Flights of Memory (Not Just Birds) at the Barclay Hotel

Abstract: The InterContinental New York Barclay — or the Barclay, as any New Yorker would call the hotel — is to reopen Friday in the Grand Central area of Midtown Manhattan after a 20-month renovation. It is not one of the most famous hotels in the city, but to judge from readers’ responses to a Building Blocks column about the renovation, it is among the most fondly regarded. Our family used to stay at the Barclay during trips to New York and there was a “singing elevator lady” who wore white gloves to ride us up and down. Maria Christina Rago, Lincoln, Mass. (Her father, Henry Rago , was the editor of Poetry Magazine.) I stayed there several times in my youth with my parents — for me, that means the early to mid-1950s. I recall the large bird cage that anchored the center of the lobby, with real birds singing and chirping. I also remember Leblang’s theater ticket agency at a window across the rear of the lobby from the reception desk. Bill Donnell, New York I so loved the Barclay! I had my interview for Smith there. When I was in my 20s, I used to go to Sunday brunch there. They had a buffet, omelet station, and the best was the music. A string quartet or strolling violinist, I think. Wendy Kassel, New York Image A 1960s postcard shows the Barclay and the Waldorf Astoria beyond. My only hotel stay was at this hotel, when I was a 6-year-old in 1961. My grandparents brought me to the city while they attended some political function (Republican). The bird cage is still the only thing I can remember about the place. It made a big impression on me. Paul Mathewson, Stratford, Conn. Chopping a hole in the second floor to expand the lobby space was essential; the old place was oppressively low-ceilinged — just as is the old Park Central at Seventh Avenue, between 55th and 56th Streets, of the same vintage as the Barclay. My office is a block away on Third Avenue, so I know the Barclay well. What I really miss is Caswell-Massey , which used to be in the shop at the southeast corner of the building. The new “skylight” is pathetic when compared to the original. Andrew Alpern, New York (He is, most recently, the author of “ The Dakota : A History of the World’s Best-Known Apartment Building.”) I remember the demise of the Barclay’s near twin, the Park Lane, which was on the Park Avenue side of the block. The Cornell Club of New York had space in the west wing of the Barclay, with its own entrance. Since 1999, I have sometimes splurged on suits made in London. This meant going to a suite in the Barclay to pick fabrics and be measured and fitted. During the renovation, the London men have been staying in a suite at the Palace. The views are spectacular, but I missed the homeyness of the Barclay. I am glad it has survived, unlike the Park Lane, Biltmore, Ritz, New Weston, Savoy Plaza and others from the early 20th century. Jason R. Gettinger, New York Image In the early 1960s, a 10th-floor room could be had for $25.95 a night (plus $1.30 room tax).

InterContinental New York Barclay
Hotels
Restoration and Renovation


No Racial Gap Seen in ’08 Vote Turnout

Abstract: The longstanding gap between blacks and whites in voter participation evaporated in the presidential election last year, according to an analysis released Thursday. Black, Hispanic and Asian voters made up nearly a quarter of the electorate, setting a record. The analysis, by the Pew Research Center , also found that for the first time, black women turned out at a higher rate than any other racial, ethnic and gender group. The study attributed the findings to several factors beyond the obvious one: Barack Obama’s candidacy. For instance, the number of eligible Hispanic voters has soared by more than 21 percent since 2004, a reflection of population gains and growing numbers of Hispanics who are citizens. Their share of eligible voters increased to 9.5 percent, from 8.2 percent four years earlier. In 2008, for the first time, the share of white non-Hispanic eligible voters fell below 75 percent. “What this report demonstrates is a pretty potent one-two punch of demographic change and behavioral change,” said Paul Taylor, executive vice president of the Pew Research Center . “The white share of the overall vote has been stepping down pretty steadily for 20 years.” “In 2008 we obviously had a historic candidacy,” added Mr. Taylor, who was a co-author of the analysis. “That’s certainly a plausible explanation for the spike in African-American turnout. The question was, Would other minorities vote for this minority? Not only did he get a big vote, but he got a big turnout.” The analysis, by Mr. Taylor and Mark Hugo Lopez, associate director of the Pew Hispanic Center, was drawn from Census Bureau surveys of voter participation and was supplemented by a study from the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement at Tufts University. Despite widespread predictions of record voter turnout last November, the overall rate was virtually the same as in 2004. But the composition of the electorate changed. The turnout among eligible whites declined slightly, by 1.1 percent, but rose by 4.9 percent among blacks. In 2004, the gap between white and black turnout rates was nearly seven percentage points. It was less than one percentage point four years later. Polls during the campaign found that young people in general and blacks in particular were the most energized by Mr. Obama’s candidacy. The Pew analysis found that whites constituted 76.3 percent of the record 131 million Americans who voted last November. Blacks accounted for 12.1 percent, Hispanic voters for 7.4 percent and Asians for 2.5 percent. Together, black, Hispanic and Asian voters made up 22 percent of the voters, compared with about 12 percent in 1988. The analysis found that Southern states with large populations of black eligible voters recorded the greatest increase in turnout rates. In Mississippi, the rate increased by eight percentage points compared with 2004 — to 69.7 percent, from 61.7 percent. Mr. Obama scored upsets in several Southern states. Those victories were attributed to the growing number of migrants from other parts of the country, younger voters and a surge in turnout among blacks.

Elections
Race
Presidential Election of 2008
Pew Research Center


Keeping One's Work in Perspective

Abstract: NEW YORK — For much of the year now fleeing us, Americans engaged in a noisy, bitter, fervent, thrilling argument about work. There it was when Mitt Romney suggested that 47 percent of Americans are lazy, shirking dependents mooching on the toil of others. There it was when President Barack Obama told entrepreneurs that “you didn’t build that.” There it was when one party sought to reinvigorate labor unions and collect more taxes from “millionaires and billionaires,” and the other party pushed back against unions with “right-to-work” laws and pressed to rebrand millionaires and billionaires as America’s “job creators.” And now, as a new year looms and Washington scrambles to avoid jumping off the so-called fiscal cliff, the argument about work is still with us. How strong a safety net should workers have? How long must an able-bodied person work before retirement? Should those who have thrived economically pay more taxes, or be rewarded for their superior enterprise? It is an argument of great importance that yet manages to feel boring, because the camps are so clearly demarcated and the positions so well rehearsed. But once in a while, someone wades into the debate and offers hope of new ways of seeing, like the Rev. Timothy Keller, a Christian theologian who recently published a book-length critique of America’s strange relationship with the idea of work. The book, “Every Good Endeavor,” is ostensibly a meditation on work from a Christian worldview. But Dr. Keller, pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York, wrote it with the hope that it would be “overheard” by people of all backgrounds, he said in a recent conversation. One reason Americans may be struggling to reach political accommodation about work is that, as Dr. Keller shows, they are talking about different things when they talk about work. Surveying the United States’ privileged “knowledge classes,” Dr. Keller describes a population that is “work obsessed,” holding their jobs to be the fount of “self-fulfillment and self-realization,” seeing leisure as merely “work stoppage for bodily repair” and allowing office principles like “efficiency, value and speed” to infuse and overwhelm their personal lives. In this world, where work becomes the chief source of identity and meaning, families ache and — from Wall Street to elite sports to political office — dishonesty abounds, because professional loss can sink a person’s sense of being. “They just have to keep their spot,” Dr. Keller said. The pastor reminds congregants that he is not criticizing industriousness, but rather its elevation to the status of an idol, a false god: “Work is a good thing turned into an ultimate thing,” he said on the phone the other day. “Idols are good things that you have to have, but you need to demote them.” At the other end of the class spectrum, Dr. Keller writes of an equal and opposite pathology: a common perception of work as miserable toil, inherently “frustrating and exhausting,” to be “avoided or simply endured.” “The working-class culture can be infected by that idea that work is a drudgery,” he said in the interview. “The best thing you can possibly do is just win the lottery and just go to a beach and sit there for the rest of your life — that work is a necessary evil.” Dr. Keller argues for a centrist understanding of work as calling — work that lends life meaning but doesn’t monopolize it, work that is performed not for personal glory but in service of others. He challenges the idea, as he puts it in the book, that “work is a curse and that something else (leisure, family, or even ‘spiritual’ pursuits) is the only way to find meaning in life”; and he criticizes “the opposite mistake, namely, that work is the only important human activity and that rest is a necessary evil — something we do strictly to ‘recharge our batteries’ in order to continue to work.” The other great schism in perceptions of work is, of course, between the political left and right. Dr. Keller considers himself a moderate whose views about work alienate him from both camps. He said he wants to rescue work from the belief, prevalent among many on the right, that there are no excuses — not even the worst childhood — for failing to succeed; and from the belief, prevalent among many on the left, that wealth creation is somehow tawdry. Those on the right, he said, undermine their ideas about work and self-reliance by failing to recognize how social context can limit — or enable — a person’s life chances. Social Darwinism, in Dr. Keller’s telling, ignores how “the fittest will keep on making enough money to put their kids in the right sorts of schools and right sorts of processes to stay the fittest.” “On the other hand,” he said, turning his attention, “there’s almost a sense in which people who have made money through their hard work and ingenuity are almost guilty till proven innocent on the left.” The pastor insists that God is a centrist on the question of work. “When I read my own religious texts and the Scripture,” he said, “I see warrant for both the suspicion of capital and the celebration of work and wealth creation. I see them both in the Bible.” Join an online conversation at http://anand.ly ; follow on Twitter.com/anandwrites

United States
Work-Life Balance
Religion and Belief


Hong Kong Banks Agree to Buy Back Lehman Securities

Abstract: HONG KONG — After weeks of wrangling with small investors, banks in Hong Kong on Friday agreed to buy back securities guaranteed by the investment bank, Lehman Brothers , that soured after the firm sought bankruptcy protection. With the move, banks are trying to bring to a close an issue that has caused widespread anger and mistrust among Hong Kong residents who have fallen victim of the global credit crisis . The Hong Kong Association of Banks announced Friday that it had agreed to a government plan to buy back at market prices the so-called minibonds — complex structured products arranged by Lehman and sold through Hong Kong banks. Investors have complained that they were misled into believing the investments were safe. The bank association also appointed the accounting firm Ernst & Young to value the products, though details, such as the timing and valuation of the buybacks remained unclear. The association said Friday that it hoped to finalize details “at an early date.” Tens of thousands of Hong Kong residents lost money on the minibonds, which were linked to the debt of blue-chip Hong Kong companies like Hutchison Whampoa, the industrial conglomerate, and Sun Hung Kai Properties, the property company, after Lehman Brothers collapsed. The fate of minibonds brought the ripples of the global financial crisis closer to the lives and savings books of ordinary people, this time as far afield as Hong Kong and Singapore. Affected investors — many of them pensioners whose life savings were tied up in the products — have been staging noisy demonstrations in protest. They have been particularly angered by what they perceived as misleading marketing techniques by the banks that sold the products. Sham Wing Tun, a 58-year-old steel factory worker, was among the crowds in central Hong Kong last week. A homemade paper hat covered with writing precariously perched on his head, he waved in the air ownership documents showing he paid 32,000 Hong Kong dollars for minibonds. “It is really painful to have been lied to,” he said, saying he had not been warned by his bank that his investment — all his savings — bore a risk. The fallout has extended to the political stage, with calls for tighter regulation and for a ban on the sale of such complex investment products to retail investors. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority and the Securities Futures Commission have been criticized for failing to monitor financial institutions selling the products. The commission has said individual investors had 15.6 billion Hong Kong dollars, or $2 billion, of structured notes arranged by or linked to Lehman, including 12.57 billion dollars of the minibonds, according to Bloomberg News. On Friday, the commission said it pledged to investigate assertions of dishonest marketing and to examine whether there had been any systemic weakness in management controls.

Hong Kong
Subprime Mortgage Crisis
Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc


Chargers Get Revenge

Abstract: SAN DIEGO (AP) — Philip Rivers threw three touchdown passes and the San Diego Chargers’ defense stuffed quarterback Matt Cassel on a fourth-and-goal from the 1 in a 30-10 victory against New England on Sunday night. It was a measure of payback against a team that had beaten the Chargers (3-3) three games in a row, including in the playoffs the last two seasons. Rivers was praised for his toughness in last season’s American Football Conference title game, playing on a shredded ligament in his right knee. But he could not get the Chargers into the end zone, and they lost, 21-12, to the Patriots at Foxborough, Mass. On Sunday night, Rivers threw touchdown passes of 49 yards to Malcom Floyd, 4 yards to Vincent Jackson and 1 yard to Antonio Gates. It was the fourth time this season that Rivers threw three scoring passes. He finished 18 of 27 for 306 yards. Cassel, making his fifth career start, was sacked four times and intercepted once. He led the Patriots (3-2) to their lowest points total since a 21-0 loss at Miami on Dec. 10, 2006. Trailing by 17-3, the Patriots tried to make a game of it when Cassel led them to a first-and-goal at the 1 on the opening drive of the second half. After Cassel threw two incompletions and running back Sammy Morris was stuffed, Cassel dropped back on fourth down and, with his receivers covered, was sacked at the 2. Rivers then led the Chargers 98 yards on four plays, with Gates slipping into the end zone to catch a 1-yard pass for a 24-3 lead. Rivers had a 59-yard completion to Jackson on the second play of the drive, and the Chargers got the ball at the 1 after Jackson was dragged down by Ellis Hobbs.

St Louis Rams
Washington Redskins
Football


Rutgers Coach Mike Rice Facing Scrutiny After Video Airs

Abstract: In a video shown Tuesday on ESPN, the Rutgers men’s basketball coach, Mike Rice, is seen yelling homophobic slurs at his players, kicking them, grabbing them and shoving them. He also throws basketballs at their legs, their heads and their bodies from point-blank range — as if he were playing dodge ball. The footage, taken at practices from 2010 to 2012, went viral Tuesday, putting Rice under scrutiny. In December, after seeing the video, Rutgers Athletic Director Tim Pernetti fined Rice $50,000 and suspended him for three games. He offered little elaboration. Messages left for Rice on Tuesday were not returned, and efforts to contact Pernetti were unsuccessful. An N.C.A.A. spokeswoman declined to comment. In an interview Tuesday on WFAN radio, Pernetti said of fining and suspending Rice, rather than firing him: “I made that decision. I am accountable for it. I have to live with it.” He said: “In the end, I am not going to look back and say shoulda, woulda. All I can do is figure out going forward the decisions I can make to fix the problem for Rutgers.” In a statement on behalf of Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, his press secretary, Michael Drewniak, said: “Governor Christie saw the video today for the first time, and he is obviously deeply disturbed by the conduct displayed and strongly condemns this behavior. It’s not the type of leadership we should be showing our young people, and clearly there are questions about this behavior that need to be answered by the leaders at Rutgers University.” Image In December, Rutgers Coach Mike Rice was fined and suspended three games by the athletic director. Credit Jason Szenes for The New York Times The video was compiled by Eric Murdock, a former Rutgers director of player personnel. Murdock’s lawyer, Raj Gadhok, said Murdock reported Rice’s actions last summer, and later was told his contract would not be renewed. In November, Gadhok said, Murdock presented the video, which is said to be about 30 minutes in length, to Pernetti and other Rutgers officials. By Dec. 13, Pernetti concluded his investigation and issued Rice’s punishment. After the season, in which Rutgers finished 15-16, Pernetti publicly backed Rice, and he reiterated Tuesday to reporters that Rice would not be fired, barring any further incident. Murdock said he planned to sue Rutgers for wrongful termination. Gadhok said that before Murdock reported Rice’s actions, he had been told his contract would be renewed. The footage, apparently, was not supposed to be shown on ESPN until Sunday, but when word leaked, Rutgers showed it first to a group of reporters Tuesday. After the viewing, Pernetti told the reporters that the gay slur was “at the core” of Rice’s suspension in December. The physical contact, though, shocked many. Jalen Rose, an ESPN basketball analyst, sent out a Twitter message saying: “The video of Rutgers H.C. Rice abusing players is appalling! He should be fired ASAP.” In 1997, Indiana Coach Bob Knight was caught on tape choking a player named Neil Reed in practice. In 2000, when Reed spoke out about the incident and a video surfaced, Knight was placed on a zero-tolerance policy. Six months later, he was fired. Rice is not the first Rutgers basketball coach to draw the public’s ire for an incident during practice. In 1997, Kevin Bannon ordered two players and two student managers to run sprints naked, as part of a free-throw-shooting contest. The two players later transferred. Bannon was not fired until 2001, when the incident was revisited publicly by the players.

Mike Jr Rice
Rutgers
College basketball
Video
Indecency Obscenity and Profanity
Coaches


Body Is Found in a Pickup in Queens

Abstract: A body was found wrapped in a comforter in a truck in Queens shortly before noon on Wednesday, the police said. Investigators said the body was that of a 35-year-old man who had suffered a head wound. His identity was being withheld pending official family notification. An officer said that the man’s injury may have been caused by a gunshot. An autopsy by the city’s medical examiner’s office was scheduled for Thursday. The discovery came after the man had been missing for a day. A friend went looking for him and found the vehicle, a white pickup, parked at 132-39 79th Street near North Conduit Avenue in southern Queens, the police said. The friend then called the man’s brother, who went to the truck, saw blood and summoned the police, the investigators said. The police found the wrapped body in the back of the truck. It was unclear whether the victim owned the truck.


For Barber and Giants, a Parting, Then an Embrace

Abstract: For the past few days, the million dollar question in New York — outside of whether Roger Clemens did it or didn’t do it — is how Tiki Barber feels about the Giants ’ rousing Super Bowl victory. Speculation has been wide ranging: Barber must feel crushed. Barber must feel awful to have played so many years and never earned a ring. There was even speculation that if the Giants won, Barber’s former teammates would turn a cold shoulder if he tried to interview them in his new capacity as a broadcast journalist. Didn’t happen. On Sunday amid confetti and a wild celebration, Barber was actually embraced by some of his former teammates. Immediately after the victory, Eli Manning, whom Barber had called out to be more of a leader, gave Barber a one-on-one interview for the “Today” show. “Those are my guys,” Barber said Thursday from his home in Manhattan. “I went down on the field after the game, and there wasn’t one guy who didn’t come up and give me a big hug and say, ‘God, I wish you were still here.’ There wasn’t one guy.” Retiring star players often set the foundation for future success. In Barber’s case, his criticism of Coach Tom Coughlin and of Manning might have paid dividends this season. You can argue that Barber’s tactics became too public. But often, the only way to bring about change is to confront — sometimes embarrass — authority. Barber laid the foundation for what happened this season, from taking on Coughlin, to challenging Manning to step up, to tutoring Brandon Jacobs. “I feel great joy for them because I know in a lot of ways I helped a lot of guys on that team,” Barber said. “I know Brandon was someone who benefited from me being there; even criticizing someone is a way of getting them to think about themselves.” I asked Barber if he thought his criticism of Manning helped prod him out of a shell. “I don’t know, cause Eli doesn’t pay attention, ” Barber said laughing. “In this case, it made him stand up and I guess become aware.” Last summer, a current Giants veteran, who is a member of Coughlin’s advisory board of players, confirmed the effectiveness of Barber’s outspokenness in an e-mail message. Under the subject line of “Miss U,” the message read: “You would be happy to know all your work paid off for us. Tom has been unbelievably cool this year. Took us bowling last night instead of meetings and just been joking around and busting on guys all the time. You would be impressed by his transformation.” Barber said he chatted with Jeremy Shockey, the Giants’ injured tight end, after the team’s dramatic victory in Green Bay in the National Football Conference title game. Shockey wanted to know how Barber was taking the Giants’ success. “We chatted on text message a little bit,” Barber said. “He was like, ‘Aw, you got to be dying.’ I said, ‘Jeremy, I’ve been out of this a year already, I’m not dying.’ ” I wondered: was Shockey dying? “It was upsetting to him because people were saying they got that far because he wasn’t there,” Barber said. “His response to me was, ‘The people who know, know that’s not true, and that’s all that matters.’ ” In the midst of all the “how must Tiki feel” speculation, I thought about Oscar Robertson, one the greatest basketball players ever. Robertson was a star at Cincinnati and led the Bearcats to the Final Four in 1960. The season after Robertson left, Cincinnati won the first of two consecutive national championships. I wondered how he felt.  “I was really happy for them,” Robertson said Thursday from his home in Cincinnati. “Everything is timing, you know.” Robertson said that when the star player left, younger players who watched and took notes often stepped up the next season. “All that time, when the star is taking all that heat, getting double- and triple-teamed, you’ve got to learn something,” Robertson said. “Without even knowing it, sometimes you lay a foundation.” Was there any part of him that wished he were there to enjoy the thrill of winning the national championship? “Naturally, I would have liked to have won while I was there, but I had my time,” he said. “I couldn’t go back; I had my time.” Barber was in Tampa, Fla., on Monday looking at real estate in connection with a partnership to build affordable housing. Among real estate, broadcasting and publishing a new book, Barber has an open field before him. He said there was also no sorrow, no remorse. “I feel a lot of joy for them,” he said. “I really do.” Believe Barber or don’t believe him, but time has moved on and he has moved on with it. I’d suggest that Giants fans savor this special time in franchise history because the moment is fleeting, indeed.

Football
Super Bowl
New York Giants
Barber Tiki


Chief of eBay Is Expected to Retire

Abstract: SAN FRANCISCO — An era at eBay is about to end. Meg Whitman , chief executive of eBay for the past 10 years, is retiring, according to a person with knowledge of the situation. The company intends to replace Ms. Whitman as chief executive of the Internet auction giant with John Donahoe, 47, president of eBay’s marketplaces division, which includes its large but stagnating online auction business. The announcement could come as early as this week. Ms. Whitman recruited Mr. Donahoe in late 2004, when he was managing director of Bain & Company, a consulting firm where they worked together in the 1980s. Mr. Donahoe, a former college basketball player, is known within eBay for appearing in the company gym before 7 a.m. and for maintaining 75-hour workweeks and an intense travel schedule. He has also made a habit of publicly acknowledging eBay’s core problems, like lackluster customer service and the site’s dated user interface. He has spent much of his tenure at eBay trying to bring consumers back to the site, and to that end, creating systems to measure how changes will affect the complex eBay environment, where alterations can and often do have unintended consequences. Colleagues praise Mr. Donahoe’s spirited and accessible demeanor. Mr. Donahoe has “an uncanny ability to connect with everyone from receptionists to chief executives,” Thomas Tierney, an eBay director and another Bain alumnus, said in an interview last year. “Getting along socially and being able to build relationships is a type of social bandwidth that is hard to come by.” Mr. Donahoe will need these personal assets. The various problems of eBay, which is based in San Jose, Calif., are coming together in an ominous statistic: fewer people are visiting the auction site in the United States, still a core driver of its business. Ten percent fewer customers visited eBay.com last December than in December 2006, according to the tracking company Nielsen Online. Though eBay has tried to get its most loyal customers to buy more, the overall decline in traffic has depressed business. Gross merchandise volume, the total amount of all goods and services sold on eBay.com, has been growing at a slower pace over the last few years than e-commerce in general, which means that eBay is losing market share, particularly to Amazon. The expected change of chief executives was first reported by The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday. Ms. Whitman’s plans have not been disclosed, but she has been a contributor and fund-raiser for Mitt Romney, a Republican presidential contender. Like Ms. Whitman, Mr. Romney is a Bain alumnus. Wall Street analysts and eBay observers have been preparing for Ms. Whitman’s departure for some time, particularly as eBay’s stock price has sagged. “If Meg leaves, it’s not the end of the world,” said Robert Peck, an analyst at Bear Stearns. “The management team is deep. They have been grooming Donahoe for two years, and Bob Swan, the chief financial officer, comes from G.E.”

eBay Inc
Whitman Margaret C
Executives and Management
San Francisco (Calif)
Retirement


At Yale, a Quarterback, a Coach and a Rhodes Scholarship

Abstract: For the last two weeks, Patrick Witt, the most prolific passer in the history of Yale football, wrestled with a decision that pitted a historic educational opportunity against one final chance to play in “The Game” against Harvard. Witt’s options were to pursue a Rhodes scholarship with an interview on Saturday morning in Atlanta — an unbreakable appointment — or to remain in New Haven and quarterback the underdog Bulldogs against the Crimson for a third and last time. He chose the latter. Throughout Witt’s decision-making process, which attracted national attention, the quarterback said he leaned on his coach, Tom Williams, for advice. Williams, according to numerous recent reports, had faced a similar situation when he was at Stanford in 1992. In several of those articles, including one by Bloomberg News, it was reported that Williams decided to forgo his Rhodes scholarship finalist interview for a chance to earn a spot on an N.F.L. roster. “I followed my dream to play N.F.L. football,” Williams told Bloomberg News. “I have no regrets about it at all.” But officials with the Rhodes Scholarship Trust said this week that they had no record of Williams ever applying for a scholarship, let alone having to weigh whether to attend a finalist’s interview. Williams, whose biography on the Yale Web site says he was a Rhodes scholar candidate, does not appear in the scholarship trust’s databases. Williams, in an interview Wednesday, said he had applied for the Rhodes scholarship as a student at Stanford, and that the university had endorsed his bid. But he said he withdrew his candidacy soon after, before the finalists were named, and said he had never faced the kind of decision his young quarterback had. “I wasn’t trying to confuse anyone or make it sound different than it was,” Williams said, adding of Witt, “No, I didn’t get as far as he did.” Of his situation, he said: “I was in the preliminary stages at Stanford and I had to decide, but the interview wasn’t official.” Over the last several years, and again in recent weeks, there have been any number of articles — in Yale’s alumni magazine, in the student newspaper The Yale Daily News — that asserted Williams was a Rhodes finalist. It does not appear that Williams ever sought to correct that perception. A Yale University spokesman said Williams’s résumé did include an entry for being a Rhodes scholar candidate, not a finalist. When asked by a reporter to look into Williams’s candidacy, the officials with the Rhodes organization seemed to raise questions about whether he had pursued the prestigious academic scholarship. “I have now checked and rechecked our archives. According to our database records, no one by the name Thomas or Tom Williams applied for the scholarship in ’91, ’92 or ’93,” according to an e-mail from Joyce Knight of the Rhodes Scholarship Trust that was forwarded by Elliott Gerson, the trust’s American secretary. “I can also confirm that no male with the last name of Williams was advanced to the district (final interview stage) in those same years.” In 1992, the Rhodes process still included a first-round interview, which would have occurred on a Wednesday in December. Now, only the finalists are interviewed. Yale did not comment specifically on the apparent discrepancy. Officials at Stanford, when contacted, were not immediately able to determine if Williams had applied for the Rhodes. Those who apply for the Rhodes remain in the database even if they withdraw their applications, Gerson said. He added that it “was conceivable though frankly highly unlikely” that Williams withdrew his application so quickly that it was not passed on to the national Rhodes office and therefore he did not appear in the database. Witt was unable to be reached for comment. He has refused to speak about his decision this week, releasing only a statement saying that he would withdraw the application and concentrate on the Harvard game. He informed Rhodes officials of his decision last Sunday night, and it took them a bit by surprise. “It is rare for someone to decline an interview,” Gerson said. “I cannot remember anyone else who has ever declined an interview for an athletic event.” Williams was an assistant at Stanford for three years before joining the N.F.L.’s Jacksonville Jaguars for two seasons. In 2009, he was hired by Yale, becoming the first black head football coach at the university and the second in the Ivy League. Williams was referred to as a former Rhodes finalist in an article that appeared on the Web site of The New Haven Register last week. In the article, he said he did not regret skipping a Rhodes interview to take part in a minicamp for the San Francisco 49ers. He also discussed the counsel he had provided to Witt. “He and I have talked frequently about this situation and I still believe you have to follow your heart, whatever your heart tells you,” Williams said, according to the newspaper. “If you do that, you won’t be disappointed, you won’t have any regrets. I am one of those people that say you live your life with no regrets and just told him to soul search and do what feels right. I think if you do that, you can’t go wrong.” On Wednesday, Williams, a history major and linebacker at Stanford, said that although he was attracted to the prestige of the Rhodes, he had always wanted to play football for a living. He said he decided to apply for the scholarship after talking to Cory Booker, now Newark’s mayor, who had been an older teammate and mentor who won the Rhodes. “Where I grew up, all the guys dreamed about playing in the N.F.L,” said Williams, who was born in Fort Worth. “No one grew up with a thought about being a Rhodes scholar.” He considered applying again the next year, but said he instead spent the next two years trying to make the 49ers’ roster.

Williams Tom
Football
Rhodes Scholarship
Yale University
Rhodes Scholarship Trust
Witt Patrick
Football (College)
College Athletics


Things to Do on Long Island, Oct. 23 to Nov. 1, 2015

Abstract: A guide to cultural and recreational events on Long Island. Items for the calendar should be sent at least three weeks in advance to lical@nytimes.com. Comedy LEVITTOWN Governor’s Comedy Club Jon Fisch. Oct. 30 at 8 p.m. $15 to $45. Bob Nelson. Oct. 31 at 7:30 and 9 p.m. $25. Pete Correale. Nov. 6 at 8 p.m. $25 to $55. Dom Irrera. Nov. 7 at 7 and 9:30 p.m. $25 to $55. Governor’s Comedy Club, 90 Division Avenue. 516-731-3358; govs.com. PORT WASHINGTON Landmark on Main Street “Forbidden Broadway.” Oct. 24 at 8 p.m. $37 to $52. Landmark on Main Street, 232 Main Street. 516-767-6444; landmarkonmainstreet.org. WESTBURY NYCB Theater at Westbury “Last Comic Standing Live” tour. Nov. 1 at 3 p.m. $52 to $531. NYCB Theater at Westbury, 960 Brush Hollow Road. 516-334-0800; thetheatreatwestbury.com. Film BROOKVILLE Tilles Center for the Performing Arts “Miriam Beerman: Expressing the Chaos.” Nov. 4 at 7 p.m. $8, cash only at the door. Tilles Center for the Performing Arts, 720 Northern Boulevard. 516-299-3100; tillescenter.org. GLEN COVE Holocaust Memorial and Tolerance Center “Deli Man” (2014), documentary by Erik Anjou. Oct. 25 at 2 p.m. $18 and $20. Holocaust Memorial and Tolerance Center, 100 Crescent Beach Road. holocaust-nassau.org; 516-571-8040. MINEOLA Chaminade High School “Robin Hood” (1922), starring Douglas Fairbanks, with live organ accompaniment. Oct. 24 at 7 p.m. $12; children and students, $5. Chaminade High School, 340 Jackson Avenue. chaminade-hs.org; 516-742-5555. PATCHOGUE Patchogue Theater for the Performing Arts “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.” Oct. 31 at 7:30 p.m. $13 to $23. Patchogue Theater for the Performing Arts, 71 East Main Street. 631-207-1313; patchoguetheatre.com. ROSLYN HARBOR Nassau County Museum of Art “Edgar Degas: Of Dandies, Ballerinas and Women Ironing.” Tuesdays through Saturdays, 11 a.m., noon, 1 p.m. and 3 p.m.; Sundays, 11 a.m. and noon. Through Nov. 8. Nassau County Museum of Art, 1 Museum Drive. 516-484-9337; nassaumuseum.org. For Children GARDEN CITY Long Island Children’s Museum “Once Upon a Time ... Exploring the World of Fairy Tales,” bilingual exhibition. Through Jan. 3. $5 with museum admission; $10 theater only. Ghostly Gala, decorate a goody bag, go gallery trick-or-treating, get your face painted and wear a costume. Oct. 24, 6 to 9 p.m. $10; $8, members. Hours: Tuesdays through Sundays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. 516-224-5800; licm.org. HUNTINGTON Heckscher Museum of Art Trick or Treat at the Museum. Oct. 31, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Free for children in costume. Wednesdays through Fridays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Saturdays and Sundays, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Heckscher Museum of Art, 2 Prime Avenue. 631-351-3250; heckscher.org. HUNTINGTON Huntington Arts Council “Nightmare on Main Street,” student art exhibition. Through Oct. 31. Free. Huntington Arts Council, 213 Main Street. 631-271-8423; huntingtonarts.org. LINDENHURST Studio Theater “Rock ’n’ Roll Cinderella.” Through Nov. 14. $10. Studio Theater, 141 South Wellwood Avenue. 631-226-8400; studiotheatreli.com. NORTHPORT John W. Engeman Theater at Northport “James and the Giant Peach,” musical by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, based on the book by Roald Dahl. Through Nov. 1. $15. John W. Engeman Theater at Northport, 250 Main Street. 631-261-2900; engemantheater.com. OAKDALE CM Performing Arts Center “Annabelle Broom, the Unhappy Witch,” musical. Through Oct. 31. $12. CM Performing Arts Center, 931 Montauk Highway. 631-218-2810; cmpac.com. PATCHOGUE Patchogue Theater for the Performing Arts “BOO! A Family Friendly Halloween Musical.” Oct. 25 at 3 p.m. $10 to $18. Patchogue Theater for the Performing Arts, 71 East Main Street. patchoguetheatre.com; 631-207-1313. STONY BROOK Long Island Museum of American Art, History and Carriages Halloween family fun day. Come in costume for trick-or-treating, pumpkin painting, crafts and refreshments. Oct. 25, 1 to 4 p.m. Long Island Museum of American Art, History and Carriages, 1200 Route 25A. longislandmuseum.org; 631-751-0066. Music and Dance AMAGANSETT Stephen Talkhouse Sarah Conway and the Playful Souls, rock. Oct. 23 at 8 p.m. $15.00. Stephen Talkhouse, 161 Main Street. stephentalkhouse.com; 631-267-3117. BAY SHORE Y.M.C.A. Boulton Center for the Performing Arts Keller Williams, singer and guitarist. Oct. 29 at 8 p.m. $40 to $45. Anna Nalick, singer-songwriter. Oct. 30 at 8 p.m. $25 to $60. “Honoring the King: A Joyous Recall of B.B. King,” tribute show with Joe Louis Walker. Oct. 31 at 8 p.m. $35 to $40. “Gary Anthony — A Tribute to Frank Sinatra.” Nov. 7 at 8 p.m. $38 to $45. Y.M.C.A. Boulton Center for the Performing Arts, 37 West Main Street. 631-969-1101; boultoncenter.org. BELLPORT Bellport United Methodist Church The Studio 7 Piano Trio performs the music of Brahms. Oct. 25 at 3 p.m. Donations accepted. Bellport United Methodist Church, 185 South Country Road. 631-286-1832; umcbellport.org. BROOKVILLE Tilles Center for the Performing Arts The violinist Joshua Bell performing works by Beethoven and Fauré. Oct. 24 at 8 p.m. $56 to $106. The Nassau Pops Symphony Orchestra with Joe Piscopo. Oct. 25 at 2 p.m. $35 to $55. Clare Bowen and Chip Esten, country. Nov. 7 at 8 p.m. $40 to $95. The Bill Charlap Trio, jazz. Nov. 8 at 3 p.m. $40. Tilles Center for the Performing Arts, 720 Northern Boulevard. tillescenter.org; 516-299-3100. GARDEN CITY Adelphi University Performing Arts Center Screening of the Salzburg Festival’s “Arabella.” Oct. 25. $20; alumni and faculty, $10; students, $5. Adelphi University Performing Arts Center, 1 South Avenue. 516-877-4000; aupac.adelphi.edu. HUNTINGTON Huntington Public Library “Washington Square Winds: They’re Alive!” Oct. 25 at 2 p.m. Free. Huntington Public Library, 338 Main Street. hpl.suffolk.lib.ny.us; 631-427-5165. HUNTINGTON The Paramount Rodney Carrington. Oct. 23 at 8 p.m. $29 to $69. Boz Scaggs. Oct. 25 at 8 p.m. $69.50 to $99.50. Iration, reggae. Oct. 27 at 8 p.m. $15 to $35. Ben Folds with yMusic, rock. Nov. 1 at 8 p.m. $30 to $65. The Paramount, 370 New York Avenue. paramountny.com; 631-673-7300. LINDENHURST Studio Theater “Jim Small and Friends: Now and Then,” songs and stories. Oct. 30 at 8 p.m. $30. Studio Theater, 141 South Wellwood Avenue. www.studiotheatreli.com; 631-226-8400; LONG BEACH Long Beach Public Library “Fourth Annual Kickin’ Country Eclectic Music Festival. Nov. 6, 7 and 8. Free. Long Beach Public Library, 111 West Park Avenue. 516-432-7201; nassaulibrary.org/longbeach. NORTHPORT Northport Public Library Canta Libre Chamber Ensemble. Oct. 23 at 7:30 p.m. Free. Northport Public Library, 151 Laurel Avenue. 631-261-6930; nenpl.org. PATCHOGUE Patchogue Theater for the Performing Arts “Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis Tribute Show.” Nov. 1 at 3 p.m. $18 to $38. “A Sousa Salute to Our Veterans,” a celebration of Veterans Day with the Atlantic Wind Symphonic Band. Nov. 8 at 3 p.m. $10 to $25. Patchogue Theater for the Performing Arts, 71 East Main Street. 631-207-1313; patchoguetheatre.com. PORT WASHINGTON Landmark on Main Street “David Bromberg Big Band,” bluegrass, gospel, folk and Irish fiddle. Oct. 31 at 8 p.m. $52 to $72. “Tribute to Linda Ronstadt: The Early Years,” vocalist Kellie Nicole, guitarist Frankie Didonate and bassist Jon Price. Nov. 4 at 2 p.m. Free. Landmark on Main Street, 232 Main Street. 516-767-6444; landmarkonmainstreet.org. PORT WASHINGTON The Sands Point Preserve Shotgun Wedding, rock and country. Oct. 24 at 8 p.m. $60. The Sands Point Preserve, 127 Middle Neck Road. 516-571-7901; www.thesandspointpreserve.com. SOUTHAMPTON Southampton Cultural Center Karen Oberlin, cabaret. Oct. 31 at 7 p.m. $35 to $45. Jazz Roots Dance Company with Jason Samuels Smith. Nov. 7 at 6 p.m. $40; students with ID, $20. Hours: Mondays through Saturday, 11 a. m. to 3 p.m. Southampton Cultural Center, 25 Pond Lane. 631-287-4377; southamptonculturalcenter.org. WESTBURY NYCB Theater at Westbury The Machine, a Pink Floyd tribute band. Oct. 23 at 8 p.m. $29.50. NYCB Theater at Westbury, 960 Brush Hollow Road. 800-745-3000; livenation.com. WESTHAMPTON BEACH Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center Steve Hackett, rock. Nov. 8 at 8 p.m. $75 to $95. Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center, 76 Main Street. 631-288-1500; whbpac.org. Spoken Word BROOKVILLE Tilles Center for the Performing Arts A talk with Anna Deavere Smith, the actress and playwright Nov. 6 at 7:30 p.m. $38. Tilles Center for the Performing Arts, 720 Northern Boulevard. tillescenter.org; 516-299-3100. GARDEN CITY Adelphi University Performing Arts Center Trio Solisti offers a lecture and musical demonstration on its concert repertoire. Oct. 23 at 11 a.m. Free. Adelphi University Performing Arts Center, 1 South Avenue. 516-877-4000; aupac.adelphi.edu. HEMPSTEAD Guthart Cultural Center Theater, Joan and Donald E. Axinn Library “The Poet & the Piper.” Connie Roberts reads from “Little Witness,” a poetry collection. Oct. 26 at 7 p.m. Free. Guthart Cultural Center Theater, Joan and Donald E. Axinn Library, Hofstra University, South Campus. hofstra.edu; 516-463-6182. Image ST. JAMES “Perfectly Unhurried” (2014), oil on canvas by artist Amal, is on view through Jan. 8 in the Member Artist Showcase, a group show, at the Smithtown Township Arts Council, 660 Route 25A. Information: 631-862-6575; stacarts.org. Credit Amal HUNTINGTON Huntington Public Library “The History of the Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church.” Nov. 6 at 7 p.m. Free. Huntington Public Library, 338 Main Street. hpl.suffolk.lib.ny.us; 631-427-5165. STONY BROOK Charles B. Wang Center “Modular Kirigami,” lecture with George Hart. Oct. 28 at 6 p.m. Free. Charles B. Wang Center, Stony Brook University. 631-632-4400; thewangcenter.org. Theater EAST ISLIP BayWay Arts Center “Route 66,” musical by Roger Bean. Oct. 24 through Nov. 8. $14 to $22. BayWay Arts Center, 265 East Main Street. 631-581-2700; broadhollow.org. ELMONT BroadHollow Theater “Fatal Attraction.” Through Oct. 25. $14 to $23. BroadHollow Theater, 700 Hempstead Turnpike. 516-775-4420; broadhollow.org. HEMPSTEAD John Cranford Adams Playhouse “Fiddler on the Roof,” musical by Joseph Stein, Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick. Oct. 23 through Nov. 1. $12 and $15. John Cranford Adams Playhouse, Hofstra University, South Campus. 516-463-6644; hofstra.edu/drama-dance. LINDENHURST Studio Theater “What the Rabbi Saw,” comedy by Billy van Zandt and Jane Milmore. Through Oct. 25. $25. Studio Theater, 141 South Wellwood Avenue. studiotheatreli.com; 631-226-8400. NORTHPORT John W. Engeman Theater at Northport “West Side Story.” Through Nov. 8. $69 to $74. John W. Engeman Theater at Northport, 250 Main Street. 631-261-2900; engemantheater.com. OAKDALE CM Performing Arts Center “The Addams Family.” Through Nov. 8. $22 to $29. “The Rocky Horror Show,” musical. Through Nov. 7. $20. CM Performing Arts Center, 931 Montauk Highway. 631-218-2810; cmpac.com. PORT JEFFERSON Theater Three “ Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street,” based on an adaptation by Christopher Bond, with book by Hugh Wheeler and music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. Through Oct. 24. $15 to $30. Theater Three, 412 Main Street. theaterthree.com; 631-928-9100. QUOGUE Hampton Theater Company, Quogue Community Hall “An Inspector Calls,” by J. B. Priestley. Through Nov. 8. $10 to $30. Hampton Theater Company, Quogue Community Hall, 125 Jessup Avenue. hamptontheatre.org; 631-653-8955. SMITHTOWN Smithtown Center for the Performing Arts “A Little Night Music,” music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, book by Hugh Wheeler. Through Nov. 8. $35. Smithtown Center for the Performing Arts, 2 East Main Street. smithtownpac.org; 631-724-3700. WANTAGH East Line Productions “Deathtrap,” by Ira Levin. Through Oct. 25. $15 and $20. East Line Productions, 2123 Wantagh Avenue. 516-749-5047. Museums and Galleries CUTCHOGUE Alex Ferrone Photography Gallery “Globetrotting,” photographs by Susan Dooley, Ray Germann and Dave Burns. Through Nov. 15. Alex Ferrone Photography Gallery, 25425 Main Road. 631-734-8545; alexferronegallery.com. DIX HILLS The Art League of Long Island “Under the Radar,” works by Pat Ralph. Through Nov. 1. Mondays through Fridays, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.; Saturdays and Sundays, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. The Art League of Long Island, 107 East Deer Park Road. 631-462-5400; artleagueli.net. EAST HAMPTON The Drawing Room Costantino Nivola, sculptures and bas reliefs. Antonio Asis, gouaches on paperboard. Through Oct. 26. Free. Mondays, Fridays and Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sundays, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. The Drawing Room, 66 Newtown Lane. 631-324-5016; drawingroom-gallery.com. EAST ISLIP Islip Art Museum “Compendium,” group show. Through Dec. 27. Reception: Oct. 30, 8 to 10 p.m. $15 and $25. Wednesdays through Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.; Sundays, noon to 4 p.m. Islip Art Museum, 50 Irish Lane. islipartmuseum.org; 631-224-5402. GLEN COVE Hersh Fine Art at the Long Island Academy of Fine Art Works by Cornelia Hernes, Stephen Bauman and Steve Forster. Through Nov. 30. Mondays through Fridays, noon to 5 p.m.; weekends by appointment only. Hersh Fine Art at the Long Island Academy of Fine Art, 14 Glen Street. 516-590-4324; hershfineart.com. GLEN COVE North Shore Historical Museum “George Gách and the Art of the North Shore: History, Inspirations and Perspectives.” Oct. 31 through Feb. 20. $5; members, free. North Shore Historical Museum, 140 Glen Street. 516-801-1191; northshorehistoricalmuseum.org. HEMPSTEAD Hofstra University Museum “Enduring Images,” group show. Through Jan. 31. Free. “Doug Hilson: Urbanscapes,” paintings and drawings. Daily, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Through Dec. 11. Hofstra University Museum, Hofstra University. hofstra.edu/museum; 516-463-5672. HUNTINGTON Fotofoto Gallery “80 From the ’80s: Living and Dying in the Shadow of AIDS,” photographs by Susan Dooley and Susan Kravitz. Through Oct. 31. Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Fridays 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.; Sundays, noon to 5 p.m. Fotofoto Gallery, 14 West Carver Street. fotofotogallery.org; 631-549-0448. HUNTINGTON Heckscher Museum of Art “James Rosenquist: Tripartite Prints,” Through Nov. 22. “Graphic Appeal: Modern Prints From the Collection,” Through Nov. 29. “Street Life: Private Moments/Public Record,” works that feature New York City. Through March 27. $4 to $8; children under 10, free. Wednesdays through Fridays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Saturdays and Sundays, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Heckscher Museum of Art, 2 Prime Avenue. heckscher.org; 631-351-3250. HUNTINGTON STATION South Huntington Public Library Oil and water paintings by Denis Ponsot. Through Nov. 11. Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Wednesdays, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Saturdays, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sundays, 1 to 5 p.m. South Huntington Public Library, 145 Pidgeon Hill Road. 631-549-4411; shpl.info. JAMESPORT Rosalie Dimon Gallery, Jamesport Manor Inn Paintings by Jerry Schwabe and photographs by Steven Schreiber. Through Oct. 28. Wednesdays through Mondays, noon to 10 p.m. Rosalie Dimon Gallery, Jamesport Manor Inn, 370 Manor Road. 631-722-0500; jamesportmanorinn.com. MASSAPEQUA Studio 5404 Artspace “What Lies Beneath — The Spirit of Art.” Oct. 24 through Dec. 7. $10 suggested donation. Studio 5404 Artspace, 5404 Merrick Road, Massapequa, N.Y. 11758. 631-748-4196; Studio5404artspace.com. OYSTER BAY Collector Car Showcase “The American Hot Rod.” Through Oct. 31. $5 to $10; Free, children under 7. Collector Car Showcase, 85 Pine Hollow Road (Route 106). collectorcs.com; 516-802-5297. OYSTER BAY Oyster Bay Historical Society “Light Over Water: Oyster Bay Harbor Scenes,” paintings, watercolors and drawings by Kirk Larsen. Through Dec. 23. Tuesdays through Fridays, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.; Saturdays, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.; Sundays, 1 to 4 p.m. Oyster Bay Historical Society, 20 Summit Street. 516-922-5032; oysterbayhistorical.org. PORT WASHINGTON Graphic Eye Gallery “The Music of Nature II,” brush paintings by the Long Island Sumi-e Society. Through Oct. 25. Free. Wednesdays through Sundays, noon to 5 p.m. Graphic Eye Gallery, 402 Main Street. 516-883-9668; graphiceyegallery.com. RIVERHEAD Thirty West Main “August Abstracts,” group show. Through Oct. 29. Tuesdays through Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Thirty West Main, 30 West Main Street. 631-727-0900; eastendarts.org. ROSLYN HARBOR Nassau County Museum of Art “The Moderns,” selections from the Saltzman family collection and Long Island Collects Modern Art. “Posters of the Russian Revolution: 1917-1921.” “Frank Olt: New Works.” Through Nov. 8. $4 to $10; children 4 and under and members, free. Tuesdays through Sundays, 11 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. Nassau County Museum of Art, 1 Museum Drive. nassaumuseum.org; 516-484-9337. SAG HARBOR Richard J. Demato Fine Arts Gallery “The Tales We Tell Together,” group show. Through Nov. 12. Sundays through Thursdays, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; and Friday and Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Richard J. Demato Fine Arts Gallery, 90 Main Street. rjdgallery.com; 631-725-1161. SAYVILLE The Sayville Historical Society “The Civil War: In Their Own Words,” correspondence from Long Island soldiers. Through Dec. 13. Suggested donation, $5. Saturdays 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and Sundays 2 to 4 p.m. The Sayville Historical Society, 39 Edwards Street. 631-563-0186; sayville.com. SELDEN Maurice N. Flecker Memorial Gallery, on the Ammerman Campus of Suffolk County Community College “Allegory of the Cave,” works by Jim Byrne and Jim Osman. Nov. 5 through Dec. 10. Free. Maurice N. Flecker Memorial Gallery, on the Ammerman Campus of Suffolk County Community College, 533 College Road. 631-451-4110; sunysuffolk.edu. SETAUKET Gallery North “Local Color: Then & Now.” Through Nov. 13. Tuesdays through Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sundays, noon to 5 p.m. Gallery North, 90 North Country Road. 631-751-2676; gallerynorth.org. SOUTHAMPTON Southampton Cultural Center “Material Matters,” group show with artists including Monica Banks, Patricia Feiwel, David Geiser and Alice Hope. Through Nov. 17. Mondays through Saturday, 11 a. m. to 3 p.m. Southampton Cultural Center, 25 Pond Lane. 631-287-4377; southamptonculturalcenter.org. ST. JAMES Smithtown Township Arts Council Member Artist Showcase, group show. Through Jan. 8. Free. Mondays through Fridays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Saturdays and Sundays, noon to 4 p.m. Smithtown Township Arts Council, 660 Route 25A. 631-862-6575; stacarts.org. STONY BROOK Charles B. Wang Center “Origami Heaven,” works by eight artists. “Reality Override,” mixed-media works by Ren Zi. “Explore History: Objects From Asia,” Asian and Asian-American material culture. All through Dec. 31. Free. Mondays through Fridays, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., or by appointment. Charles B. Wang Center, Stony Brook University. 631-632-4400; thewangcenter.org. STONY BROOK Long Island Museum of American Art, History and Carriages “Gilding the Coasts: Art and Design of Long Island’s Great Estates,” group show. Through Oct. 25. “Beth Levine: The First Lady of Shoes,” footwear, photographs and paintings. Through Jan. 3. “Young Island: William Sidney Mount’s Scenes of Childhood.” Through Jan. 3. $3.50 to $9; members and children under 6, free. Thursdays through Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sundays, noon to 5 p.m. Long Island Museum of American Art, History and Carriages, 1200 Route 25A. 631-751-0066; longislandmuseum.org. STONY BROOK Simons Center for Geometry and Physics at Stony Brook University “Manfred Mohr: Pioneer of Algorithmic Art,” Simons Center Gallery. Through Nov. 12. Mondays through Fridays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; and by appointment. Simons Center for Geometry and Physics at Stony Brook University, 100 Nicolls Road. 631-632-2800. SYOSSET Syosset Public Library Photographs of East African nomadic tribes by Gary Warren. Through Oct. 28. Free. Mondays through Thursdays, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Fridays, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Saturdays, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sundays, noon to 5 p.m. Syosset Public Library, 225 South Oyster Bay Road. 516-921-7161; syossetlibrary.org.

Long Island
The arts
Theater
Museum
Music


Police on Two Coasts Seek Motive After a Midtown Execution

Abstract: A single bullet. A nickel-plated gun. Two suspects, lying in wait in the light drizzle of a Monday afternoon in Midtown, stalking their victim for nearly 30 minutes. The target came down West 58th Street, toward Broadway, his eyes focused on a smartphone in that familiar modern pose. He appeared for a second to glimpse his hooded assailant, the police said, but, not recognizing him, turned around again. The gunman then fired a bullet into the back of the victim’s head and, without apparent urgency or panic, stepped into a waiting car to blend into the midday traffic near Columbus Circle. It seemed like a movie-script murder out of Hollywood, a mysterious targeted killing of a law school student visiting from Los Angeles that left detectives on two coasts scouring for evidence and a logical motive. On Tuesday, a better picture of the victim, Brandon Lincoln Woodard, began to emerge along with details about his final hours, deepening the intrigue over his murder. The gun had been used before, in a 2009 shooting in Queens. Mr. Woodard had flown to New York only Sunday, with plans to return to the West Coast the next day. “He had a law school exam,” said Christiane Roussell, a lawyer in Los Angeles who grew up with Mr. Woodard in Ladera Heights. The police said he had no return ticket. Mr. Woodard, 31, was the scion of a successful family in California. His life had been a blend of achievement and puzzling setbacks that included at least 20 arrests, mostly in California, the police said. His relatives were entrepreneurs, lawyers and trailblazers; his grandfather, Leonard Woods, was a celebrated drag racer. His mother, Sandra Wellington, ran a once-successful mortgage business, and sent him to private Episcopal schools in Los Angeles and North Hollywood. This summer, California authorities revoked her company’s license to lend or service mortgages, citing violations of the state financial code. Mr. Woodard was a promising student who played varsity basketball in high school at Campbell Hall, and always dressed impeccably, his relatives and friends said. At the time, he was in the local chapter of Jack and Jill of America — a national, invitation-only society of middle- and upper-class black families. Those years, friends said, children from the club could be found poolside at parties at his family’s home. That background, and his gregarious nature, made him a fixture on the party and club scene in Los Angeles, his friends said. He drove a Range Rover in college at Loyola Marymount University, but, as one friend said, “his personality was his bling.” This month, he had his eye on a Mercedes-Benz CL63 AMG that he hoped to buy, a cousin said. As a partyer and promoter, Mr. Woodard made himself a part of a world of expensive alcohol and private tables where, friends said, people with elite pedigrees rubbed elbows with stars and professional athletes — as well as with a rougher crowd. Several friends in Los Angeles said that in recent years he had been sliding into the darker side of club life. “I know him as a good person,” said Dennis Christopher White, 32, a friend of Mr. Woodard’s for about 10 years, who met him playing basketball in Los Angeles. “He’s like a brother or a cousin to me. He’s very humble.” But as Mr. White married and pursued a career in government work, he saw less of Mr. Woodard, who continued his busy presence in the city’s night-life scene. “You never know who he meets,” Mr. White said. “I didn’t get a chance to know that part of him.” Mr. Woodard’s mother, Ms. Wellington, 56, said she believed that all of his arrests came when he was a juvenile, but court records clearly indicated that he had more recent arrests and misdemeanor convictions. In 2009, for example, Mr. Woodard was arrested on robbery charges in Hermosa Beach, a Los Angeles suburb, after he struggled with a supermarket guard who tried to stop him from stealing several bottles of wine. The police said he fled in a car, hit two other cars, abandoned his car, hailed a cab and fled. He had a court date in Los Angeles in January on a charge of cocaine possession. Mr. Woodard had hosted several dozen guests at a party at his condo in Playa Vista on Saturday night to watch the boxing match between Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez. His last message on Facebook, posted from Los Angeles at 12:41 a.m. on Sunday after Marquez’s surprising early-round knockout of Pacquiao: “The fix was in tonight.” He flew to New York and got a room at 6 Columbus, a hotel just blocks from the spot where he was killed. A friend in New York, who gave his name only as Earl, said Mr. Woodard had a girlfriend in the city, but added that his activities were often mysterious: “He lived a little Batman-ish — a little secretive.” Mr. Woodard had three telephones, two on him at the time of the shooting and another in his luggage, said the police commissioner, Raymond W. Kelly. He said the police had not identified the plate number on the getaway vehicle, but said a similar sedan had been seen leaving Manhattan via the Queens-Midtown Tunnel at 2:15 p.m., roughly 20 minutes after the killing. The gunshot left a single shell on the Midtown pavement. Mr. Woodard’s mother said that her son, who had a 4 1/2-year-old daughter, had planned to stay in New York City for two days to visit a friend. He asked her to pick him up at Los Angeles International Airport at 5 p.m. Pacific time on Monday and she agreed to do so, she said. “I don’t know what happened,” she said, speaking from her home in Los Angeles. “We don’t know why anyone would harm him. We have no idea. He didn’t have any enemies. Not one. He liked to tell jokes. He liked to have his friends over to entertain.” Mr. Woodard had checked out of his hotel about 45 minutes before he was killed, Mr. Kelly said in a news conference on Tuesday. It was possible, he added, that Mr. Woodard was lured out of the hotel. A surveillance video captured the shooting and the getaway vehicle, a Lincoln MKX, but not its license plate. “It was very brazen,” Mr. Kelly said. “There were a lot of people in that general area. Obviously, a lot of cameras in New York City. So you could characterize it as either being brazen or being foolhardy. We’ll see.” The police later matched the gun used to kill Mr. Woodard to a shooting on Nov. 22, 2009, at a residence at St. Albans, Queens, in which two men fired at least 12 shots, piercing windows and the siding of the house. There were seven people inside, but no one was injured, and there were no arrests, the police said. There was no known motive for that shooting, just as in this case. A cousin of Mr. Woodard’s, Anthony Woodard, 50, said Brandon’s mother had not been able to accept the fact that her son was dead. “The only thing she keeps saying is, ‘When is he coming home? When is my son coming home?’ and we have to tell her, ‘That’s not going to happen.’ She does not want to sleep until her son comes home.” He added: “This is far beyond anyone’s imagination. That’s her only child.”

Midtown Area (NYC)
Murders and Attempted Murders
New York City
Woodard Brandon Lincoln
Los Angeles (Calif)


L.S.U. Wins a Clash of Conferences

Abstract: ARLINGTON, Tex. — Off the field, where seemingly all the action is in college sports these days, the Pacific-12 and the Southeastern Conferences appear poised to grow. With Texas A&M shoving off to the SEC and Oklahoma flirting with the Pac-12, the debate will continue to rage from Gainesville barstools to Seattle coffee shops over which football league is better. The SEC made another definitive statement about its superiority on Saturday night. No. 4 Louisiana State dominated the line of scrimmage and overpowered No. 3 Oregon, 40-27, cashing in on Ducks turnovers and preventing their frenetic offense from controlling the game’s tempo. The Ducks again flailed offensively on the biggest stage in college football, as they also sputtered through last year’s national title game against Auburn before falling, 22-19. “That’s good for the SEC,” Tigers safety Eric Reid said. “We like to say that we’re the best conference, and it helps that we won tonight.” This game was not nearly as close. L.S.U. broke the game open by scoring two third-quarter touchdowns off fumbles by the celebrated Ducks freshman tailback De’Anthony Thomas. L.S.U. punched the ball home on touchdown runs from Michael Ford and Spencer Ware, capping 21-yard and 41-yard drives. The backup quarterback Jarrett Lee converted just one pass on those two drives, underscoring how he managed the game and L.S.U. controlled the line of scrimmage. Nothing epitomized the Tigers’ defensive dominance more than the four turnovers they forced. Oregon racked up more yards than the Tigers (335-273), but they could not protect the ball well enough to exploit their spurts of offensive success. L.S.U. finished the game with 175 yards rushing and held Oregon’s Heisman Trophy finalist LaMichael James to 54 yards on 18 carries. The Tigers won despite Lee’s completing 10 of 22 passes for 98 yards, mainly because Ware rushed for 99 yards and Ford for 96. “They played good, solid football,” Oregon Coach Chip Kelly said of L.S.U.’s controlling the line of scrimmage. “That’s it. That’s a good defensive front. They did a really nice job, they were sound in the schemes and really gap-control oriented.” After an off-season defined by N.C.A.A. investigations, conference expansion shenanigans and off-field legal problems, it was only fitting that they transcended the showcase opener for college football this year. An hour before kickoff, Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott declined to answer questions about whether the conference had fielded calls regarding Oklahoma’s interest in joining. In the Dallas area, where the Big 12 office is located, the game played out amid a backdrop of change. “We asked them to put to the perimeter all those things that could be distractions and things that the sports media needed to visit about and rehash and define and clarify,” L.S.U. Coach Les Miles said. But on the field, the suspensions that dogged the buildup to the game also loomed large. The Ducks desperately missed Cliff Harris, their most dynamic defensive and special-teams player. That was never more apparent than during the biggest play of the first half, when the Ducks backup punt returner Kenjon Barner fielded a punt and immediately got the ball ripped away by Tyrann Mathieu, who casually strolled into the end zone after embarrassing Barner to give L.S.U. a 9-6 lead early in the second quarter. L.S.U.’s stout defense kept the Tigers in the game as Lee eased into it. Lee would not have been playing if not for the suspension of Jordan Jefferson, the starting quarterback who is out indefinitely for his role in a fight in the parking lot of the appropriately named Shady’s bar. “I enjoyed Jarrett Lee’s effort,” Miles said. “I liked how the offense did the things it needed to do, keep the ball on the ground, with the lead.” Both teams bumbled through the first half, with 11 penalties, 4 fumbles (2 lost) and an interception, underscoring just how each team was sputtering. Oregon’s offense failed to find consistency, as Darron Thomas completed 17 of 27 passes but threw an interception and felt significant pressure from L.S.U.’s front seven. In the end, the roars of the pro-L.S.U. crowd at Cowboys Stadium echoed through the night. College football picked up right where it left off in 2010, with controversy raging and the SEC walking off the field with yet another marquee victory.

Football (College)
Football
College Athletics
Louisiana State University
University of Oregon
James LaMichael


Pardons and Commutations

Abstract: The 14 people who were pardoned and 2 who had their sentences commuted by President Bush on Monday, as reported by The Associated Press: Pardoned: Leslie O. Collier, Charleston, Mo., pleaded guilty to unlawfully killing three bald eagles. Milton K. Cordes, Rapid City, S.D., convicted of conspiracy to violate the Lacey Act, which prohibits importation into the country of wildlife taken in violation of conservation laws. Richard M. Culpepper, Mahomet, Ill., convicted of making false statements to the federal government. Brenda J. Dolenz-Helmer, Fort Worth, Tex., convicted of concealing knowledge of a crime, medical insurance fraud. Andrew F. Harley, Falls Church, Va., convicted of wrongful use and distribution of marijuana and cocaine in a general court martial at the Air Force Academy. Obie G. Helton, Rossville, Ga., unauthorized acquisition of food stamps. Carey C. Hice Sr., Travelers Rest, S.C., convicted of income tax evasion. Geneva Y. Hogg, Jacksonville, Fla., convicted of bank embezzlement. William H. McCright Jr., Midland, Tex., convicted of bank fraud. Paul J. McCurdy, Sulphur, Okla., sentenced for misapplication of bank funds. Robert E. Mohon Jr., Grant, Ala., convicted of conspiracy to distribute marijuana. Ronald A. Mohrhoff, Los Angeles, convicted for unlawful use of a telephone in a narcotics felony. Daniel F. Pue III, Conroe, Tex., convicted of illegal treatment, storage and disposal of a hazardous waste without a permit. Orion L. Vick, White Hall, Ark., convicted of aiding and abetting the theft of government property. Sentences commuted: John E. Forté, North Brunswick, N.J., cocaine offense. James R. Harris, Detroit, cocaine offense.

Bush George W
Amnesties Commutations and Pardons
Crime and Criminals


Facebook Retreats on Online Tracking

Abstract: Faced with its second mass protest by members in its short life span, Facebook , the enormously popular social networking Web site, is reining in some aspects of a controversial new advertising program. Within the last 10 days, more than 50,000 Facebook members have signed a petition objecting to the new program, which sends messages to users’ friends about what they are buying on Web sites like Travelocity.com, TheKnot.com and Fandango. The members want to be able to opt out of the program completely with one click, but Facebook won’t let them. Late yesterday the company made an important change, saying that it would not send messages about users’ Internet activities without getting explicit approval each time. MoveOn.org Civic Action, the political group that set up the online petition, said the move was a positive one. “Before, if you ignored their warning, they assumed they had your permission” to share information, said Adam Green, a spokesman for the group. “If Facebook were to implement a policy whereby no private purchases on other Web sites were displayed publicly on Facebook without a user’s explicit permission, that would be a step in the right direction.” Facebook, which is run by Mark Zuckerberg, 23, who created it while an undergraduate at Harvard, has built a highly successful service that is free to its more than 50 million active members. But now the company is trying to figure out how to translate this popularity into profit. Like so many Internet ventures, it is counting heavily on advertising revenue. The system Facebook introduced this month, called Beacon, is viewed as an important test of online tracking, a popular advertising tactic that usually takes place behind the scenes, where consumers do not notice it. Companies like Google, AOL and Microsoft routinely track where people are going online and send them ads based on the sites they have visited and the searches they have conducted. But Facebook is taking a far more transparent and personal approach, sending news alerts to users’ friends about the goods and services they buy and view online. Charlene Li, an analyst at Forrester Research, said she was surprised to find that her purchase of a table on Overstock.com was added to her News Feed, a Facebook feature that broadcasts users’ activities to their friends on the site. She says she did not see an opt-out box. “Beacon crosses the line to being Big Brother,” she said, “It’s a very, very thin line.” Facebook executives say the people who are complaining are a marginal minority. With time, Facebook says, users will accept Beacon, which Facebook views as an extension of the type of book and movie recommendations that members routinely volunteer on their profile pages. The Beacon notices are “based on getting into the conversations that are already happening between people,” Mr. Zuckerberg said when he introduced Beacon in New York on Nov. 6. “Whenever we innovate and create great new experiences and new features, if they are not well understood at the outset, one thing we need to do is give people an opportunity to interact with them,” said Chamath Palihapitiya, a vice president at Facebook. “After a while, they fall in love with them.” Mr. Palihapitiya was referring to Facebook’s controversial introduction of the News Feed feature last year. More than 700,000 people protested that feature, and Mr. Zuckerberg publicly apologized for aspects of it. However, Facebook did not remove the feature, and eventually users came to like it, Mr. Palihapitiya said. He said Facebook would not add a universal opt-out to Beacon, as many members have requested. MoveOn.org started the anti-Beacon petition on Nov. 20, and as of last night more than 50,000 Facebook users had signed it. Other groups fighting Beacon have about 10,000 members in total. Facebook, they say, should not be following them around the Web, especially without their permission. The complaints may seem paradoxical, given that the so-called Facebook generation is known for its willingness to divulge personal details on the Internet. But even some high school and college-age users of the site, who freely write about their love lives and drunken escapades, are protesting. “We know we don’t have a right to privacy, but there still should be a certain morality here, a certain level of what is private in our lives,” said Tricia Bushnell, a 25-year-old in Los Angeles, who has used Facebook since her college days at Bucknell. “Just because I belong to Facebook, do I now have to be careful about everything else I do on the Internet?” Two privacy groups said this week that they were preparing to file privacy complaints about the system with the Federal Trade Commission. Among online merchants, Overstock.com has decided to stop running Facebook’s Beacon program on its site until it becomes an opt-in program. And as the MoveOn.org campaign has grown over the past week, some ad executives have poked fun at Facebook users. “Isn’t this community getting a little hypocritical?” said Chad Stoller, director of emerging platforms at Organic, a digital advertising agency. “Now, all of a sudden, they don’t want to share something?” Facebook users each get a home page where they can volunteer information like their age, hometown, college and religion. People can post photos and write messages on their pages and on their friends’ pages. Under Beacon, when Facebook members purchase movie tickets on Fandango.com , for example, Facebook sends a notice about what movie they are seeing in the News Feed on all of their friends’ pages. If a user saves a recipe on Epicurious.com or rates travel venues on NYTimes.com , friends are also notified. There is an opt-out box that appears for a few seconds, but users complain that it is hard to find. Mr. Palihapitiya said Facebook is making the boxes larger and holding them on the Web pages longer. Mr. Green of MoveOn.org said that his group would be tracking the effects of the latest changes before deciding if it would still push for a universal opt-out. The whole purpose of Beacon is to allow advertisers to run ads next to these purchase messages. A message about someone’s purchase on Travelocity might run alongside an airline or hotel ad, for example. Mr. Zuckerberg has heralded the new ads as being like a “recommendation from a trusted friend.” But Facebook users say they do not want to endorse products. “Just because I use a Web site, doesn’t mean I want to tell my friends about it,” said Annie Kadala, a 23-year old student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. “Maybe I used that Web site because it was cheaper.” Ms. Kadala found out about Beacon on Thanksgiving day when her News Feed told her that her sister had purchased the Harry Potter “Scene It?” game. “I said, ‘Susan, did you buy me this game for Christmas?’” Ms. Kadala recalled. “I don’t want to know what people are getting me for Christmas.”

Facebook.com
Advertising and Marketing
Privacy


Two Officers Were Shot; Wisconsin Store Liable for Gun Sale

Abstract: MILWAUKEE — A jury late Tuesday awarded more than $5 million in damages to two police officers who were severely wounded with a pistol that a local gun shop sold to a straw buyer in 2009. Deliberating only nine hours after a two-week trial in Milwaukee County Circuit Court, the jury of eight women and four men decided the unusual lawsuit here in favor of the plaintiffs. Gun-control advocates hoped the verdict would encourage more victims and lawyers to sue what they say is a small minority of gun stores that make questionable sales. The jury found that the store had been seriously negligent in selling the gun when there were signs that the ostensible purchaser was fronting for an 18-year-old who accompanied him to the store. One month after the purchase, the 18-year-old, Julius Burton, shot Officer Bryan Norberg in the face and Officer Graham Kunisch in the head and body, leaving him with brain damage and a destroyed eye. Officer Norberg was emotional and felt vindicated by the verdict, said the chief lawyer for the officers, Patrick O. Dunphy. Mr. Kunisch, who has retired, was pleased but barely showed it, Mr. Dunphy said, a result of his brain injury. James Vogts, the chief lawyer for Badger Guns, the former gun store in West Milwaukee that sold the weapon, said in a statement that the shop owners would appeal the decision. He said that questions might be raised about the evidence the jury was permitted to hear and some of the legal standards it was told to apply. The suit was closely watched by gun-control advocates, the firearms industry and legal scholars because it involved a rare test before a jury of the responsibility of gun sellers for the criminal use of their products. The case arose in May 2009 when Jacob Collins, 21, bought a Taurus semiautomatic pistol at Badger Guns on behalf of Mr. Burton, who was too young to legally purchase a gun. Mr. Burton helped select the weapon. Weeks later, Mr. Burton used the gun to shoot the two Milwaukee police officers. He is serving 80 years for attempted murder, and Mr. Collins served two years for the illegal purchase. The two officers and the City of Milwaukee sued Badger Guns, arguing that its employees either knew the sale was illegal or were grossly negligent in allowing it to proceed. It was only the second time in the last decade that a civil lawsuit alleging negligent sales by a gun shop reached a jury. Victims and city governments tried to sue the gun industry dozens of times in the 1980s and after, but more than 30 states — and Congress, in 2005 — passed laws barring most lawsuits against gun makers and sellers for the way that buyers use their products. Video Judge John J. DiMotto of Milwaukee County Circuit Court read a jury’s verdict that found Badger Guns was seriously negligent in selling a pistol that was later used to shoot two police officers. Credit Credit Rick Wood/Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, via Associated Press The federal law, the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act , provides for exceptions that were cited in the Milwaukee case: Victims wounded with a weapon can pursue civil damages if the seller of a firearm knew, or should have known, that the transaction was illegal, or that it would very likely pose a danger. In instructions to jurors, Judge John J. DiMotto said they must decide whether a “preponderance of evidence” indicated that store employees “believed or had reasonable cause to believe” that Mr. Collins was not buying the weapon for his own use. Lawyers for the plaintiffs argued that many red flags on the day of the purchase should have aroused suspicion and led the store clerk to question Mr. Collins and his hovering friend more aggressively and to refuse the sale. Mr. Burton was seen in a security videotape helping Mr. Collins choose the Taurus handgun. The two walked outside together briefly when Mr. Collins did not have enough money in his pocket to cover the $414 transaction. As Mr. Collins struggled with paperwork, he checked on a federal form that he was not buying the gun for himself, then altered the answer when the clerk noted that it was inconsistent with what he had said on the state form. “Badger Guns was supposed to be the public’s gatekeeper,” Mr. Dunphy told the jury in his closing argument Monday. “This is your opportunity to send a message to other gun dealers,” he said as he asked for millions in personal and punitive damages. But Mr. Vogts, the defense lawyer, in recounting the sequence of events, said that it had been far from obvious that Mr. Collins was buying the gun for Mr. Burton, and that the clerk and the store would never have intentionally made a criminal sale. According to the law, Mr. Vogts told the jury, it is not enough to show that the clerk “should have been more careful.” Rather, the plaintiffs had to show that he had “real reason to believe that a crime was being committed in his presence.” Badger Guns’ federal firearms license was revoked in 2011 because of repeated violations. But the 2009 sale to Mr. Collins was not one of those violations, and Judge DiMotto did not allow the jury to hear about the revocation. Named in the suit were Adam J. Allan, who owned Badger Guns at the time of the sale; his father, Walter J. Allan; and Milton E. Beatovic, who had co-owned a previous gun store in the same location called Badger Outdoors. But the verdict applies only to Badger Guns as a corporate entity, Mr. Dunphy said. The jury awarded about $1.2 million in damages for past and future medical expenses, lost wages and pain and suffering to Officer Norberg and about $3.2 million in damages to Mr. Kunisch, Mr. Dunphy said. It also awarded them $730,000 in punitive damages. The City of Milwaukee will collect a share of the awards in compensation for medical expenses and disability costs as a result of the shooting, Mr. Dunphy said.

Gun Control
Milwaukee
Julius Burton
Graham Kunisch
Bryan Norberg
Attacks on Police


Czech Ex-Premier Acknowledges Fault in Corruption Scandal

Abstract: PARIS — Former Prime Minister Petr Necas of the Czech Republic acknowledged in an interview published Monday that he had shown poor judgment and said he had planned to resign even before he became ensnared in a corruption scandal that brought down his government last month. Mr. Necas, 48, was forced to resign after the police charged his chief of staff with bribery and abuse of office. In the interview, published in Tyden, a Czech weekly magazine, Mr. Necas characterized the chief of staff, Jana Nagyova, as his girlfriend. She is accused of ordering the secret services to spy on his estranged wife, whom Mr. Necas is divorcing. “Our relationship is very deep, and I am counting on it for the future,” he told the magazine. Ms. Nagyova has also been charged with bribing three members of Parliament, who opposed a government austerity plan, with offers of posts in state-owned companies in return for their agreement to leave Parliament. In total, eight officials with links to Mr. Necas were arrested in an elaborate anti-corruption sting operation that included wiretapping Ms. Nagyova’s phone conversations. She has denied any wrongdoing and was released from jail Friday, pending trial. Elaborating on his extramarital affair for the first time and taking responsibility for what happened, Mr. Necas said he had known that being romantically involved with his chief of staff while he was prime minister was ill advised. But, he suggested, he was a man deeply in love. “Interconnecting a personal relationship with a working relationship is simply not correct, and I knew that,” he said. “I must bear personal political responsibility for this, too.” Mr. Necas said he and Ms. Nagyova had both planned to leave their posts by the end of the summer but were pre-empted when the scandal erupted. He said that prosecutors must have known from the wiretaps of his departure plans and that the sudden and dramatic arrests in June appeared to be motivated to assure maximum exposure and embarrassment for him and Ms. Nagyova. “They knew that the colorful soap opera stage which they counted on exposing would disappear,” he said. Mr. Necas said he was bracing himself for the day when the intimate recorded conversations between him and Ms. Nagyova were made public. “It will be horrible and stressful for me, my family and Jana Nagyova and her daughters,” he told the magazine. The inquiry, the most exhaustive since the fall of communism in 1989, has been hailed as a seminal moment in the fight against corruption in the Czech Republic. But prosecutors have been struggling to build part of their case. They had initially demanded that Parliament lift Mr. Necas’s immunity from prosecution in order to charge him in connection with the bribery of three former members of Parliament. But last week they dropped this demand after the Supreme Court ruled that the members of Parliament accused of bribery were protected by parliamentary immunity from prosecution. The chief prosecutor in the case, Ivo Istvan, said Sunday on Czech television that prosecutors would also likely drop the bribery charges against the former lawmakers following the court’s decision. That would be a significant blow to the case, which many hope might redefine what constitutes corruption. Some critics have argued that the offering of lucrative state jobs to the rebellious lawmakers, however unsavory, amounted to political deal-making and did not constitute bribery. Mr. Istvan, who has declared that the trading of political favors can indeed be a form of bribery, indicated that he was seeking to clarify whether Mr. Necas and the former members of Parliament could still be charged if bribery took place outside the parliamentary chamber. Prosecutors are also investigating whether Mr. Necas knew or approved of the illegal spying aimed at his estranged wife. Jaroslav Plesl, the Tyden journalist who interviewed Mr. Necas, said in an interview that the former prime minister had appeared deeply wounded but also notably defiant. “He seemed seriously hurt and very much in a fighting mood,” he said by telephone from Prague. “He is a man who is obviously deeply in love. There’s no doubt about that.”


Nigeria: American Missionary Is Freed

Abstract: An American missionary who was kidnapped in central Nigeria in February was released on Friday, according to a statement from her church, the Free Methodist Church. The Rev. Phyllis Sortor, 71, a missionary to Nigeria, was safely handed over into the care of the authorities and church leaders in Nigeria, the church said. Ms. Sortor, who is from Washington State, was abducted from the Hope Academy compound in Emiworo, in Kogi State, on Feb. 23, the church said. “We are deeply grateful to all who prayed for Phyllis’ safe return,” said David W. Kendall, for the Board of Bishops.

Nigeria
Kidnapping and Hostages
Missionary
Phyllis Sortor
Methodists


Kim Jong-il’s Son Is Reportedly Given No. 2 Post

Abstract: SEOUL, South Korea — At a time when dynastic rule is under attack in popular uprisings throughout the Middle East, the heir apparent to the North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il smoothly acceded to a senior position on the National Defense Commission, the country’s most powerful body, according to a report on Wednesday by a leading newspaper in Seoul. The newspaper, the Chosun Ilbo, citing an unidentified source in North Korea , said that Mr. Kim’s youngest son, Kim Jong-un , had cemented his position as the second most powerful person in the country when he was named recently to the post of vice chairman of the defense commission, which is led by his father. The move was announced at a mass gathering of military leaders and security officials on Feb. 10, according to the newspaper’s source, but emerged only Wednesday, as the 69th birthday festivities for the elder Mr. Kim were in full swing in the capital, Pyongyang. The celebration, typically crowned by a vast turnout of goose-stepping soldiers and dancing, uniformed women in the city’s central square, was punctuated — as it is every year — by a flower show featuring bright red tuberous begonias called kimjongilia . Yet the events were marred by the leader’s failure to follow through on a promise of a day’s food to all of the country’s 24 million people, The Associated Press reported. The government may be saving up for 2012, the centennial of the birth of the country’s founder, Kim Il-sung, and the year the ailing Mr. Kim has heralded as a deadline for building a “powerful, prosperous” nation. Mr. Kim suffered a stroke in 2008 and is thought to have diabetes, kidney failure and cardiovascular problems. The South Korean government marked his 69th birthday by sending “unification balloons” carrying 100,000 propaganda leaflets over the border, a South Korean Web site, the Daily NK, reported . At a ceremony before the launching, a lawmaker with the governing Grand National Party in South Korea, Lee Doo-ah, read a statement saying, “The succession from Kim Jong-il to Kim Jong-un is a violation of the universal and reasonable values of human beings and a tragic act against history.” Just days before Mr. Kim’s birthday, his second son, Kim Jong-chol, 30, was in Singapore attending a concert by the legendary guitarist Eric Clapton, Agence France-Presse and other news outlets reported. Amateur video from the scene showed a young man bearing a strong family resemblance strolling through the venue trailed by men in civilian clothes who tried to shield him from the cameras. Apparently a dedicated fan, Kim Jong-chol attended a series of Clapton concerts in 2006, following the British star to performances in four German cities, A.F.P. reported. The North’s official Korean Central News Agency also said that with the day’s festivities the country was “paying high tribute to the undying feats that General Secretary Kim Jong-il has performed by leading the cause of building a thriving nation to victory.” South Korean government officials could not immediately confirm Kim Jong-un’s promotion, and the North Korean news agency had made no mention of it by Wednesday afternoon. “Kim Jong-un assuming such a position is quite natural, and not surprising,” said Paik Hak-soon, director of the Center for North Korean Studies at the Sejong Institute near Seoul. “It’s not too early for something like this. Sooner or later it was to be expected.” Kim Jong-un, who is believed to be 28 or 29, appeared publicly for the first time at a meeting of the ruling Workers’ Party last fall. He was given the rank of four-star general and received two significant political posts: membership on the party’s Central Committee and a vice chairmanship of its Central Military Committee, which is also overseen by his father. Although his emergence as a serious political figure has been undeniable, some political experts had remained unconvinced that Kim Jong-un was secure in his anointed position. But if the report of his promotion to the No. 2 post on the National Defense Commission is true, they said Wednesday, there can be no further doubts. “He is in a very special and unique category, and nobody else can be included as possibly assuming the supreme leadership,” Mr. Paik said. The 15-member defense commission has several vice chairmen, including Jang Song-taek, the leader’s brother-in-law and the younger Mr. Kim’s uncle. It is widely believed that Mr. Jang, the husband of Kim Jong-il’s sister, has effective day-to-day control of the country. But in terms of power and position, “Kim Jong-un is already ahead of Jang Song-taek,” Mr. Paik said. “Jang Song-taek is the most powerful and loyal guardian” for the heir apparent, he said. “But it’s not possible for him to be promoted to supreme leader.” North Korea watchers in the South, lacking reliable and verifiable information about the North’s succession drama, were abuzz recently over television images showing the senior and junior Kims at an art show in Pyongyang: both men were wearing black pants, identical padded and oversize cargo coats and matching brown fur hats.

North Korea
Kim Jong Un
Kim Jong Il
Politics and Government
Kim Jong-chol


Web Videos Let Car Buyers Survey Their Many Choices

Abstract: ONE of the most dreaded buying decisions is becoming still tougher. Auto manufacturers now sell about 280 different cars in the United States, up from 208 at the start of the decade. In five years that number is expected by market researchers to reach 340. The Internet’s solution to this problem sounds suspiciously like its answer to everything else these days: more video. But in this case, analysts said, it could help buyers, carmakers and automotive Web sites — at least in the short term. More than 70 percent of car buyers do some research online before making a purchase. The site that is putting the finest point on the idea of online research is DriverTV.com , which will makes it official debut today after several months in test mode. Based in New York and Los Angeles, the site features high-definition video clips of new-car models, with each video following a uniform script. A roughly three-minute video of a $175,000 Lamborghini Gallardo, for example, shows the car from the same angles as a clip featuring a $15,000 Chevrolet Aveo. As a narrator describes the features, interior and exterior shots are coupled with footage of the car driving along a stretch of road in Southern California. The site’s parent, DriverTV, began late in 2005 as a video-on-demand offering for cable television companies. But according to Jan Renner, DriverTV’s chief executive, the Web is a better home for the content. Because many cable companies transmit high-definition programs judiciously as a result of the costs of bandwidth, DriverTV’s high-definition content has not been widely distributed to living rooms and its videos look sharper online than on television. And unlike cable TV subscribers, Internet users need not jump through hoops to get the service. Even though DriverTV clips cost nothing on cable, subscribers must pay extra for video-on-demand service. Mr. Renner said that given the pace at which viewers are visiting DriverTV.com, he expects the site to reach more than a million monthly visitors within a year. (DriverTV has about 700,000 monthly cable viewers.) • To generate cash, the site surrounds videos with ads from Suzuki, Porsche and Chevrolet, among other carmakers. The video initiative is not cheap. Radical Media, a maker of commercials and feature films, produces the clips and owns a partial stake in DriverTV. But Mr. Renner said the cost was increasingly necessary to attract car buyers and advertisers. “This is just an easier way to digest data,” he said. “The average consumer spends five hours online shopping for a car, and a lot of the other car sites have become cumbersome and data-centric. We think there’s an opening on the market for a place where customers can see and get a feel for the car, in a simple format.” Indeed, according to George Peterson, president of Auto Pacific, a marketing research firm based in Tustin, Calif., the videos help provide an answer to what is, for many potential buyers, the most important question: how would it look on me? “People may not even listen to the voice-over for the videos,” Mr. Peterson said, adding, “They might be interested in looking at the specs of the car, then the price, and then maybe other cars in its class.” Auto executives said most of the sites that now serve prospective car buyers, like Edmunds.com, Cars.com and Kelley Blue Book’s kbb.com , had been slow to invest substantially in video until now, in part because they have enjoyed financial success with their text-heavy approaches, while such investments would bring uncertain returns. Curt Hecht, chief digital officer of GM Planworks, a unit of the Starcom Media- vest Group dealing with General Motors media planning, said: “It’s in our interest to help folks like DriverTV change the game a little bit. These other sites could have bigger imaginations, quite frankly.” Some automotive sites, like Vehix.com , are already leading off a visitor’s experience with video. The site, which is privately held and based in Salt Lake City, devotes the top of the home page to its Vehix TV initiative, that among other things, features a new set of video buying guides produced with the auto research firm J. D. Power & Associates. A spokesman, Kerry Lehtinen, said Vehix TV was started two years ago. “It’s been very popular,” Mr. Lehtinen said. “It extends the amount of time people spend on the site, and it’s getting people further down the purchase funnel. The more information they have, the more ready they are to buy.” Other sites have approached video in fits and starts. Edmunds.com, for instance, last year began producing “interactive vehicle tours” for new cars, but stopped that effort after “studying our site visitors’ behavior and taking into account their feedback,” a spokeswoman, Jeannine Fallon, said. Ms. Fallon would not offer details about the users’ reaction to the Edmunds videos, but she said the site was now working on a new approach to multimedia car profiles. • David Pryor, vice president for marketing of Porsche Cars North America, said video was especially important for luxury brands like his. “The traditional ‘just the facts, ma’am’ approach on the Internet hasn’t been the best for us because we’re an aspirational brand,” he said. “We’re selling the dream.” Porsche has tripled its online advertising budget in the last three years to reach the “seven-figure range,” Mr. Pryor said. And as more sites adopt a video-focused philosophy, he said, his online spending would accelerate. While that approach might help sell more cars, it could lead to less-satisfied customers in the long term, according to Barry Schwartz, a psychology professor at Swarthmore College and the author of “The Paradox of Choice.” When consumers are faced with a large set of options, Mr. Schwartz said, they often simplify their decisions so much that they make poor choices. “In this case, they’re likely to just choose a car by its looks,” he said. A better approach, Mr. Schwartz said, would be to offer users the ability to quickly winnow the possible choices, based on important features like size, reliability and mileage, then offer video overviews. Otherwise, he said, “these sites shouldn’t delude themselves into thinking they’re doing a favor to the customer.”

Automobiles
Computers and the Internet
Recordings and Downloads (Video)