Quest for Balance in Joining European Union

Abstract: KORCULA, Croatia — From where he sits on this island off the Dalmatian coast, Toni Lozica has a clear view of the significance of July 1, 2013 — the day Croatia became the 28th country to join the European Union. “We cannot stand alone,” said the 52-year-old native Korculan who, after 20 years of living and working in Amsterdam, came home to take charge of an elite hotel in the island’s old town, and to assume his role as scion of large and prominent local family. His point of reference is not just the political and economic realities of 21st century Europe, or even Croatia’s geographical position on the edge of the Balkans, in a region still scarred by the Continent’s most recent wars. In his view, the European Union — for all its faults — has stepped into a historical role once played, for better or for worse, by the Austro-Hungarian Empire and later, the Yugoslav Federation, before they fell apart under the strain of war, nationalist politics and hatred. “We have to learn from these experiences, and learn not to make the same mistakes,” he said. “The Austro-Hungarian empire and Yugoslavia were two entities that existed in this same area, and now we are starting the same thing.” “The European Union is an intellectual idea,” he added. At its most basic, it was designed to prevent war — “a beautiful thing, of course.” But its ambition is also to combine and coordinate the political and economic forces of its members states, large and small, without sacrificing national cultural identities. “Europe should be together and stronger and have long-term strategy to become a federation,” he said. “Europe will have to be able to defend itself.” Of course, Croatians are joining the European Union at a low point, when Euro-skepticism is riding high across the Continent. Only 43.5 percent of registered Croatians cast ballots in the January 2012 referendum on joining the European Union, which passed with 66 percent of the vote. To a large extent, Croatia, with its population of almost five million, was already integrated into the European Union, even before its formal entry. “We are already dependent on economically stronger nations,” Mr. Lozica said. “Most of our banks are owned by foreign banks, and most of the economy is owned by foreign investors.” Korcula, with a year-round population of 16,000, has come to live off tourism; since its heyday in Communist times, employment at the local shipyard has shrunk more than 75 percent. Most of the tourists are foreign, many drawn by the well-honed legend that Marco Polo was born on the island. Like other islands off the Dalmatian coast, Korcula has a history of seeing foreign occupiers come and go. The town’s 15th-century cathedral stands as testimony to the Venetians’ influence. It has lived under Hungarian, French, British, Austrian, Italian and Yugoslav rule, while relishing a certain limited autonomy. And yet despite the exposure to foreigners (or maybe because of it), the E.U. referendum lost in Mr. Lozica’s home village of Lumbarda, population 1,200, which lies between the Adriatic Sea and the vineyards that produce “grk,” an unusual white wine made there and nowhere else. The anti-E.U. argument came from the local Roman Catholic priest, Mr. Lozica said. “The priest said they shouldn’t vote for the E.U., and they didn’t,” he said. “He warned we would lose our soul, our heart and our independence.” It’s an argument that Mr. Lozica finds “unreal.” But it plays to a nationalism that remains virulent in Croatia, 22 years after it declared independence from Yugoslavia. “Croatia is poisoned by nationalism,” he said. “It will take time to drain that poison.” The problem is not just an unquenched rivalry with neighboring Serbs, but also divisions among Croats, a legacy that dates from World War II when towns and villages — even families — were split between the Communist Partisans, and the nationalist Ustashis. “The biggest frustration is the split between the descendants of the Partisans and the descendants of the Ustashi, which is still very strong,” Mr. Lozica said. “In this region, people can put history aside, but they can never forget. They can even forgive but it will come up at any moment, when it is necessary.” Mr. Lozica comes from a Partisan family; his father and seven uncles held powerful positions on the island during the Communist period. This heritage earned him the right to participate in the moreska, a ritual sword dance that is a unique Korcula tradition — and a tourist attraction. A big man with long hair, Mr. Lozica was naturally cast as one of the two kings in the pantomime battle, acted out with real swords. As elsewhere in Europe, identity in Korcula goes deeper than nationality or even ethnicity, and draws as much strength and sustenance from places, as well as ideas. For all his travel, and his cosmopolitan views, Mr. Lozica is proud of how rooted he is in Korcula. He boasts of speaking the Korculan dialect, heavily laden with Italian, which people of a younger generation have never learned. “I am very, very local in my thinking and doing,” he said. Yet Mr. Lozica, with his two passports, also swears by his European identity, just as his father and uncles were proud of their Yugoslav nationality. “Everybody has to be totally culturally independent,” he said, “but economically, we have to be able to work together and move around freely. In the end, most people won’t leave home if they don’t need to.”

Croatia
EU
Politics
Economy
Race and Ethnicity


U.A.B. Set to Reinstate Football After Outcry

Abstract: The mood six months ago at the University of Alabama at Birmingham was one of shock, sadness and anger when President Ray L. Watts announced that the university would be the first in nearly two decades to drop its top-tier football program, blaming the rising costs of the sport. What followed were months of community outrage, questions about both Watts’s math and his leadership and a far-reaching campaign — a “Free U.A.B.” movement — to try to change his mind. Millions of dollars were raised, students protested, and local politicians introduced legislation, all in support of bringing the team back. Watts acquiesced to public pressure Monday when he announced that football and two other canceled sports, women’s riflery and bowling, would be reinstated. “The biggest single difference is now we have tangible commitments for additional support that we never had before,” Watts said at a news conference. “Without that additional support, we could not maintain a balanced budget.” Watts said more fund-raising was needed, but he repeatedly cited the financial support pledged to U.A.B. athletics as the reason for his decision. Some estimates put donations as high as $30 million, most of it coming from boosters and business leaders in Birmingham, with the City Council contributing $2.5 million over five years and students voting to pay higher fees. “Football, we are all so excited about it because it’s the South’s sport,” said Hatton Smith, a local businessman. Frank Messina, an accounting professor at U.A.B., said, “It’s just a great day for the city and the school.” Watts announced in December that the university was ending football. Two-thirds of the athletic department’s $30 million budget is subsidized by the university, he reported, and he cited a university-commissioned study that found that U.A.B. would need to spend $49 million over the next five years to stay competitive in football. The announcement came not long after the largest and wealthiest conferences were granted new latitude to make some of their own rules, which included allowing them to increase the value of scholarships by a few thousand dollars each. But in a state where football is king, the team became a flash point for long-held frustrations at U.A.B., where many felt the University of Alabama System board of trustees had favored the flagship university in Tuscaloosa. The public reaction was vicious. Undergraduate and graduate student governments and the faculty senate passed resolutions of no confidence in the president. The math in the original study, done by the consulting firm CarrSports, was also accused of underestimating football donations and ignoring payouts from Conference USA. In response to the outcry, Watts formed a task force to re-examine the report and the canceled sports. “People hadn’t been given a chance to give, No. 1,” said Harold Jones, dean of the School of Health Professions and a member of the task force. “And they didn’t have confidence in the numbers. We felt like we had a chance to do it right.” The new study, delivered last month, found that the university could expect an annual deficit of about $3 million if it reinstated the three sports, thanks to increases in booster donations, student fees and corporate sponsors. It called keeping or cutting them “viable options.” Despite the animosity of recent months, Messina said, “the past is the past, and now we’re moving forward.” Watts insisted Monday that U.A.B. would not increase subsidies for the athletic department, calling on boosters and community donations to keep up with costs and, potentially, a new football stadium. “There is still substantial work to be done,” he said. “But we believe those who love U.A.B. will turn this energy into the money required to take athletics to a new level of success.”

College football
University of Alabama at Birmingham
Ray Watts


Former Israeli President Proposes Global Peace Initiative in Talks With Pope

Abstract: ROME — Shimon Peres, the former president of Israel, met with Pope Francis on Thursday to present his plan to create “a sort of United Nations for religions” to address the nature of contemporary conflicts. The plan is “based on the assumption that while in the past the majority of wars were motivated by the idea of nationhood, in the current world the trigger for conflicts is primarily the excuse of religion,” the Vatican said in a statement. The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, told reporters that the pope had listened to Mr. Peres’ proposal with interest “but did not make a personal commitment,” the news agency Ansa reported. The Vatican has pontifical councils that deal directly with the issues of peace and religion, and they will “attentively follow” the initiative, Father Lombardi said. The pope also met with Prince El Hassan bin Talal of Jordan, and “peace and religion were the key point” of that meeting as well, the Vatican said.

Shimon Peres
Catholic Church
Pope Francis


Forecast Hints That Hurricane Matthew Could Loop Back

Abstract: Is Matthew really going to loop back and hit Florida again? That is the question raised by the five-day forecast cones for the storm from the National Hurricane Center . The curving path you often see with a storm, heading up the coast, takes a very different path here, and droops like a candle that’s melting in the middle. Image Credit National Hurricane Center This forecast is unusual, but not unique. Hurricane Ivan , for example, also looped the loop back in 2004. Image Credit National Hurricane Center Christopher W. Landsea, science and operations officer at the National Hurricane Center, said that the Bermuda high, a persistent zone of high pressure that steers many hurricanes westward across the Atlantic, is also largely responsible for blunting Hurricane Matthew’s progress toward the north. The Bermuda High, he said, has re-formed to the north to shunt the storm southward. “It’s fairly uncommon, but it does happen every once in a while,” he said. If the storm does loop back around, however, expect it to have weakened substantially. The current forecast calls for the hurricane to be reduced to nothing more than a tropical depression, with wind speeds of no more than 40 miles per hour, Dr. Landsea said. But he warned, “Our wind-speed forecasting skill is less than our storm-track forecasting skill,” so “we don’t want to make any assumption that there’s not going to be any impact when it comes back around.” Marshall Shepherd, director of the atmospheric sciences program at the University of Georgia, said in an email response to questions that while there have been loops before, this one is “still neat and rare to see.” He also predicted that “if the high is strong enough, the clockwise steering flow will loop the storm (likely weakened) back to Florida.” That other storm in the Atlantic, Tropical Storm Nicole, is still too far to the east to interact with Matthew much, Dr. Landsea said, and it is unlikely to affect the United States.

Hurricanes
National Hurricane Center
Florida


A New Book Traces the Intellectual Path of Adam Smith

Abstract: MEASURED by fame and lasting influence, there is no other book on economics that comes close to “The Wealth of Nations” by Adam Smith. Many aspects of this book, first published in 1776, have become cornerstones of neoclassical economics: the organizing power of self-interest, the “invisible hand” of free markets and the crucial role of the division of labor are just three examples. Smith’s ideas have exercised enormous impact on policy-making — not to mention politics and punditry — particularly in Britain and the United States, where laissez-faire capitalism set down deep, tangled roots. Small wonder that Smith is known as the founder of modern economics. Against this backdrop, it comes as something of a surprise to discover “Adam Smith: An Enlightened Life” by Nicholas Phillipson (Yale, $32.50). Mr. Phillipson, an honorary fellow in history at the University of Edinburgh, has written an unabashedly intellectual biography in which Smith’s economics thinking is only part — at times, a smallish part — of a larger, inherently philosophical story. According to Mr. Phillipson, Smith was, first and foremost, concerned with developing “a genuine Science of Man” — an effort that began when Smith was a student at Glasgow University. There he studied the classics, jurisprudence, logic and metaphysics; he also met the philosopher Frances Hutcheson and the mathematician Robert Simson. These experiences helped Smith cultivate a respect for placing philosophy on a scientific basis and a compelling interest in thinking systematically. He spent most of his adult life honing these interests. He worked, Mr. Phillipson recounts, mostly in scholarly settings: as a student and faculty member and as a tutor to the Duke of Buccleuch, the young Scottish noble with whom he traveled as part of his young charge’s Grand Tour. He also served as a commissioner of customs in Edinburgh. All of these experiences, Mr. Phillipson makes clear in graceful prose, were grist for Smith’s intellectual mill. The two fruits of this effort were “The Theory of Moral Sentiments,” published in 1759, and “The Wealth of Nations.” In the earlier book, Smith set out to understand the motivations of human behavior and the development of moral principles within individuals. At the heart of Smith’s analysis lies the concept of sympathy (what we know today as empathy), which he saw as the bedrock of all forms of human communication, including commercial exchange. It is sympathy, he writes, that ultimately accounts for “that great purpose of human life which we call bettering our condition.” Smith built on this philosophical groundwork in “The Wealth of Nations.” Here, in a book of half a million words, he married man’s ineluctable drive for improvement with the concept of self-interest to set forth the primary driver of all economic activity: “It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest.” More than 230 years later, Smith’s concept of the self-interest-seeking individual acting in a competitive environment remains at center stage in mainstream economics. There are other important contributions in “The Wealth of Nations,” including equilibrium theory, opportunity cost, national income and the circular flow of economic activity. Mr. Phillipson, however, devotes little attention to these ideas, concentrating instead on Smith’s attack on 18th-century British commercial policy — government actions intended to manage imperial commerce for the mother country’s prosperity — and his consequent embrace of free trade. Smith regarded restraints on imports and other trade restrictions as a function of “the wretched spirit of monopoly” that had afflicted economic activity throughout history. The policy implications were clear. Free-flowing trade was the road to national prosperity and international concord. The best evidence for Smith’s argument, Mr. Phillipson demonstrates, was the rapid progress of the American colonies, where cheap land and the absence of high taxes and other restraints had helped create a thriving society and a robust domestic market. (It is one of the rich ironies of history that Smith’s commercial paradigm tore itself away from Britain, its biggest trading partner, in the same year his magnum opus was published.) The final chapters of Mr. Phillipson’s account reconstruct Smith’s later years and his efforts to revise both his books. Although Smith had hoped to publish another book, extending his “Science of Man” to the liberal sciences and elegant arts, the project outran him. He died on July 1, 1790, after a long illness, lamenting that he had not accomplished more. “An Enlightened Life” follows the evolution of Smith’s thinking closely and all it owed to the other intellectuals in his orbit, especially David Hume. But Mr. Phillipson’s biography tells us almost nothing about Smith the human being. Discussion of Smith’s likes and dislikes, his loves (he adored his mother and lived with her for much of his life) and even his appearance is largely absent from this book. Mr. Phillipson’s initial qualifier — that Smith left a scanty historical record — does not quite explain the book’s overriding focus on its subject as a factory of philosophical ideas. One longs for a sense of Smith’s harsh, stammering voice that worked so well in the lecture halls. Or a whiff of his legendary absent-mindedness. (He once put bread and butter into boiling water and complained about how bad the tea was.) Still, “An Enlightened Life” delivers on its original promise: to trace the intellectual development of Smith’s mind through the making of his own, essentially philosophical, texts. For all that subsequent generations, no less our own, have taken from Smith’s economic contributions, it is indeed enlightening to understand the broader sweep of his vision.

Books and Literature
Economic Conditions and Trends
International Trade and World Market
Smith Adam


Verizon and Yahoo: Internet Also-Rans With Big Hopes

Abstract: Verizon is continuing to invest in ancient web history. The telecom company on Monday said it was paying $4.8 billion to buy Yahoo’s core business. It effectively justifies rival T-Mobile’s tongue-in-cheek claim earlier this year that Verizon is having a midlife crisis. The Verizon boss, Lowell McAdam, after all, is betting the deal will help attract digital advertisers by meshing the internet-search firm with AOL, another 1990s highflier that Verizon bought last year. It is an appealing idea. Yahoo brings with it not just its search and advertising units, but also content like sports and finance that could play well with AOL’s assets like The Huffington Post and TechCrunch. Verizon will also get its hands on Yahoo’s 600 million monthly mobile users. Yahoo shareholders, though, have an exceptionally gloomy view of the business. It does not help that the division’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, or Ebitda, is likely to be just $770 million this year, according to Thomson Reuters data, down from $2 billion a decade ago. But investors do not even reckon the units being sold are worth anything. The overall company has around $5 billion in net cash and owns stakes in Alibaba and Yahoo Japan that are worth some $41 billion, yet Yahoo’s market value is just $37 billion. Mr. McAdam’s vision ought to resonate on Madison Avenue. Advertising executives are nervous about the twin powers of Facebook and Alphabet’s Google, which are expected to account for more than half of the American digital advertising revenue this year, according to the research firm eMarketer. They have shown little inclination to send more business to either of Verizon’s dot-com 1.0 duo. Yahoo and AOL’s collective slice of the $69 billion digital-ad market is expected to be 5.2 percent this year, eMarketer forecasts, and is likely to decrease to 4.8 percent in 2017. That has allowed Google and Facebook to gobble up most of the digital-advertising market. It may be that Tim Armstrong, who will run the combined AOL-Yahoo business, has a great plan to turn these two internet also-rans into a formidable force. History suggests otherwise.

Online advertising
AOL
Verizon Communications
Google
Yahoo!
Lowell C McAdam
Tim Armstrong


JPMorgan Committing $100 Million Over 5 Years to Aid Revitalization in Detroit

Abstract: JPMorgan Chase, the nation’s biggest bank, will provide $100 million to help debt-ridden Detroit with housing repairs, blight removal, job training and economic development projects over the next five years, according to two people with direct knowledge of the plans. The investment, a mix of loans and grants, will add to a growing pile of money from outside private institutions as the city nears the final, painful stages of the nation’s largest municipal bankruptcy proceeding. Detroit filed for bankruptcy protection in July, with an estimated $18 billion in long-term debt. This summer, a federal judge will decide whether to approve a plan that would allow the city to exit bankruptcy court by mid-October. In recent days, the city has been lobbying to secure nearly $200 million in funding from Michigan lawmakers, who are wary of setting a precedent by using taxpayer dollars to bail out a major metropolis. If approved, the state funding would be part of a so-called grand bargain that would also include hundreds of millions of dollars from philanthropic foundations. The money would be used to cushion pension cuts for Detroit retirees and avert the sale of the city’s art collection. The Legislature is weighing a package of bills regarding the outside funding this week. JPMorgan’s support, previously reported by Detroit newspapers, will focus on city revitalization efforts and may help ease concerns by some legislators that Detroit could find itself in financial trouble again down the road. The institution’s chairman and chief executive, Jamie Dimon, will make a public announcement about the money with state and city officials on Wednesday. A spokesman for the bank would not discuss the matter before then. “The city’s challenges remain significant — unprecedented, in some regards — but JPMorgan Chase believes that Detroit has the ingredients and intrinsic strengths to reshape and rebuild a dynamic modern economy and make the city a great place to live, work and invest,” said a company document detailing how the $100 million would be spent, which The Detroit Free Press posted online on Tuesday. “We are committed to helping make that future a reality.” The bank will direct half of the money to community projects that would otherwise lack access to capital. It will put $25 million toward assisting groups like the Detroit Land Bank Authority and the Detroit Blight Removal Task Force, which have begun aggressive demolition campaigns to rid the city of its estimated 78,000 vacant structures. The rest will be diced up: $12.5 million for work-force training, $7 million for small-business assistance and $5.5 million toward economic growth projects such as a new streetcar system. The company announced another five-year initiative in December that infused $250 million into Detroit and other big cities for job-skills training. Both efforts come as JPMorgan emerges from a period of intense scrutiny. The bank reached a $13 billion settlement in November over its sale of questionable mortgage securities in the prelude to the financial crisis. Goldman Sachs, another bank that has been buffeted by regulatory woes, pledged $20 million to Detroit in November for job creation and economic development.

Banking and Finance
JPMorgan Chase
Debt
Bankruptcy
Detroit


Review of 2010 in Soccer

Abstract: It was a year that began with the Togo national soccer team machine-gunned by terrorists en route to a tournament in Africa. Three men aboard the team bus died, but the African Cup of Nations went on in Angola. Six months later, FIFA, soccer’s global governing body, lauded a largely untroubled World Cup in South Africa. Spain, the best of the 32 teams, won the cup and South Africa was host to the 64-match, monthlong event with heartwarming humanity and commendable organization. By year’s end, FIFA’s executive committee had voted to take their World Cup to Russia in 2018 and to Qatar in 2022. “We shall go to new territories,” said the FIFA president, Sepp Blatter. “Don’t speak about money. This has nothing to do with money. It has to do with football development.” Blatter was speaking in Soweto, on a short stop in South Africa during yet another FIFA tournament, the Club World Cup, being played in Abu Dhabi. He announced that FIFA was giving $100 million in a trust fund for soccer development, education, health and humanitarian projects. “This trust is the latest piece in our mosaic of 2010 World Cup legacy activities for South Africa and the African continent,” Blatter said. “This is also a reward for South Africans for having been such great hosts.” South Africans fear that five of the new stadiums built for the World Cup will be become white elephants, a drain on their economy. FIFA, meanwhile, has moved on, with a tax exempt $3.2 billion deposited in its Swiss bank. It has nothing to do with money. The sport? Ah yes, that is the purpose of it all. Well, thank goodness for F.C. Barcelona and for Spain. The eternal argument about which matters most — club or country — is answered by the extraordinary collection of players amassed by Barcelona. Although Barça proudly emphasizes Catalonia as a separate region of Spain, its team is inseparable from the Spanish side. Seven Barcelona players featured in the team that won the World Cup in July, and Spain's leading goal scorer, David Villa, joined the Catalan club after the tournament. Add Lionel Messi , an Argentine, Dani Alves, a Brazilian, and Éric Abidal, a Frenchman, and you have the ingredients by which Barcelona’s best 11 would surely beat any from the rest of Spain. Messi is the finest talent on earth, and he entered Barcelona’s academy, La Masia, in early adolescence. He was immersed in the style, the passing, the movement, the freedom to improvise, that sets Barcelona apart. His fellow pupils included the playmaker Xavi Hernández and the player whose goal won the World Cup final, Andrés Iniesta. Iniesta is not a Catalan, and neither, of course, is Messi. But they are soundly schooled in the creed that Johann Cruyff, a former player and coach who also is not Catalan but Dutch, implanted in the academy. Barcelona recently outplayed its principal Spanish league rival, Real Madrid, to such handsome degree that 5-0 was an almost kind score. But all the vuvuzelas in the world could not drone out the message that fear ruled the World Cup. Nobody dared to take on Spain in attacking style. Not even Germany, brimming with its young, multi-ethnic talents. And certainly not Cruyff’s Dutch compatriots, who, having played their way deservedly to the final, tried to keep Spain from winning by foul rather than fair means. The showpiece match, watched by billions around the world, will be fondly remembered only for Iniesta’s volley in extra time. Spain, for all its talent, overcame mean-spirited opponents while scoring only eight goals in seven matches. The soul of the World Cup, however, was in the people of South Africa. The volunteers, especially, gave their time freely just to be a part of what Nelson Mandela had told them was their right. “Sport,” he had said, “has the power to change the world. It has the power to inspire. It speaks to youth in a way they can understand.” It didn’t speak to the English, French, Italian or even Brazilian players who barely gave a performance worthy of their reputations. It fleetingly spoke to Argentina, which, playing the only way its coach, Diego Maradona, knew how to play, simply attacked as if life depended on going forward. Argentina then ran into a German blockade, and Maradona’s brief attempt to coach as he had played was over. At least he tried. At least his spirit was sporting. Maradona somehow managed to represent the image of soccer even while confined to the sideline. He masqueraded in a gray suit, a tie and shiny shoes. And he was aching to play his game of attack, attack, attack. It didn’t last. It couldn’t because he had no defense. But it is remembered. What else will be left from 2010? The Togolese players attacked in January were subsequently banned by African officials from further tournaments for having withdrawn from the African Cup. Some of those same officials viewed the World Cup largely from their five-star hotel in Johannesburg’s heavily policed financial district. Later in the year, two FIFA committee members were excommunicated after being linked to vote-buying allegations before Russia and Qatar won the bidding process to stage their World Cups. It isn’t about the money.

Soccer
World Cup 2010 (Soccer)
World Cup 2022 (Soccer)
World Cup 2018 (Soccer)
Spain
Barcelona (Spain)
African Cup of Nations (Soccer)
Messi Lionel


A Collision of Creativity and Cash at Disney

Abstract: When the Walt Disney Company bought Pixar Animation Studios for $7.4 billion in 2006, there was understandable concern that the media conglomerate that drove the famed Disney animation unit into the ground with duds like “ Home on the Range ” and “ Chicken Little ” would extinguish the creative flame that had nurtured the quirky and much-loved “ Toy Story ” and “ Finding Nemo .” Since then, under the leadership of Bob Iger, Disney’s chief executive, and John Lasseter of Pixar, Disney/Pixar has unveiled a series of critical and commercial hits that were, if anything, even more brilliant and daring than Pixar’s early successes. I watched “ Ratatouille ” on a plane, and found it so unexpectedly charming and deeply moving that I had to ask the flight attendant for a tissue. In choosing as their subjects a French rat who aspires to culinary greatness (“Ratatouille”), two speechless robots (“Wall-E”) and a 72-year-old widower (“ Up ”), it was as if Pixar’s creative minds had deliberately chosen characters and themes that were as unlikely as possible to lend themselves to theme park attractions and merchandise spinoffs. The ultimate test of Pixar’s creative integrity under Disney ownership may have been last year’s “ Toy Story 3 ,” a sequel whose predecessors had already started a multibillion-dollar merchandising bonanza. Remarkably for a second sequel, the critical reaction was rapturous: “Toy Story 3 isn’t merely the best movie of the summer but an immediate candidate for best of the year.” (The St. Petersburg Times); “Toy Story 3 continues Pixar’s near-perfect streak.” (The Oregonian); “ As sweet, as touching, as humane a movie as you are likely to see this summer .” ( A. O. Scott in The New York Times .) “Toy Story 3” was nominated for Best Picture and reaped over $110 million during its opening weekend. The film became the fifth-highest-grossing movie of all time, making over $1.1 billion at the box office. Even more remarkably, “Toy Story 3” was Pixar’s 11th consecutive creative and commercial hit, a streak that has earned it a place in animation and Hollywood history. Even the legendary Walt had a run of just seven animated hits starting with 1950’s “ Cinderella ” (and four after the 1937 “ Snow White ”). The holy grail of the film business has always been to be able to make only hits while avoiding flops, and the quest has spawned periodic manifestos and strategies that seemed to work — until they failed. But Pixar appeared to have cracked the code, not just for box-office but also for creative success. What was the secret? The exact nature of artistic success may always be elusive, but Mr. Lasseter of Pixar has thought deeply on the subject. “How have we been successful? What is the creativity of Pixar about?” he asked in a speech in February 2010 at Sonoma Academy, before answering his own questions. “It is about risk-taking and it is about open communication at all times from top to bottom. And it’s also about management, the leaders of the company doing kind of the opposite of what every other company does.” He added: “Most studios around the world, it’s like they want to do the safe thing, right? They want to kind of guarantee success out there where there’s a product, a movie, or something like that and they want to do what they know will be a success. And that’s why Hollywood makes how many movies a year, and how many are actually good? Right?” But in February this year, Jay Rasulo, Disney’s chief financial officer, delivered a speech called “The Value of Franchises” that seemed to potentially put Disney and Pixar on a collision course. “ ‘Toy Story,’ ” Mr. Rasulo noted, “was clearly a franchise, and we started to exploit it across multiple geographies in multiple businesses.” He said he expected “Toy Story” to drive $10 billion in retail sales alone. As a result, Disney’s movie slate going forward “will be much more focused on franchises” — like the much-anticipated Pixar sequel “ Cars 2 .” At Disney, Pixar and the studio entertainment division as a whole account for a relatively small percentage of Disney’s profits. (Media Networks, which includes the phenomenally profitable ESPN and cable TV ventures, is by far the most important.) Still, in fiscal 2010, studio entertainment earnings jumped to just under $700 million, thanks in large part to “Toy Story 3.” Nor does this include the billions in merchandise and other revenue extolled by Mr. Rasulo. Apart from the bottom line, Disney’s studio operations are disproportionally visible among the company’s divisions, with the success or failure of its movies avidly followed by the press and Wall Street analysts. Wall Street loves the kind of profit-and-revenue-driven analysis Mr. Rasulo delivered, and understandably so, since Disney management is in the business of providing returns for shareholders. But part of what makes the film industry so fascinating, if often frustrating for investors, is the need to balance commercial success and artistic excellence. The words “exploit” and “franchise” don’t appear to be part of Mr. Lasseter’s regular vocabulary, and are nowhere to be found in his Sonoma address. “Cars 2” opened June 24 in time for the important July 4 holiday weekend with all the hallmarks of a franchise. Target stores devoted a large part of its vast retail space to Cars merchandise (even Cars-themed bedding). And with the story line shifted from backwoods Radiator Springs to the Grand Prix racing circuit in cosmopolitan Tokyo , Paris , London and the Italian Riviera, it was certainly “multiregional.” It was the first film to be directed personally by Mr. Lasseter since “ Toy Story 2 ” and the original “ Cars ,” leading to high expectations for another critical and commercial hit. Then the critics weighed in. “With ‘Cars 2,’ Pixar goes somewhere new: the ditch. ...An aura of creative fatigue hangs over the film like diesel fumes .” (The Star Tribune of Minneapolis.) “ ‘Cars 2’ is such a mess, it makes the original look like it ought to rank among Pixar’s masterpieces by comparison.” (Associated Press). “ This frenzied sequel seldom gets beyond mediocrity .” (The Wall Street Journal .) Suffice it to say, Pixar’s unparalleled streak of critical adulation was over. How bad is “Cars 2?” Considering the expectations, I felt the critics might have been unduly harsh, so I checked into a matinee at a theater in upstate New York. I saw flashes of the wit (a pope-mobile) and brilliance (a tour of neon-saturated Tokyo) that reminded me of what I’ve loved about so many Pixar features. But about an hour into it, I felt the inexorable weight of its four genres (buddy picture, spy caper, car race and environmental consciousness-raiser) shoehorned into one incoherent plot. I experienced no emotional connection to the story or characters — unlike in every other Pixar film I’ve seen. Nor, evidently, did the restless children and their parents seated around me. It isn’t as though Mr. Lasseter and his team struck out swinging for the fences with “Cars 2.” Had “Wall-E” or “Up” flopped at the box office or with the critics, he would still have been lionized. To fans of Pixar, a mediocre, predictable, risk-free sequel “seems almost like a betrayal,” as Dana Stevens wrote in Slate. “This looks like the worst-case scenario,” Doug Creutz, an analyst at Cowen, told me this week after absorbing the reviews. “A movie created solely to drive merchandise. It feels cynical. Parents may feel they’re watching a two-hour commercial.” Despite the critical drubbing, “Cars 2” raked in $66 million its opening weekend, a commercial smash hit by anyone else’s standards, but barely half the opening for “Toy Story 3” and behind “Up,” “Wall-E,” “Finding Nemo” and “ The Incredibles ,” even without adjusting for inflation. “Cars 2” may indeed generate billions for Disney shareholders in product tie-ins, but what about the next Pixar film (“ Brave ”) or the one after that (a “ Monsters, Inc .” sequel)? “Cars 2” is only one movie, and its importance shouldn’t be overstated. But if this column were a Pixar production, at this plot juncture Bob Iger would set John Lasseter free from all talk of franchises, and a future “Cars 3” would remind us that, as Mr. Lasseter himself said at Sonoma, “the story is king at Pixar.”

Walt Disney
Pixar Animation Studios
Movies
Advertising Marketing


New Orleans Sets Plan for Hurricane Evacuation

Abstract: NEW ORLEANS — With the storm Gustav newly elevated to hurricane status as it passes through the Caribbean and aims at the Gulf Coast, Mayor C. Ray Nagin said on Friday that a mandatory evacuation order was possible for Sunday. At that point, residents would be told, though not physically forced, to leave New Orleans, either in their own vehicles or on city-chartered buses and trains. On Saturday, officials here will start helping citizens without cars leave for shelters in northern Louisiana in gyms, churches and civic centers. Officials here estimate that as many as 30,000 of the poor, the elderly and the infirm might need help evacuating. Mr. Nagin made it clear that Hurricane Gustav, which for now is not making the westward turn away from the city that New Orleans officials had hoped for, was a serious menace to a city still fragile from Hurricane Katrina three years ago. “With the new storm track, we think the entire metro area will experience the storm,” the mayor said at City Hall on Friday. “This is a very serious matter.” Mr. Nagin urged citizens to begin making plans to evacuate, without waiting for the order. “Sunday morning, that’s what we’re looking at, to issue that mandatory evacuation,” he said. There will be no shelters in the city like the Superdome, as there were for Hurricane Katrina. The National Hurricane Center projects that Hurricane Gustav will hit coastal Louisiana in the early hours of Tuesday, perhaps 100 miles southeast of here, with winds up to 115 miles an hour. That would make it Category 3, weaker than Hurricane Katrina. But the storm could still come ashore anywhere from Texas to the Florida Panhandle. The storm has already caused 71 deaths in Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Jamaica, The Associated Press reported. President Bush declared an emergency in Louisiana, allowing for the streamlining of disaster relief. Gov. Haley Barbour of Mississippi ordered the evacuation of 4,000 trailers inhabited by people whose homes were damaged in Hurricane Katrina. In Texas, 5,000 National Guard troops have been activated. Here in New Orleans, schools, universities and public transit are shut down into next week, prisoners are being evacuated, and 1,500 National Guardsmen have begun arriving. Officials here said that those whom the city and state evacuated — they would be picked up at 17 collection points, to be put on buses or trains — would not have a choice in where they went. “Because they don’t have the means, they have to use my process, so they don’t have a choice,” said the city’s emergency preparedness director, Jerry Sneed.

Hurricane Gustav
Hurricanes and Tropical Storms
New Orleans (La)


Buckingham Palace, With Its 775 Rooms, Will Be Renovated

Abstract: LONDON — The boilers are shot, the water pipes sag and the 60-year-old cabling is a fire hazard. Buckingham Palace, home to Queen Elizabeth II, may not exactly be falling down, but it badly needs refurbishing, the British government said on Friday , citing “a serious risk of fire, flood and damage.” Renovations on the building will start in April and will take a decade to complete, at a cost of £369 million ($456 million). The announcement adds to the list of prestigious structures in Britain that need work, including the crumbling Palace of Westminster , home of the British Parliament. The building that would become Buckingham Palace was built in the early 1700s and became a royal residence when George III bought it in 1761. The queen carries out most of her official ceremonial and diplomatic duties as head of state in the palace. She would not have to move out while the work was in progress, officials said. She has several other residences, including Windsor Castle, which suffered a major fire in 1992 that raged for nine hours and wrecked large parts of the structure. Officials on Friday mentioned the fire as one motive for upgrading Buckingham Palace. It took more than five years to restore the castle. The British Treasury said in a statement that a similar fire in a single wing of Buckingham Palace might cause £250 million in damage. At Buckingham Palace, much of the electrical wiring “is in a high-risk category and needs immediate attention to reduce the very real risk of fire and failure,” the statement said, referring to an official report assessing the state of the building. “Some of the electrical (wired) systems are over 60 years old.” The palace’s boilers date from the early 1980s, and it has become difficult to get spare parts for them, the Treasury said. Keeping the heating system in good working order is important not just for the comfort of the occupants but also to preserve the artwork on display, it said. Image Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace in June. During the renovations, she will continue to live there. Credit Justin Tallis/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images Buckingham Palace is large, with 775 rooms, including 19 state rooms, 52 royal and guest bedrooms, 188 staff bedrooms, 92 offices and 78 other bathrooms, so there is a lot of work to do. About 100 miles of electrical cabling will be replaced, along with 6,500 electrical wall outlets, 5,000 light fixtures and 330 fuse boxes. The plumbers will swap out 2,500 radiators and 500 bathroom fixtures. In all, about 7.4 acres of floorboards will need to be taken up and replaced, palace officials said. After years of budget cuts in Britain, the decision to spend so much to renovate the palace is not sitting well with everyone. “It is pretty scandalous,” said Graham Smith, chief executive officer of Republic, a group that lobbies for the abolition of the monarchy. “Questions need to be asked about the queen’s mismanagement of assets and funding that have left the palace in such a state of disrepair.” Mr. Smith added, “While everyone else is suffering cuts, the palace keeps getting more money from the taxpayer.” The government says the money is well spent because the palace and the monarchy are popular with visitors; more than half a million people tour the building each summer. “Tourists are drawn to this country because of our culture, heritage and royal legacy, and when they visit, they spend billions of pounds and support thousands of jobs,” said David Gauke, chief secretary to the Treasury. “We must ensure that the special architectural and historic nature of some of our greatest buildings are protected for future generations.”

Historic preservation
Buckingham Palace
London
Great Britain
Restoration and Renovation


Injuries and Age March On, to the Dismay of the Yankees

Abstract: The Yankees are taking on that same discouraging feeling from last season: old, sad and broken. You look at the names and the salaries and you expect something special. Then you look at the calendar and know better. This is the Yankees’ reality now, the price they must pay for years of failing to produce homegrown talent and losing the aggressiveness they once had on the international market. They spend big for marquee names, pay them well past their primes and watch them get hurt. The Yankees lost to the Mets on Monday, 9-7, before a spirited crowd in the Bronx. They blew leads of 4-1 in the second inning and 7-4 in the sixth inning. The Mets showed life and the fans did, too, turning back the notion that this series was losing its sizzle. Even with the midweek night games, before school lets out and the pennant races take shape, opposite the N.B.A. and N.H.L. playoffs, the Subway Series can still deliver. Win or lose, though, the Yankees’ story of the day often comes after the game, in the injury report. It was lengthy on Monday: Carlos Beltran hyperextended his right elbow while taking swings in the batting cage during the game; Ichiro Suzuki was unavailable after hurting his back while sliding on a play in the outfield Sunday; Shawn Kelley has not pitched since last Tuesday because of a back problem. And it does not end there. Mark Teixeira delivered a pinch-hit liner into the right-field corner in the ninth inning, but he had to stop at first because of his tight left groin. C. C. Sabathia, the opening day starter with the fading fastball, is getting a second opinion on his inflamed knee from Dr. James Andrews, the noted orthopedic surgeon. Image The Yankees’ Alfonso Soriano scoring on Yangervis Solarte’s single in the sixth against Mets starter Bartolo Colon, right, in the series opener. Credit Kathy Kmonicek/Associated Press The way things are going for the Yankees — and, for that matter, for pitchers in general, with Miami’s Jose Fernandez the latest to go down — can elbow surgery for Masahiro Tanaka be far behind? Tanaka has been sturdy, and has so far delivered premium performance for his exorbitant contract. The Yankees have otherwise shied from bold international spending, passing on the recent wave of Cuban defectors at a time when their farm system continues to let them down. So here they are, 19-18, after spending $470 million on new talent last winter, a spree that followed a season in which injuries ravaged almost every position. Manager Joe Girardi, after revealing the latest injuries Monday night, said he had not made the connection. “I can’t say that I have,” Girardi said. “Someone brought it up to me, it seems like this year it’s our pitchers instead of our position players, but we seem to catch up pretty quick in one day.” The injuries to position players, Girardi said, have been more day-to-day concerns, not requiring lengthy trips to the disabled list. Two of the Yankees’ younger starters, Ivan Nova and Michael Pineda, are on the disabled list, with Nova out for the season after reconstructive elbow surgery. Sabathia is expected back sooner than the others, but trips to see Andrews are hardly routine. Teixeira, who has been refreshingly honest and realistic about his personal expectations at age 34, said he was not concerned about the rash of injuries. It is what he figured would happen. Image Curtis Granderson, left, and Derek Jeter before the Subway Series opener Monday in the Bronx. Credit Al Bello/Getty Images “That’s what happens to guys that are older,” he said. “You get bumps and bruises. That’s the unfortunate part about getting old. But we have a very deep team; we have a bunch of guys that are champing at the bit to get at-bats. We have All-Stars sitting on the bench. We’ll fill in when we need to fill in and guys that are bumped and bruised, we’ll get ’em a day here and there and we’ll get back at it.” It was not always like this for the Yankees, who won four World Series between 1996 and 2000 with high-impact young players, some free agents and several veterans acquired in trades that used excess young talent like Marty Janzen, Sterling Hitchcock, Russ Davis and Ricky Ledee. The Yankees kept making the playoffs with shrewd free-agent deals and just enough input from the farm system. This season, they hoped, could mirror 2009, when they signed free agents, got prime-age performances from them right away, and won a championship. There is still time, of course, and while Jacoby Ellsbury and Tanaka have been terrific, Brian McCann has not hit much, Beltran is hurt and the value signings — Kelly Johnson, Brian Roberts, Matt Thornton — have had little impact. And with the age of the roster, other injuries are always lurking. “What can you do?” said Derek Jeter, who has mercifully stayed intact, so far, in his farewell season. “Other guys have got to step up.” There is no other choice, Jeter said, meaning that the players have no choice but to keep at it. They did an admirable job of that last season, with 85 victories, but the fans sensed it was a lost cause, and many tuned out. This team is more compelling, with a new batch of stars — but the same old problems.


Remote and Struggling, but Still a Bit of America

Abstract: AKIACHAK, Alaska The bush plane glides over the tundra in autumn, descending slowly into the green and orange with avian grace. Soon its wheels kiss a spit of an airstrip in a western Alaska place where senators and governors rarely visit, a Yup’ik Eskimo village called Akiachak. Its tribal police chief, John Snyder, waits in a white pickup at the end of the gravel runway, wrapped in a maturity beyond his 23 years. He introduces himself with a gentle joke, then begins down the rutted road to his community of 700. A veteran of the Iraq war lives here. An Obama campaign worker arrived not long ago to shake hands, a rare moment of political recognition. A local elder is part of a federal lawsuit demanding that election ballots and referendum questions also be provided in the language of Yup’ik. Through an interpreter she says: I want to know what I am voting on. And here, tribal customs and the Internet vie for the attention of the young. People live on the salmon they’ve caught, the moose they’ve killed and the box of Cheerios that costs them double what you pay. The rising prices of gasoline and heating fuel have forced some families to double up or move away, and about a third of them have no running water. “Welcome to Akiachak,” the police chief says, in surplus-rich Alaska. With a cold rain falling, the truck bangs along a gray road past weather-beaten houses raised on stilts. A few years ago, two-thirds of the village was finally connected to water and sewer lines; this is the one-third still waiting. Many residents, including Mr. Snyder, bathe with water retrieved from the Kuskokwim River and use honey buckets as latrines. Some of these malodorous buckets sit like garbage cans along the roadside. Past the paint-peeled Moravian Christian church, in need of new windows and containing small black books from 1945 that say “Liturgy and Hymns in the Eskimo Language of the Kuskokwim District, Alaska.” Past one of the two general stores, where the crazy-high cost of living is stamped on the cans and boxes arranged under the dull light. A 12-ounce bag of Lay’s potato chips: $7.39. A 19-ounce can of Progresso beef barley soup: $4.29. A 20-ounce box of Cheerios: $8.29. Mr. Snyder pulls up to an office building where three tribal leaders offer greetings. Between private consultations in Yup’ik, they explain how Akiachak replaced its city form of government two decades ago with a tribal council. They say they work hard to maintain native customs: the language, the care and respect for elders, the refusal to waste food like salmon. “If you do,” the tribal administrator, George Peter, says, “the abundance of salmon will go down.” The keen national interest in Alaska’s governor, Sarah Palin , the Republican candidate for vice president, is not shared in this outpost of the state. At the mention of her name, the elders say nothing but look at one another with half-smiles. Instead, they cite another Alaska Republican, Senator Lisa Murkowski, who recently held a hearing in the small city of Bethel — a 15-minute flight from here — to discuss how some people can no longer afford to live in the villages of their ancestors and are leaving for Anchorage. The elders say she is on to something. Although the population in Akiachak has risen slightly in recent years, they say, young people seem more interested in iPods than in Yup’ik. And while every eligible Alaskan will receive more than $3,200 in oil rebates and dividends this year, they say, gas here costs $6.59 a gallon, and heating oil $7.06 a gallon. “Yesterday our village police officer told us two families just moved to Anchorage,” Daniel George, the tribal council chairman, says. “Even my nephew and niece have moved to Anchorage.” Anchorage, the Oz of Alaska. Natalie Landreth, a lawyer with the Native American Rights Fund, recalls that when the local elder, Anna Nick, 70, was summoned to Anchorage last year to be deposed in her voting rights lawsuit — which so far has prompted a preliminary injunction requiring that Yup’ik translations be made available at the polls — the tiny woman arrived with a wish list of things needed by people in her village. Ms. Landreth drove her to a Wal-Mart at 8 in the morning and asked her when she wanted to be picked up. “When do they close?” Ms. Nick asked. The rain has stopped but the cold has not. With work to do, the tribal elders return to their trucks and desktop computers. Police Chief Snyder drives on. Past a fish camp at the river bank, where caught salmon are cleaned and smoked, with carcasses saved for mush dogs. Past the boat he uses to travel hundreds of miles in search of moose and bear and caribou. Past small ducks that he says make for good soup. People on all-terrain vehicles wave to Mr. Snyder as they drive past. He is well-known here, the son of a former police chief, a law-enforcement officer who carries no gun and rarely uses handcuffs. For one thing, if his boat were to tip in the Kuskokwim while taking suspects to jail in Bethel, anyone in shackles could drown. “You cooperate with me, I’ll cooperate with you,” he says. The village is safe. But six months ago it experienced its first murder in anyone’s memory when, the police say, a man ended a bootleg whiskey night by shooting his female companion. Mr. Snyder answered that call and does not want to discuss it; too close. His truck wends past the village’s sprawling school, built a few years ago to resemble a traditional community house for elders. It has a room lined with Mac computers, a library with expansive windows and a cafeteria that serves as the village’s only luncheonette. In one kindergarten class, children are learning the Yup’ik word for star. “Agyaq,” they say together. “Agyaq.” Mr. Snyder continues on to accommodate a request to visit the village cemetery — clearly not something he wants to do. He walks along a boardwalk above the mud-topped permafrost to where white wooden crosses rise like too many candles on a birthday cake. Some crosses are fresh, their bone-whiteness stark against the brown-green weeds. Others are collapsing into gray rot, returning to the earth. “My buddy’s down here somewhere,” Mr. Snyder says, tramping through the weeds and crosses. A buddy who committed suicide at 18. There are more: here lie three relatives, dead before 40 from alcohol; another school friend lost to suicide; another relative. Although alcohol is banned in many rural villages, including Akiachak, it remains the scourge of native life. Mr. Snyder walks downhill, head bowed. Driving toward the airstrip, passing high school athletes on a late-afternoon run, he says he could never live in a place as crowded as Anchorage. He says he prefers rainwater to any other drink, enjoys the taste of bear, whether barbecued or in a pot roast, and plans to teach his two young sons to speak Yup’ik. The dot of a bush plane skims the horizon. It lands, and eight passengers board. The pilot asks each one how much they weigh. Three small children and a lame dog watch from a safe distance. Then, as the whining plane pulls away, these Yup’ik children, these American children, wave goodbye.

Alaska
Eskimos
Tribes and Tribalism
Language and Languages
Palin Sarah
Murkowski Lisa
Presidential Election of 2008


Judge Holds Officers’ Actions in Fatal Shooting Immune, Except for Final Bullet

Abstract: The chaos that surrounded the 2009 death of Mauricio Jaquez, an emotionally disturbed man, in his Bronx apartment, was undisputed: He had threatened his family , and then stabbed with a knife at police officers who had responded, the authorities said. The officers used a Taser and rubber bullets, before shooting him five times with live ammunition, court records show. On Friday, with an excessive force lawsuit pending, a federal judge in Manhattan held most of the officers’ conduct immune from civil liability, because their actions, under the circumstances, were legally reasonable, she found. But the judge, Katherine B. Forrest of Federal District Court, found one exception: the final bullet, fired by Sgt. William Flores. The judge noted that Mr. Jaquez, 35, had already been shot four times by Sergeant Flores and a detective on the scene, and held them immune for those actions, which had occurred as he stabbed at them and could not be subdued, the police had said. But Sergeant Flores will have to stand trial on whether his firing of the final shot had been reasonable. The bullet entered the right side of Mr. Jaquez’s head at a downward trajectory as he was holding his knife, and trying to push himself up from the ground, the judge noted. Judge Forrest acknowledged that the case was complex and was occurring “against the backdrop of a country reckoning with a number of fatal police shootings.” Typically, she said, such situations “do not require parsing the events of a single altercation to analyze each specific action a particular officer took.” “Here, that is not the case,” she added in a ruling that produced the unusual result of Sergeant Flores being afforded immunity for earlier actions that included shooting Mr. Jaquez but not receiving it for his final shot. The police had been called to the apartment at 479 Commonwealth Avenue on the morning of April 12, 2009, after Mr. Jaquez’s wife, Ana Martinez, called 911 seeking medical assistance for her husband, the lawsuit said. He had been “acting crazy” and shouting that the police were going to kill him, the opinion said. Officers entering the apartment were told that there had been a family dispute involving a knife and that Mr. Jaquez had threatened his family, the opinion said. Ultimately, after a standoff of about an hour, there was a struggle, with officers using the Taser and rubber bullets, the opinion says. With Mr. Jaquez still stabbing at the officers, the judge noted, Sergeant Flores and a detective each discharged their weapons, shooting him in the abdomen, the back and the right arm. With Mr. Jaquez on the ground, another detective moved to take the knife from his hand when Mr. Jaquez used one hand to push himself upward, Sergeant Flores testified in a deposition. The sergeant then fired the shot into Mr. Jaquez’s head, from about three to four feet away, the opinion said. Judge Forrest wrote that reasonable jurors could find that the last shot was “objectively unreasonable,” given that Mr. Jacques had already been shot repeatedly, was surrounded by officers suited up in their ballistics gear and, even if he had somehow held onto the knife, was merely pushing up from the ground. The officers could have backed off or taken other action, the judge wrote. Nick Paolucci, a Law Department spokesman, said, “We believe the actions of Officer Flores were fully justified and we will vigorously defend this last surviving claim.” The family’s lawyer, Zachary Margulis-Ohnuma, expressed disappointment at the ruling, saying that there was “ample evidence” to conclude Mr. Jaquez “was not posing any threat” to any of the officers. “His widow and three orphans look forward to their day in court,” he added. Judge Forrest observed that “the court should not apply 20/20 hindsight to merely second-guess police conduct” in such cases. She said the Supreme Court had found that such immunity served “an important policy purpose,” in giving officials “breathing room to make reasonable but mistaken judgments about open legal questions.” Such immunity protected “all but the plainly incompetent or those who knowingly violate the law,” she added.

Police Brutality,Police Misconduct,Police Shootings


Plan Sought to Protect Food Supply From Terrorism

Abstract: The Food and Drug Administration proposed a rule on Friday to require major food producers to develop a plan to prevent intentional attempts to contaminate the food supply. The agency said it favored the rule, not because such a criminal act is likely, but as an extra precaution. Under the rule, open to public comment until the end of March, companies would need plans to address vulnerabilities in production processes, particularly to acts of terrorism. They would have one to three years to comply.


Bank Accused of Pushing Mortgage Deals on Blacks

Abstract: As she describes it, Beth Jacobson and her fellow loan officers at Wells Fargo Bank “rode the stagecoach from hell” for a decade, systematically singling out blacks in Baltimore and suburban Maryland for high-interest subprime mortgages. These loans, Baltimore officials have claimed in a federal lawsuit against Wells Fargo , tipped hundreds of homeowners into foreclosure and cost the city tens of millions of dollars in taxes and city services. Wells Fargo, Ms. Jacobson said in an interview, saw the black community as fertile ground for subprime mortgages, as working-class blacks were hungry to be a part of the nation’s home-owning mania. Loan officers, she said, pushed customers who could have qualified for prime loans into subprime mortgages. Another loan officer stated in an affidavit filed last week that employees had referred to blacks as “mud people” and to subprime lending as “ghetto loans.” “We just went right after them,” said Ms. Jacobson, who is white and said she was once the bank’s top-producing subprime loan officer nationally. “Wells Fargo mortgage had an emerging-markets unit that specifically targeted black churches, because it figured church leaders had a lot of influence and could convince congregants to take out subprime loans.” Ms. Jacobson’s account and that of the other loan officer who gave an affidavit, Tony Paschal, both of whom have left Wells Fargo, provide the first detailed accusations of deliberate racial steering into subprimes by one of the nation’s top banks. The toll taken by such policies, Baltimore officials argue, is terrible. Data released by the city as part of the suit last week show that more than half the properties subject to foreclosure on a Wells Fargo loan from 2005 to 2008 now stand vacant. And 71 percent of those are in predominantly black neighborhoods. Judge Benson E. Legg of Federal District Court had asked the city to file the additional paperwork and has not decided whether the lawsuit can go forward. Wells Fargo officials have declined detailed interviews since Baltimore filed suit in January 2008. In an e-mail statement on Friday, a spokesman said that only 1 percent of the city’s 33,000 foreclosures have come on Wells Fargo mortgages. “We have worked extremely hard to make homeownership possible for more African-American borrowers,” wrote Kevin Waetke, a spokesman for Wells Fargo Home Mortgage. “We absolutely do not tolerate team members treating our customers or others disrespectfully or unfairly, or who violate our ethics and lending practices.” City and state officials across the nation have investigated and sometimes sued Wells Fargo over its practices. The Illinois attorney general has investigated whether Wells Fargo Financial violated fair lending and civil rights laws by steering black and Latino homeowners into high-interest loans. New York’s attorney general, Andrew M. Cuomo, raised similar questions about the lending practices of Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup, among other banks. The N.A.A.C.P. has filed a class-action lawsuit charging systematic racial discrimination by more than a dozen banks, including Wells Fargo. At the heart of such charges is reverse redlining, specifically marketing the most expensive and onerous loan products to black customers. The New York Times, in a recent analysis of mortgage lending in New York City, found that black households making more than $68,000 a year were nearly five times as likely to hold high-interest subprime mortgages as whites of similar or even lower incomes. (The disparity was greater for Wells Fargo borrowers, as 2 percent of whites in that income group hold subprime loans and 16.1 percent of blacks.) “We’ve known that African-Americans and Latinos are getting subprime loans while whites of the same credit profile are getting the lower-cost loans,” said Eric Halperin, director of the Washington office of the Center for Responsible Lending. “The question has been why, and the gory details of this complaint may provide an answer.” The affidavits of the two loan officers seem to bolster Baltimore’s lawsuit. Mr. Paschal, who is black and worked as a loan officer in Wells Fargo’s office in Annandale, Va., from 1997 to 2007, offers a sort of primer on Wells Fargo’s subprime marketing strategy by race. In 2001, he states in his affidavit, Wells Fargo created a unit in the mid-Atlantic region to push expensive refinancing loans on black customers, particularly those living in Baltimore, southeast Washington and Prince George’s County, Md. “They referred to subprime loans made in minority communities as ghetto loans and minority customers as ‘those people have bad credit’, ‘those people don’t pay their bills’ and ‘mud people,’ ” Mr. Paschal said in his affidavit. He said a bank office in Silver Spring, Md., had an “affinity group marketing” section, which hired blacks to call on African-American churches. “The company put ‘bounties’ on minority borrowers,” Mr. Paschal said. “By this I mean that loan officers received cash incentives to aggressively market subprime loans in minority communities.” Both loan officers said the bank had given bonuses to loan officers who referred borrowers who should have qualified for a prime loan to the subprime division. Ms. Jacobson said that she made $700,000 one year and that the company flew her and other subprime officers to resorts across the country. “I used to joke that ‘I’ll pay for your kids to go to private school if you give me clients,’ ” Ms. Jacobson said in the interview. Loan officers employed other methods to steer clients into subprime loans, according to the affidavits. Some officers told the underwriting department that their clients, even those with good credit scores , had not wanted to provide income documentation. “By doing this, the loan flipped from prime to subprime,” Ms. Jacobson said. “But there was no need for that; many of these clients had W2 forms.” Other times, she said, loan officers cut and pasted credit reports from one applicant onto the application of another customer. These practices took a great toll on customers. For a homeowner taking out a $165,000 mortgage, a difference of three percentage points in the loan rate — a typical spread between conventional and subprime loans — adds more than $100,000 in interest payments. The accusations contained in the affidavits, which were given to Relman & Dane, a civil rights law firm working with the City of Baltimore, have not drawn a specific response from Wells Fargo. But city officials say the conclusion is clear. “They confirm our worst fears: that this is not just a case based on a review of numbers and a statistical analysis,” said the city solicitor, George Nilson. “You don’t have to scratch your head and wonder if maybe this was just an accident. The behavior is pretty explicit.” Both sides expect to appear in court at a hearing in the case in late June.

Subprime Mortgage Crisis
Blacks
Wells Fargo & Co
Baltimore (Md)
Mortgages
Discrimination
Banks and Banking
Foreclosures
Suits and Litigation
Housing and Real Estate


In China, Cheese Is Strange, but Pizza Is Hot

Abstract: BEIJING — China may be the hardest place in the world to sell cheese, but Liu Yang has been trying anyway — and Western fast food may be his salvation. There has not been dairy in the mainstream Chinese diet for centuries — no butter, no milk, no cheese, nothing. Ninety percent of the population is said to be lactose intolerant. So when Mr. Liu opened a two-room cheese shop on the outskirts of Beijing five years ago, “People said, ‘What is this strange stinky thing?’ ” he recalled. “ ‘How am I supposed to cook it? How am I supposed to eat it?’ ” Mr. Liu’s offerings of brousse, crottin, Camembert and tomme at first mystified Chinese customers, even though prosperity was driving demand for other European luxuries. He now sells about 33 pounds of cheese a day, and he hopes to do better as more Chinese become acquainted with the stuff. That is already happening, albeit through a side door: a growing appetite for American-style fast food. The average Chinese city dweller eats it at least once a week, by one estimate; Pizza Hut is opening stores on the mainland at a rate of about one a day. Pizza, of course, contains cheese. Theo Spierings, chief executive of Fonterra, a New Zealand dairy producer, said pizza’s popularity was driving up demand for cheese across Asia. Supermarkets in big cities are starting to put blocks of cheese on display. And China’s imports of cheese rose 70 percent from 2009 to 2014, according to Mintel, a market research company. Chinese leaders once considered cheese to be too barbaric for the national diet. That stigma is gone, but for many shoppers, another one remains. “I’m afraid it will make me fat,” said Zhao Lin, 32, of Beijing.


Gay Pastor in the Bronx Could Lose Her Collar

Abstract: In 1994, when the Rev. Katrina D. Foster became pastor of Fordham Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Bronx, she threw herself into ministering to her small, mostly Caribbean-born congregation. She not only preached to them on Sundays but lived in the neighborhood and showed up to support them in everything from surgeries to legal matters. But Pastor Foster was keeping a secret from her congregation. She held onto it even after a woman came to live with her in the parsonage, then joined the church choir. “Some people would say, ‘It’s so nice you have someone to live with you in that 11-room house,’ ” said Pastor Foster, 39. But in 2002, when the woman, Pamela Kallimanis, became pregnant, they knew the time had come. So Pastor Foster sat her congregants down one by one and told them that she and Ms. Kallimanis were partners and were expecting a child. Not one person openly criticized her, she said. Instead, “they threw us the most wonderfully outrageous baby shower in the side yard next to the church,” she said. “The woman I was most anxious about telling” — the church president — “I thought she was going to leap across the table and hug me.” The response, however, was not all positive. A small number of families trickled away. Pastor Foster said only one member told her outright why she had stopped coming. “I got her on the phone one day and she said she couldn’t sit under a pastor who was a homosexual,” she said. Now Pastor Foster and her roughly 100 congregants face a new challenge: the possibility that she, along with four other pastors in the New York area and 81 nationwide, could be defrocked in 2009 by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. The country’s largest Lutheran denomination, it allows openly gay pastors but forbids them from being in same-sex relationships, according to the Rev. Stephen P. Bouman, bishop of the denomination’s New York-area synod. In August, Pastor Foster was among the clerics who disclosed that they were in such relationships at the church’s biennial national assembly in Chicago, where church policy was decided. The assembly voted to urge synod leaders not to discipline those pastors until the issue of pastors in same-sex relationships could be voted on at the next meeting, in 2009. Bishop Bouman said he would not have disciplined Pastor Foster anyway. “She is someone whose faith is genuine and she lives it in a very bold and inclusive way,” he said. “She’s not afraid to tell people that she loves God and that God loves them.” When Bishop Bouman leaves to take a national church position in Chicago in March, however, whoever succeeds him in New York may aim to defrock Pastor Foster before the 2009 assembly. Another pastor in the synod, the Rev. Paul Hagen, of St. Peter’s Lutheran Church in the Bronx, isn’t supportive. He said that the “the Bible clearly defines homosexuality as a sin.” He would not say whether he wanted Pastor Foster defrocked, but asked: “Can she honestly say she is a follower of Jesus? Does she teach what Jesus teaches or what she teaches?” And a few members of Pastor Foster’s church say they still are struggling with the passage in the Bible that many consider a prohibition on homosexuality: “Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination.” Pastor Foster has not preached directly about that passage. Charlotte Sapp, a church member who runs a local H.I.V. prevention and support group, said she was hoping for more guidance on the issue. “If it’s wrong concerning the Bible, show us this, why it’s wrong,” she said. Pastor Foster said she felt that other passages were worthier of analysis, and that the one in question was one of many Old Testament passages that are no longer taken literally. The Fordham church is uncommon for reasons other than its lesbian pastor. While the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America is overwhelmingly white, the Fordham congregation is primarily black and Hispanic, reflecting changes in the neighborhood, which was a German enclave when the church began in 1915. The congregation is also mostly female. Many members are nannies, home-care attendants or cleaners, and were raised in cultures strongly opposed to homosexuality. The Lutheran church has attracted many Caribbean natives with missionary work in the region. “I think we’ve all grown because of her,” said the church president, Emilie Ramdhanie, 61, a Virgin Islands-born social worker. “She’s made us a lot more aware of what it means to be gay and have a full life like anyone else.” Pastor Foster, who is white, says she has longed since childhood to be a pastor in the denomination in which she grew up. On a recent Sunday, she delivered a typically energetic sermon to a group of about 40, exhorting those with children to turn off the TV and make sure homework was done. “Everything I gave up to follow Jesus made my life better,” she said in a classic preacherly cadence, a slight drawl signaling her upbringing in northern Florida. Pastor Foster, who wears rectangle-shaped eyeglasses a no-nonsense brown ponytail, declared, “You have to be a little bit odd to follow Jesus.” A chorus of “Amens” and “That’s right!” rippled through the congregation. Pastor Foster and Ms. Kallimanis, a poet and professor, bought a co-op in the Spuyten Duyvil neighborhood in 1999 and moved out of the parsonage, which was turned into a home for unwed mothers. Their daughter, Zoya, is now 5, and often plays with other children in the church. The women say they love the congregation and don’t want to leave it but that they have been saving money in the event they must. “Katrina was looking for a fight when she went to Chicago in August,” said Ms. Kallimanis, adding that for now, “I’m just glad that the church has agreed to disagree” on the issue. Meanwhile, Pastor Foster has the support of her congregants. One, Pat Jewett, 51, a subway custodian, said she would write a protest letter if the pastor were disciplined or defrocked. “When they explain how she’s living in sin, it’s hard for me to fathom that,” she said. The Sunday before she went to Chicago to disclose her relationship, Pastor Foster explained to her congregation that she was about to put her collar on the line. “She said she needed everyone to keep her in prayer because it was very heavy in her heart,” said Mrs. Ramdhanie, who instructed the other congregants to gather closely around the pastor. Mrs. Ramdhanie had one 71-year-old woman, whom the pastor had seen through a mastectomy the morning of the Sept. 11 attacks, improvise a prayer. “She prayed a prayer that was so comforting, the pastor started to cry,” Mrs. Ramdhanie said. “Everyone just hugged her and held her, several praying very loudly for her.” And how did all that attention make the pastor feel? “Wonderfully overwhelmed,” she said. “I was thinking, ‘I have the best congregation ever.’ ”

Homosexuality
Religion and Churches
Women
Evangelical Movement


Fairfield Tops No. 20 Marist in Overtime

Abstract: Baendu Lowenthal had 21 points and 10 rebounds to help visiting Fairfield shock No. 20 Marist, 73-65, in overtime Friday and end the Red Foxes’ 35-game Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference winning streak. The Red Foxes (17-2, 8-1), who had won 14 straight games over all, last lost in the conference to Loyola of Maryland on Feb. 16, 2007. Marist’s only other loss this season came against Oklahoma on Nov. 26. Stephanie Geehan added 15 points, including going 6 for 6 from the free-throw line down the stretch. Lauren Groom scored 14 for Fairfield (11-8, 6-2) and made a 3-pointer to put away the game in overtime. Rachele Fitz, a junior, led Marist with 23 points. She is 17 points from breaking the team’s career scoring record. She also had nine rebounds. Julianne Viani had 17 points for the Red Foxes, who had beaten Fairfield in the last 11 meetings. Marist tied the score, 62-62, with 59 seconds left in regulation on Fitz’s layup. Neither team could score after that, sending the game into overtime. FLORIDA STATE 80, VIRGINIA 75 Courtney Ward scored 18 points and Tanae Davis-Cain had 16 as No. 22 Florida State held off a second-half rally by No. 16 Virginia. It was the visiting Seminoles’ eighth consecutive victory. Florida State (17-4, 5-0 Atlantic Coast Conference), off to its best start in A.C.C. history, led by 13 and held on even when the Cavaliers kept pulling a point behind. Virginia (15-4, 2-2) got to one behind twice in the final minute, first on a free throw by Chelsea Shine and later on a putback with 11.3 seconds left. But Jacinta Monroe answered the first time by making both shots of a one-and-one with 20.5 seconds left, and Mara Freshour made two free throws with 9.9 seconds to play, giving the Seminoles a 78-75 lead that held up. Monica Wright led Virginia with 24 points and Lyndra Littles added 21. Men RIDER 66, FAIRFIELD 49 Novar Gadson scored 23 points and Justin Robinson added 15 as Rider defeated host Fairfield. Harris Mansell added 13 for Rider (10-8, 5-3 MAAC), which won for just the second time in five games. The Stags (12-8, 5-4) lost for the second straight time. CANISIUS 79, MARIST 70 Frank Turner had 22 points as Canisius (7-12, 2-7 MAAC) beat host Marist (7-14, 3-6). Elton Frazier and Tomas Vazquez-Simmons had 12 points each for Canisius, and Greg Logins had 11 rebounds. Three Golden Griffins played the entire game. Canisius shot almost 48 percent from the floor, despite going 5 for 17 from long range. Ryan Schneider had 11 points and 11 rebounds for Marist.


Detectives’ Lawyers in Sean Bell Trial Push for Change of Venue

Abstract: Lawyers for the three police detectives charged in the shooting that killed Sean Bell argued in a motion filed on Monday that publicity surrounding the case has “incurably poisoned” the pool of prospective jurors for the trial next month and asked that the proceedings be moved out of New York City. The lawyers for the three detectives, Michael Oliver, Gescard F. Isnora and Marc Cooper, said that they conducted a poll of 600 Queens residents that found that 60.5 of the respondents believe the Nov. 25, 2006, shooting outside a Queens strip club was “unjustified.” The motion cites remarks made shortly after the shooting by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, who said the circumstances surrounding the shooting were “inexplicable” and “unacceptable.” “From the very outset of this case, which has become known as the ‘Sean Bell case,’ or ‘the 50-shot case,’ there has been an enormous amount of highly prejudicial local media publicity coming from both the print and broadcast media,” the motion stated. The motion was filed in the Appellate Division of State Supreme Court in Brooklyn, which includes Queens courts. Prosecutors said they would fight to keep the trial in Queens. “There’s no reason to believe that a fair and impartial jury could not be found among the 2.3 million people here in Queens,” said Richard A. Brown, the Queens district attorney. “This is a case that occurred here in Queens and it should, in my opinion, be tried by a jury representative of the diversity of Queens.” He said he expected his office to file a response to the change-of-venue motion next week. The arguments on both sides echo those from 1999, before the murder trial of four officers who killed Amadou Diallo, an unarmed African immigrant, in a barrage of 41 bullets outside his apartment in the Bronx. Appellate judges in that case moved the trial to Albany, where the officers were acquitted in 2000. Critics of the verdict have held that the move to Albany, a much more white area than the Bronx, played a major role in the verdict for the white officers. Mr. Bell, 23, was leaving Club Kalua with friends on the day he was to be married, and at the same time as an undercover police investigation at the club. Officers who believed Mr. Bell and his friends, Joseph Guzman, 31, and Trent Benefield, 23, may have been armed followed them to the car. As Mr. Bell attempted to drive away in the confrontation that followed, the officers fired 50 shots, killing Mr. Bell and wounding Mr. Guzman and Mr. Benefield. No gun was found in the car. Detective Oliver and Detective Isnora both face charges of first- and second-degree manslaughter, which could bring a sentence of 25 years in prison if they are convicted. Detective Cooper faces two misdemeanor charges of reckless endangerment, which could bring a sentence of a year in prison. In the motion, the lawyers painstakingly recount several of newspaper stories about the shooting and include copies as exhibits. The stories include accounts of the mayor’s remarks as well as coverage of the Rev. Al Sharpton’s comments and demonstrations against the police. In addition, the motion cites columns by opinion writers and editorials criticizing the police, as well a “feeding frenzy” over a sighting of Detective Oliver attending a $4,200 dinner with friends on the Upper East Side at the restaurant Nello on the night he was indicted in March. “Even though the dinner was paid for by someone else, Detective Oliver was castigated and vilified in the press for supposedly showing no remorse for the killing of Sean Bell,” the motion states. Again, the news stories spun into opinion pieces: “If Sean Bell had been blessed with a rich pal to buy him $575 bottles of wine at Nello’s,” Michael Daly of The New York Daily News wrote in a column that was cited in the motion, “he would have lived to see his wedding day.” The motion also cites Web sites devoted to Mr. Bell’s memory and interviews with his family members that were posted on YouTube. Mr. Sharpton called the motion “insulting to the intelligence of the people of Queens” on Monday. “I have publicly advised the two survivors to consider not cooperating as witnesses with any trial outside of Queens, because it would make a mockery of the criminal justice system,” he said in a statement. “This is a cheap attempt to play the ‘Diallo card,’ and to say that the new way for police to duck accountability is to not be tried by the people they police and are paid by is outrageous.” In 1999, an appellate court ruled that the “public clamor” over the Diallo shooting made a fair trial in the Bronx impossible. However, to date the public outcry that followed that shooting has eclipsed the demonstrations after Mr. Bell’s death. There were huge rallies outside police headquarters in 1999 with more than 1,000 people arrested.

Decisions and Verdicts
Jury System
Public Opinion
Police
New York City


Jacory Harris Powers Miami’s Rout of Georgia Tech

Abstract: MIAMI (AP) — Cool and in control throughout, Miami quarterback Jacory Harris completed 20 of 25 passes for 270 yards and 3 touchdowns, and the 20th-ranked Hurricanes put an emphatic end to a four-game losing streak against No. 14 Georgia Tech with a 33-17 victory Thursday night. Miami (2-0, 2-0 Atlantic Coast Conference) matched its best league start since 2004, outgained Georgia Tech, 453 yards to 228, and set up a Coastal Division showdown at Virginia Tech on Sept. 26. Graig Cooper ran for 93 yards, Javarris James rushed for 72 more and a touchdown, and LaRon Byrd caught five passes for 83 yards and a score. Georgia Tech (2-1, 1-1) blew Miami out a year ago, dooming the Hurricanes’ conference title hopes by rushing for 472 yards. This time, Miami handled the triple option with relative ease, holding the Yellow Jackets to 95 yards rushing. Tech’s reigning A.C.C. player of the year, fullback Jonathan Dwyer, was slowed by a shoulder injury and finished with 7 yards on five carries. Harris led Miami to scores on its first three possessions, the Hurricanes led, 24-3, early in the third quarter after James scored from 3 yards out to cap a 60-yard, 6-play drive, and they sauntered off celebrating their most significant win in years.

Football
Colleges and Universities
Georgia Institute of Technology
University of Miami


WWE Network Is Loud Introduction to the Video Streaming Ring

Abstract: When listing the visionary media moguls of the digital age, Vince McMahon, the professional wrestling impresario, might not immediately come to mind. Yet Mr. McMahon and his company, World Wrestling Entertainment, have positioned themselves on the cutting edge of Internet television with the WWE Network, a new subscription-only streaming video service. Introduced in February, the network broadcasts the pro wrestling extravaganzas that were once available only on cable and satellite television. And on April 6, when the WWE hosts its 30th WrestleMania event at the Superdome in New Orleans — featuring the “Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal” — the entertainment industry and Wall Street will be watching as closely as wrestling fans. Shares of the WWE, a publicly traded company based in Stamford, Conn., have more than tripled over the last year with the introduction of the subscription network and takeover rumors. Mr. McMahon, 68, controls the company, and his ambitious WWE Network could be his final act in charge, industry watchers say. “If he changed how pro wrestling and sports entertainment were broadcast forever, I don’t think there’s a better way to go out,” said Brandon Stroud, a wrestling commentator and editor at the sports site With Leather . With viewers avoiding costly cable packages in favor of free television on YouTube or monthly subscription services like Netflix, Mr. McMahon decided to move where his customers are increasingly going. His company has poured tens of millions of dollars into the WWE Network, which offers round-the-clock streaming of its programming for $10 a month. That package includes access to the WWE’s pay-per-view showcase events, which can cost up to $70. “Owning and controlling your own platform is a sea change for us,” said George Barrios, chief strategy and financial officer at the WWE. Image Hulk Hogan, left, and Muhammad Ali as a guest referee in 1985. Pro wrestling’s stars have long influenced broadcasting. Credit WWE It was also a big change for some of the WWE’s longtime partners, who were not as excited about the new venture. Dish Network, which had sold WWE’s pay-per-view specials, decided not to offer the “Elimination Chamber” event in February. On its Facebook page , Dish criticized WWE, complaining that it was not willing to adjust its costs for satellite and cable companies, “which is unfair to their customers.” In part to placate its traditional distributors, WWE will show WrestleMania 30 through cable, satellite and telecom providers like Comcast and Dish. But the vast majority of the wrestling company’s advertising for WrestleMania 30 heavily promotes the option of watching the event through its network. “Realistically, the company needed to untether themselves from the pay-per-view business,” said Bradley Safalow, founder of PAA Research, an independent research firm. Pro wrestling’s influence on broadcasting dates back to the 1950s, when DuMont, the pioneering television network, began airing matches to raise viewership, said David Shoemaker, author of “The Squared Circle: Life, Death, and Professional Wrestling.” In the 1980s, Mr. McMahon formed relationships with cable networks, helping a nascent MTV gain popularity through its wrestling programming. Last year, USA Network was the most-watched prime-time cable network thanks to WWE’s live “Raw” program on Monday nights. “I think any good entertainment product has to change with the times,” Mr. McMahon said. “You have to have your fingers on the pulse of the marketplace.” The $10 monthly fee — higher than Netflix’s $8 monthly rate — should appeal to the WWE’s core fans, who now gain access to expensive pay-per-view events like WrestleMania. Die-hard fans can watch classic matchups, like 1985’s main event from WrestleMania I, a tag-team battle featuring Hulk Hogan and Mr. T against Roddy Piper and Paul Orndorff. Michelle Wilson, chief revenue and marketing officer at the WWE, said that in addition to those main selling points, the network plans to add programming like talk shows or animated features to entice nonwrestling audiences. Fans will eventually also get to view matches never broadcast to a national audience. Since the 1990s, the WWE has been acquiring the libraries of wrestling events from smaller, regional companies, with designs on someday having its own network, said Jim Ross, a former senior adviser to the WWE. Image Vince McMahon, chief executive of the WWE. Credit Ethan Miller/Getty Images Whether such exclusive content has enticed customers will become clearer on April 7, the day after WrestleMania 30, when the WWE will announce its first subscription numbers for its “over the top” streaming service. The company’s goal is to have one million subscribers within the next year, though Mr. McMahon said he expected to exceed that number. During that time, the network also plans to expand to 11 countries. Wade Keller, the editor of Pro Wrestling Torch who has covered the sport for nearly three decades, said the first number of total subscribers could be 80,000 to 800,000. An initial number below 100,000 would be “a disaster,” Mr. Keller said. Early returns show that fan interest has been high. Peter Rosenberg, who co-hosts a pro wrestling podcast with Mr. Shoemaker on the ESPN website Grantland, said he watched the network for approximately 15 hours a week. “You start thinking about what other things in your life you would be willing to do that for,” he said. While the WWE Network has shown early promise, Mr. McMahon has a mixed history with entrepreneurial ventures. The XFL, a professional football league marketed as an alternative to the N.F.L., was a notable failure. In 2012, the company invested $5 million in Tout, a social media platform that was once heavily promoted on the WWE’s shows, but has faded. With the network, the WWE has a partner in Major League Baseball’s Advanced Media, an innovator in streaming services that built the streaming infrastructure for the WWE Network. The network servers for that infrastructure crashed last month on the first day of operation because of unexpected demand. The WWE will be further put to the test next weekend with WrestleMania 30, which is expected to draw record traffic to its Internet channel. The company’s executives said they were confident the network would hold up to the high demand. “I don’t think it’s ever been our intention to say, ‘Hey, we’re going to be the first and we want to be the trailblazers and we are the future of television,’ ” Ms. Wilson said. “Our goal has always been about our fans.” Among those fans is the rapper Wale, whose catalog includes a song called “Hacksaw Jim Duggan,” named after a popular wrestler from the 1980s who carried around an American flag and a two-by-four. For years, Wale said he stopped watching WWE events, until he subscribed to the new network. Earlier this month, Wale was in the front row at a WWE “Raw” show at the Barclays Center, watching a childhood favorite, Hulk Hogan, as well as new talent like the Wyatt family, a trio of cultlike figures in goat masks and Hawaiian shirts. For Wale, who once rapped, “Y’all too old for this, y’all Hulk Hogan,” the WWE Network has brought him back to childhood. “If you’re a wrestling fan,” he said, “it’s just like heaven.”

WWE
Vince McMahon
TV
Computers and the Internet
Tech Industry
Wrestling


A Roar, Then Cold Darkness: Avalanche Survivors Recall 3-Day Ordeal

Abstract: ROME — First there was the roar, then the darkness and crush of debris that turned their four-star resort hotel into a wintry tomb. For the next three days, they shivered on a sooty sofa and sucked on packed snow. When rescuers finally came, recalled Giorgia Galassi and Vincenzo Forti, they had to be pulled out by their feet. They were among the 11 known survivors of an avalanche that crushed the Hotel Rigopiano in central Italy a week ago. At least 25 others were killed. As of Wednesday evening, four people were still missing, with hopes dwindling that they would be found alive. Mr. Forti, 25, and Ms. Galassi, 22, were finally extricated at 5 a.m. on Saturday. “When we first heard a voice it was a moment of joy,” Mr. Forti said on Wednesday as he and Ms. Galassi recounted their story. “We were miraculous survivors.” The two spoke at a news conference in Giulianova, near Teramo, the Italian seaside town where they both live. They had arrived at the Rigopiano, in the Gran Sasso National Park, on the blustery evening of Jan. 17, just hours before four powerful earthquakes shook central Italy. The quakes unnerved the guests, who packed their bags and convened with the hotel staff in a common room with a large fireplace, awaiting snowplows to clear the roads so that they could all leave. “Everyone wanted to go home,” Ms. Galassi said. The hotel staff tried to calm the guests, explaining that the hotel had withstood multiple earthquakes including those that struck the area last year, killing nearly 300. So they waited. Then came the thunderous noise and darkness. “Until the rescue workers told us it was an avalanche, I was certain it had been an earthquake,” Ms. Galassi said. Tons of snow and debris had swept through the hotel, crushing the top floors. Mr. Forti, a pizzeria owner, and Ms. Galassi, a communications student at the University of Teramo, were trapped in a cramped space on a couch. Italy’s History of Deadly Earthquakes A look at earthquakes in Italy that have caused extensive damage over the last century. “We couldn’t see anything, it was total darkness, then I found my phone nearby,” Ms. Galassi said. She tried to make an emergency call but there was no signal. For a while, they used the phone to illuminate their surroundings, then the battery died. Another woman, Francesca Bronzi, was stuck in a cavity nearby, and they spoke to each other and tried to keep morale up, they said. They stayed hydrated with packed snow, even as the cold worsened. “We helped each other,” Ms. Galassi said. Ms. Bronzi said she and her boyfriend, Stefano Feniello, had been staying at the hotel to celebrate his birthday and their fifth anniversary as a couple. His body was identified by family members on Tuesday, Italian media reported. “I still haven’t been able to recover,” Ms. Bronzi said in a televised interview Tuesday evening, her voice shaking. She described the avalanche as an explosion that had pushed her back several feet. “It was dark, cold, there was a lot of dust and soot from the chimney,” said Ms. Bronzi, who said she had been trapped between a wooden beam and a couch. As the rescuers dug closer to freeing them, Ms. Galassi said, “they talked to us, kept us alert, they joked.” “We are here and we won’t leave without you,” she quoted them as saying. A regional prosecutor, Cristina Tedeschini, said on Wednesday that autopsies had been conducted on six victims so far and they showed that the “dynamics of the death” had differed. “In some cases people died immediately because they were crushed, in others death was less immediate,” she said during a televised news conference. “In some cases several causes were involved, including hypothermia and asphyxiation.” As critics accused officials of inadequately responding to the avalanche, Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni defended rescue efforts, telling senators on Wednesday that “every effort had been made” to save human lives, and that criminal procedures would determine whether mistakes had been made. It took the first rescuers more than eight hours to reach the hotel, on foot, because snow had blocked the roads. Ms. Galassi, Mr. Forti and Ms. Bronzi had nothing but praise for their rescuers. In her interview on Tuesday, on the late-night talk show “Porta a Porta,” Ms. Bronzi asked whether she might someday be able to meet them, though she knew them only by first name — Francesco, Alessio, Luca, Mauro, Gino. “From the moment they heard us, they never left us alone, they kept us company,” Ms. Bronzi said. “I would like to see them somehow.”

Italy
Earthquake
Avalanche
Hotel Rigopiano