Troubled Greek Economy Is Being Left to Fend for Itself

Abstract: ATHENS — No matter what happens in this weekend’s elections, Greece is rapidly becoming an isolated economy. Carrefour, the giant French supermarket and retail group, said on Friday that it was selling its entire stake in Greece at a loss to its local franchise partner, so it could concentrate “on markets where it sees growth,” a spokesman said. Coca-Cola’s operations in Greece were also downgraded by Moody’s Investors Service, which cited the increased likelihood that Greece could exit the euro zone. A day earlier, the French bank Crédit Agricole said it was ring-fencing its Greek operations to protect itself should that happen. Two of the world’s largest import-export insurers, Euler Hermes and Coface, have recently refused to cover transactions involving companies in Greece, imperiling the import of basic goods. Global businesses and investors are retreating both because of the uncertainty on whether they might be paid someday in a devalued currency, and because domestic consumption has plunged after three years of painful austerity. Nearly a quarter of the people are out of work. Buying power has shriveled. Sales of clothing and pharmaceuticals have slumped, and even gas purchases are down as people drive less to save money. Companies short on cash have stopped paying one another. Amid rows of unsold screws, drills and power tools at his hardware store here, Deodoris Diamadis is one of many Greeks awaiting elections that he hopes could bring much desired economic improvement. “Commerce in Greece is down to almost nothing because of all the economic and political uncertainty,” Mr. Diamadis said grimly on a recent weekday as he watched the occasional customer flit in and out without buying anything. “We’re hoping that a new government will resolve this crisis.” Those hopes are likely to be dashed, given the bleak outlook. Even the strongest parts of the economy are suffering badly. Tourism, which accounts for nearly 20 percent of all jobs in Greece, is expected to plunge by about 15 percent this year as dire headlines leave visitors uneasy about planning vacations. The shipping business here has been losing steam to China, and its profitability fading, especially in the last year. “The economic international isolation of Greece is growing progressively day by day,” said Vassilis Korkidis, the president of the National Confederation of Greek Commerce. Even if a new government wanted to remain in the euro , allaying concerns that the euro zone was breaking apart, it would have to satisfy the demands of the international community for financial aid. Though its coffers are running dry, the Greek government must find 15 billion euros in savings by the end of the month under the terms of its bailout. The state power agency is warning of imminent electricity blackouts because it can’t pay its bills. And Gazprom, the Russian gas giant, has threatened to cut Greece off unless it is paid by June 22. Alexis Tsipras, the left-wing leader who is emerging as a front-runner in Sunday’s elections on promises of repudiating Greece’s loan agreement, said in an interview Thursday that growth would mainly be restored by reversing the harsh austerity measures required by the international community for Greece’s bailout. He promised initiatives to stimulate the economy, without specifying what those initiatives would be or where the money would come from — aside from taxing wealthy businesses and individuals more, collections that have failed repeatedly in this tax-evasive culture. Greece needs to get its finances in order, he added, “but if we annihilate growth while doing it, what’s the point?” Global companies have been wary about the country for a while, but their concerns shot to new heights last month after Greeks voted in large numbers for Mr. Tsipras’s left-wing party, stoking fears that his willingness to tear up the country’s 130 billion euro bailout agreement could lead Greece to exit the monetary union. Qatar recently froze a 5 billion euro investment because it wanted to see if Greece was staying in the euro, George A. Papandreou, Greece’s former prime minister, said in an interview. Such stalling characterizes the financial decisions of everyone from foreign investors down to families, explained Mr. Papandreou. “Every single household said, ‘Are we going to be in, or not? Should we consume? No, we shouldn’t. Should we borrow? No, let’s take the money out of the banks.’ The banks said, ‘Should we lend? No, we shouldn’t.’ ” The political upheaval has just deepened the problem. “We would have had much more growth, much more economic activity, if there was certainty,” he said. At the port of Piraeus, one of Europe’s largest shipping ports, Nikolas Manesiotis’s 93-year-old spice import business abuts docks where cloves, cinnamon and pepper arrive on ships from India and other faraway lands. Despite decades-long relationships with his family, suppliers have started demanding cash upfront in lieu of letters of credit for shipments that take three months to arrive. “They say ‘It’s not personal, but our insurance companies will no longer cover business we do with Greek firms,’ ” Mr. Manesiotis said. That means he must get cash from the Greek businesses he supplies before he can deliver the goods — and many of them have little or no money sitting around. On a recent afternoon, Mr. Manesiotis was preparing to drive around 180 miles to collect money he was owed by a client. “I need to get my cash from him, and if I have to drive four hours to do it, I will,” he said. Throughout Greece, these problems have turned the basic laws of the market upside down. The economy is suspended by a long chain of arrears. As he stood behind his vegetable stand in the outdoor market in central Athens, Nikolas Vrettos, 62, said he was getting by only because he had stopped paying his suppliers and his rent. “Things are going very badly,” said Mr. Vrettos, who said he had lost 20,000 euros in the last two years. “We just don’t pay anyone.” That has rippled through the economy, which contracted by a staggering 6.9 percent last year. The International Monetary Fund predicted the economy would shrink by 4.7 percent this year and “improve” to zero growth in 2013. But Greece’s statistics agency this week said the economy had contracted by 6.5 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier, while unemployment topped 22 percent. More than half the 1.1 million people without jobs have been looking for work for over a year. “People are only buying essentials now,” said Mr. Diamadis, who feared he might soon have to close shop. Stopping in to browse though not buy, was Dimitris Tsolakoglou, 48, a married high school teacher with four children. Two years ago, Mr. Tsolakoglou said, he was making 1,430 euros a month at his job. Today, because of austerity measures, he earns 880 euros a month. “I can’t buy things here anymore, or even buy clothes for the children,” he said. “I need the money to feed them.”

European Sovereign Debt Crisis (2010- )
Economic Conditions and Trends
Greece
Foreign Investments
Euro (Currency)
Unemployment
International Trade and World Market


Jets Seeking a Sharpness They’ll Need Sunday

Abstract: FLORHAM PARK, N.J. — Despite off-season sessions, training camp and now one-quarter of the regular season, the Jets (1-3) have been plagued by miscommunication and missed assignments that they will have to fix to have any chance in Sunday’s road game against the Pittsburgh Steelers (3-1). “It’s up to the coaches to make sure we address it,” Coach Todd Bowles said of the team’s offensive and defensive breakdowns. “It’s up to us to work through the thing, but it’s up to them Sunday to carry it out.” Bowles said he could not promise that there would not be missed assignments. “But we work on it all the time.” Chan Gailey, the offensive coordinator, said the mistakes had prompted him to scale back grander plans. “We kind of need to get back to basics, where we started on this thing, get back to what we did well for the most part last year,” he said. “I think we’ve tried to limit that other stuff that we were thinking about trying to do.” Kacy Rodgers, the defensive coordinator, focused on correcting lapses in the secondary. The Jets have surrendered an N.F.L.-high seven completions of 40 or more yards; they have surrendered 17 completions of 20 or more yards. “We have to make sure all 11 guys are on the same page all the time,” Rodgers said. Failure to do so could be ruinous against Pittsburgh, which demolished the visiting Kansas City Chiefs, 43-14, last Sunday night. The Jets lost in Kansas City, 24-3, two weeks ago. The Jets have won only once in eight regular-season visits to Pittsburgh, beating the Steelers, 22-17, at Heinz Field in 2010. They may have to play without Darrelle Revis, their top cornerback, who strained his left hamstring last Sunday and was unable to practice last week. If Revis cannot play, the rookie Juston Burris will get significantly increased playing time against the Steelers’ lethal receiving tandem of Antonio Brown and Sammie Coates. Brown caught 526 passes through his first six seasons, more than any player in league history. Coates owns at least one catch for 40 yards in each of his first four games. He is averaging 21.7 yards per reception. BLAME GAME Although Jets quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick has had two straight nightmarish games, throwing a career-high six interceptions at Kansas City before being picked off three times in the fourth quarter in last Sunday’s 27-17 home loss to the Seattle Seahawks, Gailey said Fitzpatrick was not solely at fault. “This is a ‘we’ thing,” Gailey said, adding, “Communication is the key for all of us to be on the same page all of the time.” Fitzpatrick, though, accepted blame and knows he will have little room for error in Pittsburgh. “You’re not going to win games that way, and I know that more than anybody,” said Fitzpatrick, who is in his 12th N.F.L. season. “So I take full responsibility for all those, whether it was a throw, whether it was poor communication on my part, whether it was just forcing the ball. I own all those, and so I’ve got to continue to get better.” DIFFICULT INJURY Bowles sounded pessimistic about wide receiver Eric Decker’s prospects of returning this season from a partly torn rotator cuff in his right shoulder. “I haven’t seen any progress from him,” Bowles said Thursday. Decker has been following a rehabilitation program aimed at allowing him to compete this season. He said he still had that goal in mind, rather than committing to surgery.


Answers to Questions About New York City Parks

Abstract: Q. Can you tell me about the park in Washington Heights that a man created to honor his wife after he was accused of poisoning her? A. It’s a fascinating tale, and it is told by Deborah Blum in “The Poisoner’s Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York” (2010). To make it clear, Charles Webb, a real estate investor and Yale graduate, did not murder his wife, Gertie Emily Gorman, who died Sept. 25, 1923, less than a year after they were married. But her uncle thought he had, probably with bichloride of mercury. So did many of her friends, and so did one of her doctors, who suspected that Mr. Webb had been poisoning her food or drink and tried to bar him from her sick room. Her mother, Gertrude Amelia Gorman, who died in 1920, had never liked Mr. Webb, who had courted her daughter for years and who her mother thought was just a fortune hunter. Insinuations from her relatives that she had been poisoned surfaced even while she was dying at a Westchester country club. But an intensive investigation by New York City’s renowned chief of toxicology, Alexander O. Gettler, and his assistants at their Bellevue Hospital lab detected no significant traces of poison in her body. They did discover that she had severely damaged kidneys and pneumonia; her mother had also died of kidney failure. The cause of death was ruled natural. On Aug. 21, 1923, while she was ill, Mrs. Webb had executed a 20-line will leaving her entire estate to her husband; it superseded a will that would have divided the proceeds among her relatives. Mr. Webb, who was cleared of any wrongdoing related to the will or his wife’s death, spent more than five years successfully defending the new will against challenges from his wife’s family. After they had been beaten back, Mr. Webb donated two acres of land to the city in 1929 in honor of both his wife and her mother. Gorman Memorial Park, on a terraced slope, is between 189th and 190th Streets, between Broadway and Wadsworth Terrace. The park has many sitting areas, paths and a wide staircase to Broadway. A stone wall features an inscription dedicating the park to “Gertie A. Gorman,” as his wife had wished. Q. There’s a Major Mark Park in Jamaica, Queens. Who was Major Mark? A. In 1933, the crescent-shaped lot at Hillside Avenue between 173rd and 175th Streets was named for Maj. John W. Mark, an Army officer who was killed in Europe in World War I after fighting at Soissons, Chateau-Thierry and elsewhere. One interesting thing about the park is that it contains two large sculptures, neither of which is of Major Mark. According to the parks department, a Soldiers and Sailors Monument, created in 1896 by Frederick Wellington Ruckstull to honor Union servicemen from Queens who died in the Civil War, was moved to the park in 1960. A bronze angel, it is similar to a piece Ruckstull created to honor the South Carolina Women of the Confederacy. He worked both sides. A far different work, an abstract steel sculpture by Roger Balomey, “Untitled #1” (1973), is also in the park. Both sculptures have received restoration work.

Parks
Jamaica Queens
Washington Heights Manhattan


Pakistan: Imran Khan Seeks Vote Inquiry

Abstract: Imran Khan, the politician and former cricket star, gave a three-day ultimatum to the national election commission on Wednesday to look into his political party’s claims of vote-rigging in the contests for 25 parliamentary seats during last week’s general election. Mr. Khan warned that his party would start countrywide protests if the grievances were not addressed. Most of the accusations of voter fraud concern election districts in Lahore and Karachi. Election officials say repolling of 43 election stations in a wealthy Karachi district will take place on Sunday. According to the latest official tally, the party of Nawaz Sharif, the presumptive prime minister, leads with 124 seats in the 272-seat assembly. The Pakistan Peoples Party, the former governing party, won 31 seats, while Mr. Khan’s party won 27. The counts for 11 seats have yet to be officially verified.

Pakistan
Election
Fraud
Imran Khan
Pakistan People's Party
Nawaz Sharif


Louisiana Charges Price Fixing by Insurers

Abstract: NEW ORLEANS, Nov. 7 (AP) — The Louisiana attorney general, Charles C. Foti Jr., is suing the state’s largest property insurance companies, accusing them of conspiring to limit payments to policyholders after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and engaging in an elaborate price-fixing scheme. Mr. Foti’s wide-ranging lawsuit, filed on Wednesday in a state court in New Orleans, claims that Allstate, State Farm Fire and Casualty and other insurers worked together to manipulate damage estimates and offer reduced claims payments after the 2005 hurricanes . The lawsuit claims the companies coerced policyholders into settling damage claims for less than their actual value by editing engineering reports, delaying payments and forcing policyholders to go to court to challenge the estimates. In Mississippi, Judge Michael T. Parker of Federal District Court extended on Wednesday a restraining order that prevents that state’s attorney general, Jim Hood, from continuing a criminal investigation into State Farm’s handling of Hurricane Katrina claims, a company spokesman said. State Farm sued Mr. Hood in September to keep him from reopening a criminal case or continuing grand jury hearings over charges that the company fraudulently handled policyholders’ claims after Katrina. In addition to State Farm and Allstate, the Louisiana lawsuit names Lafayette Insurance, USAA Casualty Insurance, Farmers Insurance Exchange, Standard Fire Insurance and several companies that worked with the insurers on handling claims after Katrina and Rita. A State Farm spokesman, Phil Supple, said he had not seen the lawsuit and could not comment on Mr. Foti’s accusations, but he defended the company’s handling of Katrina claims. “At State Farm, each claim is handled individually, and we pay what we owe based on our contract with our policyholders,” Mr. Supple said. An Allstate spokesman, Michael Siemienas, also said he had not seen the lawsuit and would have no immediate comment. Robert Hartwig, president of the industry-financed Insurance Information Institute in New York, called it “ludicrous” to accuse companies of engaging in any kind of conspiracy. “Insurers operate independently from one another,” he said. “They do not act in concert with each other under any circumstances.” The Louisiana insurance commissioner, Jim Donelon, who was briefed on the lawsuit by an aide, said Mr. Foti was obligated to sue if he found evidence of collusion between the companies.

Insurance
Hurricane Katrina
Suits and Litigation
Louisiana
Foti Charles C Jr


Debt Again Blocks Robert Bowman’s Admission to the Bar

Abstract: Mind how you handle your student loans aspiring lawyers, or you could find your debt hurting more than your bank accounts. Loans could derail your career before it can start. That is the message in a decision by a panel of five New York judges denying one would-be lawyer, Robert Bowman, admission to the bar because his debt approached half a million dollars. “His application demonstrates a course of action amounting to neglect of financial responsibilities with respect to the student loans he has accumulated since 1983,” the judges wrote in a decision issued late last week. They went on to criticize his “dealing with the lenders.” The decision, which comes as students borrow ever larger sums to cover the cost of higher education, blocked Mr. Bowman’s effort to have his bar application reconsidered after it was initially denied earlier this year. His long struggle to enter the legal profession was the subject of an article in The New York Times in July. Without practicing law, Mr. Bowman said it would be difficult to earn enough to repay his debts which, because of fees, penalties and interest, were growing by about $10,000 monthly. “This has destroyed my life,” Mr. Bowman said. “Everything I’ve worked for, every effort, every fight that I’ve taken to make this progress, has been for nothing.” He has appealed to New York’s highest court. While student loans may be a factor in bar applications, it is unclear how often they result in denial of admission, said Deborah L. Rhode, a Stanford law professor. “This is an area that very few people pay attention to,” Professor Rhode said. Once law school graduates are admitted to the bar, she said, they lose interest in the process. In Mr. Bowman’s case, a subcommittee of the New York courts’ Committee on Character and Fitness, which reviews applications for admission to the bar, strongly recommended that he be admitted. A five-judge panel rejected that conclusion. The clerk of the New York court that reviewed Mr. Bowman’s efforts, Michael J. Novack, said that the judges usually followed recommendations of the committee on character and fitness, but not always. In the most recent decision, prompted by Mr. Bowman’s motion to void the earlier denial, the same five judges wrote that the process they followed in denying Mr. Bowman’s application was proper and cited a 1963 United States Supreme Court case that specified steps that had to be taken. Mr. Bowman’s experience may highlight a potential weakness in the process for reviewing lawyers’ bar applications, Professor Rhode said. “The key thing that the character process is designed to do, which my research says it doesn’t do very well, is predict based on past conduct what future conduct will be,” she said. “Just the fact that you’ve taken out large amounts of loans at a time that you have no income, is not predictive.”

Legal Profession
Student Loans
Bowman Robert


Fisher Ready to Give Up Open to Support Wife

Abstract: TURNBERRY, Scotland — In this seeing-is-believing British Open, in which the ocean air has transformed a long-ago champion into a present-day leader, there is another strange possibility lurking. What if Ross Fisher — the long-driving Englishman who is tied for second behind Tom Watson — had more important things to do Sunday than try to win his first major tournament? What if Fisher, on the verge of becoming the first Briton in a decade to take the Open, did indeed bolt for a private car at Turnberry, board a chartered plane at nearby Glasgow Prestwick Airport and fly south to London to be with his wife, Jo, at Kingston Hospital in Surrey for the birth of their first child? She was due Tuesday, but during the delay, Fisher has continued to go to the office: shooting 69 on Thursday, 68 on Friday and 70 on Saturday to put himself at three under par for the tournament. As of Saturday evening, Jo had not gone into labor, but her husband continued to insist that if she did, even during golfing hours Sunday, he would leave as quickly as he could. During all three rounds, Fisher’s agent, Conor Ridge, has been monitoring Jo’s condition via text messaging in case there was any change. “Like I said all along, if Jo does go into labor, I’ll be supporting her a hundred percent,” Fisher said. “And I won’t be here, I’ll be with her because it’s something that I definitely don’t want to miss. “It will be a shame,” Fisher said of the timing. “But I guess we’ll just have to cross that bridge when we come to it. It’s been a long week. It’s been an intriguing week, obviously for a number of reasons. I’ve got through three days. She’s got through three days. Hopefully, I can hang on for one more day, and hopefully she can.” Fisher, a 28-year-old from Ascot, hung on quite nicely Saturday, despite another testing afternoon on the shape-shifting Ailsa course where conditions have ranged from utterly benign on Thursday to blustery (in different ways) the last two days. But Fisher, who finished fifth at this year’s United States Open , has a reputation for being a straight driver as well as a long driver. And even though straight was all but impossible in the heavy crosswinds that played nasty tricks on ball flights, Fisher’s tee shots rarely landed him in deep rough or deep trouble. Which was probably just as well considering that Jo might have been watching on television. All in all, Fisher fared much better than his more experienced playing partner, Mark Calcavecchia , the American who faded from contention with a 77. “I probably only hit about three or four fairways today,” Fisher said. “It was just tricky, but I felt like I played really well. In the 18 holes, I probably hit two bad shots: the short putt on 5 and my tee shot on 14.” In both cases, he paid for it with a bogey, but there would be plenty of reassuring news down the stretch as Fisher beautifully negotiated the brutal 16th hole, where the green has a downsloping front lip that has sent plenty of shots into the creek. But Fisher calmly avoided the water, put his approach shot within 12 feet of the hole and sank his curling putt for a birdie. He then two-putted for another birdie at the par-5 17th, which earned him the thrill of arriving on the 18th green to a thunderous ovation with his name sharing prime real estate with Watson’s and Goggin’s at the top of the massive scoreboard. Watson, still at three under par at that stage, eventually birdied 17 himself to snatch back his one-shot lead. But Fisher, despite being 31 years younger than Watson, already has plenty of experience on links courses after a successful amateur career on this side of the Atlantic. “To be playing as well as he is at age 59, it’s incredible,” Fisher said. “He won here, what, 32 years ago, so I’m sure there will be a lot of followers out there for Tom rooting for him. But I had my fair share today.” The galleries are still noticeably smaller than at recent Opens, and with the biggest crowd following Watson and Steve Marino on Saturday, there were often plenty of prime sightlines available for Fisher and Calcavecchia. Until the late stages of the round, the mood often seemed more reflective than raucous with the waves rumbling onto the rocks and the two sentinels — Turnberry lighthouse and Ailsa Craig Island — drawing the eye away from the birdies and bogeys. But there should be more commotion Sunday, when Fisher will play in the penultimate group with his fellow Englishman Lee Westwood. That is, if Fisher plays. There are precedents for childbirth taking precedence over majors. In 2006, Justin Leonard and Trevor Immelman withdrew from the British Open at Hoylake in order to be with their wives for their deliveries. But Leonard and Immelman withdrew before play began, unlike Arnaud Massy, the 1907 champion there, whose daughter was born during the tournament in an era before charter planes allowed for quick reunions. Massy and his wife later named their daughter Margaret Hoylake Massy. The closest recent equivalent to Fisher’s situation was Phil Mickelson ’s at the 1999 United States Open at Pinehurst, where Mickelson was intent on leaving immediately if his wife, Amy, went into labor. But Mickelson eventually finished second to Payne Stewart , and Mickelson’s daughter Amanda was born the day after the tournament. That situation sounds ideal to Fisher, who has not yet ruled out Ailsa or Turnberry as potential baby names. “Fingers crossed,” he said of Jo. “Hopefully, she won’t get too excited watching me tomorrow.”

British Open
Ross Fisher
Golf
Justin Leonard
Trevor Immelman
Phil Mickelson
Pregnancy


Uninsured Find More Success via Health Exchanges Run by States

Abstract: WASHINGTON — Robyn J. Skrebes of Minneapolis said she was able to sign up for health insurance in about two hours on Monday using the Web site of the state-run insurance exchange in Minnesota, known as MNsure . Ms. Skrebes, who is 32 and uninsured, said she had selected a policy costing $179 a month, before tax credit subsidies, and also had obtained Medicaid coverage for her 2-year-old daughter, Emma. “I am thrilled,” Ms. Skrebes said, referring to her policy. “It’s affordable, good coverage. And the Web site of the Minnesota exchange was pretty simple to use, pretty straightforward. The language was really clear.” The experience described by Ms. Skrebes is in stark contrast to reports of widespread technical problems that have hampered enrollment in the online health insurance marketplace run by the federal government since it opened on Oct. 1. While many people have been frustrated in their efforts to obtain coverage through the federal exchange, which is used by more than 30 states, consumers have had more success signing up for health insurance through many of the state-run exchanges, federal and state officials and outside experts say. Alan R. Weil, the executive director of the National Academy for State Health Policy , an independent nonpartisan group, credited the relative early success of some state exchanges to the fact that they could leap on problems more quickly than the sprawling, complex federal marketplace. “Individual state operations are more adaptable,” Mr. Weil said. “That does not mean that states get everything right. But they can respond more quickly to solve problems as they arise.” In addition, some states allow consumers to shop for insurance, comparing costs and benefits of different policies, without first creating an online account — a barrier for many people trying to use the federal exchange. The state-run exchange in New York announced Tuesday that it had signed up more than 40,000 people who applied for insurance and were found eligible. “This fast pace of sign-ups shows that New York State’s exchange is working smoothly with an overwhelming response from New Yorkers eager to get access to low-cost health insurance,” said Donna Frescatore, the executive director of the state exchange. In Washington State, the state-run exchange had a rocky start on Oct. 1, but managed to turn things around quickly by adjusting certain parameters on its Web site to alleviate bottlenecks. By Monday, more than 9,400 people had signed up for coverage. The Washington Health Benefit Exchange does not require users to create an account before browsing plans. “The site is up and running smoothly,” said Michael Marchand, a spokesman for the Washington exchange. “We’re seeing a lot of use, a lot of people coming to the Web site. If anything, I think it’s increasing.” Other states reporting a steady stream of enrollments in recent days include California, Connecticut, Kentucky and Rhode Island. In Connecticut, a spokesman for the state-run exchange, Access Health CT , said users have generally had a smooth experience with the Web site other than “a couple of bumps and hiccups on the first day.” By Monday afternoon, the Connecticut exchange had processed 1,175 applications, said the spokesman, Jason Madrak. Daniel N. Mendelson, the chief executive of Avalere Health, a research and consulting company, said: “On balance, the state exchanges are doing better than the federal exchange. The federal exchange has, for all practical purposes, been impenetrable. Systems problems are preventing any sort of meaningful engagement.” “By contrast,” said Mr. Mendelson, who was a White House budget official under President Bill Clinton, “in most states, we can get information about what is being offered and the prices, and some states are allowing full enrollment. All the state exchanges that we have visited are doing better than the federal exchange at this point.” In California, Peter V. Lee, the executive director of the state-run exchange , said that more than 16,000 applications had been completed in the first five days of open enrollment. Mr. Lee said that while the consumer experience “hasn’t been perfect,” it has been “pretty darn good.” Some state-run exchanges have run into difficulties because they rely on the federal marketplace for parts of the application process, like verifying an applicant’s identity. Minnesota, Nevada and Rhode Island are among the states that have reported problems with the “identity-proofing” process, which requires state-run exchanges to communicate with the federal data hub. Brandon Hardy, 31, of Louisville, Ky., was one of the first to sign up for health insurance through Kentucky’s state-run exchange , working with an application counselor who guided him through the process last Wednesday. Mr. Hardy, who is uninsured and has epileptic seizures that land him in the hospital every few months, spent about 45 minutes filling out the online application, and learned that he would be eligible for Medicaid under the health care law. “It was pretty easy,” Mr. Hardy said of the process. “What I really need is a neurologist, and now hopefully that will happen. This is like a huge relief.” Attempts to sign up for coverage through the federal marketplace have often proved more frustrating. Bruce A. Charette, 60, of Tulsa, Okla., said he had been trying to log onto the Web site for the federal exchange since last Wednesday, but had not been able to see the available plans or their rates. Mr. Charette said he was asked verification questions that did not appear to match his identity. One question, he said, asked about the name of a pet for which he had purchased health insurance two years ago. “I don’t have any pets,” he said. “It’s obvious that the site is overloaded,” said Mr. Charette, an electrician who works in the aviation industry and said he did not have health insurance. “I am not going to stare at a computer screen for 45 minutes, waiting for a response. It looks as if the Web site is freezing up.” Still, some groups helping people sign up for insurance through the federal marketplace said they were finally able to complete applications on Tuesday, a week into open enrollment. “This was the first day that I have been able to get onto the Web site and sign people up,” said Laura Line, corporate assistant director for Resources for Human Development in Philadelphia, which has a contract to help people in Southeastern Pennsylvania enroll in health plans through the federal exchange. “We have been setting appointments and answering a ton of phone calls now that we are able to do something.”

Obamacare,Affordable Care Act
Health Insurance
US states
Medicaid
Minnesota
New York
California
Kentucky
Rhode Island


Rapfogel Is Sentenced for Stealing From His Charity

Abstract: For two decades, William E. Rapfogel met with presidents, governors and mayors eager to support the large social service organization that he oversaw and, some would say, charmed with his earnest charisma. The contrast could not have been more stark on Wednesday when Mr. Rapfogel slumped before a judge in Manhattan and meekly followed court officers to a holding cell to begin serving a prison sentence for stealing from that same organization. Following the terms of a plea agreement he accepted in April, Mr. Rapfogel paid the remaining balance of $3 million he owed in restitution and was sentenced to 3 1/3 to 10 years in prison by Justice Larry Stephen of State Supreme Court. He had faced a slightly longer sentence of four to 12 years if he could not pay the full amount. Mr. Rapfogel, 59, had led the nonprofit Metropolitan New York Council on Jewish Poverty through a period of tremendous growth after he became its executive director in 1993. Known as Met Council, it has spent more than $110 million a year, mostly from government funds, on home health care and other services for older people and the poor. Mr. Rapfogel’s annual compensation package exceeded $400,000. Met Council fired Mr. Rapfogel last summer, after an internal investigation based on an anonymous tip uncovered evidence that he had engaged in a scheme with the organization’s insurance broker to pad insurance payments and split the surplus. Investigators from the office of Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman concluded that Mr. Rapfogel had taken more than $3 million and used it “to fund a lavish lifestyle.” A total of $9 million was taken by the participants in the scheme, and some of the stolen money was used to make campaign contributions, through straw donors, to win the favor of political candidates, the attorney general’s office said. The prosecutor on the case, Gary T. Fishman, chief of the attorney general’s Criminal Enforcement and Financial Crimes Bureau, said in court that Mr. Rapfogel “attempted to mislead” investigators from the start and had demonstrated a “lack of contrition.” “The defendant continues to minimize to others the full extent of his complicity in the criminal scheme that was orchestrated against Met Council,” Mr. Fishman added, without elaborating. The criminal case carried significant political overtones because of the close ties between Mr. Rapfogel and Sheldon Silver, the speaker of the State Assembly. For decades, Mr. Silver, a Manhattan Democrat, has given tax dollars to the organization, and appeared at Met Council events with Mr. Rapfogel, whom he described as a friend. Mr. Rapfogel’s wife, Judy, works as Mr. Silver’s chief of staff and has been an employee of his office since 1977. Ms. Rapfogel sat next to her husband in the courtroom on Wednesday as they waited for the case to be called. She did not show emotion as he was led away. Neither Mr. Silver nor Ms. Rapfogel has been implicated in the scheme. A spokesman for Mr. Silver’s office has said that Ms. Rapfogel was unaware of her husband’s misdeeds, including his stashing of hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash in their homes. After Mr. Schneiderman’s investigators asked about the scheme, Mr. Rapfogel turned over about $372,000 in cash. Investigators later recovered an additional $48,000 on a search warrant. The owner of the insurance brokerage, Century Coverage of Valley Stream, and two former Met Council executives had previously pleaded guilty and received shorter sentences. Justice Stephen said he had received letters in support of Mr. Rapfogel, but he did not quote from them. The courtroom appearance lasted only a few minutes. Mr. Rapfogel read from a brief statement in which he expressed regret for hurting the organization that he “worked so hard to build.” “I have tried hard to make amends,” he said. “But I also recognize that what I did was seriously wrong and that I will continue to pay a heavy price for my actions. I am terribly sorry.”


John Orozco: From the Bronx to London as a Top Gymnastic Hopeful

Abstract: It would usually take an hour or more, depending on traffic, for Damaris Orozco to drive her youngest son a world away, from the far edge of the Bronx to World Cup Gymnastics in suburban Westchester County. At first it was a couple of times a week. But John Orozco was 9 when coaches saw Olympic potential. Soon, it was six days a week, even seven. While most parents dropped off their children and retrieved them hours later, Orozco’s mother usually sat on a folding chair in one corner of the balcony. She could see the vast sea of mats and bars and equipment below. And she could watch John. Sometimes, through the din of activity, she would whistle — not a loud screech, but a gentle breeze of a tweet. A person next to her might not even notice. Somehow, though, John Orozco always heard. He would turn and catch his mother’s eye. He knew what it meant: Get to work. John Orozco always did. And now, at 19, oozing talent and charisma, Orozco may be the best all-around gymnast in the United States, one of the anointed “it” prospects for the London Summer Olympics. “Hopefully I can bring home at least one gold medal,” Orozco said, wearing studs in his ears and the wisp of a moustache above his smile. “Just to have that title of ‘Olympic champion’ is my dream.” His next step is Saturday’s American Cup, an invitational meet featuring 18 of the top male and female Olympic contenders, including women’s reigning world champion Jordyn Wieber of the United States, at Madison Square Garden. For Orozco, it represents his second time performing at the famed arena. The first was when he was about 8, part of a team from a Manhattan gym invited to tumble during halftime of a Knicks game. Orozco was the top of the team’s pyramid. But it was at World Cup Gymnastics in tony Chappaqua, in a cinder-block box of a building squeezed against the Saw Mill River Parkway, that Orozco began his climb toward London. “He walked into the gym as a tryout, and he started doing back handsprings on the floor,” said Jason Hebert, one of Orozco’s coaches until Orozco moved to the Olympic training facility in Colorado Springs in late 2010. “Not just any back handsprings, but the most powerful back handsprings you’ve ever seen. And this was a 9-year-old kid.” Soon, recognizing the combination of Orozco’s potential and his family’s finances, the gym was waiving the costs of lessons and gym time. Other benefactors with ties to the gym have quietly contributed, too, defraying the costs of raising a potential Olympic champion. Orozco’s father, Will, is a retired crew supervisor for New York City’s sanitation department. Will and Damaris raised five children, plus took in a niece as a teenager, in a small cottage in Harding Park, a largely Puerto Rican enclave of bungalows along the water where, residents say, the Bronx and East rivers meet. Will expanded the house over the years, adding a second floor and extra bedrooms. The Empire State Building in Manhattan can be seen in the distance from the roof. After years of being driven from the Bronx by his parents, John Orozco hopes his success can someday pay them back by lifting his family from the neighborhood. When that quest is relayed, the tears well up. “Oh, get the water faucet going,” Damaris said, dabbing at her eyes. The walls of World Cup Gymnastics feature framed copies of magazine and newspaper stories written about Orozco. On a pillar is a photograph of a team of boys from about a decade ago. Orozco is in the front row, shorter than the rest, his warm-up jacket hanging to his knees. “Now he probably couldn’t fit his arms into a men’s large, his muscles are so large,” gym owner John Sabalja said. Orozco is 5 feet 4 inches, maybe a smidge more, and weighs 160 pounds — “a little muscle ball,” he said. In a world where gymnasts teeter on that beam between strength and agility, Orozco is a rare combination of power and grace. “He does things that are, like, physically impossible,” Hebert said. “He’ll just defy gravity and all laws of gymnastics.” Led by Hebert and coach Carl Schrade, Orozco flew through the junior ranks, winning three consecutive national titles in the all-around before tearing his right Achilles’ tendon on a dismount during the 2010 meet in Hartford. On the mend a few months later, he moved to Colorado Springs to live and train. Under the tutelage of Vitaly Marinitch, a Ukrainian who was part of the 1989 world champion Soviet Union team, Orozco has fine-tuned his technique and improved his strength and diet. “I was a pizza monster,” Orozco admitted. His Achilles’ tendon is still tender, and Orozco feels it during floor routines and on landings from the high bar. But something positive came from the injury, too. During the early months of rehabilitation, limited by what he could do on his feet, Orozco turned the pommel horse from his worst event to one of his best. At the Winter Cup Challenge in Las Vegas in early February, Orozco finished first in the all-around, parallel bars and high bar, and second in the pommel horse. That performance vaulted him into the conversation about gold-medal contenders in London. On Thursday, Will and Damaris Orozco were back in the balcony of World Cup Gymnastics, having made the familiar drive up from the Bronx. “Dreams, for most kids, stay in a blur,” Will said. “For John, it’s starting to clear.” John Orozco, between training sessions, used to work birthday parties at the gym. His three older brothers worked there, too, turning the daily treks from the Bronx into a one-family carpool. His parents, especially his mother, ate from the vending machines and could be trusted to be watching from the balcony. For old times’ sake, Damaris tried out a whistle. It could barely be heard. But it surely echoed through one family’s ears with more urgency than ever: Get to work.

Orozco John
Gymnastics
Olympic Games (2012)
American Cup (Gymnastics)


Budget Office Sees Hurdles in Financing Health Plans

Abstract: WASHINGTON — The Congressional Budget Office said Thursday that many of the health care proposals championed by President-elect Barack Obama and other Democrats would carry a high price tag and would generate only modest savings. The budget office, an influential voice in the work of Congress, analyzed 115 options, including proposals to expand coverage and slow the growth of health spending. Some of the options, including proposals to increase taxes on cigarettes and nondiet soft drinks, are sure to meet stiff political opposition. One bright spot in a generally bleak picture was the estimate of potential savings from a requirement for doctors and hospitals to use health information technology, including electronic medical records, as a condition of participating in Medicare . Such a requirement could save the federal government $7 billion in the first five years and a total of $34 billion over 10 years, by reducing medical errors and avoiding unnecessary tests and procedures, the budget office said. It “would also lower health insurance premiums in the private sector,” the report said. Without action by Congress, the report said, health costs will continue to soar, the number of people without insurance will rise by nearly one million a year, to a total of 54 million in 2019, and spending on health care will increase to 25 percent of the gross domestic product in 2025, up from 16 percent in 2007. In keeping with its duty to provide objective, impartial analysis, the budget office did not endorse any options, but it fleshed out many ideas circulating on Capitol Hill. Democrats and many Republicans say they will make a serious effort to overhaul the health care system in 2009. Those changes are essential for economic recovery, they say. But Mr. Obama and other Democrats have not been precise about the cost of their proposals, nor have they said in detail how they would pay for them. One of the Democrats’ favorite proposals, rolling back tax cuts for high-income people, is already scheduled to occur in 2011, so, under the bookkeeping rules used by Congress, it would not produce a windfall of new revenue. Lawmakers from both parties said they would pay close attention to the cost of new federal subsidies for health coverage because these subsidies — unlike the one-time bailouts for banks and other financial institutions — would be recurring federal obligations for years to come. Requiring employers to provide health insurance to their employees or pay a fee to the federal government would bring in $47 billion of new federal revenue in the next 10 years, the report said. A proposal to establish a national insurance pool for people who cannot obtain coverage on their own in the individual market would cost $16 billion in the next decade, it said. Mr. Obama and many other Democrats want the government to negotiate with drug manufacturers to get lower prices for Medicare beneficiaries. The Congressional Budget Office said such negotiations “would produce small if any savings” because the government would not have enough leverage to secure significant discounts beyond those already obtained by private insurance companies that manage the Medicare drug benefit. But the budget office said Medicare could save $110 billion in the next 10 years if Congress simply imposed a form of price controls, requiring drug makers to provide the government with a 15 percent rebate, or discount, on brand-name drugs covered by the new Part D of Medicare. Eliminating a notorious gap in Medicare coverage of prescription drugs, known as a doughnut hole, would cost more than $130 billion over 10 years, the report said. Research to compare the effectiveness of different drugs and treatments might help doctors and patients make better decisions. But it would not save the government much — $1.3 billion in the next decade — and it would reduce total spending on health care in those years by less than one-tenth of 1 percent, the budget office said. The federal government could save $12 billion in the next decade if it established a procedure for approval of generic versions of expensive biotechnology drugs, the report said. It did not estimate the additional savings for consumers and employers, which could be substantial. The report sets forth an elaborate proposal that would allow doctors and hospitals to share in the savings if they improve the quality and reduce the cost of care for people on Medicare. Under the proposal, Medicare would pay bonuses to groups of doctors who met certain performance measures. In response to such financial incentives, the report said, doctors would become more efficient and would reduce “the volume and intensity of services provided to their patients,” saving $5 billion for Medicare in the next decade. In one particularly sobering chapter, the report notes that, under existing law, Medicare will cut fees paid to doctors by 21 percent in 2010 and by about 5 percent in each of the next few years. To avoid such cuts and freeze payment rates at their 2009 levels would cost the government $318 billion over the next decade, the report said.

Congressional Budget Office
Medicine and Health
Budgets and Budgeting
Obama Barack
Health Insurance and Managed Care
United States Politics and Government
Presidential Election of 2008
Democratic Party


Francis Tiafoe, Top-Ranked Junior, Grew Up at Tennis Center, and It Shows

Abstract: COLLEGE PARK, Md. — An Aston Martin, a Bentley and a Jaguar are among the cars parked at the Tennis Center at College Park. Through the door of the private club one will find luxury locker rooms; 30 courts; a health club; and an office, about 120 square feet with one window, that was once a makeshift apartment the janitor called home. From 1999 to 2010, its tenants were three members of the Tiafoe family: Constant and his twin boys, Francis and Franklin. While Tiafoe, the center’s maintenance man, made his rounds, tending to the courts and emptying the trash bins, Francis would follow, occasionally drifting away to hit a few balls. The costs of elite tennis are prohibitive for many parents — the full-time junior program here is $27,500 a year — but Francis had ready and free access to the sport and some of the best coaches because of his father’s job. From that unusual arrangement, a young tennis star was born. Today, Francis Tiafoe, 14, is the nation’s top-ranked boys player in his age group. “It could be argued that Francis is the luckiest kid in the world,” Ray Benton, the tennis center’s chief executive, said. “It was pure serendipity. He didn’t pick tennis; tennis picked him.” When the French Open begins May 27, analysts and fans will lament the state of men’s tennis in the United States . John Isner is the top-ranked American at No. 10, and he is hardly considered a formidable threat to win a Grand Slam tournament. The last American man to win a major was Andy Roddick , at the 2003 United States Open . If Francis continues his ascent, he could be the country’s next, best hope in the sport — a notion that would have been inconceivable to his parents when they immigrated from Sierra Leone in the early 1990s. Tiafoe and his wife, Alphina, had twin boys in 1998, and two years later he took a job on the construction crew that was building the tennis facility. “I worked harder than everybody else as I was the only black guy on the crew,” he said. When the club was completed, Tiafoe was hired to do maintenance. Responsible for opening and closing the center, and everything in between that did not directly involve tennis, he often slept only three hours a night. His starting salary was $21,000 a year. When the staff told him he could stay in the spare office, he made it a home for him and the boys, who stayed at least five days a week. The rest of the time the children stayed with Alphina, who lived with relatives in a one-bedroom apartment in nearby Hyattsville. “We didn’t have a certificate of occupancy, so I was really nervous about telling people he lived in a back room,” Benton said. Alphina said she liked the arrangement because the center was a safe haven from her blighted neighborhood. At first, no one at the center paid much attention to the boys. But the boys, especially Francis, paid attention to the action on the courts. Frank Salazar, one of the coaches, said that from the time Francis was 4 “he had a tennis racket in his hands.” For years, Francis would watch instructors give lessons to older boys. “When we would get done training the bigger boys, he would roll the basket out there and try to serve by himself or play some mini-tennis with whoever had a few minutes,” Salazar said. “Suddenly he started to get really good. He’s probably watched more tennis than all the kids here combined.” When Francis was 8, Mikhail Kouznetsov was hired to coach at the club’s Junior Tennis Champions Center. He became a second father of sorts to the Tiafoe children. Alphina called him “a godsend and a miracle.” “I would come in early, around 5, 6 a.m., and wake the boys up to play and feed them balls or whatever,” Kouznetsov said. “Me and my wife loved them, so we helped feed them, buy them shoes and when we needed to, we drove Francis to tournaments and paid his entrance fees out of our own pockets.” Constant Tiafoe left his maintenance job at the center in 2010 and is unemployed. The family now lives in the apartment in Hyattsville. But the boys remain immersed in tennis almost exclusively. Francis said he had no friends outside the center. His girlfriend, he said, is also a world-class player there. The Tiafoe boys’ development was not always smooth. Franklin also exhibits impressive skills on the court, along with some petulance. “You would know Franklin is playing because all you would hear is curse words ringing from somewhere in the courts,” said Ken Brody, who founded the Junior Tennis Champions Center in 1999. “ Roger Federer was the quintessential hothead when he was a junior. They grow out of it.” Schoolwork can be a struggle for Francis, and the fitness regimen and practice drills sometimes flustered him. “I’d give him a C in gym glass,” said Frank Costello, the senior director of fitness. “There’s good days and bad days.” But Francis’ results on the court have been so promising that shortcomings may be easy to dismiss. In January he won the boys’ singles title at an international tournament in Bolton, England . A week later, he won Les Petits As, a prestigious tournament in Tarbes, France , which attracts many of the world’s best young players. He now has endorsement deals with Adidas and Wilson. “I knew I was going to play pro tennis when I was 12,” Francis said. “Tennis is my life.”


Giants’ Daniel Fells Still Being Treated for MRSA

Abstract: Giants tight end Daniel Fells remains hospitalized with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, the infection that ended his season last week , and doctors have turned to a number of antibiotic treatments in an urgent attempt to curb the spread of the infection, people familiar with Fells’s treatment who were not authorized to speak on the record said Sunday. Some of the more recently used medications appear to have helped Fells’s recovery, and NFL Network reported Sunday that doctors were hoping to save Fells’s foot from amputation. Fells’s problems began with injuries to his toe and ankle. More than a week ago, he had a cortisone shot. A couple of days later, Fells’s wife took him to a hospital with a high fever. Doctors diagnosed a MRSA infection. Fells, 32, has since had several operations in an attempt to eradicate the infection and speed his recovery. The Giants, who placed Fells on season-ending injured reserve, have described the situation as serious. “We are concerned about Daniel Fells, very concerned about that,” Coach Tom Coughlin said last week. “We still do not know the reason for the infection or where it came from.” On Monday, the Giants scrubbed their locker room, meeting areas and training rooms with disinfectant. Several N.F.L. teams have had MRSA outbreaks. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers had three players who were infected in 2013, including the former Giants kicker Lawrence Tynes. Tynes has retired and is suing the Buccaneers, claiming that unsanitary conditions led to his infection. Fells was considered the Giants’ best blocking tight end. He had six catches for 60 yards.


Jimmie Johnson Wins Again at Dover

Abstract: Jimmie Johnson dominated again at Dover International Speedway in Delaware, extending his track victory record to nine. Johnson led for 272 of 400 laps and, after a victory last week in the Coca-Cola 600, won consecutive Nascar races for the 13th time. Brad Keselowski was second. ■ Helio Castroneves easily won the second Detroit Grand Prix race of the weekend, finishing 1.6836 seconds ahead of his Penske Racing teammate Will Power. Castroneves has 29 IndyCar victories, tying Rick Mears for 11th on the circuit. (AP) ■ Richie Crampton raced to his first career Top Fuel victory in the N.H.R.A. Summernationals to become the 100th category winner in N.H.R.A. history.

Car Racing
Dover International Speedway
Jimmie Johnson


In California, County Jails Face Bigger Load

Abstract: FRESNO, Calif. — Standing on the footsteps of the Fresno County Jail, where he had just been released one recent afternoon, Juan Diaz rated the food inside a 2. The state prison at Coalinga, where he served three years on a weapons conviction, earned a 10. Battle-hardened young men like Mr. Diaz, 33 — who is a member of the Bulldogs, the largest Hispanic gang in California’s Central Valley, and who spent the night in jail for missing a court date on charges of possessing a stolen car and methamphetamine — used to deride the downtown Fresno jail as “Club Snoopy.” Spending years in jail instead of prison is an increasing possibility now, as California carries out the most far-reaching overhaul of its criminal justice system in decades. And that idea fills Mr. Diaz with dread. “I’d go insane,” he said. “I would probably hang myself, seriously. I would probably do something stupid.” Built for stays shorter than one year, the jail does not offer the kind of activities, work programs and amenities found in most prisons. “You’re stuck in a little cell,” Mr. Diaz said, while prisons with outdoor space provide plenty of “yard time.” Soup costs $1 here, compared with 30 cents at the canteen at Coalinga, which Mr. Diaz said he left in 2005. “My homie just got out a couple of months ago,” he said, “and the canteen went up only, like, 3 cents, 4 cents.” Ordered by the United States Supreme Court to reduce severe overcrowding in its prisons, California began redirecting low-level offenders to local jails last October in a shift called realignment. Its prison population, the nation’s largest, has since fallen by more than 16 percent to 120,000 from 144,000; it must be reduced to 110,000 by next June. Counties with already tight budgets are scrambling to house the influx of newcomers in facilities that were never designed to accommodate inmates serving long sentences, like a man who began serving 15 years for fraud recently in the Fresno jail. Fresno County — a sprawling agricultural area surrounding the city, which is also facing financial problems and became a punch line for Conan O’Brien recently — is adding 864 beds to its chronically overcrowded jail. Under a longstanding federal consent decree that requires the Sheriff’s Department to release inmates when the jail reaches capacity, 40 to 60 people are let go early every day. In a move watched by other states also facing prison overcrowding, California is handing its 58 counties money and leeway to decide how to handle the new arrivals. Liberal communities like San Francisco are using a greater share of the state money on programs and alternatives to incarceration. But most counties, particularly here in the conservative Central Valley, have focused on building jail capacity. That troubles organizations on both sides of the political spectrum. Sheriff Keith Royal of Nevada County, the president of the California State Sheriffs’ Association , said members were worried about their capacity to provide “adequate treatment” in jails and about “litigation at the location level.” The American Civil Liberties Union warned that instead of making fundamental improvements to the criminal justice system, many counties risked simply repeating the state’s mistakes by reflexively putting people behind bars. Criticized for its overemphasis on jails, a local committee overseeing realignment in Fresno recently approved using $848,000 from its state total of $20.8 million this year to expand drug rehabilitation programs for people released from jail. But even that relatively small amount is facing deep skepticism from the county’s Board of Supervisors, which will vote on the plan in September. “Some people, you’re not going to change their behavior until they’re incarcerated and they have to pay the consequences,” said Debbie Poochigian, the chairwoman of the Board of Supervisors. “I believe we’re keeping our community safer because they’re not out there looking for their next victim.” The county has used about 40 percent of its state money so far to reopen two of three jail floors that were closed a few years ago because of budget cuts. The priority, Ms. Poochigian said, should be to finance the reopening of the third floor. If Fresno runs out of space, she added, inmates could be transferred to jails in other counties or to private jails. According to the Board of State and Community Corrections, the population in county jails rose by about 4 percent from an average of 71,293 in last year’s third quarter to 73,957 in the first quarter of 2012, the latest figures available. In Fresno, like elsewhere, about two-thirds are inmates awaiting trial. Allen Hopper, a lawyer with the A.C.L.U. who co-wrote a study on the shift to jails, said the population at county jails could be significantly reduced by overhauling pretrial procedures. Many inmates, who present no risk, remain in jail simply because they cannot afford bail, he said, adding that alternatives like electronic monitoring and day reporting could free up jail space and save counties money. But in counties where elected officials are afraid of appearing soft on crime, such alternatives are particularly sensitive. “Everything is political,” said Sheriff Margaret Mims of Fresno County. Sheriff Mims said she had become “less optimistic” about the shift to jails because of rising crime in the county, including burglaries and car thefts. Though law enforcement officials acknowledge that rising crime cannot be linked directly to the realignment policy, they say people engaging in nonviolent offenses like property crime no longer fear being sent to prison. Despite Fresno County’s conservative attitude toward crime, the policy shift has fueled a debate about alternatives to incarceration by grouping various agencies in the committee overseeing the change, said Emma Hughes, a criminologist at California State University, Fresno, who is working as a consultant for the county. Linda Penner, the chief probation officer and chairwoman of the realignment committee, said that having secured money to reopen two jail floors, the committee had the political room to approve the $848,000 for the rehabilitation program. “Do I think we’re all getting on the same page in reckoning with the fact that we have to create alternatives to detention?” she said. “Yes.” Inside the Fresno jail’s north wing, where the newly reopened facilities are, each floor is composed of six two-level “pods” housing 72 inmates. In one pod, men were lying on three-level bunk beds, watching television, playing cards or doing push-ups. They are given an hour a day at an indoor gym on each floor. Inmates in the jail’s older wings get only three hours a week, split between an indoor gym and a rooftop basketball court. Violence among inmates has risen since the policy shift, Sgt. Terry Barnes said, attributing it to inmates’ realization that they might spend years in a place with few of the activities and amenities they enjoyed in prison. “They’re very frustrated with the idea that this is it,” said Sergeant Barnes, a corrections officer who has worked at the jail for 24 years. Outside the jail, David Otero, 35, was chaining his bicycle to a handrail before visiting his brother inside. Mr. Otero said he himself had spent seven months in the jail and 38 days at a state prison for a hit-and-run conviction in 2006. Prison had better amenities, he said, but there was “a lot more politics” there than in Club Snoopy. His brother, who spent more than 10 years in prison on various drug convictions, was now serving his second year in jail for robbery, Mr. Otero said. He and his mother visit often, giving his brother money for the canteen. “If he knows he’s a block away from his mom and his brother, who can visit him anytime, that’ll have a direct impact,” Mr. Otero said. “We’re just up the street.”

Prisons and Prisoners
Budgets and Budgeting
Fresno County (Calif)
Crime and Criminals
California


Searching Deeper on Online Video

Abstract: Click on a search box at Netflix, and you can search on titles, people, and genres. With Hulu, your choices are titles and people. With HBO Now, you can search on titles, and that’s it. If you’re looking for something more specific, like scenes from “The Sopranos” that depict Tony eating dessert, fuhgeddaboutit. You’ve got to try YouTube for that. At least for now. “We think search is a critical component of any video service, and our programming in particular is rich in opportunities to offer many different kinds of search,” said Diane Tryneski, HBO’s executive vice president for technology and chief digital officer. “When we’re producing a program, we create so much information even before a single frame is shot. Location, cast, crew, script, scenery, props. There’s so much rich metadata, and you never know what one individual user is going to find interesting.” In time, Ms. Tryneski suggested, you’ll be able to search on “hug it out” and jump to the exact instance in “Entourage” when the agent Ari Gold first uttered that phrase. Or maybe you’ll be able to get a list of links to every scene in “The Sopranos” that takes place in Silvio Dante’s strip club, the Bada Bing. But not yet. HBO Now became available only in April, and its search functionality is still rudimentary. While other subscription video-on-demand sites like Netflix and Hulu have been around for years, their search functionality remains relatively limited, too. Entering even the simplest search queries via a TV remote control can be a painstaking task – so that may partially explain why streaming video services pay relatively little attention to search. But devices like Google’s Chromecast make search input easier by letting you do it on your smartphone. And voice-activated search, including the new Siri functionality Apple has added to its Apple TV device, is becoming commoner too. Image Credit Photo Illustration by Cristiana Couceiro; photograph by Abbot Genser/HBO Siri will broaden video search in some compelling ways. According to Variety, it will allow you to search for, say, an episode of a TV show that features a specific guest star, or only the James Bond movies that star Sean Connery. But these features currently work only for content that appears in the iTunes Store; you won’t be able to conduct such searches on Netflix or HBO Now. But even as input challenges get solved, video search will continue to face the same challenge that text-based search does: How do you deliver relevant results when the data sets being searched are so large, especially when viewers don’t know exactly what they’re looking for? “People will type very broad queries like ‘funny videos,’” said Cristos Goodrow, YouTube’s engineering director. “What do you show them? Stand-up acts, pranks, late-night shows? There’s a wide variety of what people consider funny.” To deliver relevant choices as quickly as possible, most streaming-video platforms emphasize recommendation systems over traditional search. As they learn what sorts of content you’re interested in, and compare your choices and responses with those of other users with similar viewing patterns, they can begin to understand your preferences and predict what you’ll find appealing. Giving users what they want before they even know to ask for it is a pragmatic approach to online abundance. In 2013, Netflix told Wired that 75 percent of its viewer activity was driven by recommendation rather than search. (Netflix declined to comment for this article.) Mr. Goodrow said recommendations drove the majority of viewership at YouTube, as well. While recommendation systems are powered by sophisticated algorithms, they also rely on a very 20th-century broadcast dynamic: encouraging passive viewers to sit back, relax and enjoy the show. But what about viewers who do have a fairly specific notion of what they’re looking for? The holy grail of video search is not just to return links to videos that contain the contents sought, but to link directly to the spot in the video where that content exists. None of the major subscription video-on-demand sites offer such functionality, for the moment. YouTube is further along in this regard — it lets you search for the closed captions of videos that include them. If you know how to use a special syntax while performing such searches — for example, “search term, cc” — any links that YouTube returns will give you the option of starting the video at the approximate moment when the phrase you are searching for occurs, rather than at the beginning. This is how all video search should work, said Roger Macdonald, director of the television archive at Internet Archive, a nonprofit organization in San Francisco that maintains digital collections of many kinds of media. “In the modern world, there’s no way that someone would hand you a book and say, ‘Find me all the mentions of Alexander the Great in this,’” he said. “That’s an absurd notion.” At the Internet Archive, one collection that Mr. Macdonald oversees holds more than 700,000 episodes of television news programs that have aired in the United States since 2009. The collection uses the closed captions that TV broadcasters produce to comply with Federal Communications Commission regulations to produce an index of time-coded text that users can search for specific words and phrases. So you can type in “Donald Trump” and see which news programs have mentioned him most over the last six years. And because the archive divides each episode in its collection into a series of one-minute clips, depicted as thumbnail images, you can quickly jump to the approximate place in a video where a mention occurs. This kind of pinpointed approach has value in a news context, where people are most likely to be looking for specific content, like a presidential candidate’s statements on immigration. But in an era of obsessive fandom and big data, shouldn’t such specificity extend to entertainment platforms, too — especially on subscription sites where flexibility and better service are parts of what you’re paying for? Why can’t you search for, say, movies from the 1970s that involve at least three car chases and six explosions? Or click on Carrie Bradshaw’s dress in any given “Sex and the City” scene and learn who designed it? “That’s where we’re heading,” said Ms. Tryneski of HBO. “The systems we’re creating now are going to make all the information we capture more readily accessible to users, who’ll be able to connect that information in unexpected and delightful ways. What is today TV on the Internet is going to evolve into a much deeper experience.”

Video Recordings
Downloads and Streaming
TV
HBO
YouTube
Netflix
Hulu.com


Jordan’s Schools Buckle Under Weight of Syrian Refugees

Abstract: AMMAN, Jordan — Yusra Shinwan, 44, and her four school-age children arrived in Jordan in June, refugees from the Syrian civil war. Her husband, a school librarian, chose to stay behind after being told he would lose his job if he left. More than half a million Syrians were registered with the U.N. refugee agency in Jordan at the end of last month, most of them women and children. School–age children from 5 to 17 years old make up 35 percent of the Syrian refugee population in Jordan. The country’s public school system, already overstretched and overcrowded, is struggling to cope. Aid agencies and officials are warning of a “lost generation.” After one night in the Zaatari refugee camp, Mrs. Shinwan and her children moved to a small apartment in the industrial city of Zarqa, northeast of Amman. At the start of the school year on Aug. 28, she tried to register the children in two public schools near her new home. At both, she said, the principles told her to wait until a double shift system could be put in place, with one set of students attending in the morning and another, mostly Syrian, in the afternoon. She is still waiting. “My 13-year-old son and 16-year-old daughter look around and see people their age going to school and they feel left behind,” Mrs. Shinwan said. “I fled for their safety, but now they are restless and angry,” she said. “They are telling me they are wasting their education and their future. They want to go back to school in Syria.” In practice, that is not an option for many. The international aid organization Save the Children said this summer it estimated that more than a fifth of schools inside Syria had been destroyed or made unusable since the conflict started, affecting the education of 2.5 million youths. In Jordan and Lebanon, aid agencies are warning that Syrian children who do not attend school are at increased risk of abuses including child labor and early marriage. Jordan’s Ministry of Education announced earlier this year that it was trying to eliminate double shifts at schools to improve the quality of education. Now, it has been forced to backtrack, to try to accommodate both the influx of Syrian refugees and nearly 35,000 Jordanian and expatriate children who have transferred, mostly for financial reasons, from private to public schools this year. Double-shift teaching not only puts an added strain on teachers, it also wears out school infrastructure, whether furniture, bathrooms or computers. “Jordanian parents come to me and complain about the drop in the quality of education for their children,” said Abdullah Al Khattab, governor of Mafraq, a district near the border with the largest concentration of Syrian refugees. The influx has brought a boom for some Mafraq businesses, like real estate, restaurants, or market stalls. But the pressure it has put on services and utilities like education and water supply have stretched the district’s resources to their limits. “My town is struggling to keep up with the numbers of Syrians because of the pressure on natural resources but also the lack of funding when it comes to education,” Mr. Khattab said. More than 81,000 Syrian refugee children are enrolled in learning programs in Jordan, according to Unicef. The big number poses a challenge, but so does low attendance, especially at the Zaatari camp, which is home to nearly 23 percent of the Syrian refugee population. “The focus has been on registering children,” said Curt Rhodes, international director of Questscope, an organization aiding social development in the Middle East. “It has not been on how to help them stay in school.” There are almost 30,000 school-age children in Zaatari, of whom about 15,000 have been enrolled in the camp’s three schools, according to Unicef. But actual attendance at the end of September was barely 2,000, Mr. Rhodes said. Low attendance rates reflect multiple problems: a lack of security for children — especially girls — walking to school; the disruption of normal routines in families leading transient lives; and the development of a vast unregulated economy that attracts some children to work instead of attending school. Jordan’s minimum age for working is 16 but in Amman and in rural areas it has become increasingly common to see Syrian children illegally working on construction sites, in the fields, or as day laborers to support their families. The government estimates their number at 30,000 and the International Labor Organization says the number is rising. Given the enrollment difficulties faced by people like Mrs. Shinwan, “education outside of the school needs to be focused on as well,” said Mr. Rhodes, whose organization offers informal education and mentoring programs for refugee children. “Without education, children will so quickly lose everything and a sense of who they are. They’ll just have the war.” “When you grow up without an education it reduces the ability to form civil trust and that means they are heading for conflict,” he said. Michele Servadei, Unicef’s deputy representative in Jordan, sounded a similar warning.“You can look at it through a security perspective,” Mr. Servadei said. Children out of school are at risk of being abused, exploited and “can end up being recruited by armed forces or groups inside and outside Syria,” he said. Mr. Servadei said Unicef is trying to combat that risk by offering Syrian and Jordanian families small cash grants of about $45 a month on the condition that they enroll working children in school. “We monitor their attendance and if they drop out, we stop the cash assistance,” he said. “For now we have a target of 2,000 children in urban areas.” For people like Mrs. Shinwan, such programs may not be enough. Living outside the refugee camp — as does more than 70 percent of the Syrian refugee population — she is paying $300 a month in rent. Now, after four months, she said, she can no longer afford it. “I can’t go to the camp,” she said. “It’s not a place I want to raise my children.” “If they can’t go to school here and I can’t pay the rent, I might end up going back to the war in Syria.”

Syria
Jordan
Education
Refugees,Internally Displaced People
War and Revolution


Shares Rise as Bernanke Reaffirms ‘Extended’ Low Rates

Abstract: A pledge from the chairman of the Federal Reserve to keep interest rates low helped galvanize the equity markets on Wednesday, soothing concerns that the economy would be deprived of a critical crutch as it struggled to recover. For all the politics accompanying Ben S. Bernanke’s semiannual report to Congress, the ears of the financial world were largely attuned to one point: the forecast on interest rates. Mr. Bernanke lived up to expectations, assuring lawmakers repeatedly that short-term rates would remain near zero “for an extended period.” In response, stocks surged, with the Dow Jones industrial average briefly posting triple-digit gains. “There was always this lingering doubt, but now we know it’s nowhere near — not even close to — the beginning of the tightening,” said Douglas S. Roberts, chief investment strategist for Channel Capital Research. “It was a sigh of relief.” The enthusiasm was enough to overcome a disappointing report on the housing market. Investors had been nervous that the Fed’s recent move to raise the rate that it charges banks on short-term loans — known as the discount rate — might be a prelude to tighter monetary policy. While Mr. Bernanke told Congress that the weak economy justified keeping rates low, he cautioned that rates would need to rise at some point to ward off inflation. And he underscored the seriousness of pervasive unemployment, with the jobless rate at 9.7 percent. Low interest rates are often met with applause on Wall Street because they can spur broader growth as businesses, particularly banks, profit from cheap access to capital. But there are differing views on whether low rates are beneficial for the economy in the long term: some researchers think that they set the stage for rampant inflation. At end of trading, the Dow was up 91.75 points, or 0.89 percent, at 10,374.16, and the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index climbed 10.64 points, or 0.97 percent, to 1,105.24. The Nasdaq rose 22.46 points, or 1.01 percent, to 2,235.90. The dollar weakened slightly, and the price of oil increased. In Europe, stocks ended the day higher, with the FTSE 100 in London gaining 0.52 percent, the CAC-40 in Paris climbing 0.23 percent, and the DAX in Frankfurt rising 0.2 percent. Interest rates were steady. The Treasury’s 10-year note fell 1/32, to 99 15/32, and the yield rose to 3.69 percent, from 3.68 percent late Tuesday. Still reeling from debt woes in Europe and moves by China to slow lending, global markets have lacked direction in recent weeks. Analysts said Mr. Bernanke’s words could provide a reason for the upward momentum to continue. “We’re looking for the next big move in the stock market, and it’s a little unsure whether it’s down or up,” said C. Brett D’Arcy, chief investment officer at CBIZ Wealth Management. “When you have accommodative interest rates, now you’re thinking up.” Also weighing on the market, a report on new home sales on Wednesday came in much worse than expected: sales were down 11.2 percent in January, compared with a forecast of a 3.5 percent increase. The bleak tenor of the report brought a bit of pessimism to Wall Street, paring some of the earlier gains that followed Mr. Bernanke’s remarks. But analysts said they were surprised shares did not tumble more severely, given that economists consider a recovery for the housing market a crucial part of any rebound. Renewed optimism for banks helped offset some of the jitters about housing, as investors hoped low interest rates would help bolster their profit. After falling on Tuesday, shares of Toyota gained 3.89 percent on Wednesday as the company’s president, Akio Toyoda, apologized before a House committee for recent safety issues in Toyota cars.


Global Politics Ignite a Smoldering Dispute

Abstract: MOSCOW — For centuries, the status of South Ossetia has been a nagging irritant on Russia’s southern border — sometimes akin to a canker sore, and sometimes an ulcer. The Ossetians, who number about 60,000, are part of the patchwork of ethnic groups that inhabit the mountains of the Caucasus. They have long yearned for separation from Georgia , appealing to Russia, their northern neighbor, for support. Over the years, ethnic tension became a way of life in Tskhinvali, the provincial capital of South Ossetia, a city ringed by highlands where concrete street barriers were sometimes erected to keep the groups apart. During flare-ups, gangs of young men would ambush convoys on mountain roads. But global politics have breathed new life into the conflict, making it a flash point for resurgent tensions between former cold war rivals. Russia, especially, sees a threat of creeping American influence as its former satellites seek to join NATO. When Kosovo won Western backing for its bid for independence from Russia’s historical ally Serbia, the Kremlin answered by vowing to win similar status for South Ossetia and for the Black Sea enclave of Abkhazia, which fall inside Georgia’s borders. Georgian leaders, meanwhile, hoped to quiet the conflict once and for all before applying for NATO membership. Although Abkhazia has far more strategic importance to both sides, the city of Tskhinvali is in a valley ringed by Georgian-held villages, on terrain easily navigable by tanks. Mountains seal off the region to the north, toward Russia, so separatists rely on a single key route — the Roki Tunnel, which cuts deep through the mountains — for commerce, military aid and evacuation to the north. Georgian leaders have long felt they could take the enclave swiftly, pushing north in one or two days to the Russian border. “Without heavy reinforcement from Russia, the general sense is that Tskhinvali is not defensible,” said Svante E. Cornell, research director of the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute at Johns Hopkins University. Ossetians have long held themselves apart from ethnic Georgians, who make up more than 80 percent of Georgia’s people; the Ossetian language has Persian rather than Caucasian roots, as Georgian does. In the early days of the Soviet Union, many Ossetians supported the Bolsheviks in suppressing a period of Georgian independence, giving rise to furious and lasting grudges. Ossetians can still reel off the names of villages that were burned by Georgian neighbors in the 1920s, and Georgians like to deride Ossetia as a den of smugglers. Like Abkhazia, South Ossetia declared self-rule after a war in the early 1990s, but its status was never settled. Under a 1992 cease-fire agreement, it was managed by the Joint Control Commission, a body made of Georgian, Russian, North and South Ossetian representatives, with involvement from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. Many ethnic Georgians fled, and with Russian and Georgian peacekeeping teams patrolling the region, 12 years followed with no military confrontation. In 2004, the Georgian president, Mikheil Saakashvili, began a push to retake South Ossetia, including an antismuggling campaign aimed at shutting down a vast market that fueled much of the local economy. Tensions nearly led to full-scale war. Hostilities routinely flare in the region late in the summer, when scarce water supplies pit neighbors against one another, said Sabine Freizer, the director of International Crisis Group’s Europe program. Though women and children have evacuated Tskhinvali in recent days, many of those who remained were probably prepared to wage urban warfare when the Georgians arrived. “Basically, they just had to march in,” she said. “But I don’t know what’s going to happen afterwards. Ossetians are all armed, and they’re going to fight back.”

Moscow (Russia)
South Ossetia (Georgian Republic)
Georgia (Georgian Republic)
Politics and Government


Hit-Run Accidents in New York City Kill 2 and Injure 13

Abstract: Two men were killed in separate hit-and-run accidents — one in Upper Manhattan, the other in Queens — within hours of each other early Sunday, the police said. Later in the day 13 people were hurt in another hit and run that sent a livery cab plowing into a street fair in Queens. In the first fatal accident, a man walking in the far right lane of the Grand Central Parkway in Jackson Heights was struck by two cars and pronounced dead at the scene. The man was not carrying identification but appeared to be in his 50s or 60s. Witnesses told police officers that the first car knocked the man to the pavement, and he was run over by the second vehicle, the police said. Neither of the drivers stopped, and there were no skid marks on the street, but the police did find a part of a fender. There were no cameras in the area, about half a mile east of Northern Boulevard. But witnesses said one of the vehicles appeared to be a dark blue sport utility vehicle. In Inwood at 5 a.m. the police found a 65-year-old man with head injuries on Sherman Avenue at Arden Street. He was pronounced dead at the scene, according to the police. Witnesses said a black sedan fled north on Sherman after hitting the man, who was not immediately identified. There have been no arrests in either accident, the police said. The third accident occurred about 1 p.m. in Corona, Queens, when a 59-year-old livery driver lost control of his vehicle after it was hit from behind on 37th Avenue, plowing into stalls at a street fair on Junction Boulevard. The driver of the second car left the scene, but returned later, according to the police. At least three people were taken to Elmhurst Hospital Center with minor leg injuries. Others had minor complaints, the police said. Witnesses described hearing a bang and the crash of vendors’ stalls as the livery cab plowed into them, sending kebabs, corn and DVDs flying. “We went running,” said Carlos Mogrovejo, 31, a jewelry vendor. “Everyone was in a panic.”

Accidents and Safety
Police Department (NYC)
Jackson Heights (NYC)
Inwood (NYC)
Queens (NYC)


State Must Move Mentally Ill From Group Homes Soon

Abstract: A federal appeals court has ruled that New York State must comply with a lower court’s order to begin immediately transferring thousands of people with mental illness in New York City out of large, institutional group homes and into their own homes and apartments, where they will continue to receive specialized treatment and services. The decision by a two-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit to lift a stay of the lower court order means that after seven years of litigation, the state must now hurriedly begin the process of developing and executing a plan to create at least 1,500 units of so-called supportive housing a year for the next three years at state expense. “Certainly it’s a complicated and important process that hopefully won’t get bogged down in bureaucracy,” said Geoff Lieberman, executive director of the Coalition of Institutionalized Aged and Disabled , an organization of adult homes and nursing home residents. “We’re hoping that there are a good number of adult home residents who will be able to move over the next 6 to 12 months.” A spokesman for Gov. David A. Paterson said the state, wrestling with severe budget deficits, was in the process of determining its next steps. Last September, Judge Nicholas G. Garaufis of United States District Court in Brooklyn found that the state had violated the Americans With Disabilities Act by keeping approximately 4,300 people with mental illness isolated from the outside world in warehouselike conditions in more than two dozen privately run adult homes. The state pays the homes for their care. Over the vehement objection of the state and the owners of the homes, Judge Garaufis issued a remedial plan in March. The plan would give nearly all current and future adult home residents the opportunity to move into supported housing scattered throughout the boroughs, where they would live independently while also receiving assistance like case-management services and visits from psychiatrists and nurses. The state, which argued that advocates for residents of adult homes had overestimated the demand for and underestimated the cost of supported housing, appealed the decision. An appeals court judge granted a temporary stay of the lower court’s order, but the court lifted that stay on Wednesday even though the appeal has not been decided. That places the state under the watch of a court monitor to ensure compliance with the ruling in the months before the appeal is heard. “The expectation under this order is that they will be moving at a fast clip, and housing should be created as this appeal is pending,” said Cliff Zucker, the executive director of Disability Advocates, the nonprofit legal services group that filed the lawsuit. “People are clamoring to leave adult homes and get into supported apartments.” Maggie McQuillar, a resident of Harbor Terrace Adult Home and Assisted Living on Staten Island, was among those eager to move out of a shared bedroom and live on her own. “I’m a senior citizen with a disability, but I can take care of myself,” said Ms. McQuillar, 68, who said she had diabetes and bipolar disorder . “I’d be better off in a studio or one-bedroom,” she said. “Once you get here, you sort of get stuck here.”

Mental Health and Disorders
Nursing Homes
Americans With Disabilities Act
Appeals Courts (US)
Decisions and Verdicts
Suits and Litigation
Garaufis Nicholas G
New York City


Alworth’s Super Bowl Ring Is Found

Abstract: The Pro Football Hall of Famer Lance Alworth got back his Super Bowl ring on Tuesday — 21 years after it was stolen. Alworth, a former wide receiver for the San Diego Chargers and the Dallas Cowboys, contacted the authorities after receiving a phone call Sept. 7 from a person who demanded $40,000 for the ring. The San Diego County Sheriff’s Department discovered the ring was scheduled to be sold at auction on Nov. 20 with an opening bid of $44,000. The ring was stolen in 1992 from a restaurant, where it was part of a display of sports memorabilia. “It’s a miracle to have it back after all these years,” a smiling Alworth said at a news conference in Encinitas, Calif., where he showed off the ring. No arrests have been made, but sheriff’s officials said they are focusing on three people they declined to identify. PATRIOTS ACQUIRE NOSE TACKLE Philadelphia traded Isaac Sopoaga to New England along with a sixth-round pick in 2014 for a fifth-rounder next year. Sopoaga, 32, who spent his first nine seasons with San Francisco, had signed a three-year, $11 million free-agent deal. He played eight games and had 18 tackles. He replaces nose tackle Vince Wilfork, who is out for the season. FOLES LIKELY TO START Nick Foles returned to practice on Tuesday for the first time since sustaining a concussion in Philadelphia’s 17-3 loss to Dallas on Oct. 20. With Michael Vick sidelined by a hamstring injury, Foles will probably start at quarterback for the Eagles (3-5) at Oakland (3-4) this week unless he has a setback in his recovery.


Cavaliers Mix It Up and Edge Nets

Abstract: CLEVELAND — Coach David Blatt decided, once again, to scramble his starting lineup before the Cavaliers’ game against the Nets. In: Mike Miller, who had missed the previous seven games after sustaining a concussion and had scored 19 points all season. Out: Shawn Marion, another veteran whom Blatt wanted to anchor the team’s second unit. Blatt went into more depth on the change, acknowledging that LeBron James liked to play with floor spacers (Miller is one of his personal favorites) and that Marion’s role coming off the bench could help limit James’s minutes amid the hard slog of the season. But nothing had been determined, and Blatt wanted to experiment. “Sometimes,” he said, “you just want to shake things up a bit.” Basketball is an imperfect science, and two teams that are still deep in the process of trying to figure it all out met on Friday night at Quicken Loans Arena. The Nets lost their starting point guard. The Cavaliers welcomed the return of a 3-point specialist and held on for a 95-91 victory. “It’s not easy doing what he did tonight,” Blatt said of Miller, who scored 21 points on 7-of-8 shooting from 3-point range. James finished with 22 points and 9 assists for the Cavaliers (15-10), and Joe Johnson had a game-high 26 points for the Nets (10-15), who were undermanned. With 4 minutes 23 seconds left in the second quarter, Deron Williams strained his right calf and went to the locker room with a team trainer. He did not return. The Nets were up by 5 points at the time. Jarrett Jack played well in his absence, but the Cavaliers had too many options on offense in the final minutes. After Johnson hit a 3-pointer with 41.5 seconds left to cut the lead to 94-91, the Nets came up with a loose ball. A sloppy possession concluded with Kevin Garnett getting an off-balance look at a tying 3-pointer. His shot was short, and the Cavaliers added a free throw to seal the win. “You look at the game in its entirety and the big picture, and you go, ‘Wow, that was a great game,’ ” Coach Lionel Hollins said. “And then you break it down into the little parts, and you see it’s the little things that haunt you.” When these two teams met on Dec. 8 at Barclays Center, the atmosphere was slightly more charged. Members of the British royal family made an appearance. Jay-Z and Beyoncé sat courtside. And before the start of the second half, James delivered a message to Hollins. “He said, ‘I’ve got to go to work this half,’ ” Hollins recalled. “I said, ‘I liked the way you played in the first half.’ But I understood him. All the great players were like that.” The Cavaliers went on to steamroller the Nets, and it looked as if James and his teammates were starting to coalesce. But they entered Friday’s game with a middling record after losing three of their previous four, including a 29-point loss at home Wednesday to the Atlanta Hawks. Words like “chemistry” and “process” have become part of their vernacular, code for “struggling” and “frustrated.” Hollins knows the feeling. The Nets are dealing with their own problems. They have become a team known for getting off to hot starts before cooling in the second quarter — and beyond. So before the game, Hollins was asked whether he had thought about altering his rotations. “What good would that do?” Hollins said. “Then we’d probably be bad in the first quarter and good in the second quarter. You’ve got to play with what you have.” Sure enough, the Nets started strong against the Cavaliers. Sergey Karasev, back in the starting lineup, had a 3-pointer and a layup in transition. Mason Plumlee blocked James at the rim. And after Johnson drilled a 3-pointer, the Nets were up by 21-12. So it also felt familiar when their lead evaporated. Miller did his work from the perimeter, with four 3-pointers in the game’s first 13 minutes. He was aided by lackluster defense. The Nets were slow to close on him. His fifth 3-pointer gave the Cavaliers a 48-45 lead in the second quarter. “He kept us afloat,” James said. The Cavaliers were not exactly crisp, though. Consider the underhanded lob that James tossed in the general vicinity of Tristan Thompson before halftime. The pass glanced off the top of the backboard for a turnover. The Cavaliers had 16 of those. Consider also Kevin Love, who was 1 of 10 from the field. So there was nothing notable about the Cavaliers’ win, other than that they won. Forget their title aspirations. At this stage, one win was enough.

Basketball
David Blatt
LeBron James
Shawn Marion
Cavaliers
Brooklyn Nets
Joe Johnson


Airbnb Is Said to Be Seeking Funding Valuing It at $30 Billion

Abstract: Airbnb, which lets users list their homes and apartments for short-term rentals, is in talks for a new round of investment that would value the company at about $30 billion, according to people briefed on the matter. Under the terms of the new fund-raising, Airbnb will have tripled its valuation in two years. Airbnb plans to use the financing to further feed its growth plans and international expansion, said these people, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The company, based in San Francisco, has been expanding in new markets over the last two years, with a 700 percent increase in business from Chinese travelers, the company has said. Last year, Airbnb opened its operations in Cuba for the first time . Airbnb is also experimenting with alternative lines of revenue, for example, by letting tourists include add-on services in their trips like restaurant reservations and museum tours. The equity funding comes in addition to a $1 billion debt facility that Airbnb has secured, according to a Bloomberg report this month. Kim Rubey, a spokeswoman for Airbnb, declined to comment. Despite the recent volatility in the public markets, some private companies have still been able to attract funding. Start-ups like Airbnb and Uber have been garnering billions of dollars as they seek to expand globally. A $30 billion valuation would make Airbnb the second-highest-valued start-up in the United States behind Uber, which is now valued at $62.5 billion, according to a list compiled by CB Insights.