Golfers Test Limits of Good Sense in Golf Carts

Abstract: The golf cart has always been treated like a plaything. Admit it, when you were 9 years old and your mom or dad asked you if you wanted to play golf, your first thought was, “I might get to drive the golf cart.” They do look like fun. But it is amazing, and a little scary, all the crazy things people do with golf carts. The carts seem to bring out the devil in everyone — with some not-so-heavenly results. I’ve been tracking episodes and accidents involving golf carts for the past six months. Why? I don’t know, maybe because my father never let me drive his cart. But here are just a few of my findings: ¶People dump carts in golf course ponds with stupendous regularity, and they submerge them deep enough that the police and heavy-duty tow trucks have to be summoned. One golfer outside San Jose , Calif., nearly drowned when he tried to swim to shore with his golf bag around his neck. I bet there was a new driver in that bag. Or, a dozen Pro V1s. ¶Runaway carts are a problem, often caused by the driver not activating the parking brake. But the runaway leader in golf-cart injuries is fractures that happen when the driver or the passenger leaves a leg hanging out the side of the cart. Many modern golf courses have landscaping features near greens and tees, like railroad ties and rock walls. A toe or spike typically catches a railroad tie while the cart is speeding past at 20 miles an hour and, one quick twist of a limb later, someone has a broken ankle. ¶Rolling a golf cart is not uncommon, and neither is falling out when the driver makes a sharp turn. Driving directly into low-hanging limbs is another of golf’s hazards that you won’t find in the rulebook. Some safety experts have theorized that players are so upset by the frustrations of their golf games that they are distracted when driving a cart — sort of like someone driving a car while having an argument on a cellphone. You’ve seen those people with beet-red faces. You’ve seen them on the golf course, too, haven’t you? ¶The golf cart itself seems to have some dangerous contraptions. Erik Johnson, the first pick of the 2006 N.H.L. draft who was considered pivotal to the St. Louis Blues heading into this season, tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee last September when he got his foot stuck between the accelerator and the brake of a golf cart during the team’s annual golf outing. Johnson had surgery and has missed the 2008-9 season. ¶An awful lot of golf carts are stolen from courses, which frequently leads to low-speed chases as police cruisers pursue quick-maneuvering golf carts over hill and dale. One golf cart in Australia was even used as a getaway car in a bank robbery. A Hobe Sound, Fla., man was arrested for stealing a golf cart and leaving it on a railroad track, where it was hit by a train. He was charged with, among other things, interfering with a train. A man in Hot Springs , Ark., used his golf cart to crash through a storefront window to steal several cases of beer. This also led to a low-speed chase, with the suspect throwing beer bottles at the pursuing police out the back of the cart. Tragically, there are also some very serious injuries, even fatalities, that occur from the reckless operation of golf carts. The Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus , Ohio , reported last year that nearly 148,000 golf cart-related injuries occurred between 1990 and 2006. The number of cart-related injuries rose to nearly 13,500 in 2006, from about 5,700 in 1990. These figures, however, include cart-related injuries that happened away from the golf course because the vehicles are increasingly being used in hospitals , industrial settings, airports, college campuses and on the roads and byways of small, private communities. Still, 70 percent of the injuries took place at recreational and sports facilities, including golf courses. “A lot of people are getting hurt because they do things in a golf cart they wouldn’t think of doing in an automobile,” said Dr. Lara McKenzie, one of the authors of the study. Like what? Like jumping out of it while it’s rolling to a stop. Or driving with one hand on the wheel while the other hand holds a beer can. Or letting a 9-year-old drive. “People on the golf course are having fun, and that’s good,” McKenzie said. “But the golf cart is a motorized vehicle that can go fairly fast. And children fall out of them because they are built differently than adults, and without a seat belt, they don’t have the balance or the strength to handle some bumps or turns.” She had some additional safety recommendations: keep your feet flat on the cart floor, avoid sudden turns, use the hand grip above your head for stability and don’t make any postfactory changes to the cart, like disabling the speed governor. I would add: stay out of ponds, drive away from trees and storefront windows, and avoid railroad ties and railroad tracks. If you are a well-paid professional athlete, hire a caddie. If you’re 9, I’ll bet if you play golf with your mom or dad, he or she will buy you all the soda, candy, hot dogs or nachos you want. And, hey, did you know you can rake all the sand traps you want for free? Want to drive? There’s always the go-cart track down at the amusement park.


Jets’ Win in ’68 A.F.L. Title Game Was Not Shown Live in New York

Abstract: In the dark days of silly, anti-fan blackouts, Jets fans had to travel at least 75 miles outside the New York City market to watch their team beat the Oakland Raiders in the 1968 American Football League championship game. If the same restrictions were still in effect, fans in the Indianapolis market would not be able to watch their Colts play the Jets in the American Football Conference championship game on CBS on Sunday at 3 p.m. Eastern. The blackout rule enforced for years before and after 1968 by the A.F.L. and the N.F.L. prohibited viewers from watching their teams play at home for fear that giving away the games on television would hurt attendance. It did not matter whether the game had sold out. On that late December day, Jets fans could not tune in Channel 4 at 1 p.m. to see the game at Shea Stadium; the station was carrying a movie, “The Prince and the Pauper.” So fans escaped to bars, friends’ homes and motels in Schenectady, N.Y., Hartford and Philadelphia to watch the Jets’ 27-23 victory. Or they waited until 11:30 p.m. for the tape-delayed NBC broadcast on Channel 4. Elliot Baron was 19, but strep throat prevented him from going to the game with his father. “My mother wouldn’t let me go,” he said. “It was very cold that day, and Shea was very windy.” He recalled that he did not listen to the game on the radio or watch other media coverage, and he asked his father not to tell him what had happened when he returned from the stadium. He wanted to see it, as if it were live, on TV. “We were at the first game at Shea,” he said, “so it was so exciting to watch, especially when Ralph Baker picked up the lateral.” In the fourth quarter, a lateral (intended as a swing pass) from Oakland quarterback Daryle Lamonica rolled off Charlie Smith’s hands, and Baker, a Jets linebacker, recovered the fumble. Paul Farash knew even at age 10 that if you did not go to a Jets home game, you could not see it on TV. He and his father attended the A.F.L. championship game, seated in Section 17 in the upper deck. When they returned to South Jamaica, Queens, local TV news reported that the taped broadcast would be on at 11:30. “I couldn’t wait to watch a game from Shea,” Farash said. “You never saw one before.” So he took a nap at 8:30 and was awakened in time to watch the game again. “I have indelible memories of plays from certain camera angles,” Farash said. He went to sleep satisfied, sometime after 2 a.m. The Jets then beat the Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III in Miami; the NFL Network is replaying NBC’s coverage of that game at 8:30 Saturday night. But a copy of the Jets- Raiders title game — shown before networks routinely preserved tapes and well before home VCRs were common — has not been found by the league or NBC. “We filmed it,” said Steve Sabol, the president of NFL Films. The film was used recently in an episode about the 1968 Jets in the NFL Network’s “America’s Game” series. The league’s blackout rule was challenged unsuccessfully in various lawsuits. The N.F.L. vigorously defended the blackout; Commissioner Pete Rozelle regarded it as a bedrock of the league economy. Although the A.F.L. was more progressive in many ways than the older league that it merged with, it also believed in the blackout. Michael MacCambridge, the author of the book “America’s Game,” a history of the N.F.L., said in an e-mail message that “A.F.L. owners had survived the early ’60s when crowds were relatively small, and they understandably viewed the home gate as their lifeblood, even when the TV money was growing.” The blackout policy was on the enemies list of one prominent fan: President Richard M. Nixon. His opposition led one of his former speechwriters, William Safire, to criticize him in his column in The New York Times. “Even the president, who does not ordinarily favor government intrusion and economic controls,” Safire wrote, “has let his fervor as a fan outweigh his somewhat battered economic conservatism.” Congress overwhelmingly passed anti-blackout legislation in September 1973, forcing the league to alter the policy to the version that still exists: the home market is blacked out if the game is not sold out 72 hours before kickoff. The legislation expired in 1975, but the league has complied with it voluntarily ever since. This season, amid fears that there could be as many as 50 blackouts because of slow ticket sales in some markets, there were 22, including seven apiece in Jacksonville, Fla., and Oakland, Calif., and four in Detroit.

Television
National Football League
New York Jets
Football
Rozelle Pete
Oakland Raiders
Baltimore Colts


Deadly Clashes Erupt in Egypt Ahead of Vote

Abstract: CAIRO — As least 11 people were killed after assailants attacked protesters staging a sit-in near Egypt ’s Ministry of Defense early on Wednesday, setting off hours of clashes that threw the coming presidential election into disarray as at least five candidates announced the suspension of their campaigns to protest the deaths. The victims, killed by gunfire, clubs or knives, included a third-year medical student from Luxor and several young men from the Cairo neighborhood Abbaseya, where the fighting occurred, doctors said. It went for hours with no intervention from the authorities — suggesting to some at least a degree of government complicity — as opposing sides fought a pitched battle hurling stones and incendiary devices, turning a residential neighborhood into a war zone marked by scattered fires. At around 1 p.m., the security services suddenly arrived and the fighting stopped. The confusing, lethal episode has widened a rift between Egypt’s military rulers and protesters who are pushing for a speedy transition to a civilian government, with the protesters convinced that their assailants were in the employ — or at least doing the bidding — of the military. And the event cast a shadow over Egypt’s coming presidential election, shortening an already brief campaign season as it sharpened the differences between candidates. One of the presidential front-runners, Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh, a former Muslim Brotherhood leader who has attracted leftists and liberals with his candidacy, suspended his campaign indefinitely, writing on Twitter, “We can’t discuss tomorrow while our youth are drowning in their blood today.” One of his main rivals, Amr Moussa, a former Egyptian minister, announced that he was not suspending his campaign but that he was stopping television advertising temporarily and had “canceled many events.” In a statement, Mr. Moussa criticized the security services for standing “idly by.” The two men were scheduled to appear in a much-anticipated debate on Thursday night, but that too was delayed because of the violence. Yosri Fouda, a journalist who was to moderate the debate, announced on his Twitter account that it would be postponed until next week. Four other candidates also suspended their campaigns, including Mohamed Morsi, the Muslim Brotherhood’s candidate; Khalid Ali, a human rights lawyer; and Hamdeen Sabbahi, an activist and founder of a Nasserist party. In a morning briefing for foreign reporters, Mr. Morsi warned the ruling military council against using the violence as an excuse to delay the elections, reflecting a widespread fear that the council is looking for a pretense to retain power. But his comments also reflected an intensifying power struggle between the Muslim Brotherhood and the military as the presidential vote approaches. “We hold the military council responsible first, because it’s the one running the country,” Mr. Morsi said. “It’s the one with the authority in its hand. We will not allow for the presidential elections to be postponed at all.” In statements released through official outlets, the military did not exactly assuage the fears. A member of Parliament, Mustapha Bakri, quoted the army chief of staff, Sami Anan, as telling Mr. Bakri that the military was “considering” handing over power on May 24, if the first round of voting yielded an outright winner. In the statements, the ruling council also promised not to harm protesters as it deployed its troops. The statement did not address why the security services took hours — perhaps as many as 12 — before responding to the violence. The clashes followed days of a simmering standoff near the Ministry of Defense, in what began as a sit-in by supporters of a disqualified presidential candidate, Hazem Salah Abu Ismail, an ultraconservative Islamist known as a Salafi. That sit-in grew into a broader protest against the ruling military council which was joined by revolutionary youth groups. At least one person was killed during the sporadic clashes over the last few days. No one could say for sure who the assailants were. Many protesters were adamant that their attackers were affiliated with some branch of the security services, though they had little hard evidence. “The thugs were shooting tear gas at us,” said Sherif Mohammed, 26, a member of the April 6 youth movement. “It’s not reasonable that civilians would have tear gas guns.” Several people said the clashes on Wednesday began at about 1 a.m. “We found thugs attacking us suddenly and throwing rocks,” said Mohammed Rifiqi, 21, another April 6 member. He said security officers who had been standing watch at a nearby mosque disappeared. The assailants fired tear gas and live ammunition, according to Mr. Rifiqi. By 11 a.m., a residential intersection had become the front line of a fierce battle, with the protesters throwing rocks gathered by volunteers and hurling incendiary devices with slingshots. Periodically, there was a stampede, as bursts of birdshot came from the other side. Doctors gave death tolls ranging from 11 to 13. Dr. Saleh Mohamed, who worked at a field hospital near the clashes, said he treated five patients who died of gunshot wounds to the head. Several doctors spoke of at least one man whose throat was cut. Of the nearly 200 injuries reported by officials, several people were blinded by birdshot, Dr. Mohammed said. As the protesters started pushing their attackers back, they captured a man. “He’s a thug, from over there,” one protester said. A few people tried to take the man away, if only to stop him from being beaten by the crowd, as people hit him, with sticks, empty fruit boxes and plastic helmets and blood poured from his head. Hours after the fighting stopped, hundreds of people marched to the scene of the clashes, chanting slogans against military rule. They included Ahmed Obyda, a 20-year-old student, who carried a sign with a line by the Egyptian poet, Abdul Rahman el-Abnoudy. “Kill me,” it said. “My killing will not bring back your state.”

Middle East and North Africa Unrest (2010- )


Review: Sceptre Speaker SoundBar SB301523

Abstract: The Sceptre Speaker SoundBar SB301523 is a smart idea at a reasonable price — a soundbar with Wi-Fi and the Android operating system built in, so you can get TV shows and video from the Internet without adding another box. While the idea is good, the execution is half-baked. The roughly 30-inch-long bar is an unusual design, in that it has no grille covering the two 2 ¾-inch and two 1 ½-inch speakers. It gives it a sleekly utilitarian look, but may make the working parts vulnerable to curious (and destructive) children. It is lightweight, at five pounds, which can make wall mounting easier. The sound is clear, loud and pleasant, but it lacks the room-shaking bass of soundbars that come with a separate subwoofer. Because the speakers are so close together, the sound is almost monaural. However, there are several sound settings to adjust quality. The bar uses software called SRS WOW to increase the fullness of the sound and enhance the stereo effect. It makes a noticeable difference, but it still won’t match higher-end multispeaker sound bars. And the price is right — it lists for $200, but I have found it online for $100. One hitch in the execution is the built-in Android interface, which moves at a glacial pace. Even worse is trying to navigate the web using the included standard remote. Because you have to enter a lot of text when looking for videos or using apps, you really need a keyboard. I tried it with a Favi SmartStick Keyboard Controller, which was a vast improvement, but would add $40 to the cost of the system. Another consideration facing potential buyers has nothing to with the soundbar itself, but the quality of available video that is free and easily available online. Outside of YouTube, I couldn’t easily find much worthwhile. If you have video subscriptions, like Netflix, there is an Android app that will let you get to your movie queue through the soundbar. It may not be for the viewer who craves simplicity, but the tech-savvy on a budget may find it worth a look. ROY FURCHGOTT

Audio Speakers
Computers and the Internet
Tech Industry


Where There's a Race, There's a Rivalry

Abstract: When Mark Webber retires from Formula One at the end of the year, he will not only deprive the series of one its more gentlemanly drivers. Webber’s departure will also put an end to the latest episode in a long tradition of feuding, dueling drivers at the pinnacle of world auto racing. While dozens of drivers have raced against each other in the series since it began in 1950, rivalries have increasingly become duels, often leading to off-track feuds, between the two leading drivers of a given era. Never have such feuds been stronger than when the drivers belong to the same team, as is Webber’s case with Sebastian Vettel at Red Bull. That was also the case for Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost at McLaren in the late 1980s and for Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton at McLaren in 2007. Since Vettel joined Red Bull in 2009, tensions between him and Webber have sometimes burst into public mudslinging, polarizing not just the teammates and sectors of their team, but also fans of both drivers and the media. The famous feud in the 1970s between the Austrian driver Niki Lauda and the British driver James Hunt, who died in 1993, is the subject of “Rush,” a film directed by Ron Howard that is set for worldwide release in the autumn. Lauda has said that acrimonious feelings between drivers are real and not simply dramatized by the media or Hollywood. Moreover, as the series prepares for the German Grand Prix at the Nürburgring this weekend — where Lauda was involved in a crash in 1976 on the old track that nearly killed him and left him badly burned — he said the nature of such rivalries hasn’t changed much. “The rivalry is the same,” Lauda said in an interview at the British Grand Prix last weekend. “The language is smoother because today it is not so demanding on fearless living in Formula One — it’s a different ball game, thank God, 30 years later. But the rivalry itself is: Some don’t like each other. It’s simple. But why should they? They race each other.” The battles between Senna and Prost are the most famous and acrimonious in the series’ history. The rivalry culminated at season-ending duels for the drivers’ title in 1989 and 1990. In both years, the drivers collided at the Japanese Grand Prix: In 1989, when both were racing at McLaren, Senna accused Prost of purposefully knocking him off the track to take the title; the next year, when Prost had moved to Ferrari, Senna said he knocked Prost off the track purposefully to win the title. The rivalry was portrayed in a prize-winning documentary film, “Senna,” directed by Asif Kapadia in 2010. It was also at the Japanese Grand Prix where the Webber vs. Vettel battle began, in rainy conditions in 2007. Vettel was driving for the Toro Rosso team, the junior team owned by Red Bull, for which Webber drove. During a safety car period, Webber had a good chance to win the race, sitting in second position, ahead of Vettel in third. But Vettel made a mistake and plowed into the back of Webber’s car, knocking both out of the race. On television afterward, Webber called Vettel a “kid with no experience.” In 2009, Red Bull hired Vettel to race alongside Webber. At the 2010 Turkish Grand Prix, Webber was leading the race and heading for victory when Vettel, in second, decided that he would pass him, and failed, running them both off the track. Vettel’s race ended there, but Webber managed to return to the track and finish third. At the end of that season, with Vettel third in the driver standings and Webber second, and with Alonso in the lead, Vettel won the final race and leapfrogged to the top of the series and won the first of his three titles. The Red Bull feud reached its hot point early this season when Vettel refused to obey team orders to freeze position while Webber was leading the Malaysian Grand Prix. Webber had lowered the revs on his engine at the team’s request, but Vettel then passed him in the final laps and took the victory, with Webber unable to defend against the move. The seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher was also involved in notable feuds, first with Damon Hill and then Jacques Villeneuve, both drivers for Williams from 1994 to 1997. In the last race of 1994, Schumacher swerved his damaged car in such a manner that Hill and he collided. Hill dropped out of the race and Schumacher won the title. In 1997, Schumacher tried to ram Villeneuve off the track to win the title. Schumacher dropped out but Villeneuve finished and scored enough points to take the title. Schumacher was disqualified from the series and lost his points for that year. He said that he had learned from the driving of Senna and Prost, and saw nothing wrong with winning at all costs. During the 2007 season, Alonso and Hamilton raced together at McLaren and the tensions between them burst at the Hungarian Grand Prix. Alonso accused the team of favoring Hamilton, and he held up Hamilton in the pit lane during qualifying to prevent him from turning a faster lap to take pole position. Hamilton had earlier disobeyed orders from the team to let Alonso pass. In the end, the race stewards docked Alonso five grid spots and he started sixth, while Hamilton started from pole. Alonso left the team after that one season and after he and Hamilton had finished the series equal in points, one point behind the title winner, Kimi Raikkonen of Ferrari. Such feuds feed the spectators’ taste for soap opera and establish the good guy/bad guy polarity of storytelling. The driver rivalries also have provided entertainment when the racing action itself has not. If things have not changed much since the 1970s, in the 1950s and 1960s relationships were more gentlemanly. It was not unusual for a driver to give his car to a teammate to help him win the title, as the rules allowed at the time. But in an interview in the early 1960s with Autosport magazine, Graham Hill, who won the title in 1962 and 1968, was asked if it was possible for competitors to be friends. “Yes, you can, but there are times when you do notice that you are competitors; when you are both in the public eye, for instance,” Hill said. “The point is that a competitive driver is a threat to what you’re working for. There is always that little something, but it certainly doesn’t stop any friendships. I don’t know of anyone who isn’t friendly with anybody else in motor racing.” That clearly has changed. Lauda, who also fought a grueling title battle within the same team with Prost in 1984 — Lauda won the crown by half a point — said that he still will not go out for a friendly drink with the Frenchman. “When I see Prost today, I respect him, I speak to him in a normal way,” he said. “I don’t hate him. But when you are fighting him, you don’t like him. But I would never go out to dinner with him — or I might because he represents Renault, so I might.” He added that he thought the Webber-Vettel relationship was similar. “They don’t like each other, they ignore each other in the morning, they hardly say hello and then they fight each other,” Lauda said. “This is normal.” With the gentlemanly Webber, the feud is more restrained in public. A week after the incident in Malaysia, Webber gracefully refused to make a further negative comment on the affair just as Vettel was saying that he would do the same thing again if given the chance and that Webber did not deserve that victory anyway.

Formula One
Car Racing
Red Bull
Ron Howard
Michael Schumacher
McLaren Racing


In Arizona’s Latest Twist, Voters Follow G.O.P. Governor and Approve Tax Increase

Abstract: PHOENIX — It is not every day that a Republican candidate for governor promotes and celebrates a tax increase here in the state many believe helped give rise to the modern conservative movement. But there was Gov. Jan Brewer , who is seeking a full term in a crowded, competitive primary, beaming to supporters from a middle school stage Tuesday night. Off to her left, large screens displayed the news that fueled her smile: Arizona voters overwhelmingly supported a one-cent rise in the sales tax to help stave off sharp cuts in education and other services. “Doing the right thing almost always means doing the hard thing, and today, you did the hard thing,” Ms. Brewer said at the election night rally before a couple of hundred people, some of whom conceded that they held their nose as they voted for it. Arizona joins about half the other states in the nation that, facing plummeting revenue, have raised taxes to soften the blow of deep cuts. At least one other state, Oregon, also successfully placed a general tax increase before voters, who in January approved an additional levy on corporations and the wealthy. Most of those levies have been on individual things like cigarettes, candy and soda, though Wyoming approved a $1-per-megawatt-hour excise tax on wind energy producers. Kansas also raised its sales tax by a penny, but through legislation. Although there may be signs of recovery in the national economy, it typically takes the states much longer to dust themselves off, particularly those like Arizona, a fast-growing state struck particularly hard by the foreclosure crisis. Unemployment, for instance, depresses state revenue while driving up the need for public services. “The states are the last place where you see the impact of the economic recovery,” said Susan K. Urahn, managing director of the Pew Center on the States , a nonpartisan research group in Washington. “This is a recession that has a long tail.” Ms. Urahn said the increases are a test that “show some willingness from the public to pay for certain things.” Here, the sales tax increase, a temporary rise to 6.6 cents per dollar for the next three years, is expected to raise nearly $1 billion in the first year, two-thirds of which will go to education. It won approval by 64 percent of voters, though only a third of eligible voters turned out. It does nothing to erase cuts already made, including the loss of all-day kindergarten, health care reductions for the poor, and the closing of several state parks and highway rest stops , precipitated by a 30 percent decline in revenue. But Ms. Brewer, and a coalition of politically odd bedfellows, including the state teachers’ union, business groups and office holders from both major parties, sold it as a necessary evil to avoid teacher layoffs and cuts to public safety. The measure’s supporters raised more than $2 million, while opponents mustered only $1,215 and ended up billing themselves as grass-roots. The governor’s proposing and supporting of the tax increase left conservatives, her political base, angry and, in the eyes of analysts, contributed to her decision to sign a tough immigration enforcement bill that has dominated public discourse here for the past month. The law, which hands state and local police broad power to enforce immigration law and makes it a state crime for immigrants not to have legal status, is particularly popular with conservatives, who typically vote heavily in primaries. “It has been Brewer’s salvation to have this come along,” said Tom Patterson, chairman of the Goldwater Institute and a former state legislator who opposed the temporary sales tax increase. “Just when she was foundering over the tax issue she got to sign this bill, and all the credit falls to her and she is up in the polls.” Constantin Querard, a veteran Republican political consultant here, agreed that the immigration law helped Ms. Brewer’s standing. But he pointed out that she already was improving her lot with conservatives by signing a number of bills to expand gun rights, restrict abortion, support school choice and bar ethnic studies programs in schools. “Even if you are unhappy about the tax, that goes away in three years,” he said. “These other things stay.” Mr. Patterson said he believed the sales tax victory also bolstered Ms. Brewer’s leadership credentials; she has been seen as something of the accidental governor after unexpectedly rising from secretary of state when Janet Napolitano left last year to become the Department of Homeland Security secretary. “The result of the sales tax vote is not a big make or break thing but helps more” with passage, he said. “It fills in the puzzle, like she can get things done.” Ms. Brewer scoffed at such notions, telling supporters Tuesday, “This has never been about me, it was always about Arizona.” “This,” she said, “is the beginning of Arizona’s comeback.”


After Knicks’ Rout, Gratitude to D’Antoni

Abstract: Despite obliterating the Portland Trail Blazers , 121-79, on Wednesday in Mike Woodson’s debut as interim coach, many Knicks players sounded mournful in the locker room when discussing the resignation of Mike D’Antoni . Jeremy Lin’s eyes were tinged with sadness. “Obviously, I miss him a lot,” Lin said. Lin praised D’Antoni for helping jump-start his career. “I am not going to forget what he did for me personally.” Steve Novak, who scored a season-high 20 points, said: “I was at home and I was very unhappy. The opportunity that he gave me and the coach that he is, and more than anything the man that he is; it’s going to be tough knowing that he is not going to be working with us the rest of the year.” Carmelo Anthony was swarmed by a media horde after the game. “Nobody saw that coming,” he said, adding that he had spoken with D’Antoni. Woodson said: “When you look into their eyes after something like this has happened, you wonder as a coach, are they mentally there? And I just told them to take a deep breath and relax and let’s go out and have fun and play basketball the way I think we’re capable of doing it.” The Knicks did just that, winning a laugher that felt like a party for the fourth quarter at Madison Square Garden. The Knicks tied a season high with 19 3-pointers and held the Trail Blazers to a season-low 29 points in the first half. With the Blazers enduring turmoil of their own — they had not beaten a team with a winning record since Feb. 21 — the victory was a result of both excellent execution and playing a struggling opponent. “We could have easily came out there tonight and went through the same things that we’ve been doing and struggling the same way we’ve been struggling,” Tyson Chandler said. “But we took it as a challenge and today we played the way we should have been playing. And I know we will continue to play this way throughout the rest of the season.” The Blazers committed 17 first-half turnovers and registered only 5 assists, in part because of the Knicks’ energy and swarming defense, but also because of their own rampant sloppiness. The former Knick Raymond Felton (five first-half steals and four first-half turnovers), who was part of the trade that brought Anthony to New York, went up and down the court like a broken remote-control car. The former Knick Jamal Crawford did not play. Both are reported to be integral parts in the Trail Blazers’ current disarray. Anthony, the driving force behind D’Antoni’s resignation, was the focus of the offense early on. In leading the Knicks to a 20-12 lead, he scored 10 points and fed Amar’e Stoudemire (17 points, 8 rebounds) and Chandler for dunks. He also seemed more at home almost immediately without D’Antoni, the coach whose offensive style demanded more ball movement and less isolation play. “He came out ready,” Woodson said. “He pushed himself, I thought. I tried to utilize him early in the game, to help him get going a little bit. And he responded. I thought everybody rallied around him and responded as well.” Woodson, who coached the isolation-reliant scorer Joe Johnson in Atlanta, is known as a slow-tempo coach. “I’ve got to get a practice under my belt to be able to add some things as we move forward,” Woodson said before the game. Yet for all of Anthony’s successes early on, the Knicks were even better after he checked out with under three minutes remaining in the first quarter. A wing 3-pointer from Novak capped a 17-4 run without Anthony on the court and staked the Knicks to a 37-16 lead. The ball was moving and a second unit of Novak, Davis, Iman Shumpert, J.R. Smith (a game-high 23 points), and Jeffries, who checked into the game to a nice ovation after missing four games, asserted itself. REBOUNDS There was a moment of silence for the former Knicks assistant coach Dick Harter. Harter, who died of cancer Monday at 81, was the defensive architect for some excellent mid-90s teams, including the 1994 Eastern Conference champions.

Trades (Sports)
Basketball
New York Knicks
Anthony Carmelo
Woodson Mike
Portland Trail Blazers
D'Antoni Mike


Lundqvist and Blocked Shots Lift Rangers Over Maple Leafs

Abstract: TORONTO — Blocked shots, Henrik Lundqvist and skating instruction were the themes going into Saturday night’s Rangers - Maple Leafs game at Air Canada Centre, and they were the themes coming out of it, too. Lundqvist stopped all 36 Toronto shots as the Rangers beat the Leafs, 2-0 , after arriving in Toronto at 2 a.m. following a loss to Carolina in New York on Friday night. Rangers Coach John Tortorella called it a “gutsy win.” It was the teams’ third meeting in this season’s first month, and the Rangers emerged with 5 points to Toronto’s 2. They will meet only once more, in January at Madison Square Garden. Lundqvist, who has returned to superlative form after a shaky start to October, recorded his 1st shutout of the season and the 25th of his career. He was also lucky, he said. For example, Mikhail Grabovski backhanded between his legs with 4 minutes 15 seconds left in the game, only to hit the goal post and miss a chance to pull the Leafs to one behind. Brian Boyle opened the scoring with a first-period goal that must have intrigued “Hockey Night in Canada” viewers, who saw a pregame feature on how Boyle’s skating had vastly improved since taking instruction from the former Canadian Olympic figure skater Barbara Underhill in the summer. The Rangers had just killed a penalty when the puck came to Brandon Prust, who was stepping out of the box. Prust mishandled the puck, which seemed to confuse Leafs defenseman Tomas Kaberle, who missed him with a body check. Prust gave the puck to Boyle, who cruised into the Leafs’ zone on the smooth glide he learned from Underhill and backhanded to the top corner past Toronto goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere at 13:12. It was Boyle’s fourth goal in 10 games this season, equaling his total for 71 games last season. “I owe Barb a lot,” Boyle said. “When I got to training camp this summer we had a lot of bodies, and I said, ‘I’ve got to win a job here.’ The work I did this summer and the help I got from Barb and from my trainer, Brian McDonough, helped me so much.” Ryan Callahan made the score 2-0 when he scored on a penalty shot at 18:35 of the second period, giving him a goal in four straight games. Callahan had been tripped from behind by Phil Kessel on a breakaway set up by Dion Phaneuf’s bad pass. Phaneuf, Toronto’s captain, was booed by Leafs fans. On the free shot, Callahan reached around Giguere’s pad with his forehand. “It depends on what the goalie looks like as you come down the ice,” Callahan said. “From what I saw, I tried the backhand-forehand move, and fortunately, it went in.” It was his second career penalty shot. His first, in the 2009-10 season, was stopped by Detroit’s Jimmy Howard. The Rangers are the most proficient N.H.L. team at blocking shots — they came into the game with a league-high 17.2 shots blocked per game. Beyond Lundqvist’s 36 saves Saturday, 13 other Rangers combined to block an additional 35 shots. Tortorella said shot-blocking was a point of emphasis in the pregame meeting. “As soon as we see someone shoot, everyone comes back to the front of the net,” said defenseman Dan Girardi, who had four blocks, second only to Steve Eminger’s five. Girardi, who is now tied for the N.H.L. lead with 35 blocked shots, added, “The one guy tries to block it, and if it gets through, everyone’s in front of the net clearing guys out, trying to clear the puck the other way.” This is becoming a persistent problem for the Leafs. In their last game against the Rangers here, on Oct. 20, they had 30 shots blocked. (The Leafs blocked only six Rangers shots.) Their general inability to get shots to the net is one reason they have scored only seven goals in their last six games, pretty much wiping out their encouraging 4-0 start. In fact, both teams started fast, then ran into sobering stretches. Each is 5-4-1 after Saturday’s result. The Leafs’ problem is their inability to score, as Saturday’s game demonstrated. Thirteen of the team’s paltry 23 goals this season have been scored by Kessel (seven) and Clarke MacArthur (six). No other Leaf has more than two. “We’ve got to close him out,” Tortorella said of Kessel before the game. They did. None of his three shots reached Lundqvist. SLAP SHOTS The Rangers were again without the injured Marian Gaborik, Chris Drury and Vinny Prospal. Todd White was a healthy scratch, replaced at center by Evgeny Grachev, who was called up Friday and played 6:55 against Carolina. Defenseman Michael Sauer also sat out.

New York Rangers
Toronto Maple Leafs
Hockey Ice
Lundqvist Henrik


Pope Said to Speak About ‘Gay Lobby’

Abstract: VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis acknowledged the presence of a “gay lobby” and “a current of corruption” in the Vatican, according to a summary of private remarks to the leadership of a Latin American church group, an acknowledgment that appears to confirm reports that the Vatican denied in February. The Latin American and Caribbean Confederation of Religious, the regional organization for priests and nuns of religious orders, confirmed Tuesday that its leaders had written a synthesis of the pope’s remarks after their audience with him last Thursday. The group, known by its Spanish acronym CLAR, said it was greatly distressed that the document had been published and apologized to the pope. The document quotes Francis as saying that while there were many holy people in the Vatican, there was also “a current of corruption.” “The ‘gay lobby’ is mentioned, and it is true, it is there ... We need to see what we can do ...” the synthesis reads. The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said that because the audience was private he had nothing to say. In the days leading up to Pope Benedict XVI’s resignation in February, the Italian news media were rife with reports of a “gay lobby” influencing papal decision-making and Vatican policy through blackmail, and suggestions that the scandal had contributed to his decision to resign. The unsourced reports said details of the scandal were laid out in a secret dossier prepared for Benedict by three trusted cardinals who investigated the leaks of papal documents last year. Benedict left the dossier for Francis. The Vatican had denounced the Italian media reports as defamatory, “unverified, unverifiable or completely false.”

Homosexuality
Lobbying
Catholic Church
Pope Francis
Federico Lombardi
Latin America


Jameis Winston Meets With Roger Goodell and Other N.F.L. Officials

Abstract: With less than two months before the N.F.L. draft, Jameis Winston met with Commissioner Roger Goodell and other league officials last week in New York. Winston, who some analysts have said will be picked No. 1, asked to visit with Goodell, Troy Vincent, the head of football operations, and other executives. Winston spent about five hours at the league’s headquarters, according to Greg Aiello, a spokesman for the N.F.L. Goodell meets with a range of players, including those in college, but it is unusual for a player who has yet to be drafted to request a meeting with the commissioner. Winston was accused of sexually assaulting a female student, and given the league’s increased emphasis on combating domestic violence, his decision to reach out to the N.F.L. could be viewed as a way to express his understanding of the seriousness of the issue. Winston has not faced criminal charges, and in December an investigation by Florida State University determined that he did not violate any or all of four sections of the school’s code of conduct. According to MMQB.com, which first reported that the meetings took place, Greg Genske, one of Winston’s representatives, said that Winston asked for the meeting in January after he declared for the draft. Genske added that Winston wanted to form a relationship with league officials before he joins the N.F.L.

Football
Jameis Winston
Roger Goodell
NFL
Super Bowl
Super Bowl 2015


Delay Requested for Poison Letters Trial

Abstract: JACKSON, Miss. — A lawyer for a Mississippi man charged with sending poison-laced letters to President Obama and other officials has asked a federal judge to delay the October trial. The lawyer, Kenneth Coghlan, filed the motion on Friday in the federal case of J. Everett Dutschke, a former martial arts instructor from Tupelo. Mr. Dutschke is charged with sending ricin-tainted letters on April 8 to Mr. Obama; Senator Roger Wicker, Republican of Mississippi; and Judge Sadie Holland of the Lee County Justice Court. Mr. Coghlan said in his motion that he needed more time to prepare for the trial. He was appointed to the case on Wednesday after two federal public defenders asked to withdraw as Mr. Dutschke’s lawyers. The public defenders, George Lucas and Gregory Park, asked the judge to replace them because of undisclosed conflicts with another client in the public defender’s office. Mr. Lucas and Mr. Park have said they cannot comment on the reason. Mr. Dutschke’s trial is scheduled to begin Oct. 7 in Federal District Court in Aberdeen, Miss. He was arrested on April 27 and is being held without bail in the Lafayette County Jail. Mr. Dutschke has pleaded not guilty to five counts and denies sending the letters. He faces up to life in prison if convicted. Mr. Dutschke is the second person to face charges in the case. The first was Paul Kevin Curtis of Corinth, Miss., an entertainer and Elvis Presley impersonator who was arrested on April 17, but the charges against him were dropped six days later when the investigation shifted to Mr. Dutschke. After his arrest, Mr. Curtis said he had been framed and pointed investigators to Mr. Dutschke. The men had met years earlier while both worked for an insurance company owned by Mr. Curtis’s brother. Mr. Curtis said he and Mr. Dutschke had feuded over the years. The fifth count of the indictment says Mr. Dutschke mailed the letters “to retaliate against and frame Kevin Curtis.”

Ricin
Threat
James Everett Dutschke
Mississippi
Barack Obama
Roger Wicker
Sadie Holland


Questions for a New Class of Cholesterol Drugs

Abstract: New guidelines governing the use of cholesterol-lowering medicines are a huge change for doctors and a vast number of patients, but the impact on the drug industry is expected to be less tumultuous. The products that stand to gain the most from the new advice, statin drugs, are mostly sold as inexpensive generics and bring in relatively little revenue for the major pharmaceutical companies. Brand-name drugs that don’t fare as well in the guidelines, like Zetia by Merck and Vytorin, were already viewed with skepticism. “From a Wall Street perspective, we don’t pay any attention anymore to statins,” said Mark Schoenebaum, a pharmaceutical analyst for the ISI Group. The focus instead, he said, “is on the next generation of still-unapproved drugs.” It is those drugs — a promising new class of cholesterol-lowering drugs known as PCSK9 inhibitors — whose fate is most thrown into question by the new guidelines , released Tuesday by the two major heart associations. The recommendations place less emphasis on lowering cholesterol to a target level and do not advise using existing drugs other than statins to do so. The PCSK9 inhibitors, which are complex biological drugs that will be injected, have been shown in early trials to significantly lower cholesterol levels, but longer studies have not been completed showing that they reduce the risk of heart disease and death. The guidelines will not determine whether the Food and Drug Administration approves these new drugs, but they could damp sales if they discourage physicians from prescribing them and insurance companies from paying for them. Image Statin drugs are mostly sold as inexpensive generics. Credit Bill Gallery/Watson Pharmaceuticals, via Associated Press “The question becomes, what happens in the medical community?” said C. Anthony Butler, an analyst for Barclays. Insurers could balk at reimbursing the cost of the drugs — or make patients contribute more — if they concluded that the guidelines from leading medical authorities did not favor their use. Leonard S. Schleifer, the chief executive of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, which is developing such a drug in partnership with Sanofi, said he did not think the new guidelines would delay approval, which the company is hoping will occur in 2015. He said the company’s understanding was that the F.D.A. would be willing to approve PCSK9 inhibitors based on their ability to lower cholesterol, providing that outcomes studies were already well underway and there were no safety problems. “We don’t believe anything in any of these guidelines changes that basic understanding,” Dr. Schleifer said. Regeneron, as well as Pfizer and Amgen, which are developing competing drugs, have begun enrolling patients in cardiovascular outcomes trials, but the results are not expected until later in the decade. Shares of Regeneron rose more than 4 percent Thursday after Bloomberg News reported that an F.D.A. official said that cardiovascular outcomes trials would not need to be completed before the agency would approve such drugs. An F.D.A. spokeswoman said Thursday that the agency would evaluate the drugs based on existing measures like whether they lowered cholesterol levels and blood pressure, in addition to their overall safety profile. Supporters of the PCSK9 inhibitors said there was a need for new treatments. “Even the most powerful statins have not cured the disease,” said Dr. Jean-Claude Tardif, the director of the Research Centre at the Montreal Heart Institute and a primary investigator for the Pfizer PCSK9 inhibitor. “So we know there is a need for new drugs that are going to hopefully improve the fate of our patients with cardiovascular disease.” Image There are more than 25 million prescriptions for Crestor, the statin by AstraZeneca. Statins are among the most commonly used prescription drugs, and most are sold generically at low prices. One exception is Crestor, a statin made by the British company AstraZeneca, which brought in more than $5.1 billion in sales in 2012 with more than 25 million prescriptions, according to IMS Health, the health research firm. But while some speculated that doctors might turn more often to Crestor, a powerful statin, because the advice suggests prescribing moderate- or high-intensity statins to patients who are seen to be at particular risk, others said any resulting sales increase was likely to be modest. Crestor is set to lose its patent protection in 2016, so its life span is limited. Zetia lowers cholesterol in a different way than statins and has not been shown to reduce the risk of heart disease and death, so analysts have long viewed its potential as limited. Merck is awaiting the results of a long-term cardiovascular outcomes trial of Zetia, which are expected next year. “That will settle all of this,” Dr. Schoenebaum said. If the study shows the drug does not reduce the risk of heart disease and death, its sales will most likely dwindle, he said. If it shows it does reduce risk, “then the guidelines presumably would recommend it,” he said. In 2012, Zetia brought in $2.6 billion and Vytorin, which combines Zetia with a statin, $1.8 billion, according to company filings. A spokeswoman for Merck said she did not anticipate a significant business impact because of the guidelines. “We continue to see strong need for our products in the market,” said Pamela Eisele, the Merck spokeswoman. She also noted that the guidelines said physicians “may consider” nonstatin cholesterol-lowing drugs when patients did not respond to statins or could not tolerate them.

Pharmaceuticals
Statins
Generic brand
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals
Crestor
Vytorin
Zetia
AstraZeneca
Cholesterol
Heart


Nearing 50, Franco Still Going Strong in Mexican League

Abstract: Most people who lie about their age try to make themselves appear younger than they really are. It was suggested to Julio Franco, though, that he might have wanted to make himself appear older. He laughed, understanding the reason for the suggestion. Franco dreamed of playing in the major leagues when he was 50. A little white lie might have enabled him to achieve his dream last season. But Franco acknowledged that he turned 49 last Aug. 23, which meant he needed to have a major league job this season. He doesn’t have one, but he does expect to play professional baseball on his 50th birthday. In a Mexican League season that has begun, Franco is playing first base in Cancún for Tigres de Quintana Roo. “I’m here because I believe I can continue playing ball,” Franco said in a telephone interview. “Back in ’99,” he continued, referring to a previous season in the Mexican League, “if I had stopped playing, I wouldn’t have had eight more years in the big leagues. I think I can still play in the big leagues. I believe I can still help a ball club off the bench. I just want to play till I’m 50. I believe God is going to give me that opportunity.” Franco has another reason for continuing to play. He is serving as the team’s hitting coach as well as a player, and it’s a start to the next phase of his career. “My next goal is to be a manager,” he said. “I’m here playing and coaching. You got to handle different kinds of players, see how the manager reacts, how he changes pitchers. It’s a learning experience. I believe I can be a hitting coach in the big leagues. I’ve been with a lot of good hitting coaches. I believe I can help a team right now.” First, though, he will finish his playing career. “I would say this is my last year playing baseball,” Franco said. Chuck Berry, Franco’s agent, said he contacted all 30 teams this winter advising them of Franco’s interest in continuing to play, then followed up with about a dozen teams that weren’t set at first base. No one was interested. Franco batted .222 in 90 at-bats with the Mets and the Atlanta Braves last season. “He’s probably in better shape than he’s ever been,” Berry said. “He started a new workout scheme this off-season, focusing on core stuff, not a lot of lifting, a lot of baseball movements.” Unless a major league team summons Franco during the season for a command performance, he will retire with a .298 career batting average in 2,527 games over 23 seasons. Magic Number Is 40 The end of a career comes to all, whether it’s a baseball player or a lawyer or a sportswriter. Baseball players in particular believe they will play forever. An increasing number of players threaten to do just that. However that prospect may be viewed, there are more players 40 and older in the major leagues than ever before. Depending on final decisions, opening-day rosters are expected to include 20 players 40 or older. Except for Roger Clemens (45), David Wells (44) and Barry Bonds (43), they are all there, holding jobs they probably never thought 10 years ago that they would have. Looking at this unusual roster, provided by Elias Sports Bureau, we find that most — 15 — are pitchers: nine starters, six relievers. Jamie Moyer (Philadelphia) is, at 45, the oldest and is followed by Randy Johnson (Arizona) 44, Kenny Rogers (Detroit) 43, Mike Timlin (Boston) 42, Tom Glavine (Atlanta) 42 and Greg Maddux (San Diego), who will turn 42 on April 14. And what about Orlando Hernández? The Mets list his birth date as Oct. 11, 1969, because that’s what he says it is. So much for truth in advertising. No one believes that date. Others, who have seen records from his days in Cuba, believe El Duque was born in 1965 and is therefore 42. The list goes on with three 41-year-olds: Moises Alou (Mets), Tim Wakefield (Boston) and Curt Schilling (Boston), who is expected to miss at least half the season with a shoulder problem. Next comes the largest single-age group in the bunch, the 40-year-olds. They’re all over the place: Omar Vizquel (San Francisco), John Smoltz (Atlanta), Doug Brocail (Houston), Mike Stanton (Cincinnati), Luis Gonzalez (Florida), Trevor Hoffman (San Diego), Tom Gordon (Philadelphia), Kent Mercker (Cincinnati), Matt Stairs (Toronto), Jeff Kent (Los Angeles Dodgers). The growth in the number of aging players has resulted from a more religious regimen of exercise and diet. Players see the money they can still earn, and they maintain their physical well-being. Every player, even if in good shape, isn’t guaranteed a big contract, but clubs appreciate experience and will sign players if they have something left to contribute. Some of the older players are attractive because they will accept smaller salaries. Brocail, pitching for San Diego last season, earned $500,000 in salary and a like amount in bonuses based on the number of games he pitched. His performance (5-1, 3.05 earned run average) got him a $2.5 million contract with Houston this year. Other members of the 40s group received even more lucrative salaries: Maddux $10 million, Glavine and Rogers $8 million each, and Timlin $3 million. Gonzalez had to settle for $2 million, but where else could he make that money this year and have so much fun making it? Only in Major League Baseball, where everyone is doing well financially these days. Kent is the youngest of the 40-and-older platoon, joining it March 7, nine days after Stairs turned 40. Future Tense for Present Sometime in the last few years, baseball announcers adopted a new language. Call it future-speak. To more and more announcers, things don’t happen in the present and they didn’t happen in the past. Even when things have happened, they happen in the future. The practice has become so prevalent that even Gary Thorne, one of the best announcers in the business, has adopted the language. In one inning of the second game from Japan last week, Thorne said: ¶Of a pitch that had crossed the plate and been called by the umpire, “That will be down low.” ¶Of another caught and called pitch, “The slider will catch the corner.” ¶Of another completed pitch by Manny Delcarmen, “Delcarmen’s pitch comes back inside and will miss.” ¶Of a foul ball, “He’ll foul that one.” ¶Of a ground ball, “He’ll take that to second base.” 4 Replacements Remain The replacement-player roster continues to shrink. Only four players who served as replacements during the 1994-95 strike open the season on major league rosters: Kevin Millar and Jamie Walker with Baltimore, Ron Mahay with Kansas City and Matt Herges with Colorado. Mahay, a 36-year-old left-hander, had a good season last year and an even better off-season. The Royals signed him to the best contract he has ever had, two years for $8 million. Cutting Service Time The players union would probably have difficulty winning a grievance on the issue, but someone should stop clubs from manipulating a player’s major league service time by sending him to the minors long enough to delay salary arbitration and free agency. Evan Longoria, who was supposed to be Tampa Bay’s starting third baseman, and Cameron Maybin, who had been scheduled to be Florida’s center fielder, are the latest victims of this longtime practice, which also cheats fans. By spending 12 days in the minors, Longoria will have to play one extra full season before he can be a free agent. Maybin has 45 days of major league service, so he would have to spend nearly two months in the minors to have his free agency delayed a year. The demotions will also have an impact on their eligibility for salary arbitration. The Rays and the Marlins deny any such intent. Larry Beinfest of the Marlins told reporters that Maybin “needs to refine a few things” and “probably needs additional minor league at-bats.” Andrew Friedman of the Rays told reporters that business matters influenced the decision “very little.” But why at all? Longoria is a minimum-salary player and would not have added many dollars to the Rays’ payroll. But there are no rules prohibiting the practice, so the clubs win and the players lose in the end.


Metro Briefing: New York: Buffalo: Man Admits Killing Internet Rival

Abstract: A man who became entangled in a lovers’ triangle over the Internet pleaded guilty to manslaughter yesterday in State Supreme Court for fatally shooting his rival, a co-worker at a factory in a Buffalo suburb. The man, Thomas Montgomery, 48, of Cheektowaga, averted a murder trial by pleading guilty to shooting Brian Barrett, 22, of Lockport, three times at close range in the parking lot of the Dynabrade Corporation in Clarence last September. Mr. Barrett’s body was found in his truck in the parking lot two days later. Both men were involved in an Internet relationship with a West Virginia woman using her daughter’s Web page to pose as an 18-year-old. Mr. Montgomery could be sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Murders and Attempted Murders
Buffalo (NY)
Computers and the Internet


A Defiant Israel Vows to Expand Its Settlements

Abstract: JERUSALEM — Undeterred by a resounding defeat at the United Nations, Israel ’s government said Monday that it would move ahead with thousands of new homes in East Jerusalem and warned nations against further action, declaring that Israel does not “turn the other cheek.” Just a few days after the United Nations Security Council voted to condemn Israeli settlements , Jerusalem’s municipal government signaled that it would not back down: The city intends to approve 600 housing units in the predominantly Palestinian eastern section of town on Wednesday in what a top official called a first installment on 5,600 new homes. The defiant posture reflected a bristling anger among Israel’s pro-settlement political leaders, who not only blamed the United States for failing to block the Council resolution, but also claimed to have secret intelligence showing that President Obama ’s team had orchestrated it. American officials strongly denied the claim, but the sides seem poised for more weeks of conflict until Mr. Obama hands over the presidency to Donald J. Trump . Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has lashed out at Security Council countries by curbing diplomatic contacts, recalling envoys, cutting off aid and summoning the American ambassador for a scolding. He canceled a planned visit this week by Ukraine ’s prime minister even as he expressed concern on Monday that Mr. Obama was planning more action at the United Nations before his term ends next month. The prime minister defended his retaliation. “Israel is a country with national pride, and we do not turn the other cheek,” he said. “This is a responsible, measured and vigorous response, the natural response of a healthy people that is making it clear to the nations of the world that what was done at the U.N. is unacceptable to us.” The Security Council resolution that passed Friday condemned Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem as a “flagrant violation under international law” and an obstacle to peace. The Council approved it 14 to 0, with the United States abstaining instead of using its unilateral veto, as it has in the past. Mr. Trump publicly pressed for a veto of the resolution and has chosen a settlement advocate as his administration’s ambassador to Israel. He turned to Twitter on Monday night to air complaints that the United Nations “is just a club for people to get together, talk and have a good time.” Palestinian leaders made clear that they would use the resolution in international bodies to press their case against Israel. With the imprimatur of a United Nations finding of illegality, they said, they will campaign to require that other countries not just label products made in the settlements, but ban them. “Now we can talk about the boycott of all settlements, the companies that work with them, et cetera, and actually take legal action against them if they continue to work with them,” Riad Malki, the Palestinian foreign minister, was quoted as saying by the Palestinian news media. He outlined other steps the Palestinians could now take, using the resolution to press the International Criminal Court to prosecute Israeli leaders, file lawsuits on behalf of specific Palestinians displaced by settlements and urge the international authorities to determine whether Israel is violating the Geneva Conventions. “We are looking to devise a comprehensive vision, and hopefully 2017 will be the year when the Israeli occupation ends,” Mr. Malki said. Israeli officials said such pronouncements showed that the resolution actually undermined chances for a negotiated settlement because the Palestinians now have less incentive to come to the table. By declaring Israeli settlements illegal, they said, the United Nations essentially took away the one chip that Israel had to trade, meaning land. “The Palestinians are waging a diplomatic and legal war against Israel. That’s the strategy,” Ron Dermer, the Israeli ambassador to the United States, said in a phone interview. “Their strategy is not to negotiate an agreement with Israel because a deal is give and take. They want take and take.” Israel’s settlement project, once a scattering of houses across the so-called Green Line marking the borders before the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, has grown substantially over the years. In 2009, the year Mr. Obama took office, 297,000 people lived in West Bank settlements and 193,737 in East Jerusalem. That increased to 386,000 in the West Bank by the end of last year and 208,000 in East Jerusalem by the end of 2014, according to Peace Now, a group that opposes settlements. Israeli officials note that when Mr. Netanyahu acquiesced to a 10-month settlement freeze sought by Mr. Obama in 2009, the Palestinians still did not agree to negotiate until just before time ran out. But the addition of more than 100,000 settlers during Mr. Obama’s tenure convinced him that it was time to change his approach at the United Nations, aides said. The 618 housing units to be granted building permits in East Jerusalem on Wednesday have been in the works for a while, and the planning committee meeting agenda was set before the United Nations acted. But the committee chairman said he was determined to go forward with units totaling 5,600. “I won’t get worked up over the U.N. or any other organization that might try to dictate to us what to do in Jerusalem,” Deputy Mayor Meir Turgeman, the planning committee chairman, told the newspaper Israel Hayom. “I hope that the government and the new administration in the United States will give us momentum to continue.” Although he did not specify which projects he had in mind, Ir Amim, a private group tracking settlements in East Jerusalem, said he was probably referring to projects in Gilo and Givat Hamatos. Betty Herschman, the group’s director of international relations and advocacy, said it was “defiance demonstrated after Trump’s election, now reinforced by the U.N. resolution.” Anat Ben Nun, the director of development and external relations for Peace Now, said such construction was problematic. “Netanyahu’s attempt to avenge the U.N.S.C. resolution through approval of plans beyond the Green Line will only harm Israelis and Palestinians by making it more difficult to arrive at a two-state solution,” she said. Israeli leaders said they had no reason to stop building. The Security Council resolution “was absurd and totally removed from reality,” said Oded Revivi, chief foreign envoy for the Yesha Council, which represents West Bank settlers. “Israeli building policies are set in Jerusalem, not New York.” For the fourth day, Israeli officials accused Mr. Obama’s team of ambushing them at the United Nations. While the White House denied it, Israeli officials pointed to a meeting between Secretary of State John Kerry and his New Zealand counterpart a month before the Council vote discussing a resolution on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. New Zealand was a sponsor of Friday’s measure. Mr. Dermer, the ambassador, said Israel had other, nonpublic information proving the Obama administration’s involvement but provided no evidence and would not elaborate beyond saying it would be provided to Mr. Trump’s team when he takes office. “They not only did not get up and stop it, they were behind it from the beginning,” Mr. Dermer said. “This is why the prime minister is so angry. We’re going to stand up against it.” Israeli officials worried that Mr. Kerry would use a coming speech or a conference in France to outline an American peace plan that would be hostile to Israel’s interests. Mr. Kerry’s office had no comment. The fury of Mr. Netanyahu’s response has generated debate at home. Mitchell Barak, a political consultant, said the political left considered the resolution “an epic foreign policy and diplomatic debacle” by Mr. Netanyahu. But to his base, the Security Council action confirmed what they believed all along, that Mr. Obama is inherently anti-Israel, and so the prime minister comes across as a champion beset by enemies. “For them,” Mr. Barak said, “Netanyahu emerges from this unscathed, as the lone wolf in a lion’s den of hatred.”

Israeli settlement
UN Security Council
UN
Benjamin Netanyahu
Barack Obama
East Jerusalem
West Bank
Palestinians
Israel


Brinkmanship Heightens as Deadline for a Nuclear Deal With Iran Looms

Abstract: VIENNA — With only three days to go before a deadline to reach a nuclear accord to constrain Iran’s nuclear program, the talks here appeared to be marked by a heavy dose of brinkmanship on Friday as Iran’s top negotiator made clear he was leaving for Tehran to consult with the country’s leadership — only to reverse himself later in the day. Iranian news agencies had reported that Mohammad Javad Zarif, Iran’s foreign minister, was returning to Tehran to seek further instructions. The State Department spokeswoman announced soon afterward that Secretary of State John Kerry would be leaving for Paris, where he would confer with European officials and stay in touch with Obama administration officials in Washington. But Mr. Zarif later deferred his plans, telling Iran’s official IRNA news agency that “there were no remarkable offers and ideas to take to Tehran.” And that led Mr. Kerry to shelve his plan to leave, too. American and European officials vowed to press on, and more high-level negotiating sessions were expected on Saturday. Yet the difficulties in the talks suggested it was unlikely that any agreement that might be announced on Monday would be a complete one and increasingly likely that an extension in the deadline would be needed. “We’ve been very candid that real differences remain and we’re not going to discuss an extension prematurely with the Iranians because that takes pressure off of them to wrestle with tough issues now,” said a senior State Department official, who declined to be identified because the official was talking about internal deliberations. “But obviously right now we’re meeting and assessing the best course forward,” the official added. Timeline on Iran’s Nuclear Program Whether Iran is racing toward nuclear weapon capabilities is one of the most contentious foreign-policy issues challenging the West. The negotiations in Vienna involve senior diplomats from Iran and the United States, France, Britain, Germany, Russia and China. The Obama administration’s goal in the talks is to conclude an agreement that would slow the Iranian program to the point that it would take Iran at least a year to make enough fissile material for a nuclear bomb if Tehran later decided to ignore the accord. A number of key obstacles for an agreement remain. One is how much capacity Iran would be allowed to retain to enrich uranium, an issue that encompasses the size of its nuclear stockpile and the number of centrifuges that could remain installed. The second centers in on Iran’s demand that economic sanctions be permanently lifted and not just suspended step by step as Iran complies with the terms of the deals Mr. Kerry joined the current round of talks here on Thursday and has held three joint meetings with Mr. Zarif and Catherine Ashton, the European Union’s envoy to the talks. Mr. Kerry consulted also here on the next steps in the talks with Laurent Fabius, the French foreign minister, and Philip Hammond, the British foreign secretary, who flew here Friday. Mr. Hammond later reported that there was “a very significant gap between the parties.” American officials hope that a successful negotiation would ease tensions with Tehran and discourage other nations in the region from pursuing nuclear arms and enhance the Obama administration’s legacy on foreign policy. But the negotiations are being watched with a wary eye by Israel, Saudi Arabia and many American lawmakers, who fear that a new accord may allow Iran to maintain too much of its nuclear infrastructure and potential bomb-making capability. Talks last year in Geneva to draft an interim agreement to freeze much of Iran’s nuclear program went down to the wire, but ultimately resulted in an accord . If the negotiating deadline to complete a more comprehensive and enduring agreement were extended, it would be the second time this year. In a news conference on Thursday in Paris, Mr. Kerry sought to justify the time it has taken to pursue a comprehensive accord. “It was only last year when our nation first resumed high-level contact after decades of stalled relations,” he said. Yet Mr. Kerry was also adamant that the United States was not seeking an extension in the Monday negotiating deadline. “We are driving towards what we believe is the outline of an agreement that we think we can have,” Mr. Kerry said. Mr. Hammond was more open earlier this week in acknowledging that some sort of extension of the negotiating deadline might be needed. During a trip to Latvia earlier this week, Mr. Hammond said he was not optimistic that a comprehensive agreement could be finalized by Monday but expressed the hope that there might yet be “some significant movement” that might warrant yet another deadline extension .

Iran
Nuclear weapon
US Foreign Policy
John Kerry
Mohammad Javad Zarif
State Department


Critics Assail Syrian Opposition Leader’s Offer on Talks

Abstract: The top opposition leader’s softened position on possible talks with President Bashar al-Assad’s government caused an uproar within the fractious rebel coalition on Thursday as battle-hardened fighters and others said the offer would only embolden Mr. Assad to intensify the civil war. The opposition leader, Sheik Ahmad Moaz al-Khatib, said many critics had not fully read the explanations he had posted Wednesday on his Facebook page. Sheik Khatib’s offer to open a dialogue with the government, which contained several conditions, received a measure of support from Ban Ki-moon, the United Nations secretary general, and Lakhdar Brahimi, the peace envoy for the Arab League and the United Nations. But the offer to start talks broke a longstanding opposition demand: no talks until Mr. Assad steps down. Sheik Khatib said in his Facebook posting that he would be willing to talk with Mr. Assad’s representatives in Egypt, Tunisia or Turkey, all of which support the Syrian opposition. He also demanded other preconditions, including the release of 160,000 prisoners in Syria. “Nobody has said it is going to be easy,” Mr. Brahimi said. “But perhaps negotiating is better than killing each other.”

Arab Spring
UN
Syria
Sheik Ahmad Moaz al- Khatib
Bashar al-Assad


Cellular Antenna Rules Debated by City Council

Abstract: Most of the battles over the placement of cellular telephone antennas are fought locally, generally pitting a landlord and a cellphone carrier against the residents of a particular building where the antennas are planned. On Wednesday, the scene and scope of the fight expanded to a meeting of the City Council Committee on Housing and Buildings , which discussed three separate bills meant to regulate cellphone antennas and equipment in New York City. Although some fear that the antennas pose a potential health hazard, the federal government has not determined that antennas are harmful, and the Telecommunications Act of 1996 prevents any state or local government from regulating the placement of cellular equipment based on health concerns. But council members said Wednesday that it was important to begin paying closer attention to the placement of equipment that until recently was installed with little public awareness. The city does not have a complete record of where antennas are, Councilman Peter F. Vallone Jr. said, and the number of antennas is unknown. “Nobody has any idea of what’s going on,” Mr. Vallone said at the beginning of the hearing. “It’s like the Wild West out there.” Others, however, disagreed with that assessment, including James P. Colgate, an assistant commissioner at the Department of Buildings, who said some sections of the legislation were superfluous, and other parts, like a requirement to inform council members when companies apply for permits to install equipment, would be a burden to the agency. “It is the position of the department that we can’t support these bills,” he said. The proposals would require property owners to tell the city if cellular equipment impedes building inspections, and would require phone companies to place equipment in nonresidential areas whenever possible. Also included in the bills are a codification of rules governing how equipment must be mounted or attached and a requirement that community boards and City Council members be notified when companies apply for permits to install equipment. The notification bill would also create a 30-day waiting period before permission is granted so that officials can consider objections. Mr. Colgate later said he would consider supporting the bill requiring notification if phone companies, rather than the city, were made responsible for issuing announcements of their applications. Several phone company representatives testified that the proposed rules would hinder their ability to provide service, and would slow technological advances and make it hard for some people to call 911 in an emergency. “We are united in strong opposition to the three pieces of legislation,” said John Jefferson , a vice president of external affairs at AT&T. “These bills are unnecessary, discriminatory and would impede the steady deployment and enhancement of the wireless infrastructure in New York City.” A T-Mobile representative, Jane Builder, agreed, saying, “This is not the time to be implementing legislation that will stymie reliable service to city residents.” Some of those assertions prompted sharp responses from council members, including Lewis A. Fidler of Brooklyn, who was a sponsor of all three bills. “The suggestion that by attempting to regulate you in any way we are endangering the lives and safety of New Yorkers because they use their cellphones to call 911 is insulting to the intelligence of every person in this room except for the lobbyist who told you to say that,” he told the phone company representatives. “Frankly, that’s just ridiculous.” During a public comment period several people urged the council members to pass the bills. Among them was Evie Hantzopoulos of Astoria, Queens. “Now is not the time to enact policy?” she asked. “They’ve had 13 years with no policy.”

City Council (New York City)
Cellular Telephones
Wireless Communications
Regulation and Deregulation of Industry
New York City


Russia Shows Off Ordnance in Victory Day Parade

Abstract: MOSCOW — Russia showed off new machines of war, including a highly sophisticated tank, on Saturday in the annual Victory Day military parade through Red Square that marks the surrender of Nazi Germany and the Red Army’s key role in the defeat. The Armata tank drew a strong round of applause as it rumbled through the square. Also on view for the first time at the parade was a lumbering RS-24 Yars ICBM launcher, along with several new, smaller vehicles. Victory Day is Russia’s most important secular holiday, both commemorating the Soviet Union’s huge suffering during World War II and highlighting Russia’s portrayal of itself as a force for peace and security. This year’s parade was the biggest military parade since the Soviet Union’s collapse. In his speech to the assembled troops and veterans, President Vladimir V. Putin said that the carnage of the war underlined the importance of international cooperation, but “in the past decades, we have seen attempts to create a unipolar world.” That phrase is often used by Russia to criticize the United States’ purported aim to dominate world affairs. The observances were shadowed by the near-complete absence of European leaders from the ceremony. The cold shoulder from leaders underlines the tensions between Russia and the West over the crisis in Ukraine. Chinese President Xi Jinping was the most prominent world leader to attend the parade.

Russia
World War II
Parade
Military
Red Army Soviet Union


NBC and Notre Dame Extend Football Deal Another Five Years

Abstract: For the fourth time since they vowed to love and honor each other in 1990, Notre Dame and NBC Sports renewed their television vows on Thursday, guaranteeing that the university’s home football games will remain on the network through the 2015 season. The five-year extension came with a birth announcement: NBC will carry an extra “home” game each year, in San Antonio in 2009, at the new Dallas Cowboys stadium in 2013, and maybe at Soldier Field in Chicago and Citrus Bowl Stadium in Orlando, Fla., in between. These off-site home games will push NBC’s rights fee higher and let Notre Dame collect most of the gate receipts from the Alamodome and its other homes away from South Bend, Ind. The traveling home game will give NBC eight Fighting Irish broadcasts a season and push its payments — which are never publicly disclosed but are believed to provide Notre Dame with much more TV cash than any other football program — much higher than the current deal, which will end in 2010. NBC will benefit from selling the advertising time for the off-site games at potentially higher prices because they will be the only prime-time home games played by Notre Dame, which will not stage them in South Bend. Not a bad deal for a program that went 3-9 last season. And not bad for a team whose rating stood at 3.6 in 2005, dipped to 3.0 in 2006 and crashed to 1.9 last season, the worst in the lovey-dovey NBC-Notre Dame marriage. The new deal reflects a desire to stick together even in hard times; NBC had plenty of time to wait for the team to improve before deciding if it wanted to extend the deal. “When Notre Dame is good, and they’re often quite good, they bring more attention to football than anyone else,” Ken Schanzer, the president of NBC Sports, said by telephone. Schanzer has a son and a daughter at Notre Dame. The eldest son of Dick Ebersol, the chairman of NBC Sports, is a graduate. “We like them to be great,” Schanzer said. “It’s better when they’re great, but when they’re good, they maintain a high level of interest.” The Rev. John I. Jenkins, the president of Notre Dame, said in an interview that NBC’s decision to renew the deal well before it was required to shows “that they’re committed to a long-term relationship, not a short-term calculation about viewers and ratings.” He said the network “understands that we’re a university, not a football franchise.” It is nevertheless hard not to view Notre Dame football as anything but a branded sports franchise, even if $26 million of NBC’s money has gone to academic scholarships. Last year, Forbes ranked the Notre Dame program as the most valuable in college football, worth $101 million and producing $45.8 million in profit in the 2006 season. That sounds like a thriving franchise, one that operates independently of any conference in football, if not apart from university oversight. Even at 3-9, Schanzer said, “It’s the only truly national university, and we’re a national distribution system, so we think there’s a symmetry there.” ANOTHER DEAL REACHED The mutual adoration between NBC and Notre Dame has not been emulated in the brief relationship between the Big Ten Network and Comcast, the nation’s largest cable operator. Last year, Comcast said the fledgling Big Ten channel was too costly to be distributed and too provincially focused on its 11-college, 8-state kingdom. But Jim Delany, the Big Ten commissioner, said a year ago, “I have a hard time seeing many more offerings with more appeal than ours.” On Thursday, they announced a compromise in which Comcast will, in August, start paying monthly subscriber fees of about 60 cents, not $1.10 as was first sought, to place the channel on its systems in seven states with Big Ten universities. Initially, subscribers will see it on expanded basic, including those using the soon-to-end analog service. In the spring, after the football and basketball seasons and the demise of analog, Comcast will move the channel to a broadly available digital tier. Outside the Big Ten region, Comcast can place the channel on whatever level of digital service it wants. “We never had any dispute about the value of the programming,” said David Cohen, an executive vice president of Comcast, who voiced dismay last year over what he called second- and third-tier college football games on the network. “We’ve ended with a compromise and accommodation that enables us to bring the content of the Big Ten Network to many of our customers at a more affordable rate than what was proposed.” Mark Silverman, the president of the Big Ten Network, said, “Both sides wanted to get this done and compromised.” He declined to say if the partners behind the channel — the Big Ten conference and Fox Cable Networks — had dropped its price as low as it could go. “The network will be viable and successful,” he said. “We’re comfortable.” It’s a start. But it hardly sounds like a love connection.

National Broadcasting Co
University of Notre Dame
Television
Football
College Athletics


Palm Lowers Expectations

Abstract: SAN JOSE, Calif., Dec. 6 (AP) — Palm, the maker of smartphones, lowered its second-quarter outlook Thursday and said it would swing to a wider-than-expected loss, blaming the delay of a product release for the sales shortfall. Palm said it expected sales of $345 million to $350 million, below its earlier guidance of $370 million to $380 million as well as the $376 million that analysts had expected. The company said it expected to post a loss of 22 cents to 24 cents a share. In October, Palm predicted a loss of 1 cent to 3 cents a share. In the year-ago period, Palm earned 12 cents a share on sales of $393 million. Excluding one-time items, Palm expects the loss to be 8 cents to 10 cents a share. On that adjusted basis, analysts were projecting a profit of 4 cents a share, according to a poll by Thomson Financial. Full results for the company’s fiscal second quarter will be released on Dec. 18.

Palm
Telephones and Telecommunications
Wireless Communications


The Venus Flytrap, a Plant That Can Count

Abstract: Carnivorous plants stir the imagination. You can find the results in science fiction novels (“The Day of the Triffids”), Broadway plays(“Little Shop of Horrors”) and in recent research that concludes that the Venus flytrap can count. Not out loud, of course. And no one is claiming that the plants are aware that they are counting. But even so, this is the first time someone has demonstrated counting in a plant, according to the researcher who led the experiments, Rainer Hedrich at the University of Würzburg, in Germany. Dr. Hedrich, Jennifer Böhm and Sönke Scherzer, all at Würzburg, and a team of other scientists reported their research in Current Biology . Venus flytraps are carnivorous. They live in poor soil and pull needed nutrients from the insects they trap and dissolve. Their trap is a pair of leaves that act as jaws and stomach. When an insect lands and bumps into trigger hairs on the surface of these leaves, the trap closes. As digestive enzymes seep into the trap, it becomes what Dr. Hedrich calls a “green stomach,” and the prey is gradually turned into a nourishing soup. Scientists knew that an insect had to bump the trigger hairs more than once to cause the trap to shut, presumably to avoid wasting energy by responding to random raindrops and windblown debris. In the recent experiment, researchers studied how the plant was responding to movement of the trigger hairs, and determined that it was counting electrical pulses from them. Plants don’t have a nervous system to transmit these pulses as animals do, but a spike in electricity produced by biochemical changes can travel on the surfaces of cells. The researchers flicked the trigger hairs while they recorded electrical activity in the plant. The motor cells that close the leafy jaws on prey acted only when they received two signals within about 20 seconds. That meant that the cells somehow remembered the first signal for a short time. After 20 seconds, this first electrical pulse was forgotten, essentially resetting the process. But closing the trap on an insect is only Step 1. The Venus flytrap must also dissolve its prey. Two flicks of a trigger hair were not enough to kick off that mechanism. More than three flicks of a trigger hair were needed to signal the cells that produce digestive enzymes to begin that process. In nature, the trigger hairs are activated time and again as the trapped prey struggles. That frenzy gives the plant a way to judge the amount of digestive enzymes needed. Dr. Hedrich and colleagues found that more electric signals from the trigger hairs translated proportionally into more enzymes for the green stomach. Dr. David Clapham at Harvard, who studies the biochemistry of how animal cells generate electric signals as a way to transmit signals in their nervous systems, said he was intrigued by what seemed to be this “just-in-time” system of providing digestive juices. The flytrap expends energy only to produce enzymes when they are needed and only in the amount needed, an efficient mechanism for a plant living in a poor environment. The process is slow compared with what occurs in animals, he said, but “plants have a lot more time to react.” Dr. Hedrich said that electrical signals were produced by biochemical changes and that this process evolved very early in the history of life. “A single cell can be electrically excited,” he said. Asked about primitive animals, like the worm C. elegans, studied in many laboratories around the world by many, many scientists, he joked, “I think the Venus flytrap is much smarter than C. elegans,” quickly adding with a laugh, “Don’t quote me on that.”

Flowers and Plants
Insect
Current Biology Journal
Biology and Biochemistry


Reds Lose Johnny Cueto but Win Opener Against Giants

Abstract: SAN FRANCISCO — What was expected to be an extended pitching duel between two Cy Young Award candidates at a pitching-friendly ballpark was unpredictably unraveled by an eight-pitch performance on one side and an unusually rocky one on the other. Cincinnati’s Johnny Cueto walked off the mound while facing his second batter, shaking his head and unable to shake off back spasms. “When Johnny went down, I was, like, Oh, man — we’re done,” Reds second baseman Brandon Phillips said. But with Cincinnati in unexpected scramble mode, and with the sellout crowd at AT&T Park frothing over San Francisco’s apparent advantage in the game, if not the series, Phillips and the Reds peppered the Giants ace Matt Cain and cruised to a 5-2 victory in Game 1 of their National League division series. Game 2 of the best-of-five series is scheduled for Sunday evening. “We were just fortunate to win that game, the way we did tonight,” Reds Manager Dusty Baker said. Cueto, 19-9 with a 2.78 earned run average in the regular season, said he felt fine until the end of warm-ups in the bullpen. “It was only on the last two throws I felt something,” Cueto said through an interpreter. “I felt something — sharp pain on my right side.” Trainers quickly massaged it with heat, hoping it was a mere cramp. The pitching coach Bryan Price told Baker what happened, and they watched as Cueto struck out San Francisco’s first batter, Angel Pagan, and threw two hard strikes to Marco Scutaro. That is when Cueto circled off the mound with a wince and a look of resignation. After a meeting of coaches and trainers, Cueto walked slowly to the dugout. It seemed like a huge break for the Giants. By game’s end, it felt like a squandered opportunity. Adding insult to the injury for the Giants, Cueto said his back felt much better after the game, and he said he thought he would be able to start another game this series, if needed. The projected Game 3 starter Mat Latos warmed up as the Giants loaded the bases with two outs in the second inning against Sam LeCure, the first of five Reds relievers and the eventual game winner. Cain, positioned to give himself a cushion, drilled a hard fly to right field that Jay Bruce caught on the move. With the Reds in scramble mode, and the sellout crowd at AT&T Park bubbling like a bottle ready to be uncorked, Phillips upturned everything with a two-run home run in the top of the third inning. He had badly missed a first-pitch curveball, and waited for Cain to offer another. Cain did. The ball ended up in the left-field bleachers. The Reds padded the lead when Bruce smashed a home run to right field to start the fourth inning. Cain was 16-5 with a 2.79 earned run average in the regular season. But two of those losses were to the Reds, and Cain’s 75-pitch, five-inning stint Saturday night felt like a mere extension. “He wasn’t as sharp as he normally is,” Giants Manager Bruce Bochy said of Cain. “He left a couple of pitches up that they took advantage of, and the ball left the park.” Latos, once warmed up, brought confidence built on experience. Traded from San Diego during the off-season, he has routinely pitched well in San Francisco — a 1.67 career earned run average in 43 innings, including a two-hit complete-game victory at AT&T Park in June. He pitched four mostly uneventful innings. The exception came when Giants catcher Buster Posey reignited a dormant audience by tucking a 342-foot home run behind the left-field fence to start the bottom of the sixth. Posey sparked another burst of excitement with an eighth-inning single. Reds reliever Jonathan Broxton walked Brandon Belt with two outs to bring fans to their feet as they waved orange towels. But the light-hitting left fielder Gregor Blanco, who had two earlier hits, struck out watching a 3-2 pitch, extinguishing the threat. After San Francisco reliever Santiago Casilla gave up two more runs in the ninth, the second on a passed ball that followed a wild pitch, tension returned again in the bottom of the ninth. Reds closer Aroldis Chapman struggled to control his fastball. The Giants, with a single and two walks, loaded the bases with one out. Pablo Sandoval popped out. Posey, to chants of “M.V.P.,” watched as Joaquin Arias scored on a wild pitch. Then he struck out swinging on a 100-miles-per-hour fastball from Chapman. It was Cincinnati’s first playoff victory in 17 years, and provided a far more promising start than the last time the Reds reached the postseason. In 2010, the year the Giants surged to the World Series title, the Reds were dispatched in quick order by the Philadelphia Phillies in a division series. They lost Game 1 on Roy Halladay’s no-hitter, melted down with four errors in Game 2, and were shut out at home in Game 3 by Cole Hamels. Cueto was the losing pitcher in the clinching game. His role may be no less important in this series, even if it lasts just eight pitches.

Baseball
Cincinnati Reds
San Francisco Giants
Cueto Johnny
Cain Matt