‘They Keep Finding Bodies’: Gang Violence in Long Island Town Fuels Immigration Debate

Abstract: BRENTWOOD, N.Y. — Four dead teenagers. Two weeks. One town. And a ruthless gang, the authorities say, was most likely responsible for the toll. Again. On Sept. 13, Nisa Mickens, 15, and her best friend, Kayla Cuevas, 16, were murdered, their battered bodies found near an elementary school here. A week later and just two miles away, the skeletal remains of two more teenagers — identified as Oscar Acosta, 19, and Miguel Garcia-Moran, 15 — were found in the woods near a psychiatric hospital. Oscar had been missing since May, Miguel since February. Their deaths have been ruled homicides. Brentwood, a hardscrabble town of nearly 60,000 on Long Island, 40 miles east of Manhattan, has reached another crisis point. For nearly two decades, MS-13, a gang with roots in Los Angeles and El Salvador, has been terrorizing the town, the authorities say, especially its young people. Since 2009, its members have been accused of at least 14 murders, court and police records show. School officials are scrambling. Police officers are searching. Students are frightened. Parents are anguished. “It’s so hard, I’m hurting,” Evelyn Rodriguez, Kayla’s mother, said last week. “I wish I could hold my daughter again.” Image Clockwise from top left, Oscar Acosta, Kayla Cuevas, Miguel Garcia-Moran and Nisa Mickens. In her first interview since Kayla’s funeral, Ms. Rodriguez spoke measuredly about how her daughter had been bullied by gang members inside and outside her high school. “To me, it’s worse than it was before; it’s everywhere,” said Ms. Rodriguez, a 1987 graduate of Brentwood Ross High School, where her daughter was a student. “This is ridiculous,” she added. “We need some type of assistance to help our police officers here and see if they can come together to figure out a plan to make things better for the kids now.” The path to such a plan, however, runs through a fractured Suffolk County. Its former police chief is headed to jail, its district attorney is under federal investigation and a Justice Department settlement mandated changes in the Police Department in 2013 after findings of bias against Latino residents. Tensions simmer here because some residents say they believe an increase in Central American migrants to town has led to the increase in gang violence. According to 2014 census figures compiled by Queens College, Brentwood’s population is 68 percent Latino or Hispanic, with more than 17,000 residents claiming to be from El Salvador. Timothy Sini, who became the Suffolk County police commissioner 11 months ago, after his predecessor, James Burke, pleaded guilty to civil rights violations and obstruction of justice, has vowed to eradicate the gangs. Image Evelyn Rodriguez and Freddy Cuevas, Kayla’s parents. “It’s so hard, I’m hurting,” Ms. Rodriguez, said. “I wish I could hold my daughter again.” Credit Heather Walsh for The New York Times “The only people in Brentwood who have anything to fear are the criminals,” Mr. Sini said. “That’s because there is a tsunami of law enforcement officers at their doorsteps.” The department has increased uniformed patrols and door-to-door canvassing, and rejoined the eight-member Long Island Gang Task Force of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Mr. Sini said he met recently with dozens of agencies including Homeland Security Investigations and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. “It’s not a good time to be a gang member in Brentwood,” he said. One gang member was arrested and was in federal custody for questioning, Mr. Sini added, although a motive for the murders was still unclear. The F.B.I. confirmed it was assisting the police. The Brentwood School District held a community forum last month with elected officials and parents that ran for four hours. There, according to Ms. Rodriguez, school officials said some students had been “red-flagged” for having possible gang affiliations. Image Rob Mickens and Elizabeth Alvarado, Nisa’s parents, at a vigil for the girls last month. Credit Heather Walsh for The New York Times “So if they are red-flagged, why are they in the school?” Ms. Rodriguez said. “Kids are being targeted. They’re trying to find some type of safe way to even go to school,” she added. “Being in school, they always have to look over their shoulder to see who’s walking.” Brentwood has 4,400 high school students divided into two schools, and administrators say the environment is safe. “Gang members rarely present themselves in the schools,” Richard Loeschner, the principal of Brentwood Ross High School, said. “If they do, we take care of that pretty quickly.” But ultimately, he said, after acknowledging that the administration knew of about 20 to 25 students in the district with possible gang affiliations, there is only so much officials can do. “We can’t exclude a kid because we suspect they are in a gang,” Mr. Loeschner said. “That’s state and federal law that they are entitled to an education.” Image Levi McIntyre, the superintendent of the Brentwood School District, at Kayla’s wake. “It’s tearing the fabric of our community apart,” Dr. McIntyre said of gang violence in the town. Credit Heather Walsh for The New York Times Even before the girls’ murders, students were subject to random screenings with metal detectors, which have increased over the past few weeks, he added. There are no detectors at the entrances of either high school, however. Some parents were concerned that the school’s response to the violence was not proactive enough. Levi McIntyre, the school superintendent, sent an email to parents warning their children not to wear royal blue, the color identified with MS-13, or clothes displaying the Salvadoran flag. A student on the way to school, he wrote, recently had his blue shirt torn off by gang members and burned. MS-13 was formed in Los Angeles in the 1980s by immigrants from El Salvador escaping civil war. The abbreviation stands for Mara Salvatrucha, which roughly translates to “Salvadoran street posse.” The authorities say the gang has been in Suffolk County since around 1998, and is organized in cliques bearing names like the Brentwood Locos Salvatruchas. Leaders gather to discuss their lines of business — extortion, prostitution, robbery, drug dealing — and to authorize the killings of chavalas, or members of rival gangs like the Bloods and the Crips, court papers say. In 2009, a 15-year-old boy, Christopher Hamilton , was fatally shot in the head after an MS-13 crew in search of chavalas opened fire with rifles and handguns on a house party on American Boulevard here. Image The scene outside Kayla’s wake. Credit Heather Walsh for The New York Times Two years later, an 18-year-old Brentwood man was fatally shot in his driveway, and a 22-year-old local leader of MS-13 was convicted of the killing. “In the past, it used to be like rival gangs on each other,” Dr. McIntyre said. “But now it has taken another turn. When it goes after all kids, it’s a whole new realm. It’s tearing the fabric of our community apart.” Noel Vega’s son was a classmate of the murdered girls, who wondered whether he could be next. “He’s more upset about the fact that they keep finding bodies,” Mr. Vega said, standing outside a Brentwood funeral home for Kayla’s wake with fellow members of the Christian Motorcyclists Association. They are not the only group offering unofficial security to the town; he noted that the crisis even brought the Guardian Angels to Brentwood. Of his son, Mr. Vega added: “He actually wants to move out of Brentwood; he wants to move out of state. He’s upset and he fears for the loss of his friends and himself. It gets me upset; we all get upset.” The recent murders have exacerbated disputes in the town over immigration policy, which Donald J. Trump, the Republican candidate for president, fueled during last week’s debate by saying that the gangs roaming the streets were made up of illegal immigrants. Image Friends of Kayla wore T-shirts designed in her honor to her wake. Credit Heather Walsh for The New York Times “There’s been a huge influx, to be honest with you,” said Ray Mayo, the president of the Brentwood Association of Concerned Citizens, who added that he was upset over undocumented immigrants crowding rental properties. “It seems like a whole new set of gang members who have stirred the pot up.” Two law enforcement authorities, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the continuing murder investigation, said that over the last several years the gang has sought to enlist recent immigrants from Central America because they are often more vulnerable to recruitment. But some recently settled families are just as worried about their own children’s safety. “I am afraid, as a Salvadoran,” said Ana, 38, a mother of two girls, one in high school. She fled El Salvador in 2006 and has since become a member of Make the Road New York, an immigrant activist group. She did not want to give her full name for fear of retribution. “It makes me feel bad that people think this of all Salvadorans,” she said. “Violence was the reason I left — when they killed my brother. And now we are experiencing the same violence.” Distrust of the Suffolk County police among Latinos is palpable and long documented . Residents said they were dismayed by a dearth of Spanish-speaking officers, and undocumented immigrants in particular often worry that if they report information, the authorities will turn them over to immigration officials. Image Supporters at the girls’ vigil. The murders have exacerbated disputes in the town over immigration policy. Credit Heather Walsh for The New York Times Mr. Sini said that would not happen, and that he was trying to reassure immigrant communities to work with the police. Ms. Rodriguez, whose parents came from Puerto Rico, said that two years ago, when gang members threatened Kayla on a friend’s block, she went to the police. “I got attitude like they were talking to somebody off the street,” Ms. Rodriguez said. “They wouldn’t even report it,” she added. “They told me to tell her: ‘Don’t go on the block.’” The feeling of helplessness is spreading among the teenagers. At a vigil held for the murdered girls before a football game, some students held signs: “Help Us!” “Stop the Violence!” Others shook their heads when Mr. Sini told students to call a hotline for investigative tips. “We’re the ones out here, dealing with it all,” said a 16-year-old boy who would give only his nickname, Tiny T. “They think they can do something, but they’re just fooling. They can’t do nothing.” At Kayla’s wake, a 17-year-old student too afraid of MS-13 to give his name said: “You don’t know who’s watching you, who’s following you. Just yesterday, a group of guys in a car with blue bandannas followed a girl home in Brentwood.” He, his mother and his cousin wore T-shirts that read “Justice for Kayla,” which they had printed at the mall. “Afraid?” his cousin, a 19-year-old woman, said. “There’s not even a limit to afraid.” At memorials for both Kayla and Nisa, on the cul-de-sac near where their bodies were found, basketballs sat among the glass candles and deflated balloons. Kayla, a tenacious athlete, was going to try out for the varsity basketball team this year. Instead, her mother was starting a scholarship fund called Ball Is My Life. Ms. Rodriguez hoped her daughter’s death would at least stop the cycle. “It can’t go on anymore,” she said.

Gang
MS-13
Murders and Homicides
Brentwood NY
Immigration
Illegal Immigration
Kayla Cuevas


No. 3 Pick Dante Fowler Jr. Tears A.C.L.

Abstract: Jacksonville Jaguars defensive end Dante Fowler Jr., the third overall pick in the N.F.L. draft, is most likely out for the season after tearing a knee ligament during his first practice. Fowler tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee during rookie minicamp on Friday. His knee buckled during a drill as he engaged right tackle Watts Dantzler. Fowler dropped to the ground, grabbed his leg as he rolled from side to side and was eventually helped off the field. Fowler, a star at Florida, was the first non-quarterback selected in last week’s draft.

Football
Dante Fowler Jr
Sports injury
Sports Drafts and Recruits
NFL
Super Bowl
Super Bowl 2015
Jacksonville Jaguars


A Chinese Ebola Drug Raises Hopes, and Rancor

Abstract: After a nurse who contracted Ebola in Sierra Leone was discharged Wednesday from a Rome hospital, a doctor there described the experimental treatments the patient had received as “absolutely miraculous.” They included MIL77, a product from China that was also given to a British Army nurse who recovered from Ebola at a London hospital in March. It is a near copy of what many believed was the most promising Ebola therapy: a cocktail of antibodies known as ZMapp, the result of a collaboration between the United States and Canada. While a limited supply of ZMapp was quickly exhausted, a small private Chinese company, Beijing Mabworks, raced ahead last fall, helping to produce about 100 doses of MIL77. That means more potentially lifesaving treatments for desperate patients. But it has also led to patent infringement concerns by American officials, and to disagreements over when experimental Ebola therapies should be offered to patients only in carefully controlled studies and when they should be made more available for compassionate reasons. Feng Li, chief executive of Beijing Mabworks, said his company was motivated to fight a global emergency and had made a licensing agreement with ZMapp’s intellectual property rights holder. “People think international collaboration could easily happen between the U.S. and Canada,” he said, “but these days, China could play a role” by making emergency response drugs “better and faster in some cases.” ZMapp is being tested in a clinical trial in the United States and Sierra Leone, where the government reported nine new cases of Ebola on Thursday, one of the highest daily totals in months. Last summer, when Ebola was raging out of control, ZMapp raised hopes after it was given to two American aid workers with the disease. Both recovered. Scientists had already shown that ZMapp could save monkeys injected with what would have been a lethal dose of the virus. Tobacco plants were engineered to produce ZMapp, a mixture of three antibodies designed to attach to the covering of the virus, neutralize it and attract killer immune cells. That was an unusual production method, chosen in part to meet the requirements of an American government grant that promotes innovation. However, there were no facilities capable of producing large amounts of the treatment. Then China jumped in. The scarcity of ZMapp was “a spark, like lightning to me,” said Boyan Zhang, chief scientific officer at Beijing Mabworks. Supported by Chinese government grants, the company had developed mammalian cells capable of quickly producing antibodies targeted against cancer and viral diseases in humans, and its leaders decided to use the same process to develop an Ebola remedy. China, highly attuned to infectious diseases since the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome in 2003, had many citizens working in West Africa. “The entire country was mobilized,” Mifang Liang of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention said at the China-U.S. Relations Conference in Houston last month. The Chinese government issued a directive last summer that helped inspire the production not only of MIL77 but also of an Ebola vaccine, which is in human safety studies; rapid Ebola diagnostic tests; and copies of antiviral drugs made by companies in other countries. Dr. Zijian Feng, deputy general director of the China C.D.C., said involvement in emergency public health assistance served to “elevate our presence in the international stage and also elevate our capabilities.” Within three months, using information in ZMapp’s patent, Dr. Li and his colleagues had copied the active part of ZMapp and used the company’s specialized cells to produce the antibodies. A month later, with the help of the Chinese pharmaceutical company Hisun, they had 100 doses. But some American officials expressed concern. The United States government holds a patent on one of the antibodies in ZMapp, which was developed with support from American and Canadian military research agencies, a legacy of fears that Ebola could be used as a biological weapon by the Soviet Union or, later, by terrorists. Image Stefano Marongiu, an Italian nurse, recovered from Ebola after receiving experimental treatments, including MIL77, made by Beijing Mabworks. Credit Giorgio Onorati/European Pressphoto Agency Robin Robinson, director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, part of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, said the Chinese scientists might have infringed patents if they tried to sell MIL77 outside China without an agreement with Mapp Biopharmaceutical, the small American company with intellectual property rights to ZMapp. He added, “They have not done all the testing that we would normally do for safety before these products would go into humans.” Larry Zeitlin, president of Mapp, said that his company had 100 doses of ZMapp at the same time Hisun had MIL77, but that the ZMapp had been produced for a clinical trial and was undergoing safety testing required by the Food and Drug Administration before human use. Dr. Robinson said his agency had worked with Mapp and larger companies — including Regeneron in Tarrytown, N.Y., and Genentech in South San Francisco — to use methods similar to the Chinese researchers’ to increase production of ZMapp and other antibody-based treatments for Ebola. But aid groups treating patients in West Africa had trouble getting information on those efforts, said Dr. Annick Antierens, coordinator of research partnerships for Doctors Without Borders. So they began to explore using Chinese-made MIL77. “We said, ‘You have people dying like flies, and there’s a product that seems to be O.K.,’ ” Dr. Antierens said. But as the number of Ebola patients declined in West Africa with the waning epidemic and ZMapp finally became available, she said, American officials and scientists expressed concerns that the use of MIL77 could interfere with the clinical testing and licensing of ZMapp. Doctors Without Borders and some other aid groups have balked at participating in the ZMapp trial because it is randomized and patients only have a 50 percent chance of receiving the treatment. That is a standard procedure in many trials so that researchers can compare patient outcomes and determine whether the treatment was effective and not harmful. At Royal Free Hospital in London several months ago, two healthy workers with serious exposure to Ebola were given MIL77. Neither of the workers ended up developing the disease, said Dr. Michael Jacobs, who treated them. When the British Army nurse, Cpl. Anna Cross, tested positive for Ebola in March, she also agreed to receive MIL77, which had shown promising results in guinea pigs and nonhuman primates at the Public Health Agency of Canada. The London hospital has since decided not to join the American-run clinical trial of ZMapp because of the randomizing requirement. It has opted instead to keep a supply of MIL77 for use in any Ebola patients treated in Britain or the European Union. “We’ve challenged ourselves about whether that is the right decision or not,” Dr. Jacobs said. “In the end, I have to do my best for the patient in front of me.” But Dr. H. Clifford Lane, clinical director at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said it was important to test ZMapp properly to determine whether using antibodies to treat Ebola really works. “There are interventions that look so logical, that should be effective, that prove not to be,” he said. “Without randomization, you have no way to control for all the different variables that come into play when you’re dealing with a patient.”

Ebola
China
Pharmaceuticals
Sierra Leone
US


Salvatore Cassano Picked as New York Fire Commissioner

Abstract: Salvatore J. Cassano, a 40-year veteran of the New York Fire Department who has held every one of its ranks, was named fire commissioner on Monday. The decision by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg to promote a member of the department was a departure from many previous appointments by Mr. Bloomberg and other mayors. They have often chosen outsiders, many of them lawyers, focusing more on managerial skills than on experience or familiarity with the department. Mr. Cassano, 64, who will assume the top post on Jan. 1, has run the day-to-day operations of the department since 2006 as chief of department, the highest uniformed rank. He was among three finalists in a nationwide search to replace Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta , a veteran city official who was appointed by Mr. Bloomberg eight years ago. Some had viewed the appointment of a new commissioner as a chance for Mr. Bloomberg to select a minority candidate or a woman in recognition of a federal judge’s ruling this year that the department had discriminated against black and Hispanic applicants in entrance examinations from 1999 to 2002. The department, which is overwhelmingly white, is trying to diversify its personnel. “Well, No. 1, I’m not trying to make a statement,” Mr. Bloomberg said when asked at a news conference at City Hall about the issue of diversity. “What I’m trying to do is to get the best people for New York City. And I do think that if you cast your net wide enough, you will also get diversity, but you will get the best.” The other finalists were former department officials who are black: Philip E. Parr and Mylan L. Denerstein. Mr. Parr is a retired department battalion chief who was involved in the federal response to Hurricane Katrina . Ms. Denerstein, who was the department’s deputy commissioner for legal affairs from 2003 to 2006, is now the state’s executive deputy attorney general for social justice. Mr. Cassano became a New York City firefighter in 1969 and spent several years at engine companies in Lower Manhattan. He was promoted to lieutenant in 1977 and worked at Ladder 113 in Brooklyn, where he also served after his promotion to captain in 1984. He continued to rise through the ranks, becoming battalion chief in 1987, deputy chief in 1993, deputy assistant chief in 1999 and assistant chief in 2001. He has worked in assignments throughout the city, including as the on-duty citywide tour commander. He has been cited five times for bravery during his career. After the Sept. 11 attack, in which 343 firefighters died, Mr. Cassano helped rebuild the department and helped lead the cleanup of ground zero. “He was involved in the decontamination at ground zero, he dealt with the widows, he dealt with the unions, he was dealing with everybody,” said Nick Visconti, the chief representative of the Uniformed Fire Officers Association in New York from 2001 to 2007. “He had a role in everything that went on down there and how the department rebuilt.” Mr. Cassano said at the news conference that one of his biggest challenges would be dealing with the mayor’s office on issues related to the budget crisis. Before the news conference began, Mr. Bloomberg noted Mr. Cassano’s roots. Motioning to city officials standing to his right in the Blue Room, the mayor said: “Another Staten Islander. I don’t want to hear anything more that we don’t appoint people from Staten Island.”

Cassano Salvatore J.
Fire Department (NYC)
Appointments and Executive Changes
Bloomberg Michael R
Scoppetta Nicholas
Hiring and Promotion


Whose Contract Is Worse? Amar’e Stoudemire’s or Alex Rodriguez’s?

Abstract: It has often been said, never more so than in the past few weeks, that Alex Rodriguez ’s contract could be the most onerous individual deal ever struck by a professional sports team. But as we turn from the Yankees ’ great power failure of October to the start of a new Knicks season in November, here comes Amar’e Stoudemire to give A-Rod a run for his supposedly unearned money . Stoudemire will begin the season pretty much where Rodriguez finished his: on the bench, trying to ignore increasingly strident denunciations of him as a brittle and payroll-busting albatross. Stoudemire’s left knee, in which he recently sustained a ruptured cyst and which will now need to be surgically cleaned out, will sideline him for up to two months. And the long-term prognosis — it’s always something — does match Rodriguez’s continuing affliction. In terms of sheer magnitude and organizational magnanimity, it seems like a reach to compare Stoudemire’s five-year, $100 million contract to Rodriguez’s 10-year, $275 million haul, which could reach around $300 million depending on since-discredited home run benchmarks. But factoring in a few apples-and-oranges variables does raise an intriguing question: How can A-Rod’s deal be the absolute worst when, within the same city, Stoudemire appears to be having a more deleterious effect on the Knicks’ ability to so much as sniff championship contention. Let me say that I am not in the habit of blaming any athlete for what he or she negotiates and shall not begin here. But frustrated fans generally do not absolve the highest-paid players for their perceived failure to live up to their contracts, because it’s the performers who are the ones on stage, within earshot. Furthermore, it’s not as if Hank Steinbrenner or James L. Dolan are about to work the phone bank for season-ticket renewals. But let’s be abundantly clear: nobody forced either franchise to commit to these now-regrettable deals. Unlike the Yankees in the case of Rodriguez, the Knicks can at least defend the Stoudemire signing by insisting they had no other workable option: in the summer of 2010, they were spurned by free agents more prized than Stoudemire, and this after a two-year roster purge and grand promises made to the long-suffering New York fan base that better times were directly ahead. Stoudemire would have probably remained in Phoenix had it come close to the Knicks’ maximum offer to a player the Suns drafted out of high school and developed into an All-Star. He did, however, “embrace the city and the Knicks” — as Donnie Walsh , their former president, reminded me recently — when others wanted no part of the daunting challenges of New York. “You don’t realize how hard he works, how much he does, just to keep his knees going,” Walsh said. “I had no idea he was that good a guy and, in a way, that’s what the most refreshing thing was.” That impression, unfortunately, was based on the first one Stoudemire made on New York, when he was healthy and the hub of a revived and appealing young team. It is also the one Walsh apparently took with him upon leaving town after Stoudemire’s first season with the Knicks, only months after the acquisition of Carmelo Anthony dramatically altered the core conditions under which Stoudemire arrived. (That’s another debate, not the one we are having here.) We have since seen a different Stoudemire, ailing and ornery after the shotgun marriage to Anthony. Few people believe Anthony and Stoudemire, given their disparate styles as front-line scorers, can successfully coexist, and fewer expect that Stoudemire’s knees will allow him the privilege of again being an elite player. With three years remaining on his deal, Stoudemire is probably as untradeable as Rodriguez, at least until he approaches the final year and becomes a potential asset as an expiring contract in another team’s attempt to clear salary-cap space. And unless he soon reverses a pattern of decline, the nearly $20 million that he will earn this season will certainly limit the Knicks’ competitive prospects within an N.B.A. financial system that is more restrictive than baseball’s. After a decade of fielding teams that were not only terrible but distinctly unlikable, the Knicks believed they were opening a multiyear window to contend with Anthony, Stoudemire and Tyson Chandler in the prime of their careers. But with reinforcements long past their best days now added to a team that has won one playoff game in the last two seasons, the argument could be made that within two to three years the Knicks will be back to where they started in the summer of 2010. Though the Yankees have expressed a strong desire to avoid paying steep revenue-sharing taxes in the future, they might just put that objective aside if the continued and costly presence of Rodriguez forces them to keep their payroll above $200 million. Even if they do bring the payroll down to the $189 million limit they covet, they will still outspend most competitors, even if you exclude the huge sum being paid to A-Rod. And no matter how bitter Rodriguez’s contract tastes, and assuming he stays to the end, he will always have 2009, when he finally seized the postseason spotlight and the Yankees broke an eight-year World Series title drought. The Knicks, in sharp, damning contrast, will note the 40th anniversary of their last N.B.A. title next spring. That, ultimately, makes their expensive mistakes more injurious to the greater cause than those of the Yankees. The malady known as “it’s always something” is exceedingly worse when there is never a full postseason of relief from the pain.

Amar'e Stoudemire
Alex Rodriguez
James L Dolan
Donnie Walsh
Basketball
Baseball
Wages and salaries


Glencore I.P.O. Mimics Blackstone and Draws Skeptics

Abstract: Is Glencore the new Blackstone? It has become a theme from Wall Street to the City and beyond that the commodity trader’s planned $12 billion stock offering signals the top of its industry’s cycle, just as Blackstone’s did for private equity . But investors should watch for other similarities when scrubbing Glencore’s prospectus, due out Wednesday. Prices for the goods Glencore produces and trades — wheat, oil, cobalt, sugar, gold, cotton, you name it — have surged in recent months, in some cases to record highs. For skeptics, that signals a bubble, inflated by the money being pumped into the markets by central banks. Hence the obvious comparison with Blackstone, which went public in June 2007 as similarly favorable market conditions made debt cheap and plentiful and spurred record leveraged buyout activity. The private equity firm sold $7.1 billion of its shares at a price that hasn’t been seen in nearly four years. To be fair, the financial crisis intervened and the shares are now recovering. Even so, any I.P.O. investors are still smarting. Glencore’s boosters would argue that rising demand for commodities from China, India and elsewhere will last decades. Moreover, the company can hedge many of its bets more easily than Blackstone could. Even if that makes equating the timing of the two landmark floats simplistic, it’s still plausible. Both I.P.O.’s also cast unprecedented light on businesses that were previously intensely private. For private equity, that included political attention and efforts to tax the industry more heavily. Glencore may face questions of its own as it is exposed to scrutiny, and could end up having to change elements of its business model. Also worthy of scrutiny when the details emerge will be Glencore’s governance. Technically, Blackstone sold units in a partnership, which conferred many fewer rights. Glencore could do the same. Moreover, like Blackstone, Glencore may sell chunks of stock to sovereign wealth funds . The commodity firm’s size, certain inclusion in the FTSE 100 Index and dominance of its industry make it impossible for global investors to ignore. Boning up on Blackstone may help focus their analysis. Fiat ’s Bargain Fiat’s chief executive, Sergio Marchionne, may have engineered the auto deal of the century. When the Italian automaker agreed to take bankrupt Chrysler into its workshop two years ago, it looked like a relatively risk-free, but way out-of-the-money bet on a turnaround: the United States government gave Fiat management control and a 20 percent stake — since increased to 30 percent — for nothing. Had Chrysler, Detroit’s No. 3, proved unsalvageable, Fiat would have lost little but time spent. Only now is it becoming clear how good a bargain Fiat negotiated. The catalyst is Chrysler’s financial performance, which has now improved enough for it to be able to refinance the $7.5 billion of debt that kept the company afloat in 2009. Doing that allows Fiat to buy a 16 percent stake, for $1.3 billion. On its own, that’s hardly a steal. It values the manufacturer at $7.9 billion by using Fiat’s multiple of enterprise value to trailing earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, a calculation stipulated in the 2009 agreement with the Treasury. As a stand-alone entity, Chrysler shouldn’t command such a sum. Using Ford’s trading multiple, for example, would value Chrysler’s equity at just $7.4 billion. And Chrysler ekes out pretax margins only a fifth of Ford’s. But overpaying is hardly a concern for Fiat. For starters, it got 30 percent as a giveaway and should add 5 percent this year. Fold in the stake it is paying for and Fiat becomes majority owner. That’s when the real juice should appear — from squeezing costs. Mr. Marchionne has doubtless found savings already. But imagine if he can slash 3 percent, or $3 billion, of the two firms’ combined costs, as Daimler and Chrysler promised when announcing their 1998 union. Once taxed, discounted and capitalized, those savings would be worth some $17 billion to shareholders, more than double Chrysler’s implied value. True, the car sector’s recent past — Fiat included — is littered with similar promises that never materialized. But with such a large margin for error, only extraordinary incompetence on Mr. Marchionne’s part can prevent turning the Chrysler deal into the industry’s shining exception.

Glencore International AG
Initial Public Offerings
Chrysler LLC
Fiat SpA


At Annual Meeting, Wal-Mart to Confront Shareholder Unrest

Abstract: ROGERS, Ark. — As Wal-Mart celebrates its 50th anniversary at its annual shareholders’ meeting on Friday, the company is expected to face some of the staunchest opposition in years to the continued tenure of several board members and its chief executive, as well as some corporate policies. While no one expects shareholder discontent to provoke management or policy changes — about half of Wal-Mart stock is owned by the founding Walton family and executives — analysts say the meeting will expose a measure of unhappiness among investors after recent revelations of a bribery scandal at the company’s Mexican subsidiary. The authorities in the United States and Mexico are investigating possible violations by the company of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, among other things. Some large institutional shareholders, including the nation’s biggest public pension plan, say they will vote against the re-election of several board members because of investors’ unease with the bribery allegations. Three firms that advise investors on corporate governance have recommended that shareholders vote against some directors. And shareholder-sponsored proposals pushing for more disclosure on executive compensation and on political contributions seem to have momentum. Paul Hodgson, senior research associate for GMIRatings, a corporate-governance analysis firm, said the activities appeared to be “a much more significant challenge to the board” than in years past. If any of the shareholder proposals gets more than 25 percent support, he said, it will indicate the endorsement of a majority of public shareholders and could put pressure on the board. “Particularly at a time when the company might be more chary of its public reputation and its image than might normally be the case because they’re being hit hard by a bribery scandal, it might therefore turn around and say, ‘O.K., it wasn’t the majority of the shares, but we got the message,’ ” Mr. Hodgson said. The New York Times reported in April that Wal-Mart had found credible evidence in 2005 and 2006 that its Mexican subsidiary had paid bribes and that an internal inquiry into the matter had been suppressed at corporate headquarters in Arkansas. Since then, the company has said it was conducting an investigation into what had happened and has been cooperating with various other investigations, including some by the Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission. This week, as Wal-Mart employees from around the world gathered here in Arkansas ahead of the shareholders meeting, the company emphasized its commitment to corporate governance. On Thursday, talking to reporters, executives said they were increasing their focus on the subject. “We’re trying to seize this opportunity to get even stronger in compliance across the board, including F.C.P.A.,” said Doug McMillon, chief executive of Wal-Mart International. He added that he was not expecting fallout from the investigation to affect new store growth abroad. Wal-Mart is expected to announce the general results of the votes on directors and proposals on Friday; it plans to release the specific tallies on Monday. David Tovar, a Wal-Mart spokesman, said it would be “inappropriate for us or others to come to specific conclusions” about the bribery allegations and their fallout until the investigation was complete. “We recognize that some people will have opinions on this matter based on limited information and will attempt to further their own agenda by speaking out,” he said. “If that happens, it’s important to keep in mind the motivation for such actions.” Even with the shareholder unrest, many Wall Street analysts are bullish on the company, saying it has done a good job of turning around its sliding sales in the United States. Since the Times report in April, Wal-Mart shares have risen about 15 percent after falling for several days. Aside from the company’s celebration of 50 years in business, its improvement in the United States is expected to be a focus of Wal-Mart’s comments at the annual meeting. Traditionally, the meeting is part party (Cheap Trick and Aerosmith performed at a Wednesday evening concert for employees), part workplace perk (about 5,000 employees, chosen by their peers, are sent to the meeting) and part business update. “Please keep in mind there are roughly 3.4 billion Wal-Mart shares when factoring in the implications of protest votes,” Mr. Tovar, the spokesman, said of the official shareholders’ meeting. On Thursday, a Wal-Mart executive said the company felt the bribery scandal had not hurt the company’s standing with shoppers or philanthropic partners. “We haven’t seen any change,” said Leslie A. Dach, executive vice president for corporate affairs. “People have questions and that’s understandable, so we fully expect that people will ask us, and we’ve answered those questions as best we can.” “We look pretty closely at all of this and we haven’t seen that it’s had any kind of meaningful impact on the way our shoppers or others look at the company,” he said. The California Public Employees’ Retirement System, or Calpers, the nation’s largest public pension fund, said last week that it would vote against re-election of nine board members who had been involved in Wal-Mart at the time of the curtailed bribery investigation. Those board members include the current chief executive, Michael T. Duke; the chairman, S. Robson Walton, a son of the Wa-Mmart founder; and H. Lee Scott Jr., a former chief executive. Calpers, which owns 7.7 million shares of Wal-Mart stock worth about $511 million, said it would support two proxy proposals put forward by shareholders. One would require additional disclosure regarding political contributions and another would require more reporting on how executive compensation is structured. Calpers says that the extra information would benefit shareholders. Another large pension plan, the California State Teachers’ Retirement System, or Calstrs, which owns 5.3 million shares, said it would vote against the entire board’s re-election. The group was not confident “that the current board has the independence and leadership needed” to address the bribery issues and subsequent quashing of the internal investigation, it said. In May, Calstrs filed a lawsuit against Wal-Mart executives, saying that it had failed in its duty to investors over the bribery issue. The New York City pension funds also said they would vote against five directors, including Mr. Duke, Mr. Scott and Mr. Walton, and are voting for all three shareholders’ proposals. Three proxy advisory companies — Institutional Shareholder Services, Glass Lewis and Egan-Jones — advised investors not to re-elect some directors. And several employees of Wal-Mart who also own stock are asking for more disclosure surrounding executive compensation. “They are not looking out in the best interests of their associates — they are looking out for themselves and their profits,” said Carlton Smith, who is sponsoring a shareholder proposal regarding compensation and is a housewares department manager at a Wal-Mart in California. Wal-Mart says that shareholders already can vote on executive compensation, that a board committee analyzes executive pay and that the proxy statements go into some detail about compensation. The proposal would be “duplicative of practices already followed,” the company said.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc
Shareholder Rights and Activism
Bribery and Kickbacks
Mexico
Executive Compensation
Boards of Directors


Australian Stays in Lead in Vuelta a España

Abstract: John Degenkolb of Germany timed his final sprint perfectly to win a sunny fifth stage of the Vuelta a España. Michael Matthews of Australia retained the leader’s red jersey, 13 seconds ahead of the race favorite, Nairo Quintana, and the two-time Vuelta winner Alejandro Valverde.

Biking
Vuelta a Espana
John Degenkolb
Michael Matthews


Questions for the E.C.B. Leader, Fed Minutes and Walmart Earnings

Abstract: The European Central Bank president is expected to answer questions about the eurozone economy. Mario Draghi, the president of the European Central Bank, is likely to face questions on Monday about his response to fears of a renewed banking crisis when he appears in Brussels at a hearing of the European Parliament’s Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs. Investors will also be listening to Mr. Draghi’s remarks for clues about what steps the central bank may take at its March 10 meeting to further stimulate the slow-growing eurozone economy . —Jack Ewing An attempt to reduce the European Union’s dependence on Russia for natural gas. European Union authorities on Tuesday are expected to make their latest proposals aimed at weakening the bloc’s dependence on Russia for about a third of its natural gas requirements. One of the measures would give the European Commission more scope to review gas supply contracts with foreign suppliers before they are signed. Officials hope that the measures will dissuade member countries like Germany from going ahead with projects like the expansion of the Nord Stream pipeline , which critics say will deepen reliance on Russia for energy. Weaning the bloc off Russian gas has been a priority for the European Commission for the last decade, and the regulator is taking several approaches, including an antitrust case against the Russian gas exporter Gazprom, which has not yet been resolved. —James Kanter The Fed will release an account of its latest policy-making meeting. The Federal Reserve put on a brave face after its most recent policy-making meeting, held in January, declaring it still intended to raise interest rates gradually despite wobbly financial markets and the weakness of the global economy. The Fed will release an account of that meeting on Wednesday. There is a growing divide between officials at the central bank, who continue to express confidence in the underlying health of the economy, and financial markets, which are behaving as if there is a significant chance of a new recession. The meeting minutes will probably underscore the Fed’s reasons for confidence, but that’s not likely to change minds on Wall Street, where there is a growing conviction that the Fed is once again overestimating the strength of the economy. —Binyamin Appelbaum Industrial production data will most likely show a small increase in factory activity. On Wednesday morning, the Federal Reserve will release the latest data on industrial production in January. After declining for three months in a row late last year, factory activity probably ticked up slightly last month, economists say. Colder temperatures probably brought an increase in production at utilities, while there is evidence that manufacturing has rebounded slightly after softness in the fourth quarter. —Nelson D. Schwartz Walmart will report earnings that are expected to reflect a solid holiday season. Walmart reports fourth-quarter earnings on Thursday, when analysts expect to see the world’s largest retailer by sales book sound profits after a favorable holiday season. Inclement weather in the new year, however, as well as falling food prices, may have helped slow sales toward the end of the quarter, which ran through January. Walmart has been investing heavily in higher store wages and in its e-commerce business in a bid to better compete against its online nemesis, Amazon. Last month, the retailer announced it would shutter 269 stores around the world in a bid to bolster profitability. Nordstrom is also set to report earnings on Thursday amid a sectorwide slowdown in department store sales. —Hiroko Tabuchi Consumer Price Index data will be released. On Friday morning, the Labor Department will release its latest reading on the Consumer Price Index. Experts are looking for a slight decline in overall prices when the data for January comes out, led by a big drop in energy prices, especially gasoline. The core C.P.I., which strips out volatile food and energy prices, is expected to show a 0.2 percent increase. Neither index reading suggests there’s much danger from inflation. Some economists, in fact, are more worried about deflationary pressures in the global economy right now. —Nelson D. Schwartz

European Central Bank
European Commission
Mario Draghi
US Economy
Inflation
Federal Reserve
Walmart Stores
Earnings Reports


Cuomo to Offer Plan to Cut College Graduates’ Debt

Abstract: Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo will propose legislation to ease the debt burden of thousands of college graduates, an administration official said. Under the governor’s proposal, to be unveiled in his State of the State address on Wednesday, the state would cover two years of loan payments for graduates of New York State colleges who make less than $50,000 a year, continue to live in the state and are enrolled in the federal Pay as You Earn program, said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the proposal has not been released. Roughly 60 percent of students who graduated from public and nonprofit colleges in New York in 2013 took on debt, and the average amount was $26,381, according to a report by the Institute for College Access and Success. The report did not include graduates from for-profit colleges , who generally accumulate more debt. The governor’s office projects that up to 7,100 people would benefit in the program’s first year, increasing to 24,000 by 2020, as more students hear about the program and enroll in Pay as You Earn to qualify. The state would pay an average of $3,500 toward each participant’s loans. Students who finish two- or four-year degree programs in 2015 or later would be eligible for the assistance. Students who do not graduate — who statistically are more likely to be from low-income families — would not be helped. There are many existing federal and state loan repayment or loan forgiveness plans. Under the Pay as You Earn program, for instance, people pay up to 10 percent of their discretionary income, defined as income in excess of 150 percent of poverty level. Any debt not paid after 20 years is forgiven. Other programs are geared toward specific fields. Under a federal program, workers who spent 10 years in the public or nonprofit sector while making payments can have their debt forgiven. New York State has its own loan forgiveness programs for district attorneys, social workers, nursing professors and farmers. Mr. Cuomo’s proposed program is unusual in that it would benefit recent graduates working in any field. Experts on college costs and debt responded to the proposal with a mix of praise and concern that it was not addressing the right problem, because it would not apply to students who did not graduate and would not reduce the costs that lead students to take on debt in the first place. Nationally, more than 40 percent of students who start at four-year colleges have not earned a degree after six years. The rate of completion for community college students is even lower. Maura Dundon, the senior policy counsel at the Center for Responsible Lending, said the program sounded like a “great initiative.” However, she said, the most pressing problem is “the scores and scores of students who enroll in for-profit college programs and don’t complete them and are left with harmful debt.” Sandy Baum, a senior fellow at the Urban Institute, said that the program could prompt students to borrow more, since it would help only those who took out loans, not those whose parents mortgaged their homes to scrape together tuition payments. “It’s very good that they want to help college students, but they need to think more carefully about the best way to do it,” she said. “The best ways are probably lower tuition and a stronger need-based state grant program.” Students who could have benefited from the program were more enthusiastic. Robert Noonan, 24, graduated from SUNY Plattsburgh in 2012 with $28,000 in debt. With interest, his debt has since increased to $34,000. After graduating, he worked as a political organizer for a nonprofit, making $28,500 per year. He enrolled in the federal Income-Based Repayment Plan, but struggled to make his monthly payments of $95 and went into debt on his credit card. Last summer, when he was between jobs, he went into forbearance on his loans, a costly decision because interest will continue to accrue and will be added to the principal when payments resume. He said that the proposed legislation would have been very helpful to him. “Having that buffer,” he said, “really would have provided me with a lot of safety and security.”

Student loan
New York
College
Andrew Cuomo
Debt


Vince Boryla, an N.B.A. Jack of All Trades, Dies at 89

Abstract: Vince Boryla, who buoyed two National Basketball Association franchises three decades apart — the Knicks as a player and coach in the 1950s and the Denver Nuggets as the general manager in the 1980s — died on Sunday at his home in Englewood, Colo. He was 89. The cause was complications of pneumonia, his son Mark said. A postwar college star at Notre Dame and the University of Denver, Boryla, a 6-foot-5 center with a deadly right-handed hook shot, played for the Olympic team that won gold in London in 1948. He joined the Knicks in 1950, and the bigger players in the professional game, men like the 6-foot-10 George Mikan of the Minneapolis Lakers, dwarfed him in the middle, forcing Boryla to change his position to forward and develop new ways to score. He learned a left-handed hook and a set shot. Old-time New York fans will remember a meme by the radio broadcaster Marty Glickman, who would describe a shot from the perimeter as a “Boryla bomb” and give a nod to the program’s hot-dog sponsor: “Good! Like Nedick’s.” Boryla became one of the Knicks’ top shooters, appeared in the 1951 N.B.A. All-Star Game and played five seasons before a wrist injury that affected his shooting sidelined him for good. He averaged 11.2 points per game for his career. His Knicks teams, which included Harry Gallatin, Carl Braun, Sweetwater Clifton, and Al and Dick McGuire, went to the N.B.A. finals in 1952 and 1953, losing both times to Mikan and the Lakers. Boryla was not yet 29 when he succeeded Joe Lapchick as the coach of the Knicks in February 1956. In an interview with The New York Times shortly after he was hired, Boryla said he took the job because “it was a challenge, one which would round out” his career. “I have not the slightest intention of making this my life’s work,” he said. “To me the motives will be the same as those which influenced me to become a professional player originally, a chance to build up a nest egg for the future.” In a bit more than two full seasons as coach, his record was 80-85. He then resigned and went back to Denver and various business interests, which would eventually include basketball. Vincent Joseph Boryla (the name rhymes with gorilla) was born on March 11, 1927, in East Chicago, Ind. His parents, Vincente Boryla, a bricklayer, and the former Felixa Pilipczuk, were Polish immigrants. After high school he went to Notre Dame, where he set a program scoring record as a freshman. His college career was interrupted by a stint in the military, which he served in Denver, where he also played for the Denver Nuggets, then an amateur team with an avid following, and became something of a local celebrity. When his service was complete, he enrolled at the University of Denver, where he averaged 18.9 points per game in the 1948-49 season and became the only consensus all-American in the college’s history. Boryla’s first wife, the former Catherine Brogan, known as Cappy, died in 1988. In addition to his son Mark, he is survived by his wife, Mary Jo Stanbrough; a daughter, Karen Toof; three other sons, Mike, Matt and Vince; 15 grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren. His son Mike played three seasons as a quarterback for the Philadelphia Eagles. Boryla served briefly as a front-office executive for the Knicks and, in the early 1970s, for the Utah Stars of the American Basketball Association. He became a prominent Denver businessman, real estate investor and philanthropist, but local basketball fans probably remember him best for his three-year stint as general manager of the Nuggets, from 1984 to 1987. A month after he took the job, he engineered a blockbuster trade, sending a young star, the sharpshooting forward Kiki Vandeweghe, to the Portland Trail Blazers in a swap for three players — the center Wayne Cooper, the guard Lafayette Lever (better known as Fat) and the forward Calvin Natt — and two draft choices. The next season the Nuggets improved from 38 wins to 52, finished first in the N.B.A.’s Midwest Division and made it to the Western Conference finals for the first time in seven years. They lost to Magic Johnson and the Los Angeles Lakers, the eventual champions, but the Nuggets had one more triumph. Boryla was named the N.B.A. executive of the year.

Obituary
Basketball
Knicks
Nuggets
Vince Boryla


France Orders Strauss-Kahn to Stand Trial

Abstract: PARIS — Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the disgraced former chief of the International Monetary Fund, was ordered Friday to stand trial in France on charges linked to his involvement in a prostitution ring prosecutors say was operating in France and in the United States. Judges in the northern city of Lille, who have been investigating Mr. Strauss-Kahn and a small group of French businessmen and police officials for nearly two years, charged him and 12 others with pimping, or “aggravated procurement in a group.” That charge carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a fine of 1.5 million euros, or about $2 million. Mr. Strauss-Kahn, whose political career collapsed around a 2011 New York sex scandal and the subsequent flood of sexual misconduct claims against him, has denied any wrongdoing, though he has admitted participating in sex parties in France and Washington. He was not aware, he has said, that the women involved were prostitutes. “Dominique Strauss-Kahn denies the totality of the deeds of which he is accused,” said Frédérique Baulieu, a lawyer for Mr. Strauss-Kahn. “There was no infraction,” Ms. Baulieu added, noting that a state prosecutor called for the case to be dismissed in June. At that point, it appeared that Mr. Strauss-Kahn’s legal worries might be through; in October, rape charges involving a Belgian escort were dropped, and shortly thereafter his lawyers reached a confidential settlement with the New York hotel housekeeper who had accused him of assaulting her. But the magistrates in Lille overruled the prosecutor on Friday. Ms. Baulieu insisted that their investigation had been biased. A trial will probably be held next year, she said. A likely contender for the French presidency before the encounter in New York, Mr. Strauss-Kahn has in recent months begun a return to public life. He appeared in black tie on the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival in May and recently testified before the French Senate as an expert in global finance. This month, he was named a member of the board of a banking subsidiary of Rosneft, the Russian state oil company. Earlier in the year, a roman à clef by a onetime lover described him as a “pig.” Mr. Strauss-Kahn was unable to halt sales of the book, but a court ordered that a flier be included with each copy noting that Mr. Strauss-Kahn’s privacy had been violated.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn
Prostitution
France


Exploring a World of Animals

Abstract: Dinaw Mengestu, 35, has racked up a list of enviable accomplishments. He is a highly acclaimed novelist. He was a recipient of a MacArthur “genius” grant in 2012. The New Yorker named him one of its “20 Under 40” writers in 2010. And on Sundays, he says, he makes a mean roast chicken. “All Our Names,” the third novel by Mr. Mengestu, who was born in Ethiopia and raised in Illinois, is being published next month by Knopf. Mr. Mengestu lives in West Harlem with his wife, Anne-Emanuelle Mengestu, 41, and their sons, Gabriel, 4, and Luis-Selassie, 3. NO ALARM REQUIRED I’m the lazier of the household. Normally our kids run into our bedroom by 6:30 or 7. We lie around and try to ignore them so we can sleep a little bit more. Normally my wife will make coffee for us, and she’ll make waffles or pancakes for the boys. And then we all eat in bed. We have an espresso machine, so we have our very strong espresso. I’ll lie next to them and slowly drink my coffee till I wake up. Image Mr. Mengestu and his family on their way to the American Museum of Natural History. Credit James Estrin/The New York Times CROISSANT RUN As long as it’s not totally miserable outside, we’ll try to rally. We’ll get the kids dressed and do our first run of the day, to get croissants. There’s a great French bakery only four blocks away. We’ll sit there in a little counter window. It’s one of the better croissants that you can get in the city. When we lived in Paris we had a similar routine. It keeps the same rhythm that we used to have. ANIMAL MAGNETISM We’ll come home, grab bottles of juice and stuffed animals that need to be carried around for the rest of the day. Our new thing is to go to the Museum of Natural History . The boys are fanatical about all of the animals. Luis wants to be a farm animal for the rest of his life. NAPPING AND READING Then we’ll head back home so our youngest will take a nap. He’ll take a nap for at least an hour. During that time we’ll try to arrange the house. Gabriel and I will go back to the bed and read. I’m still reading the Sunday paper, and my son will be playing a puzzle on his iPad. Image Mr. Mengestu likes to spend his Sundays with his family, often on a cultural outing. Credit James Estrin/The New York Times SOUP’S ON Oftentimes there’s already a soup ready, which we’ll give to our youngest son. Normally my wife and I don’t eat much lunch. We get the boys fed, and oftentimes we have soup and salad. This is what it’s like when you have kids — you don’t eat much yourself. You’re just eating all their scraps like a dog. Our oldest is a very difficult eater. We’ll try to give him a quick lunch. He eats mainly things that are colored yellow: bananas, apples, applesauce, bread, baguettes, croissants, chicken nuggets. The newest thing we’ve been able to get him to eat is little pieces of pizza. CRACKING AND STIRRING Normally there’s a baking project in the afternoon. Both of our boys really like to bake. Sundays are for cookies. They both get into the cracking of the eggs and stirring, and putting things in the oven and watching them slowly harden. Image Inside their apartment in West Harlem, Mr. Mengestu and his family use Skype to talk to his in-laws. Credit James Estrin/The New York Times LE POULET In Paris, we always had somebody over Sunday night. Now here it’s about 50-50. Normally we do a Sunday roast chicken. It’s great — poulet de dimanche. All it means is Sunday chicken, but it sounds very official. I use the Thomas Keller technique — you make it as dry as possible, no oil or butter. Often I’ll let it sit by the window. The skin becomes incredibly dry and crispy and you can use the drippings to make sauce. COMPANY Then people come over, and the kids have already had a bath and they’ll be in their pajamas. Ideally they’ll go to bed around 8 — they’ll say good night to everyone and they’ll have a couple of stories. They like falling asleep to the ambient noise of friends over. CLASS PREP I don’t do a lot of work on Sundays. If I still need to keep prepping for my class on Tuesdays — I teach at Georgetown — often I’ll go back to work for a little bit in the evening. MOVIE AND A SNACK After people leave, we’ll go to bed and watch a movie. There’s always ice cream in bed. When we’re picking movies, if my wife wins, it’ll be a long documentary on someone, probably a writer or an artist. If I win, it’ll be something a little trashier.


Dell Accused of Concealing Evidence in PC Suit

Abstract: SAN FRANCISCO — Dell has been accused of withholding evidence, including e-mails among its top executives, in a lawsuit over faulty computers it sold to businesses, according to a filing made Thursday. Advanced Internet Technologies filed a motion in Federal District Court in North Carolina asserting that Dell had deliberately violated a court order by failing to produce documents written by its executives, including the company’s chief executive and founder, Michael S. Dell. The filing is the latest twist in a three-year-old lawsuit brought by A.I.T. that accuses Dell of selling at least 11.8 million faulty PCs over three years and then trying to hide problems with the computers from customers. A.I.T., an Internet services company, says it lost business as a result of the broken Dell machines. Dell disputes the accusation. “We disagree with A.I.T.’s contention that we violated the discovery order and will be filing our response with the court soon,” said David Frink, a spokesman at Dell. “We take all court orders and our obligations to comply with them very seriously.” A.I.T. declined to comment. Documents that have already been made public in A.I.T.’s lawsuit show Dell grappling with faulty parts in the PCs and trying to isolate the problems they had caused. But in its filing, A.I.T. asserted that Dell had provided only a snippet of the communications among top executives about the faulty computer problems. In its filing, A.I.T. argued that Dell must have had more high-level communications than a “talking points” memorandum sent to Mr. Dell and Kevin Rollins, then the chief executive, because of the severity of the problem. Some of the company’s largest customers were affected by the problem, and Dell had to take a $300 million charge related to the replacement of the bad computers. Larry E. Daniel, a digital forensics expert, has filed an affidavit in the case, stating that the handful of messages Dell provided appeared altered and incomplete. Mr. Daniel suggested that Dell should provide access to the underlying e-mail files rather than cutting and pasting text. In its most recent filing, A.I.T. has produced communications that showed Dell’s management discussing how to frame the PC problems for investors, the news media and customers. Mr. Dell and Mr. Rollins were informed by the vice president for investor relations, Lynn Tyson, in an August 2005 e-mail that Dell would “continue our reactive posture with the media” about the PC situation. She told the executives that the public would hear that “the problem poses no risk of safety or data loss for our customers,” that “we have been working with our customers to resolve problems in the most effective manner possible” and that “we’re committed to fixing any systems that fail.” But customers with the faulty PCs have complained about data loss when their computers malfunctioned, and computer experts have since said that the electrical problems with the computers presented a limited safety risk. In June, a number of documents in the A.I.T. case were unsealed. They pointed to Dell’s struggles to deal with faulty components that plagued its OptiPlex computers from about 2003 to 2005. Internal Dell communications showed that lower-level employees had known that millions of PCs sold to businesses were likely to malfunction. In addition, Dell employees were encouraged to play down the problems when speaking to customers, according to documents in the lawsuit. Dell told some customers about the problems, fixed their computers and extended its warranties on the systems. Mr. Frink, the Dell spokesman, said the company had replaced 22 percent of the motherboards inside the OptiPlex computers shipping from 2003 to 2005 and added that only a small proportion of the computers had component problems. Still, many customers complained that their computers were breaking at unprecedented rates and that Dell was not doing enough to fix the situation. The companies feared that their businesses could be disrupted at any time because of the machines. For example, even Alston & Bird, the law firm representing Dell in the lawsuit, had to fight for Dell to address 1,000 questionable computers and argued that its business had been put at risk. “The problem was unquestionably the worst we have ever seen in this business,” said John Hess, the president of CompuCycle, a company in Houston that refurbishes computers and dealt with 5,000 faulty Dell machines. “I would suspect this has been part of the decline in Dell’s reputation.” The problems with Dell’s OptiPlex business PCs were part of an industrywide dilemma caused by so-called bulging capacitors. The capacitors cost just a fraction of a penny each and helped control the flow of electricity to various computer components. Bad batches of these capacitors burst at their seams when they overheated, leaking fluid that caused further problems with electronic components. The latest complaint was filed just after Dell’s lawyers urged that the lawsuit’s trial date be delayed to December, from October. Two lawyers with Alston & Bird who represented Dell in the case withdrew this month, saying they had left the law firm.

Dell Inc
Advanced Internet Technologies
Suits and Litigation
Computers and the Internet


Legislators Approve a County Budget Without Raises

Abstract: WHITE PLAINS AFTER weeks of mounting public outcry about a 2009 budget proposal that would have included raises for some county employees, Westchester legislators approved a slightly smaller budget without the raises late Monday night. The $1.8 billion budget, about $1.5 million less than the proposal submitted by County Executive Andrew J. Spano on Nov. 14, will increase the county portion of property taxes — about one-sixth of an average resident’s bill — by 1.8 percent, rather than 3 percent as Mr. Spano had proposed. “I fear the economy will get worse before it gets better,” Mr. Spano said in a statement released before the Monday vote, withdrawing his proposed pay raises for commissioners and managers. The proposed retroactive 3.25 percent raises for commissioners and department heads amounted to about $780,000 more in pay and $110,000 in retirement benefits, totaling about $890,000. “They have done an outstanding job and if times were better, they would be getting the increase they deserve,” Mr. Spano said. “But we all have to tighten our belts in times like this — and sometimes that hurts.” The conciliatory gesture came as too little, too late for some of Mr. Spano’s vocal critics, especially members of Rethinking Westchester Government, a new group that wants to eliminate New York’s county governments, as have Connecticut and Massachusetts. Connecticut got rid of all its county governments in 1960 and Massachusetts abolished most of its in the late 1990s. One of the group’s founders, Paul J. Feiner, a former county legislator and now the Greenburgh town supervisor, said services could be provided more efficiently at the state and local levels. “Westchester County is becoming very unaffordable,” he said. “It’s driving people out of the county, and people can’t even sell their homes these days.” Mr. Feiner’s remarks during the public hearings process offended some legislators, including Kenneth W. Jenkins of Yonkers, who noted that Greenburgh’s proposed 2009 budget, scheduled for a vote this week, would result in a 7.7 percent tax increase for residents of unincorporated areas of the town and nearly 10 percent for residents of its villages. “Get your house in order first before you step out and speak to anybody else,” Mr. Jenkins said, before casting his vote in favor of the county budget, which passed, 13 to 4. IN a response Tuesday morning, Mr. Feiner said municipalities have far fewer options for painless cuts than at the county level. “People don’t want to see the town pool closed in the summer,” he said. “People feel we shouldn’t be cutting police when the economy is bad. If you cut $400,000 from the town, you’re cutting major programs. If you cut $400,000 from the county executive’s bodyguards, the only ones feeling it are the bodyguards and the county executive.” Mr. Spano’s proposal was $101,000 below this year’s budget, but the county executive had argued that a tax increase was unavoidable because of the anticipated $26.3 million shortfall in mortgage taxes, state aid and interest income and a $20.5 million jump in fuel, utility and Medicaid costs. More than 70 percent of the budget consists of mandated expenses, he added. But citing the economic downturn, with area residents hit hard by job losses on Wall Street and by the housing market crisis, the League of Women Voters and the Westchester County Association, a business advocacy group, had also called on the board to flatten or reduce taxes. “Any increase is unacceptable at this point in time, when you see the number of people losing their jobs,” said William M. Mooney Jr., the association’s president. The board’s four Republicans agreed, voting against the budget, which they say could have made additional cuts to legislator stipends, the county’s mounted police force and Mr. Spano’s security detail, among other programs. Mr. Spano’s security detail was cut by 15 percent, which was in his initial proposal. “Given the economic times, given the uncertainties, we could not support any tax increase this year,” said Legislator George Oros, the board’s minority leader. Mary Beth Gose, president of the League of Women Voters of Westchester, said her group was disappointed by the tax increase, but “somewhat relieved” by the changes to Mr. Spano’s initial proposal. Next year, she said, the county executive should prepare his budget earlier so the public has at least a month to study it and make suggestions. “It’s a complex budget, and it’s important for people to understand what’s under consideration and what the county government does,” she said. Democrats and Republicans on the board agreed that next year, they would solicit more input on ways to consolidate services and explore private-public partnerships, striving to save taxpayers money without seriously hurting their standard of living. Eliminating 52 vacant county positions this year was an acceptable sacrifice, but layoffs and other draconian measures should only be a last resort if the recession continues, said Legislator Jose I. Alvarado, chairman of the board’s budget committee. “We are not firing anybody, everyone is staying put and hopefully hanging around with us as things get better,” said Mr. Alvarado, a self-described optimist. “I think things will turn around. Everything is cyclical.” Last week, the legislators added $5.3 million to Mr. Spano’s proposed budget, primarily for community services for the county’s neediest residents. In addition to reinstating financing for public day care centers and mental health programs, the amount also included about $500,000 each for the Legal Aid Society, which provides lawyers for residents who cannot afford them, and the Westchester Arts Council, whose programs provide educational and tourism benefits for the county. The legislators were able to add the money while lowering the tax levy because they also increased anticipated revenue by $5.8 million, after consulting with the board’s auditors about projected income from taxes and county agencies.

Taxation
Budgets and Budgeting
Westchester County (NY)


Bank Outlines How Trader Hid His Activities

Abstract: PARIS — The French bank Société Générale , facing persistent questions over how a lone, junior trader could have instigated more than $7 billion in losses, acknowledged on Sunday that his activities prompted questions from risk managers several times last year, but that the bank never began an investigation because his explanations defused any suspicions. The disclosure came as the trader, Jérôme Kerviel, 31, spent a second day in police custody, facing questions about what the bank asserts was an elaborate, yearlong ruse that involved betting tens of billions of dollars of the bank’s money on European stock index futures. Mr. Kerviel’s lawyers late Sunday denounced what they called the “media lynching” of their client in recent days and argued that the bank’s managers “brought the loss on themselves.” In a five-page statement, the bank outlined how it believed Mr. Kerviel combined several different “fraudulent methods” to hide his activity — including using computer access codes of other employees and falsifying documents. Briefing reporters separately by telephone, Jean-Pierre Mustier, chief executive of the bank’s corporate and investment banking arm, said that the discovery of the $7.2 billion fraud on Jan. 18 and the unwinding last week of the roughly $70 billion worth of risky investments that were uncovered represented “one of the most difficult periods in the history of Société Générale.” Mr. Mustier also repeated the bank’s assertion that Mr. Kerviel appeared to have acted alone. “We have made extensive checks of his portfolio as well as the portfolios of others to see if there was anything like the types of transactions he was using,” Mr. Mustier said. “It seems extremely unlikely” that he was helped by others, he said. Mr. Mustier explained that Mr. Kerviel’s role on the trading desk was that of an arbitrageur, which meant that he was entrusted to purchase one portfolio of stock index futures and at the same time sell a similar mix of index futures, but with a slightly different value. The object of arbitrage is to try to make profits from these differences in value. Because the value gaps between similar financial instruments are usually very small and temporary, this type of activity typically involves trading in very high total nominal amounts. Mr. Kerviel’s fraud, according to the bank, consisted of placing sizable, real purchases in one portfolio but creating fictitious sales transactions in the second, offsetting portfolio. This gave the impression to risk managers that the risks in the first portfolio were hedged, when in fact they were not. As a result, the bank wound up exposed to huge one-way bets, or long positions. Instead of hedging, which was his job, Mr. Kerviel was effectively speculating with the bank’s money. Mr. Mustier said a review of Mr. Kerviel’s trading records showed that he began creating the fictitious trades in late 2006 and early 2007, but that these transactions were relatively small. The fake trading increased in frequency, and in size, during the course of the year, he said, but the largest fictitious trades — involving futures contracts on the Dow Jones Eurostoxx 50, the German DAX and the FTSE index in London — were entered in early January. “Our controls identified from time to time problems with this trader’s portfolio,” Mr. Mustier said, although he declined to say when the first questions were raised by risk managers, saying that the bank’s auditors were still investigating. Each time one of Mr. Kerviel’s trades was questioned, he would describe it as a “mistake” and cancel the trade, Mr. Mustier said. “But in fact, he then replaced that trade with another transaction using a different instrument” to avoid detection, he said. Mr. Mustier also said that Mr. Kerviel’s fake trades did not fall into an identifiable pattern. “He had a lot of various transactions that he would use,” Mr. Mustier said. “I don’t think there was ever an exact repeat” of a trade. Mr. Kerviel surrendered to the police on Saturday afternoon. French investigators spent the weekend questioning him and poring over documents and computer files seized from his residence and from the bank offices where he had worked. On Sunday, his lawyers, Elisabeth Meyer and Christian Charrière-Bournazel, accused the bank’s management of wanting to “raise a smokescreen to divert public attention from far more substantial losses in the last few months,” notably in the area of subprime mortgage investments. The lawyers criticized Daniel Bouton, the bank’s chief executive, saying he had published a public letter under the pretext of reassuring shareholders that accused Mr. Kerviel of fraud. On the contrary, they argued, Mr. Kerviel actually made the bank a profit of $2 billion as of Dec. 31. Laura Schalk, a Société Générale spokeswoman, declined to comment on the contentions of the lawyers. On Sunday, the head of the financial section of the Paris prosecutor’s office, Jean-Michel Aldebert, said the questioning of Mr. Kerviel had so far been “extremely fruitful.” Mr. Aldebert said that Mr. Kerviel’s state of mind seemed stable. “According to what he told me, he’s doing fine,” he said. Société Générale executives had previously described Mr. Kerviel as a “fragile being” who had recently faced “family problems.” Mr. Aldebert said Mr. Kerviel would be held until Monday morning and was then expected to be interviewed by a judge.

Societe Generale
Kerviel Jerome
Banks and Banking


It’s a Stretch, but Putin Will Add Yoga to His Repertoire

Abstract: MOSCOW — Maybe somebody told President Vladimir V. Putin that yoga was all about the warrior poses. Or maybe it was just part of his Asian charm offensive. But whatever the inspiration, Mr. Putin avowed on Wednesday that he was ready to add yoga, the ancient discipline of mindfulness and gentle stretching, to his repertoire of strictly macho sports. “I have tried many things, but never yoga, but it cannot fail to attract,” Mr. Putin told Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India during a meeting in the southern Russian city of Ufa, according to a transcript on the presidential website. Mr. Putin expressed admiration for yoga after Mr. Modi thanked him for the enthusiasm with which International Yoga Day — which Mr. Modi helped inaugurate on June 21 — was greeted in Russia . Mr. Putin, 62, has not been shy about sharing his athletic prowess with the world. He holds a black belt in judo, has been photographed driving a Formula One racecar and has worked assiduously to improve his hockey game since becoming president. He even scored eight goals in an exhibition hockey match two months ago with N.H.L. players in Sochi, the site of the 2014 Winter Olympics — which Russian press reports insisted had nothing to do with the fact that he was president. He also swims, once reportedly downed a charging tiger with a tranquilizer dart and has been photographed hunting and horseback riding while bare-chested . Whatever is behind his embrace of yoga, Mr. Putin apparently missed the memo from the central Russian city of Nizhnevartovsk last month announcing that it was booting two yoga studios out of municipal space . The city explained that it was doing so for reasons of public order, “to prevent the spread of new religious cults and movements.” Mr. Putin has been going to great lengths to prove that Western efforts to isolate Russia over the Ukraine crisis have failed. So if he can pivot to Asia, why not throw in a headstand as well? His meeting with Mr. Modi actually came as part of two summit meetings Russia is hosting simultaneously in Ufa that are meant to show, among other things, that Russia has friends. For the two-day meetings, Mr. Putin welcomed leaders from the Asian countries in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization as well as those from Brazil, India, China and South Africa, which, together with Russia, form the BRICS group of countries with emerging economies. Mr. Putin, in a rare moment of public self-doubt, acknowledged that the asanas might not come easily. “I will see what my level of fitness allows,” he told Mr. Modi. “But when you see real yogis, it seems that it would be impossible to reach that kind of skill, and that’s what stops me.”

Russia
Vladimir Putin
Yoga
Narendra Modi
India
BRICS Group


India Searches for Engineers as Nuclear Industry Expands

Abstract: NEW DELHI — Besides political protests, India’s nuclear energy ambitions face another big roadblock, critics say: a shortfall of trained people to run, repair and regulate power plants. If it proceeds with plans to build 44 nuclear plants over the next decade, India needs to add 10,000 to 19,000 skilled people to the nuclear industry, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers. That is about 1,000 to 1,900 people a year. But India’s top universities are graduating only about 50 nuclear specialists a year. Meanwhile, special graduate programs approved by the Department of Atomic Energy to address the shortage will add only about 100 master’s-level graduates this year. “There is a significant gap” between the manpower India’s nuclear industry needs and the work force it is getting, said Kameswara Rao, the executive director of energy, utilities and mining at PricewaterhouseCoopers in India. “If this program is going to take off,” he said, “you need to have engineers trained in the basics.” Worldwide, personnel shortages in the nuclear power industry and other science-related careers are a challenge, thanks to the lure of big money from finance jobs and start-ups. The dearth is particularly severe in India. As this still-developing nation builds seaports, roads and other big infrastructure projects, companies are paying top dollar for engineering students from the best schools. At the same time, the continued growth of the outsourcing industry is attracting good English speakers, with its possibility of international careers and competitive pay. Entrepreneurial types, meanwhile, are being drawn to emerging industries like telecommunications and retail. Still, the challenge to building a nuclear work force is not primarily money. Starting salaries in the nuclear industry are about 30,000 rupees ($678) a month, comparable with other white-collar, entry-level jobs in India. And the positions can come with perks like subsidized housing. The tough part seems to be persuading top students to study nuclear power in the first place — and, if they do, to keep them in India. “We find that all the bright students who go to elite schools, after engineering they do not do science,” said R. B. Grover, the director of Homi Bhabha National Institute, a special university set up by the government to train students in the industry. The few that do are often poached immediately by nuclear programs in the rest of the world. Of the dozen graduates from Delhi University’s doctorate nuclear program this year, eight got job offers from European companies, Mr. Grover said. Homi Bhabha National Institute has 1,100 students enrolled now, mostly from smaller towns and second-tier schools, who hold bachelor degrees in engineering. The Institute provides a one-year training course in nuclear sciences, and then the students do on-the-job training and are certified by the government before they can work in a plant. Indian nuclear experts say that number needs to jump significantly, or India will need to scale down its nuclear plans.

Nuclear Energy
Engineering and Engineers
India


$1 Billion Is Pledged to Support Libya Rebels

Abstract: ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates — The nations intervening in Libya pledged as much as $1 billion in support for the opposition there on Thursday as senior officials continued to predict that the collapse of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi ’s government could be imminent. As the NATO military alliance intensified attacks in the Libyan capital of Tripoli, including a new round of daytime raids, senior officials meeting here acknowledged reports that Colonel Qaddafi’s son Seif al-Islam el-Qaddafi could be seeking a negotiated exit and said that repeated entreaties reflected the government’s isolation and weakness, despite public defiance. “There have been obviously multiple feelers from the Qaddafi regime to various members of the international community coming every other day,” Australia’s foreign minister, Kevin Rudd, said after a meeting of more than 30 nations and international organizations. Mr. Rudd said the consensus here was that “Qaddafi’s days are well and truly numbered,” giving urgency to the efforts to prepare the opposition for taking power and overseeing a transition. “This is no longer an academic proposition,” he said. “It is a real proposition and one we may be facing sooner than many of you in this room may think.” Such predictions, echoed again by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, have proved premature more than once before since the United States and other NATO nations began a military campaign in March. In Geneva, a senior Libyan diplomat vehemently denied that Libyan forces had committed atrocities, including a systematic campaign of rapes by soldiers, possibly including the distribution of Viagra , as prosecutors for the International Criminal Court suggested on Wednesday. Investigations into rape and sexual abuse in war zones are notoriously difficult, and even some human rights groups have cast doubt on the accusations. Amnesty International said in a statement on Thursday that the group’s researchers, working in eastern Libya, Misurata and in refugee camps along the Tunisian border, “have not to date turned up significant hard evidence to support this allegation” of systematic rape. Libyan officials have also steadfastly denied talk of any deal involving Colonel Qaddafi’s leaving the country, but even so officials meeting here as part of what is called the “contact group” increasingly took steps to prepare for what Mrs. Clinton in her remarks called “the inevitable: a post-Qaddafi Libya.” The officials established a financial mechanism — first agreed on when they met last in Rome a month ago — that would allow direct assistance to the Libyan opposition despite United Nations sanctions that remain in place on the country. That cleared the way for nearly $300 million in assistance already pledged by Kuwait and Qatar, two Arab nations that have strongly supported international action against the Qaddafi government. Italy, France, Turkey, Australia and other countries also pledged additional money on Thursday totaling more than $1 billion, much of it backed by frozen Libyan government assets. But the money still faces legal hurdles before it can reach the rebels. The United States and Australia joined Britain and other countries in recognizing Libya’s opposition as the legitimate representative of the country, a step closer to diplomatic recognition. The opposition in the eastern half of the country, known as the Transitional National Council, has pleaded for as much as $3 billion worth of immediate assistance to pay for emergency needs and basic services in the parts of Libya it controls. And its leaders expressed frustration over what they viewed as the plodding pace of international diplomacy. “It’s beyond frustration,” the opposition’s finance minister, Ali Tarhouni, said on the sideline of Thursday’s meeting, held at the Emirates Palace, an opulent hotel on the shores of the Persian Gulf. The foreign minister of the United Arab Emirates, Sheik Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahyan, acknowledged the sluggish pace of international efforts to dislodge Colonel Qaddafi from power, following his crackdown on a popular uprising that began in February. “I understand the dissatisfaction that is felt, and this dissatisfaction is legitimate,” he said. “Our brothers and sisters in Libya are losing blood and money and time as well,” he added, but then laid the blame on the refusal of Colonel Qaddafi and his aides to respond to international demands to end the violence. “How did they allow this situation to reach this point in the first place?” The tone of the meeting here contrasted with that of defense ministers of the NATO alliance the day before in Brussels. There, the strains of a military operation now nearing the end of its third month became public, as Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates pressed some allies — Germany, Poland, the Netherlands, Spain and Turkey — to contribute more to the military effort, only to be rebuffed. Turkey’s foreign minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, appeared with Sheik Abdullah and declared that “we have a duty and a burden on our shoulders” to support Libya’s opposition, through humanitarian means, if not military ones. Mr. Davutoglu also called for a political resolution, though that seems as remote as ever. In Washington, President Obama’s nominee to replace Mr. Gates as defense secretary, Leon E. Panetta, testified before the Senate that there were signs that Colonel Qaddafi’s government might “be starting to crack.” But, he added, “The odds of a stalemate remain far too high.” Mrs. Clinton announced here that the United States would contribute an additional $26 million in humanitarian aid to international organizations, not directly to the rebels. That would bring American humanitarian aid to $81 million over all, as Congress worked on legislation that would allow the administration to free up some of the more than $38 billion in Libyan assets now frozen under the United Nations Security Council resolution, a process that could take weeks or months longer. While Mrs. Clinton said she was aware of quiet diplomacy that included “the potential for a transition,” she appeared to dismiss the possibility of a negotiated exit by Colonel Qaddafi, saying, “There is not any clear way forward yet.” She sounded optimistic, though, even as some in Congress have begun to express concern about the depth and duration of another American conflict in the Middle East. “We have very good reason to believe that time is on our side,” she said, “so long as we sustain the pressure.”

Middle East and North Africa Unrest (2010- )


German Politician Makes Anti-Immigrant Remarks

Abstract: BERLIN — Remarks by a leading German politician that Turkish and Arab migrants were no longer needed in Germany were strongly criticized on Monday by the Turkish community here and by Chancellor Angela Merkel’s top official responsible for integration policy. The politician, Horst Seehofer, the premier of Bavaria, had told Focus magazine that immigrants who could not integrate should not be accepted. “It is clear that immigrants from foreign cultural circles, like Turkey or Arab countries, have a hard time,” he said in the interview, published over the weekend. “That leads me to the conclusion that we do not need any more migrants from other cultural centers.” Similar remarks singling out Turks, Arabs and Jews led last month to the dismissal of Thilo Sarrazin from the board of Germany’s central bank, following the publication of his book “Germany Does Away With Itself.” Kenan Kolat, chairman of the Turkish community in Germany, said in a statement on Monday that Mr. Seehofer’s remarks were “defamatory” and that he should apologize. Maria Böhmer, the government’s integration policy representative, called Mr. Seehofer’s remarks “shocking.” Mr. Seehofer, whose Christian Social Union is faring badly in the polls, also told a regional party conference in the town of Heroldsbach over the weekend that multiculturalism had failed. “Reality has taught us that multi-culti is dead,” he told delegates, according to a transcript from the party. The Christian Social Union, which lost its absolute majority in elections two years ago, is the sister party of Mrs. Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union. The issues of integration and immigration remain the most debated issues among the political parties, and on Sunday, the family affairs minister, Kristina Schröder, adopted a different stance. She warned that many ethnic Germans were bearing the brunt of discrimination by foreigners living in Germany. “German children and teenagers are being verbally attacked because they are German,” Mrs. Schröder said in an interview with German public television. Anti-German sentiments “are a form of xenophobia and racism,” she added. In a bid to shift the debate, The head of Germany’s employment agency, Frank-Jürgen Weise, on Monday called for a new immigration policy aimed at tackling a serious labor shortage caused by the declining birthrate while also addressing a poorly qualified work force, particularly among immigrants. “We need to target immigrants with the help of a points system,” similar to Canada’s, Mr. Weise said. Under the Canadian immigration system, points are based on education, experience and language.

Germany
Seehofer Horst
Immigration and Emigration
Turkey
Arabs
Jews and Judaism