Soul-Searching in Israel After Bias Attacks on Gays and Arabs

Abstract: JERUSALEM — On one edge of the Zion Square gathering, an Orthodox yeshiva student was in heated debate with a secular couple over the hierarchy of sin. On the other, young men wearing skullcaps rocked back and forth, reciting the evening prayer. In between, people sat cross-legged on the cobblestones amid an array of memorial candles and banners decrying violence, promoting love, demanding change. The focal point was a black cloth with simple white chalk Hebrew letters spelling out “Ali Saad Dawabsheh” and “Shira Banki,” the Palestinian toddler burned to death in his West Bank home and the 16-year-old Jewish girl fatally stabbed at a gay pride march in Jerusalem . The back-to-back attacks a week ago, attributed to religious fanatics, set off a national outcry and reflection, with hundreds flocking here each night for a mixture of mourning and protest. “Both names, Shira Banki and Ali Dawabsheh, are names that are going to be etched in Israeli history as a trigger point,” said Asher Krueger, a guitarist who led the group in songs of grief and hope. “And time will tell. Is this going to be a tearing apart,” he asked, “or a pivot point of people trying to understand each other, trying to live together?” This is a time of deep questioning across Israel, after two deaths that underscored both the endless conflict with the Palestinians and its own internal struggle to balance a rising religiosity with civil rights. Have government policies and rabbinical authorities inspired or at least allowed a radical fringe to reach new depths of depravity? Who interprets Jewish law and Jewish values for the Jewish state? How did it come to this? The trauma hit during anniversary commemorations of both last summer’s war between Israel and Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip and Israel’s contentious withdrawal of settlements and forces from Gaza a decade ago. It comes just five months after a divisive election that yielded the narrowest and most conservative government in recent memory. For days now, there has been an outpouring of outrage: Israel’s chief rabbis published a newspaper ad declaring, “Violence is not the way of our holy Torah.” Sheikhs and rabbis, as well as politicians from opposing camps, made joint pilgrimages to visit Ali’s badly burned mother and 4-year-old brother in the hospital. Security forces have also reinvigorated their pursuit of right-wing radicals. There has also been a backlash. The leader of a group that harasses gays and Jewish-Arab couples was recorded declaring that “churches must be burned.” Posters honoring the man arrested after stabbing six people at the pride march — “We pray that all of God’s nation were as filled with awe as you” — appeared in ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods, where many consider homosexuality an affront to God. Death threats against the right-wing leaders who vowed vengeance against the arsonists have been posted on social media sites. And there has been blame. Palestinians and leftist Israelis argue that Israel’s nearly half-century occupation of the West Bank and impunity for settler vandals inevitably led to Friday’s firebombing of the Dawabsheh home. Gay rights advocates cannot understand how the police failed to stop the man accused in the knife attacks, Yishai Schlissel, who had recently been released from prison for a similar attack at the 2005 pride march and had declared his intention to repeat it. “Israeli society is embarrassed, because we know this is not who we are, it’s not who we want to think we are,” said Donniel Hartman, an Orthodox rabbi and the president of the Shalom Hartman Institute, a research and education group. “The interesting question for all of us is, ‘Is this going to be a growth moment or is it going to be another wasted Yom Kippur? Oh, we’ve sinned, and we feel so righteous for saying we’ve sinned.’ “I’m afraid there isn’t a context yet in which this could really create a societal change,” he added. “The core narrative in Israel is still an us-them, they’re-threatening-us narrative, and in an us-them, these are just moments.” Netanyahu and the Settlements The Israeli leader’s settlement policy resembles his predecessors’, but it is a march toward permanence at a time when prospects for peace are few. The attack on the Dawabsheh home may have more international significance; the Palestinian foreign minister raised it in a meeting this week with the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, the official Palestinian news agency, Wafa, reported. But for many in Jerusalem, the stabbing that killed young Shira was equally painful, highlighting the tension in a city where a third of the Jewish residents are ultra-Orthodox. While Tel Aviv is celebrated for its gay nightclubs and same-sex couples pushing strollers, Jerusalem remains a place where gay and transgender youth must often choose between their orientation and their religious communities. It was only in 2012, after a decade-long court battle, that the Jerusalem Open House, which runs an H.I.V. clinic, support groups and a drop-in center, secured funding from City Hall. In the years between Mr. Schlissel’s attacks, the pride march has been marred by Orthodox protesters hurling epithets and bags of urine. “There’s a very mainstream perception in Israel that gays shouldn’t live openly in Jerusalem,” said Tom Canning, Open House’s director of development. “This is not religious people, it’s also secular people. ‘Why are you marching in Jerusalem? Go to Tel Aviv, you have Tel Aviv.’ ” Mr. Canning said that the group’s priority is to gain access to public religious schools for tolerance education, and that it pressed for this in a meeting Sunday with Naftali Bennett, the education minister, but “he didn’t make any promises.” Still, Rabbi Noa Sattath, who was chairwoman of Open House at the time of Mr. Schlissel’s first stabbing, said, “The reaction from the community is completely different.” At that time, a post-stabbing rally drew 150 people and “we couldn’t get one member of Parliament to come,” Rabbi Sattath recalled. At a rally on Saturday, Israel’s president spoke to a crowd of thousands, she noted, adding, “Our pain has become visible.” The gathering in Zion Square, a bustling hub for tourists and Israeli teenagers alike, began spontaneously on Sunday after Shira, a pianist who had excelled at biology and theater at an elite Jerusalem high school, died of her wounds. Open House, the city government and other organizations then made efforts to turn it into a public shiva, the seven-day period of intense Jewish mourning, bringing in facilitators to lead structured conversations. Sarah Weil has been there for hours each night, holding a large rainbow flag with a Star of David. She has been called an “animal” and an “abomination” by ultra-Orthodox passers-by. She has also had “confrontational dialogue” that she described as “raw and difficult and painful,” and “like witnessing revelation.” “We have young ultra-Orthodox men coming, they’re coming because they’re actually curious, they want to meet a gay person,” Ms. Weil said. “We can pass laws and we can stage protests and we can write articles, but the way to open hearts and minds is to talk face to face.” On Wednesday night, as Mr. Krueger crooned on the cobblestones, Noam Eyal, 30, whom Mr. Schlissel was also accused of stabbing in the back at the parade, was in the crowd. Uniformed Israeli soldiers leaned on the police barriers surrounding the circle, smoking cigarettes, next to a middle-age couple licking ice cream cones. Inside, someone had painted a new placard that read, “Our hands did not spill this blood,” adorned with red handprints. Naftali Sirchuk, 20, in the signature white button-down, black pants and black-velvet skullcap of his yeshiva, sat for nearly an hour arguing with Nir Cohen, 30, and Vered Hoshmand, 29, who both have degrees in philosophy. They debated the difference, biblically speaking, between homosexual love and pedophilia. They dissected the gemarah, centuries-old rabbinical teachings. They spoke of the Holocaust and the death penalty and whether murder can ever be just. Just the sight of Mr. Sirchuk engaging with Ms. Hoshmand, who wore a spaghetti-strap tank top and short jean skirt, was shocking in tribal Jerusalem. But after the conversation, did any of the three think differently? “No,” said Mr. Sirchuk. “No,” said Mr. Cohen. “That’s not the right question,” said Ms. Hoshmand. “The most important thing is that the conversation is happening, not that we will change our view.”

Israel
Ali Saad Dawabsheh
Shira Banki
Palestinians
Fringe Groups
Hate crime
Gay and Lesbian LGBT
Jerusalem
Civil Unrest
Murders and Homicides


Chronicle’s Editor to Take Broader Role at Hearst

Abstract: After almost eight years as the top editor, Phil Bronstein will leave The San Francisco Chronicle and take a post with its parent, the Hearst Corporation, the company announced Wednesday. Mr. Bronstein, 57, has been editor of The Chronicle since 2000, when it was bought by Hearst, and before that he was editor of The San Francisco Examiner for nine years. He survived a turbulent period of changing ownership, declining circulation, strikes, recessions and, most recently, a sharp reduction in his newsroom staff. Hearst officials say that The Chronicle loses more than $1 million a week. “The kinds of crisis that have gone on here nonstop in that time eventually cause you to turn around and say, ‘What else do I want to be doing?’ ” Mr. Bronstein said Thursday in an interview. He will become editor at large for Hearst’s newspaper division, working on projects like investigations and the expansion of Web sites. When it bought The Chronicle for $660 million in 2000, Hearst owned The Examiner and moved most of that paper’s news staff to The Chronicle. It simultaneously turned The Examiner over to new owners, supplying them with $66 million in subsidies. Then recession struck, and readers and advertisers shifted to the Internet. The Chronicle, like most newspapers, has struggled ever since: its weekday circulation fell to 365,000 last year from 513,000 in 2003, a decline of nearly 30 percent. A highlight of recent years was the paper’s groundbreaking investigation into the illegal steroid business, but it also cut back sharply on coverage of national and foreign news. Last year it eliminated a quarter of its newsroom jobs, to fewer than 300 from almost 400, and many high-ranking editors were among those who left or were forced out. Mr. Bronstein “did a pretty good job of merging the two staffs, trying to keep up morale,” said Carl T. Hall, an organizer for the Northern California Media Workers Guild who is on leave from his job as a Chronicle reporter. “He tried to resist the worst of the budget-cutting, but eventually there was nothing he could do.”

Newspapers
San Francisco Chronicle
Hearst Corp
Layoffs and Job Reductions
Bronstein Phil
California


Villanova Overcomes Poor Shooting

Abstract: Randy Foye scored 19 of his 24 points in the second half and No. 6 Villanova overcame horrendous shooting and the absence of one of its top scorers last night to beat South Florida, 49-46, in Tampa, Fla. The Wildcats (14-2, 5-1 Big East) played without their second-leading scorer, Allan Ray, who strained a hamstring in practice this week. The Wildcats shot 29.6 percent from the field. South Florida (6-13, 0-6) has lost eight straight and is looking for its first conference victory as a member of the Big East. IOWA 73, INDIANA 60 -- Adam Haluska scored 20 points, Greg Brunner added 17 and Iowa opened the second half with a 14-0 run in a home victory over No. 13 Indiana. The Hawkeyes (15-5, 4-2 Big Ten) held the Hoosiers to their lowest point total of the season and improved to 3-0 at home against top-25 teams this season. Robert Vaden was 8 for 12 from 3-point range for the Hoosiers (12-4, 4-2), who played without guard Marshall Strickland because of a knee injury. GEORGETOWN 85, NOTRE DAME 82 -- Darrel Owens and Roy Hibbert each scored 18 points and Georgetown followed its upset of top-ranked Duke with a double-overtime victory at Notre Dame. The Hoyas (13-4, 4-2 Big East) seemed to have the game won in regulation. But Brandon Bowman fouled Colin Falls as he hit a 3-pointer with 1.8 seconds left, and Falls completed the 4-point play to tie the score at 69-69. Chris Quinn had 26 points and 10 assists for the Irish (10-7, 1-5). KENTUCKY 71, AUBURN 62 -- Joe Crawford had 23 points and 8 rebounds, and visiting Kentucky (13-6, 3-2 Southeastern Conference) coasted to its third consecutive victory. FLORIDA STATE 75, WAKE FOREST 68 -- Andrew Wilson had a season-high 18 points for visiting Florida State. The Seminoles (12-4, 3-3 Atlantic Coast Conference) limited Justin Gray to 3 points in the second half after he scored 16 in the first for Wake Forest (12-7, 1-5). RIDER 75, MANHATTAN 56 -- Edwin Muniz scored 27 points to lead Rider to a home victory over cold-shooting Manhattan. The loss knocked Manhattan (11-6, 7-2 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference) out of first place. Rider (6-11, 2-7) led by 17 at halftime. IONA 85, SIENA 78 -- Steve Burtt scored 30 points and visiting Iona (14-3, 8-1 MAAC) never trailed. Kojo Mensah and Antoine Jordan each scored 15 points in the second half for the Saints (9-8, 4-5). FAIRFIELD 80, LOYOLA (MD.) 72 -- Terrence Todd scored a game-high 35 points to lead visiting Fairfield (6-11, 4-5 MAAC). Andre Collins had a team-high 26 points for Loyola (11-6, 5-4). N. DAKOTA ST. 71, IDAHO 64 -- In Fargo, N.D., after one of the biggest upsets in college basketball this season, North Dakota State made sure it did not trip during the curtain call. Ben Woodside and Brett Winkelman combined for 41 points to help the Bison win three days after a shocking victory at Wisconsin. TOP RECRUIT LEAVING KANSAS -- The freshman forward Micah Downs quit the Kansas basketball team and is leaving the university for personal reasons. The 6-foot-8 Downs, a McDonald's all-American in high school, averaged 4.3 points in 13 games. WOMEN RUTGERS 69, NOTRE DAME 43 -- Matee Ajavon scored a season-high 28 points and No. 10 Rutgers held No. 21 Notre Dame to a point over the first 11 minutes on its way to a victory at home. Rutgers (14-3, 6-0) remained a half-game behind No. 5 Connecticut in the Big East. Megan Duffy had 10 points for Notre Dame (12-6, 3-4). CONNECTICUT 77, SOUTH FLORIDA 47 -- Barbara Turner had 16 points and 7 rebounds and Brittany Hunter scored 11 points to lead No. 5 Connecticut (18-2, 7-0 Big East) to a victory in Hartford.

UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA
VILLANOVA UNIVERSITY
COLLEGE ATHLETICS
BASKETBALL


Doomsday for Vermin

Abstract: Q. If I could snap my fingers and make every rat, cockroach and bedbug disappear from New York City, would that be a good thing, ecologically speaking? A. “We would avoid the diseases, bites and frightful moments that they bring to our lives,” said Dr. Steven N. Handel, professor of ecology and evolution at Rutgers University, but problems might result from the emergence of other species to fill their niches in cleaning up human leftovers. Like many of New York City’s people and weeds, many of its pests came from other continents, including bedbugs , cockroaches and European rats. In fact, Dr. Handel said, concentrations of people “are the ground zero of the pest explosion,” providing both warm shelter and garbage to feed upon. Dr. Handel said that the disappearance of bedbugs would probably leave no serious bad consequences but that eliminating some of the other vermin might mean “simply exchanging one suite of kitchen crashers for another, albeit smaller and less visually frightening.” Microbes are everywhere and carry their own public health problems, he continued. “If it’s goodbye cockroaches, then it’s hello fungi,” Dr. Handel suggested. “We will never be alone.”

Insects
Cockroaches
Bedbugs
Science and Technology
Medicine and Health


NimbleTV Aims to Stream TV on Devices

Abstract: In a move that could hasten the slow pace of so-called TV Everywhere, a technology start-up is introducing a way to move a whole subscription’s worth of TV onto the Web, with or without the subscription company’s permission. The start-up, called NimbleTV, will begin testing its service with a limited number of users on Monday. The service takes the package of television channels that a customer buys through a distributor like Dish Network, then streams the package onto the Web, allowing the customer more options for viewing than most distributors now allow. It also allows for thousands of hours of TV recording via a virtual digital video recorder. NimbleTV is the latest example of technology companies trying to break into the closed system of television distribution in the United States. As Americans buy more smartphones and tablet computers, cable and satellite distributors are under pressure to provide TV access on more screens, and entrepreneurs are — depending on one’s view — either helping to provide it, or forcing it to happen on their own terms. Large companies like Apple and Google have taken steps to enter the television distribution business.. So have start-ups like NimbleTV, which is backed by the venture capital firms Greycroft Partners and Tribeca Venture Partners and by the Tribune Company, the owner of 23 TV stations. “We’ve all heard about TV Everywhere for a long time. One of the questions that’s bothered me is, why is it not here yet?” said Anand Subramanian, the chief executive of NimbleTV, during a preview of the service at Greycroft’s Midtown Manhattan office last week. TV Everywhere is a slogan for a nearly three-year-old effort by TV distributors and channel owners to make channels available to subscribers on all screens at all times. Despite some notable successes, the effort has been stymied by outdated contracts and by concerns that new ways of TV viewing will generate less revenue than the old ways. As a result, many technologically adept television viewers have voiced some variation of the same complaint: why can I not watch any show on any device at any time? That availability is what NimbleTV is pushing. “It picks up where Slingbox left off,” said Jason Hirschhorn, a former executive at the maker of the Slingbox, Sling Media, who is now an adviser to Greycroft and a supporter of NimbleTV. When the Slingbox device is hooked up to a TV set, users can log in on a computer from anywhere and view whatever is live on their DVR at home — a useful feature for watching a home team’s baseball games while on the road, for instance. Sling Media is owned by EchoStar, which is controlled by Charles W. Ergen, the satellite media mogul who also controls the Dish Network. Dish promotes the Slingbox to its subscribers as its form of TV Everywhere. But the device has not been embraced by other distributors. NimbleTV says it has the same functionality as a Slingbox and DVR, but without the actual boxes. Mr. Subramanian, a Giants fan, recounted watching the Super Bowl through the service while on a work trip in India. Within the cable world, the closest thing to NimbleTV is an app from Cablevision that replicates its subscribers’ live television lineups on tablets, phones and computers. The app works only within the subscriber’s home, however. Time Warner Cable has a similar app that replicates part of the lineup. NimbleTV also raises the tantalizing prospect that users could shop around for television subscriptions — removing the physical constraints that now give companies like Comcast and Cox exclusive cable licenses in cities. But that will not happen for a while, if at all. The company’s test phase, which begins Monday, is limited to New York City and to a set of 26 channels that the company will pay for. It plans to start letting people sign up for satellite service through its software this summer. The service is positioned by Mr. Subramanian and his supporters as a way to enhance existing cable or satellite packages and to help distributors sell more such packages. “Our intention is to support as many providers as possible,” he said. But he declined to name any providers that are already on board, and he asserted that NimbleTV did not need their blessing. In that way, NimbleTV is like Aereo, the start-up backed by Barry Diller’s company IAC that repackages broadcast channels like NBC and Fox into a streaming service for $12 a month. As Aereo started letting customers in New York City sign up last month, virtually all of the city’s broadcasters filed lawsuits against the company, citing copyright infringements. The suits are pending and Aereo is online for now. Mr. Subramanian said that NimbleTV “went to extreme lengths” to comply with the law — changing strategies five or six times along the way. Noting that users would still be paying for cable or satellite service, he said NimbleTV’s role was as an “agent,” paying the monthly service bill for the user and providing software for streaming. NimbleTV itself will include a monthly fee, probably around $20, though the company would not comment. Mr. Hirschhorn said planning for the service “took into account a lot of industry issues,” and he added that it “doesn’t economically harm anyone.” Mr. Subramanian said he did not expect for the company to be sued, but some of the company’s investors said privately that they expected suits. Dan Rayburn, the principal analyst for digital media at the market research firm Frost & Sullivan, said that even if these streaming companies believed they were on solid legal ground, the entrenched distributors were “still going to come after them.” “Guys like Aereo and Nimble can’t afford the legal fight,” he added. Tribune declined to comment on the size of its investment or the reasons for it. For the venture capitalists involved, a sale of NimbleTV’s software to a distributor or to a technology company would seem like an obvious goal. Mr. Subramanian said he could not speculate on that and added, “I’m just trying to build a really good consumer experience and solve a consumer problem.”

NimbleTV Inc
Computers and the Internet
Television
Start-ups
Cable Television


The Youngsters Aren’t Listening as Much

Abstract: Radio listening among teenagers has dropped off and, according to Larry Rosin, the president of Edison Media Research, two factors are involved. The first is the intense competition for media audience time that has developed in the last dozen years. In addition to Web surfing, cellphones, video games, movies, television and the chime of instant messages, portable music players and downloadable songs are vying for teenage ears. The second, he said, is “radio’s unwillingness to target listeners in the 12- to 24-year-old demographic. The overwhelming majority of stations target the 25- to 54-year-old group, what is known in the industry as the ‘money demo.’ ” Listening hours have dropped almost 21 percent for 18- to 24-year-olds in the last 10 years, but they still listen for 18 hours in an average week, almost six hours more than their younger siblings. Weekly radio-listening hours have dropped 19 percent in the 12-to-17 demographic. And listeners under 12 years old? “Nobody is targeting them except Radio Disney,” Mr. Rosin said. SHELLY FREIERMAN

Radio
Children and Youth
Computers and the Internet
Computer and Video Games
Cellular Telephones
Advertising and Marketing
Consumer Behavior


Jason Kidd’s Past Meets, and Beats, His Present (and Future)

Abstract: The juxtaposition of the Nets and the Milwaukee Bucks on Friday provided more evidence of the capriciousness of sports fates, the fallibility of best-laid plans and the peculiarity of the Eastern Conference. On one side were the Bucks, all athleticism and untapped potential, preparing for the future while embracing their growing pains. On the other were the Nets, a once star-laden squad, built a couple of seasons ago to invite championship chatter. Yet as the season enters the final stretch, it has been the Bucks, almost in spite of themselves, who have maintained playoff position, while the Nets, despite their best efforts, have strained to keep their window of opportunity open. The Nets are stuck in 11th place and covet a postseason berth. The Bucks, who entered the night two and a half games ahead of the seventh-place Miami Heat, seem not to care particularly much about theirs. Bucks Coach Jason Kidd, who coached the Nets to the second round of the playoffs last season, repeatedly shifted the focus of the conversations on Friday beyond the current season. “Sometimes you use the word playoffs, but I think for us it’s been about getting better each time we take the floor, whether it’s preparing for the playoffs or preparing for next season,” Kidd said Friday morning before the Nets outlasted the Bucks, 129-127, in three overtimes at Barclays Center. The Bucks have maintained their favorable position in the standings despite a recent dip. They won 10 of 12 games before the league’s Feb. 19 trade deadline. They then made a seemingly counterintuitive trade just before the deadline — shipping away Brandon Knight, their point guard and most consistent offensive player, and acquiring Michael Carter-Williams, a still raw talent — and proceeded to go 4-11. After the trade, the Bucks had the league’s seventh-worst shooting percentage (43.1 percent) and were third worst in points scored per 100 possessions (94.4). Even Kidd’s defense of the trade and his team’s subsequent play was based on an apparent disregard of wins and losses and playoff goals in this current season. He bristled, for instance, when a reporter asked whether the Bucks could recover down the stretch this season after “trending down” of late. “We’re in sixth,” said Kidd, who was encircled by members of the news media. “No one in front of me is saying we would ever be here, so how are we trending down?” The reporter responded that the team had experienced a string of poor results. “That’s the way you look at it,” Kidd said. “We’re getting better every time we play, winning or losing.” The Bucks won only 15 games last season. They took Jabari Parker with the No. 2 pick in the 2014 draft, only to lose him for the season after he tore the anterior cruciate ligament of his left knee on Dec. 15. Their relative success has had a lot to do with the continuing maturation of their young talent, but Kidd has earned much praise, too. “His ability to relate to players is his biggest strength,” said Jerryd Bayless, who signed with the team last summer. Even as the Bucks have struggled, Kidd has tried to keep the mood light. Asked what advice he had given his young team about the current stretch before the playoffs, Kidd, who appeared in 158 postseason games in his playing career, said he told them that there was no pressure, that they should feel free to make mistakes and learn from them. After the Bucks’ shootaround Friday morning, Kidd and Bayless inched around the 3-point arc, playing a shooting game while exchanging amiable trash talk. Kidd described his project in Milwaukee as a marathon spanning several seasons. He noted that after the season the Bucks would have “draft picks, a lot of money to spend, and every guy pretty much on our roster coming back.” Compare that with the Nets, who are handcuffed by three maximum contracts and do not have control of a first-round draft pick until 2019. The Bucks have been trying to expand their focus beyond this season; the Nets were reluctant to look even to Saturday. Before the game, a reporter began to ask Coach Lionel Hollins about the significance of the team’s coming stretch of games but proceeded to guess Hollins’s response — that he was looking only night to night. “Thank you for answering that for me,” Hollins said with a smile. “Yes, that’s all we can do. All we can worry about is the Bucks tonight.” It was the second three-overtime game between the teams this season — the first time in N.B.A. history two teams had played multiple three-overtime games — and the Nets prevailed with the help of Brook Lopez’s 32 points and 18 rebounds. “They’ve still got a chance to make the playoffs,” Kidd said of the Nets earlier. “They’re in the East.”

Basketball
Jason Kidd
Michael Carter-Williams
Jerryd Bayless
Bucks
Brooklyn Nets


Redistricting Changes California Delegation

Abstract: LOS ANGELES — The first election since California’s new electoral system was adopted played havoc with some of the state’s Congressional delegation. With redistricting done by a nonpartisan commission and the top two vote-winners in the primary moving on to a general election regardless of party affiliation, many incumbents faced stronger challenges than they had in years or even decades. Campaigns broke records for spending and Democrats, on Wednesday, stood to gain as many as four seats. The race in the San Fernando Valley between Howard L. Berman and a fellow incumbent Democrat, Brad Sherman , turned into the nastiest and most expensive of the intraparty contests. Mr. Berman, 71, who lost the race, and Mr. Sherman, 58, peppered each other with negative ads, spending a combined $13 million and even getting into an altercation during a debate last month. Pete Stark, 80, was defeated after 20 terms in Congress by Eric Swalwell, a fellow Democrat who has held elected office for only two years as a city councilman in Dublin, Calif. Representative Laura Richardson of Long Beach also lost to a fellow Democrat. The Democratic incumbents who faced off against Republicans fared better. All of them were re-elected. Some Republican incumbents, meanwhile, remained in jeopardy of losing their seats, as the races stayed too close to call on Wednesday. Representatives Mary Bono Mack, a moderate from Palm Springs; Brian Bilbray, from San Diego; and Dan Lungren of Northern California all trailed.

United States Politics and Government
Redistricting and Reapportionment
Elections House of Representatives
California


Study Links Lenders to Swift Foreclosures

Abstract: In neighborhoods in Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx hit hard by the subprime lending crisis, mortgages had the shortest of life spans — taking about a year to go from approval to notice of foreclosure — and many of those home loans were originated by the same few lenders, according to a report released yesterday by State Senator Jeffrey D. Klein. The report found there were 19,729 foreclosure notices filed in New York City and Westchester and Nassau Counties from July 1, 2006, to July 31, 2007. In the Jamaica and South Jamaica sections of Queens, the average time from mortgage origination to notice of foreclosure was 11 months. In Wakefield and Baychester in the Bronx, it was 14 months, the report said. In Queens, the study said, the greatest number of mortgages that resulted in foreclosure notices were issued by three lenders: Fremont Investment and Loan, WMC Mortgage, and the New Century Financial Corporation. Those lenders had also approved the most mortgages set for foreclosure in Brooklyn, the report showed. The three lenders totaled 618 foreclosure notices in the city and Westchester County during the 13 months studied. Subprime loans have helped borrowers with modest incomes and poor credit buy homes, but the loans usually carry higher fees and interest rates, as well as a higher risk of foreclosure. On Thursday, Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York, released a report projecting that of an estimated 364,433 subprime loans held by homeowners in the state, more than 20 percent would end up in foreclosure by the end of 2009. “The time has come for these lending institutions, all these lending institutions on this list, to step up to the plate,” Senator Klein, a Democrat who represents parts of the Bronx and Westchester County, said at a news conference yesterday. He called on lenders to reconfigure subprime mortgages to help people avoid losing their homes. The study was based on data from county clerks’ offices, city property records and the research firm PropertyShark.com . Fremont Investment and Loan is a subsidiary of California-based Fremont General Corporation, one of the country’s biggest subprime lenders until it was ordered by bank regulators in March to stop giving loans to unqualified borrowers. This month, the Massachusetts attorney general sued Fremont General and Fremont Investment and Loan, accusing both of engaging in unfair and deceptive lending practices. Fremont General has said the suit is without merit. Senator Klein was joined yesterday by four other state senators, as well as two homeowners affected by the subprime crisis. One of the homeowners, Jay Rosado, 40, said he and his wife, Ana, had been locked into two subprime mortgages from Fremont Investment and Loan on their Throgs Neck home. Their payment increased after two years by about $700, to $4,000 a month. After a long ordeal, the couple refinanced both loans at a lower, fixed interest rate. “It’s horrible what they’re doing to people,” Ana Rosado said of subprime lenders.

Foreclosures
New York City
Fremont Investment and Loan
WMC Mortgage
Mortgages


Chinese Civilians Said to Be Trapped by Fighting in Myanmar

Abstract: BEIJING — Hundreds of Chinese civilians, including jade miners and merchants, are trapped in an area of northeastern Myanmar where that country’s army is fighting ethnic Kachin guerrillas , according to reports on Monday by Chinese state news organizations. The fighting is taking place around Hpakant, an area known for jade mines. The reports said that the area was controlled by the Kachin Independence Army until late 2013, when the land was seized by the Burmese Army, but that the rebels had retaken some of the territory. A report by Global Times, a state-run Chinese newspaper, said about 2,000 civilians, both Chinese and ethnic Kachin, were trapped in the area. It cited an intelligence official with a Kachin rebel group, who also said the civilians had limited food and water. China Central Television posted a message on Twitter saying that “heavy clashes” between government troops and rebels had erupted on Thursday and were continuing. A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said the office was trying to ascertain the situation in northern Myanmar, also known as Burma. A large part of Kachin State is one of many places along Myanmar’s border held by rebel armies representing independence or pro-autonomy movements among ethnic groups. The Burmese Army has been engaged in long-running conflicts with the various forces. There have been periods of peace, but violence in the state has flared in recent years.

China
Myanmar,Burma
Mining
Military
Kachin State Myanmar


‘Mr. Mom’ Aside, Dads at Work Are Still the Norm

Abstract: Times have certainly changed since the days of “Leave It to Beaver,” when Ward Cleaver, in a business suit, won the bread and June Cleaver, in an apron, served it. But we are far from being a “Mr. Mom” society, too. In 62 percent of married-couple families with children under 18, both the father and the mother are employed, according to recent data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics . A sizable 31 percent adhere to the traditional ’60s sitcom mold, with the father being the sole wage earner. A mere 5 percent of the fathers are not working while the mother is employed, the data show. The statistics are silent on which of these fathers are jobless by choice. But it is clear that the urge to earn remains strong among fathers, and that a man’s ego may suffer a blow if he decides to stay home. In response, Web sites like athomedad.com have emerged to help this group endure its share of snickers and stigma. “Men who change diapers,” the site proudly proclaims, “change the world.”

Men
Families and Family Life
Bureau of Labor Statistics
Labor


Toyota and Tesla Set to Show All-Electric RAV4

Abstract: It was over glasses of red wine on a May evening in Palo Alto, Calif., that Akio Toyoda, president of Toyota , and Elon Musk, founder of the electric vehicle start-up company Tesla Motors , first talked through the particulars of a partnership they had just announced. By the end of their chat, according to Mr. Toyoda, they had settled on at least one project: an electric version of Toyota’s RAV4 sport utility vehicle. On Wednesday, a mere six months later, the two automakers are set to show a prototype of an all-electric RAV4 at the Los Angeles Auto Show. The car represents the real debut of this unlikely alliance, in which Toyota invested $50 million for a 3 percent stake in Tesla and signed a $60 million deal to jointly develop an electric vehicle. Toyota is known more for rigid and methodical decision-making than for flair, while Tesla is the bold Silicon Valley upstart that sells $100,000 cars to George Clooney and Leonardo DiCaprio. The prototype, developed at remarkable speed and based on the idea of a relatively affordable mass-market electric, indicates that each company is learning from the other. A commercial version is expected to reach the market in 2012. Neither company has publicly discussed pricing, but electric cars tend to be more expensive than gasoline-powered ones. The base price for a 2011 gasoline RAV4 is in the $22,000 to $25,000 range. “Speedy decision-making is part of a start-up’s DNA,” Mr. Toyoda said in a joint press conference with Mr. Musk in Tokyo last week to discuss the partnership. “That’s what we want to absorb.” He added: “Remember, Toyota was once a start-up, too.” As executives, Mr. Toyoda and Mr. Musk could not be further apart. One is the staid scion of Toyota’s founding family, groomed for the top job for years, a shy character who seems more comfortable mixing with the Toyota ranks in a neatly pressed factory jacket than appearing in the media spotlight. The other is a South African immigrant-entrepreneur, a co-founder of PayPal who last year showed off Tesla’s upcoming Model S sedan in leather boots and designer jacket. In September, Mr. Musk wed actress Talulah Riley in a lavish ceremony splashed across the pages of celebrity Web sites. But more than a difference in cultures, the two companies share divergent views of the future trajectory of electric automobiles. Mr. Musk is a firm believer in a decisive swing toward electric cars, and would like to enter a wider market in 2012 with a cheaper electric car. “In the long term, all vehicles will become electric,” he said last week in Tokyo. “It’s a question of when, not if, and we hope the transition will come sooner, not later.” Mr. Toyoda and his colleagues are more cautious, with Toyota executives often talking down the all-electric car in favor of the company’s gas-electric hybrid technology. The company has invested millions of dollars in its Prius gas-electric hybrid and is not eager for a quick switch to electricity, analysts say. Toyota has said it will introduce hybrid versions of all of its models by 2020. And yet, as momentum builds around all-electric power trains, Toyota has been increasingly criticized for lagging behind in next-generation automotive technology. Nissan Motor plans next month to start selling the Leaf, which it calls the world’s first mass-produced all-electric car. General Motors will soon introduce its Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid. Toyota is also set to introduce its own all-electric vehicle in 2012, a car based on its iQ ultra-mini compact that the automaker is developing independently. But Toyota has signaled that it considers the iQ a niche car, one mainly tailored for short-distance commuters in Japan. Toyota is also leasing limited numbers of its new Prius plug-in hybrid to fleet customers, and is planning a wider commercial rollout in 2012. Compared with the original Prius models, the new one plugs into an electric socket and operates only on batteries at higher speeds and longer distances. Mr. Toyoda said the market had simply not yet chosen the best low-emissions technology, which was why Toyota was preparing for all options. “When customers do give us their answer,” he said, “I want the company to be ready.” Still, analysts say the electric version of the RAV4 — a mainstay in Toyota’s S.U.V. lineup — could signal more openness by Toyota to the idea of electric power trains for more mainstream models. In planning a RAV4 electric vehicle with Tesla, moreover, Mr. Toyoda has displayed his own signs of being star-struck. The chief executive warmed to the idea, officials say, when he was shown a letter written by Tom Hanks to The New Yorker, in which the actor talked enthusiastically about a previous electric version of the RAV4 that he bought in 2003. That would have been one of the 1,500 or so all-electric RAV4s that Toyota leased from 1997 to 2003 in response to stringent but short-lived emissions regulations passed in California. “The letter made an impression on him,” said Masami Doi, a Toyota spokesman. “It convinced him that Americans thought the idea of an electric RAV4 was cool.” Toyota’s deal with Tesla has been a bright spot in an otherwise grim year for the Japanese automaker. Over the last 12 months Toyota recalled some 11 million vehicles for faulty gas pedals, floor mats that could trap accelerators, and braking and engine defects — each recall tarnishing the company’s once-sterling reputation for quality. As a result, Toyota’s United States sales have fallen off, despite generous incentives. The company’s $4.46 billion profit for the first nine months of 2010 trails Ford’s earnings of $6.37 billion and General Motors’ earnings of $4.77 billion during the same period, according to figures compiled by Bloomberg. Tesla, meanwhile, is seeking to build credibility among investors as it struggles to become profitable. Despite the attention it has brought, the company has sold only about 1,200 of its electric sports cars, and has never turned a quarterly profit since its founding in 2003. According to a May filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, since its inception, Tesla had incurred cumulative losses of $290 million through March. But the Toyota partnership is helping Tesla attract new investors. Earlier this month, Panasonic, the Japanese electronics company and the supplier of Tesla’s batteries, said it would invest $30 million in the start-up, acquiring an approximately 2 percent stake. Tesla’s share price has soared since its public offering on June 28, rising 80 percent and reaching a new high of $30.80 on Monday. For now, Mr. Toyoda and Mr. Musk are at pains to demonstrate a mutual adoration. On his trip to Tokyo last week, Mr. Musk presented Mr. Toyoda with a Tesla Roadster painted wine red in a tribute to their meeting in California. Calling Toyota’s manufacturing technology “the best in the world,” Mr. Musk said Tesla had “a lot to learn” from the Japanese automaker. Mr. Toyoda was also uncharacteristically expressive, vividly recalling his first ride in Tesla’s Roadster in May. “I could hear the wind as we drove,” he beamed. “I felt like I was on a yacht in the ocean.”

Toyota Motor Corp
Tesla Motors
Electric Vehicles
Hybrid Vehicles


House Republican Urges Party to Yield on Tax Cuts for Most Earners

Abstract: WASHINGTON — A senior House Republican on Tuesday urged his party’s leadership to embrace the immediate extension of the Bush-era tax cuts for households earning less than $250,000, then fight out the fate of higher-income tax breaks later. In a private meeting of the House Republican whip team, the group responsible for vote counting, Representative Tom Cole of Oklahoma broke with the rest of the leadership and said the party should join with President Obama for now, Republican aides said. The meeting was first reported by Politico . "The first thing I’d do is make sure we don’t raise taxes on 98 percent of the American people," he said in an interview Tuesday night. "We’ll get some credit for that, and it’s the right thing to do." The break came after senior Democrats hardened their line on conditions for a deal to head off the automatic spending cuts and tax increases set to kick in this January. Democrats said Tuesday that Mr. Obama would not accept any deficit reduction deal that did not include a long-term extension of the debt ceiling , possibly ensuring that Mr. Obama would not have to deal with another debilitating fiscal showdown for the remainder of his presidency. Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the Democratic leader, and Senator Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, the No. 2 Democrat, both said they did not intend to complete a major deficit reduction deal only to have Republicans reopen it each time the government bumped up against its statutory borrowing limit. “We would be somewhat foolish to work on something on stopping us from going over the cliff, and a month or six weeks later, the Republicans pull the same thing they did before and say, ‘We’re not going to do anything unless this happens or we don’t increase the debt ceiling,’ ” Mr. Reid said. “I agree with the president. It has to be a package deal.” The stern posture may throw another roadblock in the way of a deal before January, when hundreds of billions of dollars in automatic spending cuts and tax increases kick in, possibly sending the economy back into recession. Conservative Republicans have said they want the debt ceiling left out of any deal to maintain leverage on Washington to keep trimming the deficit. But the position taken by Mr. Cole suggested Republicans could be softening. An extension of the middle-class tax cuts would significantly diminish, or erase, any leverage Republicans might have to preserve tax cuts for more affluent households and some small businesses. But the leadership’s political position will grow even more tenuous if prominent Republicans like Mr. Cole say it is time for a quick deal that would preserve the tax breaks of 98 percent of households and 97 percent of small businesses. "I don’t believe in holding the American people hostage to this debate," Mr. Cole said. "Let’s get what we can now, then go back and try to get the rest. Where there is common ground with the president, we should seize that common ground." Democrats on Tuesday laid out a series of demands that either showed confidence in the flexibility of defeated Republicans or indicated a brewing stalemate. Senator Max Baucus of Montana, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, flatly rejected a Republican proposal to cap tax deductions and credits at $25,000 a household instead of allowing tax rates to rise. “I just want to point out a $25,000 cap will mean about a quarter of those who will pay more taxes will not be wealthy Americans but middle-income Americans,” Mr. Baucus said. “When that’s fully understood I think the interest in that is going to wane.” Mr. Durbin said the president would also demand a guarantee that the spending caps in any deal be adhered to and not reopened. Last year, Congress and the president agreed to 10 years of domestic spending caps as part of the deal to raise the debt ceiling, only to see House Republicans try to impose lower spending levels six months later. Democrats said they would not accept cuts to Medicare or Medicaid as part of the upfront “down payment” on deficit reduction that would be passed next month along with a broader framework on tax and entitlement changes to be worked over in 2013. In a speech at the liberal Center for American Progress , Mr. Durbin still expressed confidence that beneath all the public posturing, the White House and Speaker John A. Boehner, Republican of Ohio, were making progress toward averting the so-called fiscal cliff. Mr. Durbin’s speech itself was a measure of conciliation, laying out the case to liberals for a major deficit deal. He made clear that the parties agreed on what a final deal would look like: an initial deficit-reduction down payment to calm financial markets and avoid most of the fiscal jolt that would otherwise hit in January; instructions to Congressional committees to draft tax, spending and entitlement legislation to save around $4 trillion over the next decade; and some form of fallback deficit plan in case Congress fails to pass those changes. Mr. Durbin said that Medicare should not be tapped for that upfront down payment but that federal health care programs should be part of next year’s deliberations. And he opened the door for money-saving adjustments to Mr. Obama’s signature health care law , so long as it was not gutted or repealed. The Democrats’ firm position on the debt ceiling was expected by Republican leaders, who went through a near-crisis in 2011 when House conservatives refused to raise the borrowing limit, nearly sending the federal government into default. The government will reach its borrowing limit again early next year. Kevin Smith, a spokesman for Mr. Boehner, said that regardless of how that looming deadline was dealt with, the speaker would insist on his own rule: any increase in the debt ceiling must be accompanied by spending cuts of at least the same magnitude.

Cole Tom
Federal Taxes (US)
Federal Budget (US)
National Debt (US)
United States Politics and Government
House of Representatives
Income Tax
Durbin Richard J
Senate


Greeks Dread Future as Their World Deteriorates

Abstract: ATHENS — Anyplace else, they might be signs of progress: Traffic moves faster on once clogged streets. Cigarette smoking has dropped sharply. Far less garbage heads for landfills each day. But this is Athens, and the statistics are grim reminders of a middle-class society in rapid decline. Many fear that elections, including voting scheduled for Sunday, offer no clear route out of a deepening political and economic crisis. From its wealthy northern suburbs to the concrete blocks of downtown, there is a sense of an endgame in Athens. “It’s the last days of Pompeii,” said Aris Chatzistefanou, a co-director of “Debtocracy,” a provocative 2011 documentary about the Greek crisis, as he stood, drink in hand, outside a cafe in Exarchia, a thrumming graffiti-filled neighborhood whose night life remains a rare pocket of defiant joy amid the unremitting gloom. For many Greeks, the question is not which party will win. The next months and years will be difficult no matter which government is in charge. Increasingly, they wonder whether they themselves — and their country — will emerge from the crisis with a secure future. Giorgos, a 27-year-old economics major who did not want to reveal his last name, said the sense of uncertainty was oppressive. “There is a depression in the Greek people, in all my friends,” said Giorgos, who has put off plans to open a frozen yogurt shop. “They keep saying: ‘I can’t take it. There’s depression about our jobs, depression on the news, depression about the economic situation, depression in our family, depression and fighting among friends.’ ” He had just returned from a day trip to Munich, where like many people in the heavily indebted countries, he had opened a bank account. “I don’t want to transfer all my money, but if something goes wrong here, I don’t want to be poor just in one day,” he said. In the Athens Metro, posters that read “Apocalypse,” advertising a staged rendition of the Book of Revelation on the island of Patmos, capture the air of desperation. In the gleaming Eleftheroudakis bookshop downtown, copies of “Living in the End Times” by Slavoj Zizek, the Slovenian cultural critic, are on prominent display. A clerk said books on economics and do-it-yourself guides were selling briskly, as were escapist thrillers and philosophy, especially works by Arthur Schopenhauer, known for his pessimism and his conviction that human experience is not rational or understandable. Saddled with debts to foreign lenders, Greece is in its fifth consecutive year of recession. The uncertainty, political and economic, has brought the economy to a standstill. Private sector salaries dropped 22.5 percent in 2011, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. New figures released last week show unemployment at 22 percent, rising to nearly 30 percent for Greeks 25 to 34 years old. The feeling that the country is about to undergo an even greater economic upheaval is inescapable. Highly educated young people are desperate to emigrate. Families are putting their property up for sale to pay debts. Banks long ago stopped lending. Casual conversations between friends end in tears. Mr. Chatzistefanou, the documentary maker, is among a faction of Greeks who argue that Greece should voluntarily abandon the euro and return to the drachma, its original currency. Polls have consistently shown that more than 70 percent of Greeks disagree with him. Polls show that Syriza, the leftist party that staunchly rejects the terms of the bailout that averted a Greek bankruptcy but imposed severe budget cuts and structural changes, is neck and neck with its conservative rival, New Democracy, raising fears that Greece will leave the euro. (By law the last polls were taken June 1, two weeks before elections.) In a news conference on Tuesday, Syriza’s leader, Alexis Tsipras, said the party did not intend to “bully” Greece’s foreign lenders. “We will go there to convince them that a euro zone country is falling apart,” he said. There is no guarantee that the parliamentary elections on Sunday will clear up the fog that has enveloped the country since the inconclusive elections on May 6. Uncertain of their futures, Greeks have put off all kinds of decisions. “As if it weren’t bad already because of the recession, things have been completely frozen since the day elections were called,” said Leftheris Potamianos, a real estate agent. “If the market could speak, it would beg for a government.” As elections near, the country is becoming more politically polarized between left and right. Since last week, Greece has been abuzz with talk of how Ilias Kasidiaris, the spokesman for the neo-Nazi, anti-immigrant Golden Dawn party, physically assaulted two left-wing lawmakers, both women, on live television, tossing water in one’s face and giving the other a series of solid swats to the face. He then evaded arrest for several days, prompting critics to suggest complicity between the hard-right vigilante group and the Greek police. (The police have denied any such links.) In a bizarre twist on Monday, Mr. Kasidiaris sued the two lawmakers he had attacked, saying he had been provoked. Still, daily life marches on. Outside a dissolved Parliament, the guards goose-step in their kilts and shoes with pom-poms. Tourists traipse up to the Acropolis. Cafes are full. Temperatures are rising, and shops display a vast array of suntan lotions. A clerk said that sales were generally down but that sunblock was drawing people in. “The beach is the only thing we are left with,” said a clerk in the Hondos Center department store. “It’s free.” For others, it is soccer. In the opening match of the Euro 2012 on Friday, Greece, the European Union’s fastest-shrinking economy, scored an equalizer to tie with Poland, its fastest-growing economy. Fans gathered in a shopping mall to watch, raising their fists in despair at a missed penalty kick. Greece’s coach put his hands to his face in a gesture that captured the national mood. (On Tuesday, Greece lost to the Czech Republic .) The crisis continues to erode the economy and living standards. The Greek news media reported a 27 percent drop in garbage collections in the greater Athens area, and a precipitous decline in smoking, with consumption dropping to 2.3 million cigarettes in 2011, from 3.1 million in 2007. Mass transit use has dropped by double digits. “In the beginning you panic, and then you realize that you can live with much less,” said Nikos Hlepas, a professor of public administration at the University of Athens, who said his salary had been sharply reduced. “No restaurants, no opera. You visit your friends and you cook much more. It has its positive aspects. You don’t use your car. You don’t take trips.” After several tax increases, gasoline costs around $8.20 a gallon. In the Athens meat market on a recent morning, Yiannoula and Tasos Siskos, 52 and 57 and both unemployed, said they had taken the subway in from the suburbs to save money. “It’s our first time here,” Ms. Siskos said. “It’s cheaper than from the supermarket.” She was a seamstress and he was in construction, but their year of unemployment benefits had run out. “We have a mortgage, but we stopped paying,” she said. Asked if she was worried about the future, Ms. Siskos rolled her eyes and let out a long, high-pitched “oooooh,” an affirmative that transcended language. The recession has also hit the upper tiers. The car market, fueled by too-easy credit in the past, has collapsed. With the downturn and steep tax increases on large-cylinder cars, luxury cars are selling at bargain-basement rates. At the Fast and Fashion car dealership in Athens, Dimitris Karanastasis, 31, pointed across the showroom to a black Porsche 911 Turbo. “In 2008, we sold this car for $210,000,” he said. “Now the customer brought it back to sell it for $97,000.” Greeks seem resigned to the fact that their economy is moving backward, although whether to the levels of the pre-boom 1990s, 1970s or 1950s remains to be seen. Asked what he thought, Mr. Karanastasis shrugged and cited a Greek expression. “Make me an oracle and I’ll make you rich,” he said.

Greece
Elections
Economic Conditions and Trends
Recession and Depression
European Sovereign Debt Crisis (2010- )
Banking and Financial Institutions
Labor and Jobs
Athens (Greece)


Zeroing In on Your Favorite Video Clips

Abstract: WATCHING videos on the Web is fast becoming a national pastime. More and more people are turning on their computers to view clips of shows they missed on television or to watch the increasing number of full-length TV programs and movies now available online. To help sift through all the choices, companies including VideoSurf and Digitalsmiths have developed search tools. They allow viewers to find quickly a favorite scene from “Entourage,” for example, or a particular video clip of Barack Obama they’ve always wanted to see. They can even locate an exact segment they want to view without having to click “play” and watch the entire video. Such search tools that pinpoint and index an increasingly finer level of detail within videos may prove appealing not only to consumers searching for that special laugh on “The Daily Show With Jon Stewart,” but also to companies compiling guides to Web video watching. And the technology may eventually come in handy in searching family video archives for hard-to-find sightings of Great-Uncle George. VideoSurf, based in San Mateo, Calif., has a free video search engine that is now in beta or test version at www.videosurf.com . It uses computer-based facial recognition and other tools to analyze videos frame by frame — and to identify characters, objects and scenes shown within each frame for detailed searching. For instance, people who enter “Jon Stewart” in the search bar see not only a list of videos including Mr. Stewart, but also, beneath each listing, a preview of the actual videos: a panel of thumbnail images of representative scenes that the computer compiles automatically. Click on any one of these images, like the face of a guest on Mr. Stewart’s show, or the face of John Oliver, one of Mr. Stewart’s correspondents, and go directly to that part of the video. Users can also select snippets within a video and send them by e-mail to friends. VideoSurf’s facial recognition algorithms are used not only for these video summaries, but also to pick out the main faces and related videos associated with subjects entered in the search bar. Type in “bailout,” for instance, and many of the characters in this national drama appear in thumbnail portraits across the top of the screen, above the general search results. Click on “Henry Paulson,” and the results are re-sorted to show videos including him. Digitalsmiths, based in Research Triangle Park, N.C., also uses facial recognition and other computer vision techniques to index Web videos. Unlike VideoSurf, which has a direct portal for consumers, Digitalsmiths puts its search engine to use behind the scenes, within the Web sites of companies that want to make their videos more accessible, said Ben Weinberger, co-founder and chief executive. “You don’t go to us to watch video,” Mr. Weinberger said “We work with content owners like studios to help them monetize their contents online.” Digitalsmiths powers many online video searches, he said, including those at TheWB.com ., TMZ.com and Essence.com . Traditional engines that search video typically rely on keywords, descriptive captions or other tags, often supplied by the producer, to identify the contents, said James L. McQuivey, an analyst at Forrester Research in Cambridge, Mass. Engines that go beyond these descriptive tags to automatically search the visual contents themselves may appeal to consumers. Such engines, he said, let consumers get under the hood to see what’s inside the video, instead of counting on tags that may be limited or even inaccurate. The audience for online video is substantial and growing steadily, and now includes roughly three out of four Internet users in the United States, said Jaimee Steele, a spokeswoman for comScore, which measures consumer Internet habits. In September, for example, more than 146 million people watched an average of 86 videos during the month, up from about 136 million unique online video viewers watching 68 videos, on average, in September 2007. Sites indexing these videos will have their work cut out for them. VideoSurf has so far indexed video from about 80 Internet sites, including Hulu, YouTube and Comedy Central, said Dr. Eitan Sharon, chief technology officer. “We abstract every object in each frame of a video and analyze it, saving it as a visual entity like a paragraph,” he said. The company started by analyzing videos about subjects or people popular on the Internet. “Gradually we will get to cover the vast majority of online videos,” he said. Al Gore, the former vice president, is among the investors in VideoSurf, which started in September. VIDEOSURF’S technology works in part by memorizing components of faces, Dr. Sharon said. It stores away images of Britney Spears’ eyes and cheekbones, for instance, in its collective memory, so it can recognize an image of her despite changes in light. Such expert perception means that the technology can do what many people can’t, he said. “The machine easily distinguishes between Tina Fey and Sarah Palin,” he said. Mr. McQuivey of Forrester says he thinks VideoSurf’s technology might have arrived at an opportune time. “As videos get longer,” he said, “it’s harder and harder to find the one minute you want to see.”

Recordings and Downloads (Video)
Search Engines
Computers and the Internet


In a U.S. Senate Runoff, Texas Republicans Spend to Agree

Abstract: Nearly nine weeks after crowded Democratic and Republican primaries for a rare open United States Senate seat were pared down to each party’s top two vote getters for Tuesday’s runoff, the races have become a study in opposites. On the Republican side, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and Ted Cruz, the former state solicitor general, agree on virtually every issue that could come before them in the Senate. But more than $40 million has been spent by the campaigns and outside groups trying to convince voters that the race provides an opportunity to upend all that is wrong with the federal government. If the wrong candidate wins, each side insists, the opportunity will have been wasted. “Ted is being viciously attacked by the establishment because he will bring real change to Washington,” former Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska says in a robocall for Mr. Cruz. In Gov. Rick Perry’s latest advertisement for Mr. Dewhurst, he counters: “David’s the one candidate best prepared to make conservative change happen in Washington. Don’t let anyone tell you different.” The Democratic candidates, former State Representative Paul Sadler of Henderson and Grady Yarbrough, a former teacher, have significant differences on the economy and illegal immigration , but they are struggling to draw the attention of voters or donors, as the campaigns’ spending is well under $1 million. Texas has not elected a Democrat to statewide office since 1994. Mr. Sadler said that those who dismiss Texas as a “red state” are ignoring how far to the right Mr. Dewhurst and Mr. Cruz are. Democrats have the chance to present a viable alternative, he said. “The Republicans are singing the same hymnal,” Mr. Sadler said. “The real debate begins on Aug. 1, when there’s a contrast of substantive issues.” Mr. Yarbrough agreed that Democrats are being underestimated. He has spent much of his savings on broadcasting television advertisements aimed at black and Hispanic voters. “They’re the ones that put me in the runoff, and if I go to those voters and plead our case, I am sure they will come out again,” Mr. Yarbrough said. “I’m taking a $75,000 to $80,000 gamble here.” Although the two races are drawing significantly different levels of interest, both have turned on whether the voters should value legislative experience. Mr. Sadler says that only those who have held elected office are qualified to join the Senate. Mr. Dewhurst does not go quite as far but stresses his history of passing budgets and cutting taxes. “You could argue that there’s not that much difference between us, other than that I’ve done all the things Mr. Cruz says that he wants to do,” Mr. Dewhurst said. Both Mr. Cruz and Mr. Yarbrough dismiss “career politicians” as part of the problem in Washington. “All over the country, Americans are fed up with the same tired establishment incumbents that don’t believe in anything,” Mr. Cruz told voters in Willis this month. “There is a tidal wave sweeping this country as Americans are looking for new leaders who will stand and fight and get back to the Constitution.”

Texas
Cruz Ted
Dewhurst David
Senate
Democratic Party
Republican Party
Elections


Yasiel Puig Returns to the Dodgers for the Playoffs

Abstract: LOS ANGELES — Yasiel Puig has made the Dodgers ’ playoff roster in dramatic fashion, as is the case with just about everything he does. It was not a given that Puig would make the National League division series roster, since he has played in just two games after returning from a hamstring injury that caused him to miss all of September. He surely made the cut because outfielder Scott Van Slyke has wrist inflammation and has not made much progress. Puig said Wednesday that he was on the roster and would come off the bench. On Saturday, he returned to the Dodgers’ lineup for the first time since the injury and was 1 for 5 in two games back. “I’m very happy I’ve been given the opportunity to prepare with the team as they get ready for the postseason,” Puig said through an interpreter. “That’s what I’m doing. I have to do my best to prove myself and give myself an opportunity to come off the bench and do something. In the meantime, I’m supporting my teammates who have worked so hard to get here.” The series features two Cuban outfielders, Puig and Yoenis Cespedes. Both are power-hitting right-handers and potential game-changers who have done well in the postseason. “I know him very well. We played in Cuba together,” Puig said. “I know he’s a great ballplayer. Not only here in the States but also in Cuba.” Cespedes, traded to the Mets midseason, is a steady leader and a model of consistency. He is a career .350 hitter in the postseason. “I’m very happy for him that he landed with the Mets,” Puig said. “It’s a great opportunity there. He’s a very special player. I’m happy for us both and look forward to playing with him. It’s going to be a great series, not only for both teams but for us Cubans playing against each other. It’s an honor to play against him.” Manager Don Mattingly said that Puig was “a little rusty,” but that anything could happen in the playoffs. Puig is batting .314 with five R.B.I. over the last two postseasons. This season has been Puig’s worst. He played in just 79 games and batted .255 with 11 home runs and 38 R.B.I. He struck out 66 times. Puig has had a problem with being on time. Last year, he was late to Dodger Stadium on opening day and scratched from the lineup. That left him crying in the clubhouse. For all the drama, he can be counted on against left-handers in the division series. “The first year I came up, I was playing every day; obviously, it’s a change,” Puig said. “This year, I missed most of the season. At this point, I have to try the best I can to contribute to the playoffs now that my teammates have put us here. I won’t be in a starting position, but that’s the situation I’m dealing with.” At Wednesday’s workout, he talked with the Dodgers scout Mike Brito, who discovered him. “He said he’s confident,” Brito said. “He said he’s ready to help the team. The most important thing is, if you think positive. He’s got confidence that he’s going to do good.”


American Held in Egypt Killed Himself, Officials Say

Abstract: CAIRO — An American citizen who had been detained by the Egyptian authorities for more than six weeks was found dead in a police station on Sunday in what some American officials said appeared to be a suicide. Egyptian officials gave more detail, saying that the American, James Lunn, had hanged himself at the station in the Suez Canal city of Ismailia after being detained during a security sweep in the northern Sinai Peninsula in late August. Egypt’s prosecutor general said in a statement that Mr. Lunn was found hanging from a bathroom door by his leather belt and shoelaces, with blood running from his nose. The death of Mr. Lunn could raise further concerns about the safety of foreign citizens held in Egypt’s jails, where right groups and former inmates say beatings, crowding and unsanitary conditions are common. Last month, a French citizen arrested on a charge of violating an army curfew died while in custody; Egyptian officials said he was beaten to death by his fellow inmates. And last week, Egypt released a doctor and a filmmaker from Canada, Tarek Loubani and John Greyson, who had been held without charge for nearly two months after being detained at an antigovernment protest. It was unclear what Mr. Lunn was doing in the northern Sinai Peninsula at the time of his arrest. The area, long resistant to the central government in Cairo, has become a hotbed of armed militancy in recent years, with deadly attacks on police stations and other security infrastructure increasingly common since the military ousted the Islamist president, Mohamed Morsi, on July 3. A statement from Egypt’s Interior Ministry said that Mr. Lunn had been arrested Aug. 27 during a security sweep of the northern Sinai after a car-bomb attack on a police station. The statement said that Mr. Lunn had been in the area of the attack and was found with “a computer and maps of important facilities.” He was detained for investigation and transferred to Ismailia. An American consular official visited him there last week, the statement said, and on Saturday Mr. Lunn’s detention was renewed for another 30 days. A spokesman for the ministry, Gen. Hany Abdel Lateef, said in a phone call on Sunday that Mr. Lunn had admitted during questioning that he had been on his way to the Gaza Strip, where he planned to meet with members of Hamas, the militant Palestinian group that rules the territory. “He confessed that he was on his way to Gaza to stay with Hamas and discuss certain things with them,” General Abdel Lateef said. The statement from the prosecutor general, Hisham Barakat, said that Mr. Lunn had been found with a “modern electronic device” that the authorities were examining, without specifying further. Two days after Mr. Lunn’s arrest in August, Egypt’s flagship newspaper, Al Ahram, reported that he was a retired American officer and that he had been found with “documents about the historical landmarks of Sinai and border maps.” The report said that he had been on his way to the official Rafah border crossing between Egypt and Gaza. A State Department official said Sunday that Mr. Lunn was not a veteran of the United States military and that consular employees had been in touch with Egyptian officials and with Mr. Lunn during his detention. Mr. Lunn had not complained at any time of mistreatment, the official said. The State Department did not comment on the cause of death, but earlier a United States Embassy official described it as an “apparent suicide.”


A Crowd Is Present; Accountability Is Not

Abstract: This was at an N.B.A. Board of Governors meeting in New York not long ago, James L. Dolan facing his colleagues-in-ownership for the first time since the sexual harassment trial brought by Anucha Browne Sanders had slimed Madison Square Garden and by extension the league. According to a person who attended the meeting, Dolan just couldn’t wait to announce that the civil case was the result of a disgruntled employee, nothing more, and that he hoped that his peers would never, ever have to experience such unwarranted employee insurrection. At no time, the person said on condition of anonymity, did Dolan express a modicum of remorse for what had occurred, including his decision not to settle with Browne Sanders until weeks after a jury had ruled in her favor. “It was as if the fingers were still pointed outward, never inward,” the person said. No apologies then, no accountability yet, and no wonder another Knicks season is dying along with the calendar year, with more than half of an 82-game schedule to play. Dolan was absent from his customary baseline seat across from the home-team bench on Sunday as the Knicks, backcourt-depleted and energy deficient, fell to the Bulls, 100-83, their 21st defeat in 29 games. But as usual, Knicks fans showed. The matinee crowd was announced as 19,763, a sellout, but even factoring in pockets of empty seats in the upper tier, the continued patronage for a team so consistently bad and for an organization so embarrassingly misbehaved reflects the preseason hope and an extraordinary devotion that demands action by Dolan, and now. People in sports tend to interpret healthy fan support as a sign that all can’t be that bad (a typically insulting baseball refrain in the steroid era), when the truth is that it should be a clarion call for a show of appreciation and respect. Dolan may sincerely believe that the Rangers’ competitive turnaround after years of failure under Glen Sather is proof that Isiah Thomas ’s reign can also be salvaged, but how can he be so blind to the organizational haplessness and chaos that make future success seem like a wish for world peace? As Ben Gordon said after torching the Knicks with 25 points, at the very minimum, “Sometimes you just need change to get things straight.” Chicago won its second in a row for the interim coach Jim Boylan, after the Christmas Eve dismissal of Scott Skiles. Was the timing heartless? Absolutely. Was it partly unfair to blame a disappointing start to the season on a coach who, far from the dismal record of the Thomas-era Knicks, had taken his team to the playoffs three straight seasons? Without a doubt.  But Skiles’s intensity was said to have worn on the players and, as Gordon said, “Everybody just needed a chance to relax.” While changing the Band-Aid doesn’t in itself heal the wound, somebody has to apply a fresh, clean covering when it becomes clear that the infection is just getting worse. At this point, it no longer matters whether you are part of the mob majority that believes Thomas to be the root of all basketball evil or that he just put his money on the wrong horses (namely Stephon Marbury and Eddy Curry). Combative as he has always been, he is a beaten man in New York, floored for good by the revelations of the Browne Sanders trial that enveloped this crucial season in negativity before it began. Beyond the ritual Garden booing and calls for his job, Thomas seems to exist now inside a protective bubble. On the walk through the Garden bowels to meet with reporters after the game Sunday, he was stoop-shouldered, carrying a briefcase with his head bowed, making no eye contact along the way with various Garden staffers, who whispered self-consciously, as if a condemned man were passing them by. Thomas’s dismissal, Curry said, “is in the back of some guys’ minds,” and despite claims to the contrary, the players do not sound as if they would go on strike for him any more than the Bulls did for Skiles. After establishing relative calm last season, he has now become what he and Dolan claimed they could not tolerate in Larry Brown, a coach with no handle on his team, no consistent lineup, no love for any single player beyond his last made shot. “We miss layups, we miss, you know, wide-open shots,” Thomas said, trying to explain another brutal home-court defeat. He talked about Jamal Crawford being out with a bruised hand and also the enigma named Marbury, not ready to play after missing most of the last month on bereavement leave. Through it all, Thomas’s eyes were glassy, on the verge of admitting what the Knicks have become, a crying shame. Might this season have started differently, especially for the onetime allies Thomas and Marbury, had Dolan kept their dirty fraternity laundry out of the courts? Would Thomas’s flawed and fragile team at least have had a fighting chance had Dolan done the corporately prudent thing and settled with Browne Sanders? Maybe, but it’s too late for that, and as even Thomas said, they are where they are, 8-21 and slip-sliding away. Even Dolan has to know the fans deserve something for staying, for suffering, even if it is only an atmosphere-cleansing gesture of change.

Basketball
New York Knicks
Dolan James L
Thomas Isiah


Upgrading of Indian Point's Sirens Ordered

Abstract: The United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission issued a preliminary order yesterday requiring the owner of the Indian Point nuclear power plant to install a backup power source for its warning sirens by early next year. A final order could be issued by the end of the month if the owner, Entergy Nuclear Northeast, waives a hearing. The company would then have until Jan. 30 of next year to make the changes so that the sirens could continue to function during a power failure. Last year, Congress passed legislation that had the effect of requiring the Indian Point plant, which is 35 miles north of Midtown Manhattan in Buchanan, N.Y., to have backup power for its emergency notification system. Entergy officials said that the installation of generators at each of the 156 sirens was impractical, given the risks of vandalism and theft, and that attaching a battery to each siren would be hard since the speakers, which rotate, require so much energy. In the end, the company decided on stationary four-way speakers, which could be powered by smaller backup batteries. A spokesman for Entergy, Jim Steets, said that the company would spend "at least several million dollars" to upgrade the system.

WESTCHESTER COUNTY (NY)
NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
ATOMIC ENERGY


After 2000 Loss, Obama Built Donor Network From Roots Up

Abstract: CHICAGO — When Barack Obama announced to friends over brunch in 2002 that he planned to run for the United States Senate, one of their first questions was how he could possibly raise the necessary millions. After all, two and a half years after he had taken quite a “spanking,” as he put it, in his bid to unseat an incumbent congressman, he was still struggling to pay off a $20,000 debt, eking out donations of $1,000 here, $2,000 there. Improbably, Mr. Obama, running as something of an outsider, wound up raising $15 million and winning that 2004 Senate race. Now that he is running for president, his fund-raising prowess has helped make him the chief rival to Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York. [Aides said Monday that he had collected more than $20 million in donations in the first three months of the campaign, enough to ratchet up the anxiety in the Clinton camp, which announced it had raised $26 million. Mr. Obama’s campaign has yet to release precise information on its total donations or contributors.] A look at his 2004 Senate race shows how he laid the foundation for his current fund-raising drive. Even as he cultivated an image as an unconventional candidate devoted to the people, not the establishment, he systematically built a sophisticated, and in many ways quite conventional, money machine. Interviews and campaign finance reports show Mr. Obama drew crucial early support from Chicago’s thriving black professional class, using it as a springboard to other rainmakers within the broader party establishment. Soon he was drawing money — and, just as valuable, buzz — among wealthy Chicago families like the Crowns and the Pritzkers, as well as friends from Harvard Law School and the University of Chicago, where Mr. Obama taught constitutional law and his wife worked in community relations. As his popularity surged after his rousing speech at the Democratic National Convention in July 2004, big fund-raisers on Wall Street and in Hollywood hopped aboard, and grass-roots contributions began pouring in as well. Mr. Obama has written that at the beginning he felt uncomfortable asking for money, but he developed a skill at cultivating donors, often with the same disarming directness he uses on the campaign trail. “I met him on the first hole,” Steven S. Rogers, a former business owner who teaches at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, recalled recently about a golf game in 2001. “By the sixth hole, he said, ‘Steve, I want to run for the Senate.’ And by the ninth hole, he said he needed help to clear up some debts.” Mr. Obama’s breakthrough in the 2004 Senate race was also made possible by a new wrinkle in the election laws. Faced with a self-financed opponent in the Democratic primary, Blair Hull, who pumped more than $28 million of his own money into the race, Mr. Obama was able to accept up to $12,000 from each donor, or six times the limit at that time. As a result, nearly half of the more than $5 million that Mr. Obama raised in the primary came from just 300 donors. In a stroke of luck, he had just enough money to pay for a television advertising blitz in the final weeks as Mr. Hull’s campaign crumbled amid accusations that he had abused a former wife. Some longtime Obama donors said they were glad to be able to exploit the financing loophole to help him. James S. Crown, a senior member of the Crown family, said that despite the “formidable competition” in the Senate primary, he was so impressed after meeting Mr. Obama for breakfast in early 2003 that he quickly lent his support. “I was just taken with his sensibility, his intelligence, his values and how he conducted himself during that campaign,” said Mr. Crown, who is Mr. Obama’s chief presidential fund-raiser in Illinois. Mr. Obama appears to have such a firm hold on so many of Chicago’s big donors that Mrs. Clinton, who grew up in a Chicago suburb, did not even have a fund-raiser here during the crucial first quarter of this year. At the same time, Mr. Obama’s campaign says its grass-roots support is expanding rapidly, in part through $25-a-ticket fund-raisers designed for a new generation of donors. Mr. Obama declined to be interviewed for this article. But in his book “The Audacity of Hope,” he sounded prescient about the dangers of the money chase, noting that he could not assume it “didn’t alter me in some ways.” At the simplest level, he wrote, it “eliminated any sense of shame” about asking for donations. But, he added, he also worries that spending so much time courting wealthy donors has caused him to spend “more and more time above the fray,” away from the concerns of ordinary voters. Mr. Obama, who grew up mostly in Hawaii, began making political contacts in Chicago as a community organizer in the 1980s. After graduating from Harvard Law School in 1991, he returned to Chicago and led a drive that registered more than 100,000 voters for the 1992 elections. Mr. Obama asked John R. Schmidt, a lawyer who was co-chairman of Bill Clinton’s Illinois fund-raising operation, to raise money for the voter drive. Mr. Schmidt said he invited donors to meet Mr. Obama over lunch at the University Club of Chicago, and he and some of the others later became major donors to his political campaigns. But perhaps Mr. Obama’s most crucial early support came from the city’s longstanding cadre of highly successful black executives and entrepreneurs. John W. Rogers Jr., chief executive of Ariel Capital Management, which oversees $16 billion in investments, played basketball with Mr. Obama’s brother-in-law at Princeton University. Quintin E. Primo III, who made a fortune financing commercial real-estate deals, and Louis A. Holland, an investment manager, have also contributed to nearly all the senator’s races. Under its first black mayor, Harold Washington, the City of Chicago had expanded its contracts with minority business in the 1980s. But, Mr. Rogers said, the state “was not as open and inclusive as it could be.” As a state senator, he said, Mr. Obama pushed to open up more contracting and to give minority investment companies a greater stake in managing state pension funds. When Mr. Obama decided to run for Congress in 2000 against the former Black Panther Bobby Rush, he used a $9,500 personal loan to help finance the campaign. When he lost, he found himself broke and fielding questions from the Federal Election Commission about his campaign finances. He later had to lend his campaign committee $11,100 more to cover refunds to donors who had inadvertently given too much. It took him two years to repay his own loans, mostly with small checks from black executives who agreed to help him prepare for another run. Robert D. Blackwell Sr., a management consultant whose family contributed a few thousand dollars to Mr. Obama then, said that after the House race, it would have been natural for some supporters to hesitate. “But Barack has almost devout followers who are people of action,” Mr. Blackwell said, “and they rallied behind him.” When Mr. Obama told his closest friends about his Senate plans, Valerie Jarrett, a Chicago businesswoman who led his finance committee, said: “Our initial reaction was, ‘It’s too soon. You just lost, and if you lose again, where are you?’ ” Ms. Jarrett said Mr. Obama replied that he was willing to gamble all on one more shot. David Axelrod, Mr. Obama’s strategist for his Senate and presidential campaigns, said Mr. Obama believed that if he polled well among blacks and white liberals, he would have a chance. At least initially, few donors seemed to agree. Besides Mr. Hull, a former securities trader, another opponent was the state comptroller, Dan Hynes, whose father had been a major Illinois political figure. After three months of calling longtime supporters and other Democratic donors, Mr. Obama had raised only $250,000. Even some Harvard friends were wondering if the race made sense. David B. Wilkins, a Harvard law professor and friend of Mr. Obama, recalled, “I held one of his first fund-raisers here in Cambridge, and I had to beg people to come, because they said: ‘What is this? This guy thinks he’s going to win? Come on.’ ” At first, only a handful of Obama supporters took advantage of the increased contribution limits, newly available under a so-called millionaire’s amendment to federal campaign laws. From his Chicago circle of black professionals came John Rogers, who gave $11,000. Among the other investment managers, Mr. Primo and his wife gave $18,000. And Mr. Holland, his wife and two of his partners donated a total of $35,000. At Harvard, Mr. Wilkins helped tap into professors and alumni, including George Haywood, an investor who, with his wife, Cheryl, contributed $12,000 in April 2003. Mr. Haywood and Mr. Obama became friends, and it was Mr. Haywood whom then-Senator Obama turned to in early 2005 when he needed a broker to help manage money from a book deal. Mr. Haywood’s broker later invested $100,000 of Mr. Obama’s cash in two speculative stocks that Mr. Haywood owned. Antoin Rezko, a Chicago businessman who was later involved in a land deal with the Obamas, gave $10,500. Mr. Obama’s support also widened among Chicago’s business elite. Members of the Pritzker family, which founded the Hyatt Hotel chain, donated $40,000; Penny Pritzker is now the senator’s national finance chairwoman. Mr. Crown, whose family’s investments include a major stake in the military contractor General Dynamics, said family members normally avoided taking sides in a primary, in part because it was not good for business. But with Mr. Obama, they made an exception, with 10 family members giving a total of $112,500. “I was just so personally impressed with Barack that it was worth the risk,” Mr. Crown said. Mr. Obama also attracted major national Democratic donors, including George Soros and members of his family, who gave a total of $60,000. Other major donors included executives at a Texas-based securities firm, Tejas Inc., who gave $56,000. Its chairman, John Gorman, told The Austin American-Statesman in 2004 that he had been introduced to Mr. Obama by Vernon E. Jordan Jr., the Washington power broker. Though he helped raise money for Mr. Obama in 2004, Mr. Jordan, a longtime Clinton friend and confidant, is now aligned with Mrs. Clinton’s presidential campaign. In fact, many people who once backed both Mr. Obama’s Senate campaign and the Clintons are now having to choose sides. Some traditional Clinton supporters, including the Rev. Jesse Jackson, David Geffen, the Hollywood mogul, and Michael Froman, a Citigroup executive, have migrated to Mr. Obama. And Chicago has become almost completely an Obama town. Though Democrats here still express respect for Mrs. Clinton, "if she’s raising any money in Chicago, I don’t know who’s doing it," said Mr. Schmidt, the lawyer who was once co-chairman of President Clinton’s fund-raising here.

Presidential Election of 2008
Obama Barack
Finances
Elections
Fund-raising


Campaign Against Rival Could Haunt FedEx

Abstract: THE word bailout has gone from descriptive to derogatory. In a multimillion-dollar marketing campaign introduced Tuesday, FedEx objected to legislation that would make it easier to unionize the company by accusing its rival, United Parcel Service , of taking a government bailout. The FedEx-sponsored Web site BrownBailout.com (brown is both U.P.S.’s color and nickname) says that U.P.S. is “quietly seeking a Congressional bailout designed to limit competition for overnight deliveries.” Along with a “bailout-o-meter” showing U.P.S.’s revenue, and a spoof of a U.P.S. commercial, the site includes statements like, “This is a bailout, plain and simple, and the American people won’t stand for it.” The real issue here is not government-supplied cash for U.P.S., but the labor laws under which U.P.S. and FedEx are classified. The House recently approved a bill that reclassified a FedEx division, making it easier for unions to form there, and FedEx is fighting that legislation as it goes to the Senate. In effect, FedEx is claiming that passage of the bill would be a bailout for U.P.S. by hampering a competitor. FedEx’s casting of a labor-law dispute as a bailout has raised ire at U.P.S. and at the Teamsters union, which said on Tuesday that it planned to respond with its own public relations campaign.  Some advertising experts said FedEx was putting its own brand at risk by so aggressively attacking a competitor and accusing U.P.S. of taking a federal bailout. “Hinging so much of this — even the site itself and the URL name — to a bailout brings some pretty significant risks,” said Scott Elser, a partner in LaunchPad Advertising, which is not working with either company. “It’s arguably one of the most controversial terms that you can define in politics today. They draw you there based on that, and you don’t have to surf very long to realize that this is clearly not a bailout as most consumers and business people would define it, which is writing a check to a troubled business.” “It’s a little bit of a bait and switch,” Mr. Elser said, which “has the ability to potentially harm their brand.” FedEx is objecting to a provision in a Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization bill that the House passed in May. The legislation would classify nonairline employees from FedEx’s Express division, which makes overnight deliveries, under the National Labor Relations Act rather than the Railway Labor Act, which currently governs Express as well as airlines and railroads. The reclassification would make it easier to unionize the division, since N.L.R.A. unions are allowed to form at a company’s individual sites; under the railway act, unions need national support from a majority of a company’s workers. U.P.S., which is heavily unionized, is governed under the N.L.R.A. And it has been lobbying to get its competitor’s Express division classified under that act. “FedEx is appearing to spend millions of dollars to try to convince Congress that a FedEx driver delivering a package is different from a U.P.S. driver delivering a package,” said Malcolm Berkley, a U.P.S. spokesman. Mr. Berkley said it was a competitive issue for U.P.S. “FedEx Express uses the fact of the labor law it is currently under inappropriately as a lever when talking to U.P.S. customers, particularly when we’re negotiating our contracts,” he said. FedEx’s labeling of the legislation as a bailout was wrong, he said. “There’s clearly no way we’re seeking a bailout. In fact, what we’re doing is working to eliminate an earmark that has been given to FedEx for some years,” he said. Executives from the Teamsters, which represents 240,000 U.P.S. workers, also said the bailout campaign was misleading. “It is just the height of hypocrisy for them to allege that there is a bailout of their competitor, when in fact, it’s the company, it’s FedEx, who has benefited from this misclassification of their workers,” said Ken Hall, international vice president and director of the package division at the Teamsters. “It’s laughable to think that they would portray this as some bailout. This is simply leveling the playing field.” While Mr. Berkley said U.P.S. was not planning a campaign in response, the Teamsters would, Mr. Hall said. “Particularly, it’s going to be a grass-roots and an educational program to make sure that those folks in Congress truly understand the issue.” FedEx, meanwhile, has been arguing that the different classification makes sense, since its roots and ways of doing business are different from those of U.P.S. “Our company and U.P.S. are fundamentally different companies,” said Maury Lane, director of communications at FedEx. “They aren’t and shouldn’t be regulated the same way.” As for the bailout characterization, “that piece of legislation only helps one company while hurting a main competitor — if that’s not a bailout, we’re going to have to redefine the word,” he said. Late last year, FedEx’s chief executive, Frederick W. Smith, signaled the company would fight hard against any potential legislation. “We’ve said repeatedly that it is extremely bad public policy,” Mr. Smith said in a conference call with investors. “We would hope that provision would not see the light of day.” Labor experts differed on the companies’ positions. Karen E. Boroff, the dean of the Stillman School of Business at Seton Hall University, said she found FedEx’s arguments persuasive. “FedEx absolutely has a right to be concerned about tiny little bargaining units interrupting the flow of their delivery,” she said. And, she said, workers doing similar jobs were often classified under different labor laws. But James J. Brudney, a law professor at the Moritz College of Law at the Ohio State University, said that FedEx Express’s classification was “a historical anomaly.” “From the workers’ point of view, it seems unfair,” he said.  Advertising executives who reviewed the Web site said that it did some things very well. “I give them credit for inventiveness,” said Steve Centrillo, a principal at A-Team Advisors, a consultant to advertising agencies that is based in New York. Pinning the problems on U.P.S. rather than on unionization helped FedEx avoid sticky labor relations questions, he said. But, Mr. Centrillo said, the use of bailout was “the most questionably ethical thing on the site. “It’s taking a word that is extremely loaded right now, and implying that somehow, the government is writing a check to U.P.S., which is clearly not the case.”

FedEx Corp
United Parcel Service Inc
Advertising and Marketing
Organized Labor


Supplier for Samsung and Lenovo Accused of Using Child Labor

Abstract: China Labor Watch said it had found more than 10 children working at the factory of a China-based supplier for the technology giants Samsung Electronics and the Lenovo Group in an investigation in July and August. The group, based in New York, also said its investigation had found more than 100 student workers who were not being paid overtime wages or a subsidy for working at night. The supplier, HEG Technology, denied the accusations, and Samsung said it had found no children or students working on the Samsung production line at the factory, in Huizhou. A Lenovo spokeswoman said the company would look into the report. In a statement, China Labor Watch said it shared evidence with Samsung last week and that Samsung had demanded that the supplier pay some students’ wages. But it did not say whether Samsung had acted on the matter of child labor or whether it had provided the information to Lenovo. In response, Samsung said it had proposed to China Labor Watch that they conduct a joint investigation “for more precise verification” of the accusations. Samsung also said it had informed the watchdog about its own investigation, adding, “We find it regrettable that CLW issued the allegations today without any mention of our statement.” HEG Technology said the company had never hired children, and that it had facial recognition systems to ensure workers were not under age. This is the second time in two months that China Labor Watch has said it found children working at Samsung’s Chinese suppliers. Samsung halted business with one supplier and later reinstated it, but with a 30 percent reduction in orders. Child workers have been discovered at Foxconn, the supplier for some of the world’s biggest tech brands, including Apple. Foxconn is the trading name of Taiwan’s Hon Hai Precision Industry. Other multinational companies in textiles, toys and other industries have been plagued by revelations of under-age workers in their supply chains, too.

Child Labor
Huizhou HEG Technology
China
Manufacturing
Samsung Electronics
Lenovo Group