Tom Coughlin Goes Easy on Giants Quarterback Eli Manning for Mistake

Abstract: Philadelphia Here was Tom Coughlin as the dedicated father figure to the quarterback who doubles as his football son, covering for Eli Manning , who has taken him to the peak of two Super Bowl mountains and provided him with legitimate Hall of Fame coaching credentials. Coughlin is not an easy man to be around, much less live with, after any loss and especially after one as exasperating as the 19-17 defeat by the Eagles on Sunday night at Lincoln Financial Field. His son-in-law, Chris Snee, may anchor his offensive line, but Manning is the Giant whom Coughlin will forever be tethered to and the one he eternally trusts. Manning has been there for him since the beginning in 2004, and for the last 134 games as the starter, and more recently as perhaps the N.F.L.’s premier closer. When the Giants lose, Coughlin generally prides himself on being characteristically blunt in the aftermath. Family man that he is, Coughlin wasn’t about to call out Manning for a throw that cost the Giants a relatively makable field goal attempt in the game’s dying seconds and saddled them with a second divisional defeat and a 2-2 record. “We had options on either side of the field,” Coughlin said of the ball that Manning foolishly put up for grabs on the sideline and near the goal line when all he needed was a few more yards, or none at all. “Eli decided to take the X receiver, and it didn’t work out. That wasn’t the only option.” But Coughlin would not come out and state for the record that Manning had chosen not only the wrong option, but the most illogical one imaginable, under the circumstances. He instead focused on “what happened, the worst thing that could have”: receiver Ramses Barden’s being flagged for offensive pass interference on Eagles cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha. The penalty set the Giants back 10 yards from the Eagles’ 26, and that turned out to be beyond the reach of kicker Lawrence Tynes from 54 yards. Coughlin implied that it was one of those things — Barden’s overzealousness as much as or more than Manning’s shortsightedness — that doomed the Giants. Besides, there were plenty of other mistakes to bemoan, beginning with the Giants’ inability to produce a single take-away from Michael Vick and the turnover-prone Eagles. For his part, Manning conceded that in trying to take advantage of the 6-foot-6 Barden’s four-inch height advantage over Asomugha, he “put him in a bad position where the D.B. could intercept it.” Maybe that was the point of Coughlin not having to play the public scold. Knowing his quarterback like the back of his playbook, he could be certain that Manning would take the blame for putting Barden — still a work in progress as a reliable N.F.L. receiver — in that kind of matchup against a four-time All-Pro cornerback like Asomugha. Yes, Barden had gotten behind Asomugha for 31 yards on the fourth-quarter touchdown drive that had given the Giants a 17-16 lead. But Asomugha later explained that the Eagles were in zone coverage on the play and he was supposed to be the trailer. Yes, Barden had drawn an interference call on Asomugha two plays before the critical throw on a slant that set up the Giants on the Eagles’ 27 with 49 seconds left. But Asomugha said he “felt like it was fine,” while acknowledging that “there have been times when I felt that and then you go back and watch it on TV and it wasn’t that way.” That was another subplot to the game’s dramatic conclusion, with three pass-interference penalties involving Barden — and no one chasing a referee off the field or tweeting bloody murder. Instead, a subdued and remorseful Barden — the replay showed his left hand all over Asomugha’s helmet from behind — said he was just trying to prevent an interception, and Asomugha said he didn’t know what to expect because, well, refs will be refs. “I felt the guy draped over me as I was trying to get the ball, but those go either way, or sometimes they don’t call it,” he said. “I know if it’s the defensive guy, they are more apt to call it. But an offensive guy, you never know.” It would seem “you never know” is acceptable from the regular officials, at least in the wake of their absence that so embarrassed the league and infuriated its principals. It is also important to recognize that reputation under fire does matter — which, of course, is why Coughlin has given and will continue to give Manning his fourth-quarter freedom and why Manning should have known better than to put the ball up the way he did to an inexperienced receiver against a shutdown defender. Asomugha may not have been able to read the lower lines on an eye chart after being poked in his right eye in the second quarter and nearly going to the hospital. But the football was plenty big enough, and the skinny on the Giants by now is that they do not believe in their running game. Not to be forgotten is that the play preceding the last throw to Barden was an Ahmad Bradshaw run for a measly yard. Teams that are outrushed, 191-57 , as the Giants were Sunday night, will invariably put the ball up for grabs and occasionally pay the price. Had Rex Ryan and Mark Sanchez engineered this kind of endgame for the Jets, Fireman Ed wouldn’t be capable of dousing the inferno of ire. As good as Vick has been and was Sunday night, he remains an untimely mistake or two from hearing more calls for his head. It’s true that Coughlin could have called for Manning to play it safe — and he bears some responsibility for the outcome — but he has twice ridden that right arm to a season’s last hurrah, and no endgame blunder at the end of September, or perhaps any month, is going to come between them.

New York Giants
Coughlin Tom
Barden Ramses
Manning Eli
Philadelphia Eagles
Football


Consultant Fees Go Undisclosed in Medical Journals, Study Finds

Abstract: Twenty-five out of 32 highly paid consultants to medical device companies in 2007, or their publishers, failed to reveal the financial connections in journal articles the following year, according to a study released on Monday. The study compared major payments to consultants by orthopedic device companies with financial disclosures the consultants later made in medical journal articles, and found them lacking in public transparency. “We found a massive, dramatic system failure,” said David J. Rothman, a professor and president of the Institute on Medicine as a Profession at Columbia University , who wrote the study with two other Columbia researchers, Susan Chimonas and Zachary Frosch. The study, published on the Web site of The Archives of Internal Medicine, focused on 32 medical doctors and doctoral researchers who were each paid at least $1 million in 2007 and published one or more journal articles the next year. Most of the doctors and most of the orthopedic journal articles did not disclose their financial relationships with companies, the study found. Professor Rothman called for stricter disclosure policies, including precise amounts of consulting payments. He said journal readers needed the information to consider the potential for bias. Dr. Marcia Angell, a former editor of The New England Journal of Medicine, who was not involved with the study, called it “an ingenious study, with unsurprising results.” She added, “It is one more indication of the widespread corruption of the medical profession by industry money.” “The journals’ lax enforcement of disclosure policies probably reflects the fact that journals, too, are dependent on industry support,” Dr. Angell said in an e-mail to a reporter after reviewing the study. The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors, responding to criticism, has proposed better disclosure policies in the last two years. But each journal sets its own policy, and critics say many of them have still not gone far enough. The Journal of Arthroplasty lacked disclosures in 17 of 24 articles in the study. Glen Campbell, head of health sciences journals for the publisher Elsevier, said it required disclosure. “We’re impressed with the quality of research here which clearly shows a collective need for greater adherence by authors and encouragement by publishers to comply,” he wrote in an e-mail. The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery, which disclosed the financial ties in seven of 10 articles in the study, said in a statement on Monday that it agreed on the need for improvement and planned to announce tighter policies next year. “It is important to us that the readers of our research work are fully aware of the sources of support for this innovative research,” the journal editor, Dr. Vernon T. Tolo, director of the orthopedic center at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, wrote. The study was based on disclosures by five medical device companies, mostly forced by government investigations. The companies paid about $250 million to consultants in 2007, including royalties, the study says. Zimmer paid $87 million; DePuy Orthopaedics, $63 million; Stryker, $45 million; Biomet, $27 million; and Smith & Nephew, $24 million. Of that total, $114 million went to 41 doctors, the study said, of whom 32 wrote or were co-authors on orthopedic journal articles the next year. The study focused on a representative sample of 95 of those articles. It said 51 of them, or 54 percent, did not mention the financial relationship with a company. It showed that 25 of the 32 authors did not disclose some or all of the time. The study does not identify individual doctors or their journal articles. Professor Rothman said he did not know how often the journals required disclosures in 2008, but he said the lack of results showed “a broken system” regardless of who was to blame. Representatives from Stryker, Zimmer and DePuy had no immediate comment on Monday. The research focused on doctors paid more than $1 million because that seemed a significant conflict-of-interest that should have been disclosed the next year, Professor Rothman said. In a further criticism, he said none of the medical journals required authors to disclose exactly how much they had received, making it impossible to distinguish between payments ranging from $10,000 to $8.8 million. “We’ve got accurate data out there,” he said. “Why aren’t we using it?”

Medicine and Health
Publications
Conflicts of Interest
Research
Columbia University


Goodbye F.A.O. Schwarz: Toy Lovers Prepare for Store’s Closing

Abstract: Melissa Quiñones remembers the promises her parents made before they immigrated to New York from Colombia in the early 1990s: “You get to go to McDonald’s and the biggest toy store there is,” Ms. Quiñones, now 32, recalled. She resisted, with all the willpower of a 9-year-old, until her parents announced that they were going on a weeklong vacation at Christmastime in chilly, wintry New York. Faster than she could say a certain address on Fifth Avenue, her resistance melted. “I remember walking into F. A. O. Schwarz and saying: ‘We get to come here whenever we want? Give me a Big Mac and let me play on that piano,’ ” she said, referring to the giant illuminated keyboard that Tom Hanks and Robert Loggia danced on in the movie “Big.” “It was like the United States was one great toy store.” Image Melissa Quiñones outside of F. A. O. Schwarz last week. Her parents first took her to the store when she was a child in the 1990s. Credit Karsten Moran for The New York Times But now the wonderland that she remembers is closing, another casualty in a shopping district where rents are surging. Toys “R” Us, the chain that has owned F. A. O. Schwarz since 2009, said this month that the store would shut down on July 15 , even though the lease is far from up. Toys “R” Us said it had worked out “an early exit in advance of the 2017 lease expiration, providing the opportunity to realize meaningful rent savings.” As for what happens next, Toys “R” Us said the F. A. O. Schwarz brand would continue in Toys “R” Us stores and online. Toys “R” Us had reportedly looked at space on the lower level of the office building at 1633 Broadway, close to Times Square, but F. A. O. Schwarz is leaving Fifth Avenue with no fixed destination. It is too soon for the “everything must go” signs. But on a recent weekday, a clearance sign was on a bin of “F. A. O. exclusive” black bears. Stuffed, of course. The sign said they had been marked down to $74.98, from $99.99, a 25 percent reduction. Steps away was a much larger bear. It had not been discounted from $799.99. Image Ms. Quiñones visiting the store in the 1990s. For millennials like Ms. Quiñones, news of the closing was disquieting. It was almost as if the fantasy stage set of childhood was about to be demolished. Even if they came from households with Toys “R” Us budgets, they knew the layout of F. A. O. Schwarz by heart. They knew what was in every square foot of the store, which, as it happens, is about two-thirds the size of a professional football field, if the end zones are included. “My childhood was F. A. O. Schwarz,” said Shira Underberger, 25, who was raised in Easton, Conn. “It was to toy stores what Apple stores are to technology. It was its own world, it wasn’t just a store. You had the talking tree when you walked in. You had the piano you could step on. You had all the stuffed animals, any animal you could think of. “But it was really the experience of going. It was like a kids’ museum. I would go to the natural history museum with my mom for the educational angle, but I would make my aunt and uncle take me to F. A. O. Schwarz. That, to me, was a kid’s dream.” But — and this hints at the challenges facing a retailer like F. A. O. Schwarz — she remembers only one purchase, a pink Penelope the Pup toy. She still guards it, to the extent that she can from 60 miles away in Manhattan, where she now lives. “My mom, every so often, tries to move stuff up to the attic — that dog and my collection of Gund teddy bears,” she said. “I won’t let her.” Image Children playing on the store's floor keyboard in 2006. Credit James Estrin/The New York Times If the store was a stage set for millennials, it was also a stage set for their parents, who marveled at — well, whatever parents marveled at besides the prices at the cash registers. And if the parents’ own childhoods had included F. A. O. Schwarz, they probably realized that the store had been 93 feet away when they were kids. For years, F. A. O. Schwarz was on the southeast corner of Fifth Avenue and 58th Street. It moved to the northeast corner, to space in the General Motors Building, in 1986. Either way, it was a fixture. It fit “a certain idea of classic New York that had to do with the Plaza Hotel and Eloise,” said Lily Swistel, a customer as a child who grew up in Manhattan and now lives in Brooklyn. “But the Plaza has changed. It’s become condos.” (The Plaza still houses a hotel, but with 282 rooms, the hotel operation is smaller than before much of the building was turned into expensive condominiums.) F. A. O. Schwarz remains one of New York’s most venerable retail brands, having outlasted other carriage-trade stores such as B. Altman, Bonwit Teller and Best & Company. The store began as Schwarz Brothers Importers soon after the Civil War. It was the Manhattan outpost of a family-run operation from Baltimore, but the other brothers disappeared from the marquee in a few years. The one who remained, Frederick August Otto Schwarz, made the store his. It probably helped that many people saw in him more than a passing resemblance to Santa Claus. He concentrated on intriguing toys at premium prices. He had to, said Christopher Byrne, the creative director of TTPM.com , an online toy review — in those days, most toys were imported from Europe. “There were very, very few manufactured toys in the U.S.,” he said. “These were luxury goods, the dolls and the trains and the building blocks, and these were unheard-of.” Image A woman posing with two greeters dressed as toy soldiers outside the F. A. O. Schwarz store in Midtown Manhattan last week. Credit Karsten Moran for The New York Times There was a time when F. A. O. Schwarz was a status symbol. “Their slate blue box under the Christmas tree was as impressive to child as a Tiffany box would have been to a grown-up in New York,” Mr. Byrne said. Those were the days when F. A. O. Schwarz published “this huge Neiman Marcus-style catalog that came to people’s homes.” He said the catalog, as much as anything else, had established the company’s identity from the moment Mr. Schwarz put out the first one in the 1870s. But catalogs have long since become passé, and ogling toys in a store “is not really an American pastime anymore,” he said. “Kids still love looking at toys, but they’re doing it on their iPads and their phones and their different devices,” he said. “The image of the saucer-eyed child looking at some object of desire is the same, but the child is looking at a tablet.” Which is not the kind of experience Ms. Quiñones remembers. “Walking out of there with a $7.99 Barbie, I was out of my mind with happiness,” she said. “For my parents, as an immigrant family, not to have to spend a lot just to experience being in this massive toy store, it didn’t matter the price point of the toy. That was the great thing about F. A. O. You could spend $8 or $1,500 and your child would walk out with the same feeling.”

F A O Schwarz
F. A. O. Schwarz
Toy
Closings
Retail
Fifth Avenue Manhattan


Congressman’s Proposal Is a First Step Toward a Tax Overhaul

Abstract: Tax reform, at least in American politics these days, is generally discussed at only the most abstract level. There is general agreement that it would be nice to lower tax rates while broadening the base by getting rid of loopholes. The latter, of course, are seldom specified in any detail, and are very much in the eye of the beholder. If real tax change is ever to be adopted, we are going to have to be specific on small things as well as large. Representative Dave Camp, the Michigan Republican who heads the House Ways and Means Committee, has taken an impressive step in that direction with a proposal to make substantial changes in the taxation of financial instruments. Mr. Camp’s proposal got relatively little attention in the media, although it has set off alarm bells in some Wall Street precincts, where it threatens to dismantle some cherished ways that Wall Street has invented to allow banks to profit by taking a cut of tax benefits they offer to customers. “Congressman Camp’s proposal reflects his efforts to respond to the changing realities of modern financial markets,” said Mark Price, who leads the financial institutions and products group at KPMG’s Washington national tax practice. Studying Mr. Camp’s proposal is not always easy sledding. This is an area of law that has grown exceedingly complicated, in large part because each change in the law is greeted by new tax avoidance tactics and strategies, which eventually lead to new provisions that combat those but may open the way to still more maneuvers. And on and on. Many innovations in finance accomplish nothing for the overall economy, but instead are aimed solely at gaming either tax or regulatory rules. Lobbyists for one part of the financial services industry or another have gotten provisions passed to benefit their products over those of competitors, leading to demands by competitors for equal treatment. It would be nice to report that the chairman has found a magic way to end these games, but he has not. Some on Wall Street are already talking about ways that some of his proposals, if enacted, could be abused. Mr. Camp understands that and has called his proposal a “discussion draft,” one that is aimed at getting comments from those who would be affected. He will get plenty of them. One principle that the Camp proposal would establish is to provide what the congressman calls “uniform tax treatment of financial derivatives.” The definition of derivative is very wide — it includes short sales of stock as well as options, swaps and futures. Under the Camp proposal, a derivative could create only ordinary gains or losses no matter how long it was held. And changes in value would be subject to tax every year, as the market price changed, whether or not the investor sold. There could never be a long-term capital gain involving a derivative, and therefore the investor could never qualify for the preferential tax rate on long-term capital gains. There are many tax-oriented strategies to create differing tax treatments for what are actually offsetting investments. The idea is to have a loss treated as ordinary income, and recognized as soon as possible, while the offsetting gain is delayed and then treated as a long-term capital gain if that is possible. Image Dave Camp, left, and Sander Levin of the House Ways and Means Committee have appointed task forces to examine tax issues. Credit Brendan Smialowski/Getty Images The Camp proposal would establish a general rule that both arms of an offsetting strategy will be taxed as ordinary income or loss on a mark-to-market basis at the end of each year. So if one position made money while the other lost, they would wash each other out. There would be little reason to enter into many such transactions. And derivatives — except those that businesses use in ways that qualify for hedge accounting — will automatically be marked to market. One type of product that appears to be targeted is so-called exchange-traded notes. They are devised to be alternatives to other investments, but with better tax treatment. Consider a mutual fund that invests in the stocks in the Standard & Poor’s 500. If you buy shares in that fund, dividends will be distributed to you each year, and you pay taxes on them even if you reinvest them in the fund. But if a bank issues a “note” tied to the total return on the same index, you will not owe taxes until you sell the note. The effect is to defer taxes on the dividend income. To get that tax break, you pay a fee to the bank that issued the note, and you take the credit risk. If the bank fails, you will suffer no matter how well the index does. Under the proposal, anyone who owned such a security would have to mark it to market value at the end of each year and pay taxes on the gain, assuming there was one, at ordinary income tax rates. Then there is the strategy of “covered call writing,” followed by some cautious investors. An investor who owns, say, 100 shares of I.B.M., sells a call option allowing the purchaser to buy the stock at a fixed price for a certain amount of time. The current law treats the profit or loss on the option as a capital gain or loss, but does not levy any tax on the stock until it is actually sold. Under the Camp proposal, that would change. When the individual sold the covered call option, that would be treated as being equivalent to the sale of the stock, and capital gains tax would be owed on the difference between the market value at the time and the price the investor paid. While the call option was still open, any gain or loss in the stock would be treated as ordinary income or loss, as would any change in the value of the option. If that provision became law, covered call writing would probably fade away as a tactic used by individuals, at least when the investor had a gain in the stock before writing the option. The taxation of bonds bought at a discount on the market would also change. Bonds trade at a discount because their interest rate is below the current market level or because the issuer’s creditworthiness has fallen since the bond was issued. Right now, “there is a tax benefit to investing in discount bonds as opposed to current-pay bonds with the same yield,” said David C. Garlock, the director of financial services for Ernst & Young’s national tax practice. That is because you do not pay tax on the rise in the bond’s value as it nears maturity, until the bond is sold. That would change. The unpaid interest would accrue and be taxed each year, just as it is now on zero-coupon bonds. There is a partial exemption for owners of distressed bonds bought at deep discounts, but they would still owe some taxes each year, even if they did not sell the bond. A change that would affect many investors is a rule that would set the tax basis of securities at the investor’s average cost for that security. Now, investors can, if they choose, use a different basis. So an investor who bought 300 shares of a company over time, at prices of $20, $25 and $30 for each 100-share block, would assert that the first 100 sold was the block bought at the highest price. If the selling price was $35, that would produce a reported capital gain of $5 per share. Under the average age cost method, the gain would be twice that ($35 less the $25 average cost). The proposal is notably silent on the question of whether capital gains should continue to get a preferential tax rate. And it does not address the issue of carried interest, which allows private equity firms to treat much or all of what they pay their executives as capital gains. President Obama wants to change that, but Republicans have resisted the idea. Representative Camp says he plans to try to pass a comprehensive bill to overhaul the tax code during the current session, and there is some evidence that he intends to try to do that on a bipartisan basis. This week he and the top Democrat on the committee, Sander Levin, also of Michigan, jointly appointed task forces of committee members to deal with specific tax issues. They seem to have included every contentious issue there is, from charitable deductions to international taxation. It is obviously a long way from appointing such groups to actually reaching a deal that can pass both the House and the Senate and be signed by the president. But the Camp proposal may be a start to reaching consensus on some of the details that would be in any successful compromise.

David Camp
Capital gains tax
Derivatives
Income tax
House Committee on Ways and Means


Treasury Auctions Set for the Week of June 6

Abstract: The Treasury’s schedule of financing this week includes Monday’s regular weekly auction of new three- and six-month bills and an auction of four-week bills on Tuesday. At the close of the New York cash market on Friday, the rate on the outstanding three-month bill was 0.30 percent. The rate on the six-month issue was 0.43 percent, and the rate on the four-week issue was 0.19 percent. The following tax-exempt fixed-income issues are scheduled for pricing this week: MONDAY Florida Board of Education, $145.4 million of general obligation bonds. Competitive. TUESDAY Corning City, N.Y., School District, $69.8 million of general obligation bonds. Competitive. Georgia, $1.34 billion of general obligation bonds. Competitive. Lawrence, Kan., $67.5 million of water and sewage system revenue bonds. Competitive. Maine, $64.7 million of general obligation bonds. Competitive. Prince George’s County, Md., $177.4 million of general obligation bonds. Competitive. WEDNESDAY Clark County, Nev., $108 million of highway revenue bonds. Competitive. Fayetteville, N.C., Public Works Commission, $111.6 million of revenue bonds. Competitive. Maryland, $1 billion of general obligation bonds. Competitive. Naperville, Ill., $62.4 million of general obligation bonds. Competitive. Nassau County, N.Y., $147.4 million of general obligation bonds. Competitive. Seattle, $165 million of drain and wastewater revenue bonds. Competitive. THURSDAY Massachusetts, $500 million of general obligation bonds. Competitive. South Broward, Fla., Hospital District, $168 million of hospital district revenue bonds. Competitive. ONE DAY DURING THE WEEK Arizona State University, $119.4 million of revenue refinancing bonds. J. P. Morgan Securities. California Statewide Communities Development Authority, $220 million of health care revenue bonds. Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Chicago Metropolitan Water Reclamation District, $432 million of general obligation refinancing bonds. Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Clarksville, Tenn., $90.9 million of water, sewer and gas revenue refinancing bonds. Morgan Stanley. Harris County, Tex., $514 million of toll road revenue refinancing bonds. Loop Capital Markets. Hernando County, Fla., School Board, $87 million of refinancing certificates of participation. Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Hobart Industry Building Corporation, Indiana, $67.2 million of first mortgage refinancing bonds. City Securities. Idaho, $500 million of debt securities. Piper Jaffray. Indiana Finance Authority, $137.9 million facilities revenue bonds. J. P. Morgan Securities. Indiana Finance Authority, $70.1 million water utility revenue bonds. Morgan Stanley. Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority, $80 million of single-family mortgage revenue bonds. RBC Capital Markets. Kentucky Housing Corporation, $72 million of debt securities. Citigroup Global Markets. Lansing, Mich., School District, $60 million of school building and site bonds. Stifel Nicolaus. Los Angeles County, $800 million of tax and revenue anticipation notes. Wells Fargo Securities. Lower Colorado River Authority, $190 million of transmission contract refinancing revenue bonds. Barclays Capital. Maine Health and Higher Educational Facilities Authority, $62.5 million of revenue bonds. Goldman Sachs. New York City Housing Development Corporation, $425.7 million of multifamily housing revenue bonds. J. P. Morgan Securities. New York Transportation Development Corporation, $850 million of airport project debt securities. Citigroup Global Markets. Pennsylvania State University, $349.3 million of refinancing bonds. Barclays Capital. Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission, $440 million of debt securities. Piper Jaffray. Pima County, Ariz., $202.7 million of sewer system revenue refinancing obligations. RBC Capital Markets. Riverside County, Calif., $340 million of tax and revenue anticipation notes. Stifel Nicolaus. San Diego County Water Authority, $86.8 million of revenue refinancing bonds. Morgan Stanley. San Diego County Water Authority, $295 million of debt securities. Citigroup Global Markets. Sumner, Wash., School District, $72.4 million of unlimited-tax general obligation bonds. D. A. Davidson. University of North Carolina, $55.5 million of refinancing limited obligation bonds. Raymond James. University of Texas System, $215 million of debt securities. Citigroup Global Markets. Washington, D.C., $421.8 million of general obligation bonds. J. P. Morgan Securities. West Hollywood, Calif., $82.5 million of lease revenue bonds. Stifel Nicolaus. West Palm Beach, Fla., $50.3 million of pension funding special obligation bonds. Morgan Stanley. Wichita Falls, Tex., $74.6 million of water and sewer system revenue bonds. Hilltop Securities. Wisconsin Center District, $160.9 million of appropriation revenue bonds. Morgan Stanley.


A Tar Heel Struggles for Time, Not Wins

Abstract: CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — The player with the most victories in North Carolina men’s basketball history is not Michael Jordan, James Worthy, Sam Perkins or any of the other greats with jerseys hanging from the rafters of the Dean Smith Center. The player who owns the record is the little-known Quentin Thomas, a senior backup point guard who will have a chance to add to his 123 wins Saturday night in a Final Four semifinal against Kansas. Thomas has been a part of teams that have won at least 30 games three times in his four seasons. And he already has one national championship ring, won as a freshman in 2005. “It means a lot to say that I was a part of a team for four years that just cared about nothing but winning and was a team,” Thomas said. “And I was just fortunate to be around great teammates and great coaching staff. You know, we got a lot of wins.” But there was a lot of heartache along the way for Thomas, who was one of the first players recruited to North Carolina by Coach Roy Williams when he arrived in 2003. In an odd twist, Thomas started the first game of his career in 2004 when point guard Raymond Felton was suspended one game for a minor N.C.A.A. violation. It was his only start in his first three seasons. Along the way, Thomas struggled with injuries and never emerged as a premier player. All of which makes this season that much more gratifying. Thomas began the season as the third-string point guard behind Ty Lawson and Bobby Frasor. But Frasor was lost to a season-ending knee injury in December, then Lawson went down with an ankle sprain in early February. Thomas was the only one left to run the point. He started his first game Feb. 6 against Duke. Although North Carolina lost, Thomas helped the Tar Heels win their next five in a row before Lawson returned. He averaged 7.1 points and 6.7 assists. Thomas started nine consecutive games over all (Lawson came off the bench for three before he was fully healthy); the Tar Heels went 8-1. “When it came up, it was just an opportunity for me to basically showcase not only my talent, but to show that I could lead this team,” Thomas said. “I just gained confidence off of that.” In March, Thomas surpassed the class of 1983-84 — including Perkins and others who won 117 games — for the victory record. Although Thomas’s minutes have declined, Williams does not hesitate to use him in the rotation and at critical moments. Unlike in 2005, when Thomas played sparingly as a freshman in the Final Four, he will have a significant role this weekend. “Here’s a kid who had some injuries, had some setbacks, or had some opportunities and had some poor play and was never able to step forward,” Williams said. “And then all of the sudden, it was a time period when it was not just the coaching staff wanting him to do well, we absolutely needed him to do well. And he said, ‘O.K., I’m going to do this.’ And man, that was — I’m corny as all get-out — but that’s been a real thrill for me as a coach to see the confidence grow in him.” Thomas will carry that confidence with him to San Antonio through the last days of a career that has left its mark in the North Carolina record book. “For me to leave as a senior with another national championship, that would be a great feeling,” he said. “It would be like the end of a storybook.” CALIPARI SAYS NO DISTRACTION Coach John Calipari said Memphis would not be distracted by the recent suspension of the backup point guard Andre Allen. Allen, who was suspended for a violation that has not been made public, did not travel to San Antonio for the Final Four. “Sometimes these guys do stupid things at inopportune times,” Calipari said. “He has.” Allen scored only one basket the last five games and averaged 3.3 points, 2.1 assists and 1.2 rebounds a game. Calipari said the suspension could “elevate my team.” “Because if you’ve ever coached or been part of a team, someone gets hurt and what happens? They come together and they step up,” Calipari said. “So at the end of the day, it may help us. It will not hurt us.” (AP) PARKER CLEARED TO PLAY Two days after dislocating her shoulder, Tennessee’s Candace Parker was cleared by team doctors to play against Louisiana State in the women’s Final Four. Parker will wear a brace in Sunday’s game. She dislocated her shoulder twice against Texas A&M on Tuesday, a game in which she scored 26 points. (AP)

NCAA Basketball Tournament
College Athletics


Phelps Shuts Down Athletics as He Gets Support From Yankees’ Offense

Abstract: OAKLAND, Calif. — No one saw this coming Friday night from Yankees right-hander David Phelps against the Oakland Athletics. Phelps had lost a career-high four straight starts before facing the A’s. During that skid, he gave up 20 runs and 30 hits, including seven runs and 10 hits — both season highs — in an 8-4 loss to Kansas City during his previous start. Against the A’s, Phelps (2-4) was all but unhittable. He allowed two hits in six and two-thirds innings, leading the Yankees to their fourth straight win, a 7-0 victory in the opener of a three-game series at O.co Coliseum. “It’s definitely one of the best starts of my career,” said Phelps, who outdueled A’s ace Sonny Gray. “You come in against a team that’s first in their division with one of the best records in baseball. My biggest thing is giving our team a chance to win, every time out. Our offense gave me a chance to be successful.” The A’s won two of three earlier this season at Yankee Stadium and swept three games from the Yankees last season in Oakland. This time, the A’s had no answer for Phelps. Phelps retired the first 10 A’s he faced in order and did not allow a base runner until walking catcher John Jaso with one out in the fourth inning. In the fifth, Phelps issued a one-out walk to Jed Lowrie, then gave up his first hit of the night, Derek Norris’ s broken-bat, line drive to shallow left field. Phelps retired Andy Parrino on a fly ball to center fielder Jacoby Ellsbury, who made a running catch in right-center field. Kyle Blanks hit a ground ball to third baseman Kelly Johnson, who threw to second for the force. Lowrie drilled a two-out double in the seventh inning, ending Phelps’s night, but the right-hander Dellin Betances pitched one and a third perfect innings, and Jose Ramirez pitched a perfect ninth. “He was on point,” Yankees catcher Brian McCann said of Phelps. “The last couple starts, he’s gotten beat by the big inning. Tonight, he really executed all his pitches. Image Jacoby Ellsbury extended his hitting streak to 17 games with a run-scoring single in the first inning. Credit Kelley L Cox/USA Today Sports, via Reuters “He had some really good movement on his pitches tonight. When he has that, he can pitch more in the zone. He pretty much did whatever he wanted tonight.” The Yankees gave Phelps all the support he needed in the first two innings, scoring twice in the first and once in the second off Gray to build a 3-0 lead. “I was attacking guys,” Phelps said. “The last couple starts, I was trying to be a little too fine, trying to be perfect with my pitches because I was digging myself into a hole and knowing I had to keep it there. But tonight, they did a great job scoring early for me. Let me kind of settle in, knowing I could be a little more aggressive in the zone.” Brett Gardner led off the game with a single off Gray. Gardner moved to second on Derek Jeter’s single to left and scored when Ellsbury hit an opposite-field single to left. Jeter scored on Mark Teixeira’s sacrifice fly to center field. Brian Roberts started a one-out rally with an infield single in the second. He moved to second when Gray walked Johnson and scored on Gardner’s single to left. “I think the key tonight was getting some key hits with runners in scoring position,” Ellsbury said. The Yankees added four runs in the eighth off A’s reliever Jeff Francis, using five singles and an Oakland error to make it 7-0. Coming off a 6-3 victory Thursday night at Seattle, the Yankees have scored more than four runs in back-to-back games for the first time since May 25-26. They used those runs Friday to help Phelps end his skid. “I thought it was important,” Yankees Manager Joe Girardi said of Phelps’s getting his first win since May 17 against Pittsburgh. “He did a really good job, I thought, of attacking the hitters. Sonny Gray, we know he has good stuff and he can be extremely tough, but we kind of jumped on him.”

Baseball
Yankees
Oakland Athletics
David Phelps
Jacoby Ellsbury
Mark Teixeira
Brett Gardner
Sonny Douglas Gray


East Timor: 24 Rebel Plotters Sentenced

Abstract: A court in East Timor on Wednesday convicted and sentenced 24 rebels to up to 16 years in prison in connection with the attempted assassinations of the country’s president and prime minister. Four more defendants were acquitted after a seven-month trial on charges of conspiracy and attempted murder that ended last month. President José Ramos-Horta, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, nearly died of gunshot wounds received in the attack on his compound in 2008, and Prime Minister Xanana Gusmão narrowly escaped unharmed from an ambush of his motorcade. The defendants were mostly former soldiers and police officers who became rebels and fugitives after factional rivalries within the security forces erupted into violence in 2006.

Assassinations and Attempted Assassinations


Ex-Duke Players Await an Announcement

Abstract: RALEIGH, N.C., April 10 — The three defendants in the Duke lacrosse sexual assault case and their families arrived in the area late Tuesday in expectation of an announcement from the state attorney general clearing them of all charges, one of the defense lawyers said. “I am very comfortable with what will happen when the attorney general makes the announcement,” said Joseph B. Cheshire, a lawyer for David F. Evans, one of three former Duke University students accused of sexual offense and kidnapping in a March 2006 lacrosse team party. Another defense lawyer, James P. Cooney III, said the families were arriving so they would not have to travel at the last minute for an announcement. The lawyers declined to say if they had received assurances from the attorney general’s office. The attorney general, Roy A. Cooper, and his spokeswoman could not be reached Tuesday night. Earlier, the spokeswoman, Noelle Talley, said the office might hold a news conference on Wednesday. Charges are pending against Mr. Evans, 24, of Annapolis, Md.; Reade W. Seligmann, 21, of Essex Fells, N.J.; and Collin Finnerty, 20, of Garden City, N.Y.

Duke University
Sex Crimes
Lacrosse
College Athletics
Evans David F


Report Cites Unexplained Costs of New Parks in the Bronx

Abstract: With costs ballooning to replace two Bronx parks that were bulldozed for the new Yankee Stadium — the latest estimate is almost $195 million — the city’s Independent Budget Office said on Tuesday that more than $16 million of the higher expense “remains to be explained.” The latest cost is almost $79 million over the 2005 estimate of $116 million, which itself was considerably more than the $96 million figure based on “conceptual designs” in an environmental impact statement using 2004 dollars. The Yankees will be using their new $1.3 billion ballpark for opening day in April, but Little Leaguers, tennis players and picnickers are unlikely to have access to all eight replacement parks until the end of 2011, a year later than promised, the budget office said in a report. “Since the plans were announced, the costs of these projects have risen significantly,” said the budget office, a publicly funded agency that provides nonpartisan information about city finances. Part of the increase, the budget office said, was caused by expansion of the project and unanticipated cleanup costs. But, it said, since the parks department is withholding some figures until bidding is complete, “more than a fifth of the increase, $16.3 million, remains to be explained.” The Department of Parks and Recreation called the findings old news. “It’s consistent with what we’ve been saying all along,” said Jama Adams, a spokeswoman. “None of these numbers are new. There have been cost increases just like every other construction project.” Ms. Adams attributed the increases in part to the costs of removing buried oil barrels and other toxic waste. But she said some new parks would be available long before 2011. A spokeswoman for the Yankees, Alice McGillion at Rubenstein Associates, said the team, which is paying for the stadium with the help of city incentives such as tax-exempt bonds, had put up $10 million for the new parks but had no control over the scheduling of their construction. Building the new stadium one block north of the old one at East 161st Street and River Avenue required demolition of Macombs Dam Park and a portion of John Mullaly Park , totaling more than 22 acres. Because state law requires replacement of lost parkland, the city agreed to create eight smaller parks totaling more than 32 acres. The largest is to be Waterfront Park, nearly 10 acres near the Harlem River and the Major Deegan Expressway, with 16 tennis courts (replacing the 16 lost at Macombs Dam Park), a beach, a seasonal ice rink, and a tennis and skating house in the former powerhouse building of the Bronx Terminal Market. Also at nearly 10 acres, the new Heritage Field at the site of the old stadium is set to include ball fields and a promenade to the new Macombs Dam Park, more than seven acres atop a new Yankee Stadium garage. Smaller pocket parks are to be interspersed nearby. In its report, the budget office said $30 million of the increased parkland cost was due to an expansion of the program, to more than 32 acres from an original conception of fewer than 25. Costs have risen 42 percent since 2005 just for the projects in the original plan, it said. In its expanded form, the project is 67 percent more expensive than estimated. Demolishing the old stadium and building Heritage Field and the promenade would end up costing more than $72 million, more than what was anticipated, the report said. Before the economic downturn, construction costs outpaced inflation, it said. And there was another factor, it added: “Published reports also indicate that to the extent that New York City, as well as other public-sector entities, is perceived as a difficult client, potential bidders are reluctant to bid on city contracts, and many observers believe that those who do bid include a premium for working with the city.”

Yankee Stadium (NYC)
Parks and Other Recreation Areas
Independent Budget Office


U.S. Court Denies BP Appeal on Spill Payments to Businesses

Abstract: An appeals court panel ruled on Wednesday that the British oil company BP must resume paying claims to businesses for the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill while BP asks the Supreme Court to review its settlement. The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit’s 2-to-1 judgment means the court will not stop payments while BP appeals a ruling that businesses do not have to prove they were directly harmed by the spill to collect money. A BP spokesman, Geoff Morrell, said in a statement that BP would ask the Supreme Court to review the ruling. BP initially estimated that about $7.8 billion would cover all claims, but later said the administrator was misinterpreting the settlement in ways that could add billions of dollars in bogus or inflated claims.

Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill
Lawsuits
BP
Supreme Court,SCOTUS


Number of Children Living in Poverty Drops Sharply, Census Bureau Reports

Abstract: WASHINGTON — The poverty rate declined last year for the first time since 2006, the Census Bureau reported on Tuesday. But at the same time, it said, there was no statistically significant change in the number of poor people or in income for the typical American household. The report showed significant improvements for children. The poverty rate for children under 18 declined last year for the first time since 2000, the bureau said, and the number of children in poverty fell by 1.4 million, to 14.7 million. Over all, the bureau said, 14.5 percent of Americans were living in poverty last year, down from 15 percent in 2012. Charles T. Nelson, a Census Bureau official, said the decline in the poverty rate resulted partly from an increase in the number of people working full time year-round. In particular, he said, the numbers show an increase in employment and earnings for parents with dependent children. The bureau estimated that 45.3 million people were living below the poverty level in 2013. This was not a statistically significant change from the estimate for 2012, the bureau said in its annual report on income and poverty . Poverty thresholds vary with the size and composition of a family. A family of four was classified as poor if its income was less than $23,830 last year; for one person, the threshold was $11,890. The official poverty levels are updated each year to reflect changes in the Consumer Price Index. The income figures do not reflect the value of noncash benefits like food stamps, Medicaid, Medicare and public housing. Nor do they include capital gains or the effects of taxes and tax credits. The official poverty rate indicates the number of poor people as a share of the total population. The rate can decline without a significant change in the number of poor people if the total population has grown. Census officials said that income inequality did not change in a statistically significant way from 2012 to 2013. However, they said, inequality has increased substantially in the last two decades, and the most common measure of household income inequality, known as the Gini index , is up 4.9 percent since 1993. Median household income in the United States was $51,940 last year, the bureau said. This was not statistically different from median income in 2012, after adjustment for inflation. The number of households with income above the median is the same as the number below it. Many households have not regained the purchasing power they had before the recession that began in December 2007. Median household income was 8 percent lower last year than in 2007, and the poverty rate was two percentage points higher. “The typical family has still not seen its income recover from the deep recession, which came on top of a decade in which incomes stagnated for the middle class, itself part of a longer-term trend of increasing income inequality,” said Jason Furman, the chairman of President Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers. The poverty rate is much lower than the 19 percent of 50 years ago, when President Lyndon B. Johnson declared “unconditional war on poverty.” But it is higher than it was in the 1970s, when the rate dropped as low as 11.1 percent. “If this report tells us anything, it’s that we can do better,” said Representative Paul D. Ryan, Republican of Wisconsin and chairman of the House Budget Committee. “The status quo simply isn’t good enough.” Senator Sherrod Brown, Democrat of Ohio, said congressional Republicans were partly responsible because, he said, they were “blocking legislation that would raise the minimum wage, ensure that women receive equal pay for equal work and help Americans repay college loans.” One-fifth of all American households had incomes of $105,910 or more last year, the Census Bureau said, and the top 5 percent had incomes of $196,000 or more. But median household income was still 8.7 percent below its peak in 1999. The Census Bureau adopted a new set of questions in an effort to measure health insurance coverage more accurately. Using the new method, the bureau estimated that 42 million people, accounting for 13.4 percent of the population, were uninsured for all of 2013. These figures are not directly comparable with prior years’ data on health insurance, or with estimates in surveys by other federal agencies. The National Center for Health Statistics, for example, said the number of Americans without health insurance had declined substantially in the first quarter of this year, in part because of the expansion of coverage under the Affordable Care Act. The center said that the number of uninsured Americans had fallen by about 8 percent, to 41 million people, in the first quarter of this year compared with 2013, a drop that represented about 3.8 million people. The Census Bureau report was based on interviews with 68,000 households chosen to be representative of the country. It also included these findings: ■ The number of men working full time year-round increased by 1.8 million last year, and the number of women working full time throughout the year increased by one million. ■ Households headed by women with no husband present had less than half the income of married couples’ households: $35,150 versus $76,500. ■ For Hispanic households, median income increased 3.5 percent, to $40,960. This was the first increase for Hispanics since 2000. However, for non-Hispanic white, black and Asian households, income showed no significant change in 2013. ■ Among major racial and ethnic groups, only Hispanics experienced a significant change in their poverty rate (down two percentage points, to 23.5 percent last year). The number of Hispanics in poverty fell to 12.7 million, a reduction of 870,000. ■ Median income for households headed by noncitizens rose 6 percent last year, to $40,580. There was no significant change in income for households headed by United States citizens, whether native-born ($52,780) or naturalized ($54,970). In addition, the bureau said, nearly 20 million people lived in families with incomes below half the poverty level. One-third of them were children. Data in the report showed the powerful effects of government benefit programs. In the absence of Social Security, it said, the number of people 65 and older in poverty would have been nearly 15 million higher last year. If food stamps had been counted as income, 3.7 million fewer people would have been classified as poor.


New Focus in Mali Is Finding Militants Who Have Fled Into Mountains

Abstract: DAKAR, Senegal — Just as Al Qaeda once sought refuge in the mountains of Tora Bora, the Islamist militants now on the run in Mali are hiding out in their own forbidding landscape, a rugged, rocky expanse in northeastern Mali that has become a symbol of the continued challenges facing the international effort to stabilize the Sahara. Expelling the Islamist militants from Timbuktu and other northern Malian towns, as the French did swiftly last month, may have been the easy part of retaking Mali, say military officials, analysts and local fighters. Attention is now being focused on one of Africa’s harshest and least-known mountain ranges, the Adrar des Ifoghas. The French military has carried out about 20 airstrikes in recent days in those mountains, including attacks on training camps and arms depots, officials said. On Thursday, a column of soldiers from Chad, versed in desert warfare, left Kidal, a diminutive, sand-blown regional capital, to penetrate deep into the Adrar, said a spokesman for the Tuareg fighters who accompanied them. “These mountains are extremely difficult for foreign armies,” said the spokesman, Backay Ag Hamed Ahmed, of the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad, in a telephone interview from Kidal. “The Chadians, they don’t know the routes through them.” These areas of grottoes and rocky hills, long a retreat for Tuareg nomads from the region and more recently for extremists from Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, will be the scene of the critical next phase in the conflict. It will be the place where the Islamist militants are finally defeated or where they slip away to fight again, military analysts say. French special forces are very likely already operating in the Adrar des Ifoghas, performing reconnaissance and perhaps preparing rescue operations for French hostages believed to be held in the area, said Gen. Jean-Claude Allard, a senior researcher at the Institute for International and Strategic Relations in Paris. But African forces are likely to be assigned the brunt of the combat operations, going “from well to well, from village to village,” General Allard said. The few Westerners who have traveled in this inaccessible region bordering Algeria say it differs from Afghanistan in that the mountains are relatively modest in size. But its harsh conditions make it a vast natural fortress, with innumerable hide-outs. “The terrain is vast and complicated,” said Col. Michel Goya of the French Military Academy’s Strategic Research Institute. “It will require troops to seal off the zone, and then troops for raids. This will take time.” The number of militants who remain is in dispute, with estimates varying from a few hundred fighters to a few thousand. They are becoming more dispersed and are hiding themselves ever more effectively, Western military officials say. The French military has been flying fewer sorties over the region in recent days, “from which I deduce a lack of targets,” said a Western military attaché in Bamako, Mali’s capital, who was not authorized to speak on the record. “They are just not finding the same targets. Clearly they are hiding better and dispersing more widely.” A ranking Malian officer stationed in the northern town of Gao said: “We don’t know how many there are. They have learned to hide where the French can’t find them.” The militants are versed in survival tactics in the hills, supplying themselves from the nomads who pass through and getting water from the numerous wells and ponds, said Pierre Boilley, an expert on the region from the Sorbonne. Still, the sources of water are an opportunity for the French and Chadian forces, as they can be monitored without too much difficulty, experts said. “It’s a sort of observation tower on the whole of the Sahara,” General Allard said. The fighters have had years to build installations, modify caves, and stock food, weapons and fuel, he said, and the precise locations of their refuges remain a mystery. Even if the bulk of the militants have retreated into the mountains, pockets remain around the liberated towns of Timbuktu and Gao, said a French military spokesman, Col. Thierry Burkhard. Last week, French forces patrolling the area around Gao engaged in firefights with militants, some of whom fired rockets, officials said. “We’re encountering residual jihadist groups that are fighting,” said Jean-Yves Le Drian, France’s defense minister. On Friday, a suicide bomber blew himself up at a military checkpoint in Gao, wounding a soldier, an act that provided further evidence of the continued threat of the militants. The attack, from an insurgent reported to have ties to the militants who carried out the recent hostage-taking on the internationally managed gas field in eastern Algeria, could signal the opening of a campaign against French and African forces, a senior United States intelligence official said Friday. “This is what they’re going to do — I.E.D.’s and small attacks,” said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, referring to improvised explosive devices, the homemade bombs that were the hallmark of insurgencies in Iraq and Afghanistan. With France insisting that its presence in the country will be short-lived, more attention has been focused on the liabilities of the tattered Malian Army and troops deployed from neighboring countries. On Friday, there were clashes between rival factions of the Malian Army in Bamako, with gunfire heard echoing from a barracks of paratroopers hostile to the element that supported a military coup in March . About 2,000 troops from neighboring countries have arrived, eventually to replace French troops. A Western military official in Bamako said, “There is a difference between them operating in a theater under French control and one where the French have disengaged.” Nor have the militants been completely flushed out of the towns that France has claimed to have liberated. Amid concerns of violent score-settling, local officials in Gao have broadcast radio messages over the past 10 days asking for the citizens to report suspects to state authorities rather than take matters into their own hands. Community leaders, including local chiefs, youth groups and imams, have held meetings to discourage acts of vengeance. In one episode on Jan. 26, a crowd encircled an already bloodied militant whose comrades had recently abandoned Gao, recalled Dani Sidi Touré, a resident who was one of those intent on revenge. “He said, ‘Please, for Allah’s sake, do not kill me,’ ” Mr. Touré said. “And then I took my screwdriver and stabbed him in the neck.” Others joined in the attack. “When I tried to pull the screwdriver out, the handle came off but the metal stayed inside him,” he continued. “A man with a big knife came over and chopped him on his head. He fell to the ground, and others came with pieces of wood and big stones and started beating him.” American officials monitoring the situation from afar said that the extremists who once controlled much of northern Mali would be difficult to eliminate from the region entirely. “Realistically, probably the best you can get is containment and disruption so that Al Qaeda is no longer able to control territory,” Gen. Carter F. Ham, the head of the Pentagon’s Africa Command, said in a speech in Washington last month. The authorities are investigating numerous other suspected militants as local citizens’ patrols circulate in search of the extremists and their allies, which at one time included the Tuaregs.

Mali
Sahara
Senegal
Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb
Coups D'Etat
Terrorism
Islam
Military


In Politics Today, Bribery Just Seems So Old-School

Abstract: Crime in New York, as everyone knows, is way down from where it was years ago. Thank goodness, we have the political class to take up the slack. In the last few years, startling numbers of New York elected officials have been investigated, indicted, convicted or imprisoned for a strikingly broad range of misdeeds. We have seen them charged with sex crimes and with drunken driving. We’ve had one state senator accused of punching a police officer and another of throwing hot coffee at an assistant. We’ve had an assemblywoman who stalked an old boyfriend and an assemblyman whose crimes included the Dickensian theft of money from Little League teams. The situation is enough to make one pine for the old days when wayward politicians confined themselves largely to more traditional graft, like taking bribes and rigging government contracts (not that we don’t see those wicked deeds these days as well). We’re at a point where we may have to put numbers on these officials’ backs to keep them all straight in our heads. You can’t tell the strayers without a scorecard. The lineup of New York politicians who have landed on the dubious side of the law, whether found guilty or just arrested, is impressive. It includes names easily recognized by even casual students of local politics, people like Alan G. Hevesi, Brian M. McLaughlin, Dennis P. Gallagher, Guy J. Velella, Clarence Norman, Diane Gordon, Kevin S. Parker, Adam Clayton Powell IV, Ada L. Smith, Efrain Gonzalez Jr., Gloria Davis, Roger Green, Karim Camara and John D. Sabini. Then there are those who figure prominently in continuing investigations, like Joseph L. Bruno and Christine C. Quinn. Oh, we almost forgot: There is also a fellow named Spitzer. The latest entrant in the rogues’ gallery is Representative Vito J. Fossella of Staten Island and Brooklyn, who was arrested a few days ago in a Virginia suburb of Washington and charged with driving while intoxicated. His blood-alcohol level, the police said, was 0.17 percent, more than twice Virginia’s legal limit for drivers. He was so sloshed, they said, that he had trouble reciting the alphabet. That’s pretty drunk. But perhaps, to be charitable, he had not been put to a fair test. The officers who stopped him say that he blew it when he was asked to rattle off the letters from D to T. But it could be that the congressman, a conservative Republican, was thrown off his stride by being ordered to start with the letter D. No doubt, D automatically meant Democrat to him. The demand probably unnerved him. Hey, it could happen to anyone. Mr. Fossella could be jailed for five days if convicted. Not good. Perhaps worse for him, his future political life may be in peril. It is generally not considered advisable for a politician to be identified in tabloid headlines as Vino Fossella. It is also not good if questions lurk about whether in Vino veritas. For one thing, the congressman seems to have given differing accounts to the police and to news organizations about where he was headed when he was pulled over. With so many politicians in position to trade pinstripes for orange jumpsuits, are we seeing more crime than ever? Not necessarily. In the 19th century, the Board of Aldermen, a precursor of the City Council, was routinely referred to as “the 40 Thieves.” The 1980s was also rife with municipal scandals, which undid careers and led Donald R. Manes, the borough president of Queens, to commit suicide. “It was a different kind of corruption” in those eras, said Hank Sheinkopf, a political consultant. “It was expected corruption. These were bosses, and this is what bosses did.” Mr. Sheinkopf and Norman Adler, another political consultant, agreed that today’s politicians must contend with federal and state prosecutors who seem to be more aggressive than some of their predecessors in pursuing political wrongdoing. And the Internet makes it tough to keep things secret. “The blogosphere is somewhat comparable,” Mr. Adler said, to the multiplicity of newspapers a century ago that sniffed out scandals to gain an edge in their circulation wars. It was less than heartening, though, to listen to Mr. Adler talk about how, as in days of old, “we’re still getting the kinds of public officials that we deserve.” Gulp. But let’s look on the bright side. In terms of gender, race and ethnicity, “we now have greater diversity of criminality and public stupidity,” said Douglas A. Muzzio, a professor at the Baruch College School of Public Affairs. See? We’re making progress.


What the Jets Need, Simply, Is Talent

Abstract: FLORHAM PARK, N.J. — Rex Ryan was asked the other day what his team needs to perform better in 2015. “It’s obvious what it needs,” Ryan said, “but I’m not going to get into it.” Perhaps Ryan had a meeting in 20 minutes, and he did not want to be late. It might have taken that long to expound on as candid an assessment of the Jets’ roster as he has offered all season. In 13 words, Ryan seemed to acknowledge what he has not publicly recognized at any point during the last few years of a term nearing an inglorious end — that the Jets lacked sufficient talent. The Jets are in this position — at 3-12 heading into Sunday’s finale at Miami — because they have not learned from their mistakes. They entered last off-season needing to upgrade at quarterback and cornerback, and in part because they did not, Ryan and General Manager John Idzik are expected to lose their jobs. The owner, Woody Johnson, would not have arranged for a former longtime general manager, Charley Casserly, to serve as a consultant unless major changes were afoot. “There should be a lot of time spent looking back on the past and looking back on the tenure of Rex Ryan and John Idzik together and going, Where are we?” Louis Riddick, the former director of pro personnel for the Philadelphia Eagles and now an analyst for ESPN, said in a recent interview. “What have we been doing? What’s the plan? And what’s the plan now?” The answer to that last question depends on whose plan it is. The general manager, whoever it is, will have at least $40 million in salary-cap space and a high draft pick. But he must also sort out a quarterback situation that has bedeviled the franchise for decades; determine how to proceed with receiver Percy Harvin, who diversified the Jets’ offense after an October trade with Seattle but is owed a prohibitive $10.5 million next season; and strengthen, at the least, the offensive line, the pass rush, the receiving depth and the cornerback corps. It is just the Jets’ luck that they could finish with their worst record since 1996 and yet they still might not have a chance to draft either of the quarterbacks viewed as the best available. Regardless of Sunday’s result, the Jets will pick no worse than sixth and no better than third. Marcus Mariota of Oregon and Jameis Winston of Florida State could very well be gone by then, especially with the quarterback-needy teams Tampa Bay and Tennessee locked into the top two slots. Image The Jets’ Percy Harvin, left, has expressed a desire to stay, but he comes with a big price tag. Credit Barton Silverman/The New York Times Barring a trade, then, the Jets will have to look elsewhere to find competition for Geno Smith, who in contrast to this season will have to earn whatever role he has in 2015. One possibility could be drafting a quarterback in the second or third round to push Smith, and then finding either a veteran from a thin free-agent class — Shaun Hill? Brian Hoyer? Colt McCoy? — or, if Chicago decides to deal him, try to acquire Jay Cutler. The quarterback mess presents a conundrum, but so does determining what to do with Harvin, who has everything the Jets need — speed, versatility, talent — yet comes with an onerous salary-cap charge and a history of injuries. Harvin has expressed a desire to return, and the Jets could accommodate that request if he is willing to take a pay cut (unlikely) or re-sign after testing free agency. Many of the top free-agent receivers — Dez Bryant (Dallas), Demaryius Thomas (Denver), Randall Cobb (Green Bay) — do not seem inclined to leave their current teams, but the Jets could do worse than making a play for Torrey Smith, a downfield threat who thrived for the Ravens. Should the Jets not wind up taking a quarterback with their first pick, Amari Cooper of Alabama, if available, could be an option. The proliferation of passing offenses has placed a premium on great cornerbacks as much as great quarterbacks, and the teams that consistently win have at least one. The Jets have neither. Dee Milliner (Achilles’ tendon) and Dexter McDougle (knee) are scheduled to return at full strength from their season-ending injuries, but the Jets are highly likely to chase better, more established cornerbacks in free agency. Among the possible candidates are Chris Culliver (San Francisco), Brandon Flowers (San Diego), Kareem Jackson (Houston) and Byron Maxwell (Seattle). The Jets will have the salary-cap flexibility to add reinforcements at guard and safety, particularly if they decline to re-sign Willie Colon and Dawan Landry, while rewarding some of their own players. Middle linebacker David Harris highlights the list of the Jets’ unrestricted free agents, but their priority should be awarding a new contract to the star defensive lineman Muhammad Wilkerson, who has outplayed his rookie deal. If the recent extensions for J. J. Watt and Robert Quinn are any guide, Wilkerson should command a deal worth more than $13 million per season. Wilkerson and Sheldon Richardson anchor one of the best defensive lines in the league, but they could benefit from the presence of a strong edge pass rusher. That player was once Quinton Coples, the Jets’ first-round pick in 2012, but he has yet to blossom. “Aside from cornerback, that’s the other missing component to this defense and has been the missing component to this defense,” the former N.F.L. offensive lineman Brian Baldinger, now an analyst on NFL Network, said in a telephone interview. Ryan knows this, just as he knew his team needed a better quarterback and better cornerbacks, and now all this figures to be someone else’s problem to solve.

Football
Rex Ryan
John Idzik
Wages and salaries
Jets


U.N. Agency Suspends Food Aid After Protest in Gaza

Abstract: JERUSALEM — The United Nations Relief and Works Agency has indefinitely suspended food distribution in the Gaza Strip after protesters angry over the cancellation of a cash assistance program for the poor stormed the agency’s main compound in Gaza City on Thursday, an official said Friday. “There will be no food tomorrow,” said Adnan Abu Hasna, a spokesman for the agency, which provides nutrition, education, health and other services to 815,000 Palestinians who are refugees and their descendants, nearly half of Gaza’s population. “The food distribution centers and the relief offices will be closed in the coming days unless there’s a real security being provided to the life of our staff, because there is a great concern about their safety.” The agency provides three-month rations of flour, oil, sugar, rice and other staples to about 25,000 people a day through scores of centers scattered throughout Gaza’s refugee camps. Though the centers and the relief offices that provide psychological and other support are shut, the 246 schools and 21 health clinics that the United Nations runs in Gaza will operate as usual. Ismail Haniya, the Hamas prime minister of Gaza, told reporters Friday that his government would pursue “urgent and quick talks” with the agency in hopes of restoring the food distribution and other services “in a state of security and stability.” But Abu Ahmad al-Massri, 42, a father of seven who lives in the Beach refugee camp in Gaza City and participated in the demonstration Thursday, said he would continue to protest the ending of the cash program. A former clothes manufacturer, Mr. Massri is unemployed and said he had been relying on the grants since 2004. He said his aid had been reduced over the years to about $80 every three months from $250. “They want to make reductions, they should reduce the costs they spend for their bodyguards,” Mr. Massri said of the agency. “I am ready to die in defending the food of my family. If I lost one of my kids it’s easier for me than losing my food.” The violent protest Thursday followed days of smaller demonstrations after a decision Monday to cancel the cash program, which has provided 21,000 families, totaling 100,000 people, with about $4 million in direct aid per year — $10 per person every three months. The agency said that the program had been ended because of a $67 million deficit and that the agency had offered recipients three-month jobs instead. Though the jobs pay double the cash grants, refugees are concerned that they will not last. After several smaller protests at offices of the agency throughout the week, about 100 people joined a demonstration Thursday organized by the Palestine Liberation Organization’s committee for refugees. They carried signs and banners, including one that read, “Don’t deprive our children of their rights in life.” After some of the refugees broke into the compound, the police eventually dispersed the demonstrators. “They have the right to demonstrate peacefully and to protest any decision,” said Mr. Abu Hasna, the agency spokesman. “But to reach that level is really unacceptable. They jumped over the walls. They stormed the gates. They began to scream and to threaten, also. What happened yesterday is crossing all the red lines.” In a statement, the P.L.O. refugee committee blamed the agency for the protest. “What happened yesterday was a result of a state of anger and boiling in the refugees,” it said, adding that the agency “has neglected our warnings.” Though unrelated, the protests over the elimination of the cash assistance came amid days of unrest in Gaza and the West Bank over a Palestinian prisoner who died of cancer in Israeli custody, and the killing by Israeli soldiers Wednesday night of two teenagers who approached an army post during a demonstration. Israeli and Palestinian security forces were on high alert Friday for protests after the noon prayers, and access to Al Aksa Mosque in Jerusalem’s Old City was limited to women and men over 50 to prevent clashes that have become routine there in recent months. A spokeswoman for the Israeli military said one Palestinian was injured in the northern Gaza Strip on Friday evening when Israeli soldiers, after firing warning shots, fired at a group of stone throwers approaching the border fence. Another Palestinian was hurt by a rubber-coated bullet fired by soldiers near the West Bank Jewish settlement of Beit El, the spokeswoman said, and an Israeli soldier was lightly wounded by rocks near Beit Laqia earlier in the day.

Palestinians
Food
Gaza Strip
UN
Refugees,Internally Displaced People
Humanitarian aid


15 of 19 Big Banks Pass Fed’s Latest Stress Test

Abstract: The Federal Reserve had a key take-away from the latest round of stress tests: most big banks are in good shape. On Tuesday, the central bank said that 15 of the 19 largest financial firms had enough capital to withstand a severe recession . The results, announced two days ahead of schedule, paved the way for JPMorgan Chase and other banks to bolster dividends and buy back shares. “When you put banks under the kind of dramatic scenarios that the Fed did — and they are still doing well — it tells you how well capitalized the majority of the banks are coming out of this downturn,” said Michael Scanlon, a senior equity analyst with Manulife Asset Management in Boston. But the stress tests also underscored the uneven nature of the industry’s recovery. Firms like JPMorgan and Wells Fargo are proving resilient, as they clean up their books and the economy improves. Still others, including Citigroup and Ally Financial, remain on shaky ground, grappling with soured mortgages and other troubled businesses. Banks are completing their third round of stress tests. Developed in the wake of the financial crisis, the examination is intended to assess how banks will fare under weak economic conditions. The Fed looked at whether banks would have enough capital to weather a peak unemployment rate of 13 percent, a 21 percent drop in housing prices and severe market shocks, as well as economic slowdowns in Europe and Asia. The Fed’s stress tests assumed that the 19 banks would be slammed with $534 billion of losses in just over two years. Even after such hits, most banks would emerge with adequate capital, the central bank said Tuesday. One measure of capital for the banks, which currently stands at 10.1 percent of assets, would fall to 6.3 percent in the Fed’s ugly projection. As fragmentary results of the tests circulated before the end of trading, the news buoyed shares of some banks. JPMorgan shares were up 7 percent. Stock in both Bank of America and Goldman Sachs jumped by 6 percent. The individual results are likely to intensify questions about a bank’s health. In the stress tests, the Fed projected that a crucial measure of Citigroup’s capital cushion would drop to a low of 4.9 percent of its assets. Only Ally Financial and SunTrust Banks fared worse. A spokeswoman for Ally Financial said that the Fed’s stress test “dramatically overstates potential contingent mortgage risk.” SunTrust did not return calls for comment. When banks don’t pass muster, the central bank can force them to raise more capital or postpone their dividend plans. On Tuesday, Citigroup said the Fed had rejected its proposal to return capital to shareholders. The firm intends to submit a revised plan to the central bank this year and “to engage further with the Federal Reserve to understand their new stress loss models,” it said in a statement. Banks with a clean bill of health can get the green light to increase dividend payments. Such moves could help appease shareholders whose bank stocks have been battered since the financial crisis. With strong results in hand, JPMorgan Chase announced that it would raise its quarterly dividend by 5 cents, to 30 cents, and buy back at least $15 billion of its stock through 2013. The bank disclosed its dividend plans two days earlier than when the Fed was scheduled to announce the stress tests. In a conference call, a senior Fed official said JPMorgan’s early move was the result of miscommunication. JPMorgan’s chief executive, Jamie Dimon, has frequently criticized certain measures aimed at increasing capital since the financial crisis. JPMorgan’s move was a bold show of optimism. The share repurchases alone — roughly $12 billion this year — would amount to roughly two-thirds of analysts’ expected earnings for the bank for the year. Despite the apparent severity of the tests, some analysts say they think it is too early for the Fed to allow large banks to take actions that could reduce capital. “It’s irresponsible,” said Anat Admati, a professor of finance and economics at Stanford University. Professor Admati says that depleting capital can expose the wider economy to risks because it leaves banks more exposed to shocks. Another potential shortcoming in the tests is that they don’t focus on one of the main problems the industry faced during the financial crisis, the difficulties banks had borrowing money in the markets. The big question now is whether the latest stress tests will improve confidence in the banking system. Shares in banks languished after the last stress tests, indicating that investors still had big doubts about banks’ balance sheets. The strength of banks’ loan books varied greatly. Under extreme stress, the Fed said, Citigroup would lose 9.7 percent of its first mortgage loans, more than any other bank. Both Wells Fargo and PNC would suffer losses of at least 9 percent. In business loans — called commercial and industrial loans by bankers — Citi and U.S. Bancorp had the worst portfolios, while Wells Fargo and Fifth Third had the shakiest credit card portfolios. In commercial real estate, regional banks appear to be the most vulnerable. Under the Fed’s test, Fifth Third would suffer losses of 11.3 percent of its loans, with Regions Financial the only other bank expected to lose at least 7 percent of its loans. Bank of America could serve as an important litmus test for whether the market has confidence in these results. In most troubled outlooks, the firm’s capital levels remained above the Fed benchmarks. But the bank has large holdings of home loans, which could still expose it to further losses. “The tests showed that those who didn’t fare as well have a lot of vulnerability to the residential mortgage market,” said Mr. Scanlon of Manulife.

JPMorgan Chase & Company
Regulation and Deregulation of Industry
Banking and Financial Institutions
Federal Reserve System


With More Indictments, New Clues in A.T.M. Robbery Case

Abstract: When eight men from Queens were indicted last spring as part of a global network that looted $45 million from A.T.M.'s , an unanswered question was what happened to the money. There was evidence that they splurged on fancy cars, Rolex watches and luxurious vacations. But they were accused of stealing $2.8 million, and the authorities believed that they must have set cash aside to pay the organizers of the operation. The stolen money might lead to the orchestrators of one of the largest thefts in New York history. On Monday, Loretta E. Lynch, the United States attorney for the Eastern District of New York, announced the indictment of five more people in connection with the robbery and said the authorities had uncovered a clue as to what happened to at least some of the cash from the New York theft. “Newly seized photographic evidence reveals that the defendants sent the lion’s share of the proceeds to the organization’s leaders, including $800,000 of criminal cash proceeds sent in luggage and transported to Florida by bus for delivery to a cyberheist organizer,” Ms. Lynch’s office said in a statement. The sophisticated robbery involved hacking into the computer systems of financial institutions, stealing prepaid debit card data and making fraudulent A.T.M. withdrawals. Groups known as “cashing crews” in more than 24 countries received the stolen banking data and proceeded to loot thousands of A.T.M.'s with surgical precision. Image A photograph of money stuffed into a suitcase was found on the phone of one of the five men indicted Monday, the authorities said. Credit United States Attorney's Office The cashing crews first struck on Dec. 21, stealing $5 million from 4,500 A.T.M.'s. On Feb. 19, crews around the world struck again, stealing $40 million in more than 36,000 A.T.M. transactions, all coordinated and carried out in a matter of hours. The New York City crew took $400,000 in the first robbery and $2.4 million during the second strike, hitting 2,904 bank machines in a little over 10 hours. The six people indicted on Monday were part of the crew that looted machines around the city, according to court records. Law enforcement officials said one of the six, Saul Franjul, sent cash to those who orchestrated the robbery, and they released a photo, taken by one of the defendants, of a mountain of cash on a hotel bed and stuffed into a suitcase as evidence. The authorities said the cash was to be sent by bus to Alberto Yusi Lajud-Peña in Miami, and then on to the network’s organizers overseas. Mr. Lajud-Peña was indicted in May and was believed to be the ringleader of the New York crew. The authorities declined to comment on the ultimate destination of the suitcase. Mr. Lajud-Peña fled to the Dominican Republic and was killed there during what the authorities believe was a botched robbery. A manila envelope with $100,000 was found by his body.


World’s Largest Aircraft Crashes, Gently, in 2nd Test Flight

Abstract: It was a slow and gentle plunge: The world’s largest aircraft, the Airlander 10, crashed in southern England on Wednesday during its second test flight. In a video posted on YouTube , spectators could be heard saying, “Oh my God, he just crashed it,” as the nose of the aircraft made contact with the ground after an agonizingly slow descent at Cardington Airfield, about 40 miles north of London, before coming to rest. Hybrid Air Vehicles — the British developer of the 302-foot, 44,100-pound, helium-filled aircraft, which has a top cruising speed of about 90 miles an hour — said on Twitter that the crew members were “safe and well.” “Airlander sustained damage on landing during today’s flight,” the company added , though “no damage was sustained midair.” The first test flight of the Airlander 10 was postponed on Aug. 14 after Stephen McGlennan, the chief executive of Hybrid Air Vehicles, said the airship had “a slight technical issue.” It completed its initial test flight three days later. On Wednesday morning, however, spectators watched as the ship slowly nose-dived and made an unplanned landing on its cockpit. The company did not provide an explanation as to why the aircraft had come down. “It was going so well,” said Angela Hatwell, who posted several photographs of the aircraft on Facebook and described the airship’s flight as an “absolutely amazing sight.” “It was awful to watch,” she wrote of the crash. One of Ms. Hartwell’s photographs showed the pilots in what appeared to be a damaged cockpit. “It just appeared to crumple up,” she wrote. “Luckily they appeared to walk away uninjured.” The Airlander 10 was initially a project developed for the United States military, and Hybrid Air Vehicles has said the airship could stay airborne for up to five days at a time with someone on board and for two weeks when flown remotely.

Airship
Hybrid Air Vehicles
Plane Crash
England


A Review of ‘The Odd Couple,’ in Storrs

Abstract: Pat Sajak is always so nice to the contestants on “Wheel of Fortune.” And you have to believe that he’s at least partly sincere, because you can tell when he thinks someone is an idiot. Considering that Mr. Sajak has become America’s sweetheart (not to mention rich and famous) mostly by telling strangers whether they have correctly guessed a letter of the alphabet, he is a strong candidate for most likable human being on earth. Therefore, far be it from us to object to the stunt casting that has brought him to the University of Connecticut as a star of the Connecticut Repertory Theater ’s production of Neil Simon ’s comedy “The Odd Couple.” There’s even a charming back story; he stars with Joe Moore — known to Hawaiian television viewers as a popular news anchor — whom he met when both men were stationed in Vietnam. Mr. Sajak and Mr. Moore have appeared in three other stage productions together, including a production of “The Odd Couple” in Hawaii in 2001. You know, guys, some old Army buddies just get together for a beer now and then. “The Odd Couple” opened on Broadway during Mr. Simon’s heyday, in 1965, with Art Carney and Walter Matthau in the title roles; became a movie in 1968 starring Jack Lemmon and Mr. Matthau; and ran five seasons (1970-75) as a television sitcom, with Tony Randall and Jack Klugman. The plot is pretty well known, at least to anyone over 45. Oscar Madison (Mr. Moore) is a happy slob. Recently divorced, he lives alone in an eight-room apartment in Manhattan, takes minimal interest in housekeeping or food safety (“I have brown sandwiches or green sandwiches,” he announces after finding them under the mess on the sofa) and hosts a regular poker game with his male buddies. One night one of the players, Felix Ungar (Mr. Sajak), is very late. When he finally arrives, he informs Oscar and the guys that his wife has thrown him out of the house and he has nowhere to go. Felix is as morose and finicky as Oscar is cheerful and easygoing. When he moves in, he turns Oscar’s relaxed home into a virtually spotless bastion of neatness, tasteful accessorizing and delicious home cooking prepared with gleaming kitchen tools. On poker nights now, the boys enjoy their snacks with crisply pressed red napkins, with a matching tablecloth and coasters. Living with Felix drives Oscar crazy. Oscar is also a lot more interested in women than Felix is. Not that Felix is gay, although if his character were written today, he might be; it’s just that his pain over the end of his marriage is very fresh and he is hopelessly in love with his wife. So when Oscar suggests they invite the Pigeon sisters, two pretty and available British neighbors, over for dinner, Felix requires some serious convincing. Things go sadly wrong, starting with the accidental immolation of the London broil. Kathleen McNenny is charming as the tightly wound Cecily Pigeon, but Liz Larsen lights up the stage as her giggling, perhaps even giddier sister, Gwendolyn. Ms. Larsen, a Broadway musical veteran who has appeared in “Hairspray,” “Damn Yankees” and “The Most Happy Fella” (for which she received a Tony Award nomination), has a gift for comedy. If you were in the casting director’s office looking for an Oscar Madison-type, and came across Mr. Moore’s photograph, it would probably go to the top of the pile. The role fits him well, and he does a fine job as the gruff, put-upon Oscar. Vincent J. Cardinal, Connecticut Rep’s artistic director, has directed his cast with excellent timing and attention to laughter-inducing, if not wildly innovative, detail. Mr. Sajak gets a free pass, because he is as personable onstage as he is on TV, maybe even more so. His Felix is properly oblivious to his own flaws and appropriately appalled by filth, but there is little fervor or palpable purpose in his domestic madness. Mr. Sajak does best as a straight man (He: “I write the news for CBS.” Gwendolyn: “Where do you get your ideas from?”) and when Felix is outraged. One of his nicest moments is an Act II encounter in which Oscar has come home late for a dinner party and reveals how little he knows about cooking. Felix shouts the main verbs with believable exasperation as he explains: “You have to make gravy. It doesn’t come .” Then, heaven help him, Oscar refers to a ladle as a spoon. Michael Anania’s scenic backdrop captures aspects of mid-1960s design that have not yet been reclaimed as chic, particularly the plaid wallpaper and some awful lighthouse art. But the audience would know that “The Odd Couple” takes place a long time ago without it, and without Sara Ewing’s pretty period ensembles for the Pigeon sisters. When a character goes out for wine and brings home a Bâtard-Montrachet for $6.25, or when Oscar mentions that half the apartment rent is $125, we have clearly traveled back to midcentury Manhattan. Or some other magical place.

Theater
Connecticut
Connecticut Repertory Theater
The Odd Couple (Play)
Harriet S. Jorgensen Theater
Sajak Pat
Simon Neil
Cardinal Vincent J
Moore Joe
Odd Couple The (Play)


Connecticut Budget Is Done, but Malloy’s Work Is Not

Abstract: HARTFORD — Moving from Gorilla A to Gorilla B, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy on Wednesday signed into law a $40.1 billion budget that includes the largest tax increase in Connecticut history, then headed toward a Friday target for extracting $1 billion in annual wage and benefit concessions and program cuts from more than 45,000 state employees. If negotiations fail, Mr. Malloy said, he is prepared to lay off more than 4,000 employees and enact other program cuts needed to ensure that the two-year budget lawmakers passed this week will be balanced. There was no sign that a deal was imminent. “I know it’s a tough vote; it’s also the right vote,” Mr. Malloy, the state’s first Democratic governor in two decades, said in a statement after the budget vote. “This budget is balanced, honest and contains none of the gimmicks that helped get us into this mess.” In an era of tax cuts, the budget — with its broad-based array of new taxes, tax increases and the end of tax exemptions on services and items including entertainment, clothes, nonprescription drugs, yoga classes, alcohol and tobacco — is at odds with the approach of most states, including neighboring New York and New Jersey. But the looming showdown with unions leaves Mr. Malloy at the risk of not just enacting unpopular taxes, but also alienating his labor supporters and provoking an extended fracas over the state’s finances. At a press reception at the governor’s residence on Wednesday morning, Mr. Malloy said he had inherited one of the nation’s worst budget messes, with an estimated deficit of at least $3.2 billion and the highest rate of per-capita debt in the country. “I’ve been in government a long time, and I’ve never seen the public embrace tax increases,” he said. Still, citing the severity of the state’s fiscal challenges, he added, “I think there was a recognition that it was too big to cut our way out and too big to tax our way out, and that required a commitment to going down a different road.” Mr. Malloy said residents understood that as a newly elected governor, he was trying to fix a crisis he had not created. But Republicans continued to hammer the budget, calling it an unprecedented tax burden on a middle class already under assault. “I think we’re already seeing evidence that the people in Connecticut are more angered by what’s happening with their government than at any time since the institution of the income tax in 1991,” the State Senate minority leader, John McKinney, said. “I think when people see all the taxes that are in this, that anger is going to turn into calls to change this legislation — if not before the end of this session, then next year.” Christopher Healy, the state Republican Party chairman, pointed across the border to New York, saying Mr. Malloy should have taken a cue from the antitax stance of Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, a Democrat. “Even Democratic states with Democratic governors are going in the opposite direction,” Mr. Healy said. “Whatever you think of Andrew Cuomo, he’s making hard choices. I never see any of that here in Connecticut.” But Mr. Malloy and other Democratic officials said they had chosen to address the state’s fiscal crisis in a balanced way, while avoiding sweeping cuts to education and health care and without simply shifting problems down to local governments, as other states are doing. Clearly, they are taking a political risk. A recent Quinnipiac poll showed the approval rating for Mr. Malloy, elected in November, at 35 percent. His Republican predecessor, Gov. M. Jodi Rell, remained above 60 percent for almost all of her tenure. But it is unclear how tuned in residents are to the changes, many of which will play out almost invisibly in tweaks to sales and other taxes. Along with income tax increases, the sales tax will increase from 6 percent to 6.35, and a popular homeowners’ tax credit is capped at $300 instead of $500. John Upson, 40, a Stamford landscaper, said he was not following the budget process carefully but was pleased the tax increases seemed to fall disproportionately on the wealthy. He said he would prefer spending cuts as a first resort, but found the increases tolerable. “Of course, who wouldn’t want to go after the wealthy” first for tax increases, Mr. Upson said. “The increases seem reasonable. The only one that affects me is the sales tax, and that’s not much.” Ana Novak, 28, a stay-at-home mother from Greenwich, was more skeptical about the cuts and the direction of the state economy. “I just don’t think it will help the economy if people don’t spend money,” she said of the tax increases. “My husband’s company already decided to move their headquarters to Switzerland.” She added that Connecticut’s leaders “need to find a way to stay competitive, or companies will find another place to move.” “I definitely think I pay enough taxes,” she continued. The governor’s focus now is on negotiations with state employees. Because of mandated notice periods, Mr. Malloy must begin sending out layoff notices on Friday to meet his goal of a balanced budget by July 1. “I have not sought to demonize anyone in this process,” Mr. Malloy said. “I think it’s one of the reasons we’re still having those discussions.” Larry Dorman, spokesman for the group that represents 13 state employee unions, said the budget was asking for too much from state workers, who “like all middle class families, are already paying 10 percent of our income in state and local taxes, while millionaires are only paying 5 percent of their income and some of our largest corporations are paying little or no taxes at all.”

Connecticut
Taxation
Budgets and Budgeting
Malloy Dannel P
Government Employees