Romney Offers an Economic Stimulus Plan

Abstract: Mitt Romney offered an ambitious plan Friday to try to forestall a recession, proposing a $250 billion economic stimulus package with sweeteners for supply-side conservatives, older Americans and corporations. Mr. Romney’s proposal, outlined in a telephone interview during a campaign swing through Nevada, is grounded in new, permanent income tax reductions. It is also double the size of stimulus packages offered by two of the Democratic presidential candidates, Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama, and far exceeds the $145 billion plan that President Bush suggested to Congress on Friday. Specifically, Mr. Romney proposed: ¶A cut in the top corporate rate to 20 percent from 35 percent, phased in over two years. ¶Cutting the lowest individual income tax bracket to 7.5 percent from 10 percent. To provide immediate spending money for those with moderate incomes, he would make that reduction retroactively applicable to 2007 income for taxpayers earning less than $97,500. ¶Permanently eliminating Social Security payroll taxes for workers over age 65. ¶Temporarily permitting businesses to deduct 100 percent of the cost of investments for two years beginning Jan. 1, 2008. ¶Eliminating capital gains and dividend taxes for taxpayers earning under $200,000 a year. The proposal comes as Mr. Romney, a former executive at Bain Capital, has turned increasingly to economic issues as a way to revive his prospects for the Republican nomination. He is already facing competition from Mike Huckabee for socially conservative voters. Mr. Romney used the proposal to distinguish himself from his rival Senator John McCain, who declared in a recent debate that his short-term approach to an economic slowdown was to cut spending. “That is not stimulative,” Mr. Romney said of the McCain approach. On the potential impact on the long-term budget deficit, he said, “If we go into recession, the cost to our balanced budget is going to be far more severe than the cost of this program.” To appeal to economic conservatives, Mr. Romney cited the permanent nature of his tax cuts, which he called on Congress to enact within 30 days. “The kinds of stimulative actions we take should be pro-growth,” he said. “They aren’t just writing checks for people to buy oil or TVs.”

Romney Mitt
Presidential Election of 2008
Economic Conditions and Trends


Stronger Brains, Weaker Bodies

Abstract: All animals do the same thing to the food they eat — they break it down to extract fuel and building blocks for growing new tissue. But the metabolism of one species may be profoundly different from another’s. A sloth will generate just enough energy to hang from a tree, for example, while some birds can convert their food into a flight from Alaska to New Zealand. For decades, scientists have wondered how our metabolism compares to that of other species. It’s been a hard question to tackle, because metabolism is complicated — something that anyone who’s stared at a textbook diagram knows all too well. As we break down our food, we produce thousands of small molecules, some of which we flush out of our bodies and some of which we depend on for our survival. An international team of researchers has now carried out a detailed comparison of metabolism in humans and other mammals. As they report in the journal PLOS Biology , both our brains and our muscles turn out to be unusual, metabolically speaking. And it’s possible that their odd metabolism was part of what made us uniquely human. When scientists first began to study metabolism, they could measure it only in simple ways. They might estimate how many calories an animal burned in a day, for example. If they were feeling particularly ambitious, they might try to estimate how many calories each organ in the animal’s body burned. Those tactics were enough to reveal some striking things about metabolism. Compared with other animals, we humans have ravenous brains. Twenty percent of the calories we take in each day are consumed by our neurons as they send signals to one another. Ten years ago, Philipp Khaitovich of the Max Planck Institute of Evolutionary Anthropology and his colleagues began to study human metabolism in a more detailed way. They started making a catalog of the many molecules produced as we break down food. “We wanted to get as much data as possible, just to see what happened,” said Dr. Khaitovich. To do so, the scientists obtained brain, muscle and kidney tissues from organ donors. They then extracted metabolic compounds like glucose from the samples and measured their concentrations. All told, they measured the levels of over 10,000 different molecules. The scientists found that each tissue had a different metabolic fingerprint, with high levels of some molecules and low levels of others. These distinctive fingerprints came as little surprise, since each tissue has a different job to carry out. Muscles need to burn energy to generate mechanical forces, for example, while kidney cells need to pull waste out of the bloodstream. The scientists then carried out the same experiment on chimpanzees, monkeys and mice. They found that the metabolic fingerprint for a given tissue was usually very similar in closely related species. The same tissues in more distantly related species had fingerprints with less in common. But the scientists found two exceptions to this pattern. The first exception turned up in the front of the brain. This region, called the prefrontal cortex, is important for figuring out how to reach long-term goals. Dr. Khaitovich’s team found that the way the human prefrontal cortex uses energy is quite distinct from other species; other tissues had comparable metabolic fingerprints across species, and even in other regions of the brain, the scientists didn’t find such a drastic difference. This result fit in nicely with findings by other scientists that the human prefrontal cortex expanded greatly over the past six million years of our evolution. Its expansion accounts for much of the extra demand our brains make for calories. The evolution of our enormous prefrontal cortex also had a profound effect on our species. We use it for many of the tasks that only humans can perform, such as reflecting on ourselves, thinking about what others are thinking and planning for the future. But the prefrontal cortex was not the only part of the human body that has experienced a great deal of metabolic evolution. Dr. Khaitovich and his colleagues found that the metabolic fingerprint of muscle is even more distinct in humans. “Muscle was really off the charts,” Dr. Khaitovich said. “We didn’t expect to see that at all.” It was possible that the peculiar metabolism in human muscle was just the result of our modern lifestyle — not an evolutionary shift in our species. Our high-calorie diet might change the way muscle cells generated energy. It was also possible that a sedentary lifestyle made muscles weaker, creating a smaller metabolic demand. To test that possibility, Dr. Khaitovich compared the strength of humans to that of our closest relatives. They found that chimpanzees and monkeys are far stronger, for their weight, than even university basketball players or professional climbers. The scientists also tested their findings by putting monkeys on a couch-potato regime for a month to see if their muscles acquired a human metabolic fingerprint. They barely changed. Dr. Khaitovich suspects that the metabolic fingerprint of our muscles represents a genuine evolutionary change in our species. Karen Isler and Carel van Schaik of the University of Zurich have argued that the gradual changes in human brains and muscles were intimately linked. To fuel a big brain, our ancestors had to sacrifice other tissues, including muscles. Dr. Isler said that the new research fit their hypothesis nicely. “It looks quite convincing,” she said. Daniel E. Lieberman, a professor of human evolutionary biology at Harvard, said he found Dr. Khaitovich’s study “very cool,” but didn’t think the results meant that brain growth came at the cost of strength. Instead, he suggested, our ancestors evolved muscles adapted for a new activity: long-distance walking and running. “We have traded strength for endurance,” he said. And that endurance allowed our ancestors to gather more food, which could then fuel bigger brains. “It may be that the human brain is bigger not in spite of brawn but rather because of brawn, albeit a very different kind,” he said.

Muscle
Evolution
Brain
Monkeys and Apes
Philipp Khaitovich


Spike in Iraq Violence as Vote Nears

Abstract: BAGHDAD — A series of bombings, beheadings and shootings rippled through Iraq on Monday, leaving at least 23 people dead, including 9 children, and intensifying concern about a spike in violence with less than two weeks until national elections. The authorities detected no discernible pattern to the violence, with rockets exploding in Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone, car bombings aimed at government buildings, assassinations of security officers and government officials and the killings of two families in their homes in Baghdad. The killings of the families were reminiscent of the attacks common during the height of the bloodletting between Sunnis and Shiites in Iraq a few years ago. In the largely Shiite town of Madaen, south of Baghdad, a gang of gunmen stormed a home of a family and killed all eight people there, including six children. “The criminals have beheaded some of the victims,” according to a brief statement from Baghdad Operations Command. Beheading is considered a trademark of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, a largely domestic insurgent group with some foreign leaders created in the aftermath of the American-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein in April 2003. But the Iraqi authorities gave no indication as to the motive behind the attack. In another Shiite district in Baghdad, a mother and her three children were gunned down in the middle of the night, according to government officials. Meanwhile, the police found two bodies riddled with bullets dumped in the street of the Sunni neighborhood of Adhamiya, according to Iraqi officials. The rocket attacks on the Green Zone wounded six people, according to Iraqi officials. An official at the American Embassy said there were no reports of Westerners injured. Two mortar rounds landed near a complex that had been used as Saddam Hussein’s central security directorate in eastern Baghdad, near an American base, but there were no immediate reports of casualties. In northern Baghdad, gunmen carried out a drive-by shooting of a convoy of officials working for the Ministry of Defense and killed two people. Separately, a police officer and a civilian were injured when gunmen open fire on their parked vehicles. West of Baghdad, in the city of Ramadi, a suicide car bomber targeting a police garrison killed three people and injured seven. Several Iraqi police and army checkpoints in the city of Mosul were attacked by gunmen, and four officers were killed, according to Iraqi officials.

Assassinations and Attempted Assassinations


Houston School District Lives On, but So Do Its Struggles

Abstract: HOUSTON — In the eight years that Vivek Agarwal has taught science at North Forest Independent School District’s lone high school, he has watched six principals and four superintendents come and go. “By the time they learn the system, they are gone,” he said. “There are too many changes.” The turbulence is familiar to the northeast Houston district, which for almost three decades has wrestled with poor academic performance and financial mismanagement. Between 2008 and 2010, the Texas Education Agency took over the struggling district in an attempt to turn it around. In 2010, only 48 percent of the students at North Forest graduated within four years, and just 27 percent of ninth-graders passed state math exams. Then in July, the district was told it would be closed by the state and annexed into the neighboring Houston Independent School District. North Forest I.S.D. has now gotten what amounts to a stay of execution. The Texas Education Agency announced a week ago that the district would get another year to make financial and academic improvements. But the question of whether students would be better off attending different schools still lingers. Though staying in underperforming districts holds clear risks, some education advocates say there is little research that indicates closing districts improves outcomes for students. When the education agency announced the forced closing of North Forest I.S.D. last summer, reaction from the community was immediate. United States Representative Sheila Jackson Lee, Democrat of Houston, called the decision to close the predominantly black school district “the highest level of hypocrisy and racism.” Carol Mims Galloway, then a member of the Houston I.S.D. school board, questioned whether her district could adequately serve the 6,400 new students who would probably attend some of its lowest-performing schools. “We would love to see T.E.A. do something visionary, do something with effort and some future in it to help North Forest,” said Ivory Mayhorn, a community activist. “But to just close it and find an easy way out, no, that’s not going to happen without some serious response from the community.” North Forest I.S.D. officials said the education agency was punishing the district for mistakes that happened while it was under the agency’s control. “It almost seemed like a move of opportunity, truthfully,” Superintendent Edna Forte said. Now, with the news of the extension — which by early February, the district had spent about $200,000 in legal costs to obtain, according an open record request — supporters have reason for encouragement. But the battle for its future is far from over. One day in February before the district learned of its reprieve, fliers for college financial aid workshops and motivational speakers — new offerings this year — hung in the high school’s worn corridors. Laporsha Ford, a junior, said she had noticed a difference at the high school this year. School leaders are “more organized,” she said, and the whole place has “a brighter edge to it.” “It’s not as depressing as it once was,” she said. But signs of the district’s struggles remained. In an unexpectedly full math class, six students stood without chairs. Students shouldered see-through backpacks, which they have been required to carry since January, when one student shot and injured another on campus. Debbie Ratcliffe, a T.E.A. spokeswoman, said North Forest had made progress on all fronts. But she also said the decision to give the district more time was based on the agency’s own failure to fulfill a provision requiring a review of how absorbing North Forest I.S.D. students would affect the Houston district — and a concern that the state was running out of time to clear the annexation with the United States Department of Justice. When the education agency took over North Forest I.S.D. in 2008, the district was nearing bankruptcy. The Houston Chronicle had recently uncovered that North Forest had used $6 million in construction bond money — a number that would grow to $13.3 million — for other expenses. But embarrassing details about the district’s finances continued to emerge while it was under the T.E.A.’s control, like the $18,000 spent on renovations to the foyer in the district central office, including a 114-gallon aquarium. A few months after the state’s two-year takeover ended, the board voted to oust the agency-appointed superintendent and chose Ms. Forte to take his place in March 2011. Since then, she has trimmed more than $4 million from the budget and cut staff. She also contracted with Pedro Noguera of New York University, an education researcher who specializes in reforming struggling urban districts. Within the next year, North Forest must meet requirements set by the T.E.A., which include beginning a five-year repayment of the remaining $8 million the board borrowed from the construction bond fund, developing a dropout prevention plan and improving standardized test scores. The district plans to sell surplus property to raise extra money. But there is a possible flaw in that plan: Area real estate values have dropped 5 percent in the past year and a half. The district may also continue to lose money from the state if families keep moving out of the neighborhood. Student enrollment has dropped almost 30 percent in the past five years. Achieving the academic goals hinges on changing the culture at the district, which has suffered with the constantly shifting leadership, Mr. Noguera said. “Kids were getting good grades and failing the state exams,” he said. “Teachers were sending the wrong message to kids about what the expectations are.” Mr. Noguera said he has been working to “recalibrate everything” with professional development sessions with the staff. He was also critical of the state’s role in supporting the district. “What has the state done to help this district? It has sent in advisers that have not been there to help them,” he said. “We are the first group that has come in and provided that kind of support.” Compounding the challenges in the district, said Mr. Agarwal, the science teacher, is the lack of support for students outside the classroom. Many of his students are from low-income families, and they must work after school to help support their families. Others are grappling with dire circumstances. Mr. Agarwal said that when he asked about a formerly cheerful model student who had grown listless in his class, the school nurse informed him that the student had recently been raped. “The kids are in adult situations,” he said. If Houston I.S.D. is eventually required to take on North Forest’s students, the high schoolers would most likely be split among three neighboring high schools: Kashmere, Wheatley and Booker T. Washington. Each of those schools was rated academically unacceptable in 2011. But because they are part of a larger district, with other schools that are not as low performing, Ms. Forte said, their students’ poor performance is disguised. For parents in the small North Forest district, she said, moving to a slightly higher rated district is not worth giving up local control. She said her district is able to provide services tailored to its student population, like Saturday tutoring sessions where free breakfast and lunch are served. “One thing is not changing, and that is the kids,” Mr. Agarwal said. “If this group disperses in different schools, it is going to taint everywhere, and they are going to have to deal with the conflicts because they won’t be able to perform as well as everybody else.”

Education (K-12)
Shutdowns (Institutional)
Houston (Tex)
Texas


Goldman Restructures Its Activism Defense Team

Abstract: Goldman Sachs has reshaped its activism defense practice, days after the senior banker who led the team, William Anderson, defected to the boutique investment bank Evercore Partners. Wall Street of late has pressed to advise companies on defending themselves against dissident investors. As part of the shift, Goldman has expanded the team’s mission beyond helping companies defend themselves against activist hedge funds to a broader mission of helping them respond to investor reactions of all kinds. The M.&A. shareholder advisory team, as the new group will be called, will still reside within the mergers division of Goldman, according to an internal memorandum reviewed by DealBook. The investment bank has named Steven Barg, most recently the firm’s head of mergers and acquisitions capital markets, and Avinash Mehrotra, most recently the head of real estate mergers, to lead the group, according to the memo. Another banker, Muir Patterson, will become the group’s chief operating officer. A Goldman spokesman confirmed the contents of the memo, which was reported earlier by The Wall Street Journal. Following is the text of the memo: July 6, 2015 Steven Barg and Avinash Mehrotra Named Co-Heads of M&A Shareholder Advisory We are pleased to announce that Steven Barg and Avinash Mehrotra will become co-heads of M&A Shareholder Advisory. This newly created effort within the Mergers & Acquisitions Group will combine our existing Activist Defense and our M&A Capital Markets practices. This combination will enable the firm to continue building upon our industry-leading position. The M&A Shareholder Advisory team will work closely with IBD teams to advise our clients as they assess market sentiment regarding their existing strategy and performance, as well as prospective strategic actions. The advice and services provided by this group will continue to be a deeply integrated component of our broader M&A product capabilities. The firm’s Activist Defense practice has amassed deep experience as shareholder perspectives have evolved in recent years. The M&A Capital Markets effort has developed innovative analytics that provide sophisticated analyses of shareholder behavior, better enabling our clients to anticipate likely market reactions to their strategic initiatives. The sharing of disciplines developed in these two areas will help our clients understand and respond to the views of shareholders in the context of activism situations and M&A transactions. Steven was most recently head of M&A Capital Markets in New York. From 2012 to 2013, he was co-head of the Investment Banking Division in South East Asia and was based in Singapore. Prior to that, Steven was co-head of Asia Ex-Japan ECM and was based in Hong Kong. He joined the firm as a partner in 2010. Avi was most recently head of Real Estate Mergers & Acquisitions. He joined the firm in 1996 as an associate in the M&A Department and transferred to the Technology, Media and Telecommunications Group in 2002, where he continued to focus on mergers and acquisitions, and co-headed the Technology Mergers & Acquisitions business from 2006 to 2010. From 2010 to 2011, Avi led the firm’s Investment Banking business for the Middle East and North Africa and was based in Dubai. He was named managing director in 2004 and partner in 2010. Steven and Avi will work closely with Muir Paterson, who will become COO of M&A Shareholder Advisory, to integrate these efforts and provide the best advice and service to our clients. Please join us in congratulating Steven, Avi and Muir on their new roles and wishing them continued success in driving this critical effort for the firm. Michael Carr Gregg Lemkau Gilberto Pozzi

Goldman Sachs Group
Steven Barg
Avinash Mehrotra
Banking and Finance
Shareholder Rights
Mergers and Acquisitions


Workers Tense as Talks With G.M. Drag On

Abstract: DETROIT, Sept. 15 — Union halls and factory gates have always been places for auto workers to gather at contract time, laying bets on what their negotiators will win for them in the latest round of talks. But as talks between the United Automobile Workers union and General Motors stretched past a contract deadline early Saturday, workers’ bets were being replaced by fears over what they might have to give up. Union and company negotiators held marathon bargaining meetings on concessions sought persistently by G.M., particularly in health care benefits, and the union’s equally firm effort to limit any harm to the benefits. As the clock wound down on Friday night to a 12:01 a.m. Saturday deadline, workers at the G.M. truck plant in Pontiac, Mich., scurried to their cars at the end of their shifts, bracing against high winds and unseasonably chilly weather. There was little collegial chatter among them. “You can see the mood right here,” said Bret Fightmaster, a team leader for the union, gesturing around the parking lot. “Nobody’s talking, nobody’s laughing. People are worried.” He went on, “You get beat up on the job — no pats on the back when you do something good — and now could lose your benefits.” A co-worker, Michael Nowacyzski, who has 29 years on the job, said he was alarmed to see G.M. recently cut temporary jobs at the plant, which has cut production because of slower sales of pickup trucks. “I’ve never seen it this bad,” Mr. Nowacyzski said. At U.A.W. Local 22 in Detroit, officials worked into the early hours on issues in the local agreement covering workers they represent at G.M.’s Detroit-Hamtramck plant. Workers ducked in occasionally, seeking what little information the local union’s president, George McGregor, could provide. “I didn’t know what else to do, so I came here to hang out,” said Greg Kelly, a G.M. employee for 29 years. He and his wife work at the plant, “so there’s a lot at stake. Seems like we have a lot to lose this time.” As if to take workers’ minds off the talks, the local union scheduled a Hawaiian luau, complete with a pig roast, for Saturday afternoon with the cool weather requiring sweatshirts as well as flowered shirts. “We’re trusting in our leadership,” said Peggy Jones, a 10-year G.M. employee, who nursed a drink decorated with an tiny umbrella. Mr. McGregor, meanwhile, alternated between greeting guests and fielding update calls from union representatives. “Hey, this was on the schedule,” Mr. McGregor said of the gathering. “Maybe it will turn into a settlement celebration.” To be sure, there has been little official word out of the talks taking place at a U.A.W.-G.M. education center in Detroit. Reporters, long used to camping out in the media centers at whichever Detroit auto company was chosen as the strike target, were not permitted on the premises. That has led them to sit in their cars outside the education center, watching for movement, to haunt union halls or to simply make endless telephone calls from their offices, seeking information from local leaders at various plants. People with knowledge of the negotiations said Saturday that much work remained on major issues, like the creation of a health care trust that G.M. and the other Detroit auto companies want to alleviate their nearly $100 billion liability for active workers, retirees and their families. The union is also seeking job guarantees for workers who will be left at G.M. after it finishes cutting 30,000 jobs under a revamping plan to be completed next year. But progress was described as slow in a process that is often tedious, raising the prospect that talks would continue through the weekend and potentially into the workweek. Contrary to common perceptions, the actual exchange of proposals across the main bargaining table takes up only a small fraction of the time negotiators spend with one another. Much work takes place over the phone, while small groups of bargainers go over proposals, line by line, in a contract the size of the Manhattan phone book. Through it all, leaders like the U.A.W. president, Ron Gettelfinger, must gauge the reaction of individual workers to aspects of the contract, because officials do not want to risk an internal defeat that could force them to reopen talks. Early Saturday, Mr. McGregor tried to envision an exchange between Mr. Gettelfinger and company negotiators. “He is up there saying, ‘O.K., boys, in five minutes we’re walking out. G.M. is saying, ‘O.K., fine, and the work you do in Hamtramck is now going to China,’ ” Mr. McGregor theorized, leaning back in his office chair. “I’d give anything to be a fly on that wall.” But among workers, there seemed to be little appetite for a strike. Freddie Daniel, who has spent 28 years at the G.M. truck plant in Pontiac, said he needed only two more years before he could retire with full benefits. “I don’t have long to go, so I need to work,” Mr. Daniel said.

United Automobile Workers
General Motors Corp
Automobiles
Organized Labor
Labor


Toll in Bridge Collapse Rises to 11

Abstract: MINNEAPOLIS, Aug. 16 (AP) — Two more sets of human remains were discovered amid the wreckage of the Interstate bridge collapse here, raising the known death toll to 11. The remains were found in cars that divers got to only after cranes moved debris out of the way, said Randy Mitchell, spokesman for the diving operation at the site. “They weren’t freely accessible,” Mr. Mitchell said. The remains were identified as those of Vera Peck, 50, of St. Anthony, and Christina Sacorafas, 45, of White Bear Lake, the Hennepin County medical examiner’s office said. Ms. Peck had been in a car with her 20-year-old son, Richard Chit, when the bridge collapsed. Mr. Chit’s body was recovered over the weekend. The Rev. Paul Paris, pastor at the church that Ms. Sacorafas attended, St. Mary’s Greek Orthodox Church in Minneapolis, said it was a relief that her body had been found. Ms. Sacorafas had been driving to church to teach a Greek folk dancing class the evening of the bridge collapse. “At least they know,” Mr. Paris told The St. Paul Pioneer Press. “That’s the big thing. They know.” Two people remain on the list of known missing and presumed dead in the Aug. 1 collapse: Scott Sathers, 29, and Greg Jolstad, 45. While the two teams of eight divers each have been somewhat limited by the need to rest occasionally, debris has been removed more or less around-the-clock for the past few days, Mr. Mitchell said.

Minneapolis (Minn)
Bridges and Tunnels
Accidents and Safety


North Carolina Routs Tulane; Baylor Romps at Army Base

Abstract: Brice Johnson had a career-high 25 points and 10 rebounds, and No. 11 North Carolina beat visiting Tulane, 96-72, on Wednesday night. Marcus Paige added 16 points, and Justin Jackson had 13. The Tar Heels (8-2) won their first game without the injured big man Kennedy Meeks and bounced back from a last-second loss at Texas that knocked them out of the Top 10. Joel Berry II had 12 points, and Isaiah Hicks finished with 11 for North Carolina, which never trailed, shot 50 percent from the field and had a 43-33 rebounding advantage. “That was my biggest goal today — just play harder, and stay out of foul trouble,” Johnson said. “With Kennedy being out, I knew I’d have to play a little bit more.” Louis Dabney scored 18 points for Tulane (6-5), which cut its deficit to 70-55 on a Malik Morgan jumper with just over eight minutes left. The Tar Heels countered with 15 straight points — a burst that started with a Johnson jumper and included two 3-pointers from Paige. BAYLOR 104, HARDIN-SIMMONS 59 Johnathan Motley had 23 points to lead five Baylor players in double figures, and the No. 16 Bears beat Hardin-Simmons in the first regular-season college basketball game played at Fort Hood, Tex., one of the nation’s largest Army posts. Rico Gathers had 20 points, Al Freeman scored 12, and Taurean Prince and Jake Lindsey each had 11 for the Bears (8-1). Cameron Barnes had 11 points for Division III Hardin-Simmons (6-5). Fort Hood is about an hour from the Baylor campus in Waco. LOUISVILLE 94, KENNESAW ST. 57 Damion Lee scored 18 points as No. 19 Louisville, playing at home, used another strong shooting performance to beat Kennesaw State. Louisville (8-1) shot 59 percent from the field. The Cardinals’ field-goal total, 40, was their highest since Dec. 22, 2010, against Western Kentucky. Chinanu Onuaka scored 16 points for the Cardinals. Yonel Brown led Kennesaw State (3-9) with 19 points. WOMEN S. CAROLINA 86, HAMPTON 48 Alaina Coates, who on Sunday had South Carolina’s first triple-double since 2006, had 22 points and 12 rebounds for the No. 2 Gamecocks (10-0). Malia Tate-DeFreitas had 14 points for visiting Hampton (1-8). TEXAS 92, CANISIUS 62 Imani Boyette had 15 points and 10 rebounds to help No. 5 Texas beat visiting Canisius. The 6-foot-7 Boyette was 7 of 9 from the field for the Longhorns (9-0). Tiahana Mills led Canisius (6-3) with 13 points. MISS. ST. 78, SOUTHERN MISS. 65 Ketara Chapel and Morgan William each scored 17 points for No. 9 Mississippi State (8-1) in a win over visiting Southern Mississippi (6-3), which got 24 points from Jerontay Clemons.

College basketball
UNC
Baylor University
University of Louisville
University of Texas at Austin
University of South Carolina
Mississippi University


Republican Pollster Teams With Madison Avenue Agencies

Abstract: A familiar name in politics — Frank Luntz, the Republican media strategist, consultant and pollster — is joining forces with Madison Avenue. His company, Luntz Global, which works for corporate clients as well as candidates, is being acquired. Mr. Luntz is selling a majority stake in Luntz Global, based in Manassas, Va., to MDC Partners, an agency holding group that owns more than 50 agencies. Mr. Luntz, who promotes himself as a specialist in communications strategy — the phrase “It’s not what you say, it’s what they hear” appears atop the home page of the Luntz Global website — is being named to a new post at MDC, chief language strategist in the company’s strategic resources group. Financial terms of the deal are not being disclosed. Mr. Luntz will continue as chief executive at Luntz Global, which has worked for nonpolitical clients like Anheuser-Busch, McDonald’s, Merrill Lynch and Pfizer. Mr. Luntz is far better known for his work for the Republican Party and Republican candidates, along with his appearances on Fox News Channel and other news outlets, during which he talks to focus groups of voters before major elections. Image The political consultant Frank Luntz spoke at the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, Calif., in 2009. Credit Fred Prouser/Reuters Mr. Luntz’s work for the G.O.P. was not mentioned in a news release from MDC about the deal that came out Wednesday morning. A spokeswoman at MDC, Alexandra Delanghe, said in an email that Luntz Global has “done some work on both sides of the aisle.” A primary strategy of MDC and its chairman, chief executive and president, Miles S. Nadal, is to expand the company rapidly through acquisitions. Other acquisitions by MDC in the last couple of years include Doner, RJ Palmer and TargetCast TCM. MDC holdings include well-known advertising industry names like Anomaly, Crispin Porter & Bogusky, Kirshenbaum Bond Senecal & Partners and 72andSunny. The news of the sale of Luntz Global came shortly after the appearance of a lengthy article in The Atlantic, titled “The Agony of Frank Luntz,” which described him as “America’s best-known public opinion guru” and “top political wordsmith” as it laid out a case that he had lost “faith in our ability to be persuaded” because of the partisan divisions among Americans. In the article, Mr. Luntz was quoted as saying that he was “contemplating a sale” of Luntz Global and was changing his principal residence to Las Vegas from Northern Virginia. The article also said that Mr. Luntz was interested in becoming a consultant in Hollywood to studios and programs.

Mergers and Acquisitions
MDC Partners
Frank I Luntz


As Trump Reaches Toward Putin, U.S. Troops Arrive in Poland

Abstract: WARSAW — The long convoy from an American armored brigade slid unobtrusively across the German frontier into Poland just before 10 a.m. on Thursday. A dozen residents from the southwestern border town of Olszyna turned up to watch. “Americans coming here is the biggest thing that’s ever happened to us,” said one resident, Mieczyslaw Mroz, 62. The convoy — the first installment of what are promised to be several thousand NATO troops to be based across Eastern Europe — made its lumbering way into the nearby town of Zagan for an official welcoming ceremony on a frigid square flanked by tanks. “It’s about time,” said Jan Siemion, 62, a retired security worker who caught the end of the speeches. “Maybe this will stop this guy from the East who has been terrorizing us for decades.” After years of yearning for a permanent NATO troop presence along the alliance’s eastern flank — to keep the guy from the East, President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, at bay — leaders in Poland and elsewhere were jubilant when a plan to station a rotating contingent of a few thousand multinational troops was approved at the alliance’s summit meeting in Warsaw last summer. But now, as those troops are arriving on the scene, the situation has radically changed, and the promise of security feels considerably less certain. The American president-elect, Donald J. Trump, enters office trailing a string of sometimes contradictory statements about NATO and insisting on a new era of chummier relations with Russia’s autocratic leader. So there is considerable concern in Warsaw and other Eastern capitals about whether the troops will actually arrive in the numbers promised, and whether this desire for friendlier relations with Moscow will lead to a deal that undermines the whole effort. “Every new American president wants to initiate some sort of grand bargain with Russia,” said Marcin Zaborowski, executive vice president of the Center for European Policy Analysis and head of its Warsaw office. “And this region always suffers as a consequence of that. I suspect the suffering will be greater this time around.” NATO officials past and present say they remain convinced that the deployments will proceed and confident that the new president will soon understand the nature of the threat Mr. Putin presents to Europe and the United States. “I am absolutely confident that the commitment of the United States is rock solid,” Jens Stoltenberg, NATO’s secretary general, said in a phone interview. “ Donald Trump told me so . He was very strong.” Statements Mr. Trump made during the campaign that questioned whether NATO had outlived its usefulness reflected, in part, his businessman’s sense of grievance that allies were not paying their fair share of the costs of the alliance, officials said. “Our intelligence services have very accurate sources about Russian behavior,” said James G. Stavridis, a retired American Navy admiral, NATO supreme commander from 2009 to 2013 and now dean of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. “Once the new president sees this, he will be supportive. As he absorbs more information about Russia, his skepticism about Vladimir Putin will deepen.” And Russia’s future behavior may also compel the alliance to continue the deployments. “I think it’s highly unlikely Putin is going to change from a shark into a goldfish,” Mr. Stavridis said. “We are going to see sharklike behavior continue around the periphery of NATO.” The deployments are structured as nine-month rotations. The armored brigade that crossed the border Thursday morning, based at Fort Carson, Colo., will remain until the fall, some troops on a base near Zagan and others spread across the region. But they are not scheduled to leave before replacements are in position, making the deployment, in effect, permanent. A second American contingent, due in April, is to be positioned in eastern Poland in the so-called Suwalki Gap , considered the likeliest path for a Russian land invasion, although such an invasion is considered unlikely. But here in Eastern Europe, Polish and other regional leaders are less certain, wondering whether those future troops will show up after Mr. Trump assumes office and, if they do, whether they will be based in the east, as promised. And that does not take into account concerns about other promised American and NATO initiatives to reassure the anxious East, including an American missile shield to be built in Poland, mirroring one already in place in Romania, and the opening of forward supply depots throughout the region where NATO armaments could be stored to make rapid deployment possible in the event of an invasion. “I would say the forward positioning will not happen and, if there is any, it will be in the west of Poland,” Mr. Zaborowski said. “Trump will come to some sort of agreement with Putin about keeping troop levels as low as possible, keeping real deterrent capability as low as possible and keeping the troops in the west of Poland instead of the east.” Mr. Stavridis said he expected the troop deployments to take place as scheduled, but suspected that the new administration’s desire for a Moscow deal will lead to some horse-trading, perhaps involving that promised missile shield. The nomination of Gen. James N. Mattis, a strong proponent of NATO, as Mr. Trump’s secretary of defense does give Eastern Europeans more confidence. “I would be very surprised if General Mattis backs off from this,” said Thomas Donnelly, co-director of the Marilyn Ware Center for Security Studies at the American Enterprise Institute. “This deployment may not be everything you would like, but it’s a real improvement. It’s definitely more than half a loaf.” Now, at least, if Russians do come across the border “they might bump into NATO forces or even kill some Americans,” he said, and that will be a powerful deterrent. “Trump is talking out of both sides of his mouth,” Mr. Donnelly said. “But Trump respects strong men. He thinks of himself as a strong man. I think there is going to be more to the U.S.-Russian relationship than Trump just doing whatever Putin wants him to do.” A Polish military orchestra played the Polish and American national anthems at Thursday’s welcoming ceremony in Zagan. About 20 civilians turned up in the bitter cold, including a little girl in a red jacket and pink hat, who sat on a sled waving an American flag. Capt. Matt Piazza, 28, like other American soldiers, declined to name Russia as the reason for the deployment. “We’re here to deter any aggression, wherever it may come from,” he said. “But I don’t believe it will happen. This is a peaceful mission.” Edyta Maher, 39, who had wandered over from the tiny village of Kalki to watch the convoy cross the border, expressed a more wary attitude. “It’s this Trump that worries me the most,” Ms. Maher said. “There’s no telling what he’s going to do as president. But it looks like he and Putin may be doing some colluding. It can’t be good for Poland.”

US Foreign Policy
US Military
NATO
Donald Trump
Vladimir Putin
Poland
Eastern Europe
Russia


Abortion-Rights Advocates Preparing for a New Surge of Federal and State Attacks

Abstract: Advocates for abortion rights were bracing Wednesday for renewed assaults on abortion access in Washington as well as in state capitols after widespread Republican electoral gains. Anti-abortion forces in Tennessee savored their ballot-box victory, the passage of an amendment saying that nothing in the Tennessee Constitution “secures or protects” a right to abortion. The measure was intended to nullify a state court ruling that a right to privacy in the State Constitution prohibited some of the abortion restrictions adopted in neighboring states, like instructions about what doctors must tell patients. “We are grateful to God and to the good people of Tennessee for this victory,” said Brian Harris, president of Tennessee Right to Life and a coordinator of the ballot campaign. Ashley Coffield, the president and chief executive of Planned Parenthood of Greater Memphis, said the amendment “puts Tennessee women in a very vulnerable place.” “We’ll fight any legislation the General Assembly brings up that we believe creates barriers and is not intended to protect women’s health and safety,” she said. Abortion rights supporters took solace in the defeat, in Colorado and North Dakota, of proposals to grant “personhood” rights to human embryos and fetuses. The amendments were seen as legally unwise even by some mainstream anti-abortion groups, who feared they could lead to a crushing court defeat. Similar proposals have now been rejected by voters in Colorado three times, and by voters in the conservative bastions of Mississippi and North Dakota. But the wider Republican gains in the states are likely to add to the rush of abortion restrictions, from two-day waiting periods to bans at 20 weeks after conception to costly building requirements, that have been adopted in the last several years. As in 2010, when Republicans made large gains, social issues like abortion were not a major factor in the campaigns. But once in office, the newly dominant Republican legislators passed scores of new abortion restrictions. Ilyse Hogue, president of Naral Pro-Choice America , said that some of the victorious Republican candidates for governor had moderated their statements about abortion during the campaign, hoping to attract more women and centrist voters. In the coming year, she pledged, these elected officials “will be held to account” more directly than in the past. “We’re going to be tracking state bills and asking loud questions of governors who said they were running to expand opportunities for everyone, but then spend taxpayer resources trying to shrink our choices,” she said. The Republican takeover of the Senate, and the expected ascendancy of Mitch McConnell of Kentucky as majority leader, make it likely that bitterly divisive debates over abortion will flare anew in Washington. Last year, the House passed a bill that would ban abortions at 20 weeks after conception nationwide, based on a theory disputed by mainstream scientists that the fetus can feel pain at that point. The proposal, a top priority of the anti-abortion movement, was blocked by the Senate controlled by the Democrats. Variations of 20-week bans are in effect in 10 states, but were blocked by courts in three. Legal experts say they violate Supreme Court rulings (stemming from Roe v. Wade, a 1973 ruling) that women have a right to an abortion until the fetus is viable, which is usually around 22 weeks after conception. Senator McConnell has in the past promised to press for a nationwide 20-week ban. If he does make it a priority, Democrats are likely to try to stop it with a filibuster. As a last resort, President Obama would almost certainly veto it. Ms. Hogue, of Naral, said that rights advocates would hope to counter the proposal by focusing on legislators who had expressed mixed views on abortion. They will stress how unusual such late procedures are and how complicated and heart-rending the decisions tend to be, adding that it is the last thing that government should get involved with. “The personal stories of women who have faced this incredible decision are very persuasive,” she said.

Abortion
US
US states
Republicans
Tennessee
Mitch McConnell
2014 Midterm Elections
Senate races
House races
Congressional elections


Columbia Coach Resigns Amid Abusive Behavior Assertions

Abstract: Pete Mangurian, Columbia’s football coach, resigned Friday, a day after the university’s student newspaper reported that a letter from players to the administration said he had verbally and physically abused them and ordered them to return to the field after sustaining concussions. “I have accepted Pete Mangurian’s resignation because we have all come to the conclusion that it would be in the best interests of Columbia athletics,” Columbia’s president, Lee C. Bollinger, said in a statement. Mangurian compiled a 3-27 record over three seasons, including a current 21-game losing streak. Mangurian could not be reached Friday to comment on his resignation. When reached by telephone on Thursday, he said he was told not to discuss the charges reported by the student newspaper, The Columbia Daily Spectator. The article said that 25 players had submitted a letter to Bollinger that addressed Mangurian’s behavior. The letter was subsequently withdrawn, The Spectator reported Thursday, but the reason was unclear. The university did not deny the existence of the letter, but its contents could not be independently corroborated by The New York Times. “While we don’t generally comment on specific cases under review, it is essential to note that Columbia adheres to a strict medical protocol regarding head injuries for all sports teams and our investigation has found no evidence to support an allegation of a departure from that protocol with our football players,” the university said in its statement Friday. Kevin McCarthy, a junior safety for the Lions, said that mismanagement of concussions was “something I never witnessed and I don’t believe ever happened around here.” “If you’re showing symptoms of a concussion on the field, you have to go and be checked by our head trainer,” he said, adding that a player’s return to the field “is something that is not in the coach’s hands.” McCarthy also said he did not believe Mangurian had been abusive. “There’s nothing more than you would see at any other Division I football program,” he said. The team’s head physician, Dr. William N. Levine, an orthopedist, and the head athletic trainer, Jim Gossett, disputed the notion that the program’s concussion protocols had been compromised. “In my 16 years at Columbia, no coach, including Coach Mangurian, has ever made me have to in any way bend my ethics about taking care of our student-athletes,” Levine said. “I can’t comment to the specific allegation that he may have left the athletes with whatever their impressions may have been,” Levine added. “He never once imposed any say on what we did.” Gossett said he attended nearly every practice. “I think his attitude is — and this is what he told parents during the recruitment process, what he said in preseason meetings — we’re the medical side, we make those decisions.”

College football
Pete Mangurian
Assault
Columbia


A Push to Ban Soda Purchases With Food Stamps

Abstract: Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg sought federal permission on Wednesday to bar New York City ’s 1.7 million recipients of food stamps from using them to buy soda or other sugared drinks. The request, made to the United States Department of Agriculture , which finances and sets the rules for the food-stamp program, is part of an aggressive anti- obesity push by the mayor that has also included advertisements, stricter rules on food sold in schools and an unsuccessful attempt to have the state impose a tax on the sugared drinks. Public health experts greeted Mr. Bloomberg’s proposal cautiously. George Hacker, senior policy adviser for the health promotion project of the Center for Science in the Public Interest , said a more equitable approach might be to use educational campaigns to dissuade food-stamp users from buying sugared drinks. “The world would be better, I think, if people limited their purchases of sugared beverages,” Mr. Hacker said. “However, there are a great many ethical reasons to consider why one would not want to stigmatize people on food stamps.” The mayor requested a ban for two years to study whether it would have a positive impact on health and whether a permanent ban would be merited. “In spite of the great gains we’ve made over the past eight years in making our communities healthier, there are still two areas where we’re losing ground — obesity and diabetes ,” the mayor said in a statement. “This initiative will give New York families more money to spend on foods and drinks that provide real nourishment.” New York State , which administers food stamps locally, signed on to the request, which was received by the Agriculture Department on Wednesday evening. “We appreciate the state’s interest,” a spokesman, Justin DeJong, said. “We will review and carefully consider the state’s proposal.” In 2004, the Agriculture Department denied a request by Minnesota to prevent food-stamp recipients from buying junk food. The department said that the plan, which focused on candy and soda, among other foods, was based on questionable merits and would “perpetuate the myth” that food-stamp users made poor shopping decisions. Congress debated but rejected restricting the purchase of sugared drinks with food stamps as part of a 2008 farm bill , Mr. Hacker said. But this year, the chairman of the House’s Agriculture Committee, Collin Peterson, Democrat of Minnesota, said the House should think about such a ban in its deliberations over the next farm bill. Mr. Bloomberg and his health commissioner, Dr. Thomas A. Farley, said the ban would help curb the city’s obesity epidemic, which they contend has been fueled by rising soda consumption over the past 30 years. City statistics released last month showed that nearly 40 percent of public-school children in kindergarten through eighth grade were overweight or obese, and that obesity rates were substantially higher in poor neighborhoods. City studies show that consumption of sugared beverages is consistently higher in those neighborhoods. Dr. Farley and the state’s health commissioner, Dr. Richard F. Daines, said in an Op-Ed article in The New York Times on Thursday that the ban would not reduce the ability of food-stamp recipients to feed their families. “They would still receive every penny of support they now get, meaning they would have as much, if not more, to spend on nutritious food,” Dr. Farley and Dr. Daines wrote. “And they could still purchase soda if they choose — just not with taxpayer dollars.” The health of New Yorkers, and particularly obesity, is one of the mayor’s signature issues. During his first term in office, Mr. Bloomberg expanded the city’s smoking ban to almost all indoor public places, and he is proposing to expand it to beaches , parks and plazas. New York City has banned trans fats in restaurants and requires restaurants to post calorie counts. The city’s campaign against sugary drinks has been especially aggressive. This week, it introduced ads showing a man drinking packets of sugar. But its attempt to persuade the State Legislature to impose a tax on the drinks was met with skepticism and opposition from the beverage industry and grocery owners. Tracey Halliday, a spokeswoman for the American Beverage Association, said of the mayor’s request: “This is just another attempt by government to tell New Yorkers what they should eat and drink.” The number of New Yorkers qualifying for food stamps has grown more than 35 percent in the past couple of years, mirroring a nationwide trend. And the mayor’s proposal could raise concerns about equity, since it is aimed at one segment of the city, its poorest. When Minnesota sought its ban, welfare rights advocates there accused the state of being patronizing to food-stamp users. Anticipating such criticism, Dr. Farley and Dr. Daines said that the food-stamp program already prohibited the use of benefits to buy cigarettes , beer, wine, liquor or prepared foods. The ban would affect beverages with more than 10 calories per 8 ounces, and would exclude fruit juices without added sugar, milk products and milk substitutes. A 12-ounce soda has 150 calories and the equivalent of 10 packets of sugar, according to the health department. City health officials say that drinking 12 ounces of soda a day can make a person gain 15 pounds a year. Dr. Farley and Dr. Daines said that over the past 30 years, the consumption of soda and other sugary beverages in the United States had more than doubled, paralleling the rise in obesity. They blame that trend for the rising rate of diabetes, which now afflicts one in eight adults in New York City, and is nearly twice as common among poor New Yorkers as among wealthier ones. Told of Mr. Bloomberg’s request on Wednesday, one food-stamp user, Marangeley Reyes, 24, of Harlem , said the mayor should not dictate what foods she bought. Ms. Reyes had just emerged from a Shop Fair supermarket on Lenox Avenue with a 20-ounce bottle of Orange Crush — she drinks at least one a day. But after giving it some more thought, she said, “I probably shouldn’t be drinking so much soda.”

Food Stamps
Soda
Mike Bloomberg
NYC
Obesity
Nutrition
Drink
Weight
Thomas A Farley
Richard F Daines


Create Your Own Parodies for ‘Downfall’ and Other Films

Abstract: It is April 1945. In his underground bunker, Hitler huddles over a map with his top generals. The room is insufferably tense. Members of the German high command, sweating in their uniforms, wonder who will dare to break the terrible news to Der Führer. “The iPad won’t support multitasking,” one general confesses. Hitler erupts in impotent rage, “I wanted to watch videos of lolcats while laying on the couch. But no, they won’t even give it Flash support.” This four-minute video , available on YouTube , is one of hundreds of goofy edits to the English subtitles of a powerful scene from a 2004 German-language movie titled “ Downfall ” in the United States. In various home-subtitled remakes over the last few years , Hitler explodes when told that the McMansion he was trying to flip is in foreclosure, that the band Oasis has split up, that the Colts lost the Super Bowl or that people keep making more “Downfall” parodies . When Hitler learns Sarah Palin has resigned as governor of Alaska, he pounds his chest. “Every time she winked,” he moans, “I thought it was just for me.” Making your own Hitler video turns out to be refreshingly easy, which is why so many of them can be found on YouTube. All you need is a PC and Microsoft’s Movie Maker, a program included with both Windows XP and Vista. (If you run the new Windows 7, you will need to download the old Movie Maker 2.6 , rather than the new but less powerful Windows Live Movie Maker. If you’re a Mac user, Apple’s built-in iMovie application will handle the job.) Once Movie Maker is running, download a scene from “Downfall” at www.mediafire.com/downfallscenes . “Original bunker scene” is the most popular. Save it to the desktop, then choose File->Import from Movie Maker to load it for editing. It appears in Movie Maker as a series of consecutive clips. At the bottom of Movie Maker’s window is what’s called a timeline. Drag each clip, from first to last, into the timeline, keeping them in the same order. To add a subtitle, click the magnifying glass button to zoom in on a clip. The audio soundtrack is represented as sound waves, so you can see exactly where each speaker’s lines begin. Align your subtitle’s appearance onscreen to the start of each spoken sentence, so viewers aren’t left hanging. To do this, drag the vertical location bar in the clip’s window until it matches the left-hand starting point of an actor’s sound bite. It’s your call how long to leave the subtitle onscreen. Give people time to read it. Next, select the menu item Tools->Titles and Credits->Add Title. Go to the selected clip and choose Change Title->Animation->Select Subtitles. Click “Edit the title text” and type in your dialogue. Then use the font controls — the A button onscreen — to shrink the text size. Make the letters white, for contrast against the movie. Once you have added one subtitle, the easy way to add the rest is to cut and paste your first one over and over. Then you won’t have to redo the font settings each time, you just change the words. When you are finished, choose File->Save Movie File and save the edited movie in WMV format. Play it on your desktop with Windows Media Player, to be sure it works. Ready for your worldwide premiere? Go to YouTube and create a free personal account if you don’t have one. You can then upload your Hitler remix to YouTube for everyone on the Internet to watch. For more help and ideas, join the Downfall Parodies Forum at s1.zetaboards.com/downfallparodies . Once you have mastered editing Adolf, you may want to tackle the more time-consuming Internet hobby of remixing movie trailers from one type of movie into something totally, hilariously different. By changing the music, inserting shots out of context, and adding a bit of titles or voiceover, it’s possible to concoct a trailer that makes “Mary Poppins” seem like a Stephen King scarefest, or to spin King’s macabre “The Shining” as a heartwarming family tale. In fact, these are the genre’s two classics. Shining is a mock trailer buoyed by an uplifting Peter Gabriel tune, in which the thwarted novelist played by Jack Nicholson regains his self-esteem because of the patient love of a little boy. (In the real movie, Nicholson goes insane and dies trying to kill the child.) Scary Mary goes the other way, splicing together scenes that display Julie Andrews’ telekinetic powers with her most menacing scowls from the film. Spooky music makes the shots from Disney’s musical seem like sheer terror. To create a trailer, it is best to turn to semi-pro software like Vegas Movie Studio 9 from Sony, available for around $50 online. (Apple users, splurge on Final Cut Express, closer to $150.) There’s no magic here. It’s work. Prepare to spend a weekend building your own one-minute timeline from scratch, cutting and pasting scenes from the full movie into your program, adding a music track and creating titles. Some trailer buffs even record a voiceover in the style of the late Don LaFontaine : “In a world ... ruled by fear ... one man ... dared to stand up.” But unless you’ve got experience recording voices, stick to using text titles to set up your reimagined story. Be forewarned: turning jubilant comedies like Jack Black’s “School of Rock” into horror flicks has been done to death. Try for something original, like the auteur who recast “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” as the story of an international drug kingpin . A brief word about “fair use.” When you are playing with copyrighted material, you have to be aware that all your hard work can be for naught. While you may be well within your rights to use a portion of copyrighted material in a parody — the law is murky on how much material and in what fashion constitutes fair use — your parody might get squashed. Downfall’s copyright holder, Constantin Film, had a dozen remixes removed from YouTube earlier this year. But the company seems to have since yielded to the phenomenon. And YouTube recently removed the clip that began the 2007 fad of rickrolling , long after the meme had worn itself out. These techniques can be used to create parodies of other video memes that come and go, like the keyboard-playing cat or the little boy after a visit to the dentist. (One video replaces the little boy with Darth Vader .) Mashing up two or more clips is easy as all the videos with the Keyboard Cat — so last year — attest to. (The cat, in this meme, was inserted at the end of another video to signal a person’s time in the limelight was over with a vaudeville-style playoff.) Import each clip into Movie Maker. They’ll appear as a menu of Collections at the top of the window. Drag the parts you want in whatever order into the timeline at the bottom. You can record new audio over them. It’s easy to splice together Hitler having, say, an angry phone call with a talking cat . Practice mashing movies to get a leg up on the next Internet meme — one that hopefully will not involve cats.

Computers and the Internet
Recordings and Downloads (Video)
Copyrights and Copyright Violations
Movies
YouTube.com
Constantin Film


Kurds Protest Iraqi Election Law

Abstract: BAGHDAD — The entire bloc of Kurdish lawmakers walked out of Iraq ’s Parliament on Tuesday to protest a proposed provincial election law, contending that part of it was unconstitutional. The walkout by roughly a fifth of Parliament’s 275 members delayed voting on the bill, which governs provincial council elections scheduled to take place across Iraq this fall. The dispute could yet be resolved quickly, but it introduced more uncertainty into preparations for the nationwide elections. Parliament will meet again on Thursday to discuss the bill, several members said, and talks are continuing in small meetings. The walkout underscores the political power struggle among the Kurdish, Arab and Turkmen populations in the oil-rich northern province of Tamim and its ethnically mixed capital, Kirkuk. The Kurds, claiming an ethnic majority in Tamim, have pushed to postpone the provincial council vote until a census is taken, a special agreement is forged or a constitutionally mandated referendum is held on whether the city should stay under Baghdad’s administration or join the Kurdish regional government. Under the Constitution, the referendum was scheduled to take place by the end of last year, but logistics and the security situation have delayed the process. Many Arab and Turkmen lawmakers have insisted that Kirkuk vote at the time of nationwide provincial elections. The originally scheduled date of Oct. 1 for those elections appears unlikely. The Kurdish officials who walked out on Tuesday said they had been prepared to vote on the draft election law, with the understanding that the only point open on Kirkuk was whether to delay the election. But attached to the bill was a separate power-sharing proposal, requested by more than 100 Arab and Turkmen lawmakers, to create a provincial council in Kirkuk of 10 Kurds, 10 Arabs and 10 Turkmens, with 2 more representatives from the region’s small Christian population. The Kurds contend that this arrangement, which had a good chance of passing, would not reflect their numbers. “If you already pick the seats before the election, why vote?” asked Mahmoud Uthman, a member of the Kurdish bloc in Parliament. Mr. Uthman expressed confidence that an agreement would be reached but said the Kurds would not show up Thursday if the proposal was not removed. Kirkuk has been at the center of a custody battle for decades. In the 1980s, Saddam Hussein began trying to tip the city toward an Arab majority, kicking Kurds out of their homes and forcing Arabs from the south to move in. Several steps, including a census, were outlined in the Constitution to arrive at a just arrangement for the region, but none have been completed, leaving an atmosphere of profound mistrust between the different peoples. The Kirkuk question is just one of several issues in the proposed election law that have provoked significant debate. Others include whether to keep a 25 percent quota for women in provincial councils; whether to ban the depiction of religious figures and symbols in campaign materials; and whether to switch to an open list system of elections, under which voters can choose individual candidates rather than parties. The walkout took place before any of these issues came up for discussion, but two seemed to have been resolved beforehand. A consensus has formed around an open list system, according to several lawmakers. And the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, a Shiite party, which was the only party to publicly fight the proposed ban on the use of religious figures, said last week that it was dropping its resistance at the request of Shiite clerics.

Iraq
Elections
Kurds
Politics and Government


Young Households Are Losing Ground in Income, Despite Education

Abstract: YOUNG families are better educated than ever before, but they are earning lower real incomes. The Federal Reserve Board’s newly released 2013 Survey of Consumer Finances indicates that the median family headed by someone under 35 years of age earned $35,509 in 2013 dollars. Adjusted for inflation, that is 6 percent less than similar families reported in the first such survey, in 1989. Since 1989, the Fed has conducted extensive interviews of consumers every three years. Respondents are asked about their family’s income in the previous year, as well as about wealth, debt, education and attitudes toward financial issues. The results are released by family, not by individual, so the median family income may include the income of both spouses. Single-person households are included in the family calculations. As can be seen in the charts, younger families have fallen further and further behind older families as time has passed. Nearly a quarter-century after the first survey was taken, families headed by people over 55 generally have higher incomes, after adjusting for inflation, than their predecessors did. But those in groups under 55 generally earn less than their predecessors. In the first survey, the younger group included families headed by people born after 1954, and so was dominated by baby boomers. The latest group includes families headed by people born after 1984, and they seem not to have done nearly as well early in their careers. The earlier group came of age in a stronger economy and its members were generally not burdened by education loans as many of the latter group are. The largest declines have come since the 2007 survey — the last one in which participants discussed their income in a year before the Great Recession began. The following survey covered income earned during the recession, and it was not easy to know how much of the falloff was a cyclical phenomenon that would disappear when the economy recovered. But the newest survey covered income in 2012, three years after the recession ended, and shows that most of the lost ground has not been recovered. In fact, the real median income for all of the age groups except those in the 35-to-44 group declined from 2010 to 2013. Among families of all ages, those with more education tend to earn more than those with less. But that differential appears to be shrinking. at least for younger families. In 1989, the median income of families headed by young college graduates was twice that of similar families headed by high school graduates who never attended college. Now, the difference is only 52 percent. There are more college graduates in the group, but those graduates have a lower real median income than their predecessors. Median incomes tell only part of the story, of course. But the relative decline of the young can also be seen in the distribution of high-income families. In the first survey, nearly a third of younger families had incomes that put them in the top 40 percent of all families. That figure has been steadily falling, and in the latest report just over a quarter of young families are in that group. The age group whose real income has grown the most over the last quarter-century covers those age 65 to 74. The median income of that group used to be lower than that of younger families. Now it is higher. People past the traditional retirement age of 65 are much more likely to be working now than they used to be, but higher pension income may also be a factor.


Victims of Defective G.M. Ignition Switches Begin Filing Claims

Abstract: DETROIT — A fund General Motors put in place to compensate victims of accidents caused by its vehicles’ faulty ignition switches began accepting claims on Friday. The process will ultimately help calculate how many people were killed or seriously hurt by the deadly defect. The automaker hopes that the fund, overseen by the compensation expert Kenneth R. Feinberg, will help put the worst safety crisis in its nearly 106-year history at least partly behind it. But it is also expected to result in a rise in the number of deaths and accidents linked to the faulty switches that G.M. failed to fix for years before recalling 2.6 million Chevrolet Cobalts, Saturn Ions and other cars in February. G.M. has so far tied 13 deaths and 54 accidents to the defective switch, which can suddenly cut engine power and disable air bags in moving vehicles. But those totals are expected to grow, possibly substantially, as Mr. Feinberg accumulates claims through the end of the year. By early Friday evening, fewer than 10 claims had been filed, said Camille S. Biros, deputy administrator of the compensation fund. “It was a slow day,” she said. But, Ms. Biros added, some plaintiffs’ lawyers who represent large numbers of clients told Mr. Feinberg that they planned to “file in bulk” in coming weeks. “I think what we’ll see is the numbers increase rapidly in the next two weeks,” she said. Ms. Biros has worked with Mr. Feinberg on numerous victims’ funds and said that filing periods usually start slowly, in part because of the amount of evidence that claimants are required to assemble. “We’re asking them for a lot of information,” she said. Image Kenneth R. Feinberg, the administrator of G.M.’s ignition compensation fund, will decide which claims to accept and pay. Credit Jim Lo Scalzo/European Pressphoto Agency Lance Cooper, a lawyer in Georgia who represents multiple victims, said his clients would take time to fill out the forms appropriately and provide supporting evidence. The documents needed to support a claim range from proof that the vehicle was included in the initial switch recalls to police reports and other accident information. The 13-page claim form for deceased victims, for example, also asks for details about the victim’s job history, including income. “We will be filing a number of claims within the next week,” Mr. Cooper said on Friday. “We are still figuring out what we should submit and how it should be submitted.” Robert C. Hilliard, a lawyer in Texas who has filed two lawsuits covering hundreds of victims involved in accidents in cars not included in the fund, said he expected to file about 200 claims for injuries and deaths tied to cars covered by the compensation program. The fund’s official opening happened on the same day that Senator Claire McCaskill, Democrat of Missouri, introduced legislation to toughen penalties for automakers that violate safety laws. Ms. McCaskill, who has headed two hearings investigating G.M.’s recall, is seeking to abolish limits on fines for car companies that hide vehicle defects. G.M. has already been assessed the current maximum fine of $35 million for neglecting to repair switches that it knew were flawed as far back as 2001. The bill would also amend the legal requirements for recalls for companies that go through bankruptcy, as G.M. did in 2009; prohibit the rental of vehicles that have been recalled for safety reasons; and double the funding for auto safety regulators. “For too long auto safety resources have remained virtually stagnant while cars and the safety challenges they present have become more complex,” Ms. McCaskill said in a statement. Lawmakers are skeptical that G.M.’s compensation program will treat all victims fairly, and they have urged the automaker to expand the fund to cover accident victims in other G.M. vehicles that have been recalled for ignition switch problems. For now, Mr. Feinberg is authorized to compensate only victims of accidents involving older-model Cobalts and other small cars covered by the first switch recalls announced in February. Since then, G.M. has issued dozens of other recalls for a wide range of models, including other cars that have ignition problems similar to those experienced by cars included in the compensation fund’s guidelines. Details on the fund, including application forms, have been posted at a website, GMIgnitionCompensation.com. “The program has no aggregate cap,” the site said. “G.M. has agreed to pay whatever the administrator deems appropriate in each and every individual case.” Mr. Feinberg said this year that valid death claims could result in payments in the millions, depending on the age and income of the deceased. Injury claims could run higher, based on long-term medical costs. Video Nearly a decade ago, Rhonda Erickson’s son died in a car accident. It is now known his is one of the 13 deaths tied to General Motors’ ignition switch malfunction. Last month, G.M. estimated the cost of the program at $400 million when it took a financial charge for that amount in its second-quarter earnings. The company, however, said that the cost could ultimately be larger. G.M.’s chief executive, Mary T. Barra, said that victims would be treated with “compassion, dignity and fairness” throughout the process. Some victims’ lawyers and safety advocates have accused G.M. of trying to limit its overall financial exposure by excluding people who were killed or injured in vehicles that were not covered by the initial switch recalls. Victims do not give up their legal right to sue G.M. unless they accept the compensation offered by Mr. Feinberg. The family of Zachary Schoenbach, one of the 13 deaths linked to the faulty switch, was expected to file a claim on Friday, according to James R. Dugan, one of the lawyers for the family. Mr. Dugan said he and two other associate law firms planned to file more than 100 death and injury cases on a rolling basis over the next several months. Cathy Sachse, the daughter-in-law of Marie Sachse, who died when her Saturn Ion lost power and crashed into a tree in 2009, said family members were weighing their options about entering the compensation program or suing G.M. “We really haven’t made a decision what to do,” Ms. Sachse said. “It’s always better to have as much information and process as much as you can before jumping off the cliff, so to speak.”

GM
Automobile safety
Car Crash
Reparations
Lawsuits


Hedge Fund Chief Is Charged With Fraud

Abstract: By all appearances, Raj Rajaratnam was a self-made billionaire, having built Galleon Group into a giant hedge fund with a specialty in technology companies. But prosecutors said on Friday that he had profited not from his trading genius but from his Rolodex, and they arrested him on charges of conspiracy and securities fraud in what they called the biggest insider trading scheme ever involving a hedge fund. In all, six people were arrested, accused by prosecutors and the Securities and Exchange Commission of earning more than $20 million from illegal trading in companies like Google , Akamai and Hilton Hotels over nearly three years. Even now, after the discovery of Bernard L. Madoff, the scheme outlined by law enforcement officials is the stuff of Wall Street thrillers, not seen since the days of Ivan Boesky two decades ago. Mr. Rajaratnam is accused of tapping a vast network of informants across a swath of corporate America: a senior official at I.B.M. considered a contender for the top job at that firm; executives of Intel and the consulting firm McKinsey & Company; two former Bear Stearns employees who had moved to a hedge fund, New Castle Partners; and an analyst at Moody’s Investors Service. While trading secrets, though, one crucial piece of information was not shared — several of the phones were tapped. The wiretaps were made with the help of an unnamed cooperating witness, a former Galleon employee who was said to ply Mr. Rajaratnam with information originally to land a job. The witness, who began cooperating in November 2007, has agreed to plead guilty in the hopes of receiving a lesser sentence. “This case should serve as a wake-up call for Wall Street,” Preet Bharara, the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York, said at a news conference on Friday. He added that the investigation was continuing. Still stinging from criticism that they missed frauds like Mr. Madoff’s, securities regulators working with prosecutors repeatedly pointed to the recorded phone calls as a sign that they were tightening their grip on white-collar crime, comparing the investigation to those against the Mafia and drug cartels. Mr. Rajaratnam was charged with four counts of conspiracy and nine counts of securities fraud. United States Magistrate Judge Douglas F. Eaton set bail at $100 million. A lawyer for Mr. Rajaratnam, James Walden of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, said, “My client’s innocent and we’re going to fight the charges.” Robert Khuzami, the S.E.C.’s director of enforcement, said of Mr. Rajaratnam in a news conference, “He is not a master of the universe,” outlining the civil case brought with the criminal case. “He is a master of the Rolodex.” A spokesman for Galleon said the firm was “shocked” at the arrest and added that it had no knowledge of the investigation before it was made public. Suggesting that problems may extend beyond a single hedge fund, the informants fed Galleon tips for cash or in some cases for other insider information, officials said. Among the tipsters was the Moody’s analyst, who was paid $10,000; an employee at an investor relations firm working for Google; and Robert W. Moffat Jr., an I.B.M senior vice president for systems and technology. Mr. Moffat, of Ridgefield, Conn., was among those charged. All six defendants are expected to plead not guilty. One defendant, Rajiv Goel of Los Altos, Calif., told Mr. Rajaratnam in March 2008 that he was tired of working at Intel and would exchange information about a potential investment by the company in Clearwire for a job with one of Mr. Rajaratnam’s “powerful friends.” Mr. Rajaratnam made a profit of $579,000 from trading in Clearwire stock. One main player in the scheme was Danielle Chiesi, a former Bear Stearns executive who worked at another hedge fund, New Castle Partners. She is accused of supplying tips about companies like Akamai and Sun Microsystems to Mr. Rajaratnam and of illegally trading on the information for her firm. Closely cooperating with Ms. Chiesi was Mark Kurland, a former senior executive at Bear Stearns Asset Management who is now New Castle’s president and lives in Mount Kisco, N.Y. Prosecutors say the scheme produced some wildly successful investments. Information leaked about Google’s quarterly results in July 2007 led Mr. Rajaratnam to bet against the company. The trade led to an $8 million profit. In another trade, advance notice from a Moody’s analyst that Hilton was about to be bought by the Blackstone Group in July 2007 produced a $4 million profit. Much of the often-salty telephone dialogue captured by federal investigators relates to Akamai and Advanced Micro Devices, the chip maker. Mr. Rajaratnam and Ms. Chiesi drew upon a wealth of insider sources for their investments in the two companies: Anil Kumar, a McKinsey executive working on A.M.D.’s reorganization and a Galleon investor; an unnamed Akamai executive; and Mr. Moffat, a friend of Ms. Chiesi’s who learned of A.M.D. developments through the chip maker’s business ties to I.B.M. “Danielle, I have a major present for you,” the Akamai executive told Ms. Chiesi late on Oct. 10, 2008, according to court filings. “Information.” Recorded conversations between Mr. Rajaratnam and Ms. Chiesi appear to show they were aware their information was far beyond what the market knew. “If the two of us weren’t close to the company as we are, would you be long the stock?” Ms. Chiesi asked Mr. Rajaratnam on Aug. 26, 2008, referring to A.M.D. “No. I wouldn’t be,” he responded. She added that she would not have touched the company with a “10-foot pole.” The two also showed concern about the consequences of their schemes being discovered. On Aug. 27, Ms. Chiesi told an unnamed co-conspirator: “I’m dead if this leaks. I really am and my career is over.” At one point, Mr. Rajaratnam grew worried that a former employee was wearing a wire, prosecutors said. Earlier this week, he booked a flight for Friday to London from New York. He was arrested at his Manhattan home at 6 a.m. Friday.

Wiretapping and Other Eavesdropping Devices and Methods

International Business Machines Corporation


TransUnion, Equifax and Experian Agree to Overhaul Credit Reporting Practices

Abstract: The nation’s giant credit reporting agencies — which keep records on more than 200 million individuals and influence their ability to obtain credit — have agreed to overhaul their approach to fixing errors and their treatment of medical debts on consumers’ reports. Eric T. Schneiderman , the New York State attorney general, announced Monday that his office had reached a sweeping settlement with the agencies, affecting consumers nationwide, which was prompted by an investigation that began in 2012. “Credit reports touch every part of our lives,” Mr. Schneiderman said in a statement. “They affect whether we can obtain a credit card, take out a college loan, rent an apartment or buy a car — and sometimes even whether we can get jobs.” The credit bureaus — Experian , Equifax and TransUnion — have long been criticized for the convoluted process that consumers must endure to get their credit reports fixed , among other things. Under the agreement, they will improve their dispute resolution process, which is largely automated , and instead use specially trained employees. The three companies will also establish a six-month waiting period before reporting medical debts on consumers’ credit reports , providing more time for consumers to resolve issues that might amount only to a delayed insurance payment or another dispute. The credit agencies will also remove medical debts from an individual’s report after the debt is paid by insurance. Additionally, the credit reporting bureaus will take steps to make consumers aware that their credit reports are available free at least once a year from each of the credit agencies through the website annualcreditreport.com . The agencies will now have to include links to that website on their home pages, as well as provide another free report to consumers who experience a change in their credit reports after initiating a dispute. The settlement requires the agencies to introduce the changes, which the bureaus said would be instituted nationwide, over three years. But most changes will be carried out over the next six to 18 months, according to the Consumer Data Industry Association, a trade group that represents the credit bureaus. “In today’s world, the consumer’s input is less important than the bank or collector’s input,” said John Ulzheimer, credit expert at CreditSesame.com , adding that the credit agencies always take the companies’ word over consumers’. “The attorney general’s settlement changes that.” The investigation was initiated after several New Yorkers complained that they were having trouble correcting errors on their reports. The credit agencies’ industry group said that the three companies had been working with the New York attorney general and other state attorneys general to develop the plan, and that more announcements could be made in the months ahead. The credit agencies fully cooperated with the investigation and deny any wrongdoing, according to the settlement agreement. And though a financial payment was not required, the reporting agencies will have to spend significant sums on personnel and on enhancing their systems to adhere to the settlement agreement. “They are going to have to hire a lot of people,” Mr. Schneiderman said at a news conference on Monday afternoon. “It is going to cost a substantial amount.” Credit reports touch nearly every aspect of a consumer’s financial life: Data in the files is analyzed and used to create credit scores, including the FICO score , which is widely used by financial services companies to judge consumers and decide how much interest to charge them. But the reports’ impact can reach far beyond the world of loans; they can affect an individual’s ability to obtain a rental apartment or get a cellphone, and even influence how much they might pay for car insurance . Even though consumers are entitled to dispute any inaccurate information in their credit reports, the entire process has been criticized by consumer advocates for years: The bureaus often outsource thousands of disputes daily to workers overseas who generally are told to translate the problem into a two- or three-digit code that is fed into a computer; the code and any documentation are sent to the creditor. If the creditor verifies the information, no further investigation takes place. Now, those automatic rejections will no longer be tolerated. And specially trained employees will have to review all supporting documentation submitted by consumers involving mixed credit files — in which a consumers’ file is blended with another person’s report — fraud or identity theft . Requiring the credit bureaus to wait 180 days to list any delinquent medical debt on credit reports is another victory for consumers. Given the complex way in which medical bills are charged and paid, it is not uncommon for delays in payment to tarnish credit reports, often without consumers’ knowledge. Just last year, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau released the results of its own study , based on five million anonymous credit records, which found that consumers may be overly penalized for medical debts that go to collections. About half of unpaid collections on consumers’ reports are medical-related. “Too many people are surprised to learn of medical billing problems only after having a bill sent to collection and being forced to deal with damaged credit,” said Mark Rukavina, a longtime consumer advocate and principal of Community Health Advisors, a consultancy that works with nonprofit hospitals on billing and collection issues. “Having the agencies finally agree to remove medical debts that were reported and subsequently paid by insurers is long overdue.” FICO has already also acknowledged that delinquent medical debts may not be an accurate predictor of a consumer’s financial behavior. Last year, it said the latest version of its credit score would no longer weigh medical debts as heavily as in previous iterations. The settlement — which requires the bureaus to carry out a media campaign explaining many of the changes over three years — also prohibits collection companies from reporting items that did not arise from a contract or an agreement to pay, including items like fines or tickets. “The settlement is a huge victory that will benefit consumers,” said Chi Chi Wu , a lawyer at the National Consumer Law Center. “Of course, making sure that the credit bureaus comply with the agreement will be another task.”

Equifax
Experian
TransUnion
Credit score
New York
Eric T Schneiderman


Meiji Yasuda to Buy StanCorp Financial for $5 Billion

Abstract: The Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Company of Japan said on Friday that it had reached an agreement to acquire the StanCorp Financial Group, an American provider of insurance and retirement products, for $5 billion in cash. The deal is the latest move by a Japanese insurer to expand operations in the United States, the world’s largest insurance market. Domestic insurers have been looking to expand outside Japan, where an aging population is expected to cut into the results of insurers. This transaction is expected to significantly expand the scope of Meiji Yasuda’s offerings in the United States and to accelerate its diversification internationally. The insurer also has operations in China, Indonesia, Poland and Thailand. Under the terms of deal, Meiji will pay $115 a share for StanCorp, representing a 50 percent premium to its closing price on Thursday. “We are very pleased to welcome The Standard to the Meiji Yasuda family and to make them a key pillar of our international operations,” Akio Negishi, the Meiji Yasuda president, said in a news release . “We have been studying opportunities in the U.S. market for some time and The Standard stood out as our ideal partner.” The transaction is subject to shareholder and regulatory approval and is expected to close in the first quarter of 2016. Founded in 1906, StanCorp, based in Portland, Ore., provides a variety of insurance, retirement and investment products under The Standard brand, including mortgages. It had total premiums of $2.1 billion in 2014 and has more than 2,800 employees. In June, Tokio Marine Holdings announced that it would acquire HCC Insurance Holdings for $7.5 billion in cash, one of a series of deals it has undertaken in the United States since 2008. Other Japanese companies seeking to grow outside their home country in recent years include Dai-ichi Life Insurance, which announced an agreement to buy the American company Protective Life Corporation in 2014 for about $5.7 billion. The Nippon Life Insurance Company, Dai-ichi and the Sumitomo Life Insurance Company have each taken stakes in several Indonesian insurers in hopes of tapping the rapidly expanding Southeast Asian market. Meiji Yasuda first entered the United States in 1976 when it bought a majority stake in Pacific Guardian Life. After the deal, StanCorp would serve as Meiji Yasuda’s primary presence in the United States and its products would continue to be marketed under The Standard brand. Greg Ness, StanCorp’s chairman, president and chief executive, and his management would continue to lead the business. “While we were not looking for a buyer, Meiji Yasuda’s proposal presented a tremendous opportunity to create value for all of our stakeholders − providing a substantial cash premium to our shareholders while enabling us to maintain our current operations and valued employees,” Mr. Ness said in a news release. Meiji Yasuda intends to finance the transaction through cash and cash equivalents on hand. As part of the transaction, StanCorp will have 25 days to solicit competing bids. Meiji Yasuda would receive a termination fee of up to $180 million if a competing bidder succeeds in buying StanCorp. Meiji Yasuda was created by the combination of the Meiji Life Insurance Company and the Yasuda Life Insurance Company in 2004, but traces its roots to 1881, making it Japan’s oldest life insurer. Based in Tokyo, Meiji Yasuda sells a variety of insurance and annuity products. It had total premiums of $28 billion in 2014 and has more than 40,000 employees. Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley and the law firm Baker & McKenzie advised Meiji Yasuda, while Goldman Sachs and the law firm Debevoise & Plimpton advised StanCorp.

Mergers and Acquisitions
Life insurance
Personal finance
Japan
US