Some Businesses Go Creative on Prices, Applying Technology

Abstract: Many business owners struggle with pricing. Should their first concern be covering costs or figuring out what the market will bear? How do they determine what the market will pay without raising prices high enough that some customers flee? And can they offer discounts without damaging their price brand? There may be no easy or universal answers to these questions, but new thinking and new technology has made it possible for some, like the airline and hotel industries, to use what is known as dynamic pricing to vary prices according to demand and fill seats and rooms more efficiently. Now, more small businesses are finding ways to adapt their strategies. You can find consultants that charge for results rather than by the hour, restaurants that charge what is essentially a ticket price that varies according to how busy the restaurant is, and even some businesses that ask customers to pay what they wish . And Uber, a Silicon Valley company founded four years ago, has a mobile app that connects a small army of black cars with people who need rides in 70 cities worldwide and employs “surge pricing.” Uber, which takes 20 percent of all fares, charges more when demand is high and the supply of cars low. “You get far more cars on the road and they stay out longer when surge pricing is in effect,” said Travis Kalanick, a co-founder. You also get some cranky customers. In the last few months, the company has received an onslaught of complaints when the cost of a ride rose to as much as seven times the normal rate during a snowstorm and on New Year’s Eve. “One of the things we’ve learned,” Mr. Kalanick said, “is that the more crisply you deliver the message to the customer and the more you set expectations ahead of time, the more you get to a place where there’s no issue with it.” Uber’s prices are controlled by an algorithm — technology that is increasingly available to even the smallest enterprises. Craig Clark, for example, sells more than 2,600 items — vintage china, bras, house numbers — on a variety of online marketplaces. Two years ago, he was collecting $2,000 a month in revenue from his sale of house numbers on Amazon.com. “Six months into it, my sales went down all of the sudden,” he said. “Amazon went out and got a wholesale account and started selling the numbers themselves. So you’re not just competing against other sellers, you’re also competing against Amazon.” Mr. Clark had been laid off from his job as an analyst for a telecom company outside Philadelphia, so his online retail ventures had become his only source of income. Like many Amazon sellers, he started re-pricing items manually, but found the process wildly time-consuming. And mistakenly pricing a Jenga game at $13.99, instead of $23.99, once cost him $1,200. Then, he learned of FeedVisor , which makes re-pricing software. “You tell them what the item cost you, the commission you pay to Amazon, and your highest and lowest price,” said Mr. Clark, whose annual revenue is approximately $500,000. “FeedVisor then algorithmically decides the best price within your parameters and what everyone else is selling at.” The company, one of many that sells re-pricing software, charges 1 percent of sales and provides a dashboard that lets sellers analyze sales and profits. Using FeedVisor last summer, Mr. Clark said his “sales on Coobie bras went up 25 percent almost overnight.” FeedVisor reduced the price on the bras, which he was selling for between $19 and $23, by $2 or more to make them more competitive. That reduced his profit margin, Mr. Clark said, to 37 percent from 39 percent — but increased his volume. The software also produced sales increases on other items of from 15 to 40 percent, he said, and helped him unload stale inventory, such as a pallet of pots and pans. “I hadn’t sold one in six months,” said Mr. Clark, “and I got rid of them in four days.” Restaurants, too, are using innovative pricing strategies. In September 2012, Groupon acquired a restaurant reservation engine, Savored , and has since integrated it into a new high-end division called Groupon Reserve. Instead of offering customers, say, $50 off a meal as traditional daily deals do, Savored lets restaurants offer customers a percentage off an entire meal in return for dining at a specified time. Cacio e Vino, a Sicilian restaurant based in Manhattan, has been using the app for two years, said Christine Ehlert, the manager. “On Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, we offer a certain number of tables for a 40 percent discount,” she said. Wednesday and Thursday diners may get 30 percent off through the app and customers who make reservations for between 5 and 7 p.m. on Friday and Saturday get a 25 percent discount. Ms. Ehlert said that she initially worried whether the discounting might damage her brand. “But since we only offer a limited amount of discounted tables at certain times,” she said, “I feel that we can explain to people that it’s a way to drive new business to us in off hours.” Cacio e Vino pays Groupon a flat fee of $2.50 per diner. “The nice thing is that if it seems we’re going to be too busy,” Ms. Ehlert said, “I can call our rep at Savored and close out the deal.” Before using Savored, she said, the restaurant typically had $800 in sales on Mondays and Tuesdays. “Now, it’s between $1,200 and $1,500,” she said, with a profit margin on the discounted customers that is about half that of the full-price customers. She said slightly fewer than half of the restaurant’s discounted customers come back, typically for another discounted meal. Frank and Rhonda Duffy run Duffy Realty of Atlanta, one of a growing number of real estate agencies trying new pricing strategies. The Duffys charge an upfront listing fee of $500 and one third of 1 percent when a house sells. According to Zillow, the agency has about 800 active listings and had more than 1,400 sales in the last 12 months. Mr. Duffy said the agency’s 2013 revenue was $5.3 million. For the reduced fee, the Duffys offer limited service. The firm adds homes to the local Multiple Listing Service, as well as on Zillow and Trulia, supplies sellers with a 60-point, do-it-yourself marketing guide, rents lockboxes for $100, and charges $94 for a home to be professionally photographed. One of the firm’s four listing specialists is likely to come to take your information. Then, a team of specialists, including client services representatives, buyer’s agents and contract negotiators, moves buyers and sellers through the sale process. To provide an incentive to agents from other firms to bring buyers, the Duffys encourage sellers to offer the buyer’s agents commissions of 3 percent or even 4 percent. Most sellers do it, he said, because they still come out ahead. On the sale of a $300,000 home, for example, a traditional agent might split a 6 percent commission, or $18,000, with a buyer’s agent. A seller listing with Duffy will pay a $1,520 commission ($500 plus one third of 1 percent, or $1,020), plus 3 percent ($9,000) or 4 percent ($12,000) for a buyer’s agent, or a total of between $10,520 and $13,520. The pricing model does not suit all sellers. “The danger is you’re not getting the advice and guidance,” said Frank S. Alexander, a real estate professor at Emory Law School. “What do you with inspection results, or during the due diligence period, or in a contract negotiation?” For experienced sellers, or in a particularly hot market, that may not matter.

Small business
Entrepreneurship
Price
E Commerce
Customer service


Kansas: First Lady’s Visit Draws Criticism

Abstract: Some Topeka high school students and their parents said they would rather keep their graduation day just a family affair, and not include Michelle Obama. Criticism erupted after the Topeka school district announced Thursday that the first lady would speak at a combined ceremony for five area high schools on May 17 to coincide with the 60th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education decision, which made school segregation unconstitutional. Some parents and students said the complaints were less about politics and more about the lack of seating for all their relatives. Tina Hernandez, parent of a senior, said that Mrs. Obama’s visit takes away from the importance of graduation day. “They’ve taken the glory and shine from the children and put on Mrs. Obama,” she said. A spokesman for the district said it would place a priority on seating students and their families in the 8,000-seat arena.

Michelle Obama
Topeka KS
K-12 Education
Brown v. Board of Education
First Ladies


Joyce Mitchell, Who Helped Prisoners Escape, Says She Was Driven by Fear and Depression

Abstract: Joyce E. Mitchell, a former prison employee who is set to be sentenced this month for helping two killers escape from a unit in northern New York, has given a national television interview in which she apologizes for her actions but asks for understanding, saying she was driven by depression and fear that the men would hurt her family. “I am so sorry for everything that everyone has went through because of me,” Ms. Mitchell said in the interview with Matt Lauer of NBC. “I never meant for any of this to happen. Never. I would take it all back if I could, but I can’t. “But I’m not the monster that everybody thinks I am. I’m really not. I’m just somebody that got caught up in something that she couldn’t get out of.” The two prisoners, Richard W. Matt and David Sweat, escaped from the maximum-security Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, N.Y., in early June. After a three-week manhunt, involving hundreds of law enforcement officers, over a large area of northern New York, Mr. Matt was shot and killed on June 26, and Mr. Sweat was shot and captured on June 28. He is now in a maximum-security prison in Romulus, N.Y. After his capture, Mr. Sweat told investigators he had sawed holes, using hacksaw blades, in the back of his own and Mr. Matt’s cells, and that, for months, he had slipped out of his cell every night to search for an escape route. Mr. Sweat ultimately discovered a large pipe that led outside the prison walls. Ms. Mitchell gave the men tools, including the hacksaw blades and a drill bit, that were critical in their escape. She was supposed to meet them with a car on the night they escaped, but she had a panic attack and did not show up. In July, she pleaded guilty to promoting prison contraband in the first degree, a felony, and criminal facilitation in the fourth degree, a misdemeanor. She faces up to seven years in prison and is to be sentenced on Sept. 28. In the interview with Mr. Lauer, Ms. Mitchell said she was drawn into a friendship with both men and a flirtation with Mr. Matt because she was depressed, according to a transcript and excerpts from the interview released on Monday by NBC. (The full interview will be broadcast on “Dateline” on Friday night.) “I didn’t feel like my husband loved me anymore,” she said. “And I guess it was just me. I was going through depression. And I guess they saw my weakness and that’s how it all started.” “Their attention made me feel good,” she added. She started taking the men cookies and brownies. She said she was nervous about getting caught, because “they’re supposed to check our bags every morning when we come in and they’re supposed to check them when you go out.” “But they — they never did,” she continued. Later, Mr. Matt asked her for the tools, and she smuggled them into the prison in frozen hamburger meat. She said she was initially resistant but complied because Mr. Matt had threatened to kill her husband, Lyle Mitchell , and had also asked her where her mother and son lived. “He looked at me one day and said, ‘You know, Joyce, I do love you.’ And I said, ‘I love my husband.’ And a little while after that he wanted to get rid of Lyle.” She said the men told her they were planning to escape only after she gave them the tools. “I did wrong,” she said. “I deserve to be punished. But, you know, people need to know that I was only trying to save my family.” Ms. Mitchell said in the interview that she was not in love with Mr. Matt. She told investigators that at one point he asked her to perform oral sex on him and she consented, and she also groped his genitals on several occasions. In the television interview, she said tearfully that Mr. Matt had forced her to perform oral sex, saying that “there was never any consensual” sexual contact.

Prison escape
Clinton Correctional Facility
Joyce Mitchell
Richard Matt
David Sweat
Apologies
Dannemora
TV
Matt Lauer
Prison


M.L.S. Set to Change Channels

Abstract: Major League Soccer is expected to announce a new long-term television deal with ESPN and Fox this week, leaving NBC Sports Network after the 2014 season. The new deal is likely to be announced during the National Soccer Coaches Association of America convention, which begins Thursday in Philadelphia. Among the key parts of the deal, which will reportedly pay M.L.S. $70 million a year (double the fee of its current deal), are the rights to televise games involving the United States national teams. M.L.S., through its marketing arm, Soccer United Marketing, controls the rights to the national teams. The fee in the agreement with ESPN and Fox does not include rights fees likely to be paid by Univision, the league’s longtime Spanish-language partner. For its part, NBCSN has been basking in the glow of strong ratings and positive reviews in its first season televising games from England’s Premier League. NBC wrested the rights to the Premier League from Fox, paying $80 million a year over a three-year deal. When it first signed on to carry M.L.S. games, NBC brought network gravitas that had eluded the league for many years. In a statement to Sports Business Daily, NBC said: “We’ve enjoyed our partnership with M.L.S. Don Garber and his team are building something very positive, and we wish them well.” The statement was referring the league’s commissioner. NBC Sports Group said it did not present a bid for M.L.S. games. A person with knowledge of the negotiations, who was granted anonymity so as not to jeopardize future dealings with the league, said the belief was that NBC did not want to share its M.L.S. coverage with another network (NBC contradicted that person, saying it would have to share games because it could not accommodate a full schedule). In recent years, Fox shared its Premier League games when it sold a package of games to ESPN, and in the past, M.L.S. has split its TV schedule among ESPN, Fox and Univision. As television networks, particularly cable channels, scramble to lock down live programming in a TV/smartphone/tablet universe, sports leagues have benefited. Part of the new deal will open M.L.S. games to the digital universe that includes Watch ESPN and FoxSportsGo (for registered cable subscribers), in addition to streaming all games at MLSsoccer.com (for a fee). Fox dropped its game coverage of M.L.S. after the 2011 season and now finds itself without Premier League games on the weekend, but with UEFA Champions League matches during the week. The network owns the rights to World Cups in 2018 and 2022, and Fox could see M.L.S. as a vehicle for promoting those tournaments. ESPN, which will televise the 2014 World Cup from Brazil, is keen on retaining rights to the United States national teams, especially after beIN stepped in last year to gain the rights to World Cup qualifying matches the men’s team played outside the United States (that situation is unlikely to change because those rights are auctioned by Concacaf). And ESPN does not need M.L.S.: One of the league’s playoff games last season, Portland versus Real Salt Lake, had the lowest ratings among 139 ESPN telecasts that week, and the league championship game on ESPN drew a little more than a half-million viewers, less than the total for a rerun of the comedy “Everybody Loves Raymond,” which was televised opposite the match. Over all, M.L.S. ratings declined by 29 percent on ESPN/ESPN2 and by 8 percent on NBCSN in 2013. There is likely to be a trickle-down effect from the richer deal, however. Each of the league’s clubs will pocket about $3 million more. The league’s contract with the union that represents M.L.S. players expires at the end of 2014, and the players are likely to see an opening to increase the salary budget (which was $2.9 million for each team last year) while also negotiating to increase the minimum salary. The growth in rights fees will also enable the league and its clubs to continue to up the ante in bidding for players from abroad, and for Americans who went to Europe but now want to come home, as the national team stars Michael Bradley and Clint Dempsey have done in the past year. RED BULLS DRAFT With the growth of club academies and a growing thirst and ability to attract talent from outside North America, Thursday’s Major League Soccer draft (ESPNews and Watch ESPN, noon Eastern) shuffles on — mostly as a way for the league’s 19 clubs (21 next season with the addition of teams in Orlando, Fla., and New York) to find a few inexpensive players. The Red Bulls have never been that crazy for the draft, which is taking place in Philadelphia, although the present club and its previous incarnation (the MetroStars) succeeded in plucking some pretty good players: Michael Bradley, Eddie Gaven, Ricardo Clark, Jozy Altidore, Tim Ream and Ryan Meara. This year, however, the Red Bulls are without a pick in the first round and do not have a selection until No. 22 over all. The club’s only other selection in the four rounds will come at No. 34 over all. The Red Bulls traded their first-round pick (No. 15) to Toronto for defender/midfielder Bobby Convey, the club’s only off-season acquisition so far; traded their third-round pick to Salt Lake last year for Jonny Steele; and traded their fourth-round selection to Los Angeles in 2012 for goalkeeper Bill Gaudette. “We have a list, like we did last year, of players that we think might sneak through,” Coach Mike Petke said during a recent conference call. “Hopefully they are available and we’ll be very confident in picking them.” Last year the Red Bulls also had the 22nd pick. They selected Georgetown’s Ian Christianson, who struggled with injuries and did not play a minute in the league. The club used its pick in the supplemental draft on Boston University midfielder Michael Bustamante, who showed good skill and some promise in the four league games he played. “I believe in the college system; I came through it,” said Petke, a Long Island native who played at Southern Connecticut State. “I believe there is a lot of talent out there. However, it gets more diluted as we go on. It’s all a matter of an eye for talent.” D.C. United has the No. 1 pick, and New England has three selections in the first round (Nos. 4, 12 and 19). RED BULLS PRESEASON The Red Bulls will open their preseason Jan. 24, when players are scheduled to check in at the club’s training center in Hanover, N.J. It promises to be a busy season. In addition to the 34-game M.L.S. schedule, the Red Bulls, by virtue of winning the Supporters Shield last season, will play in the 2014-15 Concacaf Champions League, which is scheduled to begin in August, and the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup. Putting aside news media reports in Europe and the United States that the Red Bulls are interested in Barcelona midfielder Xavi Hernández, the club has mostly stood pat during the off-season, shedding more players than it has acquired. (In the silly season, also known as the transfer period in Europe, it seems that nearly every player in the world is “interested” in joining the Red Bulls. According to a Spanish website, the Red Bulls have made an offer to the 29-year-old central defender Armando Lozano, who plays for Córdoba.) Gone from last season are Heath Pearce, Fabian Espindola, Markus Holgersson, Brandon Barklage and David Carney. After reporting to camp, the club will travel to Florida and train in Orlando from Jan. 27 to Feb. 7. The Red Bulls will return home for about 10 days before heading back to Orlando for the Disney Pro Soccer Classic , returning on March 2. They will open the 2014 season on March 8 at Vancouver.


Reds End Losing Streak With Rally in Ninth Inning

Abstract: Jay Bruce erased a frustrating night with a tie-breaking, three-run double in the ninth inning and the Cincinnati Reds beat the Phillies , 6-3, on Tuesday in Philadelphia to end a six-game losing streak. The Reds had lost eight in a row against the National League East-leading Phillies, including a three-game sweep in last year’s division playoff series. Bruce came in swinging a hot bat. He had four homers in the last five games and was tied for the N.L. lead with 12. But he struck out three times and popped out in his first four at-bats. Then came his bases-clearing double against Ryan Madson (2-1). “I blew it the first time with guys on second and third and one out,” Bruce said, referring to his strikeout in the fifth. “I just tried to relax and get something I could handle.” Madson had not allowed a run in 13 innings. “It was a good run,” he said. “I just have to get back out there and start a new roll.” Six games was the Reds’ longest losing streak since they dropped eight in a row from July 28 to Aug. 4, 2009. BRAVES 2, PIRATES 0 Jair Jurrjens pitched six-hit ball into the eighth inning to lead Atlanta to a win in Pittsburgh. DIAMONDBACKS SPLIT IN DENVER Carlos Gonzalez homered twice and Colorado became the first team to decipher Josh Collmenter’s tomahawk-throwing style in a 12-4 victory, but it lost pitcher Jorge De La Rosa in the opener of the day-night doubleheader. An hour after the game, the Rockies said a magnetic resonance imaging test showed a complete tear of the ulnar collateral ligament. That probably means Tommy John-style tendon-replacement surgery that would sideline De La Rosa for a year. De La Rosa was the Rockies’ top pitcher so far with a 5-2 record and a 3.51 E.R.A. Joe Saunders ended a personal six-game losing streak and J. J. Putz pitched the ninth for his 13th save in as many chances as Arizona won the second game, 5-2. DODGERS 5, ASTROS 4 Jerry Sands hit a grand slam in the third inning and Jay Gibbons also homered as Los Angeles Dodgers snapped a three-game losing streak with a win in Houston. BREWERS 7, NATIONALS 6 Jonathan Lucroy hit a two-out, two-run single in the eighth and Brandon Boggs slammed into catcher Wilson Ramos to score the go-ahead run for host Milwaukee. The Brewers have won 12 of 15 over all. RED SOX 4, INDIANS 2 Josh Beckett picked up his first regular-season win in Cleveland — where he pitched an October gem four years ago — as Boston handed Cleveland just its fifth loss at home. Beckett (4-1) allowed one run and five hits in six and two-thirds innings for his only non-postseason win at Progressive Field. He won here in the 2007 American League Championship Series. ORIOLES 5, ROYALS 3 Adam Jones capped a ninth-inning uprising with a two-run game-winning homer against Joakim Soria for host Baltimore. TIGERS 7, RAYS 6 Alex Avila’s second homer of the game gave host Detroit the lead in the eighth inning. Miguel Cabrera hit a three-run homer in the fifth, giving him 34 runs batted in this season, to help Detroit win its third straight. Al Alburquerque (1-1) earned his first major league victory in his 14th appearance after getting two key outs in the eighth. TWINS 4, MARINERS 2 Nick Blackburn came through with a desperately needed complete game and Denard Span had three hits and an R.B.I. to lift host Minnesota. FAMILY OF BEATEN FAN SUES The family of a San Francisco Giants fan who was brutally beaten at Dodger Stadium in March has sued the team and its troubled owner Frank McCourt, claiming inadequate security was partially to blame for the attack. The suit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on behalf of Bryan Stow, 42, contends the Dodgers were negligent by not providing more security. LIDLE’S WIDOW LOSES LAWSUIT A Minnesota airplane manufacturer is not responsible for the deaths of Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle and his flight instructor, who were killed when their small plane crashed into a Manhattan apartment building, a jury concluded. A jury in Manhattan returned its verdict after three hours of deliberation.

Baseball
Colorado Rockies
Gonzalez Carlos
Sports Injuries
Cincinnati Reds
Philadelphia Phillies


Emanuel Gets Boost, and Challenges, in Schools Bill

Abstract: A sweeping public school reform bill unanimously approved late Thursday by the State Senate gives Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel a chance to fulfill a campaign promise and lengthen Chicago’s school day, currently one of the shortest in the nation. But first he will have to overcome daunting budget, educational and labor obstacles. Chicago would be the first major city in recent years to add substantial time to its school day, which currently clocks in at 5 hours 45 minutes for elementary schools and 6 hours for high schools. Chicago students spend 270 hours less in the classroom every year than students in New York City schools, or about 41 fewer days. On Friday morning, in an appearance at the Johnson College Prep charter school , Mr. Emanuel applauded the legislation enabling a longer school day. “Everybody around the country is now looking at this as a role model,” he said. The legislation resulted from three months of intense negotiation among lawmakers and key players in education from throughout the state. Important questions remain, however, including how much additional classroom time there will be, how it should be used, and how to pay for it. The bill gives the Chicago Public Schools administration the power to unilaterally decide the length of its day and year, but the details of carrying out the decision will have to be ironed out in bargaining with the powerful Chicago Teachers Union. If the Chicago Public Schools add one hour each day and an additional day to the school year, it would cost roughly $300 million, according to the most recent estimate by the district. The district said it now faces an $820 million deficit. Karen Lewis, president of the teachers union, acknowledged the deficit but not the district’s claims of its severity. “I don’t believe those numbers,” she said. Jonah Edelman, director of Stand for Children , an education-reform organization that helped draft the bill, said, “The ball now is in the mayor-elect and Chicago Public Schools’ court, to work with the Chicago Teachers Union on increasing instructional time.” Gov. Pat Quinn backs the bill, and supporters expect House approval by early May. The bill also tackles other weighty issues, including linking teacher tenure to performance rather than seniority, making it easier to remove ineffective teachers and making it harder for the union to strike. The bill calls for several changes in the way a union could call a strike. If a bargaining impasse occurs, a third party would be appointed to conduct a 90-day “fact-finding” process and then make a recommendation to break the stalemate. If the union wanted to strike, it would have to wait an additional 30 days and obtain authorization from 75 percent of its membership. Currently, a majority of those casting votes is enough to start a walkout. The bill’s author, Senator Kimberly A. Lightford, Democrat of Maywood, said that in her conversations with Mr. Emanuel and Ms. Lewis she sensed that the two would work together on the issue, even in the face of a deficit. “There are ways to negotiate that without it having a fiscal impact,” Ms. Lightford said. With Mr. Emanuel set to appoint his schools chief and with a union president who was elected less than a year ago, new faces will be at the table to iron out the details. While the union agrees that a longer school day could improve education, Ms. Lewis said the issue is not that simple. “I think they’re looking at some really small fixes as if this is going to be the magic bullet,” she said. “We’re at a real crossroads in education. With the emphasis on testing, we have narrowed the curriculum. I hope this will broaden the curriculum.” Mr. Emanuel said Friday that he wants to hear from teachers “with ideas of how to improve that instructional time.” “Should high school kids be more in math?” he asked. “Should younger kids be more in reading? Where’s our science?” A report by the Center on Education Policy in 2007 found that since the passage of President George W. Bush’s No Child Left Behind Act , with its focus on test scores, about 44 percent of districts cut time from one or more subjects, including science, social studies, art, music and gym, as well as lunch and recess. Improving test scores was the main focus of the Chicago district’s most recent effort to add instructional time at minimal cost. Its virtual-learning pilot program, installed at 15 elementary schools throughout this year, gives students one hour of reading and math curriculum on a computer at the end of their regular day. No data have been gathered to indicate how effective the program has been, and no decisions have been made on its expansion, said Monica Lee, the school district official who developed it. For many classroom teachers, like Sandy Blake, a third-grade teacher at Mary Lyon Elementary School, the debate over a longer school day sometimes seems to occur in another world. In Ms. Blake’s classroom — where 29 desks pack the room, leaving little room to move in between — the day goes by in a blur. In the morning, she hands out 29 breakfasts, stopping frequently to help children open milk cartons and other packaging. Before math lessons, she hands out 29 math counters. She has a system for everything in order to use her time effectively. But those systems can break down, and the short school day does not account for the usual distractions — putting on Band-Aids, getting tissues, writing notes and what Ms. Blake calls “comforting the social angst of third-grade girls.” By the time students leave, Ms. Blake is tired. One recent afternoon, she walked her students out of the building and returned to her room at 2:45, technically for her lunch break. “When I let them go, I say, Just one more hour, just one more,” Ms. Blake said with a sigh, contemplating the time remaining before she goes home. While she believes more classroom time would help her students learn, she said she hopes people who are most affected will have a voice in how the school day was changed. “You do the best you can, but the day does need to be longer,” Ms. Blake said. “I just hope that Emanuel and the new C.E.O. realize that it’s a conversation.”

Emanuel Rahm
Education (K-12)
Chicago News Cooperative


New Jersey’s $225 Million Settlement With Exxon Mobil Is Approved

Abstract: New Jersey’s widely debated $225 million settlement of a pollution lawsuit with Exxon Mobil Corporation was approved on Tuesday by a state judge who called the deal fair, reasonable and in the public interest. The ruling comes in a longstanding legal battle in which New Jersey demanded $8.9 billion in compensation for natural resource damage to more than 1,500 acres of wetlands, marshes and waters at refinery sites that Exxon once owned in Bayonne and Linden. Environmental groups, federal and state politicians, and others had sharply criticized the administration of Gov. Chris Christie for accepting just a small fraction of the damages that the state had long sought. But in an 81-page opinion, the judge, Michael J. Hogan of Superior Court, found that “although far smaller than the estimated $8.9 billion in damages, Exxon’s payment represents a reasonable compromise given the substantial litigation risks” that the state faced at trial and would face on appeal. The settlement, he added, “was the product of arm’s-length, adversarial negotiations between two highly motivated, sophisticated parties.” Criticism of the decision was almost immediate. Margaret Brown, a lawyer with the Natural Resources Defense Council , one of the organizations that filed a friend-of-the-court brief opposing the deal, said, “This is a multibillion-dollar gift to ExxonMobil from Gov. Christie and his administration, at the expense of New Jersey residents.” Mr. Christie, who is seeking the Republican nomination for president, has publicly defended the deal, and his administration had told the judge that it was only because of the state’s aggressive litigation strategy, pursued for more than a decade, that Exxon finally offered a significant amount to settle after asserting that it owed no damages. “Judge Hogan’s ruling today affirms what we have said all along — this is a fair and historic settlement that serves the best interest of the people and state of New Jersey,” Nicole Sizemore, a spokeswoman for Mr. Christie, said. State officials have also noted that the deal is on top of money Exxon is continuing to spend — about $260 million through 2014 — to clean up the contaminated sites under a 1991 agreement. Image An oil refinery in Linden, N.J., in 1990. It is one of two Exxon sites that were at issue in lawsuits the State of New Jersey filed over long-term environmental contamination. Credit Mike Derer/Associated Press Exxon said in a statement that “both parties will now have the benefit of the certainty and finality that comes from this settlement.” The contamination at the two sites began as early as the 1870s in Bayonne and the early 1900s in Linden, a state expert’s report has said. “Today, many of these dredge fill areas still look and smell like petroleum waste dumps,” the report noted. An environmental official, in an affidavit, cited 45 acres of “sludge lagoons,” onetime tidal marshes that had been used as hazardous-waste disposal facilities. Much criticism of the deal , which was negotiated confidentially and first disclosed by The New York Times in February, focused on its timing. It was reached just as Judge Hogan appeared ready to rule on what damages Exxon might owe after a lengthy 2014 trial in which the state made its case for billions in compensation. As recently as November, the Christie administration argued in a brief that “the scope of the environmental damage resulting from the discharges is as obvious as it is staggering and unprecedented in New Jersey.” After the deal was formally announced, the state’s environmental protection agency received thousands of comments, a vast majority of them opposing the settlement, the judge noted. The administration of Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York also called for the deal to be rejected , saying it appeared “wholly inadequate” and noting its provisions made it unlikely Exxon would ever have to pay for separate claims concerning damage to tributaries and waterways of the New York-New Jersey Harbor estuary, which borders New York City and New Jersey. Judge Hogan said in his ruling that the agreement “was entered into in good faith.” He rejected arguments that the deal was an “abrupt change of course” for the state, noting that settlement talks had taken place, unsuccessfully, as far back as 2007, under Gov. Jon S. Corzine. “For seven years,” the judge wrote, “Exxon repeatedly responded to the state’s olive branches with only token offers. “An aggressive trial strategy is often the only way to bring reluctant parties to the table, and the state employed this tactic with success.” Judge Hogan, in a hearing last month, asked a lawyer retained by the state, Allan Kanner, how he responded to arguments that $225 million was essentially a 98 percent discount on the $8.9 billion the state had sought. “When you make a decision to settle a case, the first thing you do is you give up your aspirations for the highest possible number,” Mr. Kanner said, adding that a settlement “is always a compromise.” A lawyer for Exxon, Theodore V. Wells Jr., concurred, telling the judge that critics “don’t talk about the premium that Exxon’s paying, from how Exxon views the case.”

Exxon Mobil
New Jersey
Water pollution
Wetlands
Chris Christie
Lawsuits
NRDC
Michael J Hogan
Bayonne NJ
Linden


Obama, Drawing Criticism on Two Fronts, Fires Back

Abstract: DALLAS — Coming off a decisive string of victories, Senator Barack Obama pushed back against attacks by his political rivals Wednesday as the fight for the Democratic presidential nomination entered a combative and critical two-week period. As he campaigned in Texas , Mr. Obama vigorously challenged Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, who had told voters, “It is time to get real.” He also defended against accusations of being naïve from Senator John McCain of Arizona, the presumptive Republican nominee. “As this movement continues, as this campaign builds strength, there are those who will tell you not to believe,” Mr. Obama said, addressing 17,000 supporters at a boisterous downtown rally here. “There are those who will tell you it can’t be done.” Mr. Obama, of Illinois, barely mentioned his success from Tuesday’s contests in Wisconsin and Hawaii and his ever-growing lead of delegates. Advisers said he was purposefully looking forward to avoid an air of overconfidence or complacency among supporters, donors and voters. “Senator Clinton told us that there was a choice in this race, and, you know, I couldn’t agree with her more,” Mr. Obama said. “It’s not a choice between speeches and solutions; it’s a choice between a politics that offers more of the same divisions and distractions that didn’t work in South Carolina and didn’t work in Wisconsin and will not work in Texas, or a new politics of common sense, of common purpose, of shared sacrifice and shared prosperity.” Mrs. Clinton, who lost Wisconsin and Hawaii by broad margins across nearly every voter group, struck a new tone as she faced a stretch that could revive or break her White House hopes. In a speech on Wednesday at Hunter College in Manhattan, she said Mr. Obama was running on a thin résumé and empty rhetoric. “It’s time we moved from good words to good works, from sound bites to sound solutions,” Mrs. Clinton said. After losing 10 consecutive contests and falling behind in delegates and in the confidence of Democratic leaders, she stepped up her efforts against Mr. Obama. She criticized Mr. Obama, saying he was leading a movement, not a political candidacy, and was peddling dreams rather than concrete policies. “We need to keep dreaming; dreaming keeps us hopeful,” Mrs. Clinton said. “Without dreams we can’t aspire to be great, but without action we cannot turn those dreams into reality.” The arguments offered a prelude to a debate Thursday evening on the campus of the University of Texas at Austin, the only scheduled debate in Texas before the primary on March 4. A debate is also scheduled next week in Ohio . While Mrs. Clinton mentioned Mr. Obama again and again on Wednesday as she traveled from New York to South Texas, Mr. Obama was 33 minutes into his Dallas speech before mentioning her. And when he did, he put his criticism in the same breath as his response to Mr. McCain. “It’s a choice that’s not just about turning the page on the politics of the past, but also turning the page on the policies of the past,” Mr. Obama said. “John McCain has already promised another four years of George Bush policies.” In Ohio, Mr. McCain sharpened his attacks on Mr. Obama, accusing him of wanting to bomb Pakistan and of announcing it ahead of time to the rest of the world. “That’s naïve,” Mr. McCain said at a news conference in Columbus. “The first thing that you do is you make your plans and you carry out your operations as necessary for America’s national security interests. You don’t broadcast that you are going to bomb a country that is a sovereign nation.” Mr. McCain, who is seeking to portray Mr. Obama as too inexperienced to step into the role of commander in chief, was referring to comments by Mr. Obama that the United States must be willing to strike Qaeda targets near Pakistan’s northwest border that President Pervez Musharraf has proved unable to control. Susan Rice, a foreign policy adviser to Mr. Obama, responded that Mr. McCain was seriously distorting Mr. Obama’s words. In a speech last summer at the Woodrow Wilson International Center in Washington, Mr. Obama said that if elected president, he would act if he had information that terrorists were in Pakistan’s border area, thought to be a hiding place for Osama bin Laden. The period heading into primaries in Ohio, Texas, Vermont and Rhode Island offers considerable time for the candidates’ fortunes to change, so Mr. Obama urged supporters in Texas to go to the polls now to cast their ballots in the state’s early-voting program. It is a political insurance plan, of sorts, in case the dynamic of the race turns before March 4.

Presidential Election of 2008
Obama Barack
Clinton Hillary Rodham
McCain John
Texas
Ohio


‘Complicated’ Support for Confederate Flag in White South

Abstract: BUCHANAN, Ga. — Brandon Heath, Haralson County’s chief magistrate judge, flies the Confederate battle flag on his property. A version of it adorns the front bumper of his cherry-red Chevrolet pickup. It is painted on the wall of the gymnasium of his alma mater, Haralson County High School, where the sports teams are called the Rebels and Rebelettes. Like a number of people in this rural, working-class county — which is 92 percent white and just beyond the creep of Atlanta’s western suburbs — Mr. Heath believes that efforts to remove the flag from public spaces across the South are “plumb ridiculous.” And he insists that his reverence for the banner has nothing to do with race. “It’s just about where we come from, and locally here, we’re just real proud of that,” said Mr. Heath, 35, an auctioneer who, when not in court, favors camouflage ball caps and speaks with an unhurried country twang. “It’s all about your school, and your upraising, and who you are.” Support for the Confederate flag may be waning among Southern lawmakers in the aftermath of the church shootings in Charleston, S.C. But here in this county of 29,000 people, as in many other stretches of the white, working-class South, the flag remains a revered symbol, not only of the Confederate dead, but of a unique regional identity. In Haralson County , a ragged patch of low hills and homesteads at the southern tip of Appalachia, it can seem like the battle flag is baked into the culture. One finds it displayed on the welcome sign in Buchanan , the county seat, as part of the seal of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, alongside that of the Lions Club. Image At the Georgia Peach Oyster Bar, President Obama’s campaign poster, altered to say “Nope,” combined with a Confederate flag. Credit Kevin Liles for The New York Times And while support for the flag is widespread here, its supporters, and their justifications, vary drastically: There are overt racists and avowed antiracists; students of history and those who seem oblivious to it; ardent defenders of the Lost Cause and others who do not understand why the blue-spangled X on a red field — as ubiquitous here as deer stands, church steeples and biscuits with gravy — can be so controversial. “I just don’t get why people are getting all mad about it,” said Corey Doyle, 19. Mr. Doyle, who was recently hired as a car salesman, was standing the other day with five other white protesters on a grassy berm outside the local Walmart, whose corporate office decided to pull Confederate merchandise from its shelves after the Charleston massacre. The protesters waved the battle flag and an old version of the Georgia state flag. That state flag, which prominently incorporated the battle flag’s design, was introduced in 1956 by an arch-segregationist state Legislature as courts were ordering the South to integrate. It was replaced in 2001 by lawmakers more sensitive to Georgia’s image to outsiders. Passing cars and trucks honked in solidarity as they turned into the parking lot. Earnest Fryer, 28, an ice cream truck driver, was waving the old state flag. Asked about its segregationist origins, he drew a blank. To him, it was the flag that his father had given him, and one that had long adorned the wall of his room, he said. Like Mr. Heath and Mr. Doyle, Mr. Fryer insisted that his stand on the flag had nothing to do with matters of race. “We don’t want to offend nobody,” Mr. Fryer said, noting that he was part Cherokee. Later, he said slavery was the “one thing that makes all the rest of my heritage look bad.” “But there’s a lot more about us than that one thing,” he added. And yet that one thing still looms disturbingly large. Image H. Allen Poole has twice been re-elected to the Board of Commissioners of Haralson County, Ga. He supports leaving the flag up. Credit Kevin Liles for The New York Times At Kimball’s General Store, a popular meeting place here, a man who declined to give his name blamed blacks for the new assault on the flag, and muttered a racial slur. Near Mr. Heath’s office at the county courthouse, a pickup parked beside a weatherworn house sported a pair of Confederate flags, and a window sticker that read “American Nazi Party.” Just across the county line, the Georgia Peach Oyster Bar has operated as a scandalous open secret. Its website features two Confederate battle flags, the description, “The Original Klan, Klam & Oyster Bar,” and a stunningly virulent collection of racist signs. Patrons are confronted with a selection of crude cartoons and graffiti, and a menu that declares, on the appetizer page, “We cater to hangins’.” Mr. Heath acknowledged the existence of such sentiments here. But he also noted that this overwhelmingly white place, so committed to the flag, also elected a black man, H. Allen Poole, as the chairman of its Board of Commissioners in 2004, and has re-elected him twice. Last year, voters elected the state’s first Asian-American Superior Court judge, Meng Lim, a Cambodian refugee who grew up in the Haralson County city of Bremen. “It’s complicated,” Mr. Heath said. For Mr. Heath, the flag helped get him elected in 2008, when he bounced around the county’s rural back roads in his pickup, hunting for votes. The battle flag was affixed to the front bumper. A 12-gauge shotgun was in the gun rack, and an old bloodhound was in the back. It was all part of a package that validated Mr. Heath’s regular-guy credentials and bolstered his argument that the magistrate court would be better run by a self-proclaimed good old boy with a high school diploma than by the lawyer who was the incumbent at the time. Mr. Heath saw it as an appeal to a common culture, not a racial gesture, a way to show voters that he was one of them: conservative, Republican (the county went 81 percent for Mitt Romney in the 2012 presidential election) and, as he said, “salt of the earth.” Image At Haralson County High School, where the sports teams are called the Rebels and Rebelettes, students once voted by a wide margin to repaint the battle flag at the gym when it was defaced. Credit Kevin Liles for The New York Times On a recent weekday morning, Mr. Heath gave a brief tour of Haralson County, starting with Hutcheson’s Memorial Chapel and Crematory, where he introduced the owner, Danny Hutcheson, the county coroner. Mr. Hutcheson sat in a back room that was decorated with political and historical memorabilia, including a picture of an ancestor who, according to family legend, was robbed of his cattle by Yankee soldiers during the Civil War. He says he does not display the flag for fear of upsetting his black friends and clients. But he defends those who do. “We’ve got a cross in our church,” Mr. Hutcheson said. “The Ku Klux Klan burns crosses in people’s yards. Does that mean we should take the crosses out of our churches?” Mr. Heath drove on to the high school where the trophy room of the gym features the battle flag painted on the wall. Such displays have caused trouble here in the past. In September 2000, someone painted over a flag at the gym, and students were allowed to vote on whether to repaint it. Repainting won by a vote to 861 to 150, according to news reports at the time. A group of black football players threatened to boycott a game, but that never materialized. It all seemed perplexing to Cain Jackson, a 22-year-old graduate, who is white. Image A reproduction of the old Georgia flag, which incorporates the Confederate battle flag, on Mr. Heath's truck. “It’s just about where we come from, and locally here, we’re just real proud of that,” he said. Credit Kevin Liles for The New York Times “I don’t see how it’s racist to anybody,” he said. Later, Mr. Heath paid a visit to Mr. Poole, the chairman of the county commission. Mr. Poole, a Republican, said Southern governors were wrong to take the battle flag down. He noted that he, too, had graduated from Haralson County High School in 1974, and had played safety and outside linebacker on the football team. “I was a Rebel,” he said, “for four years.” But not everyone is so comfortable. Angelica Griffin is also an African-American, and also played sports at the high school. She said she was “terrified” to criticize the flag while she was there. Ms. Griffin, 28, recently completed law school at DePaul University in Chicago and is studying for the bar exam. After the Charleston shootings, she said, she posted her displeasure with the flag on social media, sparking debate and pushback from white friends back home. “People were so apt to defend it, without even thinking about other people and how that flag makes them feel,” she said. But Ms. Griffin also spoke about the time, in 2008, when her mother lost her job. White Haralson County neighbors showered her mother with money and gift cards so she could afford to drop her off at college. “You know what? It doesn’t make sense,” Ms. Griffin said. “It’s the great conundrum of the South.”

Georgia
Flags
Southern US
American Civil War
Black People,African-Americans
Discrimination
Race and Ethnicity


Meteorite Offers 2-Billion-Year-Old Glimpse of Mars

Abstract: A meteorite found in the Sahara, one of the oldest ever to come from Mars, offers evidence that life could have existed there more than two billion years ago, researchers say. The 0.7-pound fragment contains more water than any other known Martian meteorite. “It’s about 6,000 parts per million of water,” said Carl B. Agee , a planetary scientist at the University of New Mexico who led the study. “That’s the water locked into the mineral structure of the meteorite.” By comparison, there are more than 100 other known meteorites from Mars, and most have a water content of 200 parts per million. Image Scientists are using water recovered from a Martian meteorite to gauge conditions on the planet more than two billion years ago. Credit Carl Agee The new findings were published online by the journal Science. The meteorite contains organic carbon similar to that found in other Martian meteorites. But it is 10 times as old, dating from the early part of the most recent geologic epoch on Mars, called the Amazonian. Most other meteorites from Mars are about 200 million years old. The meteorite most likely came from an explosive volcano, Dr. Agee said. Its unusual composition — cemented fragments of basalt — is consistent with observations made by recent Martian rovers and orbiters. This led researchers to conclude that the meteorite came from the planet’s crust. The water captured in the meteorite may have come from underground water or surface waters near the explosion, Dr. Agee said. “The sample may give us an idea of what volcanic activity was like then, but it also gives us a glimpse of what the surface of Mars was like at that time,” he said, adding that the abundance of water “suggests that it’s within the realm of possibility that life could have existed 2.1 billion years ago.”

Mars
Meteors and Meteorites
Research
Science Journal


Would You Slather on Sunscreen if New York City Gave It Away?

Abstract: Levi Goldhirsch, who was celebrating his 21st birthday in Coney Island on Wednesday, learned the hard way what happens to summertime beachgoers with no sunscreen on. Among the hundreds who flocked to the sand on a day of sunny skies and temperatures in the 80s, Mr. Goldhirsch had spent two hours in the sun, and his skin — dermatologists, avert your eyes — had turned a tender-looking pink. “I celebrate my sunburn,” Mr. Goldhirsch said. “But I worry about pain.” As Mr. Goldhirsch was baking in the sun, New York City’s comptroller proposed a solution that could make life easier for those like him, and mitigate what officials call a public health risk of skin cancer. The proposal by the comptroller, Scott M. Stringer , calls for a system of dispensers, installed at the city’s parks, pools and beaches, that would dole out free sunscreen. The specifics, including when the program would begin and how it would be paid for, have yet to be worked out. But in a news release and a report promoting the plan, Mr. Stringer said it could be put into effect at little cost. The proposal takes its inspiration from similar programs in Miami Beach and Boston , which provide public sunscreen dispensers paid for mostly by nongovernmental organizations. In Miami Beach, 50 dispensers on city beaches and in parks pump out an SPF 30 lotion infused with sea kelp supplied by a private company, Destination Brands. A local hospital, Mount Sinai Medical Center, provided the dispensers. The city manages the program. Image Nicolas Gonzales, 5, and Vito Canales, 7, helping each other slather on sunscreen in Coney Island on Wednesday. Credit Hilary Swift for The New York Times In Boston, the program is sponsored and managed by the Melanoma Foundation of New England, which said it would help a program get off the ground in New York City. A spokeswoman for New York City’s mayor, Bill de Blasio, said his administration would review Mr. Stringer’s proposal. Whether the city’s discerning sun worshipers would embrace such a handout remained an open question. Carmen Canales, 53, a cleaner from Queens who was enjoying the beach in Coney Island with her four children on Wednesday, said she would not use a free sunscreen because she liked certain brands. “Some people prefer their own sunscreen,” she said, having slathered her family in a white coating of SPF 70 sunscreen from Peru. “I prefer this because I know for my kids’ body, it’s good.” Sitting on the boardwalk nearby, Tony Brandao, 65, an actor who lives in the Bay Ridge section of Brooklyn, had a similar reaction. He pointed to pink splotches on his forehead while describing himself as a sunscreen user. He said he would have to know what kind of sunscreen was being provided before he could say whether he would use it. “It depends what kind it was, it depends what number it was,” he said. Then he thought a moment and added: “The city doesn’t give anything away, so why not?” Mr. Stringer did not specify in his proposal what type of sunscreen to be used, but he cited dermatologists’ recommendations that it be at least SPF 30. “Skin cancer is a serious public health concern, and it demands government attention,” he said in the release. Image Tony Brandao, left, said he would have to know what kind of sunscreen the city would provide before saying whether he would use it, but then added: “The city doesn’t give anything away, so why not?” Credit Hilary Swift for The New York Times Others said they would not be so choosy. Sitting in Bryant Park in Manhattan with no sunscreen during a lunch break, Zenzilé Green-Daniel, 41, said the program would motivate her to use sunscreen more often. “I think that if it was available and I saw it, I would use it,” she said. “It’s kind of like hand sanitizer. I won’t go out of my way but if I see it, I will use it.” That kind of response, public health officials said, is what makes the dispenser plan common sense. “You can try to educate people, you can try to remind them,” said Dr. Marc Gourevitch, chair of the Department of Population Health at the New York University School of Medicine, “but if you actually make it easy to do something, people are much more likely to adopt a healthful behavior.” Boston and Miami Beach both experienced some difficulties with their programs initially. When the Boston program began last summer, the sunscreen dispensed by the machines was so thick that it was hard to rub in and caused the machines to clog, according to Ryan Woods, director of external affairs for the Boston parks department. Some dispensers doled out excessive amounts, leaving workers to clean up surplus sunscreen from park benches, trash cans and even statues, Mr. Woods said. Nonetheless, the managers of the pilot program were given another year to work out the kinks, along with a less viscous sunscreen and better dispensers. The Miami Beach program, which also began last year, has been viewed as a strong success since workers fixed a clogging issue, said Tonya Daniels, a spokeswoman for the city. The program was recently cited in a White House news release related to an initiative by Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. meant to combat cancer. Back in Coney Island, Mr. Goldhirsch did not let his sunburn get in the way of a good time. But he said he wished there had been free sunscreen available for his birthday. “Of course,” he said, “I think it’s a great idea.”

Sunscreen
Sunburn
Office of the Comptroller NYC
Scott M Stringer
NYC
Skin cancer
Parks


In Remote Settlement High on Tibetan Plateau, Buddhist Spirituality Soars

Abstract: Image A Buddhist monk looking out on the Yarchen Gar nunnery in China, where thousands of nuns live in makeshift huts. Credit Gilles Sabrie for The New York Times YARCHEN GAR, China — Even by the standards of the phenomenal sights of Tibet, Yarchen Gar is a wonder on the high plateau: thousands of ramshackle homes clustered on a remote peninsula at the bend of a river, each one the domicile of a nun who has come here to study Tibetan Buddhism . In those cramped buildings, many built by the residents, the nuns pray, meditate and sleep. On the higher west bank of the river are the homes of monks. Narrow wooden bridges connect the two areas. Residents estimate there are 10,000 people here, almost all Tibetan with a handful of Han, the dominant ethnicity in China. The vast majority being women, this is one of the largest communities of nuns in the world — certainly the largest nun shantytown. Image Nuns gathered for a meal before a prayer and study session. Credit Gilles Sabrie for The New York Times Though it is not on any maps, I visited Yarchen Gar on a two-week trip across the Kham region of Tibet in October. The Chinese Army invaded Kham in 1950, and the area now lies in the western part of Sichuan Province. As with much of the region, Yarchen Gar is above 13,000 feet. Winters are brutal here, but the days were still warm in October. Nuns were picnicking on a hill overlooking the settlement. At the top of the hill is a towering golden statue of Padmasambhava, also known as Guru Rinpoche, an Indian Buddhist master who introduced Tantric Buddhism to Tibet in the eighth century. To the north, eight white stupas and a wall mark a distant sky burial site, where human corpses are cut up in a funeral ritual and vultures feast on the remains. Image A hut under construction in Yarchen Gar. Credit Gilles Sabrie for The New York Times Tiny meditation cells made of thin boards or plastic siding dot the southern side of the hill with the statue. They are smaller even than the homes below, wide enough to allow only one person to sit. Some have glass windows overlooking the riverside enclave, and others are dark, with no windows. In the cramped buildings, the nuns pray, meditate and sleep. On the higher west bank of the river are the homes of monks. Narrow wooden bridges connect the two areas. Down in the settlement, I met a young nun from Lhasa , the Tibetan capital, who spun a prayer wheel in one hand. “I came here to learn,” said the nun, whose name is being withheld because Chinese security officers have imprisoned ordinary Tibetans who speak with foreign journalists. She said she had been here for two years. She spoke some English and was eager to try it out; she had studied it in Lhasa. Like all nuns and monks across Tibet, she was dressed in crimson robes. Image The cramped living conditions in the Yarchen Gar nunnery. Credit Gilles Sabrie for The New York Times This is the second-largest “gar,” which means monastic encampment in Tibetan. The largest, Larung Gar, in a valley to the northeast, has more monks than nuns. Workers there are now demolishing individual homes, on the orders of officials. Some clergy members are being forced to leave. That kind of destruction is not taking place at Yarchen Gar. Nuns did not mention anything of the sort, though officials did order sections to be demolished in 2001. I saw women carrying wooden planks and white window frames for building or renovating homes. There was the occasional sound of hammering. “Yarchen is very impressive, an island covered with cells,” said Katia Buffetrille, an anthropologist and Tibet scholar at École Pratique des Hautes Études in Paris who visited Yarchen Gar in July. “I was struck by the size, not having been there before.” “The nuns with whom I spoke, among them a nun from Ganze who had already been there seven years, were very happy to be there,” she added. “The cells you see on the hill are an indication of the deep faith these nuns have: They meditate in these tiny plastic cells where it must be very hot in summer and incredibly cold in winter.” Some Westerners might call the settlement a slum. The homes are patchworks of boards and thin metal sheets, with the occasional piece of plastic tarp covering a part of the roof or walls. Narrow lanes wind among them. Depending on the wind, the air can be thick with the smell of undrained sewage. The buildings have no running water. Residents line up with plastic jugs at public faucets at the edge of the settlement. They bring clothes to wash at those faucets, too. Image A communal water tap on a street in Yarchen Gar. Credit Gilles Sabrie for The New York Times The monastery at the heart of Yarchen Gar, also called Yachen Gar, was founded in 1985 by Achuk Rinpoche, who followed the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism. The monastery’s focus was on meditation. At first, there were only a dozen disciples, but the number grew as fame of the rinpoche’s teachings spread. Eventually, those running the monastery decided to separate the monks and the nuns and have each group live on separate sides of the river. Achuk Rinpoche died in 2011. The mantle of leadership has passed on to another man, Asang Tulku, believed to be a reincarnation of a previous religious leader. Men are not allowed into the center of the nuns’ enclave. One afternoon, a worker bringing to the area bags of yak dung, which residents use for fuel, had to unload the bags at the head of a main street that bisects the enclave. Nuns picked up one bag each. Image The Yarchen Gar nunnery as seen from a shop’s window. Credit Gilles Sabrie for The New York Times Anyone can move freely along the edge of the settlement, where there are convenience stores run by nuns. One shop had rolls of thin plastic sheets with patterns that serve as floor covering. Nearby was an austere restaurant with large metal steamers of both bread and vegetarian dumplings sitting outside. People here do not eat meat. Inside a large white temple, scores of nuns sat in a cavernous hall on the first floor making yak butter sculptures, to be used for a ceremony. At 3:30 p.m., numerous nuns streamed out of the temple after clambering downstairs from the second floor. Fifteen minutes later, many nuns went inside and up to rooms on that floor, then sat down to eat. In a large grassy yard nearby, dozens of nuns sat praying at a small white shrine. Monks gathered on the west bank. In one temple, scores of them sat on the ground floor listening to a teacher. A few nomad men listened from the outdoor steps. Image Nuns chatting near a giant statue of Padmasambhava, an Indian Buddhist master. Credit Gilles Sabrie for The New York Times We had driven into Yarchen Gar from the northwest, first descending to the plains from a pass and then going through the village of Acha. In the distance was a long range of mountains capped by snow. At twilight, we continued toward those mountains, crossing brown hills with grazing yaks and nomad tents made of black wool and white canvas. We were climbing toward another pass, and leaving behind the world of those devoted to prayer and meditation.

Nun
Monasteries
Tibet
Buddhism
Meditation
Sichuan
Yarchen Gar


13 Firms That Received Bailout Money Owe Back Taxes

Abstract: At least 13 companies receiving billions of dollars in bailout money owe more than $220 million in unpaid federal taxes, a lawmaker said Thursday. The lawmaker, Representative John Lewis , Democrat of Georgia and chairman of a House subcommittee overseeing the federal bailout, said two companies owed more than $100 million each. The House Ways and Means Committee’s subcommittee on oversight discovered the unpaid taxes in a review of tax records from 23 of the companies receiving the most bailout money, Mr. Lewis said, as he opened a hearing on the issue. “This is shameful; it is a disgrace,” he said. “We are going to get to the bottom of what is going on here.” The subcommittee said it could not legally release the names of the companies owing taxes. It said one recipient had almost $113 million in unpaid federal income taxes from 2005 and 2006. A second recipient owed almost $102 million dating to before 2004. Mr. Lewis said that his panel planned to review tax records from other companies receiving federal money, but that he was unsure if it would look at every one. Banks and other companies receiving federal money were required to sign contracts stating that they had no unpaid taxes, Mr. Lewis said. But he said the Treasury Department did not ask them to turn over their tax records. The Internal Revenue Service, a division of the Treasury Department, said it would expect the unpaid taxes to be paid. “The I.R.S. recognizes that those entities that receive taxpayer support have a special obligation to pay their taxes,” an agency spokesman, Frank Keith, said in a statement. “And these taxpayer accounts will remain closely monitored by the I.R.S. to ensure that the full amount of taxes due are paid.” Mr. Keith said there could be many reasons for an unpaid balance, including the possibility that a bill was being challenged.

Emergency Economic Stabilization Act (2008)


An Arsenal Team That Thrives on Change

Abstract: LONDON — “We live in a world where we have to be criticized. The only response we can give is on the pitch. We did that convincingly.” So said Arsène Wenger after his Arsenal team opened up a five-point lead at the top of England’s Premier League. Outside Saturday, a gale was howling. Arsenal mastered the elements, and the opponent, Liverpool, with exquisite goals from Santi Cazorla and Aaron Ramsey in a 2-0 win between contenders for the title. Earlier in the day, Manchester City had beaten hapless Norwich City to a pulp, striking seven times through seven different scorers. And Chelsea’s coach José Mourinho said he could “smell” defeat coming at halftime. Mourinho blamed himself for making “11 wrong choices” in the team that went down 2-0 at Newcastle. But it is at the Emirates Stadium, Arsenal’s home in North London, where the winds of change are most keenly felt. Back in August, when Arsenal lost the opening game of the season against Aston Villa, the fans were baying for Wenger’s retirement. Those who shouted loudest were singing the manager’s name on Saturday. Hence his philosophical remarks after the game, and his acknowledgment that this is still early in the season. Indeed, it is early in the week because on Wednesday Arsenal faces Borussia Dortmund in Germany in the Champions League, and next Sunday Arsenal visits Manchester United at Old Trafford. Huge games, potentially defining contests a third of the way through the campaign, but contests that suit Wenger’s character and purpose. He may have just turned 64, and he is in his 18th term as Arsenal head coach and manager, but he positively thrives on pressure. Arsenal’s goal scorers on Saturday each typify the manner of the coach and his insistence that soccer is not simply a contest, but something that should embody entertainment at its highest level. We know that after that humbling defeat against Villa, Wenger went out and spent more than 40 million pounds — far more than he had ever spent before on one player — to buy Mesut Özil from Real Madrid. That purchase for nearly $65 million galvanized the Gunners. Not only did Özil step right up to a high-performance, high-entertainment level for the team, but Ramsey in particular added zest and belief and goals to his midfield running. Cazorla, though, was injured at the time of Özil’s arrival. Now that the Spaniard is back, it is almost as if he has a compulsion to be even more dynamic this season than he was during last. He is, at barely 5 foot 6, among the smallest players in the league. He looks almost like a young street beggar, eager for time on the ball, buzzing, darting, the size of a boy in a man’s shorts that come down to his knees. But it is a grown-up talent that resides inside that frame, without a doubt. Brendan Rodgers, Liverpool’s coach, admitted that his players couldn’t match the mobility or the speed of passing of Arsenal on the night. They couldn’t find Cazorla, much less control him, in the 19th minute. First, he popped up 10 yards from the target to head the ball against the frame of the goal. When it ricocheted from that post, Cazorla was quicker of mind and swifter of movement than anyone else. His momentum was still carrying him to the right of goal, causing him to fall to the ground. Yet in a moment, he readjusted his weight and volleyed the ball at an angle back across the face of goal and inside the far post. The coaches at Arsenal have yet to work out, almost two years after he arrived, whether this little Spanish dynamo is right-footed or left. The answer is both: Maybe the left was predominant from birth, but from childhood on, he practiced in the streets and on the parks to master either foot. Ramsey is a different story. Born in South Wales, a natural athlete with energy to burn, he was first scouted for rugby, but soccer was thankfully his passion. Three years ago, when Ramsey was in a cast after his right leg was horribly shattered by compound fractures to both the tibia and fibula, his coach, Wenger, handed him a challenge and an extended contract to fulfill it. “Come back stronger” was the essence. Any Arsenal watcher will confirm that Ramsey is doing that, week in, and week out. Like Cazorla, like Özil, and like so many protégés in Wenger’s collection, his role is midfield. Ramsey, however, has discovered how sharp, how swift and how predatory he can be around the opponents’ penalty area. Saturday’s goal was his 10th in 15 appearances in all competitions this season. He seems to come from nowhere, to smell the blood of a scoring opportunity, and more to the point to know how to finish. Just less than an hour had elapsed when, like Cazorla, Ramsey found that Liverpool had left him a yard of space. He was outside the penalty box, and the ball was bouncing. No matter. He allowed it one little bounce, then another, waiting for just the right height, the right moment to strike. Then he leaned to his right and cut across the ball with the outside of his right foot. The ball flew off him, seemingly heading for the top left of the goal as he faced it but then gradually, gracefully arching. The swerve outfoxed Liverpool goalie Simon Mignolet, and the ball found its line between the keeper’s outstretched hand and nestled beneath his crossbar. It was as fine a pitch as any golfer could make, but struck with the presence of opponents all around. If anything, Ramsey used the wind, or certainly he judged it to perfection. “We really enjoyed it today,” said Arsenal’s quiet Welshman. “I was waiting for the ball to sit up nicely, so I could strike it cleanly. I’ve looked up to players who score like that from midfield for 10 years, so now I feel confident I can have a crack.” Confidence is the word Wenger most uses. Confidence, time and trust are remarkable attributes in a game of soccer.

Soccer
Arsenal Soccer Team
Liverpool Soccer Team
Premier League


Ex-Volkswagen Chief Investigated by Germany in Emissions Cheating Scandal

Abstract: German prosecutors said for the first time on Friday that they had evidence that Volkswagen’s former chief executive took part in the company’s emissions fraud, significantly raising the stakes for the carmaker and undercutting its attempts to put the scandal behind it. Martin Winterkorn, who resigned as chief executive in September 2015 after the emissions cheating came to light, is under investigation for fraud and false advertising, according to prosecutors in Braunschweig, Germany. The authorities also increased the number of people under investigation and portrayed a far more extensive conspiracy than before. Mr. Winterkorn and Hans Dieter Pötsch, the Volkswagen supervisory board chairman, were already under investigation for violations of securities laws. But the new fraud allegations suggest that prosecutors suspect Mr. Winterkorn had a more active role than he or the company have acknowledged. The new allegations also point to a larger number of conspirators, and they further undermine Volkswagen’s attempts to portray the fraud, in which its diesel vehicles emitted lower levels of pollutants in lab testing than in the real world, as the work of executives and engineers below the level of its board. The assertions leave the automaker even more vulnerable to lawsuits by shareholders in the United States and Europe, who are seeking billions of dollars in damages. Prosecutors said in a statement that the number of people officially under investigation had risen to 37 from 21, after police searches of dozens of homes and offices in and around Wolfsburg, Germany, where Volkswagen has its headquarters. The latest developments signal that Volkswagen is still far from able to move beyond a scandal that has contributed to a loss of market share in Europe and to slumping sales in the United States. This month, Volkswagen pleaded guilty to violations of the Clean Air Act in a settlement with the United States government that also includes a $4.3 billion fine. In a detailed admission of wrongdoing, Volkswagen avoided implicating any members of the management board. How Volkswagen’s ‘Defeat Devices’ Worked Volkswagen admitted that 11 million of its vehicles were equipped with software that was used to cheat on emissions tests. This is how the technology works and what it now means for vehicle owners. But investigators in Braunschweig said in a statement on Friday that there was evidence that Mr. Winterkorn “could have known of the manipulated software and its effect sooner than he has maintained.” Just last week, Mr. Winterkorn told a committee of the German Parliament that he had heard of the illegal software only days before the scandal came to light, and in a statement on Friday he stood by that testimony. Although Mr. Winterkorn has resigned, the upper layer of management at Volkswagen remains dominated by longtime insiders, including Matthias Müller, the current chief executive. Volkswagen, known for its insular corporate culture, has been reluctant to appoint outsiders to top positions. One of few people from outside the company to have joined the management board since the scandal broke is leaving amid signs of friction over her role. Christine Hohmann-Dennhardt, a former judge in Germany’s highest court, had been brought in to overhaul Volkswagen’s system for preventing wrongdoing. Volkswagen said in a statement on Thursday that Ms. Hohmann-Dennhardt would be leaving , in part because she and the company differed in their “understanding of responsibilities and future operating structures within the function she leads.” United States authorities have indicted six former and current Volkswagen employees on charges of conspiring to defraud the government by programming pollution controls in diesel motors to function properly only when software detected that a test was underway. Five of the six suspects are in Germany, and one is in jail in Miami. The likelihood of more indictments may be constraining Volkswagen executives’ ability to travel outside Germany, where they are less likely to be extradited to the United States. The company sent a much smaller contingent of executives to the North American International Auto Show in Detroit this month than usual, but said it was because of a reassessment of the resources it commits to car shows.

Volkswagen
Germany
Vehicle Emissions
Fraud
Martin Winterkorn
Cars


Cuba’s National Assembly President to Leave His Post

Abstract: Ricardo Alarcón will leave his post as president of Cuba ’s National Assembly in February after two decades on the job, furthering a gradual generational transition that President Raúl Castro has recently begun to prioritize. The government recently elevated its foreign minister, Bruno Rodríguez, to the Communist Party’s political bureau, and with the departure of Mr. Alarcón, 75, analysts said the groundwork was being laid for a time when neither the Castros nor their contemporaries governed. He served for years as Cuba’s main point man on relations with the United States, and he has often been described as Cuba’s third-most powerful official. But Mr. Alarcón was also seen as a loyalist of Fidel more than Raúl, and speculation about his fate has been swirling since last summer, when the police arrested one of his top aides on suspicion of corruption and spying.

Castro Raul
Cuba
Alarcon Ricardo
Rodriguez Bruno


HSBC May Sell 3 Prominent Office Buildings

Abstract: HSBC Holdings may sell three of its signature office buildings, including its world headquarters at Canary Wharf in London, to raise cash as it tries to avoid a bailout from the British government. HSBC is gauging interest in its 45-story tower at 8 Canada Square in London, its Fifth Avenue skyscraper in New York and its Paris offices on the Champs Elysées, said Ruth Lavelle, a spokeswoman in London for HSBC. The Sunday Times of London reported the potential sales Sunday at a combined asking price of £2.7 billion ($3.96 billion). Ms. Lavelle, in an e-mail message, said she could not confirm a price. “As part of managing a significant global real estate portfolio HSBC is testing the market with three of its landmark property assets,” HSBC said in a statement. “HSBC constantly monitors the commercial property market carefully, making decisions based on what is most appropriate for the business and our stakeholders.” The bank is seeking to sell at a time when financing for commercial real estate is difficult and values are falling. In New York, transactions dropped 40 percent in the first quarter compared with a year earlier, according to the real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield. Values in Britain fell 29 percent in the 12 months through February, Investment Property Databank said in a March report. HSBC would probably lease the offices back from any buyer, The Sunday Times reported. HSBC raised 12.5 billion pounds in Britain’s largest rights offer this month. The bank needs cash to help counter the $15.5 billion pretax loss of its North American operation for 2008 and to add to the $53 billion it set aside during the last three years to cover bad loans. It has so far avoided taking government funding, unlike Royal Bank of Scotland Group and Lloyds Banking Group. HSBC’s London headquarters accommodates about 8,000 workers and was designed by Norman Foster. The 29-story New York property, built in 1985, is at 452 Fifth Avenue, between 39th and 40th Streets, and has 500,000 square feet, according to the Web site MrOfficeSpace.com .

Office Buildings and Commercial Properties


Dennis Hastert’s Lawyers Ask for a Sentencing Delay

Abstract: CHICAGO — Lawyers for former Speaker J. Dennis Hastert have asked a federal judge to delay sentencing in his banking law conviction because of his recent hospitalization for a stroke, as well as for spinal and blood infections — saying he has difficulty walking and will require at least several weeks of rehabilitation. Mr. Hastert, who turned 74 this month, has been unable to prepare with his lawyers for his Feb. 29 sentencing because of his lingering health issues, according to his defense team’s three-page filing in Federal District Court in Chicago on Friday. The document does not request a specific new date for sentencing but suggests that a status hearing be held on March 7. Mr. Hastert, an Illinois Republican, was accused in May of evading banking regulations as part of a plan to pay $3.5 million to someone identified only as Individual A “in order to compensate for and keep confidential his prior misconduct” against that person decades earlier. Two people briefed on an F.B.I. inquiry have said that the money went toward covering up claims of sexual misconduct with a male student decades ago, but no details of the misconduct or about the identity of Individual A emerged in court proceedings or documents. In October, Mr. Hastert pleaded guilty under a plea deal to a felony count of evading bank reporting laws. The motion requesting the sentencing delay says Mr. Hastert was admitted to the hospital in the first week of November, just several days after his guilty plea, and was not released until Jan. 15. It adds that Mr. Hastert needs up to six weeks of in-home care that is likely to be followed by outpatient physical therapy. “Mr. Hastert continues to need assistance for most daily activities, and also needs both a walker and a leg brace to walk in his household,” the filing says. “He will also need close follow-up with several specialists during this process.” “When home care is complete,” the filing goes on to say, “Mr. Hastert will likely be recommended for outpatient physical therapy, which could last between six and 12 additional weeks depending upon the course of recovery.” Friday’s filing does not say which ailment first prompted Mr. Hastert’s hospitalization or whether some of his health issues arose in the hospital. It does say the spinal infection required surgery, and it described the blood infection as “serious.” The filing says that Mr. Hastert’s lawyers have been in touch with prosecutors and that prosecutors do not object to putting sentencing off. A spokesman for the United States attorney’s office in Chicago, Joseph Fitzpatrick, said, “We are in receipt of the motion and are reviewing it.” Mr. Hastert pleaded guilty on Oct. 28. In the written plea agreement, he directly acknowledged for the first time that he had sought to pay someone the $3.5 million to hide his misconduct against that person dating back several decades — about the time that Mr. Hastert was a high school wrestling coach. Mr. Hastert had allegedly paid more than $1.7 million to the person, sometimes in lump sums of $100,000 cash, by the time the scheme was discovered. The indictment said the payments stopped after F.B.I. agents first questioned Mr. Hastert in December 2014. Prosecutors have recommended that he serve no more than six months in prison. Mr. Hastert’s lawyers are likely to ask for probation. Mr. Hastert was a little-known Illinois lawmaker whose reputation for congeniality helped him ascend the ranks of Congress to become the longest-serving Republican speaker in history, from 1999 to 2007.

J Dennis Hastert
US
Illinois
Crime
Criminal Sentence


China Builds Out the Air as Frustrations Mount Below

Abstract: BEIJING — An angry mob ransacks a terminal. A frustrated passenger tries to leave the plane while it taxis. A pilot, who has had it up to here, advises fliers to leave the plane and mill about the tarmac — and they do. Welcome to China’s unfriendly skies. The world’s second-largest economy boasts some of the world’s worst flight delays and missed connections. Angry passengers have become such a fixture of flying in China that the government has developed a blacklist for the dangerously unruly. Chinese leaders are aware of the problem. Spurred by the strain on the air traffic system as well as a slowing economy, China has begun a huge airport building project that could give the country 60 more airports beyond the current total of about 200 by 2020. It committed to spending $12 billion on airport construction and revamping this year alone. A $12 billion airport under construction 30 miles southwest of Beijing’s center will eventually more than double the city’s air traffic capacity. The new airport, Daxing International, will have up to seven runways and 7.5 million square feet of floor space. Frequent visitors to Beijing may get a feeling they have seen this before. Less than a decade ago, the newly built international terminal at the city’s old airport became a widely lauded symbol of China’s industrial might and political willpower. But last year, the old airport handled nearly 90 million passengers — 10 million more than it was built for. “It’s not a question of whether there will be enough passengers,” said Jia Zhiguo, an assistant general manager for the airport construction project. “It’s whether we will be able to handle all of the passengers.” China has unleashed a huge spending spree to prop up its slowing economy, raising concerns about its growing debt and its surplus of such things as steel factories and coal plants. But Daxing shows that despite China’s economic ascension, decades of major construction projects and worries about overcapacity, the fast-growing and increasingly affluent country still has basic infrastructure needs it has to meet. “Infrastructure investment in China is often misallocated because of the inadequacies of strategic planning, the availability of essentially free credit, and the lack of consequences for the builders and local governments when investments do not yield sufficient returns,” said Scott Kennedy, the deputy director of the Freeman Chair in China Studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. As Chinese pockets have deepened and leisure time has grown, so has the flood of air traffic in China. Chinese airlines ferried 440 million passengers in 2015, with that number expected to grow to 1.19 billion by 2034. That has led to frustrating delays. Airports in Shanghai, Hangzhou and Nanjing ranked at the bottom for on-time departures among 100 major airports in November, according to FlightStats, a flight information provider. Airports in Xiamen, Guangzhou, Kunming and Beijing were not much better. This year, China’s aviation regulators banned airports in Beijing, Shanghai and Nanjing from adding more flights until they could improve their on-time flight record. “I travel around China frequently, and there’s always a problem,” said Paul Adkins, managing director of AZ China Ltd., a consulting firm. Once, his short flight from Shanghai to Beijing became a 24-hour gantlet that included sleeping over at a college dormitory and being locked in a bus without air-conditioning for an hour. Another time, he and fellow passengers were ordered to run through the airport for a plane that had already left. “How many times have we sat in the plane at the gate waiting for clearance?” Mr. Adkins said in an email. “The best way to manage hundreds of passengers is to bottle them up inside the airplane.” Image Construction of the new Beijing airport in the Daxing district, in October. The first terminal is expected to be open by 2019. Credit Thomas Peter/Reuters Stories and videos of passengers losing their cool have become staples of the Chinese internet. One video, which went viral three years ago, shows an airline employee who has to be restrained from attacking a passenger who beaned him on the head with a water bottle. “It was by far the wildest thing I ever saw at an airport anywhere,” said Matthew Sheehan, a journalist who shot the video. Crowded skies are only part of the problem. About four-fifths of China’s airspace is controlled by the military, which can arbitrarily cancel flights if needed. A decentralized regional air traffic control system creates additional barriers for commercial aircraft flying domestically. In 2015, more than 30 percent of China’s flight delays were a result of air traffic control restrictions. China’s risk-averse aviation institutions also enforce a much higher standard of operation in the name of safety, which can decrease airport efficiency. In the United States or Europe, flights at major airports land every 30 seconds or so, said David Yu, the Asia executive director at IBA Group, an aircraft consultancy. In China, the gap can be three times that to minimize the chances of an accident. “The levels of activity we’re seeing in China and the tremendous growth in air traffic has obviously made the air traffic controllers unable to catch up,” he said. “They know that they’re cautious. It’s a learning curve from their point of view.” So far it works: China’s major airlines are widely considered safe . The airport construction site — a muddy expanse dotted with lumbering trucks and a dizzying array of cranes — is a hive of activity. There are workers on site 24 hours a day to complete the airport in time. Much of the initial construction for the transportation hub underneath the airport is hidden from sight, but scaffolding outlines the basic contours of the main terminal. Daxing’s first terminal is scheduled to be open by 2019. The hub underneath will connect the airport by high-speed rail and train to the neighboring cities of Hebei and Tianjin as well as to Beijing. It was designed by the French airport design firm ADPI and Zaha Hadid Architects. The design of the terminal, with docking piers radiating out like the spokes of a wheel, has attracted its fair share of digs in China . Online, the airport is sometimes referred to as the “Patrick airport,” a reference to the pink starfish character from the cartoon series “SpongeBob SquarePants .” “This is the most compact form you can have for an airport terminal with that capacity,” said Cristiano Ceccato, an associate at Hadid Architects who helped put together the winning bid for the design. “In the end it was simple geometry. There’s only so many ways you stack people or stack planes around to maximize contact with something at minimum distance.” That compactness means that walking between the two farthest points in the first terminal should take no longer than eight minutes. The airport’s six piers have been designed to create additional contact areas to house more gates, thus increasing the number of flights the airport can handle each hour. “It’s part of a new airport typology which is just emerging, but it has been taken much further in this new one,” said Henrik Rothe, a senior lecturer in airport design at Cranfield University in England. When completed, the airport’s first terminal will be able to handle 45 million passengers a year. Two additional phases will bump up the total capacity to 100 million by 2040. Don’t expect everything to be ready in the first phase of construction, though, planners warn. “An airport at this scale hasn’t been built before,” Mr. Rothe said. “The expectation to be working from day one is quite high.”

Airlines,airplanes Airport China Delays Economy


A Bill Encouraging to Distressed Homeowners, but Its Reach Is Unclear

Abstract: The $700 billion bailout package developed by Congress is primarily intended to put financial institutions on a firmer footing. That, consumer experts said, can only be positive for most Americans. The package should ease tight credit, hold down interest rates and prevent a sharp rise in unemployment. But it does not go as far as some Democrats and consumer advocacy groups would have liked in helping distressed homeowners. The legislation does take steps to help some troubled borrowers modify their mortgages. As part of the package, the Treasury Department would purchase problematic mortgage-related assets. The bill would also set up a program to assist homeowners by encouraging the companies that service the mortgage-related assets the Treasury owns to take advantage of the Hope for Homeowners program. That program was created as part of the housing bill signed into law in July and goes into effect on Wednesday. It will allow some borrowers to refinance their mortgages into fixed-rate loans with terms up to 30 years, among other things. The problem is that “it is not at all clear how many loans the government will take ownership of,” Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Economy.com , said in an e-mail message. “It depends if the government can successfully run auctions for whole mortgage loans, perhaps mortgage pools that back the mortgage securities. I am hopeful the government will succeed in doing this, but it is an open question.” Consumer groups and some Democrats had been pushing for a provision that would have given bankruptcy judges the ability to modify a troubled borrower’s primary mortgage. Such a provision, its supporters argued, could have broken the logjam in renegotiating the terms of problem mortgages. Because mortgages were broken into pieces and sold to a variety of investors as securities, consumer advocates said in interviews, modifying the terms becomes tricky. For the government to effectively modify terms, the Treasury needs to have significant control over the loans. At this point, it is unclear how much control it will ultimately have. “Keep in mind these loans were sliced into pieces and sold off,” said Travis Plunkett, legislative director at the Consumer Federation of America in Washington. “It’s a bit like Humpty Dumpty, and it’s hard to put it together again.” If bankruptcy judges had the power to modify mortgages, it would not matter who owned the pieces. It also would have helped homeowners in cases where the Treasury had not purchased their mortgages, experts said. “It takes the decision-making capacity away from the holder and servicer of the loan and gives the court leverage to make that decision and to give the homeowner access to better loan terms,” said Alys Cohen, a staff lawyer at the National Consumer Law Center in Washington. Under current law, bankruptcy courts cannot alter the terms of mortgages on a person’s primary residence but can modify other secured loans, including those on second homes or boats. The financial industry has long opposed giving the courts this power for primary residences, which is known in industry parlance as a “cram down.” The industry says this gives lenders, and ultimately mortgage security investors, less confidence in the value of mortgages they make or buy. Still, Mr. Zandi said, “The bailout package should result in measurably more mortgage loan modifications and will thus help forestall the surge in foreclosures.” Alan White, a law professor at Valparaiso University in Indiana, agreed that “the structure being created is good,” but added, “It all depends on how it is implemented.” The problem with the Hope for Homeowners program, consumer advocates said, is that participation is entirely voluntary. “Despite widespread efforts to encourage voluntary loan modifications, it is clear that the financial services industry has failed to implement a loan modification strategy on a scale commensurate with the problem,” said Tara Twomey, a lawyer with National Consumer Law Center, who recently critiqued the program before the House Financial Services Committee. The legislation also includes a provision to help tenants whose landlord’s property is being foreclosed upon. “If there is a bona fide lease and we take over that property, we have to honor that lease,” said Steven Adamske, director of communications for Representative Barney Frank, a Massachusetts Democrat who is the chairman of the Financial Services Committee.

Troubled Asset Relief Program (2008)
Subprime Mortgage Crisis
Foreclosures
Mortgages
Housing
Personal Finances


NATO Chief Warns of Threats to Afghan Mission

Abstract: KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Militants using suicide attacks that cause large numbers of casualties in Afghanistan are trying to swing public opinion among NATO nations that have troops here, the alliance’s top official said Thursday. The bombers “want to influence Afghan public opinion, but at the same time the public opinion in our nations who provide the forces,” Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, NATO’s secretary general, said at a news conference with President Hamid Karzai. “Let’s not give them a ticket to ride.” Mr. de Hoop Scheffer said that convincing Western legislatures that the situation was not deteriorating was of “key importance.” He was leading a delegation of the alliance’s North Atlantic Council, consisting of its 26 permanent representatives. They met with local and international officials in Afghanistan. Some NATO members have been reluctant to provide troops for Afghanistan or have limited the nature of their participation, leading some participating countries to threaten to pull their troops out. Canada’s minority Conservative government, bowing to a major opposition demand, said Thursday that its military mission in southern Afghanistan would end in 2011 and would not be extended, Reuters reported. Canada has 2,500 troops in Afghanistan. Two suicide bombings this week left more than 140 people dead in the south, most of them civilians. The Afghan Defense Ministry said Thursday that Afghan and American-led coalition troops battled for five hours on Wednesday with militants north of Musa Qala, where Taliban militants were in control for much of 2007 before Afghan, American and British troops took the southern town and surrounding areas in Helmand Province in December. The Defense Ministry said 30 people suspected of being Taliban fighters were killed in the operation, during which coalition aircraft bombed militant hide-outs. The coalition, reporting no casualty figures, said 11 militants were detained in Wednesday’s operation, and 1,000 pounds of heroin and an arms cache were seized. Helmand is the world’s largest opium-producing region, and officials estimate that up to 40 percent of proceeds from the country’s drug trade are used to finance the insurgency. The southern region is also where the insurgency is most active, and NATO commanders have asked for more combat troops for the area. NATO’s International Security Assistance Forces now has 50,000 troops. Mr. de Hoop Scheffer said that more troops would be deployed but did not say how many or where they would go. NATO also lags in efforts to provide enough military trainers to mentor the fledgling Afghan National Army, Mr. de Hoop Scheffer said, calling it a “mission of necessity.” The United States, which has 28,000 service members in the country — both in the NATO-led mission and as part of a separate American-led counterterrorism coalition — is sending 3,200 more marines to Afghanistan in April, most of whom are expected to be stationed in Kandahar during their seven-month tour.

Afghanistan
North Atlantic Treaty Organization
Bombs and Explosives
Public Opinion
Scheffer Jaap de Hoop