Ruling on Arizona Law May Spur States - News Analysis

Abstract: The decision by the Supreme Court this week upholding an Arizona law punishing employers for hiring illegal immigrants was an energy boost for state lawmakers across the country who have proposed bills this year to curb illegal immigration . As if they needed it. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures , state lawmakers set a new record in the first three months of the year, proposing 1,538 bills related to immigration, with 141 measures in 26 states passed into law. While some of those laws extended new opportunities to illegal immigrants, like permitting them to pay lower in-state tuition rates at public colleges, most of the laws imposed restrictions on them. With its decision on the hiring law that Arizona passed in 2007, the Supreme Court indicated that it would not flat out disallow any action by states on immigration enforcement, even though federal law generally pre-empts state measures in that area. State lawmakers now know for certain that there is some firm legal ground for the recent round of bills that seek to drive illegal immigrants out of the country by preventing them from taking jobs and even living here. But it remains unclear just how large the playing field is that the Supreme Court has opened. Arizona’s employer law was carefully tailored to conform to specific, narrow terms in federal immigration law, and it was never suspended by any federal court. To date, only a handful of states have passed laws with requirements and penalties for employers similar to Arizona’s. Instead, this year many more states weighed whether to emulate the more sweeping and politically polarizing law that Arizona passed last year, known as S.B. 1070 , which expanded the powers of the state and local police to ask about the immigration status of people they detain. The Supreme Court has not yet considered that law, which has been largely suspended by federal courts. By now, however, with the legislative season either winding down or over in most states, it seems clear that lawmakers’ decisions on whether to follow Arizona’s lead on police enforcement ultimately had more to do with state politics than with concerns about potential legal challenges and Supreme Court rulings. Kris Kobach , the constitutional lawyer who has been the intellectual if not the actual author of many of the state immigration enforcement laws, was elated by the court’s recent decision. The ruling “has vindicated our position that states are not pre-empted by federal law from these actions,” said Mr. Kobach, who is now secretary of state of Kansas. He predicted that many more states would soon “jump on the bandwagon” to impose new responsibilities on employers. Arizona’s statute includes the most severe penalties of any state hiring law, imposing what employers call a “business death penalty”: on the second offense of knowingly hiring an illegal immigrant, the business loses its license permanently. Arizona also mandated the use by all employers of a federal electronic program for verifying the work authorization of new hires, known as E-Verify . Only Mississippi and South Carolina followed Arizona in requiring all employers to use the verification system. In the storm of lawmaking this year, Georgia and Utah passed laws requiring larger businesses to use the system (in Georgia, by July 2013). Virginia required employers to use it, but only for state contracts. Far larger is the number of states where Arizona-style enforcement laws were debated, voted, praised and protested. According to the National Immigration Forum, which opposes such laws, bills like Arizona’s failed after sometimes furious debate in 15 states. Georgia was the first state to pass a law close to Arizona S.B. 1070, and Gov. Nathan Deal, a Republican, signed it into law this month. Georgia growers raised an outcry against the law, saying it would cripple their labor force. But Republicans who control the legislature strongly supported the law, which built on an earlier set of measures against illegal immigration Georgia passed in 2006. In March, Utah passed an enforcement law that echoed Arizona’s, but tempered it politically with a measure that would create a temporary guest worker program. A federal court has temporarily held up the enforcement law. With their session in its last days, Alabama lawmakers are close to passing a broad measure that could be even tougher than Arizona’s. In addition to requiring most employers to use the verification system, Alabama’s bill would ban illegal immigrant students in public schools from participating in band, cheerleading and any other extracurricular activity. The bill has faced little organized opposition. An enforcement measure is also close to passage in South Carolina. Several states stood down at the last minute. After intense opposition by Florida growers and the tourism industry, legislators let an enforcement measure die in the final hours of their session. On Thursday, Democrats in the Texas Senate blocked a measure that would have stepped up immigration enforcement in cities. Texas police chiefs turned out forcefully against the measure, although Gov. Rick Perry, a Republican, had made it a priority. Finally, Maryland and Connecticut, with small but rapidly growing Latino populations, went a different way entirely, passing laws to allow illegal immigrant students to attend public colleges at in-state rates.

Illegal Immigrants
Law and Legislation
States (US)
Supreme Court


Yankees Keep Firing on All Cylinders in Fifth Straight Win

Abstract: KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Sitting at his locker, signing photographs and other memorabilia after the Yankees’ latest win, Derek Jeter was asked if he felt things were starting to come together for the Yankees, whose up-and-down season is back in the ascent. “Are we good again?” he responded. In a word, yes. After Monday’s 8-1 victory over the Kansas City Royals, one of the hottest teams in baseball, the Yankees have won five games in a row and seven of their past nine to improve to 68-61, tying the highest point they had reached over .500 all season. Their once-stagnant offense has suddenly begun to stir, producing 20 runs in the past three games, including five home runs. The pendulum of the Yankees’ season has swung back in their favor again. “It’s a game that you’re going to have good streaks, hot streaks, cold streaks,” Jeter said. “You’ve just got to keep battling. We’ve played well the last few days, but we have to continue. We’re playing some good teams. I hope so, but there’s still room for improvement.” The Yankees flew here after a captivating, and perhaps momentum-building, win over the Chicago White Sox on Sunday, arriving in Kansas City for the second leg of a three-day, three-city, three-game swing. A June 9 game against the Royals was rained out and rescheduled for Monday, making for an unusual baseball trip. At the time of the rainout, the Yankees had been in need of a day off. They had just lost two straight to the Royals, and six of eight over all, and had fallen to 31-31. It was one of many dismal points in the season, a time when it looked as if their chances of making the playoffs were very small. More than two months later, they returned to Kansas City in a different frame of mind. Sunday’s win, thanks to Brian McCann’s 10th-inning home run, propelled them to the Midwest on a wave of confidence seeking to extend their good fortune. Michael Pineda won for the first time in three starts since coming back from an injury, and Stephen Drew, Martin Prado and Jacoby Ellsbury all hit home runs to propel the Yankees. Jeter, who was honored before the game and given a rousing salute after his final at-bat in his final regular-season appearance here, had a hit and two runs batted in. Before and during his final at-bat in the eighth inning, Jeter was saluted with chants of his name, and after he made an out, he ran back to the dugout to a standing ovation and waved to the crowd. “There were probably some Yankee fans cheering and maybe some Royals fans that have enjoyed booing me over the years,” he said. “Maybe they’re happy to see me go.” Perhaps, now that the Yankees are good again and the Royals are still in first place, Jeter will get a chance to play here once again in the postseason. “I would love to do that,” he said. “That would mean we’re there. I don’t care where it is if we are in it.” But the playoff picture is still a challenging one. The Yankees went into Monday’s makeup game trailing the Seattle Mariners by three and a half games for the second wild-card spot in the American League and are now two behind the Detroit Tigers, the third-place team in those standings. But Detroit is the next stop on the trip, and Brandon McCarthy, who is 5-2 with a 1.90 earned run average since joining the Yankees, gets the first start in that three-game series. “When Tanaka went down, people were wondering who would step up for us,” Manager Joe Girardi said, referring to the injured starter Masahiro Tanaka. McCarthy, he said, “has probably stepped up as much as anybody for us.” But another pitcher has been almost as good since his own return from an injury. Pineda, who missed about 20 starts with an injured back muscle near his right shoulder, had his best start since coming back. He limited the Royals, who lead the A.L. Central, to one run and five hits in six and a third innings and did not walk any batters. Royals third baseman Mike Moustakas hit a home run in the third inning, but after that, Pineda retired 10 in a row before Jarrod Dyson’s single in the sixth. Pineda (3-2) got the next three batters out in that inning and was replaced after Salvador Perez doubled with one out in the seventh on Pineda’s 96th pitch. David Huff came in and stranded Perez. By then, the Yankees had opened up a five-run lead thanks to a four-run seventh. The final run of that inning came when Ellsbury slid home on McCann’s sacrifice fly to right. Ellsbury was called out, but the Yankees challenged the call, and it was reversed. Ellsbury had three hits, including his two-run homer in the eighth, which was hit No. 1,001 for him. INSIDE PITCH MARK TEIXEIRA was given the day off because of a tight left hamstring, but he said he would be able to play on Tuesday in Detroit ... The Royals presented DEREK JETER with a check for $10,000 for his Turn 2 Foundation before the game to honor his impending retirement. ... MASAHIRO TANAKA could begin rehabilitation starts after his next simulated game, JOE GIRARDI said. Tanaka is scheduled to throw a simulated game Thursday in Detroit. The trouble is that the minor league seasons will be ending around the same time, so Tanaka may have to throw more simulated games against Yankees hitters in New York or Tampa, Fla., Girardi said.

Baseball
Yankees
Kansas City Royals
Michael Pineda
Derek Jeter


Teachers Find Little Grace in Archdiocese’s Latest Offering

Abstract: On her way to teach social studies at a Catholic school on Thursday morning, Alexis D’Angelo paused to do some elementary arithmetic. A zero percent raise — which is now being offered to teachers in schools of the Archdiocese of New York for the next two years — turns into a pay cut before long, as the tab for daily life climbs. “Con Ed doesn’t care if I don’t get a raise,” Ms. D’Angelo said. “My co-op doesn’t care if I’m not making more money.” Teachers are planning to demonstrate outside the archdiocese’s headquarters next week. Last month their union, the Federation of Catholic Teachers, filed with a state labor relations board two complaints of unfair labor practices against the archdiocese. The teachers argue that the archdiocese is being coercive, threatening to close schools to drive down wages. “To me, we are being bullied,” said Joyanne Johnston, a teacher at St. Clare’s in the Great Kills section of Staten Island, a sentiment that was repeated in interviews with other teachers. The archdiocese, for its part, says that though a new regional system is on better footing after years of “wrenching” closings and reorganization, it remains fragile. “We respect the work the teachers do and the education they provide,” said Joseph Zwilling, the archdiocese’s spokesman. “That’s the main reason we’re trying to keep our schools open.” It hardly seemed like a season for rancor had arrived. After a long run of declining enrollment and consolidation, the much-admired Catholic school system seemed to have reached a size in the last year that could be sustained. In September, Dr. Timothy McNiff, the superintendent of schools for the archdiocese, said the system was “financially stable.” Image Kenneth Martineau, 49, a teacher in Chinatown, said claims by the Archdiocese that there were "step" increases built into the contract were misleading. Credit Michael Appleton for The New York Times In fact, the closed Catholic school buildings swung from being money-losing operations to valuable real estate: The city has leased many of the empty buildings to accommodate growth in public school enrollment. City records show that about $8.6 million was paid last year to rent just a dozen former Catholic schools in Manhattan, in the Bronx and on Staten Island. This represents just a small fraction of the real estate revenue; records were not available for charter school rentals or in counties north of the city that are also part of the archdiocese. (The city also rents former schools in the diocese that serves Brooklyn and Queens.) While the rentals bring in substantial amounts of money, only a portion is available to the surviving schools, Mr. Zwilling said. A great deal of control remains vested with the parish, he said, which may have debt or other needs for the funds. In talks last fall, the archdiocese initially proposed 1 percent annual raises for three years. Modest as the numbers were, negotiators for the federation were optimistic that they could build on what was an opening offer. “Then they took back what they offered us,” said Judith Pignataro, the president of the federation. On Dec. 16, the archdiocese downgraded its offer: It would give a two-year contract with no raise but would guarantee that no more schools would close. Alternatively, it offered a 1 percent raise for two years, with the likelihood of 10 schools per year closing. “They were bargaining in reverse,” Ms. Pignataro said. In a letter to teachers and parents, Dr. McNiff maintained that even with a zero percent increase, the teachers would still make money because their contract includes built-in annual “step” increases of about 1.8 percent based on education and the number of years worked. That claim was beguiling, teachers said, but misleading; once a teacher has reached the top of the steps, there are no more increases. “I’ve maxed out at about $60,000,” said Kenneth Martineau, 49, a teacher at Transfiguration School in Chinatown. “Most of the teachers have all maxed out. We’re not going to get paid any more than that.” About 46 percent of the teachers are in the same situation, Ms. Pignataro said. How much would a 1 percent increase cost the archdiocese? Mr. Zwilling said that the number had not been provided to the union and so could not be discussed publicly. Back-of-the-envelope calculations suggest that it would come to $1.4 million. One precept of Catholic catechism is that “a just wage is the legitimate fruit of work.” Mr. Zwilling said the negotiations reflected the value that the archdiocese placed on the teachers and the schools. “Our goal is to keep the schools open,” Mr. Zwilling said, “to keep Catholic education available, affordable and to keep our teachers employed.” “I think they think we should consider it privilege to teach in the Catholic schools,” Ms. Johnston said. “It’s mostly women anyway, and their husbands can take care of bringing home the money.”

K-12 Education
Catholic Church
Teachers
NYC
Federation of Catholic Teachers
Private Schools
Wages and salaries
New York


Closer Look at Things Organic

Abstract: Helene Romeo, a dietitian, and Sherene De Palma, a former corporate lawyer, have joined forces to create Near and Natural, a charming market and cafe in Bedford Village that is as organic as is practicably possible. Also busy raising seven children under the age of 12, the young mothers are on a mission to stock their shelves with delicious, nutritious food that has traveled a minimum number of miles to get there — and to educate the public about a new model for eating. With its paned windows, ocean-blue floors and buttercup-yellow walls, Near and Natural is a modern riff on an old-fashioned grocery, offering staples, dairy products, meats, produce and a changing roster of prepared foods. There are crumbly cranberry-orange scones ($3 each) and richly brewed fair-trade coffee ($1.85 a cup) from Gorilla roasters in Brooklyn; wonderful sandwiches, including the Bedford Village Club ($8.25, made with Applegate natural turkey and bacon); the Cluck ’n’ Russian ($7.99, made with an organic chicken cutlet and spicy Russian dressing); and the Sandwich of the Sea ($8.95, made with locally smoked salmon); a bountiful salad bar with add-ons like local goat cheese and candied nuts; and perhaps the best lemon squares on earth ($3.25 each, from Wild Hive Farms, a mill and bakery in Dutchess County). Customers include local gentry, school bus drivers, landscape workers and grade school pupils, who wend their way down the block after the last bell to buy fruit smoothies, ice cream cones and a probiotic gingerade called Kombucha that Ms. De Palma says shows “very sophisticated taste in a kid.” Near and Natural, 1 Court Road, Bedford Village, (914) 205-3545 . Open Monday to Friday, 7 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Saturday, 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.; and Sunday, 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. ALICE GABRIEL


Rochelle Sterling Tells Her Side of the Story

Abstract: As co-owner of the Los Angeles Clippers for the past 33 years, Rochelle Sterling has been a largely silent partner. But now, as the N.B.A. pushes for the permanent removal of her husband, she does not want to go away quietly. Sterling, known as Shelly, has been married to Donald Sterling for 58 years. They have shared ownership of the Clippers through a family trust. In an hourlong interview Monday in a penthouse suite at the Ritz-Carlton New York, Sterling, 79, and her lawyer, Pierce O’Donnell, vowed to fight the league if it tried to force her out. In their minds, she is collateral damage. Donald Sterling, 80, was suspended for life by N.B.A. Commissioner Adam Silver as a result of an audiotape in which he made racist remarks. Citing the N.B.A. constitution, Mike Bass, a league spokesman, said that if three-quarters of team owners terminate the interest of a controlling owner — in this case, Donald Sterling — the interests of all other partners are terminated as well. “It doesn’t matter whether the owners are related,” Bass said, adding, “These are the rules to which all N.B.A. owners agreed to as a condition of owning their team.” Nevertheless, O’Donnell said he was determined to challenge the league’s interpretation of its own constitution. “We’re ready to go to war if we have to,” he said. And here is what Rochelle Sterling had to say: Q: You said over the weekend that you plan to file for divorce at some point in the near future. Why now? Image Rochelle and Donald Sterling, center, courtside as the Clippers hosted the Golden State Warriors at Staples Center in January. Credit John W. McDonough/Sports Illustrated, via Getty Images A: Well, I’ve considered it a lot, for the last 20 years. Right now, we’re estranged. I live in one house, and he lives somewhere else. It’s been like that for a little over a year. What precipitated that living arrangement? Well, quite a lot of things. My son died about a year ago, and that was one of the things that came between us. I mean, he’s never been a real husband, as far as being with the kids. And there’s many issues. What do you know about the audiotape itself? Personally, I think it was deliberately done. [V. Stiviano] taped it in September of last year. So why would someone tape it and keep it? This is the way I see it: I can’t see anyone taping somebody unless they have a plan in mind, and I guess she did. Have you talked to your husband about this? No, we were in San Francisco for a playoff game when the whole thing flared up. Other than that, I haven’t really talked to him. I haven’t talked to him in maybe a week and a half, two weeks. What is his physical and mental state? I’ve been saying for the last year or so that he forgets things. He forgets people’s names, people he’s worked with for 20 years. I don’t know much about dementia, but it seems like his forgetting names, his forgetting things — he has different types of moods. Has he ever expressed racist views to you? I’ve never heard him use a racial slur in the time I’ve been married to him. When those tapes came out, I was disgusted. I was sick over it. I mean, I couldn’t believe it. Has he changed over the course of your marriage? Yes. In the last 20 years, he’s been more difficult, and just had different girlfriends, which I didn’t realize at that time because I was raising my kids. When you’re married to somebody and you’re involved with work and your children, and taking care of your parents, life is so complicated. And then all of a sudden, you realize that this is not going to work. This is not good. And I just felt that I had to get out of it somehow. And for the last 10 years, I’ve been going to different attorneys, talking to them. I’m a very strong person in business, very strong in life. But I guess I was weak at relationships. You say you haven’t talked to him recently, yet you were seen leaving a Los Angeles restaurant with him not long after the audiotape surfaced, right? That was the night after the audiotape was released. Andy Roeser, who was the team president, called me and said, “Shelly, I’m trying to convince Don to make a statement, and he won’t listen to me. Maybe you can talk to him.” The day before had been his 80th birthday, and we just didn’t even talk. I couldn’t talk to him. So Andy said, “Should we go out and try to talk to him?” So I suggested we eat at a place near the airport and try to talk to him. And that’s exactly what we did. We were just trying to talk him into making an apology, and I guess he was confused. He vacillated between saying, “O.K., what am I apologizing for?” and, “It was a private conversation, and I don’t even know why she taped our conversation.” He was confused. Andy took him home, and I went back to my house, and that was it. Image Rochelle Sterling left, at Game 3 of the Clippers- Oklahoma City Thunder series on Friday. Credit Frederic J. Brown/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images The N.B.A. placed Roeser on indefinite leave. Do you think that’s fair? I O.K.’d it when the league told me they had found somebody else. Have you talked to Roeser since then? We were supposed to meet in Pierce’s office, and he didn’t show up. I called him and said, “I have to know a few things.” And he said, “I’ll have my attorney call your attorney.” How would you describe Stiviano’s relationship with your husband? I didn’t even know there was any relationship for a while. And then she would come to the games, and she would sit across the court and blow kisses to him. Everybody saw it. I go, “What’s this all about?” I ask him, and he says, “She works for me; she drives me around.” This and that. And I started realizing it’s not just driving him around. I guess it was a relationship. Doc Rivers, the coach of the Clippers, recently said that it would be a “difficult situation” for the team if you were to retain ownership. What was your reaction to his comments? I didn’t hear anything about that. Why would that be? Most teams have owners who don’t maintain the team. They hire the general manager, but they don’t actually have much input. So why would it be difficult for me if I hired the right people? I’m very qualified. I take care of much of the business that we have. I’m a strong person. So I don’t think it would be difficult, any more than it would be if I were any one of the other 30 owners. Have you spoken with any other N.B.A. owners since your husband’s suspension was announced? No, I haven’t. But I often wonder: If the wife of one of the owners had done this, and if the roles were reversed, would they take the team away from the man? Is it something sexist? Is it the man’s club? The owners are afraid of their own issues. Because I’m sure if anybody goes into all their records, they have skeletons in their closets. They would probably like to defend Donald, because he’s one of the oldest owners. But I think they’re all afraid because of their players. They’re afraid to get involved because if one sticks up for him, then maybe the players will go against them. O’DONNELL: The situation here from a legal perspective is unprecedented. No professional sports league has ever terminated an owner’s interest involuntarily. And what Mark Cuban, the owner of the Dallas Mavericks, means when he refers to a “slippery slope” is that if they can do it to Shelly Sterling, they can do it to any other owner. And that invokes a precedent that could then be cited. I’m sure other owners have said things in private. We’ve had owners who have taken anti-civil rights stands on certain issues over the years. So is there dirty laundry? When the owners think about this in the quiet of their thoughts, and they have to render a vote, they have to think about the implications of it. So if you sue the N.B.A., would you depose other owners and their team personnel? O’DONNELL: I’d certainly be entitled to discovery. Any fair administrative process would allow us to get discovery. And I want to know a lot of different things about the records of the N.B.A. and what information they have about the conduct or misconduct of other owners that was not acted upon. The N.B.A. is as much at risk as Mr. Sterling to have this whole thing aired publicly. So it’s not risk-free for either side. To answer your question, of course I’ll ask for discovery. But it’s in everybody’s best interests to avoid Armageddon. Why are you pursuing this so aggressively? STERLING: The Clippers have been our team for 30-something years. I’ve been a very passionate fan. I went to the playoff game the other day, and I’m sitting up there in the box. The fans all below me — there were about eight rows — they were high-fiving me, telling me not to give up, telling me to fight for it. I get emails; I get texts. I mean, people have nothing against me. I didn’t do anything wrong. Why should I suffer and lose my team? I would like it to be left as a legacy to my family, and I’ve helped build it. I just can’t see me not owning it, or a piece of it.

Basketball
Clippers
NBA
Donald Sterling
Rochelle Sterling
Adam Silver


Japan to Give Obama a Plan on Okinawa Base

Abstract: TOKYO — Japan’s prime minister, Yukio Hatoyama , said Wednesday that he wanted to present concrete proposals to President Obama next week in hopes of ending a growing rift between his new government and Washington over an American military air base in Okinawa. Mr. Hatoyama did not disclose the content of the proposals, which he and members of his cabinet appeared to be still working out at the prime minister’s residence. Mr. Hatoyama said he may seek a meeting with Mr. Obama during the climate change conference in Copenhagen to relay the proposals directly to him. In particular, it remained unclear if the proposals would seek to significantly alter a 2006 deal to relocate Marine Corps Air Station Futenma from the middle of the city of Ginowan to a less populated part of Okinawa. Mr. Hatoyama, who took office three months ago, is under political pressure in Japan to fulfill campaign pledges to move the base off Okinawa, if not out of Japan altogether. But Washington has adamantly opposed changing the current deal, which is part of a broader, laboriously negotiated agreement to move about 8,000 Marines from Okinawa to Guam. The discord over the base’s relocation has emerged as the most contentious topic in the countries’ increasingly tense relationship. Recent comments by some Japanese cabinet members, however, seem to reflect a growing sense of urgency to prevent the Futenma issue from causing a serious rupture in the relationship with the United States, Japan’s longtime protector. Political analysts have said the dispute highlights the lack of communication between Tokyo and Washington after an election victory in August by Mr. Hatoyama’s Democratic Party ended a half-century of leadership by the pro-American Liberal Democrats. Fears of a rupture seemed to increase this week after Japan’s foreign minister, Katsuya Okada, announced Tuesday that talks over the Futenma issue had been suspended . A Japanese official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak with the news media, said American negotiators had become irritated by Mr. Hatoyama’s delays in making a decision on the issue. When asked by reporters on Wednesday if the Futenma issue was hurting the alliance, Mr. Hatoyama replied that that was not the message he was getting from the Obama administration. Some in the United States “may state such an opinion, but that is not a remark made in formal negotiations,” he told reporters. Earlier, a government spokesman said that Tokyo may ask Washington to ease the burden on Okinawa, where many of the 50,000 American military personnel in Japan are based. The spokesman, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirofumi Hirano, also said there may be delays in carrying out the broader plan to relocate the 8,000 Marines to Guam, now set to take place by 2014. Reports in major Japanese newspapers have said that Tokyo may propose an immediate relocation of the Marine helicopters at Futenma to another base, as well as steps to clean up environmental damage on many of the American bases. The noise and danger from Futenma’s low-flying helicopters have become a symbol here of the burden placed on Okinawans, who have held large protests in recent weeks calling for removal of the base from the island.

Okinawa and Other Ryukyu Islands (Japan)

United States Defense and Military Forces


The Other Side of Mr. Nice Guy

Abstract: A gladiator is generally not expected to be gentle and lighthearted, smiling and joking. That may be why it has taken a few years for Daniel Ricciardo, a driver for the Red Bull team, to solidify his reputation as one of the hardest, fastest, meanest — and best — drivers in Formula One. In a season again dominated by the Mercedes team and drivers, Ricciardo, a 27-year-old Australian, arrives at the Italian Grand Prix track this weekend after scoring three podium finishes in a row. In Monza, he could well cause an upset, as he almost did at the Monaco Grand Prix in May. Ricciardo has been driving for Red Bull since 2014. That first season, he outqualified and outscored his teammate Sebastian Vettel, the reigning four-time drivers’ champion. In fact, Ricciardo was the only driver that season to have challenged the dominant Mercedes drivers, Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg, who won all the races except three, which were won by Ricciardo. In his first race that year, in Australia, Ricciardo qualified second and then finished second, becoming the first Australian driver to score a podium finish in his home Grand Prix. But he was disqualified after the race for a breach of fuel flow rules. Ricciardo, though, has a way of weathering storms. If a survey could be made of the 22 Formula One drivers to establish who smiles the most, has the sunniest disposition and seems to be generally the nicest guy, Ricciardo would surely be the leader. Yet this season another side of him has surfaced. He says he is like a honey badger, the small weasel-like animal whose image is on the back of his helmet. “When you look at it,” he has said of the honey badger, “he seems quite cute and cuddly, but as soon as someone crosses his territory in a way he doesn’t like, he turns into a bit of a savage and he’ll go after anything — tigers, pythons. He turns very quickly, but he’s a good guy.” Last season and the beginning of this season, Ricciardo dominated his teammate Daniil Kvyat, who had replaced Vettel. In April, Red Bull decided to demote Kvyat, sending him to the sister Toro Rosso team and replacing him with Toro Rosso’s 18-year-old driver, Max Verstappen, starting at the Spanish Grand Prix. There, the two Mercedes drivers, Hamilton and Rosberg, knocked each other out of the race. Ricciardo, meanwhile, had qualified higher than Verstappen, and after the accident between the leaders, Ricciardo led the race, ahead of his teammate. Then Red Bull gave a better pit-stop strategy to the young recruit, having him make two pit stops to three for Ricciardo. As a result, Verstappen won a race that should have been Ricciardo’s. For the first time, the public got a glimpse of the honey badger. But only a glimpse. “The outcome of the race was frustrating,” Ricciardo said. “Is it easy to move on? I wouldn’t say easy. Can you move on? Absolutely.” He added: “It’s a tough one. It’s a team sport, but you are doing it for yourself as well, and that balance is a tricky one to try and manage. Obviously, from a personal side, it’s still a hard one to take.” Worse was to come at the next race, the Monaco Grand Prix. Ricciardo set pole position on the street circuit, where the pole is essential to victory because it is impossible to overtake. It was the Australian’s first pole position in Formula One. He went on to lead the race with ease, while Verstappen showed his inexperience by having two crashes, one during qualifying, and the other ending his race. With the race under control, despite dropping behind Hamilton during a pit stop for what would be a temporary drive in second, Ricciardo made a pit stop on Lap 31, from which he was expected to easily emerge in front of Hamilton, who had stopped just before that. But the Red Bull mechanics were not prepared with his tires. They ran about the pits with the wrong ones, then the right ones, and by the time Ricciardo left, he was behind Hamilton. The race was lost, and this time the honey badger showed his true face. Never before had Ricciardo been so visibly angry and bitter, and he seemed to have no qualms about using crude language and blaming his team in public. “Two weekends in a row I’ve been screwed now,” he said, adding, “It hurts.” When pressed about why the pit-stop error had occurred, he continued: “No idea. I was called into the box. I didn’t make the call. I got called. They should have been ready. It hurts. It hurts.” Christian Horner, his team director, unhappy about the team failure, but equally unhappy about Ricciardo’s reaction, responded in a coolly calculated team statement after the race: “We as a team owe Daniel a huge apology today, as we failed to support him in the way we did to get him to his first pole position yesterday.” The signal was clear: It was thanks to a team effort that the driver was on pole in the first place, and any victory is also thanks to the team. Still, Ricciardo’s anger was understandable. Once again, as in 2014, the Australian might have been the only driver to beat Mercedes. He would have had two victories. Instead, he now had none. A driver who rose slowly up the racing ranks is coming into his own. Ricciardo started by entering his own outdated Formula Ford in the Australian championship in 2005. The next year, he finished third in the Formula BMW Asia series. In 2008, he won the Formula Renault 2.0 series in Europe, and in 2009, he won the British Formula 3 series. Ricciardo was signed as a test driver for Red Bull and Toro Rosso. Midway through the 2011 season, he was hired to race for the rest of the season at the now defunct HRT team. He joined Toro Rosso the following year and spent two years there. In 2014, Ricciardo was called to join Red Bull after Mark Webber, another Australian, announced his retirement. It was a surprise that he won the only three races not won that year by Mercedes drivers — the Canadian, Hungarian and Belgian Grands Prix — and that he overshadowed Vettel. Now, as Formula One arrives at the Italian Grand Prix, Ricciardo is in third position in the series, behind Hamilton and Rosberg. While Verstappen has continued to prove his worth, Ricciardo has shown that he is not yet finished. “There’s an argument I am now going beyond a level I thought was there,” Ricciardo said. “It’s a tough one, because I always like to think I am pushing myself to my limit, but the human body is interesting, so maybe there is always more.”


Danilo Gallinari Injured in Nuggets’ Win Over Mavericks

Abstract: Corey Brewer scored 23 points and got a hand on Anthony Morrow’s last-second shot to preserve the Denver Nuggets’ 19th straight home win, 95-94 over the Dallas Mavericks. But the Nuggets’ dreams of a deep playoff run might have taken a huge hit when they lost forward Danilo Gallinari to what looked like a serious knee injury. Gallinari is scheduled for a magnetic resonance imaging test on Friday. ¶ Russell Westbrook scored 27 points and the host Oklahoma City Thunder seized control of the race for home-court advantage in the Western Conference playoffs by beating the San Antonio Spurs, 100-88. The Thunder pulled even in the loss column with the Spurs and would control the tiebreaker if both teams won out.

Basketball
Nuggets
Mavericks
Danilo Gallinari


Linked to Petraeus, Paula Broadwell Is Lifelong High Achiever

Abstract: WASHINGTON — Paula Broadwell, whose affair with the nation’s C.I.A. director led to his resignation on Friday, was the valedictorian of her high school class and homecoming queen, a fitness champion at West Point with a graduate degree from Harvard, and a model for a machine gun manufacturer. It may have been those qualities — and a string of achievements that began in her native North Dakota, where she was state student council president, an all-state basketball player and orchestra concertmistress — that drew the attention of David H. Petraeus , the nation’s top spy and a four-star general, as the two spent hours together for a biography of Mr. Petraeus that Ms. Broadwell co-wrote. Ms. Broadwell’s name burst into public view on Friday evening after Mr. Petraeus resigned abruptly amid an F.B.I. investigation that uncovered evidence of their relationship. But Ms. Broadwell was hardly shy about her interactions with Mr. Petraeus as she promoted her book , “All In: The Education of General David Petraeus,” in media appearances earlier this year. She had unusual access, she noted in promotional appearances, taping many of her interviews for her book while running six-minute miles with Mr. Petraeus in the thin mountain air of the Afghan capital. Ms. Broadwell said in an interview in February that Mr. Petraeus was enjoying his new civilian life at the C.I.A., where he became director in September 2011. “It was a huge growth period for him, because he realized he didn’t have to hide behind the shield of all those medals and stripes on his arm,” she said. Ms. Broadwell was 39 at the time. Her biography on the Penguin Speakers Bureau Web site says that she is a research associate at Harvard’s Center for Public Leadership and a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of War Studies at King’s College London. She received a master’s in public administration from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. A self-described “soccer mom” and an ironman triathlete, Ms. Broadwell became a fixture on the Washington media scene after the publication of her book about Mr. Petraeus, who is 60. In a Twitter message this summer, she bragged about appearing on a panel at the Aspen Institute , a policy group for deep thinkers. “Heading 2 @AspenInstitute 4 the Security Forum tomorrow! Panel (media & terrorism) followed by a 1v1 run with Lance Armstrong,” she wrote. “Fired up!” On her Twitter account , she often commented on the qualities of leadership. “Reason and calm judgment, the qualities specially belonging to a leader. Tacitus,” she wrote. In another message, she said: “A leader is a man who has the ability to get other people to do what they don’t want to do and like it. Truman.” She also used her Twitter account to denounce speculation in the Drudge Report that Mr. Petraeus would be picked as a running mate by Mitt Romney, the Republican candidate for president. Married with two children, she was described in a biography on the Web site of Inspired Women Magazine as a high achiever since high school. The biography says that Ms. Broadwell received a degree in political geography and systems engineering from West Point, where she was ranked No. 1 over all in fitness in her class. She benefited from a different ranking scale for women, she told a reporter this year. But “I was still in the top 5 percent if I’d been ranked as a male,” she said. The official Web site for Ms. Broadwell’s book was taken down Friday, but comments from her echoed across the Internet. “I was driven when I was younger,” she was quoted as saying on the Web site, noting her induction into her high school’s hall of fame. “Driven at West Point where it was much more competitive in that women were competing with men on many levels, and I was driven in the military and at Harvard, both competitive environments.” “But now,” she is quoted as saying, “as a working mother of two, I realize it is more difficult to compete in certain areas. I think it is important for working moms to recognize that family is the most important.” On “The Daily Show,” Jon Stewart summed up Ms. Broadwell’s book by saying: “I would say the real controversy here is, is he awesome or incredibly awesome?”A short time later, Ms. Broadwell challenged Mr. Stewart to a push-up contest , which she won handily. Mr. Stewart had to pay $1,000 to a veterans’ support group for each push-up she did beyond his total. Ms. Broadwell said that he wrote a check for $20,000 on the spot. On Friday evening, her house in the Dilworth neighborhood of Charlotte, N.C., was dark when a reporter rang the doorbell. Two cars were in the home’s carport and an American flag was flying out front.

All In: The Education of General David Petraeus (Book)


Move, Stay or Wait and See on Kissam Avenue

Abstract: It was a strange sight: A woman standing in the doorway of her home on Kissam Avenue on Staten Island on a recent Saturday morning wearing pajamas and slippers. “I just got up,” a sleepy-eyed Franca Costa said apologetically. Not too long ago here, the appearance of someone at her door dressed in sleepwear, especially on a weekend morning, would not have warranted a second thought. But Hurricane Sandy upended normalcy on this street, one of the hardest hit in the city, making the ordinary extraordinary. The storm pummeled all of the houses on the avenue, on the island’s eastern shore, flattening nearly half of them, inflicting extensive water damage on the others and forcing all the residents to seek temporary housing. Since then, the street by day has buzzed with contractors and building inspectors, insurance adjusters and utility workers, reporters and disaster tourists. By night it has gone dark and quiet, an occasional police cruiser breaking the stillness. But two weeks ago, Ms. Costa became the first resident of Kissam Avenue to move back home. “Come on in,” she chirped. Her two-story bungalow at No. 14 was toasty warm; a new boiler pumped heat through new ducts. There were new walls, a new wooden floor, a new electrical system, new kitchen appliances, a new bathroom and new furniture, much of it donated by friends and strangers. Shelves were lined with religious icons and recovered photos in frames. Three dogs luxuriated on the duvet atop her bed, their barking sounding less menacing than celebratory. While Ms. Costa’s homecoming suggested a return to some sort of normalcy, the future of the block remained highly uncertain. Among the property owners whose homes are still standing, some have been doing repairs and are preparing to move back in. Others, however, have been stuck in an uncomfortable holding pattern, delayed by slow-moving insurance companies and ephemeral contractors, or awaiting the possibility of new flood maps and building and zoning guidelines that might determine how — or even whether — they should rebuild. Image DELAYS Marisa and Claudio Finco have been working on home repairs, but issues with a contracting firm have put off their return. Credit Yana Paskova for The New York Times Although the circumstances are different from property to property, there appears to be a shared hope among Kissam Avenue’s residents that the authorities will buy their land as part of a watershed restoration project. The property owners have been meeting with residents of other nearby streets to form a united front and lobby the city and state for a buyout. But that process could take a long time, residents say, and many who are pressing ahead with repairs are driven as much by financial imperatives as by emotional necessity because they are having trouble paying both a mortgage on their homes and rent for temporary lodgings. Marisa and Claudio Finco, at 69 Kissam Avenue, have been renting an apartment in Brooklyn and are working on their home every weekend. A week ago, they were repairing holes in the siding of the house where the storm surge had turned tree trunks and other debris into battering rams. They said their efforts to rebuild have been stymied by a mercurial contracting firm that was supposed to install a new boiler, which will allow them to dry out the interior of their house once and for all and begin replacing all the drywall and flooring. “They came two to three times, they did inspections and then they disappeared,” Mr. Finco said. “No call, no nothing.” That afternoon, Jane and Vinny Caravello dropped by the Fincos’ to say hello. The Caravellos lived at 115 Kissam Avenue until the storm pulverized their house. All that remains of it is the staircase, which sprouts from the rubble like a totem from an ancient settlement. Their mortgage bank recently sent them a check for $50,000 to help rebuild, said Mr. Caravello, who drives a truck for the United States Postal Service. “I sent it back!” he exclaimed. “We have no information on building codes!” “You know,” he added, turning to his wife, “we should’ve sold when that guy offered us.” Several years ago, he explained, a stranger driving down the avenue slowed in front of the couple’s house, leaned out his window and shouted, “Four hundred and fifty!” A purchase offer. But the Caravellos were not interested. They loved the place too much, a common sentiment among Kissam Avenue’s residents, who all said it was a hidden bastion of neighborliness and quietude. Residents picked one another’s children up from school; they knew where their neighbors’ house keys were hidden in case there was an emergency. In the neighborhood, surrounded by wetlands, water fowl and deer were a common sight. They called it “the poor man’s Hamptons.” But residents speak of all of that as a thing of the past. The Caravellos are now thinking about relocating permanently to New Jersey. “I don’t want to leave here,” Mr. Caravello said, then shrugged in resignation and headed for his car. “What are you going to do?”


Sallie Mae Plans to Return 2,000 Jobs to U.S.

Abstract: RESTON, Va. (AP) — Sallie Mae , the student loan lender, said Monday that it would bring 2,000 jobs to the United States within the next 18 months as it shifts call center and other operations from overseas. The move is welcome news to the country’s jobless, whose numbers have climbed past 13 million. “The current economic environment has caused our communities to struggle with job losses. They need jobs, and we will put 2,000 of them into U.S. facilities as soon as we possibly can,” the chief executive, Albert L. Lord, said in a statement. Aside from call-center positions, the nation’s largest private student lender will be looking for workers to fill information technology and operations support roles. Sallie Mae runs centers in 20 United States sites including Lynn Haven, Fla.; Fishers, Ind.; Wilkes-Barre, Pa.; Killeen, Tex.; and Newark, Del.


Yanks’ Quiet Bullpen Acquisition Impresses

Abstract: TAMPA, Fla. — LaTroy Hawkins found a seat next to the veteran Bob Tewksbury on the Minnesota Twins’ bench in the top of the seventh inning on May 17, 1998. Hawkins was 25 years old, and he knew it was Beanie Baby Day at Yankee Stadium because there were so many children in the stands. But he sensed something more special going on. His opponent, David Wells, was awfully tough. “I looked at the scoreboard, and I said, ‘Tewks, he’s throwing a no-hitter,’ ” Hawkins said. “And he put his arm around me and said, ‘LaTroy, he’s throwing a perfect game.’ Everything started to come together.” Hawkins did not even bother icing his arm when he left after seven innings. He stayed on the bench to watch Wells make history at his expense. It was part of a three-year stretch in which Hawkins went 23-40 as a starter. He has not started a game since the end of the 1990s, and only three right-handers — David Weathers, Mike Timlin and Todd Jones — have made more appearances in this decade. The Yankees signed Hawkins for one year and $3.75 million in December, a deal most significant, perhaps, for what it was not. Hawkins, 35, was the most prominent player the Yankees imported this winter. They did not lunge desperately for another team’s star. There was no introduction for Hawkins at Yankee Stadium. There was not even a conference call with reporters. The Yankees have been burned in recent seasons by some of their splashy free agents, especially relievers. Since losing the 2001 World Series, they have signed six relievers to multiyear deals. Four — Steve Karsay, Chris Hammond, Paul Quantrill and Mike Myers — were gone before the end of their contracts. A fifth, Kyle Farnsworth, has not performed to expectations. The other was Tom Gordon, who departed as a free agent after two seasons. The Yankees received two draft picks as compensation, and used them on Ian Kennedy and Joba Chamberlain, major building blocks for their future. The Yankees liked Hawkins, who pitched last season for the Rockies, because he signed for just one year and did not cost them a draft pick. The Yankees let reliever Luis Vizcaíno sign with Colorado, gaining a high draft choice in the process. “I wanted that draft pick, sort of like a player to be named later, for Vizcaíno,” General Manager Brian Cashman said. “Relief pitching is very volatile. There are not many Mariano Riveras out there you can count on year in, year out. I was trying to limit our commitment, especially when we have some good young arms coming through the system.” In Hawkins, the Yankees have a pitcher who went 2-5 with a 3.42 earned run average in 62 games last season. Much of the damage came early, before Hawkins rested for a month with an inflamed elbow. In his last 53 games, he had a 2.63 E.R.A. and held opponents to a .233 batting average. Asked who impressed him at camp on Sunday, Manager Joe Girardi singled out Hawkins. “Hawkins threw great,” Girardi said. “The thing that I’ve seen in all of his bullpens is everything is down. He has the sinker. He’s a different guy than what we saw a couple years ago, where he was the power guy with a big hook. He was excellent today.” Hawkins said he smoothed his mechanics last season, and when he missed his location, he rarely did so in the middle of the plate. His fastball command was better, he said, which helped him meet the goal he sets every season. “Guys are going to get their base hits, but you can sure keep from walking them,” Hawkins said. “That’s the truth. You can’t let guys get on ahead of those base hits. “That’s my goal: to walk less than 20 guys coming out of the bullpen. That’s right where you want to be, 20 or less over the season.” In five of the last six seasons, Hawkins has succeeded. He walked 16 last year — with only 29 strikeouts — and Girardi sees Hawkins inducing ground balls at pivotal times. “Obviously, you love the guys that have the ability to strike hitters out at the back end” of the bullpen, Girardi said, adding: “But sometimes you need that double-play ball. You’re trying to get two with one pitch, and that can be very important.” The makeup of the Yankees’ bullpen is unsettled, with Chamberlain possibly opening the season in a setup role to limit his innings. Farnsworth will also be there, with about a dozen others competing for three spots. Cashman said he looked at the Cleveland Indians, who eliminated the Yankees in the division series last fall, as a model. The Indians signed a reliable free agent, Joe Borowski, and filled in the other spots with power arms from their farm system. “There are no guarantees, but we have guys we’re willing to try first,” Cashman said. “We have a lot of people competing for those spots.” inside pitch Derek Jeter said he would support blood-testing of major league players in the fight against performance-enhancing drugs. Jeter said in an interview Friday with Bloomberg Radio that it would not be an invasion of privacy to have blood drawn to test for human growth hormone. “You can test for whatever you want to test for,” Jeter said during the “On the Ball” program, which was broadcast over the weekend. “We get pricked by needles anyway in spring training, so we have a lot of blood work to begin with,” he said. Jeter’s stance is in opposition to the players union executive director, Donald Fehr, who opposes blood-testing.

Hawkins Latroy
New York Yankees
Baseball


General and Former Defense Official Urge Nonlethal Military Aid for Ukraine

Abstract: WASHINGTON — Ukraine’s military has an urgent need for nonlethal military assistance like body armor, night-vision goggles, communications gear and aviation fuel to defend against a potential Russian attack, according to a new analysis by a former NATO commander and a former Pentagon official. But wary of provoking Russia, the Obama administration has been reluctant to provide it, they say. “Implementation of U.S. nonlethal military aid is seriously flawed and needs immediate correction,” Gen. Wesley K. Clark and Phillip A. Karber wrote in a copy of the report that The New York Times obtained on Tuesday. General Clark, who is retired, is the former NATO commander who led the alliance’s forces during the 1998 Kosovo conflict, and Mr. Karber is a former strategy adviser to Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger. The new interim government in Ukraine submitted a request to NATO nations last month for military assistance, including vehicles, mine-clearing equipment, communications gear, medical supplies, fuel and the sharing of intelligence. The United States has sent 300,000 M.R.E. — meals ready to eat — rations to Ukraine’s forces, but the Obama administration has made it clear that it is not planning to send weapons or other forms of so-called lethal aid for fear of provoking Russia. NATO has also moved cautiously. Ukraine’s foreign minister recently said a NATO team would assess his nation’s military needs, but some Western officials say the alliance is unlikely to provide much assistance until a new president is elected on May 25 and the East-West crisis over Ukraine eases. But General Clark and Mr. Karber say that Ukraine’s forces have a pressing need for more nonlethal aid, and that providing it could help deter Russia, which has positioned about 40,000 troops near Ukraine’s border, from intervening militarily in eastern Ukraine. “The most important assistance currently needed to make the existing Ukrainian force as defensible as possible in the current crisis (between now and the elections of 25 May) is nonlethal equipment from the U.S.,” they wrote after a recent visit to Ukraine. The visit of General Clark, who ran for the 2004 Democratic presidential nomination, and Mr. Karber took place in late March and early April. They traveled at the invitation of Ukrainian officials, and the trip was paid for by the Potomac Foundation, an American nonprofit research center. General Clark and Mr. Karber met with Ukrainian generals and defense officials, and Mr. Karber visited Ukrainian armored, mechanized and light infantry brigades on their northern, eastern and southern fronts. According to their assessment , which has been provided to Obama administration officials and lawmakers, Ukraine’s forces are facing a formidable military challenge. “The 1,000-mile-long front is three times the frontier that Ukraine’s modest armed forces are designed to handle,” they wrote. “Moreover, decade-long corruption has left their Air Force ill equipped, vulnerable and unready for modern air combat. “Russian occupation of Crimea has virtually destroyed Ukraine’s coastal defense from the south,” they wrote, adding that threats from other directions “divert Ukrainian political attention and disperse badly needed forces to the southwest and northwest.” Image Gen. Wesley K. Clark went to Ukraine to help evaluate its need for military aid. Credit Mario Anzuoni/Reuters Ukraine, they say, needs more aircraft, and more antiaircraft and antitank missiles. But it also has a dire need for nonlethal assistance. Without body armor, Ukrainian troops are vulnerable to snipers. Only one in 100 soldiers, they write, is equipped with body armor. Without night-vision gear, Ukrainian forces cannot detect Russian infiltrators. Ukrainian troops also need satellite radios to coordinate forces along a broad front “with no reserve and no air support to fill in the gaps,” they say. Another reason the radios are needed, they say, is that the Russian military would most likely cut and jam communications during an invasion as it did in Crimea. Ukraine has such a shortage of aviation fuel that commanders are holding much of it in reserve in case Russia invades. But that means that Ukrainian helicopters do not have enough fuel for training or to effectively patrol the border. General Clark and Mr. Karber urged the Obama administration to take a less restrictive approach on what nonlethal aid should be provided and appoint a top-level official to cut through red tape and ensure that aid is quickly delivered. The Obama administration has been relying heavily on the threat of stepped-up economic sanctions to dissuade the Russians from invading eastern Ukraine and has rebuffed proposals from Senator John McCain that the United States provide light weapons to the Ukrainian military as too risky. “We do not see a military solution to this crisis,” Jay Carney, the White House spokesman, said Tuesday. But according to Secretary of State John Kerry, the administration’s efforts have not dissuaded Russia from sending intelligence agents and even small numbers of special forces into Ukraine. Mr. Carney declined Tuesday to say whether the administration would consider an increase in nonlethal aid and, if so, when it might be provided. “I just don’t have any new information to provide today about forms of assistance that we’re considering, except to say that we’re not discussing lethal assistance,” he added. Some experts said that while it was important to avoid a provocation, more should be done to help Ukraine’s forces. “I understand the concern that we not start an escalatory process that we cannot control, but I do think that the U.S. and the West can and should do more than we are apparently doing so far to support Ukraine’s legitimate defense capabilities,” said Robert Nurick, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council.

US Foreign Policy
Ukraine
US
Russia
Wesley K Clark
Phillip A Karber
US Military
Foreign Aid


For Long Island Rail Road, a Track Record to Tout: Matching Riders With Lost Items

Abstract: In the corner sits a safe filled with jewelry. Along the walls, shelves are stacked with duffel bags and backpacks. Elsewhere there are piles of lost or abandoned smartphones. And then there is the carbon-fiber leg. Henry Felton has come across stranger things than the prosthetic limb during his five years as supervisor of the Long Island Rail Road’s Lost and Found: the set of nunchucks and Chinese throwing stars, the antique pistol, a set of false teeth. But on a recent spring afternoon, the leg was the oddest thing in his cramped office below Penn Station, amid myriad misplaced items that pass through the unit each day. The way the leg had been packed, it looked as though it was being transported, not worn. “You just don’t forget your leg,” Mr. Fenton said. Barbara Sevigny, a clerk at the lost and found who, like Mr. Felton, takes the train to work every day, said there was never really a seasonal lull. In the winter, there is the predictable deluge of mittens, beanie caps and scarfs. In the summer, it will be the beach gear that gets left behind as travelers make their way to (or from) the shore. Whatever they have lost, people are ecstatic when they get it back, Ms. Sevigny said. Sometimes, an item truly is priceless. For one passenger, a wool cap that was returned was the last remaining possession of a grandmother who had died. “Some people get discouraged and don’t come back,” Ms. Sevigny said. Little do they know that there is a system dedicated to reuniting passengers with their wayward mittens and sun hats and, of course, their smartphones, which go astray no matter the season. Indeed, nothing taxes the office (or its power supply) like the stockpile of lost mobile communication devices. Underneath the main desk is a tangle of wires charging the multitude of phones that are found every week. Sonar-like pings fill the space each time a user somewhere activates the Find My iPhone app. The sound is almost like a desperate plea. “We hear that all day long,” Mr. Felton said. Beyond the desk, the enclave is reminiscent of a turn-of-the-century Lower East Side tenement, stacked wall-to-wall with the lost possessions of daily commuters or seasonal riders. Mr. Felton’s office boasts an impressive record. Of the 15,544 items logged in last year, 9,252 were returned to their owners. New York City Transit and Metro-North Railroad maintain similar lost-and-found operations. For the Long Island Rail Road, long maligned for its crowded trains and unpredictable service, the success of its lost and found is a bright spot. Mr. Felton just wishes more people would inquire. “If everyone who lost something filled out an inquiry, we’d return 80 percent of the stuff,” Mr. Felton said. “The things I don’t return are to the people that don’t look for it.” Inquiries can be made online, or by dialing 511. Lost items are typically held for three months. Items not claimed are sold through a contractor in Alabama. Last year, 2,360 unclaimed items were sold, generating about $11,000 in revenue for the railroad. For the most part, riders are diligent when it comes to tracking down things they have lost and a steady stream can be seen on any weekday filing in and out of the office, which is just off the lower main concourse near the railroad’s waiting area. When Michael McManus, a medical courier and resident of Massapequa, N.Y., worked long hours in Manhattan, he relied on the train to get home each night. “It was not uncommon for me to fall asleep on the train,” Mr. McManus said. “One time I lost my cellphone and I just assumed it was gone because, what are the chances?” After reaching out to the unit, he was able to retrieve his missing phone a few days later. Bob Ringel, an account executive from Plainview, N.Y., said he has lost an attaché case and a phone on the train. “I’ve never had a problem,” he said. “Most of the stuff gets returned.” Mr. Ringel added that all the railroad needs to do “is figure out how to get the trains on time, and we’ll be in great shape.”

Lost and Found
LIRR
Penn Station NYC
Henry Felton
Railroads


Oxford University Will Keep Statue of Cecil Rhodes

Abstract: LONDON — An outspoken group of students wanted to pull it down, and many alumni wanted it to stay. For months, the authorities at Oxford University have struggled with an awkward dilemma over the fate a statue of Cecil Rhodes, an imperialist benefactor seen by many as an architect of apartheid. Now, after a vigorous debate, Oriel College, one of 38 largely self-governing colleges at Oxford, has decided it will keep the monument to its famous, if divisive, former student. In a statement issued late Thursday, the college said that it had received more than 500 comments on the subject and that “the overwhelming message we have received has been in support of the statue remaining in place, for a variety of reasons.” “Following careful consideration,” the statement continued, “the college’s Governing Body has decided that the statue should remain in place, and that the college will seek to provide a clear historical context to explain why it is there.” The decision represents a defeat for a group of students who had sought to follow the example of their counterparts at the University of Cape Town , who last year achieved the removal of a statue of Rhodes. The petition and protest in Oxford had provoked an intense discussion about whether Britain ’ s colonial past should be judged by contemporary standards, and whether Rhodes should be remembered more as a ruthless colonialist or as a benefactor. The dispute was characterized on one side as an exercise in political correctness and a desire to erase history, and on the other as a test of the university’s willingness to acknowledge the sensitivities and values of minority students. Rhodes died in 1902, and his educational legacy includes a prestigious scholarship that bears his name. About 8,000 Rhodes scholars — including a former Australian prime minister, Tony Abbott, who said removing the statue would be an act of “moral vanity,” and former President Bill Clinton — have studied at Oxford thanks to the program set up with money left by Rhodes. On Friday, the British newspaper The Daily Telegraph reported that a leaked copy of a report prepared for the governors said that wealthy alumni were angered by the “shame and embarrassment” brought on the college by efforts to take down the statue, and that donations were at stake. Historical Figures, Campus Controversies Around the world, student activists are demanding that building and statutes commemorating historically figures whose legacies are now seen as morally dubious. The college now fears that a proposed gift of 100 million pounds, or $143 million, “to be left in the will of one donor — is now in jeopardy,” the newspaper reported. The group behind the campaign to remove monuments to Rhodes reacted angrily to the college’s announcement, describing it as “outrageous, dishonest and cynical.” “This is not over,” the group, Rhodes Must Fall in Oxford, said on its Facebook page. “We will be redoubling our efforts and meeting over the weekend to discuss our next actions,” it said, adding that “the struggle continues!” Last year, Brian Kwoba, a doctoral student, told the newspaper The Independent that Rhodes was responsible for “stealing land, massacring tens of thousands of black Africans, imposing a regime of unspeakable labor exploitation in the diamond mines and devising pro-apartheid policies.” “The significance of taking down the statue is simple,” he added. “Cecil Rhodes is the Hitler of southern Africa. Would anyone countenance a statue to Hitler?” But R. W. Johnson, an author who is an emeritus fellow of Magdalen College at Oxford, compared the campaign to remove the monument to what Al Qaeda and the Islamic State “are doing in places like Mali when destroying statues.” “They are destroying historical artifacts and defacing them,” he told The Daily Telegraph . “I think you have got to respect history. In addition, there are many people in history that are far worse than Rhodes.” Born in 1853, Rhodes attended Oriel College in the 1870s before founding the De Beers diamond empire in South Africa, where he rose to be prime minister of what was then the Cape Colony, from 1890 to 1896. Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, was named after Rhodes, but he was also known for beginning racial segregation in southern Africa and for his belief in the superiority of the Anglo-Saxon race. This month, Oxford University’s vice chancellor, Louise Richardson, told The Financial Times that the discussion was “a distraction from the much bigger issues.” “What’s positive about this whole Rhodes Must Fall movement is that it’s drawing attention to our history,” she said. “We need to confront our history. We can’t pretend it didn’t happen, and I think if this encourages students to go to the Bodleian and look at the archives of the Rhodes period, there are some fabulous archives there both about colonialism and about the contemporary anti-Rhodes movement when he was alive.”

College
Cecil Rhodes
Monuments and Memorials
Apartheid in South Africa
Great Britain
University of Cape Town
Oxford University


Japanese All-Stars Are Alike, Yet Worlds Apart

Abstract: Ichiro Suzuki and Kosuke Fukudome share a heritage, a position, a quirky left-handed hitting style and can even trade notes on a feisty manager. And on Tuesday, they will add another thing in common when they start in the All-Star Game. The rookie Fukudome — whose dynamic first three months have helped lift the Cubs to a 57-38 record, tied for the best in the major leagues — will commemorate his first game at Yankee Stadium on Tuesday by batting eighth and shifting from his normal right-field position to play center for the National League. Suzuki, perhaps the lone bright spot in a bleak summer for Seattle, has made the American League team in each of his eight seasons and will bat leadoff and play right Tuesday. The urge to compare the two Japanese outfielders is irresistible. Ask an American League pitcher like the Blue Jays’ ace, Roy Halladay, who has battled Suzuki for years and faced Fukudome when the Cubs played in Toronto in June. “They cover the plate so well, both halves, that the biggest thing that stands out is that there’s not a place you can throw to for certain to get them out,” Halladay said. “You really have to do things different, mix things up, change things around.” The Tampa Bay left-hander Scott Kazmir, who marveled at Fukudome’s discipline when the Rays hosted the Cubs last month, found differences. “Ichiro kind of bails out a little bit and it seemed like Fukudome stays in a little bit,” Kazmir said. “He’s a little more Americanized, you might say.” Fukudome was elevated to mythic status in Chicago on opening day, when he hit a game-tying three-run homer in the ninth inning, and he continued confounding pitchers with his plate discipline. He hit .305 in April, but his average, on-base percentage and slugging percentage have decreased every month, something that his manager, Lou Piniella, attributed to fatigue. Even as Fukudome has slowed, he has left impressions on some of the N.L.’s best pitchers. Ask the Arizona ace, Dan Haren. “I think I went to a full count twice in the three or four times I faced him,” Haren said. “That’s the best thing he does, is make a pitcher work.” A Cubs teammate, Ryan Dempster, said Fukudome’s approach has become contagious. “He works pitchers and has taken a lot of pitches, and I think in return other guys on the team do that,” Dempster said. “We seem to get starters out of the game earlier. “And he runs the bases well. He does everything.” Scouts agree with that assessment. But they all rank Fukudome’s skills a notch below those of Suzuki, who is quicker, has a stronger arm, hits for a higher average and — regardless of Fukudome’s edge in homers (7 to 3) — has more power. When the Mariners take batting practice, players around the batting cage routinely marvel at Suzuki’s power. If he wanted to hit 30 homers every season or win the Home Run Derby, it would surprise few that he would be successful. Though Suzuki continues to embody consistency — barring injury, he figures to have 200 hits for an eighth consecutive season — his skills, at age 34, have declined from those that helped produce a record 262 hits in 2004, according to a scout. The scout, who was not authorized to speak publicly about another team’s player, theorized that Suzuki does not control the bat head in all of his many swings as well, perhaps because he is no longer as adept at tracking pitches. But Fukudome acknowledged Suzuki’s career accomplishments. “I’m not the same level to be compared,” he said through a translator. “He’s up there. He has a record in M.L.B. Hopefully, I will make a record, too.” Where Suzuki and Fukudome differ most, though, is in the standings. The Cubs, after 99 years without a World Series title, are perhaps the most balanced and complete team in the N.L. The Mariners have replaced their manager and general manager and own the worst record in the A.L. More changes are in the offing, perhaps including Suzuki, who signed a five-year contract last year and said Monday that he wanted to remain a Mariner. “I’m sorry to tell you this, but it’s been a really tough season for me, as an individual and also for our team, so I haven’t had enough time in my heart to watch other players during this season, especially because he’s in another league,” Suzuki said of Fukudome through a translator. “To be honest, I don’t know how he’s been doing at all in the National League, but what I can probably assume is that Lou’s complaining to him. Because no matter how well you’re playing or how good your team is doing, Lou will complain no matter what.”

Baseball
Japan
Suzuki Ichiro
Fukudome Kosuke


Nadal Serves Notice to the Doubters

Abstract: MELBOURNE, Australia — Rafael Nadal has long made a custom of sounding more worried than everybody else. But this time, there seemed to be legitimate cause for consternation all around. After a rough patch in 2014, full of aches and pains and absentee slips, he arrived Down Under without his appendix and without a victory this year after blowing a lead in his opening match of the season in Doha, Qatar, against the German Michael Berrer. Berrer, ranked 127th at age 34, was merely the latest member of the proletariat to get the better of Nadal, one of the greatest and most relentlessly competitive champions in tennis history. But there would be no more upheaval on Monday at the Australian Open. Facing a familiar, older foe in Mikhail Youzhny, Nadal played a shaky opening game and was then a rock the rest of the way as he closed out a convincing 6-3, 6-2, 6-2 victory. Youzhny, at 32 and coming back from health problems of his own, is not what he was. But Nadal certainly did a convincing impression of what he was: moving and striking the ball with hallmark energy and precision, finding power and the corners with his left-handed serve and facing just one break point, which he saved with an overhead. “The timing on the backhand was significantly better,” said the coach and analyst Darren Cahill. “And as his confidence grew his movement started to return to the Rafa we know.” He produced consistent depth off both wings and several forehand passing shots that barely provided Youzhny time to flinch. By the end, as the winners and fist pumps piled up, it seemed high time that Nadal go back to being more worried than the rest of us. “It’s no surprise to me,” Youzhny said later. “Journalists talk about his health and his head, but the players know that he already won it here. And I think he’s had a good preparation and enough time to improve his game for the Grand Slam.” He is now likely to have more time to further improve his game and mood before the greater challenges to come. Youzhny, a former United States Open semifinalist who has beaten Nadal four times, was clearly a threat if Nadal was not in fine form. But Nadal’s next opponent will be Tim Smyczek, a 27-year-old American qualifier ranked 112th. Smyczek, not surprisingly, knows a great deal more about Nadal than Nadal knows about him. “I’m really looking forward to it,” Smyczek said. “It’s going to be a really cool experience. You don’t have too high expectations going into it, other than it’s going to be an opportunity for me to play a guy I’ve looked up to for a very long time. He’s an amazing champion, and he’ll go down as one of the greatest tennis players ever, so it’s going to be really a treat for me, and I’m going to try to squeeze every bit of fun I can out of it.” Was it more Nadal’s achievements or his character that he admired? “Both,” Smyczek said. “He’s one of the nicest guys in the locker room. He’ll always say hello to you, and he just seems like a really good guy, and obviously it’s hard to argue with his achievements, however many French Opens he’s won.” “Nine,” said a reporter, helpfully. “Yeah, right,” Smyczek said. Nadal also has won two United States Opens and two Wimbledons, but he has won, for now, only one Australian Open. Rod Laver Arena, where he shined against Youzhny on Monday, has generated a particularly deep mix of emotions for him through the years. It is the place where he fought past his Spanish compatriot Fernando Verdasco in a grueling semifinal in 2009 and then reduced Roger Federer to tears in the final . It is the place where he hustled and tussled for nearly six hours before losing the longest men’s Grand Slam singles final of the Open era to Novak Djokovic in 2012. Image Nadal, who had earlier expressed concerns about his preparedness, on his way to a first-round victory. Credit Carlos Barria/Reuters It is the place where he beat Federer convincingly once more in the semifinals last year only to be upset in the final by the longtime Swiss No. 2 Stan Wawrinka. That final, a match in which Nadal’s back troubled him more than he conceded at the time, set the tone for his challenging season in which he would miss the United States Open with a wrist injury and the eight-man World Tour Finals because of an appendectomy. That was the tournament where Federer withdrew with back problems of his own before the final. On Monday in Melbourne, Federer revealed that he had also reinjured his back a week later during the decisive match of the Davis Cup final against Richard Gasquet of France that he would go on to win for Switzerland. “Happily it wasn’t as serious,” Federer said. Nadal, who has said he received stem-cell treatment on his back during his forced layoff, knows his own problems require constant maintenance, but he said that his back was not, for the moment, limiting him. “I needed a few more matches in Qatar, but that didn’t happen,” Nadal said of his loss to Berrer. “After the rough period of time with the injuries, you arrive here with doubts, and this first match was tough mentally for me.” He will certainly face more dangerous servers than Youzhny, men much closer to their peaks and their primes, but there was still much to feel good about Monday even if Nadal was far from prepared to revise his statement that he did not believe he was ready to win the Australian Open. “What I say the other day is the real thing,” he said. “I have one match. That’s better than two days ago, but I need more to feel that I am ready to do something very important here, no?” Perhaps. But as Nadal proved in 2013, when he returned from injury to reclaim the No. 1 ranking, he can get ready in a hurry.

Australian Open
Rafael Nadal
Mikhail Youzhny
Australia
Tennis


In Summer of ’62, Living King’s Challenge

Abstract: DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING was perspiring as he stood in the hot, humid, segregated city jail of Albany, Ga. The last time I had seen him, I was serving as the first white assistant pastor of a large Methodist congregation in Harlem and had greeted him after his sermon to a packed house at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in Upper Manhattan. He was vibrant. But on that sweltering day in Georgia , he appeared tired, though welcoming. As my friend Rabbi Israel Dresner and I approached him, young men and women, crowded in the two adjoining cells, belted out one of the signature songs of the civil rights movement: “Oh, freedom, Oh, freedom, Oh, freedom over me. And before I’d be a slave I’d be buried in my grave, and go home to my Lord and be free!” Most of them were students at the all-black Albany State College who had been arrested for engaging in public protests. The singing was powerful but so loud that Rabbi Dresner and I wondered how we could carry on a conversation with Dr. King and his lieutenant and cell mate, Dr. Ralph Abernathy. Dr. King motioned for us to put our ears to the prison bars. “They’re singing like that,” he explained, “so that they won’t hear our conversation.” As he spoke, Dr. King pointed to two white prison guards nearby. Our conversation was brief, mouth to ear, ear to mouth. We basically told Dr. King that we planned to attend his trial. A few days earlier, in that summer of 1962, Rabbi Dresner and I had joined a vigil held by mostly black clergymen in front of the White House; the group was hopeful that we could see President John Kennedy and ask that he speak more forcefully on civil rights. That meeting never happened. Before we disbanded, we were asked, probably by the coordinators of the vigil, if any participants could attend Dr. King’s approaching trial in Albany. Rabbi Dresner and I had become fast friends during the previous year, when we were jailed together as Freedom Riders in Tallahassee, Fla. We looked at each other, nodded simultaneously, and shot our hands up. Albany is a key city in southwest Georgia, an area noted for cotton, peanuts, pecans and, more recently, corn. The Albany Movement was seeking an end to rigid segregation and other forms of flagrant discrimination, and Dr. King had been invited there to give impetus to the effort. He had been arrested for leading a public protest without a permit. I remember Dr. King being addressed at the trial as Martin, his status as a prominent Baptist minister with a Ph.D. from Boston University deliberately ignored. The prosecutor depicted him as a dangerous leftist, an outside agitator who had come to sabotage the “good relations” that existed between the races in the area. Dr. King and the other defendants were found guilty and given a $200 fine and 60 days in jail, but the sentences were suspended. Over the next few days Rabbi Dresner and I stayed in Albany, hoping to contribute in any way we could to the civil rights movement there. During that time we had an opportunity to get to know Dr. King, usually over meals with some of the leaders of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, including Andrew Young, Wyatt T. Walker and Dr. Abernathy — all of them ministers. My memories of Dr. King may be a bit clouded by the intervening 46 years, but several vivid impressions remain. The most obvious was his rare ability to inspire, with the same message, both cum laude graduates of our finest universities and illiterate sharecroppers. Another was his keen appreciation of humor. Jokes and funny stories would be shared over dinner, and Dr. King would throw his head back and roar with laughter. Dr. King spoke with ease across the table — about Reinhold Niebuhr and Paul Tillich, eminent American theologians who had been my professors in seminary, about a favorite professor of his at Boston University, Dr. Edgar Brightman, whose son was a classmate and close friend of mine at Swarthmore College. But he led with fierce conviction from the front lines, prepared to confront persistent rejection and slander, imprisonment, bombings and death itself. I was surprised that some of the students who were working on voter registration in the Albany area poked fun at his religiosity, lampooning him as “De Lawd,” while a few powerful leaders within the black church felt that Dr. King was “pushing too hard,” preaching social revolution rather than the gospel. Today, of course, he is revered for his emphasis on reconciliation. While sharply critical of our racist society, he challenged us to leave behind our bigoted past and fulfill the true promise of America. But at the time, although we met several white Southerners who secretly encouraged us and our work, that message was difficult for many in the segregated South to accept. While in Albany that August, Rabbi Dresner and I saw firsthand what Dr. King and the black community were up against. The main library had closed rather than integrate. When we went to play tennis at a “black park,” the net was quickly removed because we were white. If accompanied by African-Americans, I was turned away at restaurants, by taxis and even refused admission to three churches. On a Saturday night Rabbi Dresner and I spoke at a voter registration meeting sponsored by the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. It was held at Shady Grove Baptist Church in nearby Lee County, identified to us as the county where the largest number of lynchings had taken place over the years. The next Tuesday night the church burned to the ground. “Lightning,” the sheriff suggested. We knew better. Scores of black churches that defied “Southern tradition” were set afire. On the following Wednesday night, Rabbi Dresner and I spoke at a voter registration meeting at Mount Olive Baptist Church in Terrell County. As we headed back to Albany along a dark and dirt road, we felt a loud thump against our back bumper. We were being tailgated by men yelling threats, waving what appeared to be guns, their car’s high beams turning on and off. We suggested to the driver that he go faster. I remember how calm his reply was. It went something like this: “No, probably the county sheriff is in that car, and if we exceed the speed limit by even a mile or two he could stop us, and then we might be in real trouble out here in the country.” If we were lucky, he explained, they were chasing us out of the county, and a few miles down the road they would bump us several more times, shout more threats, then turn around. We were relieved when that was what happened. Two weeks later Mount Olive church burned to the ground. When Rabbi Dresner and I were ready to return north, Dr. King suggested a follow-up. Could we organize a prayer pilgrimage to Albany to support the movement there? On Aug. 28 we returned, 75 strong, nearly all of us ministers or rabbis from the New York City and Chicago areas. Dr. King addressed us before we were to make our witness. We should not risk arrest, he warned, unless we met three conditions. First, we needed to have $200 in cash as bail money. Second, we must not have anything on our record — arrest record — that could embarrass the movement. Third, we should step aside if we were not fully committed to nonviolence. Our moment had arrived. We carefully lined up in front of City Hall, a scripture was read and a prayer offered. With that, Police Chief Laurie Pritchett bellowed: “O.K., you’ve had your prayer meeting. Now go home!” He added a bitter scolding, berating us for coming south when there were more than enough problems in the North. Four hundred onlookers cheered as we were loaded into police wagons, then delivered to four jails in the Albany area. As we rode through the streets, we defiantly sang some of the freedom songs that had earned Albany its reputation as a center of powerful protest music for that time. We were never tried, and 20 years later I was informed that we could request our $200 bail money back. It was returned, without comment. Today, Albany has a black mayor and an African-American majority on the Board of City Commissioners. And on Monday, one day before Barack Obama is inaugurated as our 44th president, we observe the 80th birthday of Dr. King, the only American of any race who has a national holiday named solely in his honor. I too am 80, and still saddened by that day in 1968 when I walked behind his casket with thousands of others in Atlanta. As I remember this great man, I feel honored to have been among the 200,000 people who gathered before the Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall in Washington in 1963, when he gave his “I Have a Dream” speech, and I feel intensely privileged to have laughed and chatted about friends and professors over fried chicken and sweet potato pie that seemed to appear out of nowhere in those brave, historic days in Georgia.

Blacks
Civil Rights and Liberties
Georgia
King Martin Luther Jr
Dresner Israel


Barcelona’s Best Plan B Might Be in Everton

Abstract: LONDON — When Barcelona loses its footing and loses two games in five days, it can feel like losing a friend. How fickle we are sometimes. What nonsense is said and written about a club that has developed such a philosophy that its team — and the Spanish national team filled with many of its players — has managed to beguile us at the same time it has won world titles. But with Lionel Messi and a whole host of others sidelined through the inevitable strains of playing too much comes instant recrimination. Tiki-taka, the style of passing and movement that served them so well, is dead in the eyes of critics. It may be temporarily out of service. Messi is back in Argentina, recuperating after his recurring hamstring problem proved that he needs time and patience. Xavi Hernández and Andrés Iniesta, those little masters of both passing and chasing interminable successes for club and country, are not getting any younger. Carles Puyol keeps coming back from brutal injuries, but he is no longer a defender for two games every week. Jordi Alba and Dani Alves, fullbacks who run like wingers, have taken knocks that rule them out for a few games. Even the goalkeeper, Victor Valdés, is getting treated for injuries instead of blocking shots. So Barça traveled to Ajax Amsterdam and took a beating last week in the Arena. It was a loss the Catalan team could afford because its place in the next round of the Champions League is already certain. Then Barcelona journeyed on to Bilbao and was run down, 1-0, against the Basque side, a home team that could prepare all week long for the contest on Sunday. Athletic Bilbao is deeply proud of its own style, its own insistence that only a Basque can wear the shirt. And since the new 53,000-seat San Mamés Stadium opened this season, no visiting team has yet been able to still the rampant running or the tigerish pressure of Athletic on its home turf. Speaking of turf, how strange it appeared that a player the caliber of Neymar, the Brazilian on Barça’s left wing and a poster boy for Nike, should take almost the whole of the first half to change his footwear. He slipped at crucial moments. He, and others, had clearly misjudged the lush, wet surface of the new San Mamés grass. But in any event, these are the weeks when Barcelona needs Neymar to grow into the shoes of the absent Messi. Apart from once stretching the home goalie to a magnificent save, Neymar was not the inspiration for Barcelona on Sunday. Maybe that is unfair. The ball reached him all too seldom. Gerardo “Tata” Martino, who came from Argentina last summer to replace an ailing Tito Vilanova as manager, is trying to add something to Barcelona. Image Gerard Deulofeu, on loan from Barcelona to Everton, scored in his first Premier League start. Credit Phil Noble/Reuters The new coach is responding to the call that went around the world last spring when Bayern Munich erased Barça from the Champions League. That marked the start of Messi’s hamstring problem. But all over the field, Munich got to each and every tackle, depriving Barcelona of the time to move, time to pass, time to play tiki-taka. Where, everyone asked, was Plan B? Barça had none because the Catalan club’s coaching, from the kindergarten upward, comes from the same ethos. Pass, pass, pass. Keep the ball, move into space, exhaust the opponent, and strike when they are weary. Martino said he came to Barcelona as an admirer of the style. He picked it up pretty well, playing 14 league games before he suffered his first defeats. Before those, there had been the worrying scoreless draw at Osasuna — also in Basque territory — when Barça failed to score for the first time in 65 La Liga matches. But despite Atlético Madrid keeping pace atop the league and despite Real Madrid gathering steam, Barcelona holds the leading position. Martino’s task is to try to make sure that the team does not arrive tired in the spring as it did last season. His search for that Plan B is bedeviled by the fact that, in his first 100 days as coach, he has had just 12 clear days on which to work with the squad. The rest are taken up by games in the league, the domestic cup and the Champions League, or with the players called away for national team duties. Devising a secondary plan is, in any case, difficult in Catalonia. The way of playing is indoctrinated in the players from boyhood, and you can count Messi in that because he arrived at Barcelona’s La Masia academy when he was 13. Xavi and Iniesta share that philosophy. Pep Guardiola, now coaching Bayern Munich, also came through that school. Guardiola wore himself out by the intensity with which he ran the team for four seasons, and he then took a year out in New York to recharge himself. However, even in the week when Barcelona itself seemed tired and vulnerable, there is beauty to report. Many miles from home, a Barça boy, Gerard Deulofeu, made an unforgettable starting debut in England on Saturday. Labeled the new Messi and still in his teens, Deulofeu has been loaned to Everton for this season and possibly next. His first goal was indeed Messi-esque in terms of his directness with the ball, his body swerve and his impudent finish. “His quality is sublime,” observed Everton’s coach, Roberto Martínez. “He can open up spaces, and I want him to continue trying things, to express himself, to dislodge good defenses. To have that raw talent is not selfish.” Martínez is a Catalan abroad, guiding a gifted youth through getting experience in another culture. The long-term Plan B, perhaps.

Barcelona Soccer Team
Soccer
Everton Soccer Team


Sony Forms Joint Ventures in China for PlayStation

Abstract: BEIJING — Sony will set up two joint ventures to make and market PlayStation consoles and games in China, the company’s Chinese partner said on Monday. One venture will be responsible for the PlayStation’s hardware, while the other will be focused on software, Sony’s partner in China, the Shanghai Oriental Pearl Group, said in a filing to the Shanghai Stock Exchange. A conglomerate, Shanghai Oriental Pearl has tourism, property, media and investment arms. Separately on Monday, Sony’s chief executive, Kazuo Hirai, said in Tokyo that the company hoped to increase sales of the PlayStation 4 console, turning it into a main driver of the company’s fast-growing network and streaming services business, which in turn would spur interest across Sony’s product categories. Mr. Hirai said its game business was the one area in which Sony would try to sell more products even as it emphasized profitability over sales volume across the rest of its electronics division. Mainland China is likely to be a difficult market for game consoles, which were banned from 2000 until this past January. Piracy and smuggling of consoles is rife, and the Chinese market for games is very different from traditional console markets like Japan, Europe and the United States, because Chinese gamers predominantly play computer and mobile games. Chinese game developers and publishers have also adopted a “free to play” model in which games are initially free but can make money by selling in-game upgrades like extra lives and special weapons. Console makers traditionally generate their money from the sale of the console and games alone. Sony and Shanghai Oriental Pearl are collaborating in response to the suspension of the ban on game consoles within Shanghai’s free trade zone, according to Sony Computer Entertainment, which is the unit responsible for the PlayStation. One of the ventures will have registered capital of 10 million renminbi, or $1.6 million, and will be 51 percent owned by Shanghai Oriental Pearl Culture Development, a subsidiary of the group, and 49 percent owned by Sony’s China operation, Shanghai Oriental Pearl said in the filing. The other venture will have registered capital of 43.8 million renminbi and will be 30 percent owned by Shanghai Oriental Pearl Culture Development and 70 percent owned by Sony’s China arm. Sony’s move comes one month after Microsoft and its joint-venture partner, BesTV New Media, announced they would introduce Microsoft’s Xbox One game console in China in September. In April, the Shanghai government said console makers would be able to manufacture and sell consoles in mainland China through “foreign-invested enterprises” in the city’s free trade zone, after temporarily lifting the ban on consoles in January. Mainland China’s ban on game consoles had cited their negative effect on the mental health of its youth.

Sony
China
Japan
PlayStation
Computer and Video Games
Shanghai