of crumpled plastic bottles are stacked one atop another, waiting to be sold to the highest bidder. For Waste Management , the company that runs this operation, collecting, sorting and bundling recyclables was until recently a profitable endeavor. A year ago, Waste Management could have fetched $230 for each bale of thin translucent plastic. But today, thanks to the glut of cheap oil flooding global markets, they are worth just $112 each. “Recycling is in a crisis,” said David P. Steiner, chief executive of Waste Management. “It used to be that all players in the recycling ecosystem were able to make a profit. That’s not the case anymore.” With concerns about climate change mounting, it’s an awkward time for the recycling industry to be under such pressure. The environmental merits of recycling are well accepted by the public, if still disputed by some. Curbside collection programs are commonplace. Yet recycling is a commodities business. The paper, metal, plastic and glass that recyclers collect, sort and sell competes against so-called virgin materials. And right now, many commodities are cheap. Image Bales of recyclable plastic and metal at Waste Management. Credit Dave Sanders for The New York Times Abundant oil is the latest headache for recyclers. New plastics are made from the byproducts of oil and gas production. So as plentiful fossil fuels saturate global markets, it has become cheaper for the makers of water bottles, yogurt containers and takeout boxes to simply buy new plastics. This, in turn, is dragging down the price of recycled materials, straining every part of the recycling industry. In Montgomery, Ala., Infinitus Energy opened a $35 million recycling center in 2014. By last October, it was hemorrhaging money and shut down. Montgomery’s recyclables are now going to a landfill, and a once booming local business, United Plastic Recycling , filed for bankruptcy last year. In Plaquemines Parish, just south of New Orleans, Republic Services decided to double the fees it charged the local government to collect and process recyclables. The cost was too high, and the parish said it would end its recycling program at the end of this month, only to reverse course after a public outcry led by energetic seventh graders . And Waste Management, the biggest recycler in the country, has reduced the number of recycling facilities it operates to about 100, from 130, over the last two years, resulting in the loss of 900 jobs. Over the last three quarters, revenues from recycling operations are down 16 percent from the same time a year earlier, to $878 million from just over $1 billion. “The recycling industry is being hit dramatically by falling commodity and oil prices,” said Michael Taylor, vice president for international trade at the Society of the Plastics Industry . “A real fear now is that recycling rates might go down. That would be a horrible situation.” How Oil Prices Are Falling Again, Explained in Four Charts A glut of crude oil on the markets is pushing the price of oil down to levels not seen since the global financial crisis. Local governments and businesses have spent decades working to increase recycling rates with new infrastructure, education campaigns and higher demand for post-consumer materials. And though recycling rates vary by material — newspaper and cardboard are recycled more than aluminum, glass and plastic — the push was largely successful. About 34 percent of waste was recycled in 2013, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, more than double the 16 percent that was recycled in 1990. A few years ago, when oil and other commodity prices were high, these efforts paid off — companies, cities and counties were all able to make money through recycling. But abundant fossil fuels and falling prices for other commodities, including paper, aluminum and copper — largely the result of slower growth in China — are undermining these gains. Today some environmentally minded businesses and municipalities are facing an uncomfortable reality: When oil and other commodities are this cheap, recycling doesn’t always make economic sense. Until recently, recycling programs were an unlikely cash cow for many cities and counties. Thanks to high commodity prices, recyclers like Waste Management would actually pay municipalities for used cardboard, aluminum cans and plastic bottles. But as recyclers around the country face losses, they are passing their costs along to cities and counties. Increasingly, local governments are receiving nothing at all for their recyclables, or even having to pay companies to accept them. Image Workers checked for contaminants in recyclables at a Waste Management facility in Newark. Credit Dave Sanders for The New York Times Last year, the city government in Washington, D.C., paid Waste Management $1.37 million to accept the recyclables it collected from residents. That represented a stark reversal from 2011, when the district earned $550,000 for sending the company roughly the same amount of material. Orange County, N.C., which includes Chapel Hill, was making about $500,000 a year by selling its recyclables to a company called Sonoco . But as commodity prices have fallen, so, too, have the prices that Sonoco can offer local governments. Starting this month, Sonoco will not pay Orange County anything for the mixed paper, plastics and metals it collects. “We’re at the mercy of oil prices and markets like everybody else,” said Blair L. Pollock, Orange County’s solid waste planner. “The same kind of volatility is just rippling through every part of the industry.” For now, Washington and Orange County say there are no plans to curtail their recycling efforts. Some states require local governments to collect recyclables, and even if the programs are not profitable, they are often cheaper than sending waste to a landfill, which is expensive, especially near urban centers. San Antonio made $305,000 from collecting and selling 87.6 tons of recycling last year. That was far less than the $5.2 million the city made in 2011, but it was better than the alternative. Sending those recyclables to a landfill would have cost San Antonio $2.1 million last year. Oil Prices: What to Make of the Volatility Over the last two and a half years, the oil industry experienced its deepest downturn since at least the 1990s. There are still bright spots in the industry. Big companies like Pepsi and Procter & Gamble are buying more recyclable material to meet sustainability goals. And efforts are underway to build out new recycling infrastructure that could make the industry more efficient. Some in the industry believe that for these reasons, recycling will continue to thrive even if it is less profitable than before. “There are still some customers for recycled materials, for reasons other than pure economics,” said Mr. Taylor of the Society of the Plastics Industry. “The thinking is that that demand will grow because of the greening of the mainstream American consumer.” And even with thinner margins, some smaller recyclers are eking out a profit. Balcones Resources , a recycler in Austin, Tex., that handles residential and commercial accounts, remains profitable. “We get squeezed from time to time,” said Kerry R. Getter, chief executive at Balcones. “But we finished the year and we made money.” Not all companies can say as much. At the Waste Management facility in Newark, bales of plastic, paper and metal continued to pile up, each one representing a small loss for the company. Waste Management executives expect their recycling business to shrink again this year, and others in the industry are girding for more cuts. “Our recycling business has dramatically changed, from a business we thought was going to grow very fast and very profitable, to one that is not growing at all and not profitable,” said Mr. Steiner of Waste Management. “High commodity prices aren’t coming back anytime soon. This may be the new normal.”

Recycling
Oil and Gasoline
Plastic
Waste Management
Price
Waste management


Proposed Charter School Bill Faulted by Bloomberg

Abstract: A proposed law that would double the number of charter schools permitted in the state, but place significant new requirements and restrictions on them, drew criticism on Sunday from Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg , who, under the law, would lose the authority to grant charters. Albany is rushing to complete new charter school legislation before a Tuesday afternoon deadline for state applications for a share of $4 billion in federal education financing. States are being judged in the competition — known as Race to the Top — on innovation in their proposals for educational reform, including their openness to charter schools. While proponents of the proposed law say that the new regulations would increase public input into the process, answering the complaints of parents and unionized teachers who are concerned about the spread of charter schools, Mr. Bloomberg and other opponents argue that by making it harder for charters to open, the bill is a step backward. “The bill is a wolf in sheep’s clothing, plain and simple, that would destroy a charter law that is a national model — and surely weaken our application for federal dollars,” Mr. Bloomberg said in a statement. “There are tens of thousands of New York City children on charter school waiting lists, and they deserve better than this.” The proposed bill would double the number of charter schools in the state from 200 to 400, reserving at least 50 of the new schools for large urban districts like New York City. Under current law, large urban districts and the board of trustees of the State University of New York have had the ability to approve charters. Under the proposed legislation, the state’s Board of Regents would hold ultimate authority over the approval process. The bill lays out a more stringent public review process, with a stipulation that would particularly affect how New York City has been locating charter schools. Many charters have been placed in public school buildings alongside existing schools, often with city officials overruling the objections of parents of the students already in those buildings. The legislation says that similar charter proposals must show that the parents approve. The bill would also prohibit for-profit corporations from opening new charter schools; require all charter schools to demonstrate that they accept and retain special education students and children at risk of academic failure; and mandate public hearings each time a charter is opened or moved. It would not, however, limit the number of charter schools that could be placed in a particular district, another concern of charter advocates. In a statement on Sunday, the Assembly speaker, Sheldon Silver, said, “Our legislation would put an end to divisive fights over school space by giving traditional public school parents a voice in the process when they are asked to give up classrooms to accommodate a new or expanding charter school in their school building. “Contrary to Mayor Bloomberg’s statements,” Mr. Silver added, “this bill would place no limit on continued charter school growth in New York City. The only limits it places are on his and Chancellor Klein’s unchecked ability to completely disregard the voices of traditional public school parents in siting decisions.” Mr. Bloomberg backs a simple lifting of the charter cap, and his schools chancellor, Joel I. Klein has so far refused to sign the state’s Race to the Top application. While his signature is not required, the lack of it would weaken the state’s chances. Gov. David A. Paterson, who has backed a lifting of the charter cap but not the additional restrictions, expressed concern about the bill on Sunday, saying in a statement that “it would ultimately undermine the improvement that the Race to the Top grants intend to achieve." With up to $700 million, the state’s potential share, on the line, Mr. Paterson has directed the Legislature to convene a special session on Monday night. A vote on the bill is not expected until Tuesday morning.

Bloomberg Michael R
Charter Schools
New York City
New York State
Law and Legislation


L.I. Man, 75, Dies of West Nile Virus

Abstract: A 75-year-old Nassau County man died on Monday after contracting the West Nile virus, the Nassau County Health Department confirmed on Wednesday; it was the first fatality from the disease in the state this year. The virus is also suspected in the death of a second Nassau resident, an 80-year-old woman who died a day earlier. The county has also registered two additional cases of the disease and two probable cases, said Cynthia Brown, a Health Department spokeswoman. None of the cases were fatal, and none of the victims were identified. Ms. Brown said the 75-year-old man, who lived in Carle Place, became ill on Aug. 5 and was hospitalized on Aug. 11. The woman, who lived about five miles from Carle Place, in New Hyde Park, fell ill on Aug. 20. She was taken to a hospital the next day and died on Sunday. Her symptoms were consistent with West Nile virus, but tests to confirm the diagnosis have not yet been performed by the State Health Department. The test results are expected next week, Ms. Brown said. There were only two confirmed cases of the virus in Nassau County in 2007, neither of which was fatal; there were 22 cases — two of them fatal — in the state, according to the State Department of Health.


Real Madrid's Excess Ripples Across Europe

Abstract: Real Madrid’s summer of excess had an impact on all four top European leagues at the weekend. At one point on Saturday night, it was possible to switch television channels between overlapping live broadcasts of matches in England, Germany, Italy and Spain — and impossible to avoid the new or discarded Madrid star players. In Madrid, where 78,000 aficionados filled the Bernabéu stadium, there were seven new starters in the lineup of 11. They cost €250 million, or $359 million, and if they didn’t gel overnight into a team, they had sufficient talents to see off Deportivo la Coruña, 3-2. In Manchester, whence Cristiano Ronaldo departed for Madrid for a €94 million transfer fee plus €10 million more a season in wages, United required a penalty and an own goal to win, 2-1, against Arsenal, which had looked for an hour the more assured and artistic of the two English teams. In Milan, the after-effects of Madrid procuring Kaká from AC Milan was clear. Milan was demolished 4-0 by its neighbor, Inter. It was Milan’s biggest loss in the derby in 99 years. Inter’s most dynamic performer was Wesley Sneijder, who was signed on Friday after becoming surplus to the new Galacticos of the Bernabéu. Sneijder’s Dutch countryman, Arjen Robben, also shipped out of Madrid on Friday, came off the bench to score twice as Bayern Munich eclipsed last season’s Bundelsiga champion, Wolfsburg, 3-0. Robben received the final pass for each of his goals from Franck Ribéry. This could be the start of something new in Munich, a French-Dutch duo of such high class that Bayern will again dominate on the domestic front. Or, as rumors have it, it might be a brief hello and goodbye. The summer transfer window ends with August, but there is time enough yet for Madrid to prize away Ribéry, the one star it wanted but has so far been denied. No deal, says Bayern Munich, not for less than €100 million. Madrid, which recouped €40 million on its two Dutch sales and is listening to English teams bidding for Rafael van der Vaart, is rumored to be trying one last €60 million offer for Ribéry. How to fit all its purchases in one team? That is the €250 million question for Real’s new coach, Manuel Pellegrini. “People should understand that the coach is working very hard to make them all blend together,” said Jorge Valdano, the Real Madrid director general, who is overseeing the buy-and-sell summer turnover. “The enthusiasm in the stands before the match was a sign of how excited all Madridistas are about the team. We must live up to their expectations, and we know that won’t be easy. The players know it, too.” As if to emphasize how Madrid is reaching for the extraordinary, the game was preceded by a presentation of a special guest: Usain Bolt, the world’s fastest human, came on the field, dribbled a ball and waved to the crowd. “He is one of those sportsmen who makes all of us believe humans can go beyond limits,” Valdano said. “He makes us believe man can achieve whatever he wants.” The crowd loved the warm-up. The real thing, a mish-mash of the spectacular and the unrehearsed, looked like the Madrid of old. The finest tricks came from Raúl who, in his 17 years at Madrid, has seen the revolutions come and go. With his poacher’s instinct, he scored the first goal — his 225th in 523 games in La Liga. He also induced a foul from Depor’s goalkeeper that enabled Ronaldo to christen his home debut with a penalty goal. But hard though Raúl tried to set up his other new partner, Karim Benzema, it was wasted. Benzema hit the frame or missed altogether. He is young, his time may come. But Madrid is impatient. Another recent departure is Klass-Jan Huntelaar, offloaded for a €5 million loss after barely half a season. Madrid won despite its first-night nerves, and the lapses that twice allowed Depor to level. It won with a mighty shot by Lassana Diarra, normally a defensive midfielder, who has been around the Bernabéu for 18 months. Almost a veteran, then. Elsewhere, the saying “one man doesn’t make a team” is challenged by Manchester United’s stuttering start without the talisman Ronaldo. After being outplayed by Arsenal’s move-and-pass momentum, United came back to win. Andrei Arshavin had beaten the goalkeeper Ben Foster from 20 yards, but Foster later saved with his legs to prevent Robin van Persie from doubling Arsenal’s lead. Two strokes of Ryan Giggs’s accomplished left foot swung the contest. His perceptive pass led to Wayne Rooney being brought down by the outstretched hands of the goalkeeper, Manuel Almunia. Almunia was then beaten by Rooney’s penalty kick. After 63 minutes, Arsenal’s Abou Diaby lost his bearings and headed a Giggs free kick into his own net. Worse followed for Arsenal. Arshavin suffered a hamstring injury, van Persie struck the bar, and in the last minute had the ball in the net but the referee ruled that a teammate, William Gallas, was offside. Arsène Wenger, the Arsenal manager, kicked a water bottle in a harmless show of pique. The referee sent him to the stands, where Wenger cut an ignominious, if farcical, figure for the last 30 seconds. José Mourinho, a coach who courts controversy, enjoyed his night at Milan’s San Siro, where he gambled by pushing Sneijder straight into the derby “He’s a great player, physically strong,” Mourinho said. “As we won, Mourinho is great. If we lost, Mourinho was stupid.” Actually, its not all about him. His adversary, Leonardo, a former World Cup player with Brazil, is a novice coach handed a troubled pack of cards. Milan’s previous coach, Carlo Ancelotti, has gone to Chelsea, its previous captain, Paolo Maldini, has gone into retirement, and Kaká, the team’s previous heartbeat, has gone to Madrid. The derby was embarrassing. Two goals up through Thiago Motta and a penalty after Gennaro Gattuso up-ended Samuel Eto’o, Inter profited after Gattuso was sent off for another lunging foul, on Sneijder. Inter scored a third goal, through Maicon before halftime, and a fantastically struck fourth through Dejan Stankovic, and that was the end of the scoring. Maybe the players were unaware that one more goal would equal the biggest hiding Inter has ever handed Milan, almost a century ago. Maybe modern players are compassionate neighbors. Or maybe it was just the heat.

Soccer
Manchester United
Real Madrid
AC Milan


Fears Persist Among Venezuelan Voters Ahead of Election

Abstract: CUMANÁ, Venezuela — Hugo Chávez , a polarizing president who has led Venezuela for nearly 14 years, has many advantages over the opposition candidate trying to unseat him on Sunday, from the airwaves he controls to the government largess he doles out with abandon . But one especially potent weapon in Mr. Chávez’s arsenal is what might be called the fear factor. Many Venezuelans who are eager to send Mr. Chávez packing, fed up with the country’s lackluster economy and rampant crime , are nonetheless anxious that voting against the president could mean being fired from a government job, losing a government-built home or being cut off from social welfare benefits. “I work for the government, and it scares me,” said Luisa Arismendi, 33, a schoolteacher who cheered on a recent morning as Mr. Chávez’s challenger, Henrique Capriles Radonski , drove by in this northeastern city, waving from the back of a pickup truck. Until this year, she always voted for Mr. Chávez, and she hesitated before giving her name, worried about what would happen if her supervisors found out she was switching sides. “If Chávez wins,” she said, “I could be fired.” Although polls diverge widely, with some predicting a victory for Mr. Chávez and others showing a race that is too close to call, there is wide agreement that Mr. Chávez is vulnerable as never before. Handicapping the election is complicated by the angst felt by many Venezuelans that a vote for the opposition could bring retaliation. Adding to that anxiety, the government recently introduced a new electronic voting system that many Venezuelans fear might be used by the government to track those who vote against the president. Electoral officials and opposition leaders defend the integrity of the system, but there is significant distrust, and a big part of Mr. Capriles’s campaign has been to reassure voters that their votes will remain secret. “The government has sown this fear,” Mr. Capriles said in an interview, adding that the reluctance of people to speak their mind skewed opinion polls in favor of Mr. Chávez. “If we can overcome the fear, I believe that we can win this election by a million votes.” The fear has deep roots. Venezuelans bitterly recall how the names of millions of voters were made public after they signed a petition for an unsuccessful 2004 recall referendum to force Mr. Chávez out of office. Many government workers whose names were on the list lost their jobs. Mr. Chávez runs a well-oiled patronage system, a Tammany Hall-like operation but on a national scale. Government workers are frequently required to attend pro-Chávez rallies, and they come under other pressures. “They tell me that I have to vote for Chávez,” said Diodimar Salazar, 37, who works at a government-run day care center in a rural area southeast of Cumaná. “They always threaten you that you will get fired.” Ms. Salazar said that her pro-Chávez co-workers insisted that the government would know how she voted. But experience has taught her otherwise. She simply casts her vote for the opposition and then tells her co-workers that she voted for Mr. Chávez. “I’m not going to take the risk,” said Fabiana Osteicoechea, 22, a law student in Caracas who said she would vote for Mr. Chávez even though she was an enthusiastic supporter of Mr. Capriles. She said she was certain that Mr. Chávez would win and was afraid that the government career she hoped to have as a prosecutor could be blocked if she voted the wrong way. “After the election, he’s going to have more power than now, lots more, and I think he will have a way of knowing who voted for whom,” she said. “I want to get a job with the government so, obviously I have to vote for Chávez.” Venezuela is a major oil supplier to the United States and the election gives voters a stark choice, with Mr. Chávez, 58, whose health has been an issue after he underwent treatment for an undisclosed form of cancer , pushing the country further down the road toward his version of socialism. Although the Obama administration would likely relish a more friendly leader in Caracas, American officials have steered clear of taking sides in the election. Mr. Capriles, 40, who has served as legislator, mayor and governor, said he would follow the Brazilian model of business-friendly policies to expand the economy, coupled with social programs to help the poor. He has hammered away at government inefficiencies and mismanagement, and focused on runaway crime, high on the agenda of every Venezuelan. Mr. Capriles’s bid is an uphill one. Mr. Chávez uses the entire state apparatus to promote his campaign, and his influence overshadows the courts and the electoral council. He has hugely bolstered government spending this year on social programs to attract voters. And he retains the loyalty of legions of adoring followers. In the last presidential election, in 2006, Mr. Chávez won with more than 62 percent of the vote. He received 7.3 million votes then and says he will get 10 million this year. At campaign events, he urges supporters to defend his revolution and to look beyond the many unresolved problems. “On Oct. 7, what’s at stake is not whether or not the lights went out or if there was or wasn’t running water, or if they haven’t given me a house, or that I don’t have a job yet or that I’m angry at I-don’t-know-who,” Mr. Chávez said at a rally last week in Maturín, a city southeast of Cumaná. “What’s at stake is the life of the country, the future of the youth, of the children, of all of Venezuela.” With discontent rising, though, Mr. Capriles has made significant inroads in Mr. Chávez’s strongholds, especially poor urban slums. “He fooled all of us but we are waking up,” Lisbet Márquez, 46, a Cumaná high school teacher, said of the president. She used to support him but now feels the country has stagnated. In the working-class Buena Vista neighborhood where Ms. Márquez lives, Mr. Chávez got more than 70 percent of the vote in 2006, yet today many homes display Capriles posters. “My family was 100 percent Chavista,” she said, indicating that more than two dozen people in her extended family were changing their vote from Mr. Chávez to Mr. Capriles. In Cumaná, the capital of Sucre State, the roads and highways are in terrible shape, the sewage systems are inadequate, power failures are routine, thousands of local jobs were lost when Mr. Chávez banned a form of commercial fishing several years ago, and the teachers at many schools refuse to hold classes because the governor, a Chávez stalwart, has not paid their full wages. But it has been harder for Mr. Capriles to dent the strong support for Mr. Chávez in rural areas. There, analysts say, poverty rates are often higher, and the role of government in people’s lives can be even more intense than in cities; the government is often the biggest employer and residents may be even more likely to rely on welfare programs. “Before, the people in the countryside weren’t taken into account; we were forgotten,” said Mercedes Rodríguez, 35, who lives in a mud-wall house in a hamlet called La Florida, southeast of Cumaná. Ms. Rodríguez, who has a poster of Mr. Chávez on her veranda, is a member of his political party. In the morning she works for the state government in a job that combines the functions of social worker and political organizer, getting those same residents to marches and out to vote in support of Mr. Chávez. “There’s no one else like him,” she said of Mr. Chávez, predicting that he would win again handily.

Venezuela
Hugo Chavez
Henrique Capriles Radonski
Election


At Cornerback, Giants Rely on Webster and Followers

Abstract: EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Michael Coe, who has never started an N.F.L. game, will probably be called upon Wednesday night to help shut down Cowboys receivers Dez Bryant and Miles Austin. The Giants appeared to be stacked at cornerback entering this season, well equipped to counter the N.F.C. East’s passing attacks from Michael Vick, Tony Romo and Robert Griffin III. Alongside the eighth-year veteran Corey Webster and the 2011 first-round draft pick Prince Amukamara, cornerback Terrell Thomas was re-signed in March for four years and $28 million despite having missed all of last season with a torn anterior cruciate ligament. The plan was to have Webster, who had a career-high six interceptions last season, and Thomas, who led the team in tackles in 2010, provide experience on the field and tutelage for Amukamara. But Thomas reinjured his right knee and was placed on the injured reserve list last week for the second straight year. Coe, who has 27 career tackles, was thrust into the spotlight. Amukamara, who missed nine games last season, did not practice Sunday and is not expected to play in the season opener after sustaining a high ankle sprain in a preseason game against the Bears. The Giants’ secondary expressed confidence, however, that Webster and the coaches had prepared reserves like Coe for this opportunity. “We always preach the message: prepare like a starter,” Coe said. “Anytime I’m out there with the ones and twos, you learn from the guys that go in front of you and behind you.” As a sign of that faith, the Giants have decided to keep only five cornerbacks on the roster, even though Coe and the rookie Jayron Hosley have also battled injuries during the preseason. Justin Tryon, who appeared in three games last season for the Giants, is the fifth cornerback. “All of us kind of help each other,” Coe said. “Corey is definitely one of the vocal leaders of our defense. He definitely challenges everybody, and we in turn challenge each other as a group.” Tryon, who has also played with Indianapolis and Washington, said it was less of a competition and more of a mutual learning experience among the young cornerbacks. “We watch film together; we all get hints and techniques; then we ask questions to each other,” Tryon said. The importance of Webster is not lost on the Giants’ players and coaches. A stalwart in the secondary since he was selected in the second round of the 2005 draft, Webster has played in 12 or more games every season, missing only four games in the last four years. The other four Giants cornerbacks have played a combined 24 games for the team. “He’s been the guy that’s been very, very solid, very reliable, very dependable back there,” Coach Tom Coughlin said of Webster. “He lends a lot of experience and leadership to that group back there.” The Giants should know immediately how much of Webster’s game has rubbed off on the other cornerbacks. Last season, Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo was a combined 50 for 68 for 610 yards and 6 touchdowns in two games against the Giants. Coe said that despite their lack of in-game snaps and name recognition, the Giants’ cornerbacks are ready for the challenge. “I think a lot of the corners are similar types of athletes,” he said. “We work hand in hand together. We coach each other up so much, we hold each other to a high dynamic out there. We compete really hard, so that makes it easier when you go out to the game.” Tryon said, “In this D.B. room, everybody treats each other like brothers.”

New York Giants
Webster Corey
Coe Michael
Amukamara Prince
Football
Dallas Cowboys


Tragic Toll After Chaos on Mountain

Abstract: For two months, dozens of mountaineers had huddled at camps below the peak, acclimating to the thin air, practicing their ascent and waiting, waiting, for the moment. The final push began in the dark hours after midnight on Aug. 1. Members of at least five expeditions — and perhaps as many as nine — began the last leg of their climb to conquer Mount Everest ’s slightly shorter but far more dangerous sister, K2 , its peak towering, glistening and pyramidlike above them, laden with snow from recent storms. Gerard McDonnell, 37, an Irish engineer climbing with a Dutch team, wrote on his blog when the start date was set: “Let luck and good fortune prevail!!! Fingers crossed.” But luck did not hold. On the way up the last 2,000 feet, a Serbian climber fell to his death, and a Pakistani porter died trying to recover his body. And on the way back, a chunk of glacier splintered and came crashing down, sweeping at least four climbers on ropes to their deaths and leaving a handful of others trapped in the death zone above 26,000 feet — desperately cold, starved for oxygen and without ropes. Over the next few hours and days, some of those still left on K2 battled their way to safety, some fell to their deaths and others were simply lost forever in the cold wastes of the mountain. Bulletins posted on the Dutch expedition’s Web site charted the unfolding tragedy: “Gerard McDonnell: status unknown. We have not heard or seen anything from Gerard.” On Tuesday, the climber likely to be the last of the survivors, an Italian, Marco Confortola, staggered on frostbite -blackened feet to the base camp, for a time refusing help and oxygen, preferring to make his own way down. “I understand that many died, and that only a few made it down,” he said by telephone, in a conversation reported by an Italian scientific official, as he waited for a Pakistani military rescue helicopter to pluck him from the unforgiving mountainside. “I am happy that I was one of them.” He was airlifted to a nearby town Wednesday morning for medical treatment, Reuters reported. In all, 11 lives were lost in the worst episode on K2 since 13 climbers died over a two-week span in 1986, and one of the worst disasters in mountaineering history. In the aftermath, criticism has swirled about poor preparations and delays caused by climbers laying ropes improperly in the Bottleneck, the precipitous climb just below the summit. There were questions, too, about whether the attempt to reclaim a fallen climber was too costly and whether some climbers failed to turn back when it was clear that they would not make it back in daylight. The presence of hired high-altitude porters on some of the teams raised questions about whether some of the expeditions might have been commercial, guided efforts with incompletely prepared climbers — reminiscent of the disastrous 1996 Everest climb that claimed eight lives. Yet to most, the deaths were simply the latest on a notoriously dangerous mountain — known as the mountaineer’s mountain — on which many climbers have lost their lives since it was first conquered in 1954. K2 is known as the world’s hardest and most dangerous mountain for climbers, more challenging even than Everest. Farther north and 1,500 miles from Everest, it collects heavy snow and storms, and climbers have only a few days each year when they can try for the peak, usually in early August. “For a professional, seasoned mountaineer it’s more of the holy grail than Everest,” said the veteran American climber Ed Viesturs. “There is no easy way to climb K2.” In a message sent back to friends, three South Koreans from the Flying Jump K2 Expedition expressed their awe about “the mountain of the mountains” and “the mountain that invites death.” Last Friday morning, the “weather was perfect,” said Nicholas Rice, an American from Los Angeles , who would later turn back before the Bottleneck because of frostbite. He ended up recording, on blog posts, much of what is known about what went wrong, who died when, and why. The various expeditions — with members from several countries, including South Korea , the Netherlands , Norway , Serbia , Italy , the United States and France — set off from Camp 4, the last camp before the summit, between midnight and 3 a.m., Mr. Rice said. No one is certain exactly how many climbers were there, because no one coordinates the expeditions. Many other details remain unclear. To reach the summit, it is necessary to climb the Bottleneck, then traverse left under the glacier’s giant overhanging brow. The first fatality came early, when Dren Mandic, a Serb, fell to his death in the Bottleneck, followed by the Pakistani porter, Jehan Baig. But some of those who waited to try to rescue them decided eventually to press on, despite the loss and the delay. Some of the climbers did not reach the summit until around 8 p.m. — some 16 hours after they had set off, a terrifying expanse of time in temperatures far below zero, with so little oxygen to feed minds and muscles. Whatever triumph there might have been, it was soon swept away. Just a few hundred yards below the summit, as climbers were descending on the fixed ropes down the Bottleneck, an ice ledge above them snapped. “They would not have seen it coming,” said Pat Falvey, a mountain climber and a friend of Mr. McDonnell’s who was coordinating updates of the disaster from Ireland on the Internet. A Dutch climber, Wilco van Rooijen, described the chaos that took place then. Speaking from a hospital bed on Monday in the northern Pakistani town of Skardu, he told Reuters, “Everybody was fighting for himself and I still do not understand why everybody were leaving each other.” “People were running down, but didn’t know where to go, so a lot of people were lost on the mountain on the wrong side, wrong route, and then you have a big problem,” he said. The falling ice had swept away the ropes used to navigate the Bottleneck, and as night fell and the temperature plummeted, the climbers struggled with an awful choice: wait for rescue in the death zone, or descend without fixed ropes. Temperatures at the top of K2 overnight can reach minus 40 degrees, Mr. Rice said. Early on Saturday morning a group of five climbers were spotted by observers at a lower camp; they seemed to have made the decision to descend, Mr. Falvey said in a telephone interview. “They stepped out onto the section, and they fell,” he said. Mr. van Rooijen made it down the mountain without ropes and, according to Mr. Falvey, he was spotted on Sunday from one of the lower camps, a lone climber wearing an orange jacket emerging from the wilderness. He had apparently strayed from the route where the returning mountaineers were expected, called Abruzzi, and instead was descending on the Cessen Route down K2. Mountaineering experts said some of those missing could still be alive, though it was unlikely. So on Tuesday, it seemed, Mr. Confortola, the Italian climber, was probably the last survivor to be given up by the mountain. Seemingly still in shock from his ordeal, Mr. Confortola gave a sketchy recollection of the events, inevitably full of questions about what happened and what went wrong. He said his own group lost time before reaching the summit at 7 p.m. on Friday, because they did not have the right equipment. “I think we arrived late on the summit of K2 because the technical equipment was low quality,” he was quoted as saying by the Italian news agency ANSA. He said he had tried to help some of his fellow climbers but had also endangered himself. “To try to help, to save the others, I froze my feet and hands,” he told the Italian news channel Sky TG24. “But instinct makes you want to save them, and for me that’s a good thing.” Meanwhile, people on mountaineering Web sites were paying their respects to those climbers, like Mr. McDonnell, who were still missing and presumed dead.


Roger Federer and Stan Wawrinka Prey on Fatigue at U.S. Open

Abstract: Richard Gasquet, ragged and panting, sweat cascading down his face, reached out and barely got his racket to the ball. It seemed to take every bit of energy he had just to do that. Gasquet, now standing helplessly at the net, could only watch as Roger Federer, silky clean as if he had just walked onto the court, glided across the court and whipped a forehand past Gasquet for a second-set winner. It looked as if Gasquet and Federer were playing in different matches in different weather conditions. A weary Gasquet was staggering on one side of the court in oppressive humidity. The 34-year-old Federer appeared to float across the other side as if on a mild autumn evening. It has been that way for much of the United States Open for Federer. With notable efficiency and ease, Federer, the No. 2 seed, moved into the semifinals without losing a set. The latest smooth victory was a 6-3, 6-3, 6-1 decision over Gasquet in 1 hour 27 minutes. Federer has spent only 8 hours 16 minutes on court, substantially less time than Stan Wawrinka, his friend and countryman whom he will meet on Friday. The fifth-seeded Wawrinka rolled over an exhausted Kevin Anderson, 6-4, 6-4, 6-0, in Louis Armstrong Stadium, and has spent over 11 hours on court. Image Fifth-seeded Stan Wawrinka has lost only one set but has spent over 11 hours on court at this Open. Credit David Goldman/Associated Press Wawrinka has lost only one set, but he has been taken to five tiebreakers. “For Switzerland it’s huge that we have two guys in the semis of the U.S. Open, a huge tournament, biggest arena in the world,” Federer said. “I think we are both very much pumped up that that’s the case. Only better scenario would have been in the finals, but this is very, very good.” Federer and Wawrinka have played 19 times, but never in the semifinals of a major tournament. Federer holds a 16-3 advantage, but Wawrinka won their last meeting, in the French Open quarterfinals this year. Wawrinka went on to win the tournament. Federer and Wawrinka have been good friends for many years and teammates on the Davis Cup team. There is a level of familiarity and camaraderie not often seen from two top pros. “We always laugh together,” Wawrinka said, noting that their lockers were next to each other. “Friday we’re going to laugh together in the locker room before the match.” Federer said he knew Wawrinka so well that he can sometimes anticipate his shots before they are struck. “Probably he feels the same way,” Federer said. “That’s the weird part. I feel we meet each other somewhere in our minds before the points is played out, so that’s odd sometimes.” The other semifinal will feature Novak Djokovic against Marin Cilic. Djokovic has won all 13 meetings. Wednesday’s quarterfinal matches were played simultaneously for a while because rain earlier in the day pushed Wawrinka’s match with Anderson from Ashe over to Armstrong. Wawrinka said he had no problem with that because he always feels comfortable in Armstrong, and appreciates the support he gets from the fans. “I saw the people running here to take a seat because it is open seating,” he said. In his first four matches Wawrinka had avoided top-50 players. Anderson was ranked 15th, but his level of play was not that high in the match, most likely because of fatigue. He persevered in a lengthy, four-set battle with Andy Murray in the fourth round on Monday and had been on court for 11 hours 42 minutes going into the match. Wawrinka broke Anderson in the first set to go ahead by 5-3 and then won the set on his serve when Anderson mis-hit a service return. The second set went much as the first, and then in the third Anderson could no longer disguise his fatigue. Wawrinka closed out the match with a serve-and-volley that resembled a practice stroke. Wawrinka even broke out his own version of Federer’s second-serve attack, which has been dubbed SABR (Sneak Attack By Roger), where he stands a foot behind the service line on the opponent’s second serve and hits a half-volley back. Federer, too, tried it a couple of times against Gasquet, and looked forward to matching it against Wawrinka. “We love to watch him since more than 10 years, more than that,” Wawrinka said, adding, “He is the greatest.” Federer did not need any trick shots, however, against Gasquet. He was picking him apart from the beginning, and the match appeared even more lopsided than the score. Gasquet was so overmatched, the only question was whether Federer could somehow get off the court before Wawrinka did on Armstrong. That did not happen, but Federer finished only about 15 minutes later and was pleased to hear his friend had won. “He’s had a wonderful career,” Federer said. “I’m looking forward to playing him because he’s definitely a big challenge for me. He beat me in straight sets in the French, so I hope I can do better this time.”

Tennis
Roger Federer
Richard Gasquet
Stan Wawrinka
Kevin Anderson
US Open Tennis


Proposal to Review Guantánamo Detainees Is Prepared

Abstract: WASHINGTON — President Obama ’s advisers have been drafting an executive order that would set up a system for periodically reviewing the cases of Guantánamo prisoners whom courts have approved for detention without trial, officials said. Administration officials are apparently planning to meet this week to debate the details of the draft order, which has not yet gone to the president for approval. In broad strokes, it would establish something like a parole board to evaluate whether each detainee poses a continued threat, or whether he can be safely transferred to another country. One administration official said that such an order has long been under consideration, noting that Mr. Obama had described the need for such a process in a May 2009 speech when he laid out a plan in which some detainees would likely continue to be held without ever going to trial because they were too dangerous to release but too difficult to prosecute. “We must have clear, defensible and lawful standards for those who fall in this category,” Mr. Obama said in that speech , which he delivered at the National Archives. “We must have fair procedures so that we don’t make mistakes. We must have a thorough process of periodic review, so that any prolonged detention is carefully evaluated and justified.” The existence of the draft executive order was first reported on the Web sites of The Washington Post and ProPublica on Tuesday evening. Several administration officials confirmed its outlines and offered additional details. The proposal would replace the “annual review boards” that the Bush administration had used to revisit its decision to hold each prisoner. Under that system, which the Obama administration shut down, a panel of military officers periodically reviewed the accusations against and talked to each prisoner who wanted to participate. The prisoners were not represented by lawyers. Officers then decided whether a prisoner was still a threat or should be released. The Obama proposal, by contrast, would establish a “periodic review board” drawn from many agencies, not just the military, and modeled on a parole board, one official said. Detainees would be represented by lawyers and would have greater access to some of the evidence against them. Among the details yet to be determined are how often each detainee’s files would be reviewed, and how often he would receive a full-blown hearing. The Bush administration set up its annual review board system during its unsuccessful fight to prevent the Supreme Court from granting the detainees a right to have their cases reviewed by federal judges, who could ultimately order their release if the evidence against them was weak. The Obama administration’s proposal, by contrast, would supplement such habeas corpus hearings in court. While judges would determine whether it was lawful to hold someone as a wartime detainee — because he is part of Al Qaeda or the Taliban — the review boards would determine whether it was necessary to do so, one official explained. When Mr. Obama became president in 2009, the new administration suspended the Bush-era policies at the prison in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and began a yearlong review of each remaining detainee’s case. Currently 174 prisoners remain at the base, 48 of whom the administration has decided to keep holding indefinitely without trial. Several dozen more are Yemenis who have been deemed eligible for eventual repatriation if and when security conditions improve in their country. Civil liberties and human rights groups — many of whom dislike any policy that involves holding prisoners without trial — reacted with ambivalence to the report that the Obama team has been working on an executive order to establish formal reviews. Tom Malinowski , the Washington advocacy director for Human Rights Watch, said such an order could provide additional safeguards for those prisoners who are already being held in as wartime detainees, but worried that it could be used to entrench the idea of detention without trial. “My sense and my hope is that it would be limited to the detainees whom Obama inherited from the Bush administration, rather than serving as a permanent regime for the detention of anyone the government may decide is dangerous in the future,” he said. The news of the draft order comes as Congress is considering a bill that would bar the transfer of any Guantánamo detainee to the United States — even for the purpose of prosecution. That measure, which the administration opposes, would effectively end its proposal to bring some of the Guantánamo detainees to a maximum-security facility in Illinois and to prosecute others in federal court rather than in military commissions .

Guantanamo Bay Naval Base (Cuba)
Executive Orders
Obama Barack
Detainees


Vermont: City Known for Nudity Opts for Emergency Coverage

Abstract: People in parts of a Vermont town known for nudity are being told to keep their clothes on. In a 3-to-2 vote, town officials in Brattleboro passed an emergency antinudity ordinance for main roads and near schools and places of worship. A gaggle of naked teenagers who hung around a downtown parking lot had prompted the Select Board several months ago to think that clothing-optional was not working. Officials decided then to let winter take care of the problem, and never voted. But, they decided they had seen enough when an elderly man strolled through downtown last week wearing nothing but a fanny pack. Next month, Brattleboro will hold a public hearing on whether the ordinance should become permanent.

Nudism and Nudity
Brattleboro (Vt)
Vermont


Rafael Nadal Ends Drought on Grass

Abstract: Rafael Nadal defeated Viktor Troicki, 7-6 (3), 6-3, to win the Mercedes Cup in Stuttgart, Germany, for the third time and claim his first title on grass since Wimbledon in 2010.


Trills and Thrills

Abstract: Q. Why do some people’s singing voices have more vibrato than others? Can it be taught? A. Carl E. Seashore, who died in 1949, did pioneering research in audiology and the psychology of music. He analyzed vocal vibrato in modern Western classical singing by quantifying recordings of singers. In 1938 in “Psychology of Music,” he described the components: “A good vibrato is a pulsation of pitch, usually accompanied with synchronous pulsations of loudness and timbre, of such extent and rate as to give a pleasing flexibility, tenderness and richness to the tone.” He also suggested that the three components could be heard and practiced. He described the ideal classical pitch component as varying by no more than a semitone around the main note. (Modern “pop” vibrato tends to vary more in amplitude than in pitch.) Vibrato involves the muscles of the larynx and surrounding structures, including the tongue, epiglottis and pharyngeal wall. It is usually described as a rhythmic contraction and relaxation of the muscles surrounding the larynx. How to teach singers to achieve a vibrato without exaggerating any component is controversial. A 2006 study in Journal of Voice by Johan Sundberg and others found that professional training seems to develop it without conscious effort. In 22 students before and after three years of professional singing education, the study measured the top note in a three-note pattern sung loudly and softly, with the top note held about five seconds. After three years, voices with vibratos slower than 5.2 cycles per second had speeded up, and voices with vibratos faster than 5.8 cycles per second had slowed down. C. CLAIBORNE RAY


Hot in Brooklyn

Abstract: While Manhattan is still filmed more than any other borough, Brooklyn runs close behind. Half of the 29 television series produced in the city last season were based in Brooklyn, compared with one out of seven in the 2002-3 season. Television Series Based in Brooklyn (2013-14 season) “The Americans,” FX “Believe,” NBC “Blue Bloods,” CBS “Boardwalk Empire,” HBO “Broad City,” Comedy Central “The Carrie Diaries,” CW “The Following,” Fox “The Good Wife,” CBS “Hostages,” CBS “The Knick,” Cinemax “Power,” Starz “Royal Pains,” USA “Unforgettable,” CBS “Us and Them,” FOX Brooklyn Movies, Now . . . Films that have had scenes shot in Brooklyn in recent months: “The Amazing Spider-Man 2” “The Cobbler,” starring Adam Sandler “Cymbeline,” starring Ethan Hawke “Every Secret Thing,” Elizabeth Banks and Diane Lane “John Wick,” starring Keanu Reeves “Learning to Drive,” starring Ben Kingsley “Love Is Strange”, starring John Lithgow “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” “A Walk Among the Tombstones,” starring Liam Neeson . . . And Then “The French Connection,” 1971 “Dog Day Afternoon,” 1975 “Three Days of the Condor,” 1975 “Sophie’s Choice,” 1982 “Annie Hall,” 1977 “Saturday Night Fever,” 1977 “Moonstruck,” 1987 “Do the Right Thing,” 1989 “Vanilla Sky,” 2001


Medicare Needs Fixing, but Not Right Now

Abstract: What’s the rush? For all the white-knuckled wrangling over spending cuts set to start on Friday, the fundamental partisan argument over how to fix the government’s finances is not about the immediate future. It is about the much longer term: how will the nation pay for the care of older Americans as the vast baby boom generation retires? Will the government keep Medicare spending in check by asking older Americans to shoulder more costs? Should we raise taxes instead? It might not be a good idea to try to resolve these questions quite so urgently. Partisan bickering under the threat of automatic budget cuts is unlikely to produce a calm, thoughtful deal. “We don’t have to solve this tomorrow; not even next year,” said Jonathan Gruber, an economist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who worked on the design of President Obama’s health care reform. More significantly perhaps, some economists point out that the problem may already be on the way toward largely fixing itself. The budget-busting rise in health care costs, it seems, is finally losing speed. While it would be foolhardy to assume that this alone will stabilize government’s finances, the slowdown offers hope that the challenge may not be as daunting as the frenzied declarations from Washington make it seem. The growth of the nation’s spending slowed sharply over the last four years. This year, it is expected to increase only 3.8 percent, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services , the slowest pace in four decades and slower than the rate of nominal economic growth. Medicare spending is growing faster — stretched by baby boomers stepping out of the work force and into retirement. But its pace has slowed markedly, too. Earlier this month, the Congressional Budget Office said that by 2020 Medicare spending would be $126 billion less than it predicted three years ago. Spending over the coming decade, it added, would be $143 billion less than it forecast just last August. While economists acknowledge that the recession accounts for part of the decline, depressing incomes and consumption, something else also seems to be going on: insurers, doctors, hospitals and other providers are experimenting with new, cheaper and more efficient ways to deliver care. Prodded by President Obama’s Affordable Care Act, which offers providers a share of savings reaped by Medicare from any efficiency gains, many doctors are dropping the costly practice of charging a fee for each service regardless of its contribution to patients’ health. Doctors are joining hundreds of so-called Accountable Care Organizations, which are paid to maintain patients in good health and are thus encouraged to seek the most effective treatments at the lowest possible cost. This has kindled hope among some scholars that Medicare could achieve the needed savings just by cleaning out the health care system’s waste. Elliott Fisher, who directs Dartmouth’s Atlas of Health Care , which tracks disparities in medical practices and outcomes across the country, pointed out that Medicare spending per person varies widely regardless of quality — from $7,734 a year in Minneapolis to $11,646 in Chicago — even after correcting for the different age, sex and race profiles of their populations. He noted that if hospital stays by Medicare enrollees across the country fell to the length prevailing in Oregon and Washington, hospital use — one of the biggest drivers of costs — would fall by almost a third. Image Experiments by health care providers on cheaper and more efficient ways to deliver care appear to be helping push costs down. Credit Joshua Lott for The New York Times “Twenty to 30 percent of Medicare spending is pure waste,” Dr. Fisher argues. “The challenge of getting those savings is nontrivial. But those kinds of savings are not out of the question.” We could be disappointed, of course. Similar breakthroughs before have quickly fizzled. Just think back to that brief spell in the mid-1990s when health maintenance organizations seemed to beat health care inflation — until patients rebelled against being denied services and doctors dropped out of their networks rather than accept lower fees. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services already expects spending to rebound in coming years. Without tougher cost control devices, be it vouchers to limit government spending or direct government rationing, counting on savings of the scale needed to overcome the expected increase in Medicare rolls may be hoping for pie in the sky. “It makes no sense,” said Eugene Steuerle, an economist at the Urban Institute, to expect the government will reap vast Medicare savings without having an impact on the quality of care. The Affordable Care Act already contemplates fairly big cuts to Medicare. In its latest long-term projections published last year, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that under current law, growth in spending per beneficiary over the coming decade would be about half a percentage point slower than the rate of economic growth per person. To understand how ambitious this is, consider that Medicare spending per beneficiary since 1985 has exceeded the growth of gross domestic product per person by about 1.5 percentage points per year. Slowing down that spending would require deep cuts in doctor reimbursements that, though written into law, Congress has never allowed to happen — repeatedly voting to cancel or postpone them. Under a more realistic situation, the Budget Office projected that the growth of Medicare spending per capita over the next 10 years would be in fact 0.6 percentage points higher than under current law and accelerate further after that. Yet despite the ambition of these targets, they would not be enough to stabilize future Medicare spending as a share of the economy. A report by three health care policy experts, Michael Chernew and Richard Frank of Harvard Medical School, together with Stephen Parente of the University of Minnesota, concluded that to do that would require limiting the growth of spending per beneficiary at 1.25 percentage points less than the growth of our gross domestic product per person. “The Affordable Care Act places Medicare spending on a trajectory that is historically low,” Mr. Chernew said, noting his opinion was not an official statement as vice chairman of Medicare’s Payment Advisory Commission, which advises Congress on Medicare. “Could we do better? Of course. Will we? That requires a little more skepticism.” Yet even if it is unrealistic to expect that newfound efficiencies will stabilize Medicare’s finances, the slowdown in health care spending suggests that politicians in Washington calm down. It offers, at the very least, more breathing room to carefully consider reforms to the system to raise revenue or trim benefits in the least damaging way. There are many ideas out there — from changing Medicare’s premiums, deductibles and coinsurance to introducing a tax on carbon emissions to raise revenue. Some of them are not as good as others. Until recently, President Obama favored increasing the eligibility age for Medicare. Then research by the Kaiser Family Foundation concluded that raising the age would increase insurance premiums and cost businesses, beneficiaries and states more than the federal government would save. The nation would lose money in the deal. “As we do this, there are smarter and dumber ways to do it,” Mr. Gruber said. “It would be a problem if we were to do things in a panic mode that set us backward.”

Medicare
Health Insurance
US Politics
Federal Budget
Baby Boomers
Pensions and Retirement Plans
US Economy


A Taste for Mexican Food, and the World Cup

Abstract: The city still burns bright as a beacon of immigrant aspiration, and the proof these days can be found clustering in bars and cafes, and spilling onto the streets, in raucous displays of multinational pride during the World Cup. On Tuesday morning at the original outpost of Mercadito, a tiny taqueria on Avenue B that attracts a young, hip crowd and feels like a resort cantina, a mellow version of this phenomenon played out as Mexico struggled against Uruguay. Even with a $25 all-you-can-eat tacos or wings special on offer during games, not everyone can show up at 10 a.m. for soccer. Those who did — a few couples up front, a group of men in back — sat transfixed, at times rising halfway out of their seats, calling out “Vamos,” or clasping their hands as if in prayer when either team came close to triumph or disaster. DIANE CARDWELL IN THE SEATS Giannina Perez, 38, a public policy advocate for children’s issues, and her husband, Guillermo Mayer, 36, a civil rights lawyer. ON THE PLATES To share, guacamole ($7); for Mr. Mayer, chilaquiles al chipotle ($12), which he pronounced “very well done” and encouraged Ms. Perez to sample. She was waiting for her huevos rancheros ($12) to come back scrambled rather than over easy; she is four months pregnant and wants to make sure any eggs she eats are fully cooked. WHY THEY CAME Fans of soccer who are on vacation from Oakland, Calif., the couple looked online for a place with good food in an interesting neighborhood to watch Mexico play. Mr. Mayer is originally from Guadalajara, roots his wife seems to identify with, even though her family is from Peru. “It’s Mexico,” she said fondly in explaining why they needed to see the match, adding as she patted her belly, “and I’m having a Mexican baby.” Uruguay won, 1-0, but both teams survived to move into the next round. WHAT THEY TALKED ABOUT Not so much — after all, there was a game on — except to weigh the options for the rest of the day, like a trip uptown to the American Museum of Natural History.


Mets’ Wright Is an Avid Supporter of the World Baseball Classic

Abstract: MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — The first American players to reach a giddy David Wright and maul him, in a celebratory way, were Derek Jeter and Kevin Youkilis. Shane Victorino was a step behind them. It was a delirious scene Tuesday night after Wright’s two-run single catapulted the United States to a 6-5 win over Puerto Rico. One of the best players on the Mets was engulfed by the most popular player on the Yankees, the most versatile player on the Boston Red Sox and the grittiest player on the Philadelphia Phillies. The enemies were teammates on a memorable night, rolling around in the infield dirt at Dolphin Stadium. The Americans have been hurt by injuries and by lack of interest, some from fans and some from players, during the World Baseball Classic. But tournament officials could use the picture of Wright buried in the red, white and blue uniforms of players who are normally his adversaries as a recruiting tool. “If you can’t get excited about last night’s game and what we were able to accomplish,” Wright said, “you don’t enjoy the game of baseball.” Wright is a dream player for the executives who market the Classic because he is a respected player who has been extremely vocal about how much he wants to compete in the event. When Wright was asked what he would tell players about the Classic, he quickly said, “You got to do it.” If the 30 general managers were asked privately if their players should play in the Classic, all 30 would most likely say they would rather have them abstain. The general managers need healthy players to have their strongest teams. No triumphant picture featuring Wright with some rivals is going to eliminate the possibility of injuries. Youkilis, who has a mildly sprained left ankle, is the latest player to leave the United States team. On Wednesday, he returned to the Red Sox’ spring training facility in Fort Myers, Fla., and will be replaced on the roster for the semifinals. Theo Epstein, Boston’s general manager, has had Youkilis and second baseman Dustin Pedroia sustain injuries in the Classic. Davey Johnson, the manager of the United States, said the team had been “devastated by some key injuries.” Epstein hopes not to say the same thing about his club. Wright, who is fast becoming the head cheerleader for the United States, said that the players on the American team were the players who “really, really want to be here.” He has already said he wants to return for the Classic in 2013. “If we had a sign-up sheet right now, you’d have 28 guys in there who are banged up, injured or not, that would sign up again,” said Wright, who fouled a ball off his left foot in his first at-bat against Venezuela on Wednesday and went for X-rays after the game. “And I would be the first one on that list.” After Tuesday’s game, which Wright ended by looping a fastball from Fernando Cabrera into shallow right field to culminate a three-run ninth inning, he said he received more text and e-mail messages “in the last 24 hours than I’ve had in the last 24 months.” As oddly delighted as he was about having grown men press his face into the dirt, he knows there are fans who wonder how his exploits will help the Mets, his full-time team. Wright had a routinely solid season with the Mets last year, hitting 33 homers, driving in 124 runs and batting .302. But he was also criticized for not producing in critical situations, and hit .243 with men in scoring position. He said Tuesday’s at-bat would contribute to his remaining relaxed in important at-bats this season. “We’re talking about being up with the game on the line,” Wright said. “When you wear those three letters across the front your chest, you have quite a bit of pressure and weight on your shoulders. I think that can only help.” Before Wright helped the United States defeat Puerto Rico, Wright received a text message from Alex Rodriguez. Wright said that Rodriguez, who is rehabilitating from hip surgery in Vail, Colo., wished Wright, another New York third baseman, luck. After the game, Wright received an avalanche of e-mail and text messages from almost everyone except A-Rod. The one that meant the most came from Daniel, Wright’s 17-year-old brother. “My brother sent me a text that said, ‘This is, by far, the coolest thing you’ve ever done,’ ” Wright said.

Wright David
World Baseball Classic
Baseball


History and Memory Mingle in the Medicine Cabinet

Abstract: WHETHER it is reorganizing the spice rack, rearranging the closet or cleaning out the debris that has collected in the garage, the deacquisition of household possessions can be crucial to domestic order. Still, sorting through the clutter generally falls into two categories: those projects you may consider getting around to sooner or later should the time be right; and those tasks that, while urgent, are likely to be postponed until hell freezes over. The question of how to reform the habits of small spaces comes to mind pretty much every time I open the medicine cabinet. Bought years ago at a flea market, the small oak cabinet has austere dimensions (16 by 16 inches and 5 inches deep) that reflect a time when home health care, cosmetics marketing and the pharmaceutical industry had not become the consumer extravaganzas they are today. Periodically I think it would make sense to replace it altogether. At the local big-box home building outlet, I know, the selection runs to a more contemporary view of how we tend to our well-being, with expansive cabinets offering options like mirrored interiors, adjustable shelving, fog-proof mirrors, makeup lights, night lights, satin nickel hardware and crown molding. Built-in cabinets can come accessorized with interior electrical outlets, and a company called Robern offers a cabinet with cold storage for the preservation of organic cosmetics and creams. As if. Our old vintage cabinet dictates a more economic approach to health care. It’s a relic in both substance and spirit, reflecting a time when getting ready for the day was a simpler ritual. Its limited space makes for a kind of efficiency in content: toothpaste, soap, floss, aspirin. Maybe more to the point, it reflects my superstitious conviction that if I were to make room for a more comprehensive collection of goods, my family would, well, start to need it. Besides, emptying the thing out and starting over demands a kind of curatorial skill I haven’t got. While it’s common knowledge that the cabinet should be routinely sorted through, with out-of-date pills and other medications thrown out, the cabinet persists in being an archive of old afflictions. Long-expired remedies are nestled in with more current ones. There are, for example, two variations of iodine: a little gray ceramic jar of something called Iodex, its contents long petrified, that resided in my parents’ medicine cabinet in a different house in a different century, along with a small brown glass bottle of Tintura de Yodo that my husband and I bought, oh, some 30 years ago on a trip to Mexico. And crammed in elsewhere behind the Ibuprofen and Tylenol PM is a small jar of ipecac syrup from when one of my sons, now 20, swallowed an excess of cough medicine at the age of 3. While such medicines may be long past serving any practical purpose, it’s difficult to let them go. Crowded in together on these shelves, they are talismans of remedy more than any actual remedy, conjuring up entire landscapes of illness, fever and worry that have been visited, fully experienced, then left behind. Why deaccession such a collection? Honoring generations of minor skirmishes with infirmity, pain, exhaustion, these jars and bottles and tins and tubes stand as tiny monuments to a legion of small battles won. They are witnesses to our having outlasted the affliction, survived the burn, cut, scrape, and there is something comforting — you might even say healing — about hanging on to them. Things collect here, following their own logic. Along with the toothpaste on the lower shelf is a tube of topical skin cream meant to treat a minor form of skin cancer; packed with high-octane, anticancer agents, it costs hundreds of dollars per gram and is available only in amounts far greater than anyone with a small melanoma might have much use for. But in all of this there is something worth noting about the nature of remedies, which is that their shelf life, cost and quantity rarely match precisely what is needed. The equation of illness and treatment is almost always inexact. Putting order to the medicine cabinet is an act more fraught than clearing out a closet, editing the spice shelf, alphabetizing the books; as the agents of healing and restoration, the contents of the cabinet have an associative power that can go well beyond that of the clutter gathering elsewhere. It’s all there — the headache, the sleepless night, the nausea, the melanoma, what brought these on and what we did or didn’t do about them. Throw in the old bottle of red Chanel nail polish, the gardenia oil from a perfumery in Florence, a facial scrub called Rescue Me, the aspirational salves, and the medicine cabinet becomes an anthology of our vulnerabilities. It’s only natural that there is an arbitrary quality to what is gathered and kept in the medicine cabinet. The very disparity of its contents speaks to the random nature of affliction, the indiscriminate and casual route that illness, small and large, takes in coming to us. And it speaks just as eloquently to the idiosyncratic responses — sometimes practical, sometimes purely frivolous — with which we confront it once it has arrived. All of which explains why I am unlikely to replace the cabinet with some more spacious, illuminated, mirrored, fog-free number from Home Depot. Why pretend the medicine cabinet can be a place of clarity and light? Why try to imagine its contents can be neatly arranged? Along with its assorted valid medications, it remains, in my house anyway, a random apothecary of history, memory, snake oil; and the disorder of its dark, cluttered shelves a reassuringly honest and authentic expression of the disorder that nearly any illness delivers to us.

Medicine and Health
Cosmetics and Toiletries
Bathrooms and Toilets
Restoration and Rehabilitation


Westport First in State to Ban Plastic Bags

Abstract: Westport LAST year, San Francisco banned nonbiodegradable plastic bags in its large grocery stores and pharmacies. Soon, Oakland and Los Angeles followed. Now, Westport has joined their ranks, becoming the only town in Connecticut to ban most plastic shopping bags. Beginning March 2009, retailers who use plastic bags, with some exceptions including those for produce, will be fined $150. In this high-toned town with its handsome pedestrian shopping district lined with designer boutiques and gourmet food shops, a nonplastic mindset is already de rigeur, even before a ban was discussed. Downtown merchants package purchases in colorful reusable bags or decorative paper alternatives. Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods give customers recyclable paper bags and sell reusable bags; Shaw’s and the Stop & Shop also provide recycle bins for them. “Westport is well known for being progressive, and in the forefront of social issues,” said Gordon Joseloff, a first selectman, noting that it was one of the first communities to pass a resolution opposing the Vietnam War. So it was not surprising when the ordinance was passed 26 to 5 at a representative town meeting. The vote came in spite of lobbying by representatives of the chemical industry and supermarket chains who said that paper bags are more costly to produce and release methane gas when decomposing. Stew Leonard Jr., president and chief executive of the Stew Leonard’s chain, who also is a Westport native, said a ban would get “more of a backlash in larger towns with more businesses.” “I’m opposed to it because I don’t think it’s better for the environment,” he said. “It takes one trailer to deliver a load of plastic bags compared to six trailers to deliver the same number of paper bags.” Other cities like New Haven and Madison have considered a similar ban, but the proposals have gone nowhere so far. Al Goldberg, first selectman of Madison, said he agreed that the bags should be banned, but in spite of much talk about it, “right now, there’s no official town initiative under way.” In New Haven, Roland Lemar, an alderman, helped devise a plastic bag ordinance last year that the City Council rejected. He said he plans to present a revised draft in November that will try to balance the needs of business owners with the environment. “This is not just about forcing people to use reusable bags because we’re a bunch of tree-huggers, but because we recognize there are numerous negative impacts that plastic bags have on the city in terms of litter,” he said. In other communities, officials say the time is not right. “I don’t think it would fly in Norwalk,” said Eve Rothbard, who owns Liberty Army and Navy with stores in Westport and in Norwalk. “There are just too many commercial businesses there.” Kim Fawcett, state representative for the 133rd Assembly District, which includes Westport and Fairfield, was the author of a plastic bag bill earlier this year that was rejected. “I was the only co-sponsor of the bill, so that tells you how much support I had,” she said. She plans to reintroduce a bill in the General Assembly next session, she said. “When you’re trying to introduce a cutting-edge issue like this, it’s important to get a dialogue going, and I think that’s what Westport has done,” she said. Supporters of such a ban believe that Westport’s taking the first step will show other communities that it doesn’t have to hurt business. “I think it’s going to start a domino effect. Westport is one of the first dominos to fall; I know towns in the region looking at this issue,” said Emmett Pepper, the Hudson Valley program director of the Citizens Campaign for the Environment, a grassroots organization with more than 80,000 members in Connecticut and New York. “By Westport taking the step, it shows them it can be done.” Mr. Joseloff, the Westport selectman, said the ordinance is not about paper versus plastic but about encouraging people to use reusable bags. Lisa Grosso, 29, of Fairfield who was loading a half-dozen plastic bags of groceries into her car in the Stop & Shop parking lot in Westport recently, said choosing plastic was a habit. “I use them for so many other things,” she said. “So if Fairfield passed a ban on plastic, I’d be a little disappointed.” But shrugging, she added, “I’ll just have to start remembering to bring those reusable bags with me to the store.”

Shopping Bags
Recycling of Waste Materials
Connecticut
New Haven (Conn)
Trader Joe's
Whole Foods Market Inc