The Fed, Lawrence Summers, and Money

Abstract: When Lawrence H. Summers left his job as President Obama’s top economic policy adviser at the end of 2010 to return to Harvard University, one of his first steps was to set up a roster of part-time positions that would touch on just about every corner of the financial world. But as he negotiated with a prominent venture capital firm in Silicon Valley, Mr. Summers made one thing very clear: he needed an exit plan, in case he returned to public service. “That was generally the assumption,” said Marc Andreessen, the co-founder of the firm. “If he did, he needed a way to do a clean disengage.” Today, the Obama administration is considering nominating Mr. Summers as the next chairman of the Federal Reserve. If the White House does so, Mr. Summers’s financial disclosure — including his recent consulting jobs, paid speeches and service on company boards — will be one of the hottest documents in Washington. Among the top contenders for the position, Mr. Summers has by far the most Wall Street experience and the most personal wealth. In addition to rejoining the Harvard faculty in 2011, he jumped into a moneymaking spree. His clock was ticking partly because he knew that the Fed chairmanship, to which he has long aspired, was likely to open up in early 2014, when Ben S. Bernanke’s second term will come to an end. “With Larry, my wife always says that it’s hard to be happy if you want to have the most money because you’ll never have the most money,” said Jeremy I. Bulow, an economics professor at Stanford University who is a friend and co-author of academic papers with Mr. Summers. “He’s kind of been going about his life just on the basis of ‘who knows what’s going to come next?’ and just sort of maximizing his experiences, given the opportunities in front of him.” The opportunities have been many over the last two years. Mr. Summers, 58, has been employed by the megabank Citigroup and the sprawling hedge fund D. E. Shaw. He works for a firm that advises small banks as well as the exchange company Nasdaq OMX. And he serves on the board of two Silicon Valley start-ups: both financial firms that may pursue initial public offerings in the next year. One of them, Lending Club, offers loans to consumers and small businesses by making arrangements directly with online investors, a new business model that falls into a regulatory gap that consumer advocates say may lead to risky borrowing. Before his tenure in the Obama administration, Mr. Summers had accumulated personal wealth of at least $7 million; the last two years have most likely added considerably to that. But his money and Wall Street connections put him in an awkward position, partly because the next person to lead the Federal Reserve will oversee the writing of several key new regulations from the Dodd-Frank financial reform bill. Wall Street experience is not unprecedented for a Fed chairman. The departing chairman, Mr. Bernanke, has never been employed on Wall Street, spending most of his career at Princeton. But his predecessor, Alan Greenspan, was the president of a consulting firm and worked in investment banking early in his career, and Paul A. Volcker, an earlier chairman, did some work at Chase Manhattan Bank, which is now a part of JPMorgan Chase. Image RE-ENTERING PRIVATE LIFE Since leaving the Obama administration at the end of 2010, Lawrence H. Summers rejoined the Harvard faculty. Credit Steven Senne/Associated Press Still, some senators are speaking out against Mr. Summers. They are raising questions about potential conflicts of interest and noting his role in the repeal of the Glass-Steagall law, which limited the sorts of activities banks could undertake, and his opposition to regulating derivatives in the 1990s — decisions that many critics say contributed to the financial crisis. “I start from a position of being extraordinarily skeptical that Larry Summers is appropriate to chair the Fed,” said Senator Jeff Merkley, a Democrat from Oregon. “I have serious doubts that Mr. Summers, who as a committed deregulator drove policies that set the stage for the Great Recession, is the right person for a key regulatory position.” Mr. Summers declined to comment. But whatever his views on regulatory policy, those who know and admire Mr. Summers say he arrived at them honestly. “There has to be a distinction between talking to people, even for payment, and doing what they want you to do,” said Robert Z. Lawrence, a professor who taught a course at Harvard with Mr. Summers this year. “When it comes to Larry Summers, for good or for bad, he’s uncontrollable when it comes to the positions he takes. He doesn’t take them for that reason.” Wall Street Wealth Mr. Summers’s wealth comes mainly from two periods of private sector work between government postings. After a lengthy tenure at the Treasury Department in the 1990s, he became the president of Harvard — a job that Robert E. Rubin, who preceded Mr. Summers as Treasury secretary, helped him obtain. But in 2006, Mr. Summers was forced out of the university presidency for a variety of reasons, including remarks he made questioning why few women engage in advanced scientific and mathematical work. Soon after, a young Harvard alum brought him into the hedge fund world with a part-time posting at D. E. Shaw. That firm, one of the largest in the industry, paid Mr. Summers more than $5 million. Mr. Summers’s wealth soared from around $400,000 in the mid-1990s to between $7 million and $31 million in 2009, when he joined the Obama administration, according to a financial disclosure he filed at the time. Before returning to government service, he earned $2.7 million from speeches in one year alone. As for his current work, representatives for Citigroup, Nasdaq and D. E. Shaw declined to disclose his pay. His speaking rates today run into the six figures, according to an associate who spoke on the condition of anonymity, and Mr. Summers has spoken to Wall Street companies like Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup. The job that is likely to generate the most scrutiny for Mr. Summers is his work with Citigroup, which was rescued from the brink of bankruptcy by the federal government’s bailout. Though he does not have an office there, two people with direct knowledge of the matter said he was a regular consultant. In a statement, Citigroup said he provided “insight on a broad range of topics including the global and domestic economy” to prestigious clients, and attended internal meetings. Citigroup hired Mr. Summers in part to advise Vikram S. Pandit, who resigned as chief executive last year. With his work there, Mr. Summers followed in the footsteps of his friend, Mr. Rubin, who joined Citigroup after he left the government and earned more than $100 million. Image He has given a number of speeches, including at the London School of Economics in March. Credit Pool photo by Jason Alden Some of Mr. Summers’s employers used to work with him in government. “I don’t think of him as an employee, I like to think of him as an adviser,” said Lewis A. Sachs, a former Treasury official who runs a Maryland firm called Alliance Partners that is backed by BlackRock, the asset management firm, and BlueMountain Capital, a hedge fund active in the derivatives market. Mr. Sachs, a frequent visitor to the White House and Treasury, said Mr. Summers’s financial work would make him a better Fed chairman. “It will certainly give him a lot of windows into different parts of the financial system, different parts of the economy,” Mr. Sachs said. Asked why Mr. Summers would not have simply opted out of financial work, given the questions it could raise if he were nominated to lead the Federal Reserve, Mr. Bulow, the Stanford economist, said he thought Mr. Summers’s early experience with cancer (at the age of 28, he was treated for Hodgkin’s disease) had been formative. It shaped him to make decisions based on present options, Mr. Bulow said, rather than worrying about future unknowns, like whether President Obama would choose him for the Fed. “He doesn’t proceed that way,” Mr. Bulow said. “I think basically, you know, it’s a little bit like Sheryl Sandberg says, ‘Don’t leave before you’re leaving.’ ” Mr. Summers’s spokeswoman, Kelly Friendly, declined to provide details about his current pay, but said his “broad exposure to different parts of the economy gives him a unique perspective on what makes America work.” In 2009, Mr. Summers said in an interview with The New York Times that he kept boundaries between his private and public work. “I wanted to be involved as an economist, not as a lobbyist,” he said. “I never wanted to be in a position of taking public policy positions based on anything other than my convictions as an economist or a potential policy maker.” Close Contacts in Finance Mr. Summers not only has a variety of professional contacts on Wall Street, he also has many friends there. At D. E. Shaw, for instance, Mr. Summers has worked with Darcy Bradbury, the firm’s head of external affairs, who has known him for more than 30 years, ever since she was a student at Harvard. Ms. Bradbury, who also worked with Mr. Summers in the Clinton administration, was elected chairwoman of the hedge fund industry’s association shortly after Mr. Summers began his work in the White House in 2009. That group, the Managed Funds Association, has been involved in discussions of industry trading rules as well as pushing for the preservation of a tax loopholes that benefit investment firms. Trey Beck, a managing director of D. E. Shaw, said in a statement that Ms. Bradbury did not meet with Mr. Summers on behalf of D. E. Shaw or the hedge fund association while he was in the White House. He added that “Darcy’s friendship with Larry had absolutely nothing to do with Darcy becoming M.F.A. chair.” Image TIES IN TECHNOLOGY Marc Andreessen, the co-founder of a venture capital firm, and Sheryl Sandberg, the chief operating officer of Facebook. Credit Left, Fred Prouser/Reuters; right, Jean-Christophe Bott/Keystone, via AP Richard W. Painter, a former chief ethics lawyer for President George W. Bush, predicted that Mr. Summers’s work in finance would not derail his nomination or confirmation. “Remember, we had two secretaries of the Treasury, which is a regulatory position, who were chairmen of Goldman Sachs,” said Mr. Painter, who is now a professor at the University of Minnesota. “We did it with Hank Paulson. Clinton did it with Bob Rubin.” Mr. Painter noted that if Mr. Summers became Fed chairman, he would have to fully divest himself of all interests in the financial companies he works with. The divestitures, he said, would include even the start-ups, companies that have the potential for Mr. Summers to make sizable future earnings, if they pursue public offerings. If Mr. Summers goes to the Fed, Mr. Andreessen said, “it would be a reasonable statement that he’s leaving money on the table.” A Toehold in Silicon Valley Mr. Summers has also made contacts in Silicon Valley. Ms. Sandberg, chief operating officer of Facebook, best-selling author of “Lean In,” and Mr. Summers’s chief of staff at the Treasury, helped introduce Mr. Summers to Silicon Valley, where he is gaining a good reputation, according to Mr. Andreessen, whose venture capital firm has hired Mr. Summers to give advice to companies like Airbnb and Dwolla, a payments company. Mr. Summers serves on the board of two start-ups. The chief financial officer of one of the companies, Square, a mobile payments company, described Mr. Summers in a statement as “a really important member of our team.” The other start-up is Lending Club, which facilitates peer-to-peer loans. Prospective debtors post their personal stories online, asking for money for everything from debt consolidation to in-ground pools to wedding parties. Prospective lenders review the solicitations and offer financing. “He’s been very high-profile for the company,” said Renaud Laplanche, the company’s chief executive. When Mr. Summers was considering joining the board, he performed due diligence, calling regulators and other board members, Mr. Laplanche said, adding that “he thought what we were doing was good for the consumer.” Video Ben S. Bernanke’s strong policies averted a second major depression. Should he vacate his post as Federal Reserve chairman next year, those policies will leave challenges for his successor. Lending Club falls into a tricky space in financial regulation. The company itself is not regulated as a bank. But it has teamed up with a bank in Utah, one of the states that allows banks to charge high interest rates, and that bank is overseen by state regulators and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. Consumer advocates said Lending Club was so new that they had not yet seen many examples of its loans and collection practices in action. But Sarah Ludwig, the co-director of the New Economy Project, a nonprofit in New York, expressed concern that the company did not verify all borrowers’ income and employment. “This should be another red flag,” Ms. Ludwig said of Mr. Summers’s involvement. “What is he doing on the board of this company? What is a potential Fed chairman doing on the board of a company that doesn’t check if people can afford loans?” Of the loans Lending Club has made in 2013, it did not verify income about half of the time, according to data available on its Web site. Mr. Laplanche said the company had models that dictated when it scrutinizes income and that the company was verifying income on more loans than it did in the past. He said that many other lenders also did not verify employment history and income. He added that Mr. Summers had pushed for strong consumer protection. “He was the most adamant about making sure we were tracing the loan in such a way that we were making sure the people getting the loan had the ability to repay,” he said. And he said consumers would not be coming to Lending Club if they thought they could get better rates elsewhere. But some consumer credit experts said Lending Club’s rates on many loans might be higher than what was available at a credit union or other lenders. Of the loans Lending Club has issued in 2013, 12.9 percent of the loans are charging annual percentage rates of 12.4 percent or lower, but 37 percent of the loans are charging annual percentage rates of 19 percent or more, with some as high as 29 percent. Mr. Summers has been encouraging Lending Club to spend time in Washington to share its story with regulators and policy makers, said John J. Mack, another company board member who was the chief executive of Morgan Stanley during the financial crisis. “The facts are all over the place, but to me, for it to be growing at the rate it is growing, it is serving a need for small consumers,” Mr. Mack said. On top of all his other jobs, Mr. Summers has continued economic research. He is currently the co-chairman of a study at the Center for American Progress about stagnating wages for the middle class. “I definitely don’t think of him as a Wall Street guy,” said Neera Tanden, the center’s president. “He runs in the crowd enough to know they’re not always right.” She added that since hearing about Mr. Summers’s many paid assignments, she was happy with their arrangement. He works, she said, as a volunteer.

Lawrence H Summers
Federal Reserve
Citigroup
Dodd Frank
Lending Club
NASDAQ OMX Group


Texas Trader Admits Guilt in Iraq Oil-for-Food Fraud

Abstract: A Houston oil trader pleaded guilty yesterday in New York to federal fraud charges in connection with illegal profits and kickbacks involving the United Nations oil-for-food program in Iraq during Saddam Hussein’s rule. The trader, David B. Chalmers Jr., admitted that he and two companies he ran, Bayoil USA and Bayoil Supply and Trading, made millions of dollars in kickbacks to the Iraqi government — as well as huge profits — while trading oil under the $65 billion aid program. In April 2005, Bayoil USA became the first American company to be indicted in the wide-ranging criminal investigation of the program, which was established by the United Nations in 1995 to ease some aspects of the sanctions imposed on Iraq after it invaded Kuwait in 1990. Under it, Mr. Hussein’s government could use the money from limited oil sales to buy supplies like food and medicine. The authorities said Bayoil and Mr. Chalmers not only made illegal payments to get Iraqi oil but also conspired to artificially lower its price, thus depriving the Iraqis of money for items they sorely needed. A man described by the authorities as an associate of Bayoil, Ludmil Dionissiev, a Bulgarian oil trader living in Houston, also pleaded guilty yesterday to charges of fraud and conspiracy in the case. “Motivated by greed, they flouted the law, made a mockery of the stated aims of the oil-for-food program and willingly conspired with a foreign government with whom our country was on the brink of war,” John A. Klochan Jr., an F.B.I. official in New York, said in 2005 when Mr. Chalmers was arrested. Mr. Klochan also said Mr. Chalmers and others had turned the United Nations program into a “cash cow masquerading as a humanitarian venture.” The proceeding yesterday in Federal District Court in Manhattan followed the established pattern for guilty pleas. Mr. Chalmers, 53, appeared in court with his lawyer, Andrew Weissmann, and told the judge, Denny Chin, that he was pleading guilty of his own free will. He said he had recently been treated for stress by a doctor who was also treating him for alcohol abuse. He then told the court that in the early 2000s, he had made deals to trade Iraqi oil, even though he knew the trades were outside the legal boundaries of the oil-for-food program and in violation of sanctions on Iraq. He also said he had sent an unspecified amount of money to an agent of Bayoil who then passed it on as a kickback to the Iraqi government. Mr. Chalmers admitted as well that he had faxed letters to the United Nations headquarters in Manhattan related to his legal dealings with Iraq, but he never mentioned the illegal ones. The kickbacks, he admitted, allowed him and his companies to export oil from Iraq. Mr. Chalmers faced 20 years in prison, but under an agreement with federal prosecutors, his recommended sentence is 37 to 46 months. He also agreed to forfeit $9.1 million in profits. Another Texas oil man, Oscar S. Wyatt Jr., has also been charged in the case, accused of paying kickbacks to Mr. Hussein’s government.

Iraq
Embezzlement
United Nations
Frauds and Swindling
Texas


Getty Images Up for Sale, Could Fetch $1.5 Billion

Abstract: Getty Images, the world’s biggest supplier of pictures and video to media and advertising companies, has put itself on the auction block and could fetch more than $1.5 billion, people briefed on the situation said Sunday. The firm hired Goldman Sachs to advise it on a potential sale, these people said. The company has attracted interest from several buyers, mostly private equity firms, including Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, Bain Capital and others. Final bids are due by the end of the month, but people briefed on the auction cautioned that it was unclear which firms would submit a final bid. A sale is not assured, because the tightening of the high-yield debt markets has cut off private equity firms from the lifeblood of their business, making it harder to finance deals. Getty, founded in 1995 in Seattle, has grown through a series of acquisitions into a go-to source for visual media, claiming an average service of 3.2 billion images and 4 million unique visitors at its Web site each month. The company’s main selling point is the licensing of high-quality images from professional photographers around the world. Among its main clients are advertising agencies and media companies, including The New York Times. It also offers video footage for use in movies, television and the Internet. A spokeswoman for the company contacted last week said the company does not comment on “rumors and speculation.” Some of the company’s premium offerings include the distribution of images from the Time Life and National Geographic collections. Early last year, Getty bought its biggest competitor, MediaVast, for $202 million, acquiring the WireImage service in the process. Last year, Getty held takeover talks with the publicly held Jupitermedia Corporation, but the discussions ended quickly without a deal. Its main rivals, Jupitermedia, and the Corbis Corporation, a private company owned by the Microsoft founder Bill Gates, have also made a number of acquisitions, though they remain far smaller than Getty. The Internet — a medium that Getty pioneered by being the first to license images online — has made it easier for clients to find pictures for less money. Getty’s shares have declined more than 47 percent in the last year. Its shares fell 10 percent in August, when the company lowered its full-year profit estimate because of competition from low-cost rivals. Last November, it reported a third-quarter profit of $25.7 million, down 31 percent from a year ago. Last April, Getty also restated its earnings and took a $28 million to $32 million charge after an internal investigation into the backdating of stock options grants to executives. Started by Jonathan Klein and Mark Getty, a scion of the J. Paul Getty oil fortune, the company began striking deals and acquiring the photo archives of companies like PhotoDisc. Its growth began to skyrocket with later acquisitions like its $183 million purchase of Eastman Kodak’s Image Bank in 1999. But the rise of digital photography and the Web created a host of competitors that charged as little as a dollar for an image. Recent events — from the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, the former Pakistani prime minister, to the latest foibles of the entertainer Britney Spears — have led to a surging popularity of low-quality but on-the-scene photos, many taken by cellphone cameras. “Getty Images continues to be a company in transition, adjusting from being the leading player in an oligopolistic market to being one of many players in a highly competitive market,” Barbara Coffey, a research analyst with Kaufman Brothers, wrote in a research note earlier this month. The company made its biggest effort to harness some of that new sector’s profit by buying iStockphoto.com , a site for cheaper if also lower-quality photos, for $50 million in 2006. It has lowered the price for some of its wares and offers low-resolution versions of its photographs for $49. Getty has moved to diversify in other ways. Last June, it bought Pump Audio, a music-licensing company that draws on works by unsigned musicians, for $42.5 million. Another acquisition, WireImage, which does picture coverage of entertainment events like parties, has helped bolster revenue from magazine and newspaper sales as well. Still, some analysts worry that other, cheaper rivals could continue undercutting the company’s prices. Last August, Getty announced that it was laying off 100 employees, or about 5 percent of its full-time staff, its second round of cuts in as many years. Other analysts are more bullish about Getty’s prospects. Ms. Coffey of Kaufman Brothers raised her recommendation of the stock to hold from sell this month after its price fell closer to her target of $24. Getty’s share price has since fallen, closing at $21.94 on Friday. Not all of Getty’s troubles stem from competitive pressures. A special committee of the company’s board said last April that it found no signs of “intentional wrongdoing” in the backdating of stock options, but Getty was forced to restate its earnings from virtually its inception until November 2006.

Getty Images Incorporated
Mergers Acquisitions and Divestitures
Auctions


Black Market for Cigarettes Expands, Costing E.U. Billions

Abstract: LONDON — When the Sophie Maersk docked at the British port of Felixstowe, the ship carried two 40-foot containers brimming with what had been billed as toys and stuffed turtles. But the cargo was not for child’s play. The containers were actually crammed with more than 20 million illicit cigarettes smuggled by an unlikely ring that included a recruitment consultant, a scaffolding company owner and a millionaire Dubai businessman in plastics recycling who had fallen on hard times during Europe’s economic downturn. “He borrowed money and took the wrong route,” a lawyer said in open court earlier this year, apologizing for the gang’s ringleader, Paul O’Meara, 48, of Suffolk, England, adding that he “lived the good life,” but lost it all, and then risked his reputation “as a result, really, of the financial collapse.” For years, law enforcement officers and smugglers have played cat and mouse in Europe, where contraband cigarettes are stashed in everything from furniture shipments to loads of Christmas trees. But Europe’s four-year-old economic crisis is expanding the black market for cigarettes, robbing European Union nations of valuable revenue and drawing in a new class of smugglers. In May, a judge in England scolded Terry Nolan, a blind man from Yorkshire, who was convicted after investigators found him stashing more than 200,000 contraband cigarettes, some behind a false wall in his garden shed. Mr. Nolan refused to reveal the source, claiming he was afraid of reprisals, and was given a five-month suspended sentence after pleading guilty to evading more than $150,000 in excise taxes. “You are 61 years old, and apart from a sentence in your youth for cannabis possession, you have remained law abiding for the last 40 years,” Judge David Tremberg lectured him in court, issuing a curfew and a fine of about $1,000. “At a time when the public purse is at breaking point, this business robs the country of much-needed finances.” Indeed, the impact of lost tax revenues is enormous, especially since the European Union is partly financed by customs duties, 75 percent of which are passed to the bloc by its member nations. “The damage: 1 billion euros missing in the E.U. budget and up to 9 billion euros missing in the member states,” according to Jens Geier, a German member of the European Parliament, who worries that the volume of smuggled cigarettes hints at serious structures of organized crime behind these illicit, everyman retailers. Hard facts about this smuggling trade are found in the lowliest places: the garbage. In annual surveys, financed by cigarette companies, researchers fan out to major cities in 27 European nations and collect crumpled cigarette packs. In turn those packs are analyzed by laboratories to determine how many are bought across the counter and how many are counterfeit. Some boxes are so meticulously produced in China, Dubai or Eastern Europe that they contain bogus tax stamps for different nations. The latest results of the garbage scavenging showed the black market competition had increased to record levels. In Spain, illicit sales last year soared 300 percent to more than 4.6 billion cigarettes. In the struggling region of Andalusia, they showed, contraband cigarettes commanded 20 percent of the market. In Ireland, smugglers are robust competitors with legal cigarette companies, reaching more than 17 percent. Over all, black market cigarettes continued a steady climb for the fifth straight year, topping 10 percent of consumption or 65 billion cigarettes, according to the annual report issued in June by KPMG for Philip Morris International. Smuggling has flourished in particular in nations where the price of a pack of cigarettes has edged past $10, the result of rising taxes and tighter wallets. “In times of economic crisis, especially a long economic crisis like the one Europe is experiencing now, people have less disposable income, and they are particularly interested in cheaper products,” said Simeon Djankov, deputy prime minister and finance minister of Bulgaria. There, he said, the market share of smuggled cigarettes more than doubled between 2008 and 2010. In Dublin, Benny Gilsenan did his own personal research. When Ireland’s economy started to founder in 2008 after the nation’s real estate crash, Mr. Gilsenan noticed the regulars were dwindling from his store, Benny’s, a 40-year fixture in the neighborhood. Then he confronted a former customer, whom he could see smoking just a few hundred yards away. The man explained the math to him. “I sell a pack for 9.20 euros, while they can get one for 3.20,” about $7.30 less, Mr. Gilsenan said, noting that his sales declined 40 percent in the last four years and resulted in layoffs of two employees. Since then, he and other shopkeepers have formed a group called Retailers Against Smuggling that is pressing for higher penalties for smugglers. The turtle toy smuggling case was masterminded by Mr. O’Meara, the businessman who embarked on what prosecutors called a “massive international smuggling operation.” Among the seven men, sentenced earlier this year, none had previous records for smuggling, according to Paul Barton, assistant director of criminal investigations at Britain’s HM Revenue & Customs. According to investigators and court records, the turtle plot began sometime in 2009 when Mr. O’Meara was struggling with debts and began work on setting up a haulage business called Vincent Logistics, which prosecutors described as a front company. He received financial help from another member of the smuggling ring, Robert Doran, 47, a Dubai millionaire. The potential tax loss from the operation was more than $5 million for the British government, according to Mr. Barton, who said the plot had taken around four to five months to prepare and was so well organized that plotters marketed the cigarettes with glossy brochures. In the end it cost them prison sentences, ranging from two years to four and a half years. Despite the emergence of middle-class smugglers, investigators believe that criminal organizations are behind them. Contraband tobacco is less lucrative than narcotics, but it is attractive because those caught receive much shorter prison terms. While governments fret about lost revenue, law enforcement officers are concerned about how smuggling profits are reinvested in other criminal activities. “A lot of people perceive this as a ‘Robin Hood’ type of fraud and that the ordinary person in the street, who has a lot less money these days, is gaining the benefit,” said Austin Rowan, head of the unit responsible for cigarette smuggling at OLAF , the European Union’s Anti-Fraud Office. “But this trade is financing organizations that are involved in other activities including drugs smuggling.”

Smoking and Tobacco
Europe
Smuggling
Black Markets
European Union
Sales and Excise Taxes
Customs (Tariff)


Challenges for Girls Playing High School Baseball

Abstract: Gary Sementelli was bracing for a fight. His daughter Marti had been a baseball player before she was a kindergartner, tossing plastic balls and swinging a tiny wood bat from the time she was 3. She had been a solid player at every youth level, and sometimes a star. In 2007, Nike even featured her in a television commercial in which she wore a baseball cap backward and mused about playing for the Boston Red Sox. Yet Sementelli was beginning to doubt whether he would find a high school that would allow Marti to go out for the boys baseball team. Two parochial schools near their home in North Hollywood, Calif., rejected the idea. At a couple of public schools, Sementelli said, he was told to investigate whether the rules permitted girls to play on the boys team, then get back in touch. Finally, Sementelli located a school as happy to have his daughter as she is with her toe on the pitching rubber. At Burbank High School, Marti, a 16-year-old sophomore, is on the junior varsity squad. “I would have gone to any length,” Sementelli said of finding a high school willing to give his daughter a chance. “It was crazy. Baseball is the game she has been playing all her life.” The Sementellis’ story is not unique. Across the country, girls devoted to baseball — and with as many seasons of youth ball under their belts as their male teammates — are searching for ways to stay in the sport when they reach high school. When one wears a ponytail and has a name like Lilly, they say, it is far from easy. No doubt, biology plays a role. Boys, especially postpubescent boys, often have an edge over girls in size and strength, allowing them to throw harder and swing with greater force than girls. But girls will say that the toughest battles are against stereotypes — the attitude that baseball is for boys. “Most people just are incapable of seeing beyond what’s easy,” said Jennifer Ring, a University of Nevada-Reno professor whose experiences raising a baseball-playing daughter are told in her new book on the history of women in the sport, “Stolen Bases: Why American Girls Don’t Play Baseball.” “It is much neater if we say, boys play baseball and girls play other sports.” In at least one state, Massachusetts, high school rules bar girls from trying out for boys baseball in schools that also offer softball. Nebraska dropped its ban in 2008. In January, in a case that attracted national attention, the Indiana High School Athletic Association did the same after being sued by the parents of a 15-year-old aspiring catcher at Bloomington South, Logan Young. Tryouts are set for March 23, and Young said making the team would be “my greatest accomplishment of freshman year.” Blake Ress, the commissioner of the Indiana association, said his organization changed the rule when lawyers advised that its chances to prevail in the lawsuit, which challenged the policy on the grounds it violated Title IX and the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution were “between zero and 50-50.” Even now, Ress seems ambivalent. “I don’t know how good these girls are that want to do this, but they’d have so much more success if they competed in girls’ sports,” he said. Girls who choose baseball in high school are taking a rocky path less traveled. There is no perfect place in high school for baseball players who are girls. There aren’t girls baseball teams. The so-called bat and ball sport offered girls at most high schools, softball, is played with a larger ball on a smaller diamond. “It’s like saying Ping-Pong and tennis are the same sport,” Marti Sementelli said. A decision to stick with baseball can come at a high price. The best high school softball players can earn college scholarships — there are more than 260 N.C.A.A. Division I softball programs. The best girls in high school baseball? After their final game, their school careers are almost certainly over. (One of the few women playing in college last season was Ring’s daughter, Lilly Jacobson. She was cut from the Vassar squad before this season.) Some girls will not be swayed. Last year, 1,012 played for high school teams, according to the National Federation of State High School Associations. The actual count may be higher because schools sometimes fail to report girls playing on boys teams. California had the most girls playing baseball (385), and even Massachusetts had 14. But in many states, the high school diamond was a lonely place for girls. Maine, Kentucky and New Hampshire each had two female players. Connecticut reported one. Girls who buck convention often have been dedicated to baseball since they were tykes. Rick Piagno said his daughter, Stacy, whacked a foam baseball with an equally cushy bat when she was 3. When Stacy was 5, he registered her for T-ball. “She has been playing ever since,” Piagno said. Stacy, 17, is a senior pitcher on the boys varsity at Pedro Menendez High School in St. Augustine, Fla. Her teammates include her brother, Cole, who is two years younger. Several times this season, in what could be a first even in high school baseball, brother and sister have pitched in the same game. Stacy, whose blond hair spills from her cap, does not throw as hard as some male teammates — 75 miles per hour at best, Piagno said. But she compensates with an effective knuckle-curve, a deceptive pitch her father taught her. “That’s what I’m known for,” Stacy said. Last year, she made varsity but did not play a game at that level. This year, with a new coach, Stacy appears headed for a middle relief role. Still, in ways that would be a mystery to boys, she has to prove she belongs every game. When Stacy goes out to pitch, she said: “There’s usually someone shouting, ‘Oh, it’s a girl!’ They think they’ll come up and cream me. After the game” — she paused a beat — “usually thoughts have changed.” Marti Sementelli knows the feeling. Slightly built and 5 feet 2 inches, she does not overpower batters. Her delivery, compact and controlled, resembles that of a pitcher her father admires. “Very Maddux-like,” said Gary Sementelli, who serves as his daughter’s pitching coach, referring to the former major leaguer Greg Maddux. Last year, Marti pitched for Burbank’s fresh-soph team, closing the season with a complete-game victory. Last summer, she was the youngest player picked to represent the United States in the Women’s Baseball World Cup, allowing one run in a victory over Australia in the bronze medal game. Her next goal is proving she belongs with the Burbank High junior varsity. “I’m strong for how short I am,” she said. “And I’m really dedicated to the game — nothing gets in my way.”

Baseball
Women
Interscholastic Athletics


China Joins Inquiry Into Steroid Ring

Abstract: SHANGHAI, Oct. 1 — The Chinese government is investigating whether companies in China are shipping the raw materials for illegal steroids to factories in the United States. The government said it was cooperating with the American authorities, who are conducting a crackdown on steroid manufacturers in the United States and other parts of the world. The Drug Enforcement Administration and other American authorities announced the arrests of more than 120 people last week and said they had closed dozens of small laboratories and seized cash, drugs and other assets. The authorities, who called the case Operation Raw Deal, did not disclose who used the steroids but said they had a large database of names and thought that many of the users were athletes and bodybuilders. The United States authorities say 99 percent of all the materials used to produce anabolic steroids in the country come from China. American officials said that 37 Chinese companies were involved in the illegal trade and that they had turned over the names of most of the companies to the Chinese authorities. Investigators identified only one Chinese company, GeneScience Pharmaceutical, which is China’s largest producer of human growth hormone. In mid-September, a Rhode Island grand jury indicted GeneScience and its American-educated founder and chief executive, Jin Lei, on charges of supplying human growth hormone to distributors in the United States, where it is not licensed to be sold. GeneScience officials did not return phone calls seeking comment last week. A spokesman for the parent company of GeneScience, which is based in the north China city of Changchun, said the Chinese government had not yet contacted the pharmaceutical company. Zhou Weiqun, board secretary of the Changchun High Tech Group, said the company had learned about the indictment from investors who had read news reports. China’s state-controlled news media did not carry many reports of the steroids raid in the United States, but foreign media reports circulate inside the country and over the Internet. The Chinese government’s first response came over the weekend, when a spokesman for the State Food and Drug Administration told the state-run Xinhua News Agency that the authorities were cooperating with United States officials and that regulators would take action against any illegal activities. “We will find out the truth as soon as possible, and if there are illegal activities, we will handle them at once, according to the law,” said Yan Jiangying, an agency spokeswoman. The Chinese regulator said that the government had strict controls over the use of steroids and that no individual or organization was allowed to produce or sell steroids without a license. There was no mention of human growth hormone or other illicit drugs named by American investigators. People close to the investigation in the United States said one Chinese company involved in the illicit trade was the Tianjin Xinmei Technology Company. But a spokesman for the company, who refused to give a name, said by telephone last week, “We just posted our ads on the Internet, but nobody contacted us to buy human growth hormone.” Last week, officials at the World Anti-Doping Agency, which is based in Montreal, said they were encouraged by China’s cooperation with international investigators and the steps the government has taken in the last year to crack down on illegal drugs.

Steroids
Drug Abuse and Traffic
China
Drug Enforcement Administration
Xinhua
World Anti-Doping Agency
Hormones
Drugs (Pharmaceuticals)
Human Growth Hormone


Navy SEALs Veteran With Zest for Adrenaline

Abstract: LAS VEGAS — Tyrone S. Woods, one of four Americans killed this week when militants stormed a diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya , was “one of those adrenaline junkies” who was “built to do what he did,” said Dr. Timothy Rasmusson, his former brother-in-law. Mr. Woods, 41, was a veteran member of the Navy SEALs who later became a registered nurse, someone who “had the hands of a healer as well as the arm of a warrior,” Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said in a statement on Thursday night honoring Mr. Woods, the last of the four victims to be identified. Also killed were J. Christopher Stevens, the American ambassador to Libya; Sean Smith, an information management officer; and Glen A. Doherty, another former Navy SEALs member who was providing security. Dr. Rasmusson, a surgeon and the brother of Mr. Woods’s former wife, Patricia Ann So, said he knew that Mr. Woods would not adjust well to civilian life. “It was just the kind of guy he was,” Dr. Rasmusson said. “He was always waiting for that phone to ring” before another high-stakes mission. So it was that, starting in 2010, Mr. Woods began working with security details protecting diplomatic personnel, from Central America to the Middle East. Dr. Rasmusson recalled how his former brother-in-law once brought a disassembled motorcycle back from deployment stored in a shipping container where he kept medical supplies. Back in the San Diego area, he put the bike back together and drove it at high speeds by the ocean. He also once owned a bar in Imperial Beach, Calif., called the Salty Frog that was frequented by members of the military. “You knew when you looked at him, he was not to be trifled with,” Dr. Rasmusson said, indicating that Mr. Woods rarely talked about his exploits. Mr. Woods had recently moved from La Jolla, Calif., with his wife, Dorothy, and their infant son, Kai, to a quiet suburban cul-de-sac in Henderson, Nev., less than 10 miles from the Las Vegas Strip. He is also survived by two teenage sons from his marriage to Ms. So, Tyrone Jr. and Hunter. On Friday morning, the Woods’s three-story house was silent, with two bouquets of flowers laid on the doormat.

Diplomatic Service Embassies and Consulates

United States Defense and Military Forces


Democrats Discover New Political Frontier

Abstract: LAKEWOOD, Colo., Oct. 31 — Campaigning in suburban Wheat Ridge in the rapidly fading October twilight, Ed Perlmutter, the Democratic Congressional candidate, knocked on the door of Maxine Dunham, a registered independent. “Already voted,” Mrs. Dunham quickly reassured Mr. Perlmutter, peering out to tell him he had locked up her support. “You can relax.” Mr. Perlmutter is probably unlikely to relax in the final days of his closely watched race with Rick O’Donnell, his Republican opponent, as the two kick their sophisticated get-out-the-vote machines into high gear. But Mr. Perlmutter and fellow Democrats in Colorado and neighboring states believe that unaffiliated voters like Mrs. Dunham are the key to what could be a turnaround in the party’s political fortunes in the region. Despite a Republican edge in registration, Democrats are discovering the Mountain West — and Colorado in particular — to be a new political frontier as the party benefits from a potent mix of changing demographics, anger over the war in Iraq, resentment toward conservative social initiatives and millions of dollars’ worth of advocacy advertising. Republicans acknowledge that the political terrain is shifting along the Continental Divide but argue that any realignment will be temporary and due to the Iraq war more than any other factor. “We still have more registered Republicans by a pretty significant margin,” said Representative Tom Tancredo, an advocate of tough immigration laws who is running for re-election in a nearby district, “but it certainly appears an increasing number of independents or unaffiliated voters are now breaking more for the Democrats than the Republicans.” If that trend holds, Democrats could be in for a big day next Tuesday. The Democratic candidate for governor, Bill Ritter, is leading in his race against Bob Beauprez, a Republican congressman. If Democrats can retain control of the State House and Senate, which they gained in the 2004 elections, they would have total control of the state government for the first time since the early 1960s. “It really is incredible,” said Tom Schaller, a political scientist at the University of Maryland who explores the potential for Democratic gains in the West in a new book, “Whistling Past Dixie.” “They had nothing three years ago.” Mr. Perlmutter has consistently led in polls in the Seventh District race in the Denver suburbs. Should he win, it would give Democrats at least a four-to-three advantage in the state’s Congressional delegation. The fact that two other House races are even remotely competitive illustrates the changed political dynamic after years of Republican dominance. In neighboring states, Democrats are seen as having a good chance of capturing a Senate seat in Montana, are battling in what should be safe Republican House seats in Idaho and Wyoming, and have their eyes on Republican seats in Arizona and New Mexico. The increasingly blue tinge of the formerly red region — some say it gives new meaning to the phrase “purple mountains” — has the national party seriously considering holding its 2008 presidential convention here at the foot of the Rockies. Republicans are hardly surrendering. Mr. O’Donnell is pushing ahead and on Monday trumpeted an endorsement from Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, hoping the McCain name would resonate with independents. Using a high-tech voter identification model, Mr. O’Donnell spent more than $30,000 to mail a letter of support from Mr. McCain along with his own 38-page platform to 20,000 independents and Democrats deemed receptive to the message. “It was sent very strategically,” said Mr. O’Donnell, who believes he can pull off a victory, although he acknowledges a tough environment for Republicans. “I picked a heck of a year to run for Congress,” he said Tuesday as he led volunteers on a local cleanup campaign intended to send the message that he would also help clean up Congress. Mr. Perlmutter has also focused on independents, trying to sway them by presenting his case that Republican control of Washington has been a failure. “I just think that over the last few days the unaffiliated voters have really been watching what is going on closely, and they are leaning to the Democratic side,” Mr. Perlmutter said. Mr. O’Donnell said he believed that Democratic electoral expectations in the West were overblown and that even if Democrats did have some success, Republicans would quickly recover. Analysts and activists say the Democratic rise has been building quietly but steadily. Robert Duffy, a political science professor at Colorado State University, said he thought Republicans began losing the public’s confidence after 2002, when the General Assembly was not seen to be responding strongly to an economic downturn but was instead caught up in political fights over redistricting and other peripheral issues. “The state legislature and the governor seemed to be incapable of doing anything about it,” Dr. Duffy said of the economic situation. He and others said that many in the West, where Republicans exhibit a pronounced libertarian streak, had also grown weary of the social agenda that stirs Republicans in the South. “They want someone to provide solutions to problems, and they are tired of the government getting too much in their business out there,” said Nancy Keenan, a former state legislator in Montana who is now president of Naral Pro-Choice America, an abortion rights group that has been actively engaged in Western Congressional races. In one respect, the region’s conservative leaders have fallen victim to their own success. Exerting strong control over the party in many communities, conservatives have been able to deliver victories for their candidates in party primaries over more moderate Republicans. But the conservatives then struggle in the general election, sometimes because of hard feelings over the primaries, and Democrats have been able to sneak in. Party infighting over an open Republican House seat in the district around Colorado Springs is considered a factor in giving Democrats a chance at that seat. Members of both parties say there is another important but less well-known explanation for Democratic success in Colorado: an assertive advocacy campaign by wealthy progressives in the state who have poured millions of dollars into pro-Democratic advertising through independent 527 organizations, groups so named after the provision in the tax code that allows political spending as long as it is not formally coordinated with parties or candidates. The 527 groups were considered instrumental in the 2004 elections, when Democrats achieved a surprising takeover of the legislature and, at the federal level, won a Senate and a House seat. They have been active again this year, particularly in an effort to unseat Representative Marilyn Musgrave, who has supported a proposed constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage. Democrats say the 2004 gains laid the groundwork for an expansion this year because the Democratic legislature was able to work with the departing Republican governor and address pressing problems in education, health care and immigration, demonstrating to skeptics that Democrats could govern. Both Mr. Perlmutter and Mr. O’Donnell, competing for the open seat now held by Mr. Beauprez, have said throughout the campaign that they will bring a similar sensibility to Washington, promising to inject new thinking into a Congress that has been plagued by partisanship and stalemate. Now it is up to the voters in this evenly divided district, where the romance of the Rockies meets the pressures of 21st-century suburbia, to make a choice. “I think people are ready,” Mr. Perlmutter said. “They have seen enough ads.”

Colorado
Democratic Party
United States Politics and Government
House of Representatives


Better Calling for Less, With Wi-Fi Apps That Let You Bypass the Cell Network

Abstract: Few people care whether their calls are carried over a data network, a voice network, copper wires or a piece of string tied to two Dixie cups. Unless, of course, the method doesn’t really work. Like a cell network. To take a completely hypothetical situation, let’s say you own, oh, an iPhone , and you live, oh, in a metropolis that fairly bristles with cell towers. And you adore apps like Shazam and Gilt and Pandora, but you’re considerably less sweet on AT&T because it can’t carry a simple phone call for more than five minutes. For the millions of people who might fit into this purely hypothetical situation, there are options that don’t involve switching carriers and turning your iPhone into the equivalent of a very costly iPod . All you have to do is find a Wi-Fi hot spot, or create one at home, and simply open up one of the handful of apps that will almost never drop your calls, and will charge you less to boot (especially if you have friends or business overseas). And if those friends have Fring or iCall or Skype or Gizmo5, too, the calls are free. A year ago, these services were either tough to download or they didn’t work on the iPhone. And even if you could get one onto your phone, the calling experience was sketchy at best. Now these apps are generally easy to find and to download on iPhones and Android devices, and they offer solid user experiences. For the handful of people who downloaded Gizmo5 last year before Google bought the company and blocked new subscriptions, the service can offer a glimpse into the possible future of phone calling. But even short of that, the apps are a great alternative to cell networks. After downloading the apps, you’re typically asked to register. If you want to pay for outbound long-distance calls to landlines, as with Skype, you’ll need to buy credit too. From there, it’s a matter of opening the apps and dialing. If you have a solid Wi-Fi signal, you should experience good call quality and no dropped calls. There are subtle differences between the services that you’ll want to consider, but for Wi-Fi calling, at least, Skype was the simplest and most full-featured app of its kind. On an iPhone, I signed in with the Skype username and password I’ve had for years, and I could instantly make outbound calls to non-Skype users at low per-minute rates. Skype-to-Skype calls, as always, are free. It’s easy to take for granted the fact that Internet calls are now as clear as those on landlines, but even a year ago that wasn’t necessarily the case. I recorded multiple calls recently, and aside from a marginally loose quality to the sound, it was hard to tell the difference between Skype and a landline. During a call, the on-screen options are also smartly designed, with a mute button, a speakerphone option and a dial pad, for interacting with automated services. ICall and Gizmo5 also had these features, but Fring had only a speakerphone button, leaving me with major problems when, during one call, I was asked to “press 1 to send a message.” ICall, an upstart competitor to Skype, claims lower per-minute rates than Skype, but the figures on its Web site haven’t been updated since 2008. On iCall, calls to landlines in Ireland from the United States are 5 cents a minute, for instance, while Skype charges 2 cents (and not 30 cents, as iCall suggests). For calls within North America, the charge is a penny on iCall, versus 2 cents on Skype. You can also pay iCall about $10 a month for unlimited calls to anywhere in the world, or you can make calls free if you promise to listen to advertisements before calls. Skype offers unlimited calls within the United States and Canada for $3 a month. While the other apps are free to download, Gizmo5 costs $6. Google would not disclose how many people downloaded the app, which was introduced in late December, nor would it say how many people had signed up for the service before the company blocked new users. Those who missed the cut will have to wait for Google to do something more public with its shiny new investment. In fact, Google doesn’t actually own the iPhone app because Gizmo5 granted a license to an outside company to build the software before it was acquired. Still, some in the industry believe that Google could eventually tie the app, or something like it, to its Google Voice service. Google Voice offers free calls using any computer, and a 10-digit number others can call. Gizmo5 offers free calls over Wi-Fi-enabled phones. So you could conceivably one day call your friend’s number, using a Wi-Fi-enabled phone (thanks to Gizmo5), and it will be free, just like a Google Voice call. Also, if friends miss the call, they’ll see your Google Voice caller ID and call you right back, since your outbound Gizmo5 call was carried over Google Voice. Or so goes the utopian theory. In the meantime, Gizmo5 is a fairly slick piece of software as is. The Quickdial page shows photos of 12 of your favorite contacts, and you can record calls and send each of the participants a digital copy of the recording. (An intermittent beep reminds callers that the conversation is being recorded.) Outbound calls are roughly as expensive as Skype. Fring may have been one of the first to offer Wi-Fi calls for the iPhone, but competing apps are now easier to use. Unlike competitors, Fring offers video chatting over its mobile service, but I failed to get the service working on my iPhone, and some iTunes users complained of similar problems. A Fring spokesman said two-way video was only available on certain phones, and the iPhone is not yet among them. Fring and Skype are available on Android phones, like Verizon’s Droid, Google’s Nexus One and the MyTouch 3G, from T-Mobile. BlackBerry users with Wi-Fi devices, however, have nothing yet to choose from. Of course, if you have a Droid or a Nexus One or a BlackBerry Storm II, this is less of an issue in the first place. Those devices are available on networks other than AT&T, where making a phone call is, for many people at least, still a dial-and-pray proposition. Quick Calls Got great photos stuck in your smartphone? Kodak announced a new printer that connects to Wi-Fi-enabled BlackBerrys and iPhones. The printer, the ESP 7250 ($200, beginning in April), will print snapshots and documents as well. ... Budding video journalists have a new tool: the ProPrompter app ($10) turns the iPhone into a mini teleprompter. If you also have an iPhone or an iPod Touch, you can use it to control the scroll pacing. ... Now that football season is over, N.B.A. fans can give the sport their full attention. N.B.A. League Pass ($20) for iPhone and Android users lets you watch live games from across the country and catch highlights.

Wireless Communications
Internet Telephony
Smartphones
iPhone
iPod
Cell Network
Skype Technologies


Poland: Officials Quit Over Scandal

Abstract: Four government ministers and the speaker of Parliament tendered their resignations on Wednesday amid a revived 2014 scandal over secret recordings made of them and other officials. The officials were secretly taped during private meetings in Warsaw restaurants in 2013 and 2014. The tapes were leaked to a magazine and published, and Poles were angered that politicians, lobbyists and business people were debating deals and promotions while dining over baby lobster. An investigation into the illegal recordings is still underway. The scandal was revived this week after classified files from the investigation were leaked on Facebook.

Wiretapping Eavesdropping
Poland
Corruption
Facebook
Appointments and Executive Changes


Suriname: Leader Named to New Term

Abstract: Suriname’s Parliament gave the former military dictator Desi Bouterse a second term as president on Tuesday with no opposition — or even a formal vote — in the 51-member body. Mr. Bouterse’s National Democratic Party won parliamentary elections in May, but fell short of the majority needed to re-elect him immediately as president for the next five years. In the end, the splintered opposition in Parliament did not even put forth its own candidate. Mr. Bouterse first came to power in February 1980, when he led a coup five years after independence.

Suriname
Desi Bouterse
Legislature
Appointments and Executive Changes


Presidential Contenders in G.O.P. Shift Attention to Foreign Policy Issues

Abstract: WASHINGTON — Gruesome killings by the Islamic State, terrorist attacks in Europe and tensions with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia are reshaping the early Republican presidential race, creating anxiety among party voters and sending potential candidates scrambling to outmuscle one another on foreign policy. Doubts that crept into the minds of conservatives about engagement abroad after George W. Bush’s presidency and the protracted war in Iraq are dissipating, and members of the Republican Party are increasingly pressing for more action against the Islamic State. Nearly three-quarters of Republicans now favor sending ground troops into combat against the Islamic State, according to a CBS News poll last week. And in Iowa and South Carolina, two early nominating states, Republicans said military action against the group was, alongside economic matters, the most important issue in the 2016 election, according to an NBC survey released last week. “There’s a lot of fear out there,” said Katon Dawson, a former chairman of the South Carolina Republican Party, noting that the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, had become a regular topic of discussion at his regular breakfast spot in Columbia, the Lizard’s Thicket. “The waitresses and managers and everybody there has a notion about ISIL. People understand who this group is now.” The emphasis on foreign policy is also a tacit acknowledgment by Republicans that, with the economy improving, they need another issue to distinguish themselves from Democrats. And it offers them a way to link former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to President Obama on an issue where the president’s approval ratings are weakening . More immediately, the hawkishness now defining the early campaign could imperil the presidential hopes of Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, the libertarian-leaning Republican who embraces a more restrained approach to American engagement with the world. “The guy who’s now got the biggest challenge because of this is Rand Paul,” said Newt Gingrich, the former Republican House speaker. “The Rand Paul worldview, which I suspect will change, is just incompatible with reality.” Though Mr. Paul will not formally announce his campaign until April, prominent Republican officials and groups are already organizing to undercut his approach. One of the party’s biggest donors, the Las Vegas casino magnate Sheldon Adelson , has told associates that he is open to underwriting an effort to stopping Mr. Paul, should he gain traction in the primaries. At least two Republicans, John R. Bolton, the former United Nations ambassador, and Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, are considering their own White House bids largely to draw attention to what they see as the need for a more muscular foreign policy. One international affairs expert who has advised Mr. Paul and hails from a similar, more restrained school of foreign policy said the revival of terrorism as an issue would force the senator to explain his views more thoroughly. “He’s got, to some extent, to be an educator in this process,” said the expert, Richard R. Burt, a former ambassador and State Department official under President Ronald Reagan. “He needs to talk through with primary voters the kinds of questions that need to be asked before we commit U.S. forces abroad: How we can’t just have a visceral reaction. How does this impact American interests and security?” But Mr. Paul’s detractors are not going to make that easy. “I think most of the Republican candidates or prospective candidates are headed in the right direction; there’s one who’s headed in the wrong direction,” said Mr. Bolton, suggesting that most Republicans would be “horrified” by Mr. Paul’s views on international affairs. Who Is Running for President? Donald J. Trump officially accepted the Republican party's nomination on July 22. Hillary Clinton was officially nominated on July 26 at the Democratic Convention. Mr. Bolton has formed three separate political groups to promote pro-interventionist Republican candidates. His newest effort, called the Foundation for American Security and Freedom , will be a 501(c)(4) tax-exempt group, meaning that it can accept donations from contributors who wish to remain anonymous. Mr. Graham has formed a similar group, Security Through Strength , and has begun traveling to early nominating states to discuss what he calls “the threat of radical Islam” as he ponders a presidential run. Mike Rogers, the former Michigan representative and the former chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, is not considering a presidential bid, but he is trying to influence the 2016 race by creating an organization called Americans for Peace Prosperity and Security, which he said would support candidates “who understand the importance of American engagement.” His group is scheduled to host its first forum in Iowa in May and is considering holding a large candidates’ forum in the fall. The combined efforts of these groups, along with the shift of rank-and-file Republicans toward hawkishness, could isolate Mr. Paul. This will be most vividly apparent once debates begin this year. With Republican candidates increasingly attacking Mr. Obama for what they see as his unwillingness to project American strength, Mr. Paul’s support for the administration’s policies on such issues as negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program will stand out — and force him into some awkward situations. “You’re not going to find any of the Republicans, even those who might well have behaved like Obama, standing up and defending Obama,” said Richard Perle, a pro-interventionist defense official who served in the Reagan administration. The movement of Republican public opinion is striking. In 2009, worn down by the long and unpopular Iraq war undertaken by Mr. Bush, about 53 percent of Republicans said the United States should “mind its own business” internationally and let other countries get along the best they can on their own, according to a Pew Research Center survey. But the shocking images of terrorism and Mr. Obama’s approach to them have set off much concern among Republican voters, said Senator Kelly Ayotte, Republican of New Hampshire. Ms. Ayotte recalled that, after she spoke at a recent party dinner in her home state, Republican activists had approached her to discuss the threat of the Islamic State and the Obama administration’s nuclear negotiations with Iran. “National security issues have really risen to the top in the presidential race, and that’s because of what we’ve seen happening around the world and in part because of the ineffective policies of this administration,” Ms. Ayotte said. Even last week, as former Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida sought to distance himself from his brother’s foreign policy record at a speech in Chicago, he found himself embracing the sort of muscular engagement that had characterized the 43rd president’s administration. The former Florida governor called nonstate terrorist groups such as the Islamic State “perhaps the greatest security threat that we now face for our own homeland.” He added, “Taking them out is the strategy.” Mr. Paul and his backers have been conflicted about how to respond to the shift, and to the senator’s hawkish critics. They have courted them at times; Mr. Paul has aggressively sought out Republican Jewish Coalition donors and dropped by one of their events at a Washington steakhouse this year that Mr. Adelson attended. His team has even sought to flatter the neoconservative Washington Free Beacon, offering the site exclusives about Mr. Paul’s bill to eliminate American aid to the Palestinians (which the Free Beacon noted promptly came hours before he was to meet with Jewish donors). But when challenged, Mr. Paul can also strike a pugilistic note. Referring to Mr. Bolton and other critics, Doug Stafford, Mr. Paul’s top political adviser, accused them of trying to promote their own political brand at Mr. Paul’s expense. “Can you run for secretary of state?” Mr. Stafford asked. “They are going to lie about who Rand is and what he stands for. That’s what they do. We will be ready for them.”

2016 Presidential Election
US Foreign Policy
US Politics
Republicans
ISIS,ISIL,Islamic State
Russia
Terrorism
Vladimir Putin
Rand Paul


Weighing Reach of Law in Appeals for Clemency

Abstract: WASHINGTON — In an unusually testy argument, the Supreme Court on Monday tried to make sense of a federal law that provides lawyers to poor inmates on state death rows when their cases move to federal court. The question for the justices was whether the law also requires the federal government to pay those lawyers to present clemency petitions to governors and other state officials. The Supreme Court has called executive clemency “the ‘fail safe’ in our criminal justice system.” But there is no constitutional right to counsel for people seeking mercy. The law in question says lawyers handling federal capital cases must also be paid to represent their clients in “proceedings for executive or other clemency as may be available to the defendant.” William M. Jay, an assistant to the solicitor general, said the law applies only to “federal proceedings before a federal officer.” Dana C. Hansen Chavis, a federal public defender, told the justices that interpreting the law to apply only to federal clemency would render its language meaningless in many cases, as people convicted of state crimes are not eligible for federal clemency. Her client, Edward J. Harbison, is on death row in Tennessee for beating a woman to death with a marble vase in 1983 when she found him burglarizing her house. The phrase “executive or other clemency,” Ms. Hansen Chavis added, gave a further indication of Congressional intent. All federal clemency proceedings take place within the executive branch, she said, and so the words “or other” must have referred to state proceedings in which other parts of the government play a role in granting clemency. Justice Antonin Scalia, who speaks often about the importance of fidelity to statutory text, liked that point. He was less receptive when Justice Stephen G. Breyer observed that Representative John Conyers Jr., Democrat of Michigan, had said he understood the law to apply to state clemency proceedings. “I thought this was a federal law,” said Justice Scalia, who is hostile to judicial consideration of legislators’ statements in determining what laws mean. “Is this a Conyers law?” Justice Breyer responded, “He happens to be the person who wrote it.” Justice Scalia continued to interrogate Justice Breyer as Mr. Jay, representing the government, looked on. “Did his colleagues know what he said?” Justice Scalia asked. “Yes, they did,” Justice Breyer responded. Chief Justice Roberts stepped in. “Counsel, you lead,” he said to Mr. Jay. “We direct our questions to counsel.” Mr. Jay argued that interpreting the law to include state clemency proceedings would open a floodgate and that lawyers paid by the federal government would end up handling other later state proceedings like stay applications and retrials. Ms. Hansen Chavis rejected that interpretation, a strategic litigation choice that struck some justices as inconsistent, if not backward. “It seems to me that it would be more likely that Congress wanted this counsel to continue on in state proceedings” like trials, Chief Justice Roberts said. “The clemency thing seems a little bit more removed. It’s a different argument: you know, ‘We’re guilty, but show us mercy.’ ” The better argument, Chief Justice Roberts said, would have been the more aggressive one. “It doesn’t seem to doom your position at all,” he told Ms. Hansen Chavis. But Ms. Hansen Chavis mostly clung to her position, although in the end she acknowledged that there were other possible interpretations. She insisted, in any event, that the statute addressed at least state clemency proceedings. “It makes sense that Congress would provide for continuous representation for a capital defendant in that it fills a need, a gap in representation,” she said. “It’s efficient, and it also helps to improve the reliability of the death penalty as it’s administered in this country.” In a brief, Mr. Harbison’s lawyers said the preparation of a comprehensive and persuasive clemency petition was “daunting work” that required the attention of sophisticated and well-informed lawyers. They suggested that a petition in Mr. Harbison’s case would be based on his intellectual and emotional shortcomings and what they said was a wretched childhood filled with poverty and abuse.

Capital Punishment
Federal District Courts
Supreme Court


Tilt the iPod Dock, Not Your Head, for Widescreen Video

Abstract: Most iPod docks are fine for audio, but video? They’re not really built for that. Their insistence that an iPod remain upright, not on its side, means that you’re limited to narrow-screen viewing on iPhones and iPod Touch models. The i-Station25 from Logic3 does double duty by working in either of two positions: upright for space-saving audio use, and on its side for more expansive widescreen viewing. The dock comes with four speaker drivers that deliver eight watts of audio and also help cut down on noise distortion. There’s an AC adapter, but the i-Station can also be powered using 4 AA batteries. It comes with a 3.5-millimeter line-in jack that handles MP3 and (think back) CD players. The i-Station is available now online at www.l ogic3.com for $100 and shipping. Just think of it as a standard audio dock with a little video on the side. AZADEH ENSHA

iPod
Loudspeakers
Recordings and Downloads (Video)
Recordings and Downloads (Audio)


Hamilton Surrenders Cycling Gold Medal

Abstract: The American cyclist Tyler Hamilton, the 2004 Olympic gold medalist in the time trial, has voluntarily surrendered his gold medal to the United States Anti-Doping Agency after admitting to doping during his cycling career, the International Olympic Committee said Friday. “The I.O.C. has been in touch with Usada, which indicated that the athlete has already rendered his gold medal — Athens 2004 time-trial race — and that they are currently pursuing an inquiry,” Emmanuelle Moreau, a spokeswoman for the I.O.C., wrote in an e-mail. “The I.O.C. has taken note of Hamilton’s confession and will, of course, study any potential Games-related implications.” Usada confirmed in a statement Friday that Hamilton had returned the medal and said, “We will continue to work with the I.O.C. and the U.S.O.C. as appropriate concerning the final implications of our overall investigation.” Hamilton, 40, was a teammate of Lance Armstrong ’s on the United States Postal Service team, and helped Armstrong win the Tours in 1999, 2000 and 2001. Armstrong won seven consecutive Tours from 1999 to 2005. On Thursday, in a report on the “ CBS Evening News,” Hamilton said he had seen Armstrong inject himself with the banned performance-enhancing drug EPO to win those Tours. A full interview with Hamilton will be broadcast Sunday on “60 Minutes” on CBS. “I saw him inject it more than one time,” Hamilton said. “Yeah, like we all did. Like I did many, many times.” Hamilton, who has been sanctioned twice for doping, is the latest teammate to say he witnessed Armstrong’s use of performance-enhancing drugs. One year ago, Floyd Landis — who was stripped of the 2006 Tour de France title for doping — shook the world of cycling by saying he and Armstrong were part of a systematic doping scheme while racing for the Postal Service team. Armstrong, who retired from competitive cycling this year, is the focus of a federal investigation into doping in cycling. The inquiry aims to prove that Armstrong and his associates committed fraud against the government, among other crimes. No indictment has been announced, but people with knowledge of the investigation, who are not authorized to speak publicly about it, say Armstrong may be facing charges of fraud, money laundering, corruption, drug trafficking and wire fraud. A federal grand jury in Los Angeles has been investigating the matter since last summer. After Hamilton’s admission became public on Thursday, Armstrong posted on Twitter an early and perhaps presumptive congratulatory note to his former teammate Viatcheslav Ekimov for being elevated to gold medalist from silver medalist in the 2004 Olympic time trial. “Congratulations to @ eki_ekimov on his 3rd Olympic Gold Medal!!” Armstrong wrote. The Russian Olympic Committee appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in 2006, asking the court to strip Hamilton of his medal and award it to Ekimov, but its request was denied. In this case, the silver medal would go to the American Bobby Julich and the bronze to the Australian Michael Rogers, the world champion from 2003 to 2005. An initial blood sample submitted by Hamilton to the I.O.C. after the Olympic time trial tested positive for a banned blood transfusion, but the I.O.C. lab mishandled the backup sample and could not verify the initial positive test. A month later, though, Hamilton tested positive for a blood transfusion during the Vuelta a España. Although he vehemently denied ever doping, he was subsequently banned from the sport for two years. Hamilton, now a cycling coach in Colorado , is serving an eight-year ban from the sport after testing positive for the banned substance DHEA, which he said he ingested because it was in a herbal supplement he was taking to battle depression. Mark Fabiani, Armstrong’s spokesman, said in a statement Thursday that Hamilton’s accusations were not to be believed because Hamilton was not credible. Fabiani said the Web site Facts4Lance.com would have “clear proof that the on-camera ‘60 Minutes’ interviewees are just not credible.” He also said in a statement that Hamilton should not be believed because he “is actively seeking to make money by writing a book, and now he has completely changed the story he has always told before so that he could get himself on ‘60 Minutes’ and increase his chances with publishers.”

Tyler Hamilton
Doping
Biking
Lance Armstrong
United States Anti Doping Agency


Jim Riggleman, Ex-Manager of Nationals, Seeks Return to Majors

Abstract: WASHINGTON — Gio Gonzalez led the Nationals — the team and the league — with 21 victories this season. The first-time closer Tyler Clippard saved 32 games, first baseman Adam LaRoche slammed 33 home runs and drove in 100 runs, and Stephen Strasburg won 15 games before being shelved for the year. Then there are Ryan Zimmerman, the rookie phenom Bryce Harper, Ian Desmond, Jayson Werth, Jordan Zimmermann, Michael Morse — an embarrassment of riches who propelled the Nationals to the majors’ best record in 2012 and have made them World Series contenders heading into Sunday’s division-series opener against the St. Louis Cardinals. And Jim Riggleman could have been overseeing it all. That he is not stems from Riggleman’s abrupt resignation as manager in June 2011 after he had guided the Nationals past the .500 mark with their 11th win in 12 games. This season, the Nationals put Washington in the postseason for the first time since 1933, when the Senators — who in 1961 became the Minnesota Twins — played here. While the Nationals prospered, Riggleman occupied himself managing the Pensacola Blue Wahoos , the Cincinnati Reds’ Class AA club in Florida. It kept him busy, but after two decades of managing and coaching for seven major league teams, he wants to return to that level, regardless of the fact that he walked away. That may not be an easy task. Riggleman’s departure from Washington was a stunning and widely criticized move, coming as it did at midseason. It also came as the Nationals, who had moved here from Montreal in 2005, had finally achieved respectability and were poised to take a big leap forward. In Riggleman’s 12 seasons as a major league manager, he reached the playoffs just once, with the Chicago Cubs in 1998. Had he stayed put in the Nationals’ dugout, Riggleman could have been the toast of the capital. He grew up in Washington’s suburbs, and the first major league game he attended, at Griffith Stadium in 1961, matched an expansion Senators team against the Twins, who had abandoned the city the previous year. But the 59-year-old Riggleman, who quit after General Manager Mike Rizzo refused to discuss a contract extension beyond 2011, maintains that a year later he is “at peace” with his life. “I really enjoyed Pensacola — it was really a unique experience there,” Riggleman said in a recent telephone conversation from his home near Tampa, Fla. “I did find it gratifying.” He added: “Player development has always kind of been in my system. Working in the minor leagues is something to be excited about, proud about.” Some of Riggleman’s friends said they hoped he would land another job in the major leagues. They cited his knowledge of the game and amiable nature as selling points, while acknowledging that they did not really know why he walked away from a blossoming team. “We communicated when he left this job — the next day,” said the Cubs radio broadcaster Pat Hughes, a longtime friend from their Chicago years. “I just said: ‘Jim, I’m sorry it didn’t work out. I hope you get something else.’ ” Riggleman recalled his tenure in Washington as “a great experience,” doled out praise to players still on the Nationals and said that Rizzo and Davey Johnson, who replaced him as manager, had done an outstanding job. “I think we saw that the team was moving in that direction,” he said. “I don’t think anybody could have foreseen what they accomplished this year.” Still, Riggleman did not want to discuss the details of his departure for fear that his comments could be misconstrued as lingering bitterness. Rizzo would not talk about Riggleman at all. When a reporter raised the subject before an early-September game at Nationals Park, he turned away. Burton Rocks, Riggleman’s Manhattan-based agent, was less reluctant. “I was vociferously opposed to his resigning,” he said. “You stand by your client — what can I say? When he resigned, I was against it, but I accepted it because he was so emphatic about it. The reasons were kept in Jim’s heart and were not disclosed by him, even to this day. He said, ‘I love you, Burt, but this is personal.’ ” The decision shocked Riggleman’s players, who learned of it after a victory as they showered and dressed to go on the road. Even today, some players steer clear of the subject. Asked about Riggleman and Johnson, Werth said, “I’ll talk about Davey — that’s about it.” Across the locker room, however, second baseman Danny Espinosa expressed gratitude toward Riggleman. He “treated me well,” Espinosa said. “He gave me an opportunity to play in the big leagues, so I always appreciated everything he did for me.” When he took the job with the Blue Wahoos, Riggleman said, he was not sure if the atmosphere could match that of the major leagues. “But when that umpire said play ball, I found the same churning in my stomach,” he said. And managing the electrifying Billy Hamilton did not hurt, Riggleman noted, given Hamilton’s record-setting 155 steals, 51 of them coming in 50 games after he was promoted to Pensacola. “It was extraordinary to watch it,” Riggleman said. Still, he added, “I definitely want to manage again in the major leagues.” He went on: “I’m in the minor leagues. I’m like most other minor league people who are working: I want to get back to the big leagues.” When some of his Blue Wahoos were promoted to Class AAA Indianapolis, they sent Riggleman and others in the organization text messages of thanks. Every rung up is to be savored, even for a lifer like Riggleman. He will be returning to the Washington area in the coming days to visit his mother and brother just as the Nationals are beginning their postseason run. But Riggleman will not be attending any games, for understandable reasons. For now, the major leagues will remain just a little bit out of reach.

Riggleman Jim
Coaches and Managers
Washington Nationals
Baseball


Republicans Shelve Medicare Overhaul Plan

Abstract: WASHINGTON — House Republicans signaled Thursday that they were backing away from the centerpiece of their budget plan — a proposal to overhaul Medicare — in a decision that underscored both the difficulties and political perils of addressing the nation’s long-term fiscal problems. While top Republicans insisted that they remained committed to the Medicare initiative, which had become the target of intense attacks by Democrats and liberal groups in recent weeks, the lawmaker who would have to turn the proposal into legislation said he had no plans to do so any time soon. The lawmaker, Representative Dave Camp, Republican of Michigan and chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, said that while he still supports the party’s Medicare approach, opposition from Democrats made it pointless to proceed. “I’m not interested in talking about whether the House is going to pass a bill that the Senate shows no interest in,” Mr. Camp said in an appearance at the National Press Club. “I’m not interested in laying down more markers. I am interested in solutions.” Coupled with remarks by other House Republican leaders, his statement suggested that the party’s Medicare proposal had been shelved, even though the party’s lawmakers had taken a risky vote to pass the budget in the House just last month, and in the past two weeks had attempted to sell it to constituents in often-stormy town hall meetings. Republicans suggested that they would continue to press to rein in the growing costs of Medicare, even if not through the current proposal, which would transform the program into one in which the federal government subsidized the purchase of private health insurance coverage by Americans 65 and older. Putting aside the proposal would remove one of the biggest points of contention between the parties as they address both the nation’s long-term budget problems and the more immediate need for an agreement on raising the federal debt limit . The development came as Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. held a first negotiating session with members of both parties to try to find a deal that would allow Congress to raise the debt ceiling this year. Republicans are demanding spending cuts and other measures to reduce the budget deficit as the price of support for raising the debt ceiling. The Republican Medicare plan was never likely to be adopted as part of any deal on the debt limit. But the decision by Republicans to pull back the proposal was a tacit acknowledgment that the politics of entitlement reform remain so volatile that pressing ahead in the face of intense Democratic opposition could cost the party dearly at the polls. As they rolled out their budget last month, Republicans hailed the Medicare plan as a bold attempt to address chronic deficits. All but four House Republicans voted for the budget proposal, which was developed by Representative Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin , chairman of the House Budget Committee. President Obama and Congressional Democrats quickly went on the attack, condemning the Republican plan. Mr. Camp’s statement on Medicare was in sync with similar comments by other top Republicans, including Representatives Eric Cantor of Virginia , the majority leader, and Mr. Ryan. They said Republicans recognized that they were unlikely to win approval of their sweeping Medicare overhaul in the debt-reduction talks that began at Blair House on Thursday. “The reality is this president has excoriated our budget plan and the Medicare proposal in the plan,” Mr. Cantor told reporters. The negotiators, who agreed to meet next on Tuesday, are combing their respective budget proposals to find common ground. But given the parties’ differences and the short time frame for negotiations before Congress must increase the debt limit, both sides have indicated that any compromise is likely to be based less on specific policy changes than on proposals setting deficit-reduction targets for coming years. Those targets would be combined with triggers to make automatic cuts in spending — and tax increases, in Democrats’ view — if the targets are exceeded. While Mr. Cantor outlined the House-passed Ryan budget as Republicans’ opening bid in the Blair House negotiations, he said little about the Medicare proposals, participants said. “He didn’t need to talk about it in that room,” said one participant. “Everyone knows it’s dead.” Still, the leadership comments surprised many Republican lawmakers, who said they had expected to move forward on the plan. Some members — especially freshmen from districts with steep re-election hills to scale — were upset to hear that the plan could be scotched after they had voted for the budget proposal and then invested so much hard work trying to sell it back home over the spring recess. “I would be very disappointed if we didn’t follow through,” said Representative Joe Walsh, whose district lies in the Chicago suburbs. “We have spent, gosh, a month or two now trying to educate the American people to a pretty good reception. I appreciate the chairman’s notion, but I would continue to respectfully challenge him to get this thing through committee.” Representative Bobby Schilling of Illinois said backing down now would be giving in “to lies and deceit told by the other side.” “We’ve just got to address this problem,” he said. “Is it going to be perfect? No, but it needs to be addressed.” The House speaker, John A. Boehner , said Thursday that the party was not backing away from the Medicare overhaul. But he said Mr. Camp’s view was a recognition of the “political realities that we face.” Democrats said it did not matter if Republicans decided to jettison their Medicare plan because they had already voted for it as part of the budget. “The Republicans are slowly realizing their plan to privatize Medicare is a political disaster,” said Senator Charles E. Schumer of New York, the No. 3 Democrat. “But until they renounce their vote for it, they are still going to own it.” Mr. Ryan said he believed the future of the Medicare proposal would be decided in next year’s elections. “At the end of the day, I think 2012 is going to make the decision,” Mr. Ryan said at a budget forum Thursday, predicting voters would back the plan he said protects Medicare from insolvency. “The people are ahead of the political class.”

Medicare
House of Representatives
Republicans
Reform
Federal Budget
Legislation


Alex Rodriguez Raises More Concerns for Yankees

Abstract: Nearly four years after Alex Rodriguez admitted that he used steroids for a portion of his professional career, he continues to be a source of curiosity and concern for Major League Baseball and the Yankees. Rodriguez turns 38 in July, appears increasingly brittle and no longer seems assured of surpassing Barry Bonds as baseball’s career home run leader. He is also just halfway through a 10-year, $275 million contract that has become a burden for the Yankees. Major League Baseball officials remain uneasy about his past links, however indirect, to performance-enhancing drugs, unsure if they know all the facts. And the Yankees appear to share some of those sentiments. That uneasiness came into play in December, when the Yankees learned that Rodriguez needed to have surgery on his left hip less than four years after he had a similar procedure on the right one. At that point, the Yankees made clear to Rodriguez that they did not want him to go back to the doctor he used the first time, according to several people in baseball briefed on the matter. That doctor, Marc Philippon, has had links to Anthony Galea, the Canada-based physician who secretly treated Rodriguez as he recovered from his 2009 operation. Galea pleaded guilty two years later to federal charges stemming from his distribution of human growth hormone to professional athletes. Although Rodriguez insisted in an interview with investigators for Major League Baseball that he never received banned substances from Galea, those investigators have not been satisfied that they know the whole story. On more than one occasion, they have been rebuffed when they asked federal authorities to share evidence related to Galea’s treatment of Rodriguez. But while that issue appears to be at a standstill, baseball’s investigators are now examining what links Rodriguez and several other players may have with a Miami-area man named Anthony Bosch, who has previously come to the attention of baseball and federal authorities. According to several people in baseball, the investigators are again looking at Bosch and his father, Pedro, a physician, who came under the scrutiny of baseball and the Drug Enforcement Administration in 2009. At the time, baseball’s investigators suspected that Manny Ramirez, who had been suspended for 50 games for violating baseball’s drug-testing program, had received a banned substance from Pedro Bosch. Image Baseball officials are investigating a trainer linked to Alex Rodriguez. Credit Sean Proctor for The New York Times The new interest in the Bosches was first reported Saturday by The Daily News, which said that Anthony Bosch had advised Rodriguez on his nutrition and physical training and had helped him get input on blood test results. It is unclear just how seriously federal authorities are scrutinizing either of the Bosches or whether any action can eventually be taken by Major League Baseball, which has struggled for several years to punish players who have been linked to performance-enhancing drugs but have not tested positive for a banned substance. The latest revelations come as Rodriguez continues to recuperate from the operation he had in New York on Jan. 16 to repair a torn labrum and impingement in his left hip. Dr. Bryan Kelly, an orthopedist at the Hospital for Special Surgery, performed the procedure. How long it will take Rodriguez to return to the Yankees’ lineup is unclear, although the best estimate is that it will be sometime after the All-Star break in July. In March 2009, Rodriguez had hip surgery to repair a torn labrum in Philippon’s offices in Vail, Colo., and he returned to action two months later. In that instance, Philippon recommended that the Yankees use a Toronto-based specialist named Mark Lindsay, who had worked with Galea, to oversee Rodriguez’s rehabilitation. But Rodriguez was quietly seen by Galea, too. Initially, Rodriguez maintained to the Yankees that he had not been treated by Galea. However, that assertion was later contradicted by Galea, who said in 2010 that he had treated Rodriguez but said he never gave him performance-enhancing drugs. “He had a damaged hip,” Galea said at the time. “He needed anti-inflammatories.” Philippon claimed that he did not know that Galea had treated Rodriguez and questioned Galea’s assertions that Rodriguez had an inflamed hip. “If that’s the case, I would be surprised because Alex never told me that his hip hurt,” Philippon had said. Shortly thereafter, Rodriguez was interviewed by baseball’s investigators about his relationship with Galea and made his denials that Galea had treated him with performance-enhancing drugs. This time, Philippon and Galea are not involved in Rodriguez’s care. But an overall uncertainty about Rodriguez remains, for baseball and the Yankees. What they know is this: that Rodriguez admitted in March 2009 that he had used performance-enhancing substances from 2001 to 2003, while he was a member of the Texas Rangers; that he has not played in more than 140 games since 2007; that he has hit fewer than 20 home runs and driven in fewer than 70 runs in each of the last two seasons; and that with 647 home runs, he still needs 116 more to surpass Bonds. And that questions about Rodriguez never seem to go away.

Alex Rodriguez
Yankees
Anthony Galea
Baseball
HGH
Steroid
MLB
Doping
Anthony Bosch


Stanley Cup Finals — Jonathan Quick Leads Kings in Game 1

Abstract: NEWARK — It happens every nine years, or close to it. A team from Southern California opposes the Devils in the Stanley Cup finals, and it heads east with a goalie that lets in pucks with the approximate frequency of a lunar eclipse. The 2012 version of Jean-Sebastien Giguere is Jonathan Quick, who, wearing a black hoodie pulled tight over his head, looked as menacing on media day Tuesday as he did guarding the Los Angeles Kings ’ net on Wednesday night. Quick escorted the eighth-seeded Kings through the first three rounds of the playoffs, as well as Game 1 of the finals at Prudential Center, a 2-1 win secured when Anze Kopitar scored on a minibreakaway 8 minutes 13 seconds into overtime. Having conquered one Vezina Trophy candidate in the last round, Henrik Lundqvist, the Devils moved on to Quick, who survived an early lull to make 17 saves. His finest work came in the third period, when he denied Zach Parise early and David Clarkson late. The lone goal Quick allowed, at 18:48 of the second period, caromed off the chest of one of his teammates. “He’s been our best player all year, right?” said Colin Fraser, who scored the Kings’ first goal. “I mean, if it wasn’t for him when we were struggling through the mid-part of the season, we might not even be here today.” No, probably not. In these playoffs, scoring against Quick has often required a healthy dose of pluck, or at least luck. Through Quick’s first 14 games, his statistics bore a slight resemblance to those of Giguere, who with Anaheim in 2003 became the rare member of a losing team to win the Conn Smythe Award, given to the most valuable player of the playoffs. Heading into Wednesday night, Quick was 12-2 with a 1.54 goals against average and a .946 save percentage. By the same point in 2003, Giguere was 12-2 with a 1.43 G.A.A. and a .960 save percentage. Ultimately, the Devils needed seven games to topple Giguere. If they are to overcome Quick and the Kings, they might need as long this year. In improving to 9-0 on the road this postseason, the Kings have now won games in four time zones, and they added Eastern Daylight to their trophy case Wednesday night by relying on the elements that have propelled this jolly rampage: a ferocious forecheck, outstanding passing and, of course, Quick. “I’m not looking to match him step for step, I’m not trying to score on him, he’s not trying to score on me,” Quick said of Martin Brodeur, who made 23 saves. “I’m just trying to make saves and help my team win a game.” Save for his nifty stop on Travis Zajac midway through the first, Quick’s first 35 minutes were so uneventful that he might have been able to sneak away for a hot dog. It took until the 14:30 mark for the Devils’ first shot of the second, which was not so much a shot but a puck that slid off Parise’s stick inside the right circle and happened to roll toward the net until it found Quick’s glove. “I was just going shift by shift and if the team needed me, I just wanted to try to make the save,” Quick said. The Devils proceeded to test Quick’s reflexes and puck-handling, not to mention his patience. A turnover deep in the Kings’ zone forced him to make a sharp save on Dainius Zubrus, who later fanned on a centering pass, with the net gaping, after Quick misplayed the puck. The Devils finally solved Quick on their eighth shot of the game, after nearly 39 minutes, when Anton Volchenkov’s wrister from the side boards caromed off his pads, then into Slava Voynov, and then into the net. It was a fluke goal, and the Devils could not summon another one. Quick would not let them.

Quick Jonathan
Los Angeles Kings
Playoff Games
Stanley Cup
Hockey Ice
New Jersey Devils