Peace Talks Start Between Myanmar and Rebels

Abstract: BANGKOK — China hosted peace talks between the Myanmar government and ethnic Kachin rebels on Monday, as outside pressure grew on both sides to end the intense fighting of recent weeks. The one-day meeting ended without a firm commitment to stop the clashes, which have left at least several hundred soldiers dead and displaced tens of thousands of civilians in the northernmost reaches of Myanmar, near the Chinese border. But the talks were notable for China’s prominent role in getting both sides to the negotiating table. “The Chinese asked us to come to the meeting,” said Awng Jet, a member of the Kachin delegation. “They told us that U Aung Min would be there and said we should be there, too.” Mr. Aung Min was the head of the Myanmar government’s delegation. China is increasingly concerned about the fighting along its southern border. Shells have landed in its territory at least twice, refugees have come across the border, and commerce has been interrupted — northern Myanmar is rich in jade and timber and is the site of many Chinese hydroelectric projects. A statement released after the talks by the Kachin rebels, who have lost some strategic positions in recent weeks, was noncommittal but appeared to show a willingness for further negotiations. “We discussed opening lines of communication, reducing military tensions, and inviting observers and organizations that can participate as witnesses at another meeting,” the statement said. Previous negotiations with Kachin rebels foundered, and a cease-fire announced last month by the Myanmar government never went into effect. But in contrast with aborted peace talks in October, the Kachin rebels sent a senior representative, Gen. Gun Maw, to the negotiations on Monday. China confirmed Monday that it was providing “amenities for the peace talks,” which are being held in Ruili, a city along the border with Myanmar, also known as Burma. “China is willing to continue playing a constructive role in the peace talks between the two sides,” said a spokeswoman for China’s Foreign Ministry, Hua Chunying, at a daily news media briefing in Beijing. The Kachin, whose many tribes live in the mountains of northern Myanmar, have a long history of autonomy from the lowland Burmese majority and are the only remaining major armed ethnic group that has not signed a peace deal with the government of President Thein Sein. A successful outcome of the peace talks would bolster domestic and international confidence in Mr. Thein Sein’s reconciliation efforts, one of the central initiatives of his government. Even so, it would be only the start of a broader political dialogue between Myanmar’s central government and a dozen or so ethnic groups that are calling for a more decentralized system. The Kachin rebels’ position on the battlefield has been considerably weakened in recent weeks with the loss of strategic hilltops near their headquarters at Laiza, a town on the border with China. The goal of Myanmar’s army in recent weeks has been to “isolate and weaken” the Kachin rebels, said Aung Din, a former Burmese student activist who has close contacts with armed rebel groups in northern Myanmar. Shelling by the army continued in two locations over the weekend, according to Khon Ja, a Kachin humanitarian worker. But the intensity of the attacks was sharply reduced from the barrage of artillery launched against rebels in recent weeks. Zhu Zhenming, a professor at the Yunnan Academy of Social Sciences, described the gains by the army as a “turning point in the conflict.” At the same time, both China and the United States, which is seeking to build closer ties to Myanmar, want to see the conflict resolved, he said, creating “a good external environment” for the peace process.

Thein Sein
Myanmar,Burma
Kachin State Myanmar
China


New Summer Destination: Hamptons Police Stations

Abstract: EAST HAMPTON, N.Y. — It was the perfect night to take the dog out. The temperature was just so. Clear skies made for spectacular star gazing. And the light sea breeze gently caressed the dense greenery of the normally peaceful village of East Hampton. But as Elizabeth Fasolino walked her 1-year-old mutt Quincy down Wireless Road, the serenity was shattered by a barely visible — yet, at the same time, all-too-visible — naked young man crouched by a light pole. “He started to lunge at me,” she said. “He was speaking gibberish and he was clearly unclothed and he had a bottle in his hand.” She ran home and called the police, who had been seeking — by sea and by air — a man matching that description, after receiving a report that the man had wandered away from family and friends on the beach by the exclusive Maidstone Club , and disappeared into the ocean. Shortly after her encounter they found the man hiding in bushes by the home of his famous father-in-law, Chevy Chase. It was just another odd episode in the 2013 Hamptons police files, a fitting archive of the summer holiday season that was. Yet they also stand as Exhibit A in this elite tourism enclave’s continuing struggle to strike a balance between its increased popularity — which has brought a rowdy young crowd ever-ready to release the stresses of city living — and the high quality of life that made it such a draw in the first place. While major crimes in the area have stayed relatively stable over the past few years — a small increase in Driving While Intoxicated arrests, a decrease in larceny cases — the volume of calls to the police here is up slightly over last year, to more than 12,500, according to Chief Edward V. Ecker Jr. of the East Hampton Town Police. Smaller violations of town ordinances are up by about 100 this year, to 492, he said, a roughly 25 percent rise. In real life, the stories behind the numbers include that of a young man who tried to punch another young man he exchanged words with in downtown Montauk at around 5 a.m. on Aug. 3 but put his fist and then the rest of his body through the plate glass window of “Fudge ‘n’ Stuff” instead; that of a freshly-minted Georgetown Law School graduate who, according to the police, became drunk and unruly outside of the Stephen Talkhouse music club in Amagansett, flailed her arms at police officers as they tried to arrest her, and continued to fight off handcuffs at Police Headquarters; and, in Southampton, that of a 55-year-old local man who went after a bus attendant for Hampton Jitney — a major deliverer of summer visitors — with a baseball bat in a dispute over parking. There have been more serious episodes: Allegations that a Goldman Sachs managing director raped a young woman during a pool party at his East Hampton rental home, and the drowning death of a woman who had been on a nighttime boat ride in Block Island Sound with her husband, which the police believe was an accident. But it is the smaller, rowdier, “quality of life” offenses that some longtime residents and lawmakers say has made the area seem slightly out of control at times, exacerbated this year by illegal share-houses and an expanding array of night spots catering to what appears to be a growing number of visitors. The Long Island Rail Road president, Helena E. Williams, reported that ridership on the Hamptons-bound line had increased again this year, to nearly 111,000 rides before this weekend. Image The East Hampton Police Department has had an odd and eventful summer. Credit Doug Kuntz for The New York Times State Transportation Department figures on traffic in the Hamptons this summer will not be available for several months. But Chief Gerard Larsen Jr. of the East Hampton Village Police said inclement weather might have at least added to a perception of heavier car and foot traffic by diminishing the number of good beach days and in that way keeping more cars on the road and people on the streets. (It was perhaps frustration over said perception that led a man to throw a glass of water in a woman’s face as she waited for a parking space in East Hampton in late August, according to a police report). The area’s struggles to cope with the challenges that come with its summer population is feeding into the political dialogue in this, an election year in East Hampton. The town board has sought to draft a more effective noise code and is exploring ways to crack down on illegal share houses that add to the summer population — and can become noisy party hubs. “It feels out of control and if it feels out of control then we need to look deeper into what’s happening,” said Councilwoman Sylvia Overby, one of the two Democrats on the five-member board. “This is a place where people want to come enjoy our natural resources; they don’t want to see drunken people falling across the road,” she said, adding, “That’s where the politics comes in: Which definition of East Hampton do you want?” That question has been at the heart of the debate over the past few years between Ms. Overby and her fellow Democrats, who call for tighter reins on nightclubs and parties, and Town Supervisor Bill Wilkinson, a Republican, and his allies, who have been more supportive of proposed zoning changes or permits for parties and nightclubs, arguing they are vital to the local economy. The Democratic candidate for supervisor, Larry Cantwell, who is so far unopposed as the Republicans seek to recruit a candidate for November, is running on a platform that includes a promise to bring a renewed sense of order through increased enforcement and, possibly, new laws. Then again it is unclear if any government actions could have prevented some of the episodes on the East Hampton police report: a 31-year-old New York City woman was drunk and disorderly near the Memory Motel on Aug. 25 and hit an officer with a bag containing a glass beer jug; a 39-year-old financial adviser climbed drunk into his Mercedes at around 1:30 a.m. in mid-July and crashed into the Gazebo in the middle of the grassy Montauk plaza; a 33-year-old woman drunkenly tailgated a police car in Napeague at 6 a.m. in mid-July, with no pants on, as the police discovered when they eventually pulled her over. This is, after all, a summer destination, where people not only take vacations from their jobs, but, at times, from their senses. “Even the folks that we arrest for drunk driving, they may not be doing that in their regular lives, but they’re on vacation and hanging out, they have a few too many, they make that bad decision to jump in their car,” Chief Ecker of the East Hampton Town Police said. Though he has increased patrols to cope with the resurgent summer night life here, Chief Ecker is among those who say they believe that the sense that the area is overrun with troublemakers is more perception than reality. For instance, he said, while some statistics like traffic accidents and drunken driving arrests are up a hair over last year, the number of noise complaints is actually slightly lower (dropping to 692 from 730). This was before Labor Day weekend, after which the Hamptons population will drop precipitously as visitors chase the party back to the city. Then again, Chief Ecker said, “having a girl or a guy that’s intoxicated and raising hell, that happens all the time — it doesn’t have to be the summer.”

Police
Driving Under the Influence DUI
Car Crash
Hamptons
Southampton NY
Montauk NY
East Hampton NY


Victory Moves Haris Seferovic Closer to World Cup

Abstract: The substitute Haris Seferovic scored in the 90th minute as Switzerland beat Cyprus, 1-0, in Geneva to move a step closer to qualifying for the World Cup. Switzerland moved four points clear atop its group.


Man in L.A. Airport Terrorist Plot May Go Back to Prison

Abstract: A judge in Manhattan has ruled that a convicted terrorist who was given a chance to rebuild his life after cooperating with the government violated the terms of his release by possessing a handgun and trying to buy an AK-47 assault rifle. The terrorist, Abdelghani Meskini, could be ordered back to prison by the judge, John F. Keenan of Federal District Court, who originally gave Mr. Meskini a short sentence for his role in the failed “millennium plot” to blow up Los Angeles International Airport. As part of his cooperation, Mr. Meskini testified against two other men who were convicted in the plot, and he pleaded guilty to conspiring to support terrorism and other charges. After he was released in 2005, he moved to Georgia and changed his name, paid thousands of dollars in restitution and took a job managing apartments that were infested with drug dealers and prostitutes. One tenant, Crystal Amy Roughton, an admitted crack user and prostitute, became a close friend; she testified this month that Mr. Meskini had lent her money, taught her how to check clients’ backgrounds, and helped her prepare advertisements for an escort Web site. But she said that she had also seen him with a gun, and that he asked her last year to help him obtain an AK-47. Judge Keenan has scheduled a hearing on Friday at which sentencing issues are expected to be addressed. In his ruling, released on Thursday, the judge found Mr. Meskini had not violated other conditions, like associating with felons and frequenting drug establishments. “Incredibly,” Judge Keenan wrote, “the United States Probation Department approved Meskini’s employment” as manager of the crime-ridden complex, in which he had been required to enter apartments to collect rent and make repairs. “The Probation Department cannot now maintain that Meskini violated the conditions of his supervised release by performing work-related tasks,” the judge said. In court recently, Mr. Meskini’s lawyer, Mark S. DeMarco, attacked the government’s evidence and the credibility of its witnesses, calling Ms. Roughton a liar. But a prosecutor, Michael Rosensaft, said Mr. Meskini had gotten “a huge break on his sentence” and “threw it all away.”

Meskini Abdel Ghani
Terrorism
Decisions and Verdicts
Keenan John F
Probation and Parole


Mel Daniels, Prolific Rebounder on the Indiana Pacers in the 1970s, Dies at 71

Abstract: Mel Daniels, the Hall of Fame center who led the Indiana Pacers to three American Basketball Association championships and became the leading rebounder in the league’s history, died Friday in Sheridan, Ind. He was 71. His death, which was announced by the Pacers, came the day after he attended their season’s home opener. The cause was not given, but he had heart problems and had been hospitalized in October. At 6 feet 9 inches and 220 pounds, Daniels was an intimidating presence on defense, a fierce rebounder, and loath to pass up a fight, though he had a sensitive side, having written thousands of unpublished poems. He possessed a nearly unstoppable fadeaway jump shot. Daniels was the A.B.A.’s rookie of the year in 1967-68 with the Minnesota Muskies, having signed with the fledgling league despite being selected by the Cincinnati Royals in the first round of the N.B.A. draft. He spent the next six seasons with the Pacers, taking them to A.B.A. championships in 1970, 1972 and 1973 under Coach Bob Leonard. He was named the league’s most valuable player in 1969 and 1971 and was a seven-time All-Star. Image Mr. Daniels, in 1998, later became a coach for the Pacers. Credit Pacers Sports & Entertainment He was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame at Springfield, Mass., in 2012. Daniels was right at home in the rough-and-tumble league with the red, white and blue basketball. “I loved to knock guys down,” he told Terry Pluto in his A.B.A. oral history, “Loose Balls” (1990). “When you went to the boards, you did it with your elbows out. If there was a fight, it wasn’t just one-on-one, it was 12-on-12. The fine for fighting was $25. That wasn’t going to stop any fights.” As his teammate Billy Keller put it: “He scared people out of driving the lane. If he went for a ball and ended up with someone’s head in his hands, he was just as likely to put a headlock on the guy as let him go.” Daniels was the A.B.A.’s career leader in rebounds, with 9,494, and he averaged 18.7 points a game in his eight seasons in the league. After playing for the Memphis Sounds in his final A.B.A. season, he played in Italy for one season, then closed out his career in the N.B.A., playing briefly for the Nets in 1976-77, the first season of the A.B.A.-N.B.A. merger. He was an assistant coach at Indiana State in the late 1970s when the future Boston Celtics Hall of Fame player and Pacers coach Larry Bird played there and later became an assistant coach and director of player personnel for the Pacers. Image Mr. Daniels won the A.B.A.'s rookie of the year in 1967-68 and retired as the leading rebounder in the league's history. Credit NBAE, via Getty Images Melvin Joe Daniels was born on July 20, 1944, and grew up in Detroit, his family having moved there from North Carolina when he was a child. His father, Maceo, worked for an auto parts manufacturer. After playing at Pershing High School in Detroit, he became an all-American center at the University of New Mexico, averaging 20 points a game. He averaged 19.4 points and 16 rebounds a game with the Pacers, who retired his No. 34 jersey in 1985. It hangs at the team’s Bankers Life Fieldhouse along with those of his Pacers teammates George McInnis and Roger Brown and the latter-day Pacer Reggie Miller. Daniels, who lived on a ranch in Sheridan, north of Indianapolis, is survived by his wife, CeCe; a son, Melvin Jr.; his sisters Vivian and Wanda; and two granddaughters, The Associated Press reported. Daniels’s mother, Bernice, read poetry to him when he was a youngster, and he was writing poems by age 8 or so. He continued to write them through his playing days and thereafter, focusing on athletes’ lives but also on the world beyond sports. He preferred not to share them with his teammates, presumably to avoid being ribbed. “This is the side I’ve kept quiet,” he once said.

Obituary
Basketball
Pacers
American Basketball Assn
Mel Daniels


With Bounce at Buzzer, Nowitzki Deflates Knicks

Abstract: Another Carmelo Anthony gem was wasted Monday night at Madison Square Garden. Anthony scored 44 points, making shots from near and far. Dirk Nowitzki of the Mavericks, however, hit the shot that mattered most. With the score tied at 108-108 and the clock winding down, Nowitzki coolly decided the game. Defended by Anthony at the top of the key, Nowitzki rose for a fadeaway shot. The ball, which almost rimmed out, bounced straight in the air and fell through the basket as the buzzer sounded. Game over. The Knicks (21-36) suffered more heartbreak with the 110-108 loss — their third straight defeat and ninth in their last 11 games — and with their playoff hopes continuing to grow dimmer. They simply have too many flaws and not enough help for Anthony, an ace who has had the deck stacked against him on a nightly basis. How bad would the Knicks be without Anthony? They may find out next season, if Anthony decides to move on . In the meantime, Anthony is trying to keep the team afloat. It is a difficult assignment, though. “You score 40, 44, 44, 44, all losses — you kind of ask yourself is it worth it,” Anthony said. “I’m not going to stop doing what I’m doing. You can believe that.” The way Anthony felt after Nowitzki made the winning basket mirrored the way he has felt many times this season. “It’s like a needle in a balloon right there, just sucks all the air out you,” he said. Was the game entertaining? Yes. Did the Knicks give an honest effort? Yes. But was it enough for them to win? No. The game came down to the final two possessions. Anthony had a chance to put the Knicks ahead, but as he sized up his options behind the 3-point line, Anthony decided to make a move rather than take another shot from behind the arc. Vince Carter played solid defense on Anthony, who gave up his dribble and found himself tightly defended with the shot clock winding down. Anthony later said he regretted not taking a quick shot over Carter. “I think I gave up a decent shot,” he said, adding that he thought he could “try to get to the rack, get a foul or get a closer shot.” “I should have just pulled up for 3,” he added. Instead, Anthony passed to J. R. Smith, who forced up a tough 18-footer while being defended by Monta Ellis. There was contact between Smith and Ellis, but no foul was called, and Smith, who finished with 15 points, missed the shot. “I thought he got bumped, but they’re not going to make that call,” Coach Mike Woodson said. The Mavericks grabbed the rebound and called timeout with 10.6 seconds to play, setting up Nowitzki’s last shot. This was not a signature night for Nowitzki — he had 15 points while shooting 6 of 13 from the field — but he found a way to deliver. “It was definitely an ugly shot, but I am glad it went in,” Nowitzki said. The Knicks committed nine turnovers in the first quarter. Showing resiliency after the bad start, though, they overcame a 14-point deficit and trailed by 60-59 at halftime. Anthony was relentless, doing everything but enter a phone booth and change clothes. So much of the Knicks’ offense revolves around Anthony that, at this point, Woodson worries whenever he is not in the game. It is a shame, Woodson said, that the Knicks are “in the position we’re in because our team doesn’t deserve, and he definitely does not deserve, the position that we’re in.” “I’m the coach,” Woodson added. “I got to take blame for a lot of it because again, I’ve tried to put them in the best position possible to do that. I’m going to continue to do that the rest of these games.” While the Knicks relied on Anthony to carry them, the Mavericks came at the Knicks in waves. Carter, who had 23 points and went 7 for 12 from 3-point range; Jose Calderon, who 20 points; and Ellis, who had 22, led a balanced attack for the Mavericks (35-23), who avenged an earlier loss to the Knicks in Dallas. “The guys were great,” Nowitzki said. “Vince was on fire; Jose was on fire; Monta kept making plays and getting in the lane. “I didn’t know where my jumper was going,” Nowitzki added. “My jumper was good the last couple of weeks, but tonight was one of those nights. Like I said, team pulled through. They were great. They made timely plays.” Unfortunately for Anthony, he does not have the kind of help Nowitzki does. That is one reason the Knicks’ season may be beyond help. REBOUNDS The Knicks have bought out the contracts of forward Metta World Peace and guard Beno Udrih, the team announced Monday. “We are disappointed that it did not work out for Beno and Metta here in New York,” General Manager Steve Mills said in a statement. “We thank them for their contributions this season and wish them well.” World Peace had signed a contract worth about $1.6 million, with a player option in the second year. He was averaging just 4.8 points and 2.0 rebounds in 29 games this season. Udrih averaged 5.6 points and 3.5 assists in 31 games, including 12 starts. But neither World Peace nor Udrih had been part of the regular rotation in recent games.

Basketball
Knicks
Mavericks
Carmelo Anthony
Beno Udrih
Metta World Peace
Vince Carter
Dirk Nowitzki


A.& P. Bankruptcy Means New York, Chain’s Birthplace, Will Lose Last Store

Abstract: Linda Fisch stopped at the A.&P. on Riverdale Avenue in the Bronx on Thursday and bought eight prepackaged containers of cottage cheese and fruit. She did not realize the store had become a footnote to history. That A.&P. is the last in New York City, where the once-mighty chain was born just before the Civil War. Now the company has filed for bankruptcy protection for the second time in five years. Once its plan for liquidating is approved, the store’s A.&P. signs will come down. And the A.&P. name will vanish from New York. “It does look like the last A.&P. in New York City,” Ms. Fisch said of the Riverdale Avenue store. “It’s not that it’s dirty, it’s that it looks tired. And when we have Fairway and Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s and all these upscale markets with food that’s flown in from all over the world, and even Target — it’s very clean and orderly and well-managed — the competition is fierce.” Once, A.&P. had no competition. It all but invented the grocery store in the 19th century, and in the 20th century, it reinvented itself as a low-price, cash-and-carry chain. Its thousands of stores were “so devoid of frills that they are simply machines for selling food,” according to “ The Great Merchants ,” a history of retailers and retailing published in 1974. But it had been fading for years. In the mid-1980s, a former A.&P. executive published a book “ The Rise and Decline of the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company ” even as A.&P. continued to expand, buying Waldbaum’s and the Food Emporium chain in New York City and the Farmer Jack chain in the Midwest. A.&P. acquired Pathmark in 2007 for $679 million in a deal that involved significant debt. It also operated Super Fresh and Food Basics stores. By 2010, A.&P. was flailing. The company filed for bankruptcy , and union representatives agreed to wage and benefit concessions worth more than $600 million. It emerged from bankruptcy, only to file again last month, listing 38 stores in New York City among its holdings. Image An A.&P. in Westwood, N.J., in 1959. The filing said the company hoped to sell more than 100 of its stores in all — 77 to Acme Markets, 25 to Ahold’s Stop & Shop and 19, including the store in Riverdale, to Key Food Stores Cooperative. Another 25 stores are to close, including three Waldbaum’s on Long Island. Although its headquarters have been in Montvale, N.J., since the 1970s, A.&P. began in Lower Manhattan and had its headquarters in the Graybar Building, at 420 Lexington Avenue on the eastern flank of Grand Central Terminal , from the 1920s until it moved to Montvale. It began as a sideline for a hide and leather importer, George H. Gilman. “At some point around 1859 or 1860, there’s no precise date, he started selling tea,” said Marc Levinson, a historian and the author of “The Great A.&P. and the Struggle for Small Business in America.” “In 1860 or 1861, he gave up on the leather business, gave it to his brother, and decided to go into business as a tea wholesaler. He leased a property on Front Street. It’s the area where most of the ships carrying tea would come in.” Mr. Levinson said a Gilman employee, George Huntington Hartford, became involved in the new business. Some accounts say it was Hartford who proposed eliminating middlemen — and cutting prices to consumers. From its earliest years, the little tea company promised in advertisements, it would “do away with various profits and brokerages, cartages, storages, cooperage and waste, with the exception of a small commission paid for purchasing to our correspondents in Japan and China.” The strategy worked, but Mr. Levinson said it was another idea that made A.&P. a national name. “Gilman’s genius was to start marketing his tea outside New York,” he said. “He built the world’s first mail-order business, and this is when he moved to Vesey Street, around 1865.” The company’s name was the Great American Tea Company and the store was something to see, with a big capital “T” sign, cashiers’ booths built like pagodas and a parrot on a stand. On Saturdays, a band played. “Hartford and Gilman gradually added spices, coffee, soap, flavoring extracts, condensed milk, baking powder and other staples,” according to “The Great Merchants.” They also added more stores — 11 in 1869, when the name was changed from the Great American Tea Company to the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company, in recognition of the debut of the Transcontinental Railroad. An experiment with a cash-and-carry store in Jersey City was so successful in 1912 that executives remade the chain around lower prices and higher volumes. Soon A.&P. was opening one store every day or two. By 1930, when it had sales of $1 billion, it counted more than 15,000 stores, and customers who grew up in the prosperous 1950s and 1960s have their memories. “I grew up on Long Island and the A.&P. was the only supermarket in the town I grew up in, which was Lynbrook,” said Ms. Fisch, 71. “Of course that’s where we shopped. It was bright and it was clean, which is totally different from the one in Riverdale. It’s like it’s been going out of business for a long time.”

A&P
Bronx
Bankruptcy
Riverdale Bronx
NYC


Obama Puts Focus on Gas Prices and Energy Sources

Abstract: WASHINGTON — As a candidate in the fall of 2008, when Republicans held the White House, Barack Obama benefited politically from voters’ anger about gasoline costs hitting $4 a gallon on average. But as the incumbent facing re-election next year, he knows that will not be the case if prices are so high again. That explains why, with pump prices nationwide at or approaching that record level, President Obama was at Georgetown University on Wednesday to demonstrate his concern and resolve. In a speech that repackaged his existing policies with some new incentives for renewable energy sources as well as domestic oil and nuclear power production, Mr. Obama called for slashing oil imports by one-third by 2025. The president told about 1,000 students that the United States cannot continue to consume a quarter of the world’s oil while producing barely 2 percent of global supplies. Acknowledging that presidents going back to Richard M. Nixon had issued similar challenges, Mr. Obama nonetheless pointed to the continuing upheaval in the oil-rich Middle East to argue that the nation must end the long political bickering that has stymied progress toward energy independence. “Now here’s the thing — we’ve been down this road before,” Mr. Obama said. “Remember, it was just three years ago that gas prices topped $4 a gallon. I remember because I was in the middle of a presidential campaign.” “You had all kinds of slogans and gimmicks and outraged politicians — they were waving their three-point-plans for $2-a-gallon gas,” he continued, singling out the Republicans’ “Drill, baby, drill” cry. “And none of it,” he added, “was really going to do anything to solve the problem.” But Mr. Obama’s own prescriptions, while comprehensive, were neither wholly new nor, as he conceded, quick fixes to oil addiction. And while his address was largely intended to counter critics and growing calls for expanded domestic oil and gas production, Republicans in Congress were lambasting his policies even before he began speaking. In this speech and an event on Friday to promote fuel-efficient vehicles, Mr. Obama is trying to get in front of the politically volatile issue after a time of intense focus on turmoil in Libya and elsewhere in North Africa and the Middle East. Even his audience reflected the political calculations: He is increasingly reaching out to young and first-time voters, much as he did in 2008. “The clock’s ticking,” said Bill McInturff, a Republican pollster. “They’ve got about 14 or 15 months until the election environment is set.” The objective for Obama officials, Mr. McInturff added, has to be “to demonstrate that they weren’t passive when this was going on, that they were trying to take action.” Mark Mellman, a Democratic pollster, said Mr. Obama could escape most blame for now. “People are exceedingly unhappy about high gas prices,” he said, “but they’re seeing on their TV screens every night why those gas prices are going up, and in their newspapers every day.” Still, given the power of pocketbook issues to hurt incumbents at election time, Mr. Mellman said Mr. Obama and Democratic officeholders are smart to address the issue. He predicted that other Democrats would increasingly “go after the oil companies” when they are reporting record profits, but he added, “The president does a bit less of that.” Indeed, Mr. Obama devoted a chunk of his speech to boasting of newly approved drilling permits and countering charges from Republicans and oil industry executives that his administration had choked off domestic oil and gas production with costly new regulations and blocked exploration on millions of acres of potentially oil-rich tracts onshore and off. Mr. Obama emphatically took ownership of some new safeguards for deepwater drilling intended to prevent repeating last year’s oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. But he said that the administration had begun to reissue drilling permits where companies showed that they could safely resume operations. “So any claim that my administration is responsible for gas prices because we’ve shut down oil production — any claim like that is simply untrue,” Mr. Obama said. The administration is not prepared to open additional public lands and waters to drilling, officials said, but will propose incentives and penalties to prod the industry to develop resources where they already have access. The Interior Department on Tuesday reported that more than two-thirds of leases in the Gulf of Mexico and more than half of leases on federal lands were unused. Industry officials dismissed the report as a smokescreen for what they view as the administration’s stingy approach to drilling permits. Alluding to the crisis in Japan, Mr. Obama said nuclear power must remain an important source of electricity in the United States because it does not add climate-altering carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. But, he said, “I’m determined to ensure that it’s safe.” Most of Mr. Obama’s speech focused on his long-term strategy to save fuel by relying more on alternative and renewable energy sources. The one-third reduction in oil imports he has set as a target, which would be roughly three million to four million barrels a day at current levels of imports, corresponds roughly to the total the United States now gets from the Middle East and North Africa. The president called for producing more electric cars , converting trucks to run on natural gas, building new refineries to brew billions of gallons of biofuels and increasing fuel-efficiency standards for vehicles. Congress has been debating these measures for years. “The only way for America’s energy supply to be truly secure is by permanently reducing our dependence on oil,” he said.

Obama Barack
Oil (Petroleum) and Gasoline
Alternative and Renewable Energy
United States Politics and Government


Trump Picks Mick Mulvaney, South Carolina Congressman, as Budget Director

Abstract: WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald J. Trump has selected Representative Mick Mulvaney of South Carolina, a conservative Republican member of the House and a fierce advocate of deep spending cuts, to be his budget director. “He’s a tremendous talent, especially when it comes to numbers and budgets,” Mr. Trump said in a statement. Mr. Mulvaney, 49, helped found the House Freedom Caucus, the group of conservative lawmakers who pushed for Speaker John A. Boehner to resign. As budget director, Mr. Mulvaney would help guide the president-elect’s promise of a repeal of the Affordable Care Act, a tax overhaul and a huge investment in the nation’s infrastructure. An early backer of Mr. Trump’s during the campaign, Mr. Mulvaney has taken a hard line on spending during President Obama’s term, vowing not to raise the nation’s debt limit and embracing the term “Shutdown Caucus” because of his willingness to shut the government down instead. Donald Trump’s Cabinet Is Complete. Here’s the Full List. A list of appointees and nominees for top posts in the new administration. Mr. Mulvaney was elected in the Tea Party wave of 2010, when he defeated John Spratt, a veteran Democratic congressman who had been chairman of the House Budget Committee. He won by branding his opponent a big-spending liberal, unconcerned about fiscal prudence. Once on Capitol Hill, Mr. Mulvaney joined a conservative bloc that pressed for slashing federal spending more deeply than House Republican leaders preferred, and became a prominent face of the anti-Washington movement on Capitol Hill. He was one of several dozen House Republicans who refused to back the deal to raise the statutory debt limit. Mr. Mulvaney has repeatedly opposed some of his own party’s budget proposals, and quickly established himself as one of the most outspoken members of that 2010 class of Republicans. By 2013, at the outset of his second term, he declined to support Mr. Boehner’s re-election as speaker, abstaining from the vote in protest. Strongly anti-establishment, Mr. Mulvaney, who has a degree in international economics from Georgetown and a law degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, chafed as much at the Republican leadership in the House as he did at Mr. Obama’s direction from the White House. If confirmed by the Senate to run the Office of Management and Budget, Mr. Mulvaney will be responsible for helping to shepherd the president’s spending requests through a Republican-controlled Congress.

Mick Mulvaney
Donald Trump
US Politics
Appointments and Executive Changes
Federal Budget
OMB
South Carolina


Nadal Wins Fifth French Open in Dominant Fashion

Abstract: PARIS — Rafael Nadal cried. The emotion had been bottled for a year, since his only career loss at the French Open after four consecutive championships. That lone blemish at Roland Garros was avenged with a straight-sets victory over Robin Soderling on Sunday. Nadal, a 24-year-old Spaniard, won his fifth French Open title of the past six years, not dropping a set in seven matches along the way. He saved his best performance for the only man to beat him on Grand Slam clay. The No. 2-seeded Nadal fought off the memory of last year and the strong-armed tactics of the fifth-seeded Soderling with a 6-4, 6-2, 6-4 victory. After the usual winner’s collapse to the dusty red soil of Court Philippe Chatrier and the perfunctory handshakes with Soderling and the chair umpire, Nadal moved to his court-side chair, scrunched a towel to his face and sobbed. “I was very happy when I was crying after the match,” Nadal said as he sat next to the Coupe des Mousquetaires, where his name will be etched on the base for a fifth time. Only Bjorn Borg, with six, has won more. Nadal will supplant Roger Federer as the No. 1 player in the world rankings on Monday. Federer, who has been No. 1 for 285 weeks during his career, is a week short of the career mark of 286, set by Pete Sampras. The victory was Nadal’s seventh Grand Slam title, which includes Wimbledon in 2008 and the Australian Open in 2009. He is 7-2 in major finals. This one came with the most compelling back story. A year ago, Soderling was a mere 23rd seed who pulled one of the great tennis upsets, beating Nadal in four sets in the fourth round. It ended Nadal’s 31-match winning streak in the French Open. In a broader sense, it discombobulated men’s tennis. Federer beat Soderling in the final to secure his career Grand Slam. Soderling ripped away his label as a talented underachiever and surged up the rankings, arriving back at Roland Garros as a fifth seed. And Nadal, weakened by sore knees and burdened by family struggles, stepped away before he could defend his title at Wimbledon. He lost the No. 1 ranking he held for most of a year. The sequel between Nadal and Soderling seemed to put tennis back in order. “After this tournament last year was a difficult year, and I worked a lot to be here,” Nadal said Sunday. “I was very nervous during all the tournament, because I know before that I was ready to try to win another time. And I saw the chances there.” On a breezy and humid day, with thunderstorms circling, the conditions may have favored Soderling, 25, whose strength allows him to power balls past opponents even when the clay courts are moist and slow. Soderling wanted to overwhelm Nadal with his serve, unleashed above his rangy 6-foot-4 frame. That, along with a flat bludgeon of a forehand, is how Soderling beat other opponents during the tournament, including Federer in the quarterfinals and Tomas Berdych in the semifinals. With the subtlety of a hammer, Soderling managed to do it in bursts against Nadal, getting some wobbly returns and putting away winners. That was the strategy: serve, return, smash. Repeat. Soderling’s first serves reached 143 miles per hour. His second ones were faster than some of Nadal’s first. But playing Nadal can be like playing a wall. Soderling managed just seven aces — the same number Nadal had. Nadal won the first set after breaking Soderling in the fifth game. He ended Soderling’s foray toward the net with a crosscourt backhand that left Soderling shaking his head. Soderling’s first serve soon went wayward, finding its target just 40 percent of the time in the second set and 56 percent for the match. And with the court slowly drying under occasional bursts of bright sun, Soderling found himself in uncomfortably long rallies, the type that Nadal has built a career of controlling. Of all of Nadal’s strengths, his biggest might be his ability to outlast opponents. Nadal seized control early in the second set after fighting back four break points in the second game. The most impressive came when Nadal sprinted forward to reach a soft shot near the net. The crowd gasped, thinking the point would end, but Nadal stretched to flick the ball back across. It sent Soderling backward in pursuit, and his impressive return shot was volleyed with a forehand back by Nadal. Soderling, his confidence flagging, finished 0 for 8 on break-point chances against Nadal’s serve. “The players, we have the statistics, and I am the No. 1 on break points saved for the year,” Nadal said with a smile. “So, ‘specialist.’ ” Soderling opened the third by being broken again. Nadal, unbreakable, cruised to the victory in a match far different from the stunner on the same court last year. “Every match is different, and the margins are really small,” Soderling said. “Maybe he played a little bit better. I didn’t play as good as I did last year. I didn’t serve so well. I wasn’t hitting the ball as clean. You know, I had some chances in the beginning, but I didn’t take them.” No player hits with as much spin as Nadal, and his fast-moving forehands take a fast, high bounce that often drives opponents backward. Soderling, with his height, handles those better than most. Unlike Soderling’s previous opponents, Nadal showed the strength and patience to rally with Soderling, and the athleticism to chase balls that Soderling sent sharply into the corners. Eventually, Soderling crumbled under 45 unforced errors. Nadal had 16. Nadal’s game, as strong as it is, is still evolving. This year, he has taken a more aggressive approach, trying to shorten points and save his joints. His uncle and coach, Toni Nadal, said that they continued to tinker with Nadal’s inconsistent serve, too. Nadal is right-handed but wields a racket with his left, which makes his motion a bit unnatural. They have watched YouTube videos of Andy Murray for tutorials, Toni Nadal said. And they have watched video of Federer to examine his footwork. Yet Nadal looks as good as ever. He was 22-0 on clay this spring, and he is now 38-1 at the French Open. “Apparently my game is perfectly suited to this surface,” Nadal said. “I love it with all my heart, because it gave me so much joy. Winning here in Paris is ever so special.” The tears that Nadal shed into his towel showed how special this one was. “This time I’m back,” Nadal said. “I’m back and I win. Maybe this is the tournament I most wanted to win.”

Nadal Rafael
Soderling Robin
French Open (Tennis)


North Carolina: Marine Admits He Desecrated Corpses

Abstract: A Marine pleaded guilty in a court-martial on Wednesday to urinating on the bodies of dead Taliban fighters and posing for “trophy” photos with their corpses in one of a string of embarrassing episodes for American forces in Afghanistan. The Marine, Staff Sgt. Edward W. Deptola, pleaded guilty to the desecration of remains and posing for unofficial photographs with human casualties. He also admitted failing to properly supervise junior Marines. He and another Marine based at Camp Lejeune were charged last year after a video surfaced showing four Marines urinating on three dead Afghans in July 2011. While he could face a maximum punishment of a year in prison, forfeiture of pay, demotion to private and a bad-conduct discharge, the other Marines involved have negotiated lower sentences.

US Marines
Taliban
Vandalism
Afghanistan War
US Military
Edward W Deptola


Job Ads Rise in U.S., Sign of Stronger Hiring

Abstract: Employers advertised more jobs in May than in any month in the past seven years, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said on Tuesday. Employers posted 4.63 million jobs, a 3.8 percent increase from April’s total of 4.46 million. That was the fourth straight strong gain and the highest number since June 2007. The figures follow last week’s healthy jobs report for June. Employers have been slow to fill open jobs, however, which suggests companies are having trouble finding workers with the right skills. Total hiring actually slipped in May, to 4.72 million from 4.77 million in April.

Jobs
advertising,marketing
Job Recruiting and Hiring
US Economy
BLS


How 3 Funds Shielded Investors in a Down Market

Abstract: STOCKS sank in nearly every corner of the market in the third quarter. The major American and European indexes? Down. Emerging markets like Brazil, Russia, India and China? Also down. But managers of several of the quarter’s better-performing funds found ways to protect their shareholders from the full pain of the slump, even when they didn’t eke out gains. These managers sought out typical havens, like discount retailers and gold stocks, and less common ones, like short sales . Stretching the Dollar Tough economic times led Charles T. Akre Jr., manager of the Akre Focus fund, to discounters like Dollar Tree, Ross Stores and the TJX Companies, owner of T. J. Maxx and Marshalls. “Businesses that help consumers stretch the dollar are a great place to be right now,” he said. These three companies, which throw off lots of cash, should keep thriving even when the economy gains momentum, he said. Shares in the retailers recently accounted for about a quarter of the fund’s assets. Mr. Akre has led this fund for two years. Until starting Akre Focus, he oversaw FBR Focus, where he had a reputation for betting big on favorite ideas. His approach hasn’t changed. Akre Focus owned shares in 22 companies at the end of June, compared with 164 for the average domestic stock fund tracked by Morningstar. Mr. Akre will hold companies’ shares for years. His current turnover ratio, 25 percent, equates to an average holding period of four years and compares with a ratio of 85 percent for the average domestic stock fund followed by Morningstar. Two holdings — Markel, a Virginia insurer, and Penn National Gaming, a casino owner — were also longtime investments of FBR Focus. “I’ve owned Penn Gaming for more than 10 years,” he said. Akre Focus holds less of the stock than had been typical for him because he’s worried about the economy’s impact on gambling. “The consumer is constrained by employment and credit worries, and visits to casinos are down,” he said. In the third quarter, Akre Focus’s institutional shares, with an expense ratio of 1.24 percent, lost 6.7 percent, while the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index fell 14.3 percent, including dividends. The Long and Short of It Unlike Mr. Akre, Michael B. Orkin, manager of the Caldwell & Orkin Market Opportunity fund, sells stocks short in addition to buying shares and socking them away in hopes of seeing appreciation. Mr. Orkin says he tries to provide greater risk protection than the average stock mutual fund , guarding his shareholders against what he calls “stomach churn” — the anxiety that comes from bear markets and collapsing stock prices. “We manage for risk, not just return,” he said. “So there are times when the markets will run up profusely, and we’ll be negative. That’s part of the cost of how we do things.” Short-selling is a way to make money from declining share prices. A short-seller like Mr. Orkin borrows a stock and then sells it. Later, when he must return the borrowed shares to the lender, he has to buy them. If the price has fallen, he profits. But if it has risen, he loses. Lately, Mr. Orkin’s fund has shorted European banks, which have been hurt by the European Union’s debt crisis . With government-funded student loans under pressure, he’s also shorted for-profit education companies like the Apollo Group, which owns the University of Phoenix. “Because the markets have been down, our winners have been mostly related to the short side,” he said. Mr. Orkin makes long bets, too. Apple was a recent one. He said he was troubled by the death on Wednesday of Steve Jobs, Apple’s visionary leader. “But when you have a company of this quality, with its product flow and invention stream, that’s pretty incredible,” he said. Despite a sputtering economy, Apple’s sales and earnings have continued to grow, Mr. Orkin said. In the third quarter, the fund returned 3.1 percent. Its expense ratio is 1.19 percent. A Shield of Gold Gold is a popular haven; investors often flee to it and other precious metals in troublesome times. Thus gold prices have soared over the last several years, as the world has endured one crisis after another. Dan Denbow, co-manager of the USAA Precious Metals and Minerals fund, says he doesn’t spend much time fretting about the price of gold bullion and bars. He and his co-manager, Mark W. Johnson, welcome its climbs, as those help the companies the fund. But the two managers are trying to find good stocks, not foretell gyrations in metal prices, Mr. Denbow said. “We’re in the mining-finance business, not the gold-price prediction business,” he said. “We only invest in the miners themselves. We don’t invest in the commodity.” Mr. Denbow’s fund also buys stock in silver and platinum miners, but the bulk of its companies concentrate on unearthing gold. He and Mr. Johnston diversify their holdings by geography as well as by company size and maturity. They’ll own industry stalwarts, like Barrick Gold and Newmont Mining, as well as smaller, more speculative names. In the third quarter, two of their better performers were lesser-known companies digging in the developing world: Yamana Gold owns mines in Central and South America, while Eldorado Gold operates in China and Turkey. “Yamana really struggled a couple of years ago in terms of operating results,” Mr. Denbow said. “But they refocused and sold off some tougher assets, and now they’re delivering on their numbers.” Not every developing market pays off, of course. Mining is a risky business, and pursuing it in developing locales can redouble the perils. Another USAA holding, Centamin Egypt, fell in the third quarter as a result of the turbulence in parts of the Arab world. “People are concerned about the change in Egypt’s government,” Mr. Denbow said. “It became difficult for the company to even get blasting materials. When a country is going through upheaval, you don’t want trucks full of blasting equipment driving around.” The fund, with an expense ratio of 1.15 percent, lost 2.4 percent in the third quarter.

Mutual Funds
Discount Selling
Short Selling
Gold


Justices Dismiss $14 Million Jury Award to Freed Death Row Inmate

Abstract: WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Tuesday threw out a $14 million jury award in favor of a former death row inmate who was freed after prosecutorial misconduct came to light. The 5-to-4 decision divided along the court’s ideological fault line and prompted the first dissent read from the bench this term, from Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The former inmate, John Thompson, had sued Harry F. Connick, a former district attorney in New Orleans, saying his office had not trained prosecutors to turn over exculpatory evidence. Prosecutors in the office had failed to give Mr. Thompson’s lawyers a report showing that blood at a crime scene was not his. Justice Clarence Thomas, writing for the majority, said that only a pattern of misconduct would warrant holding Mr. Connick accountable for what happened on his watch. Mr. Thompson spent 18 years in prison, 14 of them on death row. “I was delivered an execution warrant in my cell seven times,” he said in a statement on Tuesday. “I was only weeks from being executed when my lawyers got the killing stopped.” The blood evidence would have proved Mr. Thompson innocent of a 1984 armed robbery. Soon after he was convicted on that charge, prosecutors tried him for an unrelated murder. After the failure to turn over the blood evidence came to light in 1999, prosecutors dismissed the armed robbery charges. A state appeals court later reversed the murder conviction, reasoning that Mr. Thompson’s armed robbery conviction had dissuaded him from testifying in his own defense in the murder case. In 2003, Mr. Thompson was retried for the murder and found not guilty. “The role of a prosecutor,” Justice Thomas wrote, “is to see that justice is done.” “By their own admission,” he continued, “the prosecutors who tried Thompson’s armed robbery case failed to carry out this responsibility. But the only issue before us is whether Connick, as the policy maker for the district attorney’s office, was deliberately indifferent to the need to train the attorneys under his authority.” The answer to that question was no, Justice Thomas wrote, given what he said was an absence of proof concerning a pattern of misconduct. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justices Antonin Scalia, Anthony M. Kennedy and Samuel A. Alito Jr. joined Justice Thomas’s opinion. Justice Scalia, in a concurrence joined by Justice Alito, said the misconduct in the case was the work of a single “miscreant prosecutor,” Gerry Deegan, who suppressed evidence “he believed to be exculpatory, in an effort to railroad Thompson.” No amount of training, Justice Scalia wrote, would have countered such willful wrongdoing. In her dissent, Justice Ginsburg wrote that “no fewer than five prosecutors” were complicit in a violation of Mr. Thompson’s constitutional rights. “They kept from him, year upon year, evidence vital to his defense.” The prosecutors’ conduct, Justice Ginsburg wrote, “was a foreseeable consequence of lax training.” Justices Stephen G. Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan joined the dissent. At a news conference on Tuesday, Leon A. Cannizzaro Jr., the current district attorney in New Orleans, expressed relief over not having to pay a judgment that with interest was approaching $20 million, more than his office’s annual budget. He said his office “should not be held financially responsible for the intentional, unethical and illegal acts of a rogue prosecutor.” Mr. Thompson expressed frustration about the Supreme Court’s ruling in his case, Connick v. Thompson, No. 09-571. “If I’d spilled hot coffee on myself, I could have sued the person who served me the coffee,” he said. “But I can’t sue the prosecutors who nearly murdered me.”

Decisions and Verdicts
Supreme Court
Connick Harry F
Thompson John
Suits and Litigation


Anti-Abortion Protester Slain; Suspect Is in Custody

Abstract: A man who had long opposed abortion and was known nationally among anti-abortion protesters was shot to death Friday morning while staging a protest outside a Michigan high school, the authorities said. Leaders of anti-abortion groups said they knew of no other instance in which a person protesting against abortion had been killed. In May, Dr. George R. Tiller, an abortion provider in Kansas, was shot to death in a crime that renewed debate over the use of violence in the abortion battle. The protester, identified as James Pouillon, 63, was one of two people, the authorities said, who were shot dead Friday by the same man in Owosso, a city of fewer than 15,000 people about 10 miles west of Flint, Mich. The other victim, a local businessman, was not connected to the anti-abortion movement, the authorities said. A suspect was arrested and charged in both killings. Troy Newman, the president of the national anti-abortion group Operation Rescue, which had condemned Dr. Tiller’s death, said he was saddened by the death Mr. Pouillon, whom he had known for more than 15 years. “There is very little, if any, common ground between pro-abortion and pro-life people,” Mr. Newman said. “One thing we had in common after Dr. Tiller’s death, there was a unilateral cry against violence. A spokeswoman for the Center for Reproductive Rights, Laura MacCleery, said her group, which supports a woman’s right to abortion, was stunned by the “senseless killings.” But Ms. MacCleery said Friday’s shooting did not seem to her to be tied to the abortion debate since the suspect was also charged in the killing of the second man, Mike Fuoss, 61, the owner of a local gravel company, who did not appear to be involved in the abortion issue. “This is not something any group on either side of this debate would ever contemplate condoning,” Ms. MacCleery said. Prosecutors said that the suspect had singled out Mr. Pouillon because of the visible style of his regular protests at the school, but that they were uncertain whether the broader political message of the protests was at issue. “There was some displeasure with how open he was,” said Sara Edwards, the chief assistant prosecutor for Shiawassee County. “He tended to carry big signs with very graphic pictures of fetuses.” According to the police, Mr. Pouillon was protesting just outside the high school at 7 a.m. as students gathered for the day, when several shots were fired at him from a passing car. A witness provided the car’s license plate number, and the police arrested the suspect, Harlan James Drake, 33, at his home in Owosso a short time later. The police said Mr. Drake told them that he had also been involved in another shooting, at Fuoss Gravel in nearby Owosso Township. Mr. Fuoss was found dead in his office about 8 a.m. Prosecutors said Mr. Fuoss was not involved in abortion protests and had no link to Mr. Pouillon. Mr. Drake, they said, was angry at him for another reason. They did not elaborate. Mr. Drake was charged with two counts of first-degree murder and with weapons charges and held without bond. Prosecutors said he had also planned to shoot a third person, whom he apparently failed to find before he was arrested. Monica Migliorino Miller, a Michigan anti-abortion leader who knew Mr. Pouillon, said he wore leg braces and used an oxygen tank and had protested for years outside of various Planned Parenthood offices and abortion clinics in Flint. “He was just a quiet, unassuming, very committed pro-life activist,” Ms. Miller said. Mr. Pouillon had planned to attend a national protest against abortion at the United States Capitol this weekend, Mr. Newman said. Now organizers are planning a vigil in his memory.


A Town Fights to Save an Oasis of Baguettes

Abstract: COLEBROOK, N.H. A French couple came to town several years ago in search of something. Here, amid the swelling mountains and struggling businesses, the Red Sox hagiography and Yankee taciturnity, they were looking for just the right place to sell madeleines. And croissants. And tarts. And long, thin loaves of French bread that all but dare you to tear at their heel before you’re out the door. The couple converted a run-down building near an abandoned gas station into Le Rendez-Vous , a cozy bakery whose blend of bread, coffee and conversation soon charmed this rural community. After a while it seemed that the owner, Verlaine Daeron, and her partner and baker, Marc Ounis, had always been here, and always would be. That is, until several weeks ago, when a telephone’s ring interrupted Mr. Ounis’s daily ritual of baking before daylight. It was Ms. Daeron, in tears, calling from Paris to say her application to renew her E-2 investor visa — for foreign investors and business owners — had been denied because her bakery had been determined to be “marginal.” As in the State Department stipulation that an investment by a foreign national seeking an E-2 visa “may not be marginal.” In addition: “It must have the capacity to generate significantly more income than just to provide a living to the investor and family, or it must have a significant economic impact in the United States .” Mr. Ounis, by now an American citizen, saw no choice. He sadly announced plans to close the bakery and leave for France once the last of a month’s worth of flour was gone, prompting outraged customers to begin the often-maddening task of parsing the language of government. In the context of a remote county of 33,000 in northern New Hampshire , where timber and paper are down and the next big thing has yet to reveal itself, what does “marginal” mean? What does “significant economic impact” mean? The State Department presumably based its decision on the modest financial statements Ms. Daeron submitted with her visa application. But two spokesmen for the department declined to comment, saying they could not discuss individual cases. Clearly, though, whoever denied Ms. Daeron’s visa did not understand what madeleines meant to that part of the United States called Colebrook. This low-flame matter of international intrigue began in 2000, when the French couple came upon Colebrook while searching New England for a place to open a bakery. The Chamber of Commerce referred them to a French-speaking man named Benoit Lamontagne, who also happened to be the owner of the local Radio Shack, a town official and the champion for economic development in an area that needs it. He immediately saw opportunity. Before day’s end, Mr. Lamontagne had found the visitors an apartment, some furniture and even a television, courtesy of his Radio Shack. They were also given a heads-up about the town’s plans to auction off the old bank building, a historic but dilapidated structure recently seized for back taxes . Ms. Daeron won the bid with an offer of about $50,000, covered the windows with paper and began a yearlong renovation. Some people wondered what these outsiders were up to; for one thing, they were upsetting the drab Main Street color scheme of white, gray and white-gray by painting their building’s exterior a joyous golden yellow with a trim of — maroon? “It is burgundy,” Mr. Ounis says. “ Burgundy .” When Le Rendez-Vous finally opened in late 2001, Colebrook swooned. The elegant restoration, the classical music , the enticing smells and, especially, the baked goods — it was all so civilized, so right, in part because the couple wisely left out one ingredient: that sprinkling of judgment often added by people new to the region. “Old Yankees don’t like to be told what to do and how to do it,” Mr. Lamontagne says. “Boy, that’s the kiss of death.” Instead, he says, the couple accepted Colebrook for what it was: a community of loggers and farmers and artisans and people working two and three jobs to get by. And Colebrook accepted them for who they said they were: transplants who had given up medical careers in Paris to make bread someplace where the air was fresh. Mr. Ounis, 62, would rise at 2 in the morning to bake bread in silent solitude, no radio, no television. He would not have his coffee until Ms. Daeron, 51, descended from their apartment upstairs around 7:30. They would savor this time. Then he would return to the ovens, and she would open the door. The bakery became an arts center, a community hangout, an economic engine, a source of pride featured in guidebooks. Once known as the “potato capital” of New Hampshire, the town could now add to its boasting this old-world oasis — “Not something you’d expect in Colebrook,” says George Bald, a customer and the state’s commissioner of resources and economic development. So when the State Department denied Ms. Daeron’s visa, it became personal, for a couple, a town, a region. While Mr. Ounis baked bread and shyly worked the counter — usually the domain of the more outgoing Ms. Daeron — Colebrook made some noise. Thousands of people signed petitions, while hundreds more, including Mr. Bald, sent letters to every official they could think of, from Washington to Paris. The letters, typewritten and handwritten, all but demanded reconsideration. Many complained that a lot of businesses in the north country might be considered “marginal” by State Department standards; that a paper mill in Groveton closed not too long ago; that a small restaurant beside Le Rendez-Vous shut down this past winter. That everything is relative. “Colebrook and this region of New Hampshire don’t fit neatly into the bureaucratic formulas created by officials apparently removed from real life circumstances,” Jayne Lytle, of North Stratford, wrote to Senator Jeanne Shaheen . Le Rendez-Vous, Ms. Lytle wrote, is a tourist draw, a good neighbor — “an integral part of the economy.” Perhaps Jack and Sandra Riendeau put it best in their letter to Ms. Shaheen. Of Ms. Daeron and Mr. Ounis, they wrote, “We want them here where they belong.” Days passed, then weeks. Elected officials made their calls while Mr. Ounis made his bread, the supply of flour dwindling like hourglass sand. Ms. Daeron telephoned from her mother’s home in Paris three, four, five times a day, asking about developments. Then she called to say she had been instructed to appear for an interview at 9:15 on the morning of May 19 at the following address: Ambassade des États-Unis d’Amérique, Service des Visas d’investisseurs; 4, avenue Gabriel, Paris. Her case, it seemed, was being reconsidered. At 6 that morning, New Hampshire time, Ms. Daeron called Mr. Ounis at the bakery, excited: Her visa had been renewed. In notifying her, she said, the embassy official explained how struck he was by the sense of community reflected in all those letters; how much it reminded him of his hometown back in Wisconsin . That day Mr. Ounis told everyone who walked through the door. And Ms. Daeron made another telephone call from Paris, this time to order more flour.

Visas
US Economy
Bakeries
New Hampshire
State Department
France


Cold Medicines to Warn Against Use by Young Children

Abstract: WASHINGTON — Manufacturers of pediatric cough and cold medicines announced Tuesday that they would voluntarily change their products’ labels to say that they should not be used in children under age 4. In addition, products with certain antihistamines will get new language warning parents not to use them to sedate or make a child sleepy. While many parents believe that getting a sick child to sleep is the best medicine, the use of sedatives is widely discouraged by medical experts, who say they can worsen breathing problems caused by illness. “We’re trying to prevent as many medication errors as we can, and we think this is the right direction,” said Linda A. Suydam, president of the Consumer Healthcare Products Association, a trade organization that represents the makers of over-the-counter medicines. Officials at the Food and Drug Administration said they supported the changes, but promised to continue a long process to reassess the safety and effectiveness of the products in children of all ages. The government is hoping the new labels strike a balance between two competing concerns: that the drugs may not be safe in young children, but that some parents may give their children adult medicines if the agency bans pediatric products. Warning against the drugs’ use in children under 4 “seemed like a logical place where it took into account the need to have dosing instructions in children but also a clear message for parents of very young children” not to use the products, said Dr. Janet Woodcock, director of the F.D.A.’s drug center. Safety experts at the agency recommended a year ago that it consider banning use of over-the-counter cough and cold medicines in children under 6, and an advisory panel concurred. Manufacturers agreed at first only to warn against the products’ use in children under 2 and vowed to fight further restrictions. Last week the F.D.A.’s science panel took testimony on the issue, with some experts urging greater restrictions. Tuesday’s action by the drug makers, their second set of concessions over the question in the last two cold seasons, arose from continuing discussions with the agency. About 39 percent of households use pediatric cough and cold products — about 95 million packages a year. Eight hundred of these products are sold in the United States, and each contains one or more of 39 drugs. Despite the products’ extraordinary popularity, every study performed in recent years shows that they have no therapeutic effect beyond sedation, and a growing number of reports have concluded that they can be dangerous. The risks are as varied as hives , neurological problems and, in rare cases, even death. Many injuries from pediatric cough and cold medicines occur when young children get their hands on medicine bottles without their parents’ knowledge. But accidental overdoses have also resulted when parents confuse dosing instructions or give their children two products without realizing that those drugs share ingredients. Ms. Suydam said that most of the pediatric injuries occurred among children under 4 and that banning the drugs’ use in that age range should therefore solve a vast majority of problems. Dr. Dianne Murphy, director of the drug agency’s Office of Pediatric Therapeutics, said the agency hoped to get far better data on the medicines’ safety. “In the meantime,” she said, “we are basing our decision on where we think the highest risk is.” Diana Zuckerman, president of the National Research Center for Women and Families, said the products should not be used in children under 6. “No risk is acceptable for products with no benefits,” Dr. Zuckerman said. “Families are being ripped off, and children are being harmed.”

Colds
Coughs
Antihistamines
Medicine and Health
Children and Youth
Food and Drug Administration
Labeling and Labels


In Rape’s Aftermath, India Debates Violence Against Women

Abstract: NEW DELHI — Harassed for years by her husband and his relatives, an Indian woman was finally kidnapped, raped, strangled and tossed into a ditch. For more than a year, the woman’s father has tried without success to get the police to arrest those accused of killing her, including her husband, who were charged but remain at large. The father, Subedar Akhileshar Kumar Singh, an army officer, says he believes his daughter was killed because her in-laws were not satisfied with her dowry, according to an article on Thursday in The Indian Express. Such crimes are routine in this country, where researchers estimate that anywhere from 25,000 to 100,000 women a year are killed over dowry disputes. Many are burned alive in a particularly grisly form of retribution. While a horrific gang rape in New Delhi has transfixed India and drawn attention to a violent epidemic, rape is just one facet of a broad range of violence and discrimination that leads to the deaths of almost two million women a year, researchers say. Among the causes are not only sexual violence but also domestic violence, family disputes and female infanticide, as well as infant neglect and poor care of the elderly that affect girls and women far more than boys and men. Women have made enormous strides in India in recent decades. Their schooling now matches that of men, and they have moved forcefully into many industries, although their participation in the work force is still far less than that of men. And women have become leaders in Indian politics. Image Protesters demanding increased security for women in India stormed a police barricade in New Delhi after the rape of a student. Credit Sajjad Hussain/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images But women in New Delhi and throughout India say that their gender makes them vulnerable to attack from a vast and growing sea of unattached and unemployed young men who view women’s success as the reason for their failure. “Women are breaking through and advancing toward greater attainment — but in a society that continues to be patriarchal, that is increasing tensions,” said Dr. K. Srinath Reddy, president of the Public Health Foundation of India . “And one of the manifestations of that tension is increased violence against women.” In a column in The Hindustan Times, Sagarika Ghose, an author and commentator, wrote, “A profound fear and a deep, almost pathological, hatred of the woman who aspires to be anything more than mother and wife is justified on the grounds of tradition.” That tradition has for centuries been especially deadly for women who fail to live up to its ideals or reject them altogether. Using techniques pioneered by Amartya Sen , an economist who won the Nobel Prize in 1998, researchers estimate that there are as many as 100 million “missing women,” as Mr. Sen called them, in India. These are women who would be alive if they died at the same rates relative to men as woman die relative to men in more developed countries, and their ranks grow by nearly two million each year, studies by an American and Canadian research team concluded. Some of these lives are ended before they begin: Indian women are far more likely to abort female fetuses than male ones. Still, such birth selection accounts for, at most, 12 percent of the figure, the researchers found. The official explanation for many of the deaths of “missing women” is that they died from accidents or injuries, but there is little reason to believe that Indians are especially clumsy or accident-prone, the researchers said. Instead, they believe that in many cases the official explanations mask deadly crimes. Image A woman whose face was disfigured by acid in an attack joined a protest in New Delhi last month after a student was gang-raped and fatally beaten Credit Saurabh Das/Associated Press “Our guess is that a lot of these deaths are due to the dowry phenomenon, but it just doesn’t get reported that way,” said Siwan Anderson, an associate professor of economics at the University of British Columbia and an author of the studies. As many as 100,000 women are burned to death each year and another 125,000 die from violent injuries that are rarely reported as killings, according to government figures and other data analyzed by the research team. Beyond violence, Indian girls may suffer from subtle neglect that can have profound consequences. Research has found, for instance, that Indian mothers tend to breast-feed boys longer than they do girls, Ms. Anderson said. And once their sons start eating solid food, they may get more of it than their daughters. Families may also invest more in the protection of boys’ health, buying them mosquito netting to ward off malaria and dengue . These differences in nutrition and care may account for the substantially greater share of girls under the age of 4 who die of infectious and respiratory diseases in India than elsewhere, the researchers found. Deaths in childbirth, long considered a plague here, account for the fatalities of about 130,000 Indian women a year. An even greater number results from an increased relative risk of heart attacks, which may demonstrate that the poorer quality of care provided to women continues throughout their lives. As girls age, the strict controls that many families have over their daughters cannot protect them from rape and sexual assault, since most of those crimes are committed by people known to the women, studies say. But even so, such controls have some benefits, public health experts say. Indian women have, on average, no more than two sexual partners in their entire lives, and most are virgins when they marry, surveys show. This absence of promiscuity is probably an important reason that AIDS never became an epidemic in India. Video A special report on women’s rights and sexual assault in India after the death of a young woman who was raped in New Delhi by several men in a moving bus. “Tradition in this case is not a bad thing,” said K. Sujatha Rao , a former health secretary of India and a crucial figure in the fight against AIDS. “You take marriage here as a much more sacrosanct thing.” Trying to determine how to protect women in India while preserving the country’s traditions has led to a very public debate in recent weeks. Asaram Bapu , a popular Hindu guru, said that the New Delhi rape victim could have saved herself if she had simply “held the hand of one of the men and said, ‘I consider you as my brother.’ ” Some conservative politicians and commentators blamed skirts, revealing clothing, a lack of overcoats on girls, junk food, astrology and the decisions by some wives to work outside the home. For many Indian women, having more police officers on the streets is no answer, since many view them as every bit as dangerous to their safety as criminals. On Thursday, the police in South Delhi put up posters advising young women to go straight home after their classes in school or college. Tradition in India also results in considerable acceptance of violence. A 2005 government survey found that 54 percent of women in India said that husbands were justified in beating their wives, with the most common justification being if they failed to show proper respect for their in-laws. Still, Indian husbands beat their wives far less than men in many other developing countries, according to comparable surveys done in multiple countries. Domestic violence levels are far higher in Colombia, Egypt, Peru and Zambia than in India, the surveys found. But discrimination against women is so endemic and wide-ranging in India that deaths from domestic violence account for only a fraction of the overall risk of unnecessary death. “Other aspects come into play, like female infanticide, mistreatment of young girls in terms of access to resources, maternal deaths, unequal access to health care and so forth,” said Ms. Anderson, the economics professor. “Indian women face more dangers.”

India
Women and Girls
Discrimination
Rape
Child Abuse
Domestic violence


Bodies Still Being Found Weeks After Philippine Storm

Abstract: TACLOBAN, the Philippines — A solemn procession walked down the main coastal road here Saturday morning through a light but steady rain, carrying a piece of plywood with a black object securely fastened on top with yellow packaging tape: a body bag holding the remains of Athena Mae Pelingon, age 3. The procession stopped at a chapel, where the girl’s body was blessed by a priest, then moved on to an already crowded public cemetery. Athena was lowered into a narrow grave at the edge, next to a concrete block wall. Her mother tossed an inexpensive local chocolate bar, a flower and a sachet of powdered milk into the grave as memories of a daughter gone almost before she knew her, and the funeral was over. Two weeks after Typhoon Haiyan flattened much of this city with a tsunamilike storm surge and winds approaching tornado strength, bodies like Athena’s are showing up regularly as work crews begin to dismantle and remove the head-high piles of debris that line every large road, clog alleys and fill shattered houses and empty lots. In just an hour of work by a team clearing an alley down the block from the chapel on Saturday, three more bodies were uncovered. Image The nation faces a huge cleanup and a public health crisis. Credit The New York Times The Philippine government said on Sunday morning that the death toll was 5,235, with 1,613 still missing and 23,501 injured. Mayor Alfred S. Romualdez of Tacloban said in an interview at City Hall on Saturday that according to the latest estimate, it would take three months to clear the city of debris. More trucks and heavy equipment are needed, partly because the nearest landfill available is a round trip of 16 miles along crowded roads. Work crews give priority to debris piles emitting the distinctive odor of rotting bodies. International organizations and nonprofit groups are trying to create jobs for destitute residents here by paying them to help with the cleanup. The United Nations Development Program is creating 40,000 15-day jobs for people to restore neighborhoods to their previous appearance, said Stanislav Saling, a spokesman for the group. Along with the death is new life. The Philippines has one of Asia’s highest birthrates, and the typhoon prompted an extra spate of deliveries, some of them premature, according to foreign doctors performing relief work here. William A. Ryan, a spokesman for the United Nations Population Fund, said that 900 women were giving birth each day in the extensive disaster zone stretching across the central Philippines, of whom 130 a day were at risk of complications. Cesarean sections are not yet available, he said, adding: “That’s a sizable need. We’re not there yet.”

Typhoon Haiyan
Tacloban Philippines
Jobs
Population
Fatalities,casualties
Philippines


Trade Issue Goes Untouched as Obama and Reid Meet

Abstract: WASHINGTON — President Obama met with Senator Harry Reid, Democrat of Nevada, at the White House on Monday but made no effort to change Mr. Reid’s mind on the trade initiative that has divided them, according to Democrats briefed on the session. Last week, the day after Mr. Obama vowed to fight for additional authority to negotiate trade deals with Europe and Asia, Mr. Reid, the majority leader, effectively slammed the door on the idea and publicly warned the president not to push it. The White House said Mr. Obama would keep pressing for his initiative because it would bolster the economy and create jobs. But when Mr. Obama and Mr. Reid sat down on Monday, trade did not come up, according to the Democrats. Instead, the discussion focused on the coming midterm elections, in which Republicans could capture control of the upper chamber if they pick up six seats. Also present were Senator Michael Bennet of Colorado, chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, and Guy Cecil, the committee’s executive director. Democrats, who said the meeting had been scheduled before Mr. Reid’s comments last week, are seeking political help from Mr. Obama. Despite the president’s sagging poll numbers, he remains an effective fund-raiser and can motivate the party base in some parts of the country. The dispute over trade, though, highlights the challenges facing Mr. Obama as he tries to advance his agenda in a campaign year. As he negotiates trade pacts with Europe and Asia, he wants Congress to give him authority to submit agreements for up-or-down votes, as previous presidents have been able to do, rather than allowing lawmakers to amend them. So-called fast-track authority is viewed as essential to passing any agreements, and it is one area where the president and Republicans agree. But the Democratic base, particularly labor unions and environmental activists, has long been skeptical of such trade agreements, and Mr. Reid opposes giving the authority to the president. “Everyone would be well advised just to not push this right now,” he said the day after Mr. Obama’s State of the Union address. Republicans have needled Mr. Obama about the schism. “He’s absolutely right,” Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, said of Mr. Obama on Monday. “But now the president’s own party is now standing in the way of getting anything done. So if ever there was a moment for the president to use his phone, this is it.” Mr. Obama’s aides said he would continue to seek the authority. “These trade agreements would significantly boost our exports,” Jay Carney, the White House press secretary, said shortly before the meeting with Mr. Reid. “And the president’s going to push hard for this because he believes it’s the right thing to do for our economy, the right thing to do for American workers.” But Mr. Obama did not make that case to Mr. Reid when he had the chance. White House officials are trying to avoid a public fight that they see as self-destructive. Asked before the meeting if the president would raise the issue, Mr. Carney suggested it did not have to come up on that particular day because Mr. Obama and Mr. Reid were in regular communication. “They talk all the time,” he said.

Barack Obama
Harry Reid
International trade
US Politics
Senate
Congress


Nabors Will Miss Indy 500

Abstract: Heart surgery will prevent Jim Nabors from performing “Back Home Again in Indiana” at this year’s Indianapolis 500, a speedway spokesman said. Nabors, 81, will have surgery this month. A video crew will record Nabors singing the song next week for playback.

Indianapolis 500 (Auto Race)
Nabors Jim
Automobile Racing


Sprint Nextel’s Third-Quarter Revenue Was Up

Abstract: The Sprint Nextel Corporation reported Wednesday that its quarterly revenue increased for the first time in three years, as improvements in Sprint-branded and prepaid service offset the continued flight of subscribers. But its net loss widened compared with a year ago, when a large tax benefit lifted results. The company, based in Overland Park, Kan., gained a net 644,000 subscribers in the quarter, compared with a loss of 545,000 in the period a year ago. It ended September with 48.8 million subscribers. Its quarterly loss was $911 million, or 30 cents a share. It lost $478 million, or 17 cents a share, in the year-earlier period. Revenue rose 1 percent, to $8.15 billion, from $8.04 billion a year ago. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters had expected a smaller loss of 28 cents a share on lower revenue of $8.04 billion. Sprint continued to lose subscribers on contract-based plans, which are the most lucrative, because of the decline of Nextel. Its phones with walkie-talkie functions have been popular with work crews and other professionals, but the Nextel network is poorly suited to smartphones, and the core Nextel base is eroding. Sprint compensated for the loss of contract-signing customers by adding people on prepaid plans, which cost less. In recent years, Sprint made a push to use excess capacity on the Nextel network for cheap unlimited-calling plans under its Boost Mobile brand. But even that effort is flagging and new prepaid subscribers are being put on the Sprint network instead. The company has started talking about converting some of the Nextel spectrum to Sprint use. The burden of operating two incompatible wireless networks has weighed heavily on Sprint since the 2005 acquisition of Nextel Communications, widely hailed as one of the most disastrous deals in the telecommunications industry. In the fourth quarter, Sprint said, it expects to continue to gain subscribers.

Company Reports
Sprint Nextel Corp
Cellular Telephones


After Fires at Golf Courses, Study Suggests Unusual Culprits: Titanium Clubs

Abstract: Golf courses are covered in hazards — ponds, bunkers, thick rough — but here is another: the golf clubs themselves. Scientists have determined that striking a rock while swinging a titanium club can create a shower of sparks that are hot enough, and last long enough, to start a brush fire. The finding, by researchers at the University of California, Irvine, clears up what fire officials in Southern California have seen as a mystery: the origin of two recent golf course fires, including one that burned 25 acres and injured a firefighter in 2010. Steve Concialdi, a captain with the Orange County Fire Authority, in Irvine, said that in both incidents, golfers using 3-irons with titanium-alloy heads had said they hit the ground and created sparks that started the fires. “That was hard for anybody to believe,” Concialdi said. “We were thinking they were started by cigars or cigarettes.” The authority approached Irvine researchers, including James C. Earthman, a professor of materials science, about verifying the golfers’ claims. Although Earthman plays golf only occasionally, his interest was piqued because he knew that bits of titanium could burn spontaneously when exposed to air. He remembered an accident from his undergraduate days at Rice, when another student was cleaning some titanium particles in a chamber. “The rag ignited in his hand,” Earthman said. “That left a pretty big impression on me.” He and his colleagues set up a test tee in which they embedded rocks. Earthman approached a robot manufacturer about borrowing one of its machines to take the swings, he said, “but when they found out we were going to hit rocks with it, they declined.” So he and others took the swings, using three titanium clubs and three with stainless steel heads. Hitting rocks turned out to be no problem. “I discovered that it’s very easy to crush a rock with a golf club,” Earthman said. “Like going through butter.” They recorded the results with a high-speed video camera and reported in a recent paper in the journal Fire and Materials that all of the titanium clubs created sparks while none of the steel ones did. The impact with the rock abraded the titanium surface, producing small particles — up to about one-fiftieth of an inch in diameter — that burned for up to a second, at temperatures high enough to cause dry vegetation to ignite. “The real danger seemed to be when you had titanium on the sole of the club and on the leading edge,” Earthman said. That created a lot of sparks, including some that flew as far as four feet. “The more sparks you have, the further they go and the longer they last, you increase the probability of ignition,” he said. Concialdi said that in one of the fires, the golfer and his partner tried unsuccessfully to put it out using ice from their beer cooler. The blaze consumed about an acre, but more damage was averted when a concrete cart path acted as a firebreak. Given the drought in California and the extreme fire danger, Concialdi said, his department had advice for duffers who used titanium clubs and hit a ball into a rocky spot. “We’re just asking golfers to either take a penalty or, if your fellow golfers will allow you to improve your lie, do it,” he said. “But do not hit the ball in this type of area.”

Golf
Wildfires
Sporting Goods
University of California
Irvine
College
Research
Fires
California


Even With Extra Attacker, Capitals Cannot Find Opening Against Rangers

Abstract: The Rangers had a daunting task. Ahead by a goal in the closing two minutes but down two games to none against the Washington Capitals, they were skating shorthanded by two men. With the perennial Ranger killers Mike Green and Alex Ovechkin poised to net the tying goal, defenseman Ryan McDonagh and his partner Dan Girardi had to gyrate and contort themselves to prevent the Capitals from knotting the score and sending the game into overtime. As the Madison Square Garden crowd held its breath, McDonagh fulfilled the mission — helping to prevent Washington’s precision power play unit from even registering a shot on Henrik Lundqvist, who made 28 saves in the game’s other 58 minutes, as the Rangers held on for the much-needed 4-3 victory. “It certainly didn’t feel like they didn’t have a shot on goal during that power play,” a relieved McDonagh said. “They are so dangerous every moment they are on the ice. We had to focus on keeping it tight and not giving them those one-timers.” The Rangers, who lost Game 2, 1-0, on Green’s overtime goal Saturday, trail the opening-round series by two games to one. “We had to apply the pressure in our own barn,” added the 23-year-old McDonagh, who played his usual 20-plus minutes. “We talked about not being passive, about keeping our foot on the gas pedal all night. We were aggressive in a good way.” Image Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist had 28 saves in the victory. Credit Barton Silverman/The New York Times McDonagh also contributed to Derek Stepan’s go-ahead goal at 13 minutes 35 seconds of the third period. Going down by three games to none in the series was not an option the Rangers could afford to conjure. “There was no way we could allow that to happen,” McDonagh said. “The key for us was making the game simple and giving Ovechkin as little room along the walls as possible. You just can’t give him any space.” McDonagh thought quickly midway through the second period to recover Lundqvist’s wayward stick, which had been knocked out of the goaltender’s grasp and lay harmless in the face-off circle to his left. With the play in the Rangers’ zone, McDonagh somehow found a moment to grab the stick, whirl around and hand it back to his grateful goalie. “Hank is a great goaltender, which he proved for us once again tonight in a huge game,” McDonagh said. “He’s even better with a stick in his hands.” Stepan, who was out to kill the final Capitals power play, asked how long the penalty kill was. “Three minutes? Was it a three-minute power play? It was just desperation,” he said.

Ice hockey
Washington Capitals
Rangers
Ryan McDonagh
Henrik Lundqvist
Derek Stepan
Mike Green
Dan Girardi
Playoffs