Facebook ‘Trending’ List Skewed by Individual Judgment, Not Institutional Bias

Abstract: SAN FRANCISCO — Last July, in a seventh-floor conference room at Facebook’s Lower Manhattan offices, a small group met to discuss the future of news media on the social network. Facebook leaders were bullish on a relatively new section of the site that surfaced the most popular news stories, like news of the terrorist attacks on the Charlie Hebdo newspaper in Paris or stories about Chris Hemsworth’s genitalia. They decided the effort, called Trending Topics and until then a pilot operation by a dozen or so staff members, should be doubled to more than 30 people. One goal for the team: use human judgment to make algorithms better at finding news on Facebook. “We asked, do we consider ourselves Facebook journalists?” said Benjamin Fearnow, a former news curator at Facebook who worked on Trending Topics for close to a year, until April, and who attended the meeting. “We straddled that very thin line between social media and news. None of us really knew how it was going to play out.” Nearly a year later, what began as a tiny experiment for Facebook has swollen into a national headache. The Silicon Valley company faces allegations of intentionally suppressing conservative news from appearing on Trending Topics. In a rough-and-tumble presidential election year in which social media is playing an increasingly large role, some Republican leaders say they have lost trust in Facebook’s ability to maintain impartiality as a communication and news platform. An examination of Trending Topics, based on interviews with current and former Facebook employees and a demonstration of the curator tools, found that Facebook’s employees were not directed to squelch conservative news on the site, nor would that be easily accomplished by a staff member who wished to do so. Instead, these people said, Trending Topics was a fledgling, ill-managed group — made up largely of recent college graduates with little work experience — where individual judgment of news was encouraged. That led to inconsistencies in how the most popular stories were presented, along with departures from the team, eventually landing the group in the controversy that spotlights Facebook’s huge role in the type of information people see every day. “We’ve reflected a lot,” said Justin Osofsky, Facebook’s vice president for global operations and media partnerships, which includes Trending Topics. He said Facebook had “identified ways in which we should have improved.” Trending Topics, introduced in a handful of countries in January 2014 with a small staff based in New York, was Facebook’s first major attempt to comb through the avalanche of information being posted on the social network and to make it easier for people to find current events — such as the pope’s visit to the United States and anything involving the Kardashians — and to read and talk about them on Facebook. It was a shot at competitors like Google and Twitter, according to two former news curators who spoke on condition of anonymity because they had signed nondisclosure agreements. Facebook wanted people to search for more content — like news — on its own site instead of on Google, the search king, or Twitter, which was widely regarded as better for real-time news, they said. There was one big problem: Facebook’s trending algorithms, which identify the most-talked-about terms, were not very good at discerning what was and was not news. Left to their own devices, roughly 40 percent of what Facebook’s algorithms dug up would be junk or “noise,” a result of many people using the same word at the same time across the network. The algorithm might pick up a sharp rise in the word “Skittles” and deem it a trending topic — not exactly the events Facebook had in mind. That is where humans came in. Facebook enlisted a set of 20-somethings as curators, copy editors and team leads, charged with sifting through the material the algorithms unearthed. They were crucial, they were told, to improving Facebook’s ability to discern, over time, what constitutes news. “Even if you want to have computers do everything, for technical reasons, resource limitations and product positioning, you may want humans to oversee the algorithms,” Jonathan Koren, a former Facebook employee who worked on algorithmic ranking for Trending Topics, wrote in a LinkedIn post this week. Mr. Fearnow, who was terminated from Facebook in April for breaking his nondisclosure agreement, said his job as a curator was to “massage the algorithm.” Managers were ambivalent about allowing staff members to identify themselves as curators or editors on their LinkedIn profiles, he said, given concerns that outsiders would notice the element of human judgment and ask questions about it. Facebook declined to comment, citing employee confidentiality. During each eight-hour shift, curators were presented with a continuously refreshing list of trending terms they had to sort through and identify as junk or relevant, and draft descriptions for those topics. After labeling them and checking whether they had been independently reported by a number of major news outlets, curators gave topics a value that would make them more or less likely to show up on individual users’ pages. Each user saw a different list of personalized Topics based on their past actions on Facebook. In Facebook’s editorial guidelines, curators were also told to “blacklist,” or push aside, junk topics that appeared in their queue for a period of eight to 24 hours before they could potentially appear again, according to current and former employees. When duplicate or confusing topics arose, curators were told to “inject” a more accurate Topic term. Copy editors and team leads would also oversee and approve the choices being made. The work was monotonous — and not entirely gratifying. Workers were incentivized to compete against one another to clear the most trends from their queue, former employees said. Top performers were given “points” that could be spent on Facebook paraphernalia like T-shirts. Staff turnover was high, they said. Most on the team were contractors, though some were full-time employees. That led to a sense of inequality between the two groups, some said. Starting annual salaries for contractors were in the mid-to-high $50,000s, according to former staff members. The disgruntlement may have led to leaks to news media. On May 9, the news site Gizmodo quoted anonymous sources who claimed to be former Facebook journalists, alleging that curators “routinely suppressed news stories of interest to conservative readers” in Trending Topics. Facebook denied the allegations. In a demonstration of its internal tools this week at its headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif., Facebook showed multiple layers of scrutiny by staff members that would make it extremely difficult for other workers not to notice an intentional manipulation of the system, nor was it likely to be technically possible. Former employees agree. “It’s hard to see any kind of intentional, outright bias,” Mr. Fearnow said. “There were an amazing amount of steps taken to avoid that.” He said he regularly wrote headlines and descriptions for far-right conservative sites or personalities that were visible on Trending Topics. Still, current and former Facebook employees said the personal judgment of curators was integral. Unconscious bias, they said, is tough to prevent. Facebook’s 28-page editorial guidelines were also constantly updated and changed, former curators said, and engineers would tweak the product with little or no notice, making it difficult to keep up. The reaction to the Gizmodo report has been fiery. Senator John Thune, Republican of South Dakota, has demanded answers about how Trending Topics works . A group of 16 conservatives, including Glenn Beck and Brent Bozell, traveled to Facebook for a fence-mending meeting with top executives, including the chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg. Some conservative sites, like Breitbart, are calling for Mr. Zuckerberg to further explain himself. Facebook said it was improving employee training to make its guidelines for news curators clearer, including renaming some of the more nefarious-sounding terminology in its guidelines, changing “blacklist” to “revisit,” and “injection” to “topic correction.” The company continues to investigate whether any curators intentionally tried to suppress conservative news. Executives said that for an experimental product, they got a lot wrong. “This is a relatively early product,” Mr. Osofsky said. “There are aspects of it that clearly we’re continuing to work on.”

Facebook
News media,journalism
Social Media


Berkshire Hathaway Takes Larger Stake in Phillips 66

Abstract: Berkshire Hathaway, the holding company led by Warren E. Buffett, disclosed a $4.48 billion stake in the oil refiner Phillips 66, rebuilding a bet Berkshire had made in the energy industry before oil prices fell. Berkshire’s stake of 57.98 million shares, or roughly 10.8 percent of the stock, was revealed on Friday night in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Phillips 66 shares closed at $77.23 on Friday. Mr. Buffett’s company once held a large stake in Phillips 66, which is based in Houston, but shed nearly two-thirds of it in February 2014 when Berkshire swapped $1.35 billion worth of shares for a chemicals business that it folded into its Lubrizol unit. Crude oil prices have since fallen more than half, though Phillips 66’s share price has dropped less than 1 percent. A Phillips 66 spokesman, Dennis Nuss, said on Saturday that the oil company did not comment on specific shareholders. Berkshire may have begun rebuilding its Phillips 66 stake in the second quarter, when it bought $3.09 billion of equities over all. In an Aug. 14 S.E.C. filing detailing its United States stock holdings, Berkshire did not mention Phillips 66 — after previously reporting a stake of 7.5 million shares as of March 31 — but said it had disclosed some information confidentially to the regulator. The S.E.C. sometimes lets Berkshire, which is based in Omaha, privately disclose details so that Mr. Buffett can quietly buy a large amount of stock without worrying about investors piggybacking on what they may think to be the famed investor’s stamp of approval. Mr. Buffett did this in 2013, when Berkshire amassed a $3.45 billion stake in Exxon Mobil. Mr. Buffett sold that stake in the fourth quarter of last year. Berkshire does not normally say whether Mr. Buffett or his portfolio managers, Todd Combs and Ted Weschler, make specific investments, but larger investments are generally Mr. Buffett’s. Since April, Phillips 66 shares have traded around or slightly above their current price, except for a brief drop last week to nearly $70. Berkshire ended June owning $117.7 billion worth of equities. It also owns more than 80 businesses. On Aug. 10, Berkshire said it would buy Precision Castparts, which makes parts for the aerospace and energy industries, for $32.3 billion.

Warren Buffett
Berkshire Hathaway
Phillips 66
Oil and Gasoline
Stocks,Bonds


Promoting a Vision of Tourist Bliss in Baghdad’s Dusty Rubble

Abstract: BAGHDAD — Humoud Yakobi gazes at the rubble-strewn parking lot, the maze of blast walls and the clusters of dusty palm trees on the island around him and sees hotels, restaurants and shopping malls, with throngs of people enjoying refreshments by the swimming pool or playing a round of golf. “I always imagine it as some kind of heaven,” he said. Mr. Yakobi, the chairman of Iraq ’s Board of Tourism, is charged with attracting foreign visitors to his beleaguered country. Jazirat A’aras, an island in the Tigris that is just across from the fortified Green Zone and the new American Embassy, is central to his plans. He is seeking investors who might want to spend $2.5 billion to $4.5 billion to build on the island, which was a honeymoon resort before it was bombed and looted in 2003 and then taken over by the Americans for use as a construction yard for the new embassy. As Mr. Yakobi and his colleagues envision it, the development would include “a six-star hotel,” spas, a yacht club, an amusement park, a shopping center and luxury villas, built in the architectural style of the Ottoman Empire-era buildings in Old Baghdad. The complex would also have an 18-hole golf course, the “Tigris Woods Golf and Country Club,” as it is called in preliminary sketches prepared by the Tourism Board. Some might argue that Mr. Yakobi’s vision is premature, if not absurd. Despite a drop in violence in Baghdad in recent months, Mr. Yakobi still cannot leave his office on Haifa Street without a convoy of armored cars and bodyguards. During an hourlong interview at his office recently, the lights blinked off, then on again, as the building’s generator kicked in, an event repeated many times a day throughout Iraq. It was not so long ago that American forces sometimes had to escort the workers at the Tourism Board home, shielding them from the firefights in the street. Mr. Yakobi, however, is by his own description an optimist, and he says he has some reason to believe that Iraq, known for its holy sites and antiquities, will once again be a tourist mecca. “Tourism depends on political stability more than security,” he said, adding that he believed the security situation would continue to improve. “Tourists want entertainment, rest, relaxation. If they find that in any place, they will come.” Capt. Thomas J. Karnowski, an enthusiastic Navy officer with the Civil Engineer Corps in the Green Zone, has been providing technical support to the Tourism Board on the island project. “I look at the risk and say he who gets here first with the best idea gets the best opportunity,” Captain Karnowski said recently as he led visitors on a tour of a jetty with a view of one of Saddam Hussein’s eight presidential homes across the Tigris. Mr. Yakobi, 47, seems in some ways an unlikely candidate for the task he has been given. In his black suit and maroon checked tie, he looks far more like a bureaucrat than a visionary. Asked what he wakes up worrying about at night, he said, “I never wake up.” The tourism board, he said, will hold a weeklong conference in Baghdad in November to promote the island — which is a little more than a mile long by less than a mile wide — and other projects. Those include a hotel expected to open soon in the ancient city of Babylon in Babel Province, where cholera cases have recently been reported. He also has plans for a hotel, a sports complex and a medical center in the holy city of Najaf, and resorts in Anbar Province and the marshlands in the south. The island development has no investors so far, though Mr. Yakobi believes the project might be two-thirds completed within five years. He said representatives from the tourism industry around the world had been invited to the conference, though it was unclear how many would attend. “They will bring the message to all other countries that Iraq is secure,” he said. “I am depending on them.” Hassan al-Fayadh, head of the tourism board’s media relations department, was more skeptical. “Western visitors are very sensitive to bombings and things like that,” he said. “You can’t achieve the tourism industry without security.” In fact, the State Department strongly warns Americans against travel to Iraq. “Despite recent security improvements, Iraq remains dangerous, volatile and unpredictable,” its Web site says, noting that bombings, kidnappings and mortar fire are common and that “such attacks can occur at any time.” Still, even in Iraq’s precarious state, tourism has not entirely vanished. Pilgrims from Iran, Pakistan, India and even Canada travel to the country’s major religious shrines. Mr. Yakobi said their numbers had increased in the past year as large bombings and ground battles between militias and Iraqi and American forces had diminished. He said about 1,500 Iranians arrived every day for religious tours that include three days in Najaf to visit the shrine of Imam Ali, the Prophet Muhammad’s son-in-law, and four days in Karbala, the site of the gold-domed shrine of Imam Hussein, Imam Ali’s son. Both shrines are revered by Shiite Muslims. The tours are supervised by the tourism board, a self-financed agency of the Iraqi government, and the visitors are provided with security, Mr. Yakobi said. The autonomous Kurdish region in the north, where rapid development is taking place and violence is far lower, also attracts travelers, though most go there for business. Between meetings, they visit Erbil’s citadel and the Kurdish Textile Museum, dine at restaurants in Sulaimaniya and sometimes venture into the mountainous countryside. Distant Horizons, a travel company based in Long Beach, Calif., has begun offering excursions to the Kurdish region. “We operated our first trip in June of this year (which went out full with 18 travelers and a wait list) and will be offering several departures in 2009,” Janet Moore, a spokeswoman for the company, said in an e-mail message. She said that although the Kurdish government was more prepared for such trips than she expected, “the concept of tourism is a very new one.” Before the American invasion in 2003, Westerners wandering the capital with cameras were not an uncommon sight. A Bradt travel guide to Iraq published in 2002 noted that “Iraqis tend to be very friendly, hospitable people, but most will not discuss politics or controversial topics.” It suggests, among other expeditions, a day trip from Baghdad to see the shrine at Samarra, which was bombed in 2006, setting off a wave of sectarian violence that brought Iraq to the brink of civil war; a visit to the Christian churches in Mosul, now emptied of most of their worshipers; and a stroll down the streets of the oil-rich city of Kirkuk, currently at the center of a struggle among Arabs, Kurds, Turkmens and other groups. But if Mr. Yakobi has his way, the old days of tourism will soon return, and at least one intrepid traveler is ready for them. Charles MacDonald, an adviser to a member of the provincial Parliament in Ontario, met Iraq’s ambassador to Canada at a luncheon and decided to spend his vacation in Kurdistan. When he arrived, he said, Kurdish officials were astonished that he had come as a lone tourist, but they showed him the sights and arranged meetings with government leaders. Mr. MacDonald, however, wanted to see more. So he hired a private security firm and set up a two-day trip to the Green Zone in Baghdad. “This is modern history, and I wished to experience it first-hand,” he said.

Iraq
Travel and Vacations
Hotels and Motels
Iraq War (2003- )


Arizona Sheriff Testifies in Racial Profiling Case

Abstract: PHOENIX — The man who calls himself “America’s toughest sheriff” made his way into the federal district courtroom here on Tuesday wearing a black suit and a stern expression. He spelled out his name for the clerk — “ Joseph M. Arpaio , A-R-P-A-I-O,” then raised his right hand, swearing to tell the truth before he took the stand. “We do not arrest people because of the color of their skin,” Mr. Arpaio, the Maricopa County sheriff, said in court. Mr. Arpaio, 80, has enjoyed unparalleled popularity during his 20 years as the elected sheriff. Known as Sheriff Joe, he is running for a sixth term while facing his biggest challenges yet: a lawsuit by the Justice Department, and the federal civil rights trial under way here. Both accuse the sheriff and his office of a pattern of discriminatory policing during large-scale operations known as suppression patrols that singled out Latinos — including citizens and legal immigrants — for stops, questioning and detention. This federal trial resulted from a class-action lawsuit by plaintiffs representing every Latino pulled over by Mr. Arpaio’s deputies since 2007. “You didn’t always look at illegal immigration as a serious crime, correct?” said Stanley Young, a lawyer for the six named plaintiffs in the lawsuit. “That’s correct,” Mr. Arpaio replied. The Mr. Young sought to highlight inconsistencies between what Mr. Arpaio has said and written about immigrants, mostly Mexicans, and his explanations of those statements in court. The sheriff sounded meek and appeared uncomfortable at times as he was asked to explain his words and actions. For example, Mr. Young played part of a television interview in which Mr. Arpaio said that being compared to the Ku Klux Klan was “an honor, it means you’re doing something.” When questioned about it, Mr. Arpaio testified on Tuesday that he had “no use for the K.K.K.” He once called his office a “full-fledged federal immigration agency.” On Tuesday, he backed away from that description, testifying that illegal immigration was one of the crimes his office focused on, but not the only one. At times Mr. Arpaio seemed his own adversary. Mr. Young read aloud several passages from Mr. Arpaio’s second book, co-written by Len Sherman. At one point, the book asserts that Mexicans crossing the border into Arizona, California and Texas were engaged in an effort of “reconquista” — retaking the land that was once theirs. Another passage expressed the opinion that second- and third-generation Mexicans living in the United States maintained “identities, from language to customs to beliefs, separate from American mainstream.” “My co-author wrote that,” Mr. Arpaio testified on Tuesday, his voice raspy, symptoms of a recent battle with the flu. Judge G. Murray Snow, who is presiding at the trial, allotted each side 20 hours to present evidence and testimony. He began the day reminding both sides of how much time they had used — plaintiffs: 2 hours, 47 minutes; defendants: 3 hours, 9 minutes — before engaging in an examination of his own. He called back to the stand Deputy Sheriff Louis DiPietro, who had been the last witness to testify on Thursday, the first day of the trial. Mr. DiPietro, who joined the sheriff’s office in 1988, pulled over a driver carrying a group of day laborers the driver had just picked up at a church parking lot in suburban Cave Creek in 2007, among them Manuel de Jesús Ortega Melendres, a Mexican schoolteacher here on a tourist visa, and one of the named plaintiffs in the lawsuit. The judge wanted to know about his training (most of it took place online, Mr. DiPietro said), the level of communication among officers assigned to the detail that carried out the traffic stop (there was a quick briefing before it got started, he said), and his understanding of the purpose of the action. “Some type of investigation about illegal aliens,” Mr. DiPietro said. Judge Snow wanted to know if he thought day laborers generally were in the country illegally. “I do,” Mr. DiPietro replied. Mr. Arpaio’s lawyer, Tim Casey, projected onto a screen a written plan for a crime-suppression patrol much like the one Mr. DiPietro participated in. Mr. DiPietro said he recalled seeing a similar document on the day he stopped Mr. Melendres. It contained a paragraph that read, “At no time” will Maricopa County sheriff’s office personnel “stop a vehicle based on the race of the subjects in the vehicle.” On the stand, Mr. Arpaio said, “I am against racial profiling today, as in my 50 years in law enforcement.” Mr. Young worked to prove otherwise. He read from notes, news releases and transcripts of messages left on a hot line Mr. Arpaio set up to collect tips about suspected illegal-immigrant activity. Mr. Arpaio testified that he “very seldom” suggested locations for the patrols; the task was left to his subordinates, he said. A protest unfolded outside the courthouse, where four people who had entered the country illegally sat on a banner laid on the ground — “No papers, no fear,” it read — blocking traffic at the intersection of Washington Street and Fourth Avenue. “I’m here. Come and arrest me,” one of them, Miguel Guerra, a father of three from Mexico who has lived in Phoenix for 13 years, said into a megaphone. The police eventually arrested him and the others who had joined him.

Illegal Immigrants
Arpaio Joseph M
Courts and the Judiciary
Suits and Litigation
Maricopa County (Ariz)
Race and Ethnicity
Immigration and Emigration
Racial Profiling
Arizona


Democrats Fighting in Their Own Backyard

Abstract: TRENTON SO much for party unity. For the past few months, New Jersey Democrats have been paying only a modicum of attention to the local landscape they have dominated for the better part of a decade, having been riveted by the intramural primary battle between Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama. But now — unexpectedly — they have no choice but to pay a lot of attention, thanks to the late bid by United States Representative Robert E. Andrews to oust Senator Frank R. Lautenberg in the June 3 primary. The battle is expected to be an intense two-month sprint between two members of Congress — Mr. Lautenberg, an 84-year-old liberal, who has been in the Senate, save for a two-year hiatus, since 1983, and Mr. Andrews, 50, a moderate who has been a House member since 1991. And to a limited degree, the battle echoes the national drama, with Mr. Andrews invoking the Obama mantle of being a relatively youthful agent of “change” against the establishment’s pick of Mr. Lautenberg, even though Mr. Andrews is actually a Clinton supporter. When it comes to issues, the two are already arguing over Iraq. The Lautenberg campaign has noted that Mr. Andrews stood close to President Bush at a Rose Garden signing ceremony authorizing the use of force. The Andrews campaign has circulated a New York Times article from 2002 noting that Mr. Lautenberg unequivocally supported the action, too. The two also have a lot of money, and plan to spend it, too. Mr. Lautenberg has $4.3 million in his coffers, and has pledged to dump millions more of his own personal fortune as a co-founder of ADP, the payroll corporation, while Mr. Andrews has a not-so-shabby $2.4 million, as well as the financial might of arguably the most influential Democratic insider in the state, George E. Norcross III. But the primary embodies so much more than just policy positions and campaign cash. And how it plays out could affect the direction of the state party, not just in November, but in future elections, too. “The problem with being a party with a big tent is that you have to keep a lot more people happy,” said Peter J. Woolley, a professor of comparative politics at Fairleigh Dickinson University. “The fact that there’s one label for the whole party conceals the many factions and shifting alliances.” You could say that the Democrats are a bit of out of practice when it comes to competitive primaries. This is the first competitive one with two above-the-title politicians since the nasty 2000 Senate primary between former Gov. Jim Florio and current Gov. Jon S. Corzine. (Mayor Donald Cresitello of Morristown is also a candidate, but he does not have the money or name recognition.) What has been especially interesting, so far, is that the endorsements have not always been predictable. In South Jersey, it is only natural that Mr. Andrews has the backing of people associated with Mr. Norcross’s political machine, including the State Senate majority leader, Stephen M. Sweeney; the former Atlantic City mayor and current state senator Jim Whelan; and some powerful unions. But the Assembly speaker, Joseph J. Roberts Jr., of Camden County, showed up at Mr. Lautenberg’s kickoff rally in Trenton. In Essex County, Mayor Cory A. Booker of Newark is in Mr. Lautenberg’s corner. But one of Mr. Booker’s key supporters, Stephen N. Adubato Sr., is behind Mr. Andrews. Meanwhile, in Bergen County, Joseph A. Ferriero, the county’s party chairman, is reported to be behind Mr. Lautenberg, and one of his closest allies, State Senator Paul A. Sarlo, is behind Mr. Andrews. All of these allegiances are subject to change, of course, in this fickle season of primary politcs. “Maybe you’re seeing a fraying of the alliances,” said Jennifer Duffy, a political analyst with the nonpartisan Cook Political Report. “All the polling we’ve seen for months does show this real weakness for Lautenberg, and if you’re an ambitious Democrat, which we know Andrews is, then you look at this election being about change.” The key question is whether the disagreements in the Senate race spill over onto local races for county freeholder and municipal office that party insiders typically care more about. “The question becomes, do people have an appetite for a civil war now?” said Julie Roginsky, a Democratic political consultant who is not aligned with either candidate. “These internal fights are never cheap, they’re bloody, and they tend to have ramifications that extend beyond just the selection of the statewide candidate. But I do think that the Democratic Party traditionally in New Jersey has a habit of waging nasty primaries, but then has the ability to unify for the general.” No matter who wins, Mr. Andrews has also touched off a potential skirmish for his own Congressional seat in a strongly Democratic district. And several key legislators are already among those who are said to be interested, including Mr. Sweeney and Assemblyman Louis D. Greenwald, who is the chairman of the budget committee. But that’s another family feud to discuss, on another day.

Andrews Robert E
Lautenberg Frank R
Democratic Party
New Jersey
Senate


Chávez Back in Cuba for Radiation Treatment

Abstract: CARACAS, Venezuela — President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela flew to Cuba over the weekend to begin radiation therapy to treat the return of his cancer , he said Sunday. He will be there during Pope Benedict XVI ’s visit to Cuba, which begins Monday . Mr. Chávez has locked horns in the past with the Catholic hierarchy in his country, but since he fell ill with cancer last year, he has increasingly put his personal religious expressions on public display. He went to Catholic shrines in Venezuela to give thanks for his apparent return to health after an initial round of cancer treatments last year. And he frequently talks about Jesus Christ, saying that both Christ and socialism represent love. Mr. Chávez, 57, underwent a radiation therapy session late Saturday after arriving in Havana. He was scheduled for four additional daily sessions through Wednesday. Mr. Chávez talked about his treatment on Sunday during a telephone call that was broadcast on Venezuelan state television. He said he expected to return to Venezuela on Thursday for three days of rest before going back to Cuba for another round of treatment. He did not mention the pope or the possibility of a meeting during the telephone call. The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said that he had personally informed the pope and his entourage on Sunday morning about Mr. Chávez’s visit to Havana. He said they had not received any requests for an audience with Benedict. “Anything can change. I don’t know,” Father Lombardi told reporters on Sunday afternoon during the pope’s visit to León, Mexico . “This is totally new. It wasn’t in the program.” Mr. Chávez said he was taking walks in the Havana sunshine, reading about socialism, and working. He said before his trip that the radiation treatment would continue four to five weeks, and that he would fly back and forth between Venezuela and Cuba during that time. He said it was possible that some treatments would take place in Venezuela. Mr. Chávez is running for a new term in an election scheduled for October. His opponent, Henrique Capriles Radonski, has criticized Mr. Chávez’s decision to be treated in Cuba, saying that it sends the message that medical facilities in Venezuela are not adequate. Mr. Chávez has never said what kind of cancer he has or exactly where it was found. He had a tumor removed last summer and a second tumor removed from the same place in late February, he said.

Chavez Hugo
Benedict XVI
Cuba
Cancer
Venezuela
Politics and Government
Roman Catholic Church
Radiation
Religion and Belief
Havana (Cuba)


Bangladesh Arrests Over 3,000 to Halt Attacks

Abstract: DHAKA, Bangladesh — More than 3,000 people, some of them known Islamist militants, have been arrested in a series of police raids intended to quell a wave of deadly machete attacks against bloggers, minorities and others, the police said Saturday. The roundup began last week after militants killed the wife of a police superintendent who had been investigating the machete attacks. Over the course of the week, the police said, they killed five militants in shootouts. They were members of the Jama’atul Mujahedeen Bangladesh, one of two groups that the authorities believe are behind most of the attacks, the police said. Many citizens criticized the government for not taking action sooner against the militants, who have created a climate of terror since they began murdering secularist bloggers and others more than three years ago. Since 2013, bloggers, freethinkers, religious minorities, foreigners, gay activists, followers of more liberal strains of Islam and others have been killed in attacks carried out mostly by groups of young men wielding machetes. The government had previously arrested dozens of people involved in at least 40 such attacks, but until this past week had not carried out a nationwide crackdown. People close to the government said leaders were hesitant to clamp down for fear of alienating radical fundamentalists, who form a large voting bloc. Video Hundreds of people formed a human chain in Dhaka, the capital, on Saturday to protest recent violence against religious minorities after a volunteer at a Hindu ashram was hacked to death on Friday. Credit Credit -/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images “I welcome this special drive. It should have been taken much earlier,” said Shahriar Kabir, the general secretary of the South Asian People’s Union Against Fundamentalism and Communalism . The police believe Mr. Kabir was one of the militants’ top targets, and he leaves his house here only with police protection. But the leading opposition party, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, accused the government of using the crackdown as an excuse to round up opponents. “In the name of an antimilitant drive, the government is arresting opposition activists, including B.N.P. and other antigovernment people,” said Ruhul Kabir Rizvi, the party’s senior joint secretary general. A. K. M. Kamrul Ahsan, a Bangladeshi police spokesman, said that the crackdown began Friday at 6 a.m., and that within 24 hours more than 3,000 suspects had been arrested nationwide. Five members of the Islamist group Jama’atul Mujahedeen Bangladesh were killed in shootouts with the police during the week, including one militant wanted in connection with the killing of a doctor last year and another who was suspected of shooting up a Shiite mosque during evening prayers last year, the police said. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, speaking at a meeting of her Awami League party committee on Saturday, vowed that the killers would be hunted down. Ms. Hasina also suggested that opposition parties had been involved in the killings of the bloggers and others. In addition to local groups, the Islamic State has claimed responsibility for some of the killings on social media, and several attacks have been claimed by a faction of Al Qaeda on the Indian subcontinent.

Bangladesh
ISIS,ISIL,Islamic State
Police
Jama'atul Mujahedeen Bangladesh
Murders and Homicides
Al Qaeda
Terrorism


Britain Defends Austerity Despite Moody’s Debt Warning

Abstract: LONDON — The British government came under more criticism on Tuesday for its far-reaching austerity program after Moody’s Investors Service warned that the country could be next in line to lose its AAA credit rating. The opposition Labour Party and some business groups saw the threatened downgrade as evidence that the government’s deep spending cuts were hindering growth and called for a change of course. George Osborne, the chancellor of the Exchequer, defended the cuts and said the idea that he had abandoned growth was “nonsense.” “This warning from Moody’s comes as something of a reality check to the U.K.,” said David Tinsley, an economist at BNP Paribas in London. “It serves as a reminder that the country does not have much room for any fiscal slippage if it is to keep its top credit rating.” Moody’s also lowered its outlook for the Austrian and French economies to negative and cut the debt ratings of six other European countries, including Spain, Italy and Portugal. Investors seemed to brush off the latest downgrades, however. Borrowing costs for Italy and Spain dropped Tuesday in successful debt auctions. Italy raised about 6 billion euros ($7.9 billion) in a bond sale that was 1.4 times oversubscribed, and at a substantially lower rate than the previous sale. Spain sold 5.4 billion euros’ worth of 12-month and 18-month bills, also paying less than at an earlier auction. The warning on the British economy surprised the Treasury, which had repeatedly said that its ability to maintain its top credit score — even after the United States and France lost theirs — was an endorsement of the belt-tightening it began soon after the coalition of Conservatives and Liberal Democrats took office in May 2010. Moody’s cited “the weaker macroeconomic environment, which will challenge the government’s efforts” to reduce the deficit, and “the high risk of further shocks within the currency union” as the main reasons for the change in Britain ’s outlook. Mr. Osborne, who is expected to give his annual update on the economy next month, has already had to push back his initial goal of eliminating the budget deficit by 2015. Moody’s said that Britain’s “outstanding debt places it amongst the most heavily indebted of its AAA-rated peers, alongside the United States and France, whose AAA ratings also carry a negative outlook.” The two countries, along with Austria, have already lost their AAA status with Standard & Poor’s, another rating agency. Moody’s supported Britain’s efforts to reduce the deficit but noted that slower economic growth could threaten such plans. Ed Balls, the Labour Party’s candidate for the top Treasury post, said he “consistently argued that the chancellor’s gamble — raising taxes and cutting spending too far and too fast — would backfire because without a balanced plan that promotes jobs and economic growth, the government will not succeed in getting the deficit down.” “It is clear,” he added, “that austerity around the world alone doesn’t work.” Mr. Osborne disagreed and said that Moody’s announcement was “a reality check for the whole political system that Britain has to deal with its debt.”

Credit Ratings and Credit Rating Agencies


Union Complains to F.C.C. That Verizon Is Pressuring Phone Customers

Abstract: A union representing thousands of striking Verizon workers and several consumer groups plan to complain to federal regulators on Tuesday about the tactics Verizon uses to persuade customers to switch their home phone service to fiber-optic lines. In an informal complaint to be filed with the Federal Communications Commission, the union and consumer groups contend that Verizon is engaged in “institutional deception” because it sends out workers with no intention of repairing old-fashioned copper telephone wires. Verizon has made it clear that it would prefer to invest in expanding its fiber network instead of maintaining the copper lines. When customers have trouble with their traditional home phone service, the complaint says, the company advises its workers to tell customers that “fiber is the only fix.” Customers who refuse to switch to fiber are often told that their service could be disconnected within 20 days, the complaint says. The complaint comes three weeks after about 40,000 unionized employees of Verizon went on strike after contract negotiations failed. Many of the workers belong to the union that joined in the complaint, the Communications Workers of America. The liberal advocacy groups that joined in the complaint included Common Cause and Citizen Action of New York. Verizon executives said the complaint was a bargaining tactic and denied that the company had any intention of deceiving customers, including those who resist entreaties to switch to fiber. “Not everybody welcomes this with open arms,” said Tom Maguire, senior vice president for national operations support. But, he added, “We’re not trying to deceive folks.” Mr. Maguire admitted that the company writes up a “ghost” service order to switch a customer’s service before it sends a technician to investigate a problem. The company even uses a ghost icon that resembles a character in the Pac-Man video games to indicate that the company hopes to make the switch. The complaint cites the creation of the ghost orders as evidence of the company’s true intentions. “Customers are purposefully being put in a situation where they have to make a quick decision — under duress — to either switch service to fiber or lose service altogether,” the complaint says. Mr. Maguire countered that “to have a technician go out and have that conversation with the customer I think is much better.” He said most customers are persuaded that the fiber network is superior to copper wires, which he said were more prone to being damaged by water and wind. “Once they get on fiber, there’s no issue,” Mr. Maguire said. The complaint asks the F.C.C., which is overseeing the nationwide transition from traditional phone service to fiber optics, to order Verizon to stop the practices it cites. But the evolution away from copper is well underway. Verizon and other phone companies are retiring their copper networks piece by piece. Verizon has given public notice that it plans to retire sections of its network in Manhattan, on Staten Island and in New Jersey. Regulators require at least 90 days’ notice before copper lines are retired. But some consumer advocates worry that Verizon could accelerate that change by coercing customers into switching over to avoid a quick disconnection. Christopher M. Shelton, the president of the Communications Workers of America, said the union “fully supports the conversion from copper to fiber, but we believe that consumers should be able to make this choice without pressure, threats and deception from Verizon.” Todd O’Boyle, program director for Common Cause’s Media and Democracy Reform Initiative, said, “We don’t want any provider to kind of take an end run around this really important public policy process.” Common Cause has no stake in the contract negotiations between Verizon and its unions, Mr. O’Boyle said. The organization’s goal is to help create “universal, affordable access” to telecommunications and the Internet, he said. “We want customers to have a choice,” Mr. O’Boyle said. But, he added, “Customers should go into this with eyes wide open.”

Communications Workers of America
Verizon Communications
FCC
Telecommunication
Labor Unions
Strikes Labor
Regulation and Deregulation


Suicide Bomber Strikes Meeting of Afghan Elders

Abstract: KABUL, Afghanistan — A suicide bomber on foot detonated his explosives on Wednesday as tribal elders left a meeting in a remote mountain village in eastern Afghanistan , killing one of the most senior local figures and 11 other people, including 5 schoolboys. The meeting, which was being held to resolve local disputes in the village of Jaja in the Asmar district of Kunar Province, included some of the most powerful local leaders. One of the dead was Hajji Malik Zareen, a commander who was renowned for fighting the Russians when they occupied Afghanistan in the 1980s, said Gen. Khalilullah Zaiyee, the provincial police chief. The police were investigating the attack and said they did not know who was responsible. The Education Ministry in a statement said that among those killed were five boys under 15. A local official who knew Mr. Zareen, but said he was afraid to have his name used in light of the attack, described him “as a strong supporter” of President Hamid Karzai’s government and as being known for tough stands against Pakistan. In a rare disavowal, a spokesman for the Taliban denied that anyone linked to the movement had played a role in the attack. In a number of recent suicide attacks, even ones involving civilian deaths, the Taliban have offered explanations about why they carried out the assault. “After our investigation and assessments,” Zabiullah Mujahid, the Taliban’s spokesman for the north and east of the country, said he found that the Taliban were not involved. “Since Hajji Zareen was an old mujahedeen commander in Kunar Province, he may have harassed lots of people and made lots of enemies for himself,” Mr. Mujahid said. “We think the martyrdom attack has probably originated from an old personal hostility.” The biggest business in the area is timber smuggling because the mountains and valleys are filled with swaths of the wood known locally as char tarash, a highly valued lumber used for making furniture and building houses, but now illegal to cut down because of serious deforestation and erosion. While Taliban and even foreign fighters, particularly Pakistanis, are known to travel through the area, much of the activity is criminal and involves fighting between local clans over timber, gem smuggling and land. In addition to those killed, nine were wounded, among them three children, General Zaiyee said. A NATO soldier was killed in eastern Afghanistan on Wednesday, according to a statement from a spokesman for the alliance.

Afghanistan
Terrorism
Taliban
Bombs and Explosives


Handshake With Iran Might Say Much More

Abstract: UNITED NATIONS — It has become the diplomatic big tease of the year, a rumored geopolitical rendezvous that, if not quite as momentous as Nixon and Mao in 1972, would still rank as a landmark encounter for two countries that have been estranged for more than three decades. So, will President Obama actually shake hands with President Hassan Rouhani of Iran at the United Nations on Tuesday, when both men are scheduled to speak to the General Assembly? On Monday, the White House insisted again that there was no meeting with Mr. Rouhani on the president’s schedule. But administration officials did nothing to dispel feverish speculation that the two leaders would find a way to bump into each other, whether in a hallway, in an elevator bank or by scraping their chairs together at lunch. “We are open to engaging with Iran on a variety of levels,” Benjamin J. Rhodes, the deputy national security adviser, told reporters on Air Force One as Mr. Obama flew to New York. “This is not something we object to in principle. We will do so if we believe it is in our interest.” By any standard, a meeting of Mr. Obama and Mr. Rouhani would be a seminal event: Iranian and American leaders have not met since before the Islamic Revolution in 1979. Even if it does not happen, officials noted, Secretary of State John Kerry planned to meet Iran’s foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, here later this week — the highest-level meeting between the countries since May 2007 . If the two sides were to orchestrate a handshake, diplomats said, the most likely venue would be a luncheon Tuesday for heads of state given by Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. While any encounter might appear impromptu, Mr. Rhodes made clear that in such matters of high-level schmoozing, spontaneity has its time and place. “I don’t think anything would happen by happenstance in a relationship, on an issue that’s this important,” he said. Less predictable is what a not-so-accidental encounter would mean for Iran’s confrontation with the United States and other Western countries over the Iranian nuclear program. Israel and American allies in the Persian Gulf are watching nervously, worried that Mr. Obama will trade their security for an easing of tensions with Tehran. Analysts and former officials say a face-to-face meeting could be pivotal, opening the door to a direct negotiation between Washington and Tehran that many believe is crucial to breaking the long impasse. But they, too, warn of risks, most notably that a handshake would reward Mr. Rouhani and magnify expectations for diplomacy that may not be warranted, given the fallow history of diplomacy with Iran. “It will certainly play to the Rouhani charm offensive, making the new Iranian leadership appear more moderate without any overt change in behavior,” said Dennis B. Ross, a former adviser to Mr. Obama on Iran. “At the same time, it makes a bilateral engagement much more likely.” Mr. Ross drew a distinction between a handshake and photo opportunity, and a working meeting. But he said, “We will still need to manage expectations and Israeli fears that we will end up in a rope-a-dope dialogue while the Iranian nuclear program creates facts on the ground.” It would not be the first time the Obama administration used an informal meeting to try to open a channel to Iran. In March 2009, the special envoy Richard C. Holbrooke table-hopped at a lunch in The Hague to greet an Iranian deputy foreign minister. The two chatted about Persian architecture, Mr. Holbrooke recalled at the time. It also would not be the first time an American president had viewed the General Assembly as an auspicious place for breaking the ice with the Iranians. In September 2000, before leaving office, President Bill Clinton instructed his aides to arrange a face-to-face encounter with Iran’s president, Mohammad Khatami. The White House requested that the United Nations schedule Mr. Clinton’s speech so that it fell just before Mr. Khatami’s. At the secretary general’s lunch, the Americans asked to have Mr. Clinton seated not far from Mr. Khatami so that if they pulled back their chairs, they would almost bump into each other, recalled Bruce O. Riedel, then a senior director at the National Security Council who advised Mr. Clinton on Iran. “Imagine Clinton saying, ‘Oh, Mr. President, so sorry for spilling soup on you; how would you like to make peace with America?’” Mr. Riedel said with a laugh, adding, “We tried very hard to arrange a meeting, but Khatami was unwilling to take the political risk.” This time, Mr. Obama and Mr. Rouhani have already exchanged letters, and both have spoken in conciliatory terms about the intentions of the other. Mr. Rouhani, administration officials noted, also appeared to have a broader mandate than his predecessors to make a diplomatic opening. Mr. Obama has shown willingness, especially early in his presidency, to shake hands with other difficult leaders. He greeted Hugo Chávez of Venezuela warmly at a summit meeting in Trinidad in April 2009 and, somewhat less warmly, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi of Libya at a Group of 8 meeting in Italy in July 2009. If Mr. Clinton’s experience shows one thing, however, it is that Mr. Obama can do only so much to make a connection. “The real issue is not whether the Americans want to meet,” Mr. Riedel said. “The real issue is whether the Iranians want to meet.”

Hassan Rouhani
Barack Obama
UN General Assembly
Nuclear weapon
US Foreign Policy
UN
Iran


Yankees and Cashman Remain Quiet as Trade Deadline Nears

Abstract: ARLINGTON, Tex. — As Friday’s nonwaiver trading deadline draws near, teams with championship ambitions — especially in the American League — have been busy adding pieces they hope will be difference makers in October. The Kansas City Royals, who understand how thin the margin can be, having come so close to winning the World Series last year, picked up Johnny Cueto, the ace pitcher they lacked, and Ben Zobrist, a jack-of-all trades who could plug holes at second base or in the outfield. The Houston Astros bolstered their rotation with Scott Kazmir while their top competitor in the West, the Los Angeles Angels, snatched up outfielders Shane Victorino, David DeJesus and David Murphy. Image A logo on the Yankees dugout in 2010 celebrated the team’s 27 World Series titles. They last won the Series in 2009 but have hopes again this year. Credit Jim McIsaac/Getty Images The Toronto Blue Jays, if not quite as formidable a team, created a stir by adding shortstop Troy Tulowitzki to baseball’s best offense. Activity is also increasing in the National League, with the East-leading Washington Nationals adding closer Jonathan Papelbon and the West-leading Los Angeles Dodgers working to complete a deal that would give them starters Mat Latos and Alex Wood. Even the Mets scraped together enough coins and prospects to bring in three useful supplements: infielders Juan Uribe and Kelly Johnson and reliever Tyler Clippard. Conspicuously absent from this percolating market has been the Yankees. Whether they are lurking, or just standing on the sidelines, may not be known until the deadline passes Friday. But the decision Wednesday by the Detroit Tigers to listen to offers for the star pitcher David Price would seem to get the attention of anyone with World Series aspirations. “Oh, I think he’s going to make a difference wherever he goes,” Yankees Manager Joe Girardi said. There figures to be no shortage of inquiries on Price. He will be a free agent at the end of the season, but if that depresses the cost of acquiring him, the closing window and the large number of suitors with deep pockets — the Dodgers, the Blue Jays, the San Francisco Giants and the Chicago Cubs among them — and deep farm systems may also drive up Price’s price. There was a time when none of that mattered much. The Yankees simply threw their vast resources — whatever prospects and money they had — at whatever they fancied. Although they have enjoyed a surprisingly strong season this year, the Yankees have won one World Series in 15 years and operate in a more disciplined, fiscally responsible manner under Hal Steinbrenner. Earlier this year, they were outbid by the Boston Red Sox for the Cuban prospect Yoan Moncada, and thus far Cashman has withstood overtures for his top two prospects, pitcher Luis Severino and outfielder Aaron Judge. It has been some time since the Yankees acquired a top pitching talent at the trading deadline, and the two times Cashman did, it did not turn out well — deals for Estaban Loiaza in 2004 and Jeff Weaver in 2002 turned out to be disappointments. Image Detroit’s David Price, who was traded at last year’s deadline, is among the pitchers who could potentially be available to the Yankees. Credit Chris O'Meara/Associated Press Cashman has rarely sat on his hands in July, mostly working around the margins of his club. The moves may turn out to be inconsequential (Wilson Betemit in 2007), fortuitous (Aaron Boone in 2003), regrettable (Lance Berkman for the future All-Star reliever Mark Melancon and Jimmy Paredes) or forward-thinking (Chase Headley last season), but they do turn out. In Cashman’s 17 years, only twice have the Yankees not made any deals in July — in his first season in charge and in 2011. Last season, there was a flurry of activity in the final month. The Yankees picked up Brandon McCarthy and Headley in the weeks leading up to the deadline and then acquired Stephen Drew, Martin Prado and Esmil Rogers in separate deals on the final day. Although there was no second-half surge, the moves turned out well: McCarthy pitched well for the Yankees last season, Prado was used as a trade chip to acquire Nathan Eovaldi, and Headley and Drew still make up half of their starting infield. “The reputation of the Yankees is, they’re going to do everything to win each and every year, and that makes this an appealing place to play,” said Headley, the third baseman. “But you just do your job, and you trust that the front office and ownership are going to do their job and make a personnel decision that gives us the best chance to win. I think it’s kind of foolish to get too worried about that stuff as a player.” Image Brandon McCarthy in September. He was acquired in a trade with Arizona early last July. Credit Chris O'Meara/Associated Press Thus far, the only moves the Yankees have made this month have been shuttling players back and forth between New York and Class AAA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. Girardi, who said he enjoyed dissecting the flurry of moves that are typically made at this time, clearly believed Price — a longtime ace in his prime with playoff experience — was a transcendent talent. But he also seemed uncomfortable when asked if the Yankees needed to bolster their rotation, which lacks a dependable ace. “That puts me in a tough bind when you ask me questions like that,” he said. “These guys have gotten us to this point. I don’t know if we’re going to do anything. I don’t know if we’re going to match up with other teams, so I believe in the guys in that room to get the job done.” Earlier Wednesday, the Yankees made a modest move, designating pitcher Chris Capuano for assignment and calling up Caleb Cotham from Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, a transaction that may be auspicious. Cotham hit against Price as a high school sophomore in Tennessee and played with him for a season at Vanderbilt. Cotham’s wife and Price’s girlfriend are friends, and he spent New Year’s Day at Price’s house, which these days may be the best way for the Yankees to get a foot in the door.

Baseball
Sports Trades
Brian Cashman
Joe Girardi
David Price
Yankees


Big Buyback of Shares Is Set by Expedia

Abstract: The online travel company Expedia said yesterday that it would buy back more than a third of its outstanding shares, consolidating control by its chairman, Barry Diller . Mr. Diller, who is also chairman and chief executive of Expedia’s former parent, IAC/InterActiveCorp, would control 41 percent of Expedia stock after the buyback. His already dominant voting power will be increased further through his control of a separate class of shares. Expedia said its directors and executives and its major shareholder, the Liberty Media Corporation, would not sell stock under the plan to repurchase 116.7 million shares at $27.50 to $30 each. Without elaborating on the reasons for the buyback or the source of the money to be used, Mr. Diller said the move reflected the board’s confidence in the company’s future. Expedia representatives declined to comment beyond the statement. A spokeswoman said more details would come in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In trading yesterday, Expedia rose $3.64, or more than 14 percent, to $29.14.

Expedia Incorporated
Stocks and Bonds
Diller Barry


A Turnaround at Netflix, as Its Mail Sector Shrinks

Abstract: After a haltingly poor performance in the middle of last year, Netflix reported fourth-quarter earnings on Wednesday that exceeded analysts’ expectations and a subscriber uptick that surpassed its own outlook. The company posted total revenue of $875.6 million, up 47 percent from the quarter last year. As the company invested in content rights and spent more to gain new subscribers, its profit, $40.7 million, or 73 cents a share, was down nearly 14 percent from the quarter last year, when its profit was $47.1 million, or 87 cents a share. Reed Hastings, the company’s chief executive, said he was encouraged by the number of new sign-ups for streaming video, the service that he is emphasizing as Netflix’s DVD-by-mail service shrinks. In a letter to investors, he and the company’s chief financial officer, David Wells, called Netflix a “global Internet TV network,” reflecting the growing importance of TV shows to a company that started as a distributor of movies on DVD. Netflix is also beginning to make its own shows, in much the same way that HBO and Showtime do. The fourth quarter was the first full quarter since a price increase and a bungled — and later abandoned — plan to spin off its DVD-by-mail service hurt the company’s reputation and decimated its stock price. It lost about 800,000 subscribers in the United States in the third quarter, leveling off at 23.8 million; at the end of the fourth quarter, it had 24.4 million, somewhat more than it had expected to have. Investors welcomed these signs of recovery, sending the stock up about 15 percent in after-hours trading on Wednesday, after ending regular trading at $95.04. The stock, which plummeted from $300 to well under $100 last summer and fall, has rebounded about 30 percent in the last few weeks. Of those 24.4 million subscribers in the United States, 21.7 million have the streaming service, and 11.2 million have the DVD service. (Many have both.) Netflix expects to gain 1.7 million streaming subscribers in the first quarter of this year, and lose 1.5 million from the DVD service. “The truth is, the DVD business is going to see declines no matter what we do,” said Ted Sarandos, Netflix’s chief content officer, at a TV conference in Miami on Tuesday. As evidence, he pointed to a recent agreement between Netflix and Warner Brothers that will further delay the availability of DVDs to Netflix subscribers. Warner succeeded in doubling the length of time that Netflix waits to receive DVDs after they go on sale at stores, to 56 days, from 28 days previously. When asked about the agreement, Mr. Sarandos said that the confusion that DVD delays cause consumers “ultimately may be a net negative for the DVD service.” Not that Netflix is overly concerned about DVDs. Its future, it says, is in streaming; Mr. Hastings said on a conference call Wednesday evening that the company has no plans to market the DVD service this year. Netflix has 1.9 million streaming subscribers in other countries now, mostly in Canada; it is also starting to gain subscribers in Latin America, Britain and Ireland. Increased investments in those new markets is expected to cause modest losses through this year, the company predicted. Mr. Hastings and Mr. Wells said in their letter Wednesday that “until we achieve our goal of returning to global profitability, we do not intend to launch additional international markets.”

Netflix Inc
Company Reports
DVD (Digital Versatile Disc)
Prices (Fares Fees and Rates)
Video Recordings and Downloads


U.S. Markets Gain as Consumer Confidence Rises

Abstract: Stocks ended a roller-coaster week with a gain on Friday, as the technology sector responded to strong results from the chip maker National Semiconductor, while a positive report on consumer confidence offset a decline in retail sales. Wall Street indexes fell initially after the Commerce Department reported that retail sales decreased 1.2 percent last month, the largest drop since the fall. Five of the 13 retail categories fell, led by a 9.3 percent decline in building materials, the department said. The report was tempered by a University of Michigan survey showing a jump in June in the consumer sentiment index, a measure of confidence, and another report from the Commerce Department that said business inventories in April rose 0.4 percent after an upwardly revised 0.7 percent gain in March. “Even though inventories have been growing, they need to continue to grow,” Alan D. Levenson, chief economist of T. Rowe Price, said. “They’ve been falling relative to sales for more than a year, so production rates will have to increase further in order to bring inventories up relative to rising sales.” The Dow Jones industrial average rose 38.54 points, or 0.38 percent, to 10,211.07, and the broader Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index rose 4.76 points, or 0.44 percent, to 1,091.60. The Nasdaq was up 24.89 points, or 1.12 percent, at 2,243.60. The Dow industrials and the S.& P. 500 finished the week with gains of about 3 percent, while the Nasdaq rose about 1 percent. Bruce E. McCain, chief investment strategist with Key Private Bank, attributed some of the continuing strength in technology shares to Wednesday’s positive export data from China. “The extent to which a lot of the tech companies get sales overseas, many investors believed China is not as bad as it had seemed,” said Mr. McCain. “That suggests better sales for tech companies.” The sector was helped by Thursday’s earnings report from National Semiconductor, which posted a fourth-quarter profit and forecast a better first quarter than analysts had expected. National Semiconductor rose 5.03 percent. Microsoft rose 2.64 percent, Oracle 2.18 percent and Apple 1.19 percent. Mr. McCain said that despite the negative retail sales numbers, the bounce in technology shares was a sign that prices might be reaching a bottom, because the technology sector was sensitive to the economy. While the retail sales numbers left analysts trying to determine if consumers were starting to trim their spending, Mr. Levenson said May’s numbers were not a sign of a double-dip recession . “We had big increases in core retail sales in the beginning of this year,” Mr. Levenson said. “Right now we’re seeing a more cautious time of spending supported by growing incomes,” he said, adding that consumers had been saving more while also trying to pay off their debts. Both personal income and savings have been stronger in recent months — income rose 0.4 percent in April, while the rate of savings rose to 3.6 percent in April, from 3.1 percent in March. Prices rose in the Treasury markets, a move Mr. Levenson attributed to the investors who were seeking some safety in light of the weak retail sales report. The Treasury’s benchmark 10-year note rose 23/32, to 102 7/32, and the yield fell to 3.23 percent from 3.32 percent late Thursday. Shares closed higher in major Asian markets but were mixed in Europe. In London, shares of the oil giant BP closed up 7.7 percent one day after they fell on speculation that the company would be forced to cut its dividend to help pay for the cleanup of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The FTSE 100 closed up 0.6 percent at 5,163.68; the DAX in Frankfurt lost 0.1 percent to 6,047.83; and the CAC-40 in Paris rose 1.1 percent to 3,555.52. In Tokyo, the benchmark Nikkei 225 gained 162.60 points, or 1.7 percent, to 9,705.25. The euro slipped to $1.2077 from $1.2095. Benchmark crude for July delivery was down $1.70, closing at $73.78 a barrel in New York trading.

Stocks and Bonds
Economic Conditions and Trends


Drop Foreseen in Median Price of U.S. Homes

Abstract: The median price of American homes is expected to fall this year for the first time since federal housing agencies began keeping statistics in 1950. Economists say the decline, which could be foreshadowed in a widely followed government price index to be released this week, will probably be modest — from 1 percent to 2 percent — but could continue in 2008 and 2009. Rather than being limited to the once-booming Northeast and California, price declines are also occurring in cities like Chicago, Minneapolis and Houston, where the increases of the last decade were modest by comparison. The reversal is particularly striking because many government officials and housing-industry executives had said that a nationwide decline would never happen, even though prices had fallen in some coastal areas as recently as the early 1990s. While the housing slump has already rattled financial markets, it has so far had only a modest effect on consumer spending and economic growth. But forecasters now believe that its impact will lead to a slowdown over the next year or two. “For most people, this is not a disaster,” said Nigel Gault, an economist with Global Insight, a research firm in Waltham, Mass. “But it’s enough to cause them to pull back.” In recent years, many families used their homes as a kind of piggy bank, borrowing against their equity and increasing their spending more rapidly than their income was rising. A recent research paper co-written by the vice chairman of the Federal Reserve said that the rise in home prices was the primary reason that consumer borrowing has soared since 2001. Now, however, that financial cushion is disappearing for many families. “We are having to start from scratch and rebuild for a down payment,” said Kenneth Schauf, who expects to lose money on a condominium in Chicago he and his wife bought in 2004 and have been trying to sell since last summer. “We figured that a home is the place to build your wealth, and now it’s going on three years and we are back to square one.” On an inflation-adjusted basis, the national median price — the level at which half of all homes are more expensive and half are less — is not likely to return to its 2007 peak for more than a decade, according to Moody’s Economy.com , a research firm. Unless the real estate downturn is much worse than economists are expecting, the declines will not come close to erasing the increases of the last decade. And for many families who do not plan to move, the year-to-year value of their house matters little. The drop is, of course, good news for home buyers. It does, however, contradict the widely held notion that there is no such thing as a nationwide housing slump. A 2004 report jointly written by the top economists at five organizations — the industry groups for real estate agents, home builders and community bankers, as well as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the large government-sponsored backers of home mortgages — was typical. It said that “there is little possibility of a widespread national decline since there is no national housing market.” Top government officials were more circumspect but still doubted that the prices would decline nationally. Alan Greenspan, the former Fed chairman, said the housing market was not susceptible to bubbles, in part because every local market is different. In 2005, Ben S. Bernanke, then an adviser to President Bush and now the Fed chairman, said “strong fundamentals” were the main force behind the rise in prices. “We’ve never had a decline in housing prices on a nationwide basis,” he added. But Global Insight, the research firm, estimates that the home-price index to be released Thursday by the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, a regulatory agency, will show a decline of about 1 percent between the first and second quarter of this year. Other forecasters predict that the index will rise slightly in the second quarter before falling later this year. In all, Global Insight expects a decline of 4 percent, or roughly 10 percent in inflation-adjusted terms, between the peak earlier this year and the projected low point in 2009. In California, prices are expected to decline 16 percent — or about 20 percent after taking inflation into account. The government’s index, which compares the sales price of individual homes over time, is intended to describe the actual value of a typical house. Since the index began in 1975, it has slipped from one quarter to the next on a few occasions, but it has never fallen over a full year. Another index dating back to 1950, calculated by Freddie Mac, has also never shown an annual decline. Price data published by the National Association of Realtors, based on the prices of houses sold in a given year, have also never declined. According to the association, the median home price is now about $220,000. Mr. Schauf and his wife, Leslie Suarez, put their condo in the Sheridan Park neighborhood of Chicago up for sale shortly before moving to Texas last year so he could take a new job. They bought the two-bedroom unit in September 2004 for $255,000, with a 5 percent down payment. They redid the floors, installed new window treatments and repainted the walls. They said they expected the condo to sell quickly. Instead, they have cut the price several times and have yet to receive an offer. The current list price is $279,000, though they expect to settle for less. Without the money for a new down payment, they are renting an apartment in Austin. They also expect the monthly payment on their adjustable-rate mortgage to go up $200 in October. Ms. Suarez, who grew up in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, says she is not as surprised because she remembers home prices falling after the oil bust in the late 1980s. “Growing up in Texas, real estate has never been a windfall,” she said. “For me, I always just wanted to break even.” Housing prices have previously declined for long stretches in various regions. Most recently, prices fell in California and in the Northeast during the recession of the early 1990s. The current slump is different from that one, though, in both depth and breadth. In fact, the national median price rose only slightly faster than inflation from 1950 to the mid-1990s. But as interest rates fell and lending standards became looser, prices started rising rapidly in the late 1990s, even in places like Chicago, which had rarely seen a real estate boom. The result was a “euphoric popular delusion” that real estate was a can’t-miss investment, said Edward W. Gjertsen II, president of the Financial Planners Association of Illinois. “That’s just human nature.” Many families are clearly richer because of the boom. In the Old Town neighborhood of Chicago, the town house that Ian R. Perschke, a technology consultant, and Jennifer Worstell, a lawyer, bought in late 2004 has appreciated more than 30 percent, they estimated. The gain was big enough to allow them to take out a larger mortgage and renovate two rental units in the house. But Mr. Perschke said he understood that he was “not going to see that appreciation over the next three years.” Prices in Chicago peaked in September 2006 and have since dipped 1.7 percent, according to the Case-Shiller home-price index, which is tabulated by MacroMarkets, a research firm. For all the attention that the uninterrupted growth in national house prices received, some economists argue that it was misplaced. The Case-Shiller index, which many experts consider more accurate than the government measure, did show a drop in prices in the early 1990s. (Unlike the government’s measure, it includes mortgages of more than $417,000, which are not held by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac.) After adjusting for inflation — the most meaningful way to look at any price, economists say — even the government’s index fell in the early 1990s. Dean Baker, an economist in Washington who has been arguing for the last five years that houses were overvalued, said the idea that house prices could go only up had fed the bubble. “It was very misleading,” said Mr. Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, a liberal research group. There are a lot of people, he said, who bought “homes at hugely inflated prices who are going to take a hit. You also have a lot of people who borrowed against those inflated prices.” Perhaps the most prominent housing booster was David Lereah, the chief economist at the National Association of Realtors until April. In 2005, he published a book titled, “Are You Missing the Real Estate Boom?” In 2006, it was updated and rereleased as “Why the Real Estate Boom Will Not Bust.” This year, Mr. Lereah published a new book, “All Real Estate Is Local.” In an interview, Mr. Lereah, now an executive at Move Inc., which operates a real estate Web site, acknowledged he had gotten it wrong, saying he did not fully realize how loose lending standards had become and how quickly they would tighten up again this summer. But he argued that many of his critics have also been proved wrong, because they were bearish as early as 2002. “The bears were bears way too early, and the bulls were bulls too late,” he said. “You need to know when you are straying from fundamentals. It’s hard, when you are in the middle of the storm, to know.”

Housing
Mortgages
Prices (Fares Fees and Rates)
Economic Conditions and Trends
Credit


Global Sourcing Forum Canceled in New York City

Abstract: The Global Sourcing Forum was known for many things. Controversy and intrigue were not among them. The forum typically draws hundreds of corporate executives and foreign government officials from around the world to New York City each year for two days of speeches and panel discussions focused on outsourcing , the process in which a company or government agency contracts with an outside firm, often in a different country, to perform services once done in-house. Last year, some 1,000 people representing more than 25 countries attended the event at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center. This year, the forum was to be held on Wednesday and Thursday at the Marriott Marquis in Times Square. But late last week and throughout the weekend, word had spread that the Global Sourcing Forum had been abruptly canceled. By Wednesday morning, the event’s Web site — globalsourcingforum.com — was a blank page with two green bars across the top. David Etzler, the chief executive of OutsourceWorld , the conference company that produces the forum, had told some attendees that the firm was seeking bankruptcy protection. The forum’s cancellation illustrated the logistical, financial and legal fallout that happens when a long-planned global business conference is suddenly shut down in New York City. Contingents from across the country and the globe — Bangladesh, China, Poland, Uruguay — had already arrived in New York and spent thousands of dollars in registration fees, sponsorships and hotel costs. Sleek brochures had been designed. Former and current executives of major corporations and institutions were scheduled to speak or sit on panels, including those from Johnson & Johnson, Viacom, Amazon.com and the World Bank. Hotel rooms and banquet space had been booked. Officials from Ghana, seeking to create public-private partnerships out of the networking they would do at the forum, spent $20,000 from a project, financed by the World Bank, to be a co-sponsor of the event. Bangladesh spent more than $100,000 on sponsorship, airfare and hotel costs for a large delegation. “The big question that we have is, there’s a lot of public funds tied up in this,” said Kevin Parikh, a panel moderator and the global chief executive of Avasant, a management consulting firm that represents the government of Ghana. “OutsourceWorld obviously had the sponsorship money of these organizations leading up to the conference. Where did that money go? The money was to be used for the event, or it should have been returned.” The sudden cancellation left officials from countries like Poland moving quickly to host receptions and other events. Frank Casale, the chief executive of the Outsourcing Institute , a professional association whose members were expecting to attend the forum, also hastily organized a free ad-hoc conference, to give stranded participants a place to meet and talk about the industry. On Wednesday morning, away from the bustle of Times Square, about 60 people sat at a long conference table at a law office on Park Avenue. “There were a couple hundred people in town,” Mr. Casale said as the program was about to begin at Kelley Drye & Warren L.L.P. “We could only fit 60 in this room. It was first come first served.” A Marriott Marquis spokeswoman said the Global Sourcing Forum was canceled “because the client could not meet the terms of the contract,” though she would not elaborate. Mr. Etzler declined to comment and referred questions to his lawyer. OutsourceWorld’s bankruptcy lawyer, Philip J. Landau, said the company would seek bankruptcy protection and would be liquidated. Mr. Landau said several major sponsors of the event who had committed several hundred thousand dollars backed out at the last minute. “OutsourceWorld couldn’t then make the payment to the Marriott,” he said. “It’s in essence a domino effect.” Mr. Landau, who said he could not name those sponsors who failed to pay, said none of the sponsorship money went to Mr. Etzler personally. “All of the money went into the event,” said Mr. Landau, who added that Mr. Etzler had not taken a salary in weeks, if not months, and had been “very distraught” over the ordeal. Mr. Etzler, 39, lives in Boca Raton, Fla., and is a well-known figure in the global outsourcing industry. He called himself an “eco-enthusiast” in The Sun-Sentinel in Florida, and had organized a local green-living fair. Several attendees criticized Mr. Etzler for failing to notify participants traveling from around the world that the event had been called off and accused him of mismanaging OutsourceWorld. Mr. Landau said Mr. Etzler had officially canceled the event last Thursday evening and later posted a statement to that effect on the Web site before the site was taken down, in addition to sending an e-mail to some attendees. He said those who spent money on registration and sponsorship costs would be able to submit claims for reimbursement through liquidation proceedings.

Conventions and Conferences
Outsourcing
New York City
Global Sourcing Forum


Rangers Let Puck, and Lead, Get Away

Abstract: For Rangers fans, Wednesday night at Madison Square Garden started in a caldron of defiance. Soon it became a raucous celebration. It eventually turned anxious and, finally, ended in shocked silence. The Rangers lost the pivotal Game 4 of their Stanley Cup playoff series with the Washington Capitals after 32 minutes 36 seconds of overtime on a broken play — a miscommunication between Rangers forward Marian Gaborik and goalie Henrik Lundqvist — that allowed Washington’s Jason Chimera to finish a furious comeback. The Rangers held a 3-0 lead after two periods and seemed on course for a second straight victory to even the series. But Chimera’s unlikely goal gave the Capitals a 4-3 victory and a three-games-to-one lead. The series returns to the Verizon Center on Saturday afternoon for what could be the Rangers’ final game of the season. It was the first time all season the Rangers had lost a game after holding a second-intermission lead, a 29-game streak. It was also the first time all season that the Capitals had come back from a 3-0 deficit. “I’m a little bit shocked,” said Brandon Dubinsky, who had a goal and an assist. “The way we’ve played in the third period all season long — we’d never lost a game when we had the lead.” The winning goal came in the midst of a second overtime period that, like most of the game, was played at sprint speed. Chimera broke into the Rangers’ zone after taking a short pass from Marcus Johansson, who scored two of Washington’s three third-period goals. Chimera fired the puck, but his shot was muffled by the stick of defenseman Bryan McCabe. The puck slid into a no-man’s land between Lundqvist on one side and McCabe and Chimera, who had tied each other up, on the other. Lundqvist, who made 49 saves — including a glove stop on a breakaway by Alex Ovechkin in overtime — dived out to smother the puck. But at the same moment, Gaborik, backchecking diligently, tried to clear it out of harm’s way. Instead, he poked the puck directly into Chimera’s path. It fell in the goalmouth, and Chimera pounced on it and shot it into the net for the Capitals’ second overtime win of the series. As Chimera glided across the ice on one knee in celebration and his teammates poured over the boards to mob him, Lundqvist knelt, staring into his net, motionless and in disbelief. “I thought he saw me coming, but he didn’t see me,” Lundqvist said, adding, “It was a miscommunication. It all happened pretty fast.” Gaborik did not speak to reporters after the game. Chimera called it “kind of a lucky break.” “I shot it and it hit someone and the puck was just laying there for me to tap in,” he said. “I couldn’t miss it.” Rangers Coach John Tortorella said: “It’s a nothing play that turns into something — something big.” It had all seemed so easy in the second period, when the Rangers scored twice in seven seconds and the crowd was roaring. “Can you hear us?” fans chanted. “Can you hear us?” There is no question that Capitals Coach Bruce Boudreau heard, after goading Rangers fans Monday in a Washington radio interview with the contention that they were not as loud as the fans at the Verizon Center. But in the third period, the Capitals struck, and suddenly the Garden was not rocking anymore. What looked like an easy, exultant victory for the Rangers became another mucking, anxiety-drenched affair. The Capitals tied the score with 7:53 left in regulation when John Carlson shot from the blue line past Lundqvist. That followed goals 57 seconds apart earlier in the period by Alexander Semin and Johansson. It wiped out the lead provided by Artem Anisimov, Gaborik and Dubinsky. Anisimov broke a scoreless draw with a shot from behind the net that bounced past Washington goalie Michal Neuvirth (36 saves) at 5:24 of the second period. Then Ruslan Fedotenko created two goals, circling the net and sending a perfect backhand feed to Gaborik at 13:40, and, only seven seconds after the subsequent center-ice draw, rushing all the way down ice behind the Washington net to set up Dubinsky. The party was on and the Garden sounded like the inside of a hangar as a jet airliner revved its engines. Anisimov’s goal was his first of the playoffs. Gaborik’s was also his first of the playoffs. It had been a month to the day since he last scored a goal of any kind. Dubinsky’s, seven seconds later, was his second in two games. The two goals missed the Rangers’ playoff record by one second. Rob Gilbert scored twice, six seconds apart, in 1968. But the Capitals showed the resiliency that had been missing in recent playoff collapses. “I might have made a mistake by saying what I said,” Boudreau said of Rangers fans. “Let’s let the players decide it on the ice.”

Hockey Ice
Playoff Games
New York Rangers
Washington Capitals
Chimera Jason
Lundqvist Henrik
Gaborik Marian


Colin Furze Reinvents X-Men Characters, Claws and All

Abstract: As the video begins, a cheerful young man in a rumpled shirt and tie lays down the challenge: “Can I make some fully automatic adamantium claws?” It might seem an odd question to some — but not to fans of X-Men comic books and films. Soon, with rock guitars blaring, he is running around a workshop, equipped with a backpack and two homemade metal contraptions strapped to his arms. He holds up his fists to the camera, and sure enough, six sharp metal claws shoot from the tops of his hands: He is Wolverine! This is perhaps one of the tamer scenes in a series of videos by Colin Furze, a garage inventor and do-it-yourself daredevil in Stamford, England. With more than 500,000 subscribers on YouTube, Mr. Furze, 34, has found an online following for his radical — and sometimes dangerous — backyard inventions, which include the world’s longest motorbike and a scooter that shoots fire from its back end. (That one got him arrested.) Despite his penchant for such technical feats, Mr. Furze is no certified engineer. In fact, he did not even finish school; he dropped out at 16 to become a plumber. While living with his parents, he said, he experimented with metalworking but did not have the resources to test the limits of his imagination. “While my dad had a massive shed, I wasn’t actually allowed in it, so everything I’d come up with I had to make in my bedroom,” Mr. Furze said in an interview. “I mean, I had a lathe in there at one point, which was a terrible idea, really.” After his father died in 2007, Mr. Furze took over the shed — and the array of power tools it held. It wasn’t long before he was tinkering with bikes and electric motors, filming his creative processes along the way. Since then, his inventions have helped him set five Guinness world records, one for the world’s fastest mobility scooter (it houses the engine of a 1997 CR125 motocross bike and has a top speed of 82.5 miles per hour). Image The world's most dangerous bike? The jet engine fitted to a rickety old bicycle. Credit Simon Lee But it is his most recent projects — harnessing the powers of the X-Men superheroes — that made him a YouTube star. “Sometimes, you’ll come out of a film and you think, ‘Wouldn’t it be awesome to have that thing or to do that thing?’ ” he said. “With ‘Back to the Future,’ it’s hover boards and time travel; with ‘X-Men,’ it’s obviously claws and superpowers.” Along with Wolverine’s retractable claws, he has also recreated the abilities of the fire-bender Pyro, designing cuffs that shoot flames with two flicks of his wrists. With one cuff rigged to a propane gas tank in a backpack and the other serving as a pilot light, he can ignite a stream of fire up to 12 feet long. For Wolverine’s claws, Mr. Furze said, the process was mostly trial and error, positioning the stainless steel blades on his arms to see what made the best fit. To make them deploy and retract, he created a system of valves connected to an air tank in a backpack; when he clenches his fists to press buttons tucked into his palms, the valves use pressurized air to push and pull the claws smoothly in and out of their metal casings. In his most recent and most gravity-defying X-Men project, Mr. Furze set out to make “ Magneto shoes ” — magnetic boots he used to walk on the ceiling of his workshop. He got old microwave ovens from a scrapyard and removed their magnetic coils, running a current through them to make electromagnets strong enough to hold his body weight. Then he strapped the magnets to a pair of old Vans shoes, and voilà — he was soon hanging upside down like a bat from a metal strip bolted to the ceiling. Mr. Furze has critics as well as fans; some have complained that his creations are too dangerous for the average person to attempt. But over all, he said, the response from novices and engineers alike has been positive. “Are his claws potentially hazardous? Yep. They’re also pretty awesome,” said Caleb Kraft, community editor at Make , a magazine focused on do-it-yourself technology. “He doesn’t appear to be out around unsuspecting bystanders or even doing anything particularly dangerous with them. All in all, they’re possibly less dangerous than changing your car tire or mowing your lawn.” For Mr. Furze, the whole point is to inspire viewers who might not have realized their creative potential. “If you ask somebody, ‘Do you want to make a magnet?’ they’ll probably be like, ‘No I’m not really that interested,’ ” Mr. Furze said. “But if you ask someone, ‘Do you want to make some magnetic shoes and walk upside down?’ More people will be like, ‘Yeah, that sounds cool.’ ”

Inventions and Patents
YouTube
Colin Furze
Movies
England
Video Recordings
Downloads and Streaming


Lamoureux Twins Give Minnesota a 1-2 Punch

Abstract: MINNEAPOLIS — Keeping track of her six hockey-playing children used to be a snap for Linda Lamoureux. From a second-floor bedroom in their home in Grand Forks, N.D., she simply looked out onto the frozen English Coulee, where her four boys and twin girls, Monique and Jocelyne, usually skated in pickup games with other children in the neighborhood. Floodlights from two nearby homes illuminated the ice after dark, so Linda took to blowing a whistle to get her brood to come home for dinner. “I got too tired of walking across the street and yelling at them,” said their father, Jean-Pierre. All six have gone on to play Division I college hockey. Jacques, a sophomore at Air Force, leads Division I men with 26 goals. But the twins, now 19-year-old freshmen at Minnesota, may prove to be the most accomplished players in the family. Among Division I women, Monique (67 points) and Jocelyne (56) stand first and fourth in the nation in scoring for the No. 1-ranked Gophers. With a 3-1 win Saturday over St. Cloud State, they won their first Western Collegiate Hockey Association regular-season title since 2005. Monique has 33 goals and 34 assists in 34 games this season. Her goal total is tied for second nationally, behind Wisconsin’s Hilary Knight, who has 37. Jocelyne, the playmaker, has 32 assists, tied for third nationally behind her sister and another Badger, Erika Lawler (38). Top-seeded Minnesota (28-3-3) will face Bemidji State in the first round of the W.C.H.A. playoffs, beginning a best-of-three series Friday night. The Gophers won all four of their regular-season games against Bemidji State, and each Lamoureux had three goals and three assists in an 11-1 victory on Jan. 17, the teams’ most recent meeting. Two weeks later, Monique scored four times in a 7-4 win at Minnesota State: at even strength, on a power play, short-handed and on an empty netter. Her four short-handed goals this season tie her for second best in the nation. “I think we’re a little bit surprised, but we have high expectations for ourselves,” Jocelyne said. “I think it goes back to growing up with the boys and stuff. Obviously, in practice and in games, a boy never wanted to lose to us. And we always wanted to prove ourselves that we deserved to be out there.” First, they had to prove it against their talented older brothers. Jean-Phillippe, 24, is a rookie goaltender for the Alaska Aces of the East Coast Hockey League, with a league-leading 24 wins. He finished a stellar career at the University of North Dakota last year with a trip to the Frozen Four. Jacques, who overcame a bout of depression as a teenager, is a 22-year-old forward for Air Force. Besides leading the nation in goals, he leads in game-winning goals and is tied for the lead in power-play goals. Pierre-Paul, 21, is a freshman defenseman at the University of Manitoba, and Mario, 20, a freshman forward at North Dakota. All that athletic ability comes from their parents. Jean-Pierre won two N.C.A.A. hockey titles as a backup goalie at North Dakota in 1980 and ’82. Linda, also a North Dakota graduate, was a swimmer in college but has become a distance runner. She has competed in more than 20 marathons, including Boston five times. She said she would sneak in training runs during her children’s hockey practices. Until high school, the Lamoureux twins competed against boys in hockey, soccer and even baseball. That, they said, toughened them and eased their adjustment from prep school to college hockey. Jocelyne still chuckles about the time Mario responded to an attempted forecheck by planting her on her back. “Mario is a pretty thick kid,” she said. “I just laughed and got back into the play.” With checking prohibited in the women’s game, the competition is finding it difficult to knock a Lamoureux off her skates. And neither twin is afraid to back down. Jocelyne leads the Gophers in penalty minutes, with Monique second. “You’ve got to be tough with the guys,” said Natalie Darwitz, a two-time Olympian who is an assistant for the Gophers. She also competed against boys growing up. “You don’t want to the only girl out there and you get a slash on the wrist and complain and cry about it. “They learned a lot from their brothers. They’ve played like guys. They’re physical in that sense and they’re aggressive, and there’s a lot of grit to their game. More than other players, you can see their growing-up pattern.” Coach Brad Frost said that at practice, when the Gophers’ sweaters did not have names or numbers, it took him about a week and a half to tell the twins apart. He said he even called one of them by the wrong name once. “I said, Nice goal, Jocelyne, and she said, ‘That was Monique,’ ” he recalled. “And I was like, Then nice goal, too.” The Lamoureux twins are mirror images of each other. Monique writes left-handed and Jocelyne right-handed. Jocelyne, a center, wears No. 12 and right wing Monique wears No. 21. Their mother says that Jocelyne’s left ear is shaped like Monique’s right ear. (Both, however, shoot right-handed.) Frost put the twins on Minnesota’s No. 2 line with the junior left wing Brittany Francis. He tried them on separate lines, briefly. “They’re great hockey players separately, but they’re even better together,” Frost said. “It’s like growing up and playing on the same line with your best friend everywhere you’ve gone. And then you add the fact that they’re twins, and they have that intuition thing that I don’t understand, but they understand very well.” As members of USA Hockey’s under-22 team, the twins may be invited to try out for the 2010 Olympic team. Wisconsin Coach Mark Johnson, who will coach the Olympic team, declined to discuss their chances. He coached them at the 2006 Four Nations Cup and recruited them for the Badgers. “People who had seen them the last four or five years knew they were good players,” Johnson said. “They played on a lot of great boys teams. It makes you competitive, or you get booted out and not invited back. Growing up in that family, they obviously had to compete to get it.” With six children playing hockey across North America, Linda and Jean-Pierre keep tabs on them through a home computer, two cellphone plans and a meticulously planned travel schedule. Over the Christmas break, the six decided to get matching tattoos designed by Pierre-Paul: a family crest surrounded by six hearts, representing each sibling. Nobody, however, cleared this project with Mom and Dad. Jean-Pierre said he learned of it when he came home and found the tattoo artist working in the family kitchen, nearly halfway through the group. “I was not too happy,” he said.

College Athletics
Hockey Ice
Twins
Women
University of Minnesota