An Ex-Inmate’s Lost Decade Under the Rockefeller Drug Laws

Abstract: THE last time Louis Carrasquillo was arrested, on Sutphin Boulevard in South Jamaica, Queens, he was 45 years old. It was 1995, and he had been getting high for 35 years; he started sniffing glue when he was 10, and was injecting heroin by 13. He had been arrested before, and spent time in state prison in the 1980s for the criminal sale of a controlled substance, though he said he sold drugs only when he needed money to support his habit. On that day, he was selling again, holding six $10 bags of crack cocaine. Mr. Carrasquillo sold two of the bags to an undercover police officer. He went to trial and was convicted, and, for the $20 deal, a judge gave him 12 1/2 to 25 years. So began one man’s experience with the Rockefeller drug laws, the statutes requiring long sentences for even nonviolent and even first-time offenders, which made New York’s policy among the toughest in the country. The laws took effect in 1973 and were eased somewhat in 2004 and 2005, around the time, coincidentally, that Mr. Carrasquillo was finally getting clean after nine years of heroin use behind prison walls. There is talk of ending the laws. The Assembly speaker, Sheldon Silver, is a vocal advocate of changing them, as is Governor Paterson. In February, a state commission recommended allowing judges more leeway to sentence offenders to treatment programs. In one sense, this prospect comes too late for Mr. Carrasquillo, who was released from prison last April, having served his 12 1/2 years. But he will be watching keenly what happens in Albany, he said in a recent interview, and he thinks that his experiences may be instructive. Mr. Carrasquillo was speaking from Samaritan Village, a residential drug treatment center in the Highbridge section of the Bronx, where he lives. He checked into the center the day after he left prison. He has been doing so well, administrators say, that he is training to be a substance abuse counselor, at a Samaritan Village branch in Midtown. Dressed in black corduroys, a gray button-down shirt and white Reeboks, and looking for all the world like a retiree, Mr. Carrasquillo, a 59-year-old Brooklyn native, made no excuses for the person he was for most of his life. Though he sometimes held onto jobs — the longest as a truck driver — he admits that he was an addict, a thief and a batterer of women. “I was uncaring, selfish, self-centered, mean, spiteful,” he said. “That was me.” Of the heroin, he added: “It just made me an animal. I didn’t care about anything. My own family, I didn’t care about. All I cared about was to get those drugs.” Yet there is another truth: Prison did not help. It did not help him stop using drugs — they were readily available on the inside, he said — and it did not make him a better person. In fact, he said, it made him and many other inmates worse. His cellmates included a double murderer and a man who had been arrested for possession of more than 1,000 pounds of cocaine. (Both were serving 25 years to life, roughly double Mr. Carrasquillo’s sentence for selling $20 worth of crack.) “It’s not a deterrent, because they come out bitter, angry, confused, and they just go back where they left off,” he said of prison. “There, you’re so busy thinking about survival that you don’t have time to make changes in yourself.” What finally enabled him to leave the drugs behind was the ability that he found in treatment to speak openly and fearlessly, first in a tiny addiction program he entered near the end of his sentence, and later at Samaritan Village, where he considers the other residents a second family. Mr. Carrasquillo said he was thinking about getting treatment in the days before he was arrested. Whether that would have happened is unknown. The only certainty is what happened next: a lost decade behind bars and, much later, in treatment programs, a measure of peace. Before, he said, heroin was his closest companion. Now he can be around for his parents, and he can help other addicts. And at long last, he has a life of his own. He has been clean since April 4, 2005, and that is still a source of wonder. “Today it’s 10:30, and I didn’t get high,” Mr. Carrasquillo said. “That’s a miracle.”

Drug Abuse and Traffic
Queens (NYC)
Police Department (NYC)
Prisons and Prisoners


Britain's Prime Minister Reshuffles Cabinet in Effort to Shore Up Support

Abstract: LONDON — Moving to outflank Labor Party mutineers urging him to resign, Prime Minister Gordon Brown reshuffled his cabinet on Friday to fill vacancies created by defectors and to bind the wavering loyalties of others to his increasingly weakened leadership. Acting with a mixture of stealth and old-style political savvy, Mr. Brown accelerated the announcement of his new lineup so as to lock in any other cabinet doubters before the full extent of Labor’s crushing defeat in Thursday’s local elections across England became known. Late on Friday, BBC tabulations gave Labor 23 percent of the vote, its worst showing ever and well behind the opposition Conservatives with 38 percent, a performance that would ensure a Labor defeat in a general election. Labor lost control of the last four major strongholds it had held going into the vote, leaving it without control of any of the English counties that are the principal power centers outside of the central government. But by the time the scale of defeat was clear, Mr. Brown had gathered the support needed to put together a new government, built around three main cabinet choices. The most significant of those was Alan Johnson, the 59-year-old former union leader who is favored by many in Labor to succeed Mr. Brown. He was promoted to the post of home secretary from his previous position as health minister. Two other cabinet heavyweights whose positions were in doubt — the chancellor of the Exchequer, Alistair Darling, and the foreign secretary, David Miliband — were reconfirmed in their jobs. Those decisions, like Mr. Johnson’s promotion, appeared for now to have broken the momentum of the cabinet meltdown that threatened to force Mr. Brown out. By the end of the day Friday, three more cabinet ministers had quit, bringing the total of full cabinet members who have resigned since Tuesday to five, out of a total of 23 in the old cabinet. The new resignations were the defense minister, John Hutton; the transport minister, Geoff Hoon ; and the Europe minister, Caroline Flint, who while not technically a member of the cabinet often sat in on its meetings. Alone among the three, Ms. Flint struck out at Mr. Brown, saying she and other female ministers had served as nothing but “female window dressing” since Mr. Brown replaced Tony Blair as prime minister two years ago. Mr. Hutton and Mr. Hoon, though leaving the government, pledged their continuing support to Mr. Brown. The trio joined three other cabinet ministers who quit earlier: the home secretary, Jacqui Smith ; the communities secretary, Hazel Blears; and the work and pensions secretary, James Purnell. It was Mr. Purnell’s sudden resignation on Thursday night, along with a letter urging Mr. Brown to quit “to give our party a fighting chance” of winning a general election, that appeared to put Mr. Brown at risk of a wholesale cabinet revolt. In the face of that threat, the 57-year-old prime minister worked through much of the night to patch together a new government. He then bled the details into the public domain hour by hour through much of Friday, staying a step ahead of the election results. The full lineup was not announced until moments before Mr. Brown appeared for a news conference later in the afternoon. Looking exhausted, he acknowledged that the party had suffered “a painful defeat” at the polls, but said that he would lead Labor into the general election that must be held before June 2010. Responding to questions about the revolt against him within the party, he said he considered it his duty not to quit at a time when Britain ’s economy was in crisis and its parliamentary system was tottering from a scandal over lawmakers’ expense abuses . “If I didn’t think I was the right person, leading the right team, I would not be standing here,” he said. He repeated the point at least half a dozen times, citing his upbringing as the son of a Presbyterian minister in Scotland as the basis for his conviction that he should stay on to guide the country through difficult times. “I will not waver; I will not walk out. I will get on with the job,” he said. Effectively, Mr. Brown survived only by bowing to the intransigence of cabinet heavyweights who had threatened to join the exodus from the government. Mr. Miliband refused to entertain the suggestion by Mr. Brown earlier in the week that he quit the foreign office to make way for Mr. Darling. When Mr. Brown’s aides began touting a Brown ultraloyalist, the schools and children’s secretary, Ed Balls, to take over from Mr. Darling at the Treasury , Mr. Darling, too, threatened to resign. In an effort to shore up his shrinking support within Labor, Mr. Brown replaced Ms. Flint with Glenys Kinnock, the wife of a former Labor leader, and appointed her to the House of Lords. He also gave a controversial job as the government’s “enterprise czar” to a business entrepreneur, Sir Alan Sugar, best known in Britain for his Donald Trump -like appearances as an ill-tempered employer in the reality television series “The Apprentice,” in which Sir Alan orders failed candidates offstage with a brusque “You’re fired!” But whether the prime minister had done more than buy time was uncertain. Anticipating further political damage to Labor from the results of Thursday’s voting across Britain for the European Parliament , which are to be made public on Sunday, Labor spokesmen took to the airwaves to argue that the party’s slump at the polls was a short-term aberration, not a reliable indicator of how Labor would do in a general election. Their argument was that as the party in power, Labor was bearing the brunt of the public’s disillusionment with all the major parties as a result of the parliamentary expenses scandal , which has overwhelmed all other political issues in the past month. They said they expected that to pass, with Labor recovering support as attention returned to the government’s wide-ranging initiatives to pull the country out of a recession. But opposition leaders dismissed this as evidence that Mr. Brown, desperate to hang onto his job, cared less for his party and the country than for his own position. William Hague , the Conservative Party’s spokesman on foreign affairs, said that what people saw was “a government consumed by its own internal divisions” and a prime minister who “doesn’t have the courage or the honor to call an election” or to quit.


Witnessing Steinbrenner’s Twilight Years

Abstract: ANAHEIM, Calif. Yankee Stadium was falling apart. A huge chunk of steel had fallen from the upper deck into the loge level seats during batting practice in 1998. I was covering the visiting team, the Angels, and this was my first game working in the Bronx. This was my first sighting of George Steinbrenner . Standing behind Steinbrenner on the press elevator that night, I had the same view of him that was always shown on “Seinfeld” — arms gesticulating wildly, trying to bring some order to chaos. In this case, Steinbrenner was fuming because the elevator button was not following his command. If he could have fired it, he would have. Soon enough in that crisis, Steinbrenner found the right presence to project. When play resumed after repairs, Steinbrenner sat in the seat where the beam had crashed, a leader reassuring the masses. Steinbrenner, who died on Tuesday at 80, was still a regular presence around the Yankees back then. By 2002, when I started as the Yankees’ beat writer for The New York Times, he was nearing his final chapter. He was still in charge, but he was relatively quiet in public. Yet he had his moments. On a Saturday morning at Yankee Stadium that August, Steinbrenner’s publicist, Howard Rubenstein, called and said Steinbrenner wanted to talk. His one request was that I ask about a comment from Commissioner Bud Selig that the recent success of the Minnesota Twins was an aberration. We scheduled an interview for that afternoon in Steinbrenner’s office. The context was important; baseball was closing in on a new collective bargaining agreement aimed at controlling the Yankees’ spending. To Steinbrenner, the fact that the small-market Twins were winning meant the status quo was working. He knew the new agreement would impose taxes on a payroll like his, and he wanted the platform of the Sunday Times to rant. “I see it hurting us and the other big-market clubs,” Steinbrenner said. “You know, you don’t buy a big-market team thinking it’s a small market. That’s elementary.” Of course, Steinbrenner, a Cleveland native, had first tried to buy the Indians. But he was made for the big market, the grandest stage. Most of his many charitable donations were done in private, but otherwise, if something was showy, he loved it. In his office that day, he beamed as he pointed to a photograph of Joe DiMaggio and Secretariat. “Two great champions!” Steinbrenner proclaimed, and what could I say. Indeed, they were. When the Yankees lost to the Angels in the playoffs that fall, I called Steinbrenner at his home for a reaction. He took the call, lauding the Angels owner Gene Autry and vowing to fix the Yankees. Part of his plan, apparently, was picking a fight with Derek Jeter. In a Daily News interview a few months later, Steinbrenner chided Jeter for partying too much and lacking focus. Looking back, the motivation seems clear: it was Steinbrenner’s final test for Jeter before naming him captain. Jeter passed, turning the incident into a cheeky Visa commercial in which he and Steinbrenner went dancing at a nightclub. The jab at Jeter was a big story in the spring of 2003, and the Steinbrenner stakeout became a ritual in Tampa. You could tell he was nearby when staffers and guards started scurrying. But Steinbrenner was not always angry; once, he greeted the writers with a box full of cheeseburgers from a favorite local hangout, Pete & Shorty’s . That season was the last time Steinbrenner was truly feisty, when, as a beat writer, you had the hope — or dread — that he would say something provocative. For a few weeks, I could reliably get him on the phone, and he told me why. The Times was dealing with the fallout from revelations that a reporter, Jayson Blair, had fabricated articles. Steinbrenner said The Times had always treated him fairly — “Tough, but fair,” he said — and he wanted to show support by helping out the paper. Steinbrenner’s health began to decline — sharply, it seemed — after he collapsed at the funeral for the football player Otto Graham in December 2003. You still had to trail him in spring training for the occasional outbursts — a profane insult toward Hideki Matsui’s agent, for example — but he had little interest in the banter of old. As the years passed, he seemed less sure of himself. Mostly he communicated through Rubenstein’s news releases. The Yankees lost their postseason touch, failing each October from 2002 through 2007, but the notion that Steinbrenner would act rashly was outdated. He often had the same impulses, but General Manager Brian Cashman and others could calm him down. The Yankees went to great lengths to shield the fading Steinbrenner from public view. He ate in the press lounge in spring training, but usually at times when the writers were occupied elsewhere. One day in 2006 I saw him there and shook his hand, thanking him for sending a baby gift for my daughter. It was a children’s book written by his daughter Jessica, and it included a congratulatory note that emphasized the importance of fatherhood. He did not seem to make the connection when I shook his hand, and perhaps he did not remember, or someone had sent the gift on his behalf. In any case, it was a touching gesture, and a window to the gentler side of Steinbrenner so often obscured by his bluster. I don’t really remember the last time I saw Steinbrenner. It was probably at an exhibition game this spring, when he would sit in an outdoor seat in front of his luxury box, wearing his Yankees windbreaker and dark glasses, looming over the ballpark that is named for him — George M. Steinbrenner Field, on Steinbrenner Drive. Steinbrenner had not been in the Bronx in November when the Yankees won their seventh title under his command. They clinched it at the new Yankee Stadium, the grand castle on 161st Street that will be a living monument to his legacy. So will this undeniable fact: when George Steinbrenner died, he went out as a champion.

Baseball
Steinbrenner George M 3d
New York Yankees


Bank of England to Require More Buffers for Britain’s Biggest Banks

Abstract: LONDON — Britain’s largest banks would have to hold an additional buffer of capital under newly proposed rules meant to protect their retail banking businesses in a financial crisis, the Bank of England said on Friday. The new buffer is among a series of rules being proposed by the central bank as it requires British lenders to quarantine their retail banking operations from investment banking and other riskier businesses by 2019 — a practice known as ring-fencing. Under the latest proposal, banks and building societies with more than 175 billion pounds, or about $250 billion, in total assets would have to maintain a so-called systemic risk buffer beginning in 2019, the central bank said. The new buffer, which had been anticipated, would be equivalent to as much as 3 percent of a lender’s assets as measured by risk, the Bank of England said. The central bank expects to conclude a public consultation period on the proposed buffer in April and finish its capital framework requirements for ring-fenced banks by the end of May. The ring-fencing rules would go into effect in 2019. “These new rules will mean that large U.K. banks and building societies are more resilient to adverse shocks, enabling them to continue to lend to households and businesses even in times of stress,” Jon Cunliffe, the Bank of England’s deputy governor for financial stability, said in a news release on Friday. “The financial crisis demonstrated the long-lasting damage that can be caused when large banks become distressed and have to cut back lending to the economy,” he added. “These proposals are intended to reduce the risk of this happening again.” Ring-fencing rules would apply to banks and building societies with more than £25 billion in deposits. The British retail banking businesses of Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds Banking Group and the Royal Bank of Scotland would be among those subject to ring-fencing. The systemic risk buffer could range from 1 percent to 3 percent of assets as measured by risk and would be based by a lender’s overall assets, the Bank of England said. Based on current information, the Bank of England’s Financial Policy Committee estimated that the largest ring-fenced bank in Britain would have to maintain a 2.5 percent buffer in 2019. The central bank contends that the British banking system as a whole would only need to raise additional capital equivalent to about 0.5 percent of total risk-weighted assets held by lenders in order to comply with the new buffer.

Banking and Finance
Regulation and Deregulation
Bank of England


Citing Sept. 11 Anniversary, New York Delays State Primary

Abstract: ALBANY — Declaring that Sept. 11 is a day for reflection, and not for politics, New York has decided to delay this year’s state and local primary election for two days. Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo signed legislation on Monday moving the state primary to Thursday, Sept. 13, from Tuesday, Sept. 11. Lawmakers said the move was out of respect for those who will attend memorial services to commemorate the 11th anniversary of the terrorist attacks. “I believe that Sept. 11 is a day that people should reflect on what happened,” the assembly speaker, Sheldon Silver , said last week, as the issue was being discussed. He added that “people should focus on that, rather than being bombarded with telephone calls” encouraging them to go to their polling place. The state’s primary is traditionally held on the second Tuesday after Labor Day, which this year falls on Sept. 11. The State Senate approved legislation last week to move the primary, and the Assembly followed suit on Monday. Mr. Cuomo signed the bill later in the day. The state had also delayed its primary in 2007 so that it would not fall on Sept. 11. The change this year does not affect the state’s Congressional primaries, which will be held on June 26.

New York State
Primaries and Caucuses
Cuomo Andrew M
September 11 (2001)
Silver Sheldon


Syria Has Yet to Move Arms as Deadline Draws Near

Abstract: GENEVA — Two days before a deadline for getting its most deadly chemical weapons out of the country, and despite an international effort to mobilize the resources needed to do so, Syria has apparently not even begun to move them, observers familiar with the mission said Sunday. Their assessment came as the United Nations and the international chemical weapons monitoring group overseeing the program acknowledged that Tuesday’s deadline would most likely be missed. “At this stage, transportation of the most critical chemical material before 31 December is unlikely,” the United Nations and the chemical weapons group said in a joint statement issued in the Syrian port city of Latakia on Saturday. They said that volatile security conditions in Syria had “constrained planned movements” and that logistical problems and bad weather had contributed to the delay. Once movement of the chemicals gets underway, the mission can be conducted quite quickly, according to those familiar with the mission, who spoke on the condition that they not be identified because of the sensitivity of the issue. Their comments echoed remarks made Friday by a Russian diplomat, Mikhail Ulyanov, after an international meeting on the chemical arms removal effort. Mr. Ulyanov, the head of the Russian foreign ministry’s disarmament department, said, “The removal has not yet begun,” according to the Russian news agency RIA Novosti. The government of President Bashar al-Assad has until mid-2014 to destroy its chemical weapons program under a deal struck by Russia and the United States in September. To meet that challenging timetable, it agreed with the watchdog group, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, to remove more than 500 metric tons of its most toxic chemicals by the end of this year and the remaining 700 tons of chemicals in its stockpile by early February. The organization warned of possible delays when it approved the plan , and the statement issued on Saturday noted the “important progress” Syria has made in dismantling its chemical weapons program in the past three months. Three weeks ago, the head of the group, Ahmet Uzumcu, acknowledged that meeting the deadline would be “quite difficult.” American officials have acknowledged the particular challenges of moving dangerous chemical weapons across a landscape torn by civil war, and took the news of the delay in stride. “This was always going to be complex,” a senior administration official said in Washington on Sunday, referring to the deadlines as “milestones” instead. “We’re going to work with international partners to keep this on track and to keep up the pressure on the Assad regime to meet its commitments.” The plan the group agreed to this month called for Syria to transport the critical chemicals, including 20 tons of sulfur mustard and precursors for making sarin and VX nerve gas, from 12 storage sites around the country to Latakia. Danish and Norwegian ships are to then take them under naval escort to an Italian port for transfer to an American vessel fitted with special equipment for destroying them at sea. Syria now has “virtually all” of the logistical and security assets it needs to undertake the movement of its chemical weapons, Mr. Uzumcu said in a statement released after a meeting on Friday in Moscow attended by all countries providing maritime support for the operation. Russia, which has shipped armored vehicles to Syria to transport the chemicals, is due to provide security at the Latakia port and, with China, Denmark and Norway, has offered to provide naval escorts for part of the voyage. But transporting the chemicals by road to Latakia poses a particular challenge. Syrian government forces, which reportedly control the road from Damascus to the port, may still face the danger of rebel attacks.


Luke Donald Shares Lead in South Carolina

Abstract: Luke Donald came back strong in the RBC Heritage in Hilton Head Island, S.C., after missing the Masters for the first time since 2004, shooting a five-under-par 66 for a share of the first-round lead with Branden Grace.


Airstrikes by U.S. and Allies Hit ISIS Targets in Syria

Abstract: WASHINGTON — The United States and allies launched airstrikes against Sunni militants in Syria early Tuesday, unleashing a torrent of cruise missiles and precision-guided bombs from the air and sea on the militants’ de facto capital of Raqqa and along the porous Iraq border. American fighter jets and armed Predator and Reaper drones, flying alongside warplanes from several Arab allies, struck a broad array of targets in territory controlled by the militants, known as the Islamic State. American defense officials said the targets included weapons supplies, depots, barracks and buildings the militants use for command and control. Tomahawk cruise missiles were fired from United States Navy ships in the region. The strikes are a major turning point in President Obama’s war against the Islamic State and open up a risky new stage of the American military campaign. Until now, the administration had bombed Islamic State targets only in Iraq, and had suggested it would be weeks if not months before the start of a bombing campaign against Islamic State targets in Syria. Bahrain, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates took part in the strikes, American officials said, although the Arab governments were not expected to announce their participation until later Tuesday. The new coalition’s makeup is significant because the United States was able to recruit Sunni governments to take action against the Sunni militants of the Islamic State. The operation also unites the squabbling states of the Persian Gulf. The strikes came less than two weeks after Mr. Obama announced in an address to the nation that he was authorizing an expansion of the military campaign against the Islamic State, also known as ISIS. Image Fighters for the Islamic State during a parade in June in Raqqa, Syria. The United States and allies struck targets in militant-controlled territory early Tuesday. Credit Raqqa Media Center, via Associated Press Unlike American strikes in Iraq over the past month, which have been small-bore bombings of mostly individual Islamic State targets — patrol boats and trucks — the salvo on Tuesday in Syria was the beginning of what was expected to be a sustained, hourslong bombardment at targets in the militant headquarters in Raqqa and on the border. The strikes began after years of debate within the Obama administration about whether the United States should intervene militarily or should avoid another entanglement in a complex war in the Middle East. But the Islamic State controls a broad swath of land across both Iraq and Syria. Defense officials said the goal of the air campaign was to deprive the Islamic State of the safe havens it enjoys in Syria. The administration’s ultimate goal, as set forth in the address Mr. Obama delivered on Sept. 10, is to recruit a global coalition to “degrade and ultimately destroy” the militants, even as Mr. Obama warned that “eradicating a cancer” like the Islamic State was a long-term challenge that would put some American troops at risk. American warplanes had been conducting surveillance flights over Syria for more than a month in anticipation of airstrikes, but it had been unclear just how much intelligence the Pentagon had managed to gather about the movements of the Sunni militant group in Syria. Unlike Iraq, whose airspace is controlled by the United States, Syria has its own aerial defense system, so American planes have had to rely on sometimes jamming the country’s defenses when crossing into Syria. The strikes in Syria occurred without the approval of President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, whose government, unlike Iraq, did not ask the United States for help against the Sunni militant group. Mr. Obama has repeatedly called on Mr. Assad to step down because of chemical weapons attacks and violence against his own people, and defense officials said Mr. Assad had not been told in advance of the strikes. But administration officials acknowledge that American efforts to roll back the Sunni militant group in Syria cannot help but aid Mr. Assad, whose government is also a target of the Islamic State. The United Arab Emirates announced three weeks ago that it was willing to participate in the campaign against the Islamic State , and administration officials have also said they expect the Iraqi military to take part in strikes both in Iraq and Syria. If both nations are in fact participants, the strikes on Tuesday could mark a rare instance when the Shiite-dominated Iraqi military has cooperated in a military operation with its Sunni Arab neighbors. Combined with a French airstrike last week on a logistics depot held by Islamic State militants in northeastern Iraq, the allied participation in the strikes allows Mr. Obama to make the case that his plan to target the Islamic State has international cooperation. In addition, Saudi Arabia recently agreed to a training facility for moderate members of the Syrian opposition, whom the United States hopes to train, equip and send back to Syria to fight both Mr. Assad and Islamic State militants. On Wednesday, Mr. Obama is expected to speak of the international coalition in an address to the United Nations General Assembly. In his Sept. 10 speech to the nation, Mr. Obama drew a distinction between the military action he was ordering and the two wars begun by his immediate predecessor, George W. Bush. He likened this campaign to the selective airstrikes that the United States has carried out for years against suspected terrorists in Yemen and Somalia, few of which have been made public. The airstrikes in Syria, so far, come without the benefit of a large ground force to capitalize on gains they make. While some Syrian opposition groups fighting the Islamic State militants may be able to move into a few cleared areas, administration officials acknowledged on Monday that it was doubtful that the Free Syrian Army, the opposition group most preferred by the United States, would be able to take control of major sections of Islamic State territory, at least not until it has been better trained — which will take place over the next year. How ISIS Works With oil revenues, arms and organization, the jihadist group controls vast stretches of Syria and Iraq and aspires to statehood. That could leave the forces of Mr. Assad in perhaps the best position to take advantage of any American bombardment. An administration official on Monday acknowledged that that was a worry, but said, “We don’t plan to make it easy for Assad to reclaim territory.” He declined to say what methods the United States would use to prevent the Syrian leader from capitalizing on the American aerial bombardment. Although the full scope of the airstrikes was not immediately clear, they followed an urgent appeal from Hadi al-Bahra, the president of the Syrian Opposition Coalition, for American military action. He said the United States needed to act quickly to stop militants from the Islamic State from pressing their attack against the Kurdish communities near the Syrian border town of Ayn-al-Arab, as it is known by Arabs, or Kobani, as it is called by the Kurds. And Representative Eliot L. Engel, a New York Democrat who serves on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, issued a statement urging “targeted American airstrikes” to protect the Syrian Kurds and prevent a “potential massacre.” Obama administration officials asserted that they were having success building an international coalition to confront the Islamic State, but Laurent Fabius, the French foreign minister, said on Monday that France would limit its military operations to Iraq. “The French president has said we do not have intention to do the same in Syria, I mean by air,” Mr. Fabius said in an appearance before the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, adding that France would support the moderate Syrian opposition. “I can confirm that U.S. military and partner nation forces are undertaking military action against ISIL terrorists in Syria using a mix of fighter, bomber and Tomahawk Land Attack Missiles,” said Rear Adm. John Kirby, the Pentagon press secretary, using an alternate name for the Islamic State. “Given that these operations are ongoing, we are not in a position to provide additional details at this time,” Admiral Kirby said in a statement Monday night in Washington. “The decision to conduct these strikes was made earlier today by the U.S. Central Command commander under authorization granted him by the commander in chief. We will provide more details later as operationally appropriate.”

US Military
ISIS,ISIL,Islamic State
Syria


No. 1 Connecticut Defeats South Carolina

Abstract: Tina Charles scored 21 points and grabbed 14 rebounds to lead No. 1 Connecticut to a 77-48 victory at South Carolina on Sunday. Maya Moore had 15 points and Renee Montgomery 13 for the Huskies, who ended a long trip that started on Dec. 14 at Madison Square Garden against Penn State and continued at a three-game tournament in Cancún, Mexico. “That’s a long time to live out of a suitcase and in and out of hotels and airports,” Connecticut Coach Geno Auriemma said. “And now we get a chance to get home.” Charles had not scored in double digits over her past two games, but she showed her usual form as the Huskies went on an early 18-3 run to take control. Charles had her third double-double of the season by halftime as Connecticut improved to 11-0 for the third straight year. For South Carolina (6-5), it was the 21st consecutive loss to a ranked opponent. NORTH CAROLINA 102, WESTERN MICHIGAN 55 Italee Lucas scored 17 points to lead five players in double figures as No. 2 North Carolina extended its winning streak at home to 28. Shela White had 12 points, including a layup that put the Tar Heels (13-0) over 100 for the third time this season. TEXAS 79, TEXAS-EL PASO 40 Kathleen Nash scored 13 of her 15 points in the first half as No. 4 Texas won in the Surf ’N Slam Classic in San Diego. The Longhorns (11-0), off to their best start since the 1985-86 team finished 34-0, started the game on a 14-2 run and led, 47-22, at halftime. DUKE 78, QUINNIPIAC 50 Chante Black scored 17 points and grabbed 12 rebounds as No. 6 Duke won at home. Black added three blocked shots and a career-high eight steals for the Blue Devils (10-1). Mandy Pennewell scored 17 points to lead Quinnipiac (8-3). Men PURDUE 59, VALPARAISO 45 E’Twaun Moore scored 14 points to help No. 10 Purdue defeat visiting Valparaiso for its sixth consecutive victory. Robbie Hummel had 9 points and 14 rebounds, and Bobby Riddell added 9 points in 21 minutes for the Boilermakers (11-2). Purdue led by only 2 at halftime, but held Valparaiso to one field goal in the final seven minutes. U.C.L.A. 78, LOUISIANA TECH 55 Josh Shipp returned from a two-game absence to score 16 points and No. 13 U.C.L.A. never trailed at home. The Bruins (10-2), who led by 20 at halftime, have won six games in a row. FRESHMAN LEAVES OHIO STATE Anthony Crater, a top recruit who has appeared in all 10 games for No. 15 Ohio State this season, has been granted his release. Crater, a 6-foot-1 freshman guard from Flint, Mich., had 12 points and 19 assists for the Buckeyes (9-1). IN OTHER GAMES Jamal Smith scored 19 points to lead Wagner (7-3) to a 68-58 win at New Jersey Institute of Technology (0-12). ... Muhammad El-Amin scored a game-high 27 points — including three 3-pointers — to lead Stony Brook to a 68-52 win at St. Peter’s (4-8). ... Ryan Schneider had 29 points, 9 rebounds and 5 steals to lead Marist (4-8) over visiting Bucknell, 89-63. ... Ryan Rossiter made two free throws with 2.4 seconds left as Siena (7-4) rallied from an 18-point second-half deficit and defeated host St. Joseph’s, 75-74. ... The freshman Jio Fontan led Fordham (2-8) with 17 points, but the Rams lost, 82-70, at Tennessee-Martin.

Basketball
College Athletics
University of Connecticut


China, in Suspending Woman’s Death Sentence, Acknowledges Domestic Abuse

Abstract: BEIJING — In an acknowledgment of the problem of domestic abuse in China , a court on Friday suspended the death sentence of a battered woman who had killed her husband, a case that drew international attention and a petition from hundreds of Chinese lawyers and feminists urging the court to reconsider. The ruling, by the Sichuan Higher People’s Court, upheld the murder conviction against the woman, Li Yan, 44, but acknowledged, for the first time, that she had been the victim of domestic violence. The suspension means that after two years of good behavior, the sentence will be commuted to life in prison. Later, it may be reduced further. “A death sentence was not justified in this case, given the domestic violence Li suffered,” said Chi Susheng, a lawyer in Qiqihar in China’s far northeast and a former delegate to the National People’s Congress, who signed the petition. Women in China who killed abusive spouses were once routinely executed, but as the scale of domestic violence began to emerge in the early 2000s — officials say one in four marriages is affected, activists say one in three — lengthy prison sentences became the norm instead. Over time, the sentences have grown lighter. On Friday, the courtroom in Sichuan Province erupted in angry shoving and shouting when Judge Huang Tianyong announced the decision. Relatives of Ms. Li’s husband, Tan Yong, who have demanded her execution, threw shoes and papers at Ms. Li and her lawyer, shouting “Tramp!” and “Traitor!” according to Xiao Meili, an observer in the courtroom. Mr. Tan was killed in the couple’s home in rural Anyue County, where they ran a noodle stall, after what Ms. Li described as more than a year of abuse. He grabbed her hair and hit her head against the wall, stubbed out cigarettes on her face and legs, and locked her outside on cold nights, Ms. Li told the court at her retrial in November . Often after beating her, he abused her sexually, she said. She sought help from the police, a hospital, the local justice department and the local branch of the All-China Women’s Federation, a government organization tasked with defending women’s rights. All, according to her lawyers, advised her to just “bear it.” Then, on the night of Nov. 3, 2010, she said, Mr. Tan struck her with an air rifle in a drunken rage, threatening to kill her. She grabbed the weapon and slammed the barrel against his head twice, killing him, she told the police at the time. She cut off his head and put it in a pressure cooker, saying she feared his angry eyes even in death, then chopped up his body and boiled some of the pieces before reporting the death to a neighbor. She was sentenced to death by the Ziyang Intermediate People’s Court, a sentence effectively commuted on Friday. Last year, the Supreme People’s Court in Beijing ordered Ms. Li’s case retried because of problems with the evidence. In March, the court issued an opinion explaining the concept of “justified defense” in domestic violence cases. The opinion made spousal abuse a mitigating factor in crimes committed in self-defense, and it established new rules providing privacy protection for victims and allowing protection orders against abusers. The new approach dovetails with China’s attempts to increase public respect for the judiciary, which is widely seen as corrupt and unfair, and coincides with an effort to curb the number of executions, estimated to be as high as 12,000 in 2002. In 2006, judges in the country began to advocate a policy of “kill fewer, kill cautiously.” Beijing accepted the policy, and in 2007, the court began reviewing every death penalty case. Dui Hua, a human rights group in San Francisco, estimates that the number of people put to death in China fell to 2,400 in 2013 , still more than in all other countries combined. The precise number is not known, as the government considers it a state secret. Susan Finder, a legal scholar based in Hong Kong and the author of the Supreme People’s Court Monitor blog , said, “It seems the Supreme People’s Court is making progress in reducing use of the death penalty.” But progress has been mixed, she said. According to the new rules, said Feng Yuan, a leading feminist, Ms. Li “should have received a more just sentence.” “There is certain progress here,” she said. “There is a significant difference between the death penalty and suspended death. But over all, it’s getting better on paper more than in reality, and this case shows that we need to see how these new rules can be implemented.” Lawyers say that courts also consider “social stability” in handing down harsh punishments and that it may have played a role in this case. “The courts are still under a lot of pressure to hand down sentences that won’t get anyone upset,” said Joshua Rosenzweig, an expert on human rights in China who lectures at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. “One of the things they’re trying to do is to satisfy the victim’s family, so they get the victim’s family to accept the verdict so they won’t petition and keep this case alive.” At her retrial in November, Ms. Li held up her right hand to show the judge a truncated middle finger, cut off in a fight with her husband, she said. “I did not kill him on purpose,” she said quietly. She begged for forgiveness from Mr. Tan’s family. “I apologize to Mr. Tan’s family,” she said, “and if they are willing, will pay my respects to them.”

China
Li Yan
Capital punishment
Domestic violence
Judiciary


Yankees’ Rivera Is a Mainstay Among No Names

Abstract: If ever there were a season for the Yankees to have their names stitched onto the backs of their jerseys, this would be the one. As a service to Mariano Rivera, the team’s 43-year-old heart and soul, they may finally want to spring for name tags. Rivera has experienced stability in a way that few modern players have. He has played his entire career for the same club, a rarity, and has had Derek Jeter as a teammate in all 19 seasons. The two Yankees mainstays have been joined by 397 other players over that time, but this season, the last for Rivera, a series of injuries has turned the roster from “who’s who” into “who’s that?” In the days of George Steinbrenner, the names added to the roster each season were a collection of the best talent money could buy. Over the years, through trades and free agency, they stocked an already rich roster with Tino Martinez, Chuck Knoblauch, Roger Clemens, Mike Mussina, Jason Giambi, Alex Rodriguez, Gary Sheffield, Kevin Brown, Randy Johnson and a host of other stars. Some worked out, some notably did not, but the team kept building and pushing toward the World Series. Of the 20 new Yankees this season, it is hard to make a case that any were brought in with a 28th World Series ring in mind. The two most accomplished players acquired for this season were Kevin Youkilis and Vernon Wells, a pair of aging ex-stars who were available largely because of a lack of interest from other teams. Wells hit well for a month before reminding everyone why the Los Angeles Angels were desperate to get rid of him. Youkilis continued to battle various injuries, as he has for the last few seasons, without his previous production to offset the frustration. Excluding those veterans, who built solid career numbers in wins above replacement , a statistic that measures a player’s overall contribution to his team, the other 18 newcomers had a combined career WAR of 46.8 through Thursday before joining the Yankees. Rivera’s career WAR was 55.3. The newcomers range from former top 10 draft picks (Chris Nelson and Wells) to 48th-round picks (Vidal Nuno) with a few international free agents mixed in (Zoilo Almonte and Luis Cruz). They represent the young (Brett Marshall, 23) and the rather old (Lyle Overbay, 36). Image Travis Ishikawa, who struck out twice and was sent down, was among the new faces this season. Credit Ray Stubblebine/Reuters But when you consider that one of Rivera’s teammates during his rookie season was Rick Honeycutt, a reliever born in 1954, all of his current teammates seem rather young. If this season has had a spring training-like vibe, it could be because of the jersey numbers on many of the unknown players. On a team that values single-digit numbers to the point that No. 8 is retired twice (for Bill Dickey and Yogi Berra), the Yankees have players wearing 45 (Almonte), 55 (Overbay) and 61 (Cruz). For Rivera this season has meant a host of new names to learn, and he can be forgiven if he cannot keep them straight. David Adams, a rookie third baseman, and David Huff, a reliever who has thrown one inning, are the 12th and 13th Dave or David who have teamed with Rivera, tying Mike or Michael as the most common first name among his teammates. Rivera had played with just one Travis before this season (Lee in 2004); he has played with two in 2013, befitting this campaign’s quirkiness. Rivera is likely to remember Travis Hafner, a designated hitter who has produced a few memorable hits. But Travis Ishikawa? He was on the roster for only two days before being designated for assignment to make room for the returning Jeter. Sent to the plate twice as a Yankee, Ishikawa struck out both times, seeing a grand total of seven pitches. Even Jeter, Rivera’s only constant, has been missing much of the season, and is back on the bench with a quadriceps injury after just one game back. The result of such an anonymous roster is rather obvious: the Yankees have not played like a championship-caliber team — or even one working their way toward becoming one, like the 1995 Yankees, Rivera’s first club. This season’s record of 51-42 through Friday is impressive enough, considering all the injuries, but also somewhat misleading in that the team’s expected record, based on run differential, was 47-46. Only two regulars, Robinson Cano and Brett Gardner, have been above-average hitters this season, and the starting rotation features three below-average pitchers. But Rivera, a one-pitch metronome who apparently can be stopped only by knee injuries sustained while shagging fly balls, has been nearly the same as always. He is allowing more base runners than at any time since his first season, but he has yet to pay for it, with a 1.83 earned run average and 30 saves in 32 chances. His advanced age did not stop him from being named to his 13th All-Star team, with some suggesting the game should be his to start, a suggestion he professed a lack of interest in. Over his 19 seasons, Rivera has seen the Yankees go from youthful optimism to veteran swagger to aging stoicism. But this season, the one Rivera chose to be his last, they have been something that would have been impossible to believe not so long ago. They have been pretty anonymous. Should things not improve, the game may lose perhaps its best postseason performer without giving him one more chance at October magic. To avoid that, the Yankees may need to acquire some players with more familiar names and more consistent production before July turns into September.

Yankees
Baseball
Mariano Rivera
Zoilo Almonte
David Huff
Derek Jeter


Millions Still Not Ready for Digital TV

Abstract: WASHINGTON — Millions of households will lose television reception next week when about 1,000 broadcasters around the nation shut off their analog signals and complete their conversion to digital programming, federal officials say. The government has spent more than $2 billion to ease the transition to digital television, and in the last few months has cut in half the number of households that are unprepared for the final conversion on June 12. But the latest survey by the Nielsen Company indicates that as of the end of May, more than 10 percent of the 114 million households that have television sets are either completely or partly unprepared. Michael J. Copps, the acting head of the Federal Communications Commission , said that the people most likely to lose reception are society’s most vulnerable — lower-income families, the elderly, the handicapped and homes where little or no English is spoken. The transition will also hit inner-city and rural areas hardest, he said. “We are much better prepared than we were in February, when the original transition was to have occurred, but there will nonetheless be significant disruptions,” Mr. Copps said in an interview. “In the past five months we’ve tried to accomplish what should have been done over the last four years.” More than three million homes that do not subscribe to cable or satellite services are totally unprepared for the transition and will lose their reception, according to Nielsen. Another nine million homes that subscribe to cable or satellite services but that have spare television sets — typically in bedrooms and kitchens — that are not connected to any service are also expected to lose reception. The conversion does not affect cable or satellite distribution. And officials say that millions more who thought they were prepared are likely to experience technical problems like poor reception or improperly connected antennas. Their problems arise because the way the digital signal travels is different from analog and can be more affected by topography, weather or even heavy auto traffic. A list of 49 particularly vulnerable markets includes New York, Los Angeles , Chicago , Philadelphia , Miami , Boston and Dallas-Fort Worth. Officials said Puerto Rico is also among the most susceptible to problems, as it has the highest rate of households that receive their television signals over the air. In the New York broadcasting market, 92,000 homes are completely unready for the transition and another 348,000 are partly unready, according to Nielsen. That represents almost 6 percent of households in the region. Early this year, the administration persuaded Congress to postpone completion of the transition to June, from February, and to provide another $650 million, mostly for coupons for converter boxes, on top of the $1.5 billion that had already been spent by the Bush administration. The Obama administration has enlisted dozens of groups, including AmeriCorps , the national volunteer organization, civil rights groups and even firefighters to help people install the converter boxes and antennas. The program is the most ambitious technology transition effort since the Clinton administration’s enormous Y2K program, which was set up to avert major software problems caused by the inability of computers to process data beginning on Jan. 1, 2000. Concerned about a possible political reaction, President Obama issued a statement on Thursday urging consumers to take steps so they do not lose television reception. “We have worked hand in hand with state and local officials, broadcasters and community groups to educate and assist millions of Americans with the transition,” Mr. Obama said. “I want to be clear: there will not be another delay,” the statement added. Other officials said that the high number of households reflected the inclination of Americans to put things off. “There are so many people who are always waiting until the last minute, whether it is college students doing term papers, or people filing taxes , or people like me who wait until Christmas Eve to do their shopping,” said the commerce secretary, Gary F. Locke, in an interview on Friday. While applauding the government efforts, he said he was frustrated that the early public service announcements did not provide specific enough information about the problem. “Earlier on we could have more crisply and clearly indicated who was affected by the switch,” he said. “I’ve been critical of the public service announcements that just say, ‘The switch is coming’ or ‘Are you ready?’ ” He added: “Too many people don’t know the difference between digital and analog. I didn’t even know myself until a few months ago when my brother-in-law explained it to me.” Analog technology transmits a video signal through an electronic impulse. Digital technology breaks the signal into 1’s and 0’s, allowing far more data to be transmitted through a far smaller amount of broadcast spectrum. The transition has already been a huge windfall to television and equipment makers and retailers, as millions of consumers have had to buy digital television sets or converter boxes and special antennas for their old sets. Shawn G. DuBravac, chief economist at the Consumer Electronics Association, said that sales of digital television sets were up 32 percent this year over the comparable period in 2008, even in the midst of a deep recession . Other officials at the association said the spike in sales was attributable to many factors, including declining prices and availability of more programs in digital, as well as the mandatory transition. But consumer experts said that many households were buying more expensive television sets and equipment than they needed to continue to receive television signals. Polls by Consumer Reports found that many people were aware of the transition but were confused about how to navigate it, said Joel Kelsey, a policy analyst at Consumers Union . Bracing for a wave of complaints, the Federal Communications Commission is preparing to fully staff a $40 million call center on Friday and through the weekend. The government will also continue to supply $40 coupons to households toward the purchase of converter boxes. Officials advised consumers to rescan the channels of their television sets after the conversion was completed on Friday to make sure they were pulling in all the correct signals. The conversion is the final step in a long-running plan for more efficient use of the broadcast spectrum. The plan took spectrum licenses from broadcasters, replacing them with other frequencies. It will reallocate some of the broadcasters’ former spectrum to public safety providers. Other frequencies were sold for billions of dollars, primarily to the large wireless telephone companies, whose demand for spectrum has risen with the proliferation of hand-held devices that can surf the Internet and send and receive e-mail. Consumers seeking assistance on how to upgrade their television sets or on the availability of digital stations in their communities can go to www.dtv.gov or call the government hot line on the transition at 1-888-CALLFCC (1-888-225-5322).

Digital television transition
HDTV
TV
TVs
AmeriCorps
FCC
US Politics


Romney Turns to Supporters He Considers a Natural: Business Leaders

Abstract: CLINTON, Iowa — Kenneth Maass, a farmer in Remsen, Iowa, keeps a busy schedule: monthly meetings for the Plymouth County Farm Bureau, for the Northwest Rural Electric Cooperative and for his church, a Lutheran congregation where he serves as chairman. At each of these get-togethers, Mr. Maass, 75, makes a point of extolling what he sees as Mitt Romney ’s many virtues. “I tell them where I think he has his pluses over the others,” said Mr. Maass, who caucused for Mr. Romney in 2008 and plans to do so again next week. “He was successful in creating jobs and successful in business, and that’s why I continue to support him.” Mr. Maass is one of nearly 100 agribusiness leaders and small-business men who will be speaking for Mr. Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, on caucus night. The candidate’s Iowa team plans to introduce more than 40 prominent state business leaders on Thursday, a crucial part of his strategy to expand his universe of supporters. Four years ago, the Romney campaign aggressively pursued Iowa’s evangelical voters, only to see them coalesce around former Gov. Mike Huckabee of Arkansas, a Baptist minister, at the last minute. This time, Mr. Romney, well aware of the Christian conservatives aligned against him, is devoting special attention to voters who he thinks should be natural supporters: businesspeople who appreciate his private-sector experience and his focus on the economy. “We wanted to do a better job of reaching out to the people in the business community who were going to not only be receptive to Governor Romney’s message, but who live it every day and are going to be able to support us without talking points,” said Dave Kochel, Mr. Romney’s top adviser in Iowa. “They know what Governor Romney is about because they’re working in the real economy like he did.” The Romney campaign has recruited volunteers in the business community, who they hope can spread Mr. Romney’s message to others. And in a sign that Mr. Romney believes his strategy is working and that he can finish strong in Iowa, his campaign introduced a new television advertisement here on Monday, promoting both his economic vision and his family values. Mr. Romney also plans to spend New Year’s Eve in the state. “I just want to do well here,” Mr. Romney said Wednesday at a campaign stop here. “I’m happy that I’m getting an enthusiastic response, but I’ve got no predictions for where we’ll end up in the tally.” He added, “But I feel like it’s going to be a strong showing.” Roger Underwood, 53, owns three medium-size agricultural businesses and is exactly the sort of community leader the Romney team wants to recruit. In 2008, he supported Fred Thompson of Tennessee, and this year he served as a state co-chairman of the presidential campaign of Tim Pawlenty, the former Minnesota governor, until he dropped out of the race. Mr. Underwood joined the Romney team about a month ago, and estimates that he has already talked to as many as 60 people about Mr. Romney. “I’ll identify people who are leaders in agribusiness, and I’ll reach out to them and make sure they understand who Governor Romney is, and what Governor Romney is trying to communicate to people,” Mr. Underwood said. “It’s a trickle-down effect and a trickle-up effect and a trickle-across effect — and really trickle everywhere, I guess.” The “trickle everywhere” idea grew out of a business roundtable that Mr. Romney hosted in Pella, Iowa, in August. Mr. Romney and his aides were shocked to realize that he had met only half of the business leaders seated around the table. His Iowa staff members pored through directories for business organizations, identifying leaders and influential community members in four main areas: agribusiness, manufacturing, community banks and rural cooperatives. Now, more than 100 business and community leaders have joined Mr. Romney’s volunteer army — lobbying for him in both formal and informal ways, and speaking on his behalf on caucus night. “These are people who can articulate Governor Romney’s concerns,” said Kent Lucken, an international banker from Boston and a top foreign policy adviser and contributor to Mr. Romney. Once such supporters are in the Romney network, staff members can send them mailers and e-mail, provide them with lists of names to call and include them on tele-town halls. There have also been about half a dozen conference calls, including one that Mr. Romney joined. The approach in Iowa — winning over persuadable voters, rather than investing time and resources into wooing those who may never cast a Romney ballot — is also a reflection of the campaign’s national strategy, which merges Mr. Romney’s experience in the private sector with current problems facing the country (jobs and the economy). Four years ago, Mr. Romney tried a three-legged stool approach: aggressively wooing foreign policy conservatives, social conservatives and economic conservatives. Today, he has narrowed his focus to economic issues. That singular approach may also appeal to evangelicals or social issue voters, aides said. “A lot of business leaders are social conservatives, and the question is: How do you engage them?” Mr. Lucken said. “When you talk to them about jobs and the economy, over-taxation and burdensome regulation, they light up. They can still be concerned about social issues, or be evangelicals at heart, but with a candidate who understands the economy, this is a much better way to lead the conversation with voters.” For Ron Pierson, the former chief executive of Hy-Vee , an employee-owned supermarket chain headquartered in Iowa, helping Mr. Romney was an easy decision. “I’m very strong with his business background, and I think that’s way over-needed in the White House,” Mr. Pierson said. “I’ve been very vocal that I’m a Romney supporter.” Mr. Pierson said he had talked up Mr. Romney at the weekly breakfast meeting he attends with 75 other men, chats about him to members of the various boards and committees with which he is involved and even tried to persuade some neighbors at a recent Christmas party to support Mr. Romney. They were Newt Gingrich supporters, he explained, and he was not sure he had changed their minds. “But at least I made them think about it a little bit,” he said.

Presidential Election of 2012
Romney Mitt
Iowa
Primaries and Caucuses
Small Business


Asian Stocks Rise on Bargain Hunting

Abstract: Asian stocks rose on Thursday and early Friday, while shares in the Persian Gulf, Russia and China retreated. Dubai’s benchmark index fell for a seventh day on concern that economic growth would slow. Japanese shipping companies and electronics makers led gains in Asia on speculation falling oil prices would ease fuel costs and encourage consumers to spend more. The Nikkei 225-stock average rose nearly 1 percent in Tokyo on Friday morning as investors went bargain hunting. On Thursday, the Nikkei 225 climbed 1 percent, to close at 8,599.50. Financial markets in Australia, Hong Kong, New Zealand and the Philippines were closed Friday. “Cheaper oil will allow Americans to spend more on discretionary items,” said Yoshinori Nagano, a senior strategist at Daiwa Asset Management, which manages about $96 billion in Tokyo. “Higher fuel costs have eaten into company profit, and with crude falling by this degree, we’ll probably see the opposite effect next year.” The Micex index in Russia fell 2.7 percent on Thursday, to 627.78, after sinking 2.4 percent on Wednesday. The RTS Index fell 1.8 percent, to 655.91, extending its drop this year to 71 percent. Lukoil declined 3.1 percent, to 1001.05 rubles, while Surgutneftegaz lost 4.5 percent, to 17.246 rubles. The Dubai Financial Market general index dropped 1.4 percent, to 1,587.08, extending the week’s slide to 12 percent. “There isn’t much trading going on as most investors are already on holiday,” Juichi Wako, a strategist at Nomura Securities, said in an interview with Bloomberg Television. Crude oil rose in electronic trading Thursday for the first time in three days in New York as investors bought contracts after prices fell more than 30 percent this month. Crude oil for February delivery gained as much as 89 cents, or 2.5 percent, to $36.24 a barrel in orders placed with the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell $3.63, or 9.3 percent, to $35.35 a barrel on Wednesday after a United States government report showed a bigger-than-expected increase in supplies of gasoline and distillate fuel, which includes heating oil and diesel.

Stocks and Bonds
Futures and Options Trading
Nikkei Stock Average


Report Says Executions Doubled in 2008

Abstract: HONG KONG — The number of executions worldwide nearly doubled last year compared with 2007, according to Amnesty International , and China put to death far more people than the rest of the world put together. In its annual report on the death penalty, Amnesty International on Tuesday chronicled beheadings in Saudi Arabia; hangings in Japan, Iraq, Singapore and Sudan; lethal injections in China; an electrocution in the United States; firing squads in Afghanistan, Belarus and Vietnam; and stonings in Iran. In all, 59 countries still have the death penalty on their books, but only 25 carried out executions last year. Two nations, Uzbekistan and Argentina, banned the death penalty last year. Amnesty International said at least 2,390 people were executed worldwide in 2008, compared with its 2007 figure of at least 1,252. With at least 1,718, China was responsible for 72 percent of all executions in 2008, the report stated. After China were Iran (346), Saudi Arabia (102), the United States (37) and Pakistan (36), according to the group. “Together they carried out 93 percent of all executions worldwide,” the report said. The Chinese authorities also handed down at least 7,003 new death sentences last year, although the report said the true total of both executions and death sentences “remains shrouded in secrecy.” Some countries, China and North Korea among them, do not disclose the number of executions they carry out. In China’s case, “real figures are undoubtedly higher,” the report stated. Although admittedly incomplete, the figures from Amnesty International are widely accepted as authoritative. The United States State Department, for example, cited the group’s statistics and findings in its recent report on human rights. Amnesty International, which has long opposed the death penalty, said Europe and Central Asia have become “virtually a death-penalty-free zone” with only Belarus, a former Soviet republic, continuing to execute prisoners. “In the Americas, only one state — the United States — consistently executes,” the group said, noting that the number of its executions last year, 37, was the lowest since 1994.

Amnesty International
Capital Punishment
Freedom and Human Rights


For Women in Weiner Scandal, Indignity Lingers

Abstract: Customers taunt Lisa Weiss. “Talk dirty to me,” they joke. “We know you like it.” Colleagues refuse to speak with her. Strangers mock her in nasty online messages. “Clearly she’s got mental issues,” declared the latest. Anthony D. Weiner ’s improbable campaign for mayor of New York City is a wager that voters have made peace with his lewd online behavior, a subject he has largely left behind as he roils the race with his aggressive debating style and his attention-getting policy proposals. But for the women who were on the other end of Mr. Weiner’s sexually explicit conversations and photographs, his candidacy is an unwanted reminder of a scandal that has upended their lives in ways big and small, cutting short careers, disrupting educations and damaging reputations. “I cannot tell you the devastation,” said Ms. Weiss, a 42-year-old blackjack dealer in Nevada who exchanged dozens of explicit messages with Mr. Weiner, then a congressman, in 2010 and 2011. Ms. Weiss, a die-hard Democrat who once volunteered for Bill Clinton’s presidential campaign and was inspired by “Fahrenheit 9/11,” a film critique of the Bush administration, said she had reached out to Mr. Weiner after watching him joust with Republican rivals on cable news. They traded admiring messages on Facebook that, at his prompting, became intimate and raunchy, she said. When their correspondence eventually became public, she said in an interview, conservative-minded colleagues sought to have her fired. The press lined up outside of her house and showed up at her casino, causing her to miss work for weeks. One night, she turned on the television to find the HBO host Bill Maher and the actress Jane Lynch performing a dramatic reading of the bawdy messages. Ms. Weiss, an avowed Maher fan, said she sat in her living room crying. While coping with the onslaught, she drank heavy amounts of alcohol, a habit that persists. “I obsess about it,” she said, “every day.” It is hard not to, she said: Mr. Weiner had faded from view after resigning from Congress, but now that he is in the mayoral race, her phone lights up with calls from reporters, online enemies are pouncing and fresh cruelties abound. “We know what you want to do to him,” she recalled a man teasing her at work recently. Little unites the five women whose online relationships with Mr. Weiner have become public. Some were self-confident political admirers; some were struggling and insecure, flattered by attention from a man in power. Some fled publicity after his downfall; some sought it out. (Ms. Weiss even appeared on “Inside Edition.”) Some of them still think he would be a good mayor; some are repelled by the concept. But it is clear that all of them have been overwhelmed by the reaction to the imbroglio. Gennette Cordova, a 21-year-old college student when she interacted with Mr. Weiner, is still trying to reclaim her identity, online and off. In spring 2011, Mr. Weiner sent her an image of himself in boxers, with an obvious erection. Ms. Cordova, who has told The New York Times that she had chatted electronically with Mr. Weiner about politics and not about sex, was shocked by his unwanted advance. When Mr. Weiner inadvertently posted the image publicly on Twitter, the Internet quickly rendered its own verdict, branding Ms. Cordova, incorrectly, she says, a participant in his online dalliances. The news media dug up Ms. Cordova’s old yearbooks and sifted through police records, publicizing her youthful indiscretions. The attention prompted her to withdraw from academic classes. She moved from Seattle to New York City, before Mr. Weiner’s decision to run for mayor, eager to leave a place where she had become known for her ties to the unfolding drama. But, with Mr. Weiner back in the spotlight, the story has followed her across the country. A few weeks ago, a reporter showed up, unannounced, at her office, asking her about Mr. Weiner. The repercussions were also painful for Traci Nobles, a onetime schoolteacher and a fitness instructor in Georgia, who says her roommate leaked her salacious messages with Mr. Weiner without her permission. As media inquiries poured in to her employer, Ms. Nobles was forced to quit her job at a Young Women’s Christian Organization because of the attention. “Which sort of broke my heart,” she has said in an interview. Determined to explain her online relationship with Mr. Weiner and its impact on her life, Ms. Nobles is writing a book that has yet to be published. The shared experience of the women involved has brought several of them together, for a kind of online group therapy. Ms. Weiss said she had discussed Mr. Weiner with both Ms. Nobles and Ms. Cordova. Image Mr. Weiner speaking with reporters after leaving a campaign event in Brooklyn this month. Credit Michael Nagle for The New York Times “We all kind of commiserated,” Ms. Weiss said. “They were all very supportive.” Asked about the fallout, Mr. Weiner said in a statement: “I am deeply sorry that my behavior caused so much upheaval in the lives of those who were unwittingly involved.” On the campaign trail, though, he mixes contrition with wittiness. Not long ago he cracked a joke about his use of social media. “You know how much I trust Twitter,” he said at a candidate forum. A number of the women remain angry with Mr. Weiner — arguing that, after taking advantage of his political devotees, he is now drawing them back into the spotlight. Ginger Lee, a former star of adult films who communicated with Mr. Weiner online, has pleaded with him not to run for mayor. “Every new headline and news story about him reminds reporters and bloggers that we exist, and the cycle starts all over,” she said in a statement released by her lawyer. “There will be a new flare-up of jokes, inaccurate statements and hurtful remarks.” Ms. Weiss, who said she was a voluntary participant in explicit online chats with Mr. Weiner, said it was his position as a prominent lawmaker that allowed him to steer conversations about politics and policy into racy exchanges about sex. “If he were a regular guy off the street talking to me like that,” she said, “I would have not done it.” Ms. Weiss said her back-and-forth with Mr. Weiner was at times remarkably intimate and confessional. She recalled Mr. Weiner acknowledging loneliness when his wife, an aide to Hillary Rodham Clinton, traveled abroad. He once called Ms. Weiss and, after realizing that her 12-year-old niece was in the room, got on the phone with the girl to wish her good night. “I was flattered,” she said of their chats. Soon after Mr. Weiner confessed to his online indiscretions, Ms. Weiss’s own troubles began. She said a former boyfriend threatened to make public her messages with Mr. Weiner. So she acted first, granting access to her Facebook account to a reporter at RadarOnline.com , a decision that she says was a result of her naïveté about the news media, and that she now regrets. “I thought I could control it,” she said. She could not. Hundreds of the messages appeared on Web sites and in newspapers across the country. The coverage even reached her 98-year-old grandmother. “How do you explain that to everyone you know who reads that?” Ms. Weiss asked. “It was horrible.” Her feelings about him now are complex, unsettled and somewhat counterintuitive. She acknowledges she brought on some of the damage herself, and even went on to his Facebook site to apologize. But she is heartened by his campaign for mayor and rooting for him to win, despite her travails. “I’d like him to say, ‘I am sorry I put you in that position,’” she said. But she added: “If he lived here, I’d vote for him. He is such a big fighter for all of our causes.” Ms. Nobles, the Georgia fitness instructor, said she, too, understood the appeal of Mr. Weiner’s candidacy, though she did not express outright support. “A perfect comeback story, ya know?” she wrote in an e-mail to The Times. Back at the casino, Ms. Weiss says she is trying to laugh off the crude jokes that she hears. But the words sting. “It gets old after two years,” she said.

Anthony Weiner
Ginger Lee
Gennette Cordova
Traci Nobles
Lisa Weiss
Mayoral races
NYC


Today’s HDTV, or Next Year’s?

Abstract: BUYERS of consumer electronics are haunted by one question: Should I buy now or wait for new features, better performance and lower prices? Certainly anyone who has considered buying a high-definition television has had that thought. The prices on 40-inch and 42-inch high-definition TVs have dropped almost 39 percent this year. Riddhi Patel, principal television analyst for the market research firm iSuppli, expects them to drop another 30 percent next year. She said that 47-inch and 52-inch sets, whose average price fell more than 40 percent this year, could drop another 25 percent before the end of 2008. For consumers who care greatly about what advances are just around the corner, the only correct answer would be to wait. But with technology, that’s almost always the case. Of course, gadget marketers can’t afford to have that kind of thinking take hold. First adopters, those willing to pay top dollar for the latest features, drive the industry. So the marketers make a compelling argument: future-proof your purchase by buying a top-of-the-line device so it will remain state-of-the-art as technology inevitably leaps forward. To save money, a consumer could buy an HDTV with screen resolution of 720p — industry jargon for a TV with about 1 million pixels of color composing the picture on the screen. It sells along with TVs having a resolution of 1,080p, which has about twice as many pixels. In general, more pixels means crisper, clearer pictures. However, the difference in price for a 720p liquid crystal display, or L.C.D. HDTV set and a 1,080p can be relatively small. Best Buy, for example, sells a Samsung 1,080p 40-inch L.C.D. set for $1,500 while the 720p version costs $1,350. Feature-laden HDTVs, those with the highest resolutions, contrast ratios and hookups in the back for every imaginable device can cost more than $3,000. A case can be made that it is wiser to disregard any thoughts of future-proofing when buying a TV. For broadcast TV, many watchers would have a hard time telling the difference between a 1080p and a 720p set unless they were sitting close to it or watching a very large set. No shows are broadcast at 1080p. Some networks do broadcast at 1080i, which has the same resolution but sends half the lines at a time, requiring processors in the set to reassemble them. Prices are dropping, but it will be at least a year or two before the new high-definition DVDs become a mainstream product. Buyers may realize that what they bought not that long ago is out of date compared with whatever is on the market now. This can be especially distressing if technical standards change. Consider the buyer who future-proofed a TV purchase five years ago. In 2002, the average selling price for a 50-inch HDTV was about $8,900, according to the research firm Pacific Media Associates. Fujitsu had a $15,000 high-definition set that was unable to display today’s 1,080p resolution. It had inputs for S-video, composite and component cable to move audio and video signals from game consoles, VCRs or DVD players. But it lacked a place to plug an HDMI, or high definition multimedia interface. HDMI, the latest standard, is a single cable that can carry uncompressed video and audio from a tuner, DVD player, digital video recorder or other source to a high-definition TV. Consumers can get those features even on today’s bargain-brand sets. Vizio’s $2,200 52-inch L.C.D. TV, for example, is packed with features that were not on the market a few years ago. The 1,080p set has four HDMI inputs and a screen that is resistant to burn-in and glare; both features were unavailable on any large screen TV a few years ago. It is no coincidence that there are parallels to buying a PC and an HDTV. Not only are TVs beginning to resemble computers, but the economics are similar. Like makers of computer chips and PCs, manufacturers need first adopters willing to pay top dollar to get production of large-size TVs running at full capacity, which drives down costs. That, in turn, allows them to lower prices to attract the next level of buyer, whose demand starts the cycle all over again. As technology and increased production capacity make it cheaper to build products based on older specifications, companies lower the prices on existing products while introducing new features and better performance to entice high-end buyers. But if a consumer bought a high-end PC with a fast processor, a big hard drive and plenty of memory for $2,000 or more two or three years ago, it might not be able to run the new Windows Vista operating system or some of the newer programs like video editors that use lots of random-access memory. It might also be wiser to buy the TV technology that serves your needs and not try to anticipate the future. Consumers debating whether to buy a $2,000 set that will suit you now versus a $4,000 model with many bells and whistles would probably be better off spending the $2,000 and using the savings to invest in a certificate of deposit. At 5 percent interest, in four years a consumer could have $2,400 to spend on whatever is new, which would probably be a lot more advanced than what $4,000 would buy today. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that early adopters made a big mistake. There are moments in the evolution of any technology when buying decisions become a bit less risky — when the pace of change slows or the market matures. HDTVs may be approaching such a moment. When it comes to resolution, Dale Cripps, founder and co-publisher of HDTV magazine, says consumers are not likely to see anything higher than 1,080p for quite some time. The maturing of the HDTV market means you should not expect “a huge curve in the near future where we will have revolutionary technology that will blow us away.” When it comes to future-proofing, Alfred Poor, author of “Professor Poor’s Guide to Buying HDTV” (Desktop Wings), says shoppers may actually have it backwards. More expensive sets are more likely to be “past proof” because high-definition programs look great on cheaper HDTV sets while costlier HDTVs with better technology typically do a better job displaying standard definition programs. “People often return their new high-definition TVs because regular shows don’t look as good as they did on their old TV,” he said. Mr. Poor is no advocate of future-proofing. He advises consumers to buy what they would enjoy watching today. But then he starts making his list of must-haves. He thinks it is a good idea to buy a set with 1,080p resolution and at least one, but preferably three or more, HDMI inputs. Because consumers are likely to have many devices like a DVR or DVD player, it pays to have a TV that can support them. And the newer HDMI 1.3 interface adds additional color depth and better audio, including better synchronization between audio and video to ensure accurate lip-synching. Mr. Poor likes sets with L.E.D. backlighting but “it’s not awful if you don’t have it.” L.E.D.’s, he said, “can display richer colors and help reduce motion blur.” Because the lights have no mercury like the florescent tubes that backlight most L.C.D. TVs, the technology is more environmentally friendly. To reduce motion blur, Mr. Poor also prefers L.C.D. sets with a frame rate of 120 hertz, or Hz, which means the TV can display twice as many images each second as conventional 60-hertz sets. The 120-hertz sets can display movies more smoothly with some high-definition DVD players. Future-proofing may be an elusive goal. But for gadget lovers, feature envy is never going to be overcome.

Television
Prices (Fares Fees and Rates)
Samsung Electronics Co


Political Skills? New Super Rugby Coach Will Need Them

Abstract: WELLINGTON — Jake White is used to dealing with politics in rugby. It is a major requirement for anyone involved in the game in South Africa. Political interference in team selections, wrangling with the South African Rugby Union’s board, the policy of transformation — bringing nonwhite players into a game that had been restricted to whites in the apartheid era — White had to deal with it all during his tenure as South Africa coach from 2004-2007. And for the most part he did so while turning a struggling national team, which had been knocked out of the 2003 Rugby World Cup in the quarterfinals, into Tri-Nations champions, in 2004, and World Cup winners, in 2007. It is why the 48-year-old, who was born in Johannesburg, is unfazed about the recent history of player rebellion at the Australian Super Rugby team ACT Brumbies, which he will take charge of next year under a four-year contract. In 2004, after a player revolt, the coach at that time, David Nucifora, was told his contract would not be renewed at the end of the season. The Brumbies went on to win the Super 12 that year, but have not won the Super Rugby competition since. This year Andy Friend was given his marching orders just two games into the season, amid reports of dissension among the players, leaving assistant coach Tony Rea to step up to the role of head coach. “I remember applying for the Springbok job and chaps here in South Africa said ‘Are you crazy? It’s a poisoned chalice.”’ said White, a two-time world coach of the year. “There is a lot of interference and political agendas, etc., and I managed through those four years.” “There is a fine line between empowerment and player control, and I think one of the things I’ll obviously have to work on is how we manage to get the best out of everyone,” he went on. “Once I get to Canberra and see things for myself, it will be easier for me to make any judgment calls.” White’s intention of tapping into the knowledge of former Brumbies and Australia stars George Gregan, Joe Roff and Stephen Larkham, who is an assistant coach at the franchise, is also likely to help ease the transition. “I think it would be silly not to use the people who have been there in the past and have been successful in the past,” White said. “I’d like to involve them and get them to understand that we are all thinking the same way and that the young players see that they have a responsibility to those old players to maintain the standards that were set before them.” “But at the same time” he said, “I think coaches also need to stamp something of their own authority and their brand and own way onto a team. You’ve got to be a bit of a leader.” “It’s not just about whether I arrive and change everything. It’s about getting the balance right between where they were, what they want to achieve and whether everyone is on the same page going forward.” White will certainly have his work cut out for him. The Brumbies are languishing at 10th in the standings after losing, 47-36, to the Cheetahs over the weekend. Scoring tries has never been a problem for the Brumbies, but their poor defense, which was again evident Friday night, has cost them games. But White is hopeful that by bringing a bit of South African influence to the team — a bit more structure on defense and at set piece — he can turn the Brumbies into title winners again. “They are great on attack. Maybe we can work on some defensive stuff we did in South Africa. Maybe work on some first phase stuff that we did in South Africa, and if that means we can put it all together and get a much better brand of Brumbies rugby at the end, then I’m sure that’s what the players and supporters want to see,” he said. The dynamic of coaching a Super Rugby franchise however, is vastly different from coaching at the international level. While White is clearly well-versed in the latter from his time with the Springboks and his previous role of coaching the South African Under-21 team to a world title in 2002, he has less experience coaching at the level just below. But he is confident he can adapt to the rigors of week after week of intense rugby and all the issues that brings with it. “It is massively different. In international rugby you play a different style of rugby and you can basically change your squad because you can pick players from other franchises if there are injuries or whatever,” said White, who has been part of the International Rugby Board’s rugby committee and worked as a consultant to teams in England (the Saracens and London Irish), France (Toulon) and Japan (Suntory) during the past four years. “But when you are with a franchise you’ve got to make sure you manage all 30 players. You’ve got to make sure they are all happy. You can’t just chop and change, and you’ve got to spend more time coaching those players to develop them,” he said. “That’s what is so nice about the Brumbies is that I’ll be working with some young boys just coming into Super Rugby that want to be Wallabies, and I’ll also be working with Wallabies players that want to be the best in the world.” That is not to say that White does not miss the buzz of being involved in international rugby, particularly in a World Cup year. “Of course you do. Once you’ve coached international rugby you are always going to have that, especially if you’ve done well,” he said. “Sometimes it puts a lump in my throat when I’m watching the Boks play and thinking I would love to have been part of this team. They are a special group of players, as everyone knows.” “But life has moved on,” he said. “I’ve been fortunate enough to be given a massive opportunity with the Brumbies and I’m putting all my energies into that.” “Hopefully,” he concluded, “I’ll get the same sort of excitement and the same sort of satisfaction that I did when I was coaching at international level.”


Israel Seeks Killers of 5 West Bank Settlers

Abstract: ITAMAR, West Bank — It was close to midnight on Saturday when the bodies of five members of the Fogel family were removed from their home in this Jewish settlement in the hills of the northern West Bank , more than 24 hours after intruders, suspected to be Palestinians , stabbed them to death in their sleep. The bodies were brought out in order of age — first the parents, Udi, 36, and Ruth, 35, then the three children, Yoav, 11, Elad, 4, and Hadas, a baby girl of 3 months. They were the victims of the deadliest attack inside a settlement in years. “They slaughtered them, really slaughtered them,” said Avichai Ronsky, a former chief rabbi of the Israeli military and a resident of Itamar, outside the house of the victims on Saturday night. The killers appeared to have randomly picked the house, one of a neat row of identical one-story homes at the edge of the settlement, on a rocky incline overlooking the nearby Palestinian village of Awarta — the proximity underlining the visceral nature of the contest in this area between Jewish settlers and Palestinians over the land. The Israeli military was combing the Palestinian villages around Itamar, near the Palestinian city of Nablus, on Saturday, searching for at least two intruders who fled the settlement after the attack on Friday night. “Rest assured, we are on a hunt after those responsible,” said Maj. Gen. Avi Mizrahi, the chief of the military’s Central Command, which is in charge of security in the West Bank. “We will find them.” Israel ’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, pointed a finger at the Western-backed Palestinian Authority, blaming it for what he described as incitement in the schools, the mosques and the news media it controls. “The time has come to stop this double-speak in which the Palestinian Authority outwardly talks peace and allows — and sometimes leads — incitement at home,” Mr. Netanyahu said in a broadcast statement on Saturday night. The president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, phoned Mr. Netanyahu to express his sorrow over the killings on Saturday evening, according to a statement from Mr. Netanyahu’s office. Earlier, Mr. Netanyahu had said he was “disappointed by the weak and mumbled statements” from the Palestinian side, adding, “This is not how one condemns terrorism.” Mr. Abbas did not issue any public condemnation on Saturday, though the prime minister of the Palestinian Authority, Salam Fayyad, condemned the attack. “There ought to be no doubt as to where we stand on violence,” he said. “We reject it, and we always condemned it.” Palestinians have often justified the killing of Israeli civilians, especially settlers, as a legitimate response to the Israeli occupation of territory conquered in the 1967 war, or in the case of radicals, as part of a broader struggle against Israel’s existence. Itamar, a religious Jewish settlement of 150 families, was closed to reporters until after sundown on Saturday because of the investigation, and because the Orthodox residents wanted to prevent unnecessary violations of the rules of the Sabbath. Residents said the victims were discovered by the family’s 12-year-old daughter, Tamar, who had returned home around midnight on Friday from a meeting of her youth group. Two more of the family’s children, ages 8 and 2, survived the attack. They were sleeping in a separate bedroom. Although attacks on Israelis in the West Bank have become less frequent in recent years, four Israeli civilians — two men and two women who lived in the Beit Hagai settlement — were shot dead in August while driving near Kiryat Arba in the southern West Bank. Itamar has also been the scene of several bloody attacks in the past.

Israel
West Bank
Palestinians
Israeli Settlements
Defense and Military Forces
Murders and Attempted Murders
International Relations


For the New Administration, No Delay in Feather Ruffling

Abstract: President Obama may or may not get a honeymoon with the news media, but it only took one day for the new relationship to have its first spat. On Wednesday, as the president spent his first full day at work in the White House, and had a just-in-case second swearing-in ceremony — after he and Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. fumbled some of the words in the official oath of office on Tuesday — the White House denied news cameras the access they have traditionally had to capture such moments. Instead, Mr. Obama’s staff provided official White House photographs of the event. But the three news services that would ordinarily send those images to news organizations around the world — The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse — refused to distribute the White House photographs. Michael Oreskes, managing editor of The Associated Press for United States News, dismissed them as a “visual press release.” Robert Gibbs , the new White House press secretary, tried to patch things up on Thursday afternoon, chatting with the three news services on a conference call. But accounts of the meeting left it unclear whether the Obama administration would grant the traditional access of previous presidencies. “We’re pleased that the White House press team takes this issue seriously, and they seem open to continuing this practice going forward,” said Howard Goller, United States editor for political and general news at Reuters. But he declined to specify what was actually said. A person briefed on the meeting, who insisted on anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss it, said the White House had made no promises and had not explained its reasoning for the omission, but had left the impression that it was simply feeling its way, and had not adopted a new stance. At Mr. Obama’s second swearing-in on Wednesday, a pool of four reporters from the print news media was present, but no pool still photographer or television camera. The photo released by the White House had been taken by its own photographer. Mr. Oreskes said it was important that the news media produce their own images, and then choose which ones to use. “There is a time-honored tradition going back many administrations of providing routine access to news photographers to regular, working areas of the White House,” he said, with the exception of closed areas like the Situation Room. At a briefing on Thursday, Mr. Gibbs was asked about the exclusion of photographers. But he shed no light on either the reason it happened or on what the practice would be going forward. “I encourage you to speak to any of the four journalists that were in there,” he said. “I think the pool report accurately reflects the event and the time it was in there.”

Obama Barack
News and News Media
Photography
Gibbs Robert L
Associated Press
Reuters Group Plc
Agence France-Presse
Roberts John G Jr