Paul E. Gillmor, 68, Ohio Lawmaker, Dies

Abstract: WASHINGTON, Sept. 5 — Representative Paul E. Gillmor, an Ohio Republican who represented much of the northwestern and north-central part of the state, was found dead in his apartment on Wednesday. Mr. Gillmor, 68, was discovered by staff members who went to the apartment in Arlington, Va., after the congressman did not show up at his office, a Republican leadership aide told The Associated Press. Brad Mascho, a spokesman for the lawmaker, said the death appeared to be of natural causes, Bloomberg News reported. Mr. Mascho said Mr. Gillmor had been active recently, having traveled to all 16 counties in his district last week. Mr. Gillmor was first elected to Congress in 1988. The Almanac of American Politics describes his district, the Fifth, as “a solidly Republican district from the Civil War through the New Deal and up through today,” so his death is unlikely to change the makeup of the House. With Mr. Gillmor’s death, there are 201 Republicans in the House, to 232 Democrats, with 2 vacancies. House vacancies are filled by special election. Mr. Gillmor was considered a moderate. While his votes on major issues were generally in line with Bush administration policies, he was one of the first Republicans to call for the resignation of Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales. “As a result of very public errors, Attorney General Gonzales has become a lightning rod and has distracted from the mission of the Department of Justice,” Mr. Gillmor said in March, as the controversy over the dismissals of nine United States attorneys was unfolding. Mr. Gillmor was a member of the Energy and Commerce and the Financial Services Committees. A lawyer, he served 22 years in the Ohio Senate before going to Washington. He was married and had five children.

Gillmor Paul E
Deaths (Obituaries)
Republican Party
Ohio


A Year Later, a Cease-Fire in a Brooklyn Pizza War

Abstract: They’re not exactly singing “Kumbaya” with each other, but the owners of Johnny’s Pizza and Papa John’s Pizza in Sunset Park are coexisting. Considering how they felt a year ago, this could pass for brotherhood in Brooklyn. Last summer, John Miniaci Jr., a second-generation pizzamaker, learned that a Papa John’s franchise was opening — right next door to the restaurant his father started in 1968. The fans of the original Johnny — John Sr., who died shortly before the brand-name doppelgänger arrived — were aghast, circulating petitions and bemoaning the sad fate of mom-and-pop businesses in New York. It was all for naught, since Papa John’s opened anyway, in September. “Hey, we’re doing O.K.,” John Jr. said the other day, tending to a nonstop line of lunch customers. “We’re not in the red, that’s the main thing.” Fans of the free market might nod approvingly at how things have gone. The unwanted competitor next door led Mr. Miniaci to make some changes that improved his business. He established a Web site ( johnnyspizzeria.com ) and a MySpace page, and introduced online ordering — the computer, not the standing, kind. The changes helped. Right now, he’s actually looking to hire two more workers, one for the counter and another for the kitchen. “What can I tell you?” Mr. Miniaci said. “Life is good.” And just in case he ever doubted that, business and civic leaders showered him with awards and citations last December for being a mainstay among the small businesses along Fifth Avenue. These have not been small considerations in places like Sunset Park, where neighborhood stores have been giving way to chains like Dunkin’ Donuts, Subway or CVS. A recent study by the Center for an Urban Future that documented the spread of these chains in the city has been cited by advocates as a call to preserve neighborhood businesses and character. Regulars don’t need any studies or proclamations to persuade them. Charlie Galea and Keith Sterner parked their garbage truck in front of the pizzerias and promptly ducked into Johnny’s, where they tore into lunch. “We never go to Papa John’s,” Mr. Galea insisted. “I don’t like frozen pizza.” “Only when I’m really drunk,” Mr. Sterner clarified. Mr. Galea shot him a look. “Not even.” The mere mention of frozen food leaves Mohammed Uddin cold. He is the general manager of Papa John’s next door, where everything, he insisted, is made fresh. He showed off a box of pizza dough, filled with soft, round balls ready to be slapped down into a pie, covered with sauce and toppings, then slipped onto a conveyor belt that would carry it through an oven in four and a half minutes. “There is nothing frozen here,” he said. “If this dough was frozen, do you think I could slap it with my hand?” The restaurant was as quiet as Johnny’s was hectic. But even that was deceptive. Mr. Uddin said his business picked up when the streets outside were empty — during bad weather or later at night. And the way the place was set up, one person could handle orders and baking while a driver scooted about the neighborhood. “If a person is a good slapper, he could easily handle $400 in an hour,” he said. “That’s what we’re about, better pizza in less time.” That, and Buffalo wings, which together account for pretty much the sum total of the menu. “It’s totally different from Johnny’s,” he said. “They have all this other stuff on their menu.” Business has been good, he said. Cordial, even. “Johnny says hi and talks to us,” he said. “My people go to him to order pizza.” He did not say whether that was for delivery.

Pizza Pies
Brooklyn (NYC)
Restaurants
Papa John's International Inc
Johnny’s Pizza


First-Year Players Deserve A Second Look

Abstract: Anthony Bennett’s rookie season for the Cleveland Cavaliers has been so ugly that he is being called a bust after a dozen games. Bennett was a surprise No. 1 overall pick in 2013, drafted ahead of a player considered to have far more potential, Nerlens Noel, and two Indiana players who were considerably more accomplished, Victor Oladipo and Cody Zeller, among others. In Bennett’s first 10 N.B.A. games, he shot 5 for 37 from the field and averaged 1.3 points and 2.5 rebounds a game. The good news is that it will be nearly impossible for him to remain so ineffective. On Nov. 23, in a loss to San Antonio, Bennett had what would qualify, for him, as a breakout game. He shot 4 for 5 from the field (raising his field-goal percentage to .214 from .135) and finished with 9 points and 5 rebounds. Bennett’s case, after so many other teenagers were able to step right into a man’s game, is a stark reminder that the N.B.A. occasionally presents a difficult learning curve. With that in mind, it is often best to largely ignore a player’s rookie season, as he becomes accustomed to the speed of the league, and start paying attention in his second year. A look at the players from the 2012 draft shows that some have stagnated, some have proved unworthy and some have become stars. So far, five players from the class seem to have distanced themselves from the pack in terms of production and potential. ANTHONY DAVIS, C, N. ORLEANS After a solid rookie campaign limited to 64 games because of injuries, the unibrowed Davis appears to have justified his status as the top overall choice. His improvements this season are a result of not only an increase in minutes, but also a drastic increase in efficiency. Davis has raised his points, rebounds and blocks per 36 minutes and has become a deadly free-throw shooter, and his player efficiency rating has reached a remarkable 28.5 from a solid 21.7. At 3.9 blocks a game, he is on the verge of being the first player to average 4 a game since Dikembe Mutombo in 1995-6. DAMIAN LILLARD, G, PORTLAND Lillard leads the draft class in nearly every category, so to say he has not improved much from his rookie season is hardly an insult; he had little need to change anything. The No. 6 pick, Lillard has raised his scoring average slightly, and his assists per game have dipped slightly, but his advanced shooting statistics remain remarkably the same. He and Davis are easily the draft’s two best players, with Davis getting the edge mainly based on his potential for improvement. ANDRE DRUMMOND, C, DETROIT True N.B.A. centers are such a rarity that to have two in the same draft class is special. Drummond looks as if he was a steal as the No. 9 pick for the Pistons. Although his 36-minute averages are roughly the same as they were last season, he has maintained that production while increasing his workload to 33.1 minutes a game from 20.7. His 11 double-doubles are fourth in the league behind Kevin Love, Chris Paul and Blake Griffin. BRADLEY BEAL, G, WASHINGTON Beal, drafted No. 3 in 2012, has not played much better this season, he has simply played more. Still not particularly efficient, he is averaging 20.6 points a game but is doing so with the benefit of an N.B.A.-leading 40.2 minutes a game. It is easy to see Beal’s potential, however, because he is shooting 43.9 percent from 3-point range on more than six attempts a game. JARED SULLINGER, F, BOSTON Injury concerns caused Sullinger’s draft value to plummet to No. 21, but he is looking like one of 2012’s biggest bargains. His per-36 minute averages of 18.9 points and 10.6 rebounds indicate potential stardom if his body holds up to the rigors of the game. If only things had worked out so well for Fab Melo, whom the Celtics selected one pick after Sullinger. After shuttling between Boston and the N.B.A.’s development league during his rookie season, Melo was traded over the off-season and has since been waived by both Memphis and Dallas. The rest of the draft class includes players who still have the potential for greatness (Jonas Valanciunas, Harrison Barnes), players who seem like busts (Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Thomas Robinson, Royce White) and players who have not shown enough to know for sure. By this time next season, we should know which category applies to Bennett.


Danone Exits Chinese Venture With Wahaha

Abstract: SHANGHAI — Groupe Danone of France resolved a long-running dispute with its Chinese joint venture partner on Wednesday, agreeing to exit the venture by selling its 51 percent stake in the Wahaha Group, one of China’s largest beverage companies. In a statement released Wednesday , Danone and Wahaha said they had agreed to an amicable split, with Wahaha agreeing to pay cash to acquire Danone’s 51 percent, giving the Chinese company control of the venture. The two companies also agreed to drop legal proceedings that had dragged on for years, ending a prominent joint venture between the French food giant and a Chinese company that grew into a $2 billion beverage behemoth and one of China’s best-known brands. The terms of the sale were not disclosed. Analysts estimated that Danone could receive more than $500 million for its share. While some analysts said Danone could use the cash to build a war chest for global acquisitions, the company’s reputation was badly damaged in China, where the feud erupted into a public brawl that became a case study in how a joint venture can collapse in China. The dispute erupted in 2007 , when Danone accused Wahaha, which is based in Hangzhou, of secretly operating a set of parallel companies that mirrored the joint venture’s operations with virtually identical products and siphoned off as much as $100 million from the partnership. The company also accused Wahaha’s chairman, Zong Qinghou, a colorful and brash figure and one of China’s richest entrepreneurs, of orchestrating the fraud with the help of relatives and offshore entities. Mr. Zong, who founded the company in the 1980s, struck back by organizing a corporate revolt that involved top Wahaha executives holding rallies and news conferences to denounce their French partners as “rascals” committing “evil deeds.” Mr. Zong argued that Danone knew all along about the ventures, grew jealous at their profitability and sought to purchase them cheaply, only to be rebuffed. Wahaha executives also said Danone had invested in Chinese competitors, in violation of the joint venture agreements. There were also personal attacks. Danone investigated the family of Mr. Zong, and Wahaha publicly denounced Danone executives by name and pointing out that they never played an operating role in the company. For a time, it seemed, Wahaha officials refused to allow Danone executives into the buildings of the joint venture, including the headquarters, creating a farcical atmosphere to the corporate fight. Indeed, the tensions grew so serious that in late 2007, President Nicholas Sarkozy of France brought the matter up in a meeting with his Chinese counterpart, Hu Jintao. But on Wednesday, the two sides said they had reached an “amicable” settlement that was awaiting Chinese government approval. “This settlement has been the outcome of renewed efforts of both parties to put a final end to their dispute through productive negotiations that have taken place in the spirit of mutual respect and with the support of both the Chinese and French governments,” the statement read. Danone’s chairman and chief executive, Franck Riboud, said the partnership had “helped to build a strong and respected leader in the Chinese beverage industry.” And Zong Qinghou, the chairman of Wahaha, said, “China is an open country. Chinese people are broad-minded people. Chinese companies are willing to cooperate and grow with the world’s leading peers on the basis of equality and reciprocal benefit.” At one point during the dispute, Mr. Zong, 63, had accused Danone of harassment and a smear campaign against him and his family and had even accused the French company of treating Chinese poorly.

Groupe Danone S.A
China
Mergers Acquisitions and Divestitures


For Bonds Jurors, a Narrow Common Ground

Abstract: SAN FRANCISCO — After weeks of hearing from 25 government witnesses — who often offered dense, scientific testimony — the jurors in the Barry Bonds trial finally looked relaxed Wednesday. They took a long lunch and some of them chatted and laughed together in the cafeteria of the Phillip Burton Federal Courthouse, which has been their second home for the last month. At that point, they already knew they were going to convict Bonds, baseball’s career home run leader, on only one of the four charges against him. They also had decided that they would never be able to come to a unanimous decision on three other counts, no matter how much more time United States District Judge Susan Illston would have given them. The jurors deliberated behind closed doors, sometimes dealing with raw emotions, for nearly four days. They convicted Bonds only on a charge of obstruction of justice. They deadlocked on the other three counts charging that he had provided false statements to a federal grand jury in 2003 when he said he never knowingly used steroids or human growth hormone. After the verdict was read in court, several of the jurors gathered on the courthouse steps to talk about their deliberations. “We all agreed that he was using steroids,” said Amber Reed, 19, a student from Pinole, Calif. “But the question was did he know he was, and on that we had no proof.” Four weeks ago, the jurors — eight women and four men — had filled out a juror questionnaire that focused on how much they knew about the case, baseball and Bonds. Days later, they were chosen from a pool of 100 jurors to be on the panel. Only three of them were sports fans. The others said they had not followed sports at all. “I’d like to see a level playing field,” said juror Steve, a 60-year-old former helicopter pilot in Vietnam who would only give his first name. He said he found the use of performance-enhancing drugs in sports despicable, and that he did not want his 16-year-old daughter, who plays soccer, to have to compete against steroid users. Still, the jurors felt that the government did not present enough evidence do prove its case on three counts. Well aware of the high-profile nature of the case and the dozens of reporters waiting for their verdict, the jurors took their time going over the evidence. “We were pretty friendly, but toward the end we were getting really agitated,” Reed said. Fred Jacob, the jury foreman, said the panel felt frustrated by what it considered the government’s lack of solid evidence. “We did not have enough information to connect the dots,” Jacob said. Jurors could not agree on whether Bonds lied to the federal grand jury when he said his trainer Greg Anderson never gave him steroids, with 8 of the 12 jurors feeling he should be acquitted of the charges. They also argued over the second count, which charged Bonds with lying about being injected by Anderson. Eleven of the jurors felt he was guilty, with just one, a 28-year-old nurse who would only give her first name, Nyiesha, holding firm that he was innocent. She said she felt that the testimony of Kathy Hoskins, Bonds’s former personal shopper, was not persuasive and that she “wasn’t totally credible.” Hoskins testified that she saw Anderson inject Bonds in the stomach before a road trip in 2002. The other jurors disagreed with Nyiesha, finding Hoskins to be “the most credible and heartfelt” of all the witnesses, said Steve. Jurors did not give much credence to a secretly taped conversation between Anderson and Steve Hoskins, Bonds’s former business manager. On that tape, recorded in the San Francisco Giants’ clubhouse in 2003, prosecutors said Anderson discussed injecting Bonds with steroids. But even with a transcript, jurors thought there was too much background noise to hear what was being said. Still, Steve, a self-described sports enthusiast and Giants fan, said he felt frustrated that Bonds was convicted on only the one count. “I think he should be retried,” he said.

Decisions and Verdicts
Jury System
Steroids
Bonds Barry
Baseball
Perjury
Doping (Sports)


At French Open, Hard Worker Faces a Talent Who Could Work Harder

Abstract: PARIS — It was a rough afternoon for poetic justice on Court 3 at the French Open on Tuesday. On one side of the net was Brian Baker, a former junior star from the United States who is now 31 and keeps coming back to the tour for more despite 11 surgeries. On the other side was Bernard Tomic, a flickering flame from Australia who has earned the nickname Tomic the Tank Engine. He was so ready to get off the court in Madrid last month that he flipped the racket in his hand on match point , putting the grip where the string bed was supposed to be and — no surprise — losing to Fabio Fognini. “Would you care if you were 23 and worth over $10 million?” Tomic said later, according to Australia’s Gold Coast Bulletin . Poetic justice would thus have been Baker ripping return winner after return winner and beating Tomic in a five-set mettle detector before delivering a heartfelt Ted Talk to Tomic at the net about making the most of your talent right here, right now, because you never know what anvil might fall on your head tomorrow. None of this happened, unfortunately. Instead, serving big when he needed it most, Tomic ended up a 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 winner in the first round on his least favorite surface. The life lessons (and tennis lessons) presumably will have to come from elsewhere for Tomic, but he should still take a moment to consider just what is driving a thoughtful man like Baker to put himself through this. “I can only talk about myself,” Baker said afterward when I explained my thesis to him. “You play tennis to play at the ATP level, play at the Slams, and I’ve had a rough go. I’ve had a lot of ups and downs, a lot of breaks. I’ve lost probably eight years of my career with injury, so every time I play I have to just appreciate being out there and enjoy these moments. Because as a little kid, this is what the dream was: to be able to be a pro and play right here at the Slams.” A French Open junior finalist in 2003, when he lost to Stan Wawrinka, Baker already came back strong once from years of injuries, reaching the final in Nice and the fourth round at Wimbledon in 2012. Image Baker, 31, is still playing on the tour after 11 surgeries because “as a little kid, this is what the dream was.” Credit Eric Feferberg/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images But the feel-good tale came to an abrupt halt at the 2013 Australian Open, where Baker injured his right knee in the second round and left the court in a wheelchair . There have been five more surgeries and two extended layoffs since then, during which he did not even touch a racket for months. Yet here he is again, playing with a slight limp and a protected ranking. “I don’t want to act like woe is me,” Baker said. “It’s not in my character. Maybe for like 10 minutes in a corner by myself, but then I’ll snap out of it. I’ve played tennis since I was 2 ½ years old. I was given a lot of talent, and unfortunately my body has kind of let me down a little bit along the way, but if I can get a little luck the rest of the year, hopefully it will set me up for a good end of this season and early next.” Tomic, in his benighted moments, has always seemed much closer to clueless than malicious. It is also important to view him in context: as the son of John Tomic, a domineering father who has rightly earned a reputation as a bully inside the game and who was convicted of causing bodily harm in 2013 in Spain for head-butting Tomic’s hitting partner Thomas Drouet. To be fair without handing out excuses, sympathy for Bernard Tomic is in order, and his attitude issues on court date to his early years. In 2007, he was reported to Tennis Australia by coaches for a lack of effort in a 6-2, 6-3 loss to Ricardas Berankis in the second round of the French Open junior event. Tomic was 14 then. He is 23 now, old enough to know much better than to pull the stunt he pulled in Madrid or come up with the flippant $10 million remark. It was the kind of comment that can stick with a young man deep into adulthood, and on Tuesday I asked him how he felt about it now. He looked surprised and then sheepish, but he owned it. He also cracked a joke. “I would love to say I have 10 million U.S., but maybe 10 million Australian,” he said. “Yeah, I shouldn’t have said that, but that’s in the past. That was my fault. You got me there.” Was he being funny? “Well, I was just in that moment,” he said. “I just said that, and I was talking to my friends about some things, so it just sort of came out. I don’t really care.” He then paused before cracking another joke. “Maybe if I had 100, that’s different,” he said, talking millions again. It was all rather disarming if you were in the room, and though Tomic has done a lot of ill-advised things in his young career (many of them involving motorized vehicles), he also has an endearing side. He has sacrificed a lot of his childhood to the hunt to become a tennis star without much say in the matter. He has not gone through anything remotely close to Baker’s medical travails, but he did have double-hip surgery in 2014. Is he bothered by his image that he doesn’t care, that he repeatedly doesn’t give his all? “Yeah, I get what you’re saying,” he said. “I think I have to learn to deal with more and compete. I struggle mentally a lot, so that’s one area I need to improve.” Avoiding eye contact, he added: “Everyone knows I have a lot of talent. Me, I don’t need to train much to be where I am: 30, 20 in the world. I always have the talent. If I want to get more in my career and life, I have to be 100 percent in everything. You have to give 100 percent all the time and compete all year.” Baker, to be clear, was not eager to give any lectures to Tomic. “That’s not my role,” he said. “He’s 20 in the world. He’s doing something right. People can say he doesn’t compete as well at times, but you don’t get to 20 without competing well and winning tight matches.” Tomic certainly competed well on the red clay on Tuesday under the edgy watch of Lleyton Hewitt, the recently retired star who is now Australia’s Davis Cup captain. Hewitt’s internal flame burned red hot, and he played on well past the days when he was a threat to get back to No. 1. Long after he stopped winning big titles, he never stopped hustling. A young $10 million man could learn plenty from him. Plenty from Brian Baker, too, even after a straight-sets win at Roland Garros.

French Open
Tennis
Bernard Tomic
Brian Baker


Senate Rejects Interest-Rate Cap on Credit Cards

Abstract: Despite complaints that banks and credit card companies are gouging customers by charging outrageous interest rates, the Senate on Wednesday turned back an effort to cap interest rates at 15 percent. The proposal by Senator Bernard Sanders , the Vermont independent, drew only 33 votes and needed 60. A bipartisan group of 60 senators opposed it, though the Senate pushed ahead with other restrictions on credit cards. Some Democrats and consumer groups have said that an interest cap is needed to put real teeth into an otherwise solid bill. The bill still contains provisions that would prohibit companies from raising interest rates on existing balances unless a card holder was 60 days behind, and then would require the rate to be restored to its previous level if payments were on time for six months. Consumers would have to be notified of rate increases 45 days in advance. Companies would not be allowed to charge late fees if they were late in processing a payment. Other backers of the measure calculated that an interest rate ceiling would doom the popular legislation. The banking industry, which had some heavyweight representatives monitoring the vote, warned that an interest rate limit could cause a sour reaction in the financial markets. But Mr. Sanders said the card companies and banks were engaged in conduct that could get others hauled into court. He said one-third of all credit card holders are paying interest above 20 percent and as high as 41 percent. “When banks are charging 30 percent interest rates, they are not making credit available,” said Mr. Sanders. “They are engaged in loan sharking.”

Credit and Money Cards
Regulation and Deregulation of Industry
Interest Rates
United States Politics and Government
Senate
Sanders Bernard


Vietnam Veterans, Claiming PTSD, Sue for Better Discharges

Abstract: NEW HAVEN — In the summer of 1968, John Shepherd Jr. enlisted in the Army, figuring that the draft would get him anyway. By January 1969, he was in the Mekong Delta, fighting with the Ninth Infantry Division. Within a month, his patrol was ambushed, and Mr. Shepherd responded by tossing a hand grenade into a bunker that killed several enemy soldiers. The Army awarded him a Bronze Star with a valor device, one of its highest decorations. Yet the medal did little to assuage Mr. Shepherd’s sense of anxiousness and futility about the war. A few weeks after his act of heroism, he said, his platoon leader was killed by a sniper as he tried to help Mr. Shepherd out of a canal. It was a breaking point: his behavior became erratic, and at some point he simply refused to go on patrol. “I never felt fear like I felt when he got shot,” Mr. Shepherd said last week. After a court-martial, the Army discharged Mr. Shepherd under other-than-honorable conditions, then known as an undesirable discharge. At the time, he was happy just to be a civilian again. But he came to rue that discharge, particularly after his claim for veterans benefits was denied because of it. Today, Mr. Shepherd, 65, is part of a class-action lawsuit against the armed forces arguing that he and other Vietnam veterans had post-traumatic stress disorder when they were issued other-than-honorable discharges. The suit, filed in Federal District Court, demands that their discharges be upgraded. The suit raises two thorny issues that could affect thousands of Vietnam veterans: Can they be given a diagnosis of PTSD retroactively, to their time in service, though the disorder was not identified until 1980? And if they can, should recently instituted policies intended to protect troops with PTSD be applied retroactively to their cases? Mr. Shepherd’s legal team, students with the Yale Law School veterans legal clinic, argues yes on both counts. In court papers, they assert that it is reasonable to assume that Mr. Shepherd and other veterans who were later given PTSD diagnoses began exhibiting troublesome symptoms while in service. Moreover, under rules put in place during the Iraq war, troops who say they have PTSD must be given medical examinations before they are forced out of the military, to ensure that problematic behavior is not linked to the disorder. If they are given a PTSD diagnosis, service members may still receive an honorable discharge. “Vietnam War-era veterans, in contrast, have been denied this opportunity for appropriate consideration of the PTSD,” the students said in the complaint. But the Army says no. In a rejection of an earlier request by Mr. Shepherd to upgrade his discharge, the Army tersely rejected evidence that his misconduct 43 years ago was linked to PTSD and raised questions about whether his platoon leader was actually killed. A spokesman for the Army said the military has a policy of not discussing pending litigation. The details of Mr. Shepherd’s case aside, the suit could have a wide impact. The Yale team says that its review of records from 2003 to 2012 shows that 154 Vietnam-era veterans petitioned the Army to upgrade discharges because of PTSD, but that only two were successful. Yet the Army Board of Corrections for Military Records granted upgrades nearly half of the time for other cases. The students estimate that more than a quarter million Vietnam-era veterans were discharged under other-than-honorable conditions, and that thousands of those probably had PTSD. Their suit names as defendants the secretaries for the Army, Air Force and Navy. Vietnam Veterans of America, the veterans service organization, is joining the case as a plaintiff on Monday. Discharges that are other than honorable can make it harder for veterans to find work and also disqualify them for veterans benefits. In Mr. Shepherd’s case, a Department of Veterans Affairs doctor in 2004 gave him a diagnosis of service-connected PTSD. As a result, the department will provide health care for his PTSD. But it will not provide him general medical care, unless he is found to have other health problems related to his service. Veterans disability compensation is also a problem. Mr. Shepherd’s undesirable discharge was actually upgraded to a general discharge in the 1970s under a special Carter administration program. That upgrade should have made it easier for him to apply for disability compensation. But subsequent legislation enacted by Congress said that clemency upgrades like Mr. Shepherd’s did not automatically qualify veterans for benefits. Mr. Shepherd’s compensation claim was ultimately rejected. Mr. Shepherd, who has been divorced twice and battled through alcoholism and drug abuse , lives in New Haven, getting by on Social Security and a Teamsters pension. (He drove trucks for years.) He could use the extra money from disability compensation, but what matters as much, he says, is removing the stain of his discharge. “I want that honorable,” he said. “I did do my part, until I really felt it wasn’t worth getting killed for.”

United States Defense and Military Forces


By Sea and by Ladder, Africans Seek Entry to Spain

Abstract: Migrants from Africa continued to pour across the Mediterranean this week, and Spain’s sea rescue service picked up 681 people traveling in 70 small boats across the Strait of Gibraltar. Above, a Red Cross worker helped with a feeding at a sports center in the Spanish port of Tarifa. Below, new arrivals stormed border fences with ladders to try to enter Spain’s northwest African enclave of Melilla from Morocco. Around 50 stayed on one of the fences for hours. Image Migrants storm border fences with ladders to try to enter Melilla. Credit Jesus Blasco de Avellaneda/Reuters

Mediterranean Sea
Africa
Spain
Melilla Spain
Immigration
Red Cross
Morocco


N.B.A. Takes Multimedia Rule Book Online

Abstract: The N.B.A. rule book defines a second-degree flagrant foul as “unnecessary and excessive contact,” and leaves the painful details to the imagination. It is much easier to grasp after watching Shaquille O’Neal clobber Rodney Stuckey in midair. Four times. From four different angles. In slow motion. That, more or less, is the premise behind the latest feature on the league’s Web site. The video rule book (at nba.com/videorulebook ), which launches Friday, brings to life more than 100 rules — from traveling to charging to illegal screens — by using video clips from N.B.A. games. It is one thing to read the definition for discontinued dribble and another to see Hornets guard Chris Paul slyly shift his left palm under the ball and push it across his body to elude a defender. “It’s very difficult, unless you’ve played the game at a very high level, or better yet, officiated the game at a very high level, to understand the complexity of our rules simply by reading them,” said Stu Jackson, the N.B.A.’s executive vice president for basketball operations. The league is aware of the need to educate fans — especially now, with a staff of replacement referees on the court and the regular referees locked out over a contract dispute . Fan sentiment toward N.B.A. officiating generally ranges from mild frustration to fiery cynicism. Some fans believe an unwritten rule book governs the sport: that superstars get the benefit of the doubt, home teams get more favorable calls and no one ever gets called for traveling. The league has tried for years to dispel those beliefs as myths and to explain how the referees do their job. The effort became more urgent after a veteran official, Tim Donaghy, was convicted in 2007 of conspiring with gamblers, which only increased the public’s cynicism. The video rule book was conceived about a year and a half ago, Jackson said, but was not inspired by the Donaghy case or by the ensuing study, known as the Pedowitz report , that assessed the state of the N.B.A.’s referee program. “It was just a great idea by some people here in basketball-referee operations,” said Jackson, who called the video rule book the first of its kind. With scrutiny at a high, the job of officiating an N.B.A. game has probably never been more difficult. The game moves quickly, calls are made in a split second and many rules are subject to interpretation. There are more camera angles than ever and more use of instant replay, giving viewers vantage points that the referees often do not have. Now, armed with digital-video recorders and YouTube, fans can pause and review every play. The improved technology has not necessarily improved the public’s understanding of the rules. N.B.A. officials have long been frustrated by home-team television commentators who, in their zeal to defend their team, misstate the rules. Indeed, the league’s annual referee training camp includes a day dedicated to educating the news media. The seminar includes video tutorials much like the videos now posted on NBA.com . For each rule, there are several videos, along with a written explanation. The audio has been stripped from the clips, to avoid confusion. The catalog includes some of the most misunderstood and most difficult calls: block versus charge, illegal screens and a variety of traveling violations. There are several examples to show what separates a first-degree flagrant foul (defined as unnecessary) from a second-degree flagrant foul (unnecessary and excessive) from a simple hard foul. Most of the clips are from the last two seasons, and include some high-profile plays. The flagrant-foul section includes two clips from the 2008 playoffs — Atlanta’s Marvin Williams collaring Boston’s Rajon Rondo on a breakaway, and Washington’s Brendan Haywood shoving an airborne LeBron James in Cleveland. “If there’s a play that receives a great amount of attention, that needs explanation and clarification, sure, we’re going to be more inclined to include that in the education of our fans,” Jackson said. The point is increased transparency, a concept the league has tried to embrace since the Donaghy scandal. That includes acknowledging blown calls, particularly if they occur in the critical final minutes of a playoff game. The N.B.A. has made two such admissions over the last two postseasons. The league has also urged referees to be more accessible to reporters to explain contested calls. Jackson said the league would keep adding to the video rule book and would update it with fresh clips as new situations arise. Of course, more video and more information might just lead to more scrutiny and more second-guessing. Jackson said it was a worthwhile tradeoff — with a caveat to fans. “We have to remind ourselves over and over that referees have to make these decisions in split seconds, tenths of seconds,” he said.

National Basketball Assn
Officiating (Sports)
Computers and the Internet
Basketball


A Review of ‘My Life Is a Musical’ in Sag Harbor

Abstract: In a flashback to an experience when he was 7 years old, Parker, the bewildered hero of “My Life Is a Musical,” discovers that he is apparently the only person who hears people bursting into song all around him every day. His mother tries to teach him the difference between song and spoken conversation by demonstrating: “This is singing. This is talking.” But the audience hears her as he does, trilling with operatic abandon (in a funny performance by Wendi Bergamini) during the second sentence as well as the first. We’ve already met Parker, now a nebbishy 20-something accountant, during the flashy opening number of Adam Overett’s inspired new musical at the Bay Street Theater in Sag Harbor . Parker is just walking to work, but people dressed in colorful outfits are not only singing out their observations and thoughts, they are also dancing, alone or in unison, traveling across the stage using steps that will remind you of jaunty sidewalk scenes in many other musicals. At one point, the troupe even comes out twirling umbrellas, for no particular reason except that their accouterments enhance a pretty bit of footwork. Marlo Hunter, the inventive director and choreographer of this world premiere, has located a pleasing balance between goofy satire and traditional musical comedy exposition, using only eight actors. Thanks to Amy Clark’s whimsical costumes, they appear to be a multitude. At first it seems as though Mr. Overett’s amusing conceit has nowhere to go beyond its entertaining premise, even though Parker complains that he feels like a freak and that he hates musicals, adding bits of frisson. And though it might be easy for many people to identify with Parker’s problem of feeling that he is experiencing the world in an alarmingly different way than everyone else, that sympathy still won’t carry a full-length show. Image Robert Cuccioli, with Mr. Smith, plays a mysterious character, Randy. Credit Jerry Lamonica The exceptionally charming Howie Michael Smith, who plays Parker in what should be a star-making turn, probably could carry us a very long way. Fortunately, he doesn’t have to. Mr. Overett, creator of the music, lyrics and book, has a plot and a few heartfelt emotions to serve up. Not to worry, though: The show remains a lightweight confection, filled with both clever and sometimes hoary jokes (“Practice” is the answer to one riddle, though the question doesn’t mention Carnegie Hall ). It treads nowhere near, say, the aches and pains of “Les Misérables,” one of many Broadway standards briefly saluted in Ms. Hunter’s fast-paced swirls of movement. In an unlikely turn of events, Parker becomes a “traveling tour accountant” for an ailing band called Zeitgeist, whose lead singer, Zach (Justin Matthew Sargent, perfectly capturing a spaced-out rock star vibe), composes dreadful songs. Parker steps in with better ones from the repertoire of his daily existence and lets Zach take credit for them. This allows Mr. Overett to introduce rock songs along with more conventional Broadway tunes — both styles sometimes overamplified in Tony Melfa’s sound design. With a nod to “ Cyrano de Bergerac ,” Parker falls in love with the band’s devoted manager, J. T. (Kathleen Elizabeth Monteleone, especially funny in an off-pitch karaoke number), as she starts to fall for the now seemingly smart and sensitive Zach. Along the way, a mysterious man named Randy shows up in Parker’s life, emitting an atmosphere of film noir. He wears a trench coat and raked hat, swivels his eyes in a menacing manner and makes nonsensical remarks with a deadpan delivery that evokes giggles. He is played with comical flair by Robert Cuccioli, who was nominated for a Tony for his dual role in “Jekyll and Hyde.” Why is Randy in this musical? Never clear. Will Parker give up or get the girl? These days, even if your life is a musical, it may not have a happy ending.

Theater
Adam Overett
Bay Street Theater
Sag Harbor NY
My Life Is a Musical


Estée Lauder to Weave Pink Ribbons Through the Internet

Abstract: FOR 2014, the 23rd annual breast cancer awareness campaign from the Estée Lauder Companies will have more of a focus on digital and social media, executives say, and become a year-round initiative rather than be concentrated in October, when Breast Cancer Awareness Month is marked each year. Those changes in the campaign, which is scheduled to begin this week, reflect how social and digital platforms can help charities and causes break through the clutter. The Internet’s power was demonstrated by the sudden and surprising popularity of a fund-raising campaign under the banner of the Ice Bucket Challenge for the A.L.S. Association , which fights amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. Since the challenge went viral late last month, $79.9 million has been raised in online donations, the association reported on Monday, compared with the $2.5 million that was raised during the same period (July 29 through Aug. 25) last year. The Lauder campaigns devoted to breast cancer education and medical research, the company’s largest philanthropic undertakings, have raised more than $53 million since they began in 1992. Although that is no small sum in the realm of cause marketing, those in charge say they hope the modifications being made for this year will help raise the campaign’s profile and, in turn, increase donations. The changes acknowledge “this modern era of connectedness,” when the public can be reached “on so many different platforms,” said William P. Lauder, executive chairman of the Lauder Companies and a son of Evelyn Lauder, who started the campaigns. Mr. Lauder called the results of the A.L.S. challenge “fantastic,” adding, “If more diseases or causes can engage a broader population, raising awareness and, hopefully, raising funds, that’s fine.” Mary Gerzema, vice president for corporate global media of Lauder, who oversees the campaign’s advertising and media elements, said: “It’s nice to see excitement generated for any cause. We hope to generate our own.” “Social media is becoming an increasingly powerful tool,” she added, because of the success that can be achieved in producing “something people want to join.” The changes in the Lauder campaign for 2014 , which has a fund-raising goal of $5 million, were in the works well before the Ice Bucket Challenge captured the public’s imagination. Among the other new tactics will be the inclusion in all print ads of a campaign hashtag, #BCAstrength, pointing potential contributors to content in social media like Facebook , Instagram and Twitter . To call additional attention to the campaign’s online components, Lauder will donate $1 to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation for each message or photo deemed “uplifting” that is shared on social media platforms, up to a maximum of $22,000. (The figure acknowledges the campaign’s start 22 years ago.) That will be in addition to contributions the company will make through measures like donating portions of the suggested retail prices of 15 “pink ribbon” products sold under brand names like Aveda, Bobbi Brown, Clinique, Estée Lauder, La Mer and Origins. Image Estée Lauder brands’ 2014 breast cancer awareness campaign will include the stories of four families affected by the disease. The campaign will also include digital content like online video clips, shot in a documentary style, in which members of four families describe how their lives were changed by diagnoses of breast cancer. The videos are meant to assist in bringing to life the campaign theme: “Let’s defeat breast cancer. We’re stronger together.” The videos are in a “storytelling” vein, said Bari Seiden, the vice president for global corporate communications at Lauder who oversees the overall campaign, because “by hearing other people’s stories — people who are diagnosed with breast cancer and those who support them — it helps people to get the help they need.” The public will be encouraged to “upload their own stories” to the campaign website, she added, and Lauder may select people from those submissions to be featured in subsequent videos. The decision to support the campaign on a year-round basis rather than only during October was made, Ms. Seiden said, because “when you have breast cancer, it’s not just one month a year.” The Ice Bucket Challenge is “proof of what can happen when we rally around each other toward a common goal,” she added, “and an example of what happens when a cause resonates with people.” The Lauder campaigns are created internally and supported by efforts of two agencies — JWT, part of WPP, and OMD, part of the Omnicom Group — to encourage media companies to donate ad space and time. Last year, the value of donated media in the United States was estimated at $3.7 million. Each year as Breast Cancer Awareness Month nears, those involved in helping the cause hear complaints from critics that ads and products festooned with pink ribbons are superficial ways to deal with the disease. There is even a term for the criticism, “pinkwashing,” and another, “ribbon fatigue,” describing consumer weariness — and wariness — about marketers trying to do well by doing good. “I have to say, we have not felt any fatigue,” Ms. Seiden said. “If anything, we feel more support now that we’re reaching out more through social and digital.” Mr. Lauder called the pink ribbon “a symbol for those who choose to care,” adding that critics “have a very simple option: You don’t like it, don’t buy the products.” “We all have our choice,” Mr. Lauder said. “They have the choice to criticize others for trying to do good. Ask them if they had a bucket of ice poured on their head in the last two weeks.”

Estee Lauder
Breast cancer
advertising,marketing
Breast Cancer Research Foundation
Philanthropy
Social Media


An External DVD Burner Powered by the Computer Creates Videos and Slide Shows

Abstract: Samsung has expanded its TruDirect line of DVD burners with a low-profile external drive. The Slim External TruDirect DVD recorder ($109), which started shipping earlier this month, works only with the Windows operating system. No A/C adapter is needed. Instead, it connects to a PC with a USB connection (but it requires the use of two USB ports). Samsung said that transfer speeds can be up to 10.8 megabytes a second, and that one hour of video can be burned in 30 minutes. With the bundled editing software from Nero, you can create videos, slide shows or audio slide shows, burn DVDs and CDs, or back up data. But the software is limited in its audio and picture-editing capabilities. Samsung said the drive was compatible with any editing and burning software on the market today. The DVD burner also prints discs. The DVD burner supports only discs with LightScribe technology. The label-making software is preloaded, but it can print only in gray scale. DANIELLE BELOPOTOSKY

Computers and the Internet
DVD (Digital Versatile Disc)
Samsung Group
Recording Equipment
Recordings and Downloads (Video)


New York City Eases Pre-K Rules to Allow Prayer Breaks

Abstract: Starting in September, some children attending taxpayer-funded prekindergarten programs in New York City may have school on Christmas and Thanksgiving. And their school day may be interrupted by a period for religious prayers. The new rules are a result of a compromise by Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration that is intended to increase participation by Orthodox Jewish and other private schools in his signature initiative. Most of New York’s new prekindergarten programs are run by private organizations, including religious schools, that are compensated by the city. But many Orthodox schools have stayed away because they feel the city’s requirement of 6 hours 20 minutes per day of secular instruction does not leave them enough time for religious schooling. Discussions between City Hall and Orthodox Jewish and other private schools have continued since September. The mayor is seeking to reach his goal of some 70,000 children in full-day prekindergarten by the fall; 53,000 are enrolled now. The new guidelines, first reported this week by Hamodia , a Jewish newspaper, do not cut the total amount of time per week required for secular instruction. But schools may now spread the hours over six days, instead of five. To help religious schools reach the mandated 180 days of annual instruction, they may now be open on federal holidays, which will allow them to close for religious observances. Regulations enacted last spring already permitted prekindergartens at religious schools to give hiring preference to job applicants of the same religion or denomination, and to use religious texts as part of secular lessons. But the city had drawn a line at permitting prayer during the school day. Richard R. Buery Jr.’s Pre-K Letter A letter from Richard R. Buery, a deputy mayor, that private preschool providers will receive this week. Now, programs will be allowed to have one “short break” during the secular school day for “nonprogram activities,” which will not count toward the mandated weekly hours, Richard R. Buery Jr., a deputy mayor, wrote in a letter that private preschool providers will receive this week. The break, city officials said, is geared toward allowing children to pray after lunch, an issue preventing some yeshivas from hosting public prekindergarten. Secular preschools could also schedule activities like unstructured play during that time. Officials said the new rules were consistent with constitutional protections and the city’s pledge that universal prekindergarten should mean the same thing wherever a parent signs up. As Mr. Buery said in an interview last summer, “A Catholic kid from Bensonhurst should be just as comfortable in a preschool run by Hasids in Williamsburg as one in his own community.” The new rules, however, make that possibility even more remote, said Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union . “The prayer break is an attempted end run around the prohibition against religious education and prayer in city-funded pre-K programs,” she said. Taken together, she added, the regulations “add up to a religious school funded with taxpayer money.” Reaction was split among organizations representing Jewish day schools. Rabbi David Zwiebel, executive director of Agudath Israel , an ultra-Orthodox umbrella organization, supported the changes and predicted they would lead to at least a modest increase in participation. But Maury Litwack, the director of state political affairs for the Orthodox Union , called them “cosmetic.” Without reducing the hours required for secular instruction, he said, “practically, these changes would force 4-year-olds into an almost unending school attendance that would include Sundays and federal holidays.” Instead, the group would like the city to pay for more half-day programs and to cut the requirement for full-day programs to five hours of secular study.


22 Arrested in Killing of Rape Suspect Who Was Pulled From Jail by Mob in India

Abstract: NEW DELHI — Photographs and videos on social media of an enraged mob that seized a man accused of rape from a jail in the northeastern Indian state of Nagaland, dragged him through the streets and beat him to death helped lead to the arrests of 22 people over the weekend, the authorities said. The police identified 200 to 300 people who had either been involved in the violence that erupted in the city of Dimapur on Thursday or helped incite it, according to Wabang Jamir, a police inspector general in Kohima, the capital of Nagaland. More arrests were likely in the coming days, Mr. Jamir said, adding that it was unclear whether some of those arrested belonged to organized groups. Another senior police official, Akheto Sema, said the thousands of people who descended on the jail were “a frenzied, leaderless, headless mob.” The charges against those arrested included unlawful assembly, rioting and arson. Shops were burned during the protests that sprang up on Wednesday and Thursday, after it was learned that a man said to be an illegal immigrant from Bangladesh had been arrested in the rape of a woman from a Naga tribe. As yet, none of those arrested have been charged in his death. A curfew was imposed in Dimapur, and the authorities, saying that they wished to prevent the spread of “rumors,” blacked out mobile Internet and text services throughout Nagaland. The Nagaland police said that the man accused of rape, whom Mr. Jamir identified as Syed Sarif Khan — other reports rendered his name somewhat differently — came from the neighboring Indian state of Assam. A brother of Mr. Khan in Assam, speaking to the news channel NDTV, said that his brother was an Indian citizen and denied that the woman had been attacked. Mr. Jamir, however, said that a medical report indicated rape. He also said that the Assam police should help look into Mr. Khan’s origins. “I hope they will because right now we have a law-and-order situation on our hands, so there are limits to the speed at which we can do the investigation,” Mr. Jamir said. The killing screamed from the front pages of newspapers and flashed across screens all over India, a gruesome example of the often fierce collective response to allegations of sexual assault. It occurred days after the Indian government banned a BBC documentary about a 2012 gang rape and murder, yet the deadly outburst in Dimapur seemed to be conflated with tensions, growing over the past few years in the overwhelmingly tribal and Christian state of Nagaland, over the rising numbers of mostly Muslim migrants, and the suspicion that some of the outsiders were connected to crimes. The seizure and beating of Mr. Khan, recorded by spectators on their smartphones, also demonstrated the ineffectual response of the police, who opened fire, killing a protester, only after Mr. Khan had been killed. Police officials said that officers outside the jail did not fire on the crowd because there were many young students in its ranks. It remained unclear how the mob entered the jail and took Mr. Khan. Two police officials and a district administrative official in Dimapur were suspended on Friday. Though there was no specific religious overtone to the killing, Ahidur Rahman, a leader of the Muslim Council of Dimapur, said that a “few hundred” Muslim families had fled Dimapur in its wake. Mr. Jamir, the police inspector general, denied that Muslims were departing in any significant numbers. But Mr. Rahman insisted that the railway station was full of people, bags packed and hoping to catch night trains, and that his group had deployed its youth wing to persuade them not to leave.

Murders and Homicides
Syed Sirf Khan
Prison
Nagaland India
Vigilante
India
Rape


Randy Levine Has Strong Words for Reporters, Not Yankees

Abstract: As president of the Yankees, Randy Levine can be a feisty defender of his team. And he seemed in a particularly combative mood Monday when asked about the Yankees’ struggles to get above .500 and whether the team would end up a buyer or a seller as the July 31 trading deadline approached. It is a question that General Manger Brian Cashman is often asked these days but is not the kind of query Levine usually fields. And in this instance, it was posed during a news conference to announce a business matter — the Yankees’ new ticket deal with StubHub. Still, having been asked, Levine jumped right in. He said that he was not frustrated with the team’s performance and that there was a lot of baseball still to be played. And then, in reference to the reporters present, he added: “When we decide to become sellers — if we decide to become sellers — or if we decide to become buyers, you’ll know about it. But I guess the difference is, most of you guys have never run anything, and we have a lot of history here of knowing what we’re doing, a lot of confidence in our baseball operations people. So we’ll see what happens. All the rest of it right now is just noise.” SETH BERKMAN

Baseball
Yankees
Randy L Levine
Brian Cashman


Google in Hong Kong Makes Little Dent in China

Abstract: HONG KONG — Chinese searches for politically delicate terms peaked the day Google stopped filtering its search results, but the government pressed on with a campaign to remove online praise of the company. Searches for “Tiananmen,” “Falun Gong” and “corruption” increased by more than 10 times here on Tuesday, the day that Google began offering uncensored Chinese-language search results. But searches for censored terms on Google’s uncensored Hong Kong search engine fell off quickly in the next few days in part because most Chinese did not rush to search for politically delicate material and also because the pages newly revealed by Google were still mostly blocked in China. In tests over the weekend from several Chinese cities, users searching for “Tiananmen” or even the names of Chinese government leaders reliably found the site google.com.hk mysteriously inaccessible for a few minutes. The more frequently used Chinese search engine Baidu, which continues to censor its results, remained accessible no matter what users searched for. “I heard that Google is leaving China. But I don’t care. Why should I? I’m fine with Baidu,” said Xiong Huan, 27, a software engineer in Shenyang. “And for now, there’s not much change on Google either, as long as you don’t search for sensitive info.” Nonetheless, a significant number of people took advantage of Google’s newly unfiltered service on its first day of operation. There were about 2.5 million searches for phrases containing “Tiananmen” and about 4.7 million searches for the banned religious group “Falun Gong,” according to estimates based on data from the Google Trends and Google Keyword Tool Box. But these are tiny numbers compared with almost 400 million Chinese Internet users, and search activity quickly returned to average levels over the next few days. Searches for “Google” in English and Chinese were far more popular, totaling more than 20 million on Tuesday, suggesting that Google users were much more concerned about their continued access to Google’s search services than their ability to find politically delicate information. Meanwhile, the Chinese government has begun a concerted campaign to eradicate pro-Google sentiments from the Internet. Comments on social networking sites that are supportive of Google “will be deleted in a couple of seconds,” said Oiwan Lam, 38, an independent journalist and researcher who is an expert on Chinese independent media. The China Digital Times reported that the Chinese State Council Information Office had ordered all news sites to “carefully manage the information in exchanges, comments and other interactive sessions” and “clean up text, images and sound and videos which support Google, dedicate flowers to Google, ask Google to stay, cheer for Google and others that have a different tune from government policy.” China routinely directs news coverage of delicate topics, but the restrictions relating to Google are particularly severe. Javen Yang, 27, webmaster of a Guangzhou travel site, said that site’s staff was told on Friday to remove all comments relating to Google. “We have been told to delete posts relating to ‘some American company leaving China’ by the general webmaster, who usually receive notices from the government,” he said. The State Council Information Office could not be reached for comment. With domestic chat closely controlled, the contrast between the sentiments on Chinese and foreign networks is striking. The popular Chinese discussion site Tianya.cn had only a few dozen posts mentioning Google on Saturday. All of them were negative or neutral opinions of the company, whereas Chinese Twitter users generally applauded Google’s decision to offer uncensored results. Twitter has been vocal in its opposition to censorship. It, like Facebook and YouTube, cannot be reached from mainland China without special software. Over all, Google’s move will make little difference in the short run to the average citizen. Even if the Chinese can reliably access Google’s newly unfiltered search, it will be difficult for them to read pages the government does not want them to see. Domestic Web sites are easily gagged; foreign sites are blocked by a sophisticated firewall. “Even though Google has stopped censoring, people cannot get access to sensitive news” without firewall circumvention software, said Ms. Lam. “The Great Firewall is still there.” The government has never admitted the existence of such a firewall, nor the censorship directives issued to news organizations and Web sites. Unlike other nations that filter Internet access, China never gives notice that sites have been blocked — connections just fail, as if there were problems with the network. Ultimately, indifference may prove more effective than any firewall. “I don’t worry that Google will be blocked in China completely,” said Luo Peng, a Beijing salesman. “Just like YouTube and Facebook, my life is fine without them. I can always use other similar services that are available.”

Google Inc
China
Search Engines
Censorship
Hong Kong


Ochoa Holds Off the Field to Win Her Third Straight Sybase Classic

Abstract: CLIFTON, N.J. — Lorena Ochoa played out the drama Sunday to the last shot. And just when it seemed her game might have deserted her, she did what she had to do to win the Sybase Classic by a stroke. Ochoa, the two-time defending champion at this event, started the final round at Upper Montclair Country Club with a two-stroke lead. After seven holes, she led by four strokes. But when she had a bogey 4 on the 17th hole, her lead was down to one. Rain was falling when Ochoa, playing in the last threesome along with Sophie Gustafson of Sweden, arrived at the 530-yard, par-5 18th. Ochoa’s tee shot landed in the rough. Her second shot, a low 4-iron, left her 85 yards from the green. Gustafson, with a big opportunity, landed her third shot on the green, 12 feet from the hole. But Ochoa hit a wedge to 8 feet from the hole. “I’ve been practicing my short game,” Ochoa said. “I thought, I’m fine, I’ve practiced this before and I’m ready to do it.” Gustafson putted for a birdie and a potential tie for first place, but her ball drifted to the right and stopped a foot from the cup. “I didn’t hit it,” she said. Ochoa, back in a comfort zone, put her first putt 18 inches past the cup, then sank the return putt to escape a playoff and win the first prize of $300,000. Ochoa finished with a one-under-par 71 in the final round for a total of 206; rain Friday shortened the tournament to 54 holes. Gustafson shot a 70 and was among five players at 207. Morgan Pressel’s closing 66 was the low round of the tournament. She birdied six holes, including all four par 5s. Brittany Lang, Catriona Matthew of Scotland and Na-Yeon Choi of South Korea also tied for second. The victory was Ochoa’s third straight in this tournament, and the toughest. “It was a tough day, but I did it,” she said, adding, “It doesn’t matter how you do it sometimes.” Gustafson accepted the outcome without emotion. Did she expect Ochoa to respond the way she did? “Yeah,” she said. Had Gustafson seen that enough? “Yeah,” she said again, this time with a laugh of resignation. Ochoa, a 26-year-old from Mexico, called it “a different win” and said the 18th hole was a “difficult situation.” “I felt a lot of adrenaline, a lot of pressure the last two holes, and I liked that feeling,” she said, before adding, “I love the feeling of adrenaline and just trying to be good and be smart and win at the end.” She should love everything, including the winner’s crystal vase, which she said would soon hold flowers. Since the start of 2006, Ochoa has won 20 of her 59 tournaments. This was her sixth victory in nine L.P.G.A. events she has played this year. Her season earnings climbed to $1,838,616 and her career earnings to $12,272,832, making her the youngest to reach $12 million. “Those things just happen,” she said, adding, “I do not take it for granted.” Annika Sorenstam, who dominated the tour for a decade before Ochoa took over, tied for 11th at 211. On Tuesday, the 37-year-old Sorenstam announced she would retire from the Tour at the end of the year. She led this tournament with an opening-round 67, but her subsequent 73 and 71 left her out of the picture. Ochoa speaks softly, but there is an internal toughness that has helped make her so successful. She gives the impression that she is not affected by a string of birdies, but by the birdies she missed. In the final round, she made three birdies and two bogeys, and by one count she missed nine birdie putts of 10 feet or less. She shrugged that off. “Some of them I hit pretty good,” she said, adding, “And sometimes they just don’t go in.” And sometimes they do.

Golf
Ochoa Lorena
Ladies Professional Golf Assn
Sybase Incorporated


A Push to Privatize Pennsylvania Liquor Stores

Abstract: FOREST CITY, Pa. — Ralph Miranda was looking for eggnog here the other day at the state liquor store, a dated and somewhat forlorn little shop with no name, just the Soviet-style designation #5801. When the store manager told him they were out, Mr. Miranda muttered, “That’s why you privatize.” The next nearest store in this rural area of northeast Pennsylvania, a depressed region of old coal mines and small farms, is 11 miles away. And because #5801 loses money, it is closed four days a week, with limited hours the other three. Like prisoners in the gulag, consumers here can only fantasize about buying their wine and liquor in a competitive free market. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania has run the liquor stores for eight decades, a relic of the post-Prohibition era, when government thought controlling the sale of alcohol would limit consumption. The legislature has consistently dismissed talk of privatizing the system, mainly because of opposition from the union representing the store workers and from groups like Mothers Against Drunk Driving and conservative teetotalers, all influential in the state. But since the election in November of a Republican governor who campaigned against the state stores, and with new lopsided Republican majorities in the Statehouse, privatization may be closer than ever. Fueling the talk is the state’s desperate need for cash. The state is facing a budget gap of $4 billion. Proponents say selling the state stores could bring in $1 billion or even $2 billion, not to mention a happier consumer experience. But opponents say the sale would be a one-shot jolt and then would deny the state the $90 million in annual profits that the stores clear. Joe Conti, a former state lawmaker and restaurateur in Bucks County who is now chief executive of the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board, said the state would do a better job than private stores of preventing sales to minors and to already-tipsy customers because state workers “aren’t incentivized to sell.” That is just the problem, say some: without competition, the state has no incentive to improve the system. But Mr. Conti said the state had modernized some of its 620 stores and expanded their hours. Now, he said, 75 “premium” outlets are “as good as you would find anywhere in the country.” He hopes to start a pilot project soon to give them names instead of numbers. But nearly every customer at #5801 interviewed one afternoon this week thought selling the state stores would be like getting out of jail. “This is insane!” said Bill Conrad, 68, a retired electrical engineer. “People are going to New York and Jersey” to buy alcohol. Ann Marie Magalaski, 70, a retired dental hygienist, said that with wine and spirits unavailable in supermarkets, she had to make “a whole extra trip” to buy wine at the state store. Brian Zedar, 40, a crane operator who lives 10 miles away, said the limited hours meant “you have to plan ahead.” He said he assumed that a private store would have cheaper prices. The state has closed nearly 50 unprofitable stores in the last couple of years and consolidated some. The only reason to keep #5801 open, Mr. Conti said, was that the next store was so far away. It is not a sure bet that privatizing the system would improve things though. Depending on the price of the license, no one might want it. And if they did, they might move stores from rural locations. Kevin Harley, a spokesman for the incoming governor, Tom Corbett, said that while privatization would face opposition, “I think we can get it done.” “The system is better than it was, but it is still a government monopoly,” Mr. Harley said. “The question will be whether selling wine and spirits is a core function of government.”

Pennsylvania
Privatization
Politics and Government
Alcoholic Beverages


Digital ‘Sports Jeopardy!’ Puts Quiz Shows in the Ring With Angry Birds

Abstract: CULVER CITY, Calif. — This sports-themed digital game show is based on a 50-year-old classic in which contestants answer in the form of a question. What is “Sports Jeopardy!”? The weekly 30-minute show is making its debut on Wednesday on Crackle, a streaming video service owned by Sony. One of the first online game shows, it is accompanied by a mobile app that lets viewers play along. “Here’s the concept: It’s sports and ‘Jeopardy!’ End of pitch,” said Harry Friedman, the executive producer of “Sports Jeopardy!,” who has produced more than 6,000 episodes combined of “Jeopardy!” and “Wheel of Fortune.” “It just seemed like a natural extension of the ‘Jeopardy!’ format, and the growth of sports just simply can’t be denied.” “Sports Jeopardy!” is perhaps the boldest attempt to adapt the quiz show to the digital age, testing the endurance of the “Jeopardy!” brand. At the same time, the sports-themed program points to a broader push at Crackle to reach the elusive young male viewer. Crackle is now a hub for movies, television shows and original series, notably the comedian Jerry Seinfeld’s “Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee.” With “Sports Jeopardy!” Sony hopes to tap into the sports market despite not owning media rights to live sporting events. On a Saturday morning in August, audience members attending a taping of some of the first “Sports Jeopardy!” episodes lined up outside Sony Pictures Studios’ Stage 10, the home of classic “Jeopardy!” They walked past mock contestant podiums and a life-size cutout of Alex Trebek, the host of classic “Jeopardy!,” before entering the set. The grid of royal blue “Jeopardy!” monitors was framed by a baseball scoreboard. An athletic jersey hung on an exposed brick wall. A baseball glove and a football were strategically placed onstage. One nook featured a mock locker room. Another was a sports bar. Sports-themed music burst through the speakers, and Dan Patrick, the host of “Sports Jeopardy!,” walked onstage. “It’s game time, and this is ‘Sports Jeopardy!’ ” said Mr. Patrick, a well-known sportscaster. Categories like “Baseball Lingo,” “The Varsity” and “The Sound of Sports” appeared on the board, and the game began. The format and rules of the show are similar to those of the classic contest. As with the classic game, the contestants are interviewed, but in this case about topics like their athletic heroes and favorite sports memories. But unlike the classic show, where the winners keep the money they have banked, the winner of each game of “Sports Jeopardy!” takes home $5,000. At the end of the season, contestants with the top three scores will enter a showdown for the chance to win $50,000. Contestants were selected from a pool of more than 30,000 people who registered online and took a qualifying test that included 30 clues in 30 sports-related categories. “Jeopardy!” perennially ranks as one of the most watched game shows. It drew an average of 9.7 million viewers this season, up 8 percent from last year. To keep the show relevant, producers introduced technological innovations over the years, including apps and social-media contests. They also refreshed categories and changed rules. The elimination in 2003 of the five-day limit for contestants, for instance, paved the way for the 74-day run of Ken Jennings, a software engineer from Utah. (He won $2.5 million.) Stunts like the competition against the IBM computer Watson have been pop culture sensations. Mr. Friedman said the “Jeopardy!” team came up with the idea for a sports-themed show in 1996 and pitched the concept to ESPN. The network expressed interest, but scheduling issues arose. There was no way to show “Sports Jeopardy!” on ESPN at a time that would not compete with the classic show. The idea for “Sports Jeopardy!” resurfaced last fall, this time as a digital-first concept. Sony Pictures Television, which produces “Jeopardy!” and owns the rights to it, would create a sports version for Crackle. Online video networks have largely steered clear of game shows because of complexities such as scoring systems and research for questions. Crackle, which was started in the early 2000s as the online video site Grouper and was renamed in 2007, is free and ad-supported. The network has not received as much attention as rivals like Hulu, but it has recently scored success with hits like “Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee.” Advertising executives said they were impressed with the network after a sales presentation last spring. Buffalo Wild Wings and CiCi’s Pizza have signed on as “Sports Jeopardy!” sponsors. Crackle attracted 11.9 million unique United States visitors in August, down 8 percent from the same period in 2013, according to the digital-media research company comScore. It can be hard for online originals to stand out. The average “Jeopardy!” viewer is older than 65, but Sony executives hope that the iconic “Jeopardy!” brand, the sports twist and other digital extras will lure younger viewers. Eric Berger, executive vice president of digital networks at Sony Pictures Television, said, “It’s not like we need to introduce the brand.”

Web television
Crackle.com
TV
Contests and Prizes
Sports
Sony
Sports Jeopardy!


U.S. Appeals a Ruling on Meat Labeling

Abstract: The United States lodged an appeal on Friday to challenge a World Trade Organization ruling that said it had failed to bring its meat labeling laws in line with global trade rules. Canada and Mexico won a W.T.O. ruling three years ago, contending that the United States rules illegally discriminated against imported meat. The United States lost a subsequent appeal and was told to bring its laws into line, but in October this year the W.T.O. said it had not done so, paving the way for Canada and Mexico to demand the right to impose trade sanctions. Canada estimates the American rules, which require retailers to list the country of origin on meat, cost its farmers and processors $1 billion a year in lost sales and lower prices.

World Trade Organization
International trade
Meat
Label


In Dense Gaza, Civilians Suffer

Abstract: GAZA — A dentist stood at the bed of a doctor, his good friend Ehab Madhoun, 32, who had just died, his shrapnel-pitted body wrapped in a white shroud. The day before, Dr. Madhoun, a general practitioner, was in an ambulance responding to an Israeli strike at the Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza. Another missile hit the ambulance. The driver, Muhammad Abu Hasira, died instantly. Dr. Madhoun lingered for a day, dying of his wounds on Wednesday in the intensive care unit of Shifa Hospital, where hundreds of people have been brought since Israel began its heaviest assault on Gaza in three decades. The dentist cried. “He was just doing his work,” said the dentist, who would not give his name. “He’s a doctor, and I can’t understand why Israel would hit an ambulance. They can tell from the cameras it’s an ambulance.” It has always been this way, over years of conflict here, that civilians are killed in the densely populated Gaza Strip when Israel stages military operations it says are essential for its security. But five days of Israeli airstrikes have surpassed past operations in scale and intensity; the long-distance bombardment of the Hamas -controlled territory has, however well aimed at those suspected of being militants, splintered families and shattered homes in one of the most densely populated places on Earth. Among the total dead — between 320 and 390, according to the United Nations — Palestinian medical officials say that 38 were children and 25 were women. The United Nations agency that helps Palestinian refugees said 25 percent of those killed had been civilians. Israel said it knew of 40 civilian deaths but that it was still checking. Israeli officials are coming under increasing pressure to ease conditions for civilians, with tight supplies of electricity, water, food and medicine worsening shortages in an area already largely sealed off from the outside world. While Israel on Wednesday refused a 48-hour cease-fire suggested by the French to allow critical supplies into Gaza, it has been sensitive enough to the ever-louder complaints to say it will do all it can to allow in supplies. On the issue of civilian casualties, Israeli officials maintain that they do not take aim at civilians and do everything possible — like using precision-guidance systems, up-to-the minute intelligence, leaflets and phone calls to targeted areas — to avoid hitting them. They say killing and wounding civilians only undermines their primary mission: to stop Hamas from firing rockets into civilian areas of Israel. “I haven’t seen too many tears shed in Paris, London or Berlin over the fact that we have hit Hamas targets,” said Mark Regev, a spokesman for Israel’s prime minister, Ehud Olmert. “So we have many reasons, both moral and political, for doing the utmost to make sure that our strikes are as surgical as possible.” Further complicating matters is that fact that Gaza is the size of Detroit, with one and a half times as many people. The military and government facilities of Hamas are intertwined with buildings where Gaza’s civilian population lives and works. Israelis say Hamas fires rockets at Israel from civilian neighborhoods. The United States military has also faced much criticism for killing civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan, despite what officials say is the utmost precaution against doing so. In Gaza, human rights groups say that the new scale of Israel’s operation puts the area’s civilians, even those accustomed to conflict, under particular stress. Some of the wounded are afraid to seek treatment at the already overwhelmed hospitals, fearful of heading into a rocket attack while driving through streets of pummeled buildings and concrete shards. Large, multigenerational families huddle in their houses, hoarding the shrinking supplies of water, food and gasoline. Despite the cold, many have kept their windows open to prevent them from shattering when bombs explode nearby. Shops are closed except for grocery stores, bakeries and pharmacies. “Conditions for parents and children in Gaza are dangerous and frightening,” Maxwell Gaylard, United Nations humanitarian coordinator for the Palestinian territories, said in a statement. “It is absolutely crucial that there is an end to the fighting,” he said. “Without it, more civilians will continue to be killed. Without the violence stopping, it is extremely difficult to get food to people who need it, we cannot assess where the most urgent needs are.” In the debate over civilian casualties, there is no clear understanding of what constitutes a military target. Palestinians argue that because Hamas is also the government in Gaza, many of the police officers who have been killed were civil servants, not hard-core militants. Israel disagrees, asserting also that a university chemistry laboratory, which it claims was used for making rockets, was a fair target in an attack this week, even if it could not show conclusively that those inside the laboratory at the time where engaged in making weapons. The ambiguity was evident at the intensive care ward in Shifa Hospital, where Dr. Madhoun’s body lay. There were 11 patients. One was a pharmacist, Rawya Awad, 32, who had a shrapnel wound to the head. Several were police officers. It was impossible to know the identities of many of the others. But there were several children in another intensive care unit on Tuesday. Among them was Ismael Hamdan, 8, who had severe brain damage as well as two broken legs, according to a doctor there. Earlier that day, two of his sisters, Lama, 5, and Hayya, 12, were killed. “I prepared them breakfast that day in the garden,” said their mother, Ayda, 36. “They had the tea, bread and thyme. Lama wanted a second pita, but we all teased her saying, ‘Keep it for lunch.’ She told us, ‘Don’t worry, God will provide us with bread.’ “She made all of us laugh,” the mother said. “I cleaned after them and collected the garbage. Ismael volunteered to dump the garbage, but Hayya and Lama joined him. The garbage can is in front of the house, a five-minute walk away. All of a sudden I heard the news from a neighbor, and I ran barefoot to the hospital. A relative collected the bodies of Lama and Hayya on a donkey cart. “The neighbors ran trying to save Ismael, who was the only one breathing,” she said. “They say my kids flew 40 meters before hitting the ground.” Ismael died Wednesday night. At Kamal Edwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya, in northern Gaza, Mahmoud al-Sheik, 11, was recovering from wounds he received two days before — he thinks from a rocket fired by an Israeli warplane. Even at his age, he is aware of how fighters and civilians are mixed together in Gaza, saying that the bomb was aimed at the house of his neighbor, Salim Zaqout, whom he identified as a member of Hamas. “But Zaqout and his family evacuated the house a few days ago,” Mahmoud said. “Can’t Israel see all these houses that are adjacent to Zaqout’s? Now Zaqout’s house is completely destroyed, but so are other houses that have nothing to do with Hamas. “I have a big hole in my left hand. The doctor told me I’m fine. He filled the hole,” Mahmoud said, “but it’s hurting. It feels like fire inside it.”

Israel
Gaza Strip
Hamas
Civilian Casualties
Palestinians


A Founder of Twitter Goes Long

Abstract: Between downtown San Francisco and the new Twitter offices six city blocks to the west, things get sketchy. There is a strip club, a budget motel with weekly rates and, on the gentrified edge of this no-man’s land, the offices of Medium, the new venture of Evan Williams, one of Twitter’s co-founders. Mr. Williams is a contemplative 41-year-old Nebraskan turned billionaire, at least on paper, as of Thursday when Twitter went public. If Twitter redefined the frontier of communications, Medium is trying to reclaim some of the lost territory. Broadly speaking, Medium is a blogging platform, meaning it’s a place for people to write and read posts. And Mr. Williams, as its C.E.O., hopes that it will allow thoughtful, longer-form writing to flourish. Mr. Williams frankly acknowledges that the medium of Medium is not new. In fact, he says he’s reaching back to the once-du jour notion of blogging because, in the frenzy to build social communications tools, something has been left behind: rationality. “In the early days, I bought into the idea that the Internet would lead to a better world, that the truth was out there and that we didn’t need gatekeepers,” he said. The idea that he and many others embraced was that an unfiltered Internet would create a democratic information utopia. “Now,” he continued, “I think it’s more complicated than that.” Medium is Mr. Williams’s version of a gatekeeper, albeit one that relies heavily on technology rather than human expertise or taste. While it has some editors soliciting and promoting some content, the bigger idea is to use algorithms to help identify blog posts that readers consider valuable and to bubble them to the surface. He’s carrying out ideas he toyed with in his first big commercial venture, which was called, simply, Blogger. He sold that to Google a decade ago, begetting his first millions. Now, he is joining the mini-movement to celebrate long-form expression at sites and apps like Longform, Longreads and the Verge. The oddity is that Mr. Williams helped found Twitter, which is to long form what snacks are to dinner: sometimes a prelude, often an appetite killer. The short-burst culture has eaten away at the very definition of “long form.” Many articles in Medium, for instance, are hundreds of characters longer than a tweet but tens of thousands fewer than something you’d find in, say, The New Yorker. And some see little evidence that people want to consume anything that takes much time. “I see a diminishing audience for long form of anything,” said James Katz , director of the division of emerging media studies at Boston University. “The riptide of society is heading the other direction.” For his part, Mr. Williams said he was disturbed by the swelling cacophony of information that makes it easy to be overwhelmed and hard to know what to trust. Good information, he said, can lose out, and, as he described his new mission, “I want to give rationality a fighting chance.” “I’m an eternal optimist,” Mr. Williams told me over lunch last week, wearing skinny jeans and long-sleeve black T-shirt. “But I’m a more realistic optimist than I used to be.” He traced the evolution of his thinking by describing an “epiphany that bothered” him this year. In preparing a speech, he revisited his career’s early days. The exercise made him realize that the Internet wasn’t changing the world as he had once idealized, but that, far less romantically, it had come to be little more than a “convenience.” If this sort of revelation rationalizes Mr. Williams’s new business, he is not alone in believing it. Nor is he the only mogul seeking to use a technology-borne fortune to finance serious journalism. (See: Jeff Bezos buys The Washington Post or Pierre Omidyar finances Glenn Greenwald in an investigative journalism venture.) But you have to give credit to Mr. Williams for having the courage of his convictions. He’s been doing his own thing since he embraced his inner nerd, rejected the football-obsessed culture of his native Nebraska (becoming a vegan there, he said, “was tough”), and moved west. He can also afford to do what he wants, given that his already considerable net worth has jumped nearly $2.5 billion, owing to his 10.4 percent stake in Twitter. He’s backing Medium along with two business partners, Biz Stone and Jason Goldman, both formerly of Twitter. Medium, which started in 2012, has around 40 employees and, last month, started letting anyone write for it. A few writers are paid, with their work solicited by a small editing team, but most are not. Much ballyhooed by Medium is software that allows “collaboration” among writers by letting them share posts privately before publication, in pursuit of suggestions or edits. Posts then appear in collections, or channels, like “ Adventures in Consumer Technology ,” or “ Best Thing I Found Online Today .” The algorithms that are designed to cut through the noise to the music worth hearing measure things like the items people read and recommend the most, Mr. Williams said. It then distributes those more widely to others who use the platform. The concept sounds like an amalgam of ideas already in practice — such as Facebook “likes,” or tools used to vote up stories at Reddit, or most-emailed lists. He describes it as a “holistic” model that brings together many tools, including some still in development. Yet even Mr. Williams will acknowledge that it’s not clear if the mathematical modeling will evoke quality as he envisions it. For instance, he wants to see better journalism emerge on the issue of climate change, asserting that views have been manipulated by an avalanche of lies coursing through the Internet. But what’s to say that a mathematically mediated site — basing quality on reader attention — will elicit the truth? Maybe readers will pay more attention to what he considers distortions or garbage. “It’s an effort to add nourishment, but I can’t claim I’ve figured it out,” he said. Nor has he yet figured out the business model. “We’ll see,” he said about how the site would make money. For now, it is all clean lines, beautiful typography and no advertising. Medium is experimenting with a subscription model, building a small site with a paywall, but mostly to see how the model works, he said. In the long term, he added, he sees Medium as more a “platform” than a “publisher.” He declined to say how many people were using the site. It would be foolish to underestimate Mr. Williams, given his repeat successes. But the context of the times may be inhospitable. Lee Humphreys , an assistant professor in the department of communication at Cornell, notes that mobile devices, which tend to work best for short bursts of information, are becoming the primary way of communicating for more people. Or there’s the view from the street, literally, where Alex Klimek, 35, a barista, paused on his bike last week on his way to work in a San Francisco cafe. He was fiddling on his phone, and I asked him how often he read blogs. “I often look for blogs that are of interest,” he said. “I wish I could find something of interest.” But then, after a moment, Mr. Klimek said he wasn’t sure that he would even bother, especially on his phone, which is his main device. “I use it for texts, and emails, and quick information,” he said. Mr. Williams, undeterred, doesn’t think that short bursts and long-form information are mutually exclusive. At the same time, he said, he doesn’t expect to get away from the cacophony, including misinformation and nonnutritious bites. “I don’t think we’ll avoid the madness of the crowd,” he said. “That’s O.K. We want to create the potential for great things to be created and found.”