Doctors Are Years Away From H.G.H. Urine Test

Abstract: Although the World Anti-Doping Agency says confidently that a reliable test for human growth hormone in the blood of athletes will be available for wide distribution later this year and for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, Dr. Don Catlin is “inching” ahead in the much more difficult task of detecting the hormone in urine. Being able to test for H.G.H. in urine is preferred by professional baseball and football leagues, which already test urine for other performance-enhancing drugs. A blood test is considered the more direct approach, but those leagues would have to come to an agreement with their unions through collective bargaining over taking blood samples. Catlin, a drug-testing pioneer, said in a telephone interview yesterday that his research on finding a urine test for H.G.H., which he said was being financed by Major League Baseball, the National Football League and the National Football League Players Association, was making “little bits of progress every day.” But, he said, it is still years away from the success he hoped for. “It’s about as challenging a project as one can get in the field — but that’s not to say it’s insurmountable,” he said. “The topic heats up every few months, and everybody wants an update. I’m just careful, cautious and conservative. I don’t like to be out there waving flags and fingers. I suspect I could get more funding if I asked for it. Bud Selig has said as much to the press. They’re all interested, so I’m giving it a try.” On its Web site, the World Anti-Doping Agency says that the chances of developing a reliable urine test for H.G.H. are “remote.” Catlin said he would be watching the coming use of the WADA blood test with great interest. “If there is a really good test that comes out, there might be no point in my continuing,” Catlin said, before referring to the United States Anti-Doping Agency. “On the other hand, the approach I’m taking with urine is different, and there’s value in that, not only in the professional leagues, but with Usada and the N.C.A.A.” All of those sports organizations currently use urine testing to detect and deter doping by athletes. Asked whether he would recommend continuing his work on a urine test if the blood test was reliable, Catlin said: “It depends on how good the blood test is and how the progress is going on the urine test. I’ll just have to wait and see how good it is.” Catlin, sometimes referred to as the father of drug testing in sports, was the director of the Olympic Analytical Laboratory at U.C.L.A. from 1982, when he founded it, until earlier this year. He left the university in March to join the Anti-Doping Research Institute, a nonprofit organization he had founded in 2005. Catlin said he was studying four major approaches to detecting growth hormone or its markers, including genes, through urine samples. He said about eight researchers were working at the institute on three-year, $500,000 grants from Major League Baseball, the N.F.L. and the N.F.L.P.A. That research is still in an early stage. Catlin said that a blood test, when it is released by WADA, would have to be effective because it would have to withstand legal challenges. “This will be a serious test, and we’re all aware of that,” he said. Frédéric Donzé, the media-relations manager for World Anti-Doping Agency, said in an e-mail message that the agency would not comment on details about how it would start implementing a growth-hormone test for blood samples. “WADA anticipates that the kits will be available for large-scale production and distribution in late 2007,” he said. The test is expected to be used in the 2008 Olympics and be available for other uses. Baseball and football, which do not test for H.G.H., have had to deal with recent reports about athletes using growth hormone. The leagues will have to decide whether to push for blood testing, which is opposed by the unions, or continue to hope a urine test can be developed. The antibody to be used in blood testing was identified by a research team led by Dr. Christian J. Strasburger, the chief of endocrinology and a professor of medicine at the Charité-Universitätsmedizin in Berlin. An H.G.H. antibody test was used on about 300 athletes at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens and a smaller number at the 2006 Winter Games in Turin, Italy. All tested negative, leaving open the question, repeated by baseball and football officials, of whether a blood test would be reliable in catching dopers. WADA insists it is reliable and ready to go. “I don’t think we can afford to wait,” said Dr. Gary I. Wadler, a member of WADA’s Prohibited List and Methods Committee. He is also a clinical associate professor at New York University School of Medicine and author of the book “Drugs and the Athlete.” WADA has added a second test to “be combined with the current test to further enhance the detection window for H.G.H. abuse,” according to the WADA Web site. WADA had some difficulty finding a commercial partner to produce the antibody on a large scale, but it found one last year in Germany. Donzé said the company required WADA to keep its name confidential. But, he said, it “is well established in the area of clinical diagnosis immunoassays.” Wadler predicted that the blood test developed by WADA would be widely available in the final quarter of 2007, but that the chances of a urine test in the distant future were “not impossible, but remote.” Human growth hormone is produced naturally in the pituitary gland, but it can also be reproduced synthetically. It can be prescribed for limited medical uses. It can also improve athletic performance and, some believe, slow the aging process. Possible side effects include diabetes , heart disease, muscle and joint pain, and abnormal growth.

Human Growth Hormone
Athletics and Sports
World Anti-Doping Agency
Olympic Games (2008)
Major League Baseball
National Football League Players Assn


Utah Town’s Police Force Under Scrutiny

Abstract: WEST VALLEY CITY, Utah — It began with bullets and bloodshed one November afternoon. A 21-year-old woman was dead. Two undercover officers had opened fire on her car. The police began asking the usual questions about what had happened, and why. Their investigation cracked open what one prosecutor called a “Pandora’s box of problems” here in Utah’s second-largest city, where Mormon pioneers once raised milk cows and sugar beets. There have been accusations of stolen drugs and missing money, abuses of police power and a cloud of corruption that defies Utah’s reputation for sunny optimism. Over the past few months, accusations of bad police work in the narcotics squad of the West Valley City Police Department have engulfed the town and sent shock waves through Utah’s justice system. Prosecutors have tossed out 125 criminal cases. Dozens of convictions may have to be re-examined. The F.B.I. is investigating the Police Department and several officers. Officials in Utah say they have never seen anything like it. “Chaos,” said Sim Gill, the district attorney for Salt Lake County. And West Valley City , a diverse blue-collar suburb of about 132,000 people that has tried to overcome its image as the state capital’s scraggly stepchild, has been knocked on its heels. Instead of discussing new office parks and glimmering shopping malls, city officials are facing a drumbeat of negative news coverage. The city is now likely to face lawsuits from people whose drug arrests have been undermined by accusations of police misconduct. “As you start to put these things together, each one individually is concerning,” Mr. Gill said. “Collectively, they are devastating.” The uproar began with the killing on Nov. 2 of Danielle Willard in the parking lot of a run-down apartment complex. Ms. Willard, who had struggled with drug addiction for much of her life, was shot and killed by undercover officers from the West Valley City Police Department’s neighborhood narcotics unit. The police say that Ms. Willard had been seen buying drugs, and that when officers approached her silver Subaru Forester, she backed up in their direction, striking one officer. They opened fire, hitting her in the head. She was unarmed. Image Danielle Willard was killed in the parking lot of a rundown apartment complex after officers from the West Valley City Police Department opened fire on her car. Credit Thomas Patterson for The New York Times As police investigators combed through the crime scene, they popped opened the trunk of the car belonging to Detective Shaun Cowley — one of two narcotics officers who had been on the scene of the shooting. Inside, they found drug paraphernalia and items linked to previous drug cases. The discovery touched off an investigation into the actions of Detective Cowley and the other officers in the unit. Lindsay Jarvis, a lawyer for Detective Cowley, said that the evidence found in his car was in sealed, marked bags in a lockbox. “Was there something criminal about it? Absolutely not,” she said. “Shaun is being used as a scapegoat for all of the activities going on in the narcotics unit.” In a department with about 180 officers, the neighborhood narcotics unit was a squad of seven officers, one sergeant and one lieutenant that focused on smaller-scale dealers and users, according to Anita Schwemmer, the acting police chief. The unit handled hundreds of cases each year. As weeks passed with little information about Ms. Willard’s killing, questions multiplied. Ms. Willard’s family seethed, publicly calling West Valley City’s silence a cover-up. Articles in The Salt Lake Tribune raised questions about the department’s policies, and people started asking whether West Valley City’s residents could still trust its police force. “It really heated up,” said Wayne Pyle, the city manager. Over the winter, West Valley City’s retiring police chief shut down the narcotics unit, leaving drug arrests to patrol officers and other departments. The unit’s nine officers were put on administrative leave. And last month, West Valley City officials offered a few details from their investigation into the drug squad. They found that officers had mishandled evidence and had placed tracking devices on suspects’ cars without getting necessary warrants. Confidential informers had been misused. In some cases, officers had removed trinkets like necklaces or candles from the scene of drug arrests as “trophies.” In a few instances, drugs and money were missing. City and police officials say the problems appear to be confined to the narcotics unit, and said most of the missteps were relatively minor, like taking change or DVDs from seized cars that were bound for the auction block. Officials said that only a few officers appeared to have a hand in the most serious breaches. “Do I believe it’s widespread corruption up and down the department?” asked Mr. Pyle, the city manager. “No, I do not.” Whatever its scale, the revelations upended scores of criminal cases. After Joseph Hu, a network engineer and part-time student, was arrested on charges of drug distribution and weapons possession last September, his lawyer filed a request for West Valley City to test the $40 in heroin they claimed to have seized. A few weeks later, the city dismissed the case with no explanation and let Mr. Hu out of jail. Image Anita Schwemmer, the acting police chief in West Valley City, a diverse blue-collar suburb of about 132,000 people. Credit Jim McAuley for The New York Times “All we knew was something was wrong,” said Mr. Hu’s lawyer, Kelly Ann Booth. “But we didn’t know what.” The pattern was repeated in case after case, defense lawyers said: When they decided to challenge drug charges rather than accept a quick guilty plea, West Valley City folded up the cases. Then the district attorney, after reviewing hundreds of cases, began dismissing them by the dozen, saying he could not successfully prosecute them. “There was not a single case I wanted to dismiss,” said Mr. Gill, the district attorney. “We had no choice.” Advocates for Hispanic residents were jarred by one detail: In 93 of 114 cases dismissed by the district attorney, the defendants had Latino last names. City officials say that reflected a reality of how drugs are traded and trafficked in central Utah; activists said it indicated bias. “This is racial profiling all the way,” said Tony Yapias of Proyecto Latino de Utah. The group has been meeting with city officials as they try to rebuild bridges in the community. So far, no criminal charges have been filed against anyone in the department, and no officers have been fired. In Washington State, Ms. Willard’s mother, Melissa Kennedy, said that she is getting tired of waiting. Her daughter, she said, was a goofy and bubbly girl who was falling into a heroin addiction by the time she was a high school senior. Her parents had sent her to Utah to a rehab program near Salt Lake City. It seemed to work for a while, but Ms. Willard fell back with friends who were drug users. Ms. Kennedy said that she does not know whether her daughter had started doing drugs again, but she said she was a 21-year-old who should still be alive. Ms. Kennedy has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the city. “I’ve been lied to, my daughter has been murdered and I don’t know why,” she said. “There is not one thing they could say to me that I would believe.”

Police Brutality,Police Misconduct,Police Shootings


British Researcher Steps Down During E-Mail-Leak Inquiry

Abstract: The head of the British research unit at the center of a controversy over the disclosure of thousands of e-mail messages among climate-change scientists has stepped down pending the outcome of an investigation. Phil Jones, the director of the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia in England, said that he would leave his post while the university conducted a review of the release of the e-mail messages. The university has called the release and publication of the messages a “criminal breach” of the school’s computer systems. The e-mail exchanges among several prominent American and British climate-change scientists appear to reveal efforts to keep the work of skeptical scientists out of major journals and the possible hoarding and manipulation of data to overstate the case for human-caused climate change . In a related announcement, Pennsylvania State University said it would review the work of a faculty member who is cited prominently in the e-mail messages, Michael Mann, to assure that it meets proper academic standards. Skeptics have seized upon the disclosures to call into question years of efforts to document changes to the climate and its causes. Republicans in Congress have begun an investigation into the work of the scientists who sent the messages — many of whom have conducted much of their research with money from the federal government — and the scientific and policy decisions that may have flowed from them. The British university has contended that the messages were illegally obtained by a hacker, who posted them on Web sites of groups critical of the current scientific consensus that human activity has caused dangerous changes to the global climate. Professor Jones, in a statement issued by the climate research unit, said, “What is most important is that C.R.U. continues its world-leading research with as little interruption and diversion as possible.” He added that “the best way to achieve this is by stepping aside from the director’s role during the course of the independent review.” For more than a week, the episode has fueled a fierce debate on the blogosphere and in newspaper opinion columns and once again placed global warming science under intense scrutiny. Senator James M. Inhofe, a Republican of Oklahoma who is the most outspoken climate-change skeptic in Congress, renewed his call for an investigation on Tuesday. “The e-mails reveal possible deceitful manipulation of important data and research,” Mr. Inhofe wrote.


Iraqi Kurds Build Washington Lobbying Machine to Fund War Against ISIS

Abstract: WASHINGTON — The marble-floored atrium at the office of Dentons, a prominent law and lobbying firm, is a popular venue for the capital’s elite to gather for political fund-raisers and ritzy receptions for corporate clients. But the featured guest one recent evening was not a member of Congress or a company executive. It was Qubad Talabani, the deputy prime minister of the regional government of Kurdistan, the financially struggling region in northern Iraq that is desperately looking for ways to pay for its war effort against the Islamic State after its economy was decimated by the global drop in oil prices and a surge of refugees. “You cannot win a war bankrupt,” Mr. Talabani said in an interview. “If we are the boots on the ground against ISIS, we have to be supported to stand on our own feet.” Washington is bloated with thousands of special pleaders, most of whom want to push or derail legislation or a regulation. But Mr. Talabani’s visit — which included meetings with officials from the White House , State Department , Pentagon and on Capitol Hill — came with a decidedly different agenda: seeking money to finance a foreign war. Mr. Talabani and the small delegation that Kurdistan has in Washington have used tactics similar to those of corporations that spend millions of dollars to grease the levers of power, retaining five firms to push its cause. They have been effective, winning over a rare combination of military hawks, conservative Republicans and a collection of liberal Democrats in Congress. More important, they secured a commitment late last month for $415 million in additional aid to support the Kurds’ pesh merga militia force. “They are willing to fight,” said Representative Gerald E. Connolly, Democrat of Virginia, who is a member of the Kurdish-American Congressional Caucus, which the lobbying team helped set up in the House. “They are the only group that has had consistent battlefield success.” Kurdish officials say they will continue to press for additional money for ammunition, armored vehicles and protective gear against chemical weapons, requests that lawmakers say they are looking for ways to accommodate. What is perhaps more notable is that the Kurds are succeeding even in a climate of austerity on Capitol Hill. The relative stability in Kurdistan and in its capital, Erbil, contrasted with the continuing chaos in Baghdad — highlighted by the storming last Saturday of the Iraqi Parliament building by protesters — has only enhanced the clout of the Kurds in Washington. But it is also an area of a continued threat, including to American military forces there, with one American service member killed by enemy fire near Erbil on Tuesday during a clash with the Islamic State. “I am prepared to do whatever I can to support your noble efforts,” Representative Trent Franks, Republican of Arizona, told a gathering of Kurdish officials on Capitol Hill late last month . “We are not going to quit.” Travelogue of Kurdistan Regional Government’s Lobbying in Washington Here is a live-action tally of the Kurdistan Regional Government's lobbying push, charting meetings from one week via the KRG Twitter account. The cash crunch in Kurdistan — so severe that the government fell behind in payments to the pesh merga forces — has complicated the lobbying effort, meaning that some of the firms have been paid less than specified in their contracts. Dentons, for instance, collected just $5,000 a month during parts of last year instead of the $ 20,000 a month called for in its contract. But the lobbying pitch has, if anything, only intensified. Disclosure records filed with the Justice Department show more than 2,300 contacts with members of Congress — emails, telephone calls, meetings and other events — just in the last half of 2015, including private conversations with at least six United States senators. The campaign, taking place at the same time as Kurdistan is planning a referendum on a proposal to establish itself as a nation independent from Iraq, has created tensions between Washington and Baghdad. Iraqi officials are engaged in their own diplomatic effort, backed by another high-priced Washington lobbying firm, the Podesta Group . In addition to the push for more money for their military, the Kurds and their lobbyists recently persuaded the United States to remove two of Kurdistan’s prominent political parties from a list of potential terrorist groups. Kurdistan is not entitled to have an official embassy in Washington; its small but well-connected team instead operates out of an embassy-like townhouse a few blocks from the White House that displays flags from both Iraq and Kurdistan. “We have to punch above our weight,” said Bayan Sami Abdul Rahman, the head of the Washington-based delegation, who like Mr. Talabani was educated in Britain, and speaks with a British accent. “We have no choice.” The Kurdish lobbying team in Washington mobilized last summer. A series of private meetings were set up with lawmakers including Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, and Senator Joe Manchin III, Democrat of West Virginia, as the lobbyists and the Kurdish delegation attempted to line up votes for a Senate proposal to provide direct military support to the Kurds, bypassing Baghdad. The Obama administration objected to the proposal. But the measure was popular enough to win 54 votes, just a few short of the 60 it needed to move ahead, sending a clear sign that the Kurds had wide congressional support. “It is easy for the Kurds to make the case as more people in the United States now recognize who the Kurds are and what they are doing,” said David M. Tafuri, a former State Department official who helps lead the Dentons team lobbying for Kurdistan. “So it is easier for them to get an audience in Washington.” Besides Dentons, the lobbying team includes Ed Rogers , a Republican and former White House aide who is a founder of the BGR Group, and Joe R. Reeder , a former under secretary of the Army during the Clinton administration who is now at the lobbying firm Greenberg Traurig. Kurdistan, which until the drop in oil prices had seen its revenues surge in recent years as it increased exports of oil through a pipeline connecting the region to Turkey, has spent nearly $6 million on outside lobbyists and public relations firms in Washington since 2010, far more than countries like Kazakhstan and Pakistan. The Washington-based team of Kurds, led by Ms. Abdul Rahman and an employee assigned to focus on lobbying, Remziya Suleyman, have their own personal stories of hardship. Ms. Abdul Rahman’s father and brother were killed in 2004 during a bombing in Erbil. Ms. Suleyman was 3 when her family fled Kurdistan in 1988 to escape chemical attacks carried out under Saddam Hussein. To bolster the effort, the Kurdistan government has sent a stream of top officials to Washington, including Mr. Talabani, as well as Sherzad O. Mamsani , who was recently named as Kurdistan’s first director of Jewish affairs in an open appeal to build support in Israel for the Kurdish effort. Already, the Kurds have started to receive some behind-the-scenes support from political consultants who work on Israel’s behalf in Washington and who see the Kurds — a minority group that like the Jews have at times been targeted for persecution by Arabs in the Middle East — as an unusual but potentially important ally. It is a delicate relationship, Ms. Abdul Rahman agreed, because the Kurds cannot appear to be too closely aligned with Israel without causing tensions with neighbors like Iran. “Here in Washington, if the pro-Jewish and pro-Israel interests see the Kurds are a friend of the Jewish community, it could lead to Congress being even more forceful in its support of the Kurdish Regional Government,” said Zach D. Huff, a political consultant who traveled to Washington from Israel in April to help the Kurdish lobbying effort, a visit that included a meeting with the powerful, American Israel Public Affairs Committee , to ask for its assistance. Just last month, two House lawmakers — Representatives Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Republican of Florida, and Brad Sherman, Democrat of California — both known as strong supporters of Israel, introduced their own resolution, asking the State Department to send military assistance to the Kurds. Not to be outdone, Mr. Franks, who more typically is focused on finding ways to cut federal spending , moved to reintroduce legislation authorizing the Pentagon to deliver weapons directly to the pesh merga, bypassing Baghdad, and setting up what will most likely be another clash with the Obama administration. “My priorities?” Mr. Franks said. “Assisting our allies, the Kurds, in their fight against ISIS.”

Iraq
Kurdish
Lobbying
ISIS,ISIL,Islamic State
Foreign Aid
US Foreign Policy
Qubad Talabani


The Giants and the 49ers Give the Ball Some Boots

Abstract: EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — The faint outlines of the previous night’s soccer field were visible on the artificial turf during the Giants ’ 29-17 victory against the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday at Giants Stadium. This was appropriate; both teams booted the ball with ragged abandon and even added some World Cup touches. The first came early, when the 49ers’ Nate Clements shoved Giants fullback Madison Hedgecock after the whistle. Hedgecock fell over backward as if fainting in a cartoon. Instead of giving Hedgecock a yellow card for embellishment, the officials penalized the 49ers 15 yards for unnecessary roughness. “It’s one way to get on TV, I guess,” Hedgecock said of his swoon. Another soccer moment came late in the third quarter, when the 49ers blocked a field-goal attempt on a play that looked like Liverpool blocking a free kick by Manchester United. Clements ran the ball back 74 yards for a touchdown, trimming the Giants’ lead to 7 points. The last similarity to what the rest of the world calls football came with about five minutes left, and it was the clinching moment. After Giants defensive end Justin Tuck stripped the ball from 49ers quarterback J. T. O’Sullivan, with the Giants leading by 10, players gave chase as the ball rolled near the San Francisco goal line. Josh Morgan, a 49ers wide receiver, realized it would be a Giants touchdown if a Giants player fell on the moving ball, so he kicked it through the end zone and out of bounds. In soccer, the Giants would have been awarded a corner kick. But in this sport, they got a safety that ended the scoring on this sloppy day. “I don’t know if it was as pretty was we wanted, but we did our thing,” Giants linebacker Bryan Kehl said. Not everything was so helter-skelter for the Giants, who improved to 5-1 and dropped San Francisco to 2-5. The reigning Super Bowl champions got two touchdowns on runs by Brandon Jacobs (26 yards and 2 yards) and one in the air on a 6-yard pass from Eli Manning to Plaxico Burress. The Giants got six sacks from their defense and two interceptions from free safety Michael Johnson. They caused four fumbles by O’Sullivan and held running back Frank Gore to 11 yards on 11 carries. Despite a couple of drops, the Giants caught 16 of 31 passes for 161 yards from Manning, who threw three interceptions last Monday in a 35-14 defeat in Cleveland. In his five-year career, Manning has led the Giants to a 5-0 record in the first game after throwing three or more interceptions. “We’re happy to be 5-1,” Manning said. “We didn’t play our best. That’s football. It’s all about finding ways to win. It wasn’t perfect, but we did what we had to do.” But the Giants also sensed that a few problems needed to be rectified before they visited Pittsburgh next week to start a more difficult phase of their schedule. “Teams are going to be gunning for us,” said Jacobs, who ran for 69 yards on 17 carries. “We can’t win ugly against Pittsburgh. We can’t think they’re going to give it to us. We’ve got a better group than the way we played in this game.” One lingering issue involves Burress, who was suspended for one game earlier this season for missing a team meeting. Burress received a 15-yard penalty for arguing with an official over a pass interference call, one of 24 penalties called against the teams. As Burress went to the sideline, he argued with Coach Tom Coughlin and appeared to resist efforts at conversation from his teammates. “I just said, ‘Hey, put it behind you, let’s go,’ ” Manning said. Burress was one of the last players to leave the locker room, dressing slowly, his back — with the tattoo “Everything Happens for a Reason” — turned toward about three dozen members of the news media. After running a brush through the little hair on his head, he turned and spoke. “I don’t regret it at all,” Burress said of his words to the back judge and the coach. Of his conversation with Coughlin at halftime, Burress said it was “between me and him.” “We said what we had to say,” Burress said. Burress also said he spoke to the referee in the hallway about calls made and not made. Coughlin seemed annoyed when asked about the incident. “Funny you would ask that question,” Coughlin said. He later added, “If you are going to make a big deal about that, how about talking about the win?” There was a lot to discuss, including a new sack dance performed by Barry Cofield, the nose tackle. He called it “Don’t Tase Me, Bro,” after an incident in which a college student in Florida was tasered by a security guard at a political forum. Cofield explained that he did not fall down during the dance because that would have resulted in a penalty or a fine, and decorum must be maintained. So, Cofield said, he pretended to point a taser gun at himself and began to twitch as if electrified. “I kept that in my back pocket,” he said of his art-imitates-life dance. “I hope everybody enjoyed it.” One who seemed to enjoy it was Tuck, who had two sacks and three tackles for losses. “Now, we’re all going to compete on sack dances,” Tuck said. EXTRA POINTS Chase Blackburn replaced Antonio PiercE at middle linebacker and Bryan Kehl replaced Gerris Wilkinson at outside linebacker for the Giants on Sunday. Pierce’s injury is to a quadriceps, Wilkinson’s to a knee. Pierce had not missed a game since 2005, but may have aggravated the injury playing Monday against Cleveland. ...Kicker Lawrence Tynes, who sustained a knee injury in training camp and has not played this season, was again not in uniform. Although Tynes has recovered, the kicker was again John Carney, who entered the game having made every field-goal and extra-point attempt. On Wednesday, Tynes announced that he would start against San Francisco. But Tom Coughlin sharply contradicted him in an e-mail message from the team’s public-relations department before practice the next day. ... Other scratches for the Giants were cornerback R. W. McQuarters, running back Danny Ware, offensive tackle Adam Koets, wide receiver Sinorice Moss and defensive end Jerome McDougle.

New York Giants
San Francisco 49ers
Football
Manning Eli


Costly Drugs Prompt Exclusivity Debate

Abstract: A bitter Congressional fight over the cost of superexpensive biotechnology drugs has come down to a single, hotly debated number: How many years should makers of those drugs be exempt from generic competition? But what few people in Washington seem to recognize — or publicly acknowledge, anyway — is that this magic number may ultimately not matter as much as the most vitriolic debaters insist. At issue are such drugs as Biogen Idec’s Avonex, for multiple sclerosis , which can cost more than $20,000 a year; Genentech’s Avastin for cancer , which can cost more than $50,000; and several Genzyme drugs for rare diseases that can cost $200,000 a year or more. Typically, such drugs are given by injection or intravenous infusions. These drugs, known as biologics, are complex proteins made in vats of living cells. Because they are hard to copy exactly, they have not been subject to the generic competition that eventually knocks down the price of drugs like Lipitor and Prozac . Pills like Lipitor, known in the industry as small-molecule drugs, are made from simple chemicals whose recipes are easy to reproduce. But now Congress, as a cost-cutting piece of the overall health care effort, is preparing legislation to enable the Food and Drug Administration to approve copycat versions of biologic drugs. That could save consumers, insurers and the government billions of dollars in the coming years. The trick is to allow competition without undermining the financial incentives the pharmaceutical industry needs to undertake the risky job of developing the next drugs for cancer and other diseases. That is where the magic year number comes in. Trade groups for the big pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies say that to recoup their investments, they need an exclusivity period free of generic competition that would last 12 to 14 years from the time the F.D.A. approves a drug for sale. But consumer groups, insurers, employers and generic drug companies say anything more than five years — the exclusivity period now given to small-molecule drugs like Lipitor — would eviscerate any potential savings from the new competition. So far, the biotechnology industry appears to be winning. The Senate’s health committee, for example, has agreed to 12 years of exclusivity. In the House, a bill that provides at least 12 years of exclusivity has many more co-sponsors than one that would provide five years. The Obama administration has said that seven years would be a “generous compromise.” But in reality, neither the threats to innovation nor the potential savings from generic competition are as great as claimed. For starters, whatever the exclusivity period, biologic drugs would also continue to be protected from copycats by patents. And in many cases, the patent protection would last longer than the exclusivity period, making the Congressionally mandated exclusivity a moot point. Genentech’s Avastin, for instance, has patent protection until 2019 — 15 years after the drug’s 2004 approval by the F.D.A. The company’s breast cancer drug, Herceptin, has patents that extend 21 years from its 1998 approval. Where the exclusivity period might matter most would be in the cases of drugs whose patents were nearing expiration by the time the developer succeeded in winning F.D.A. approval. But that seldom happens. “I can’t think of a biotech drug that’s been on the market that doesn’t have more than 7 to 14 years of patent protection,” said Eric Schmidt, biotechnology analyst at Cowen & Company. Still, it is probably not true, as the other side claims, that the legislation would be virtually worthless if it granted a long exclusivity period. There are plenty of blockbuster biologics, like Epogen and Neupogen from Amgen, that have been on the market more than 12 or 14 years and thus would get no extra protection from even an exclusivity period at the long end of the ranges now being discussed. As for cost savings, the Congressional Budget Office has estimated that generic biologics might save the government only about $10 billion in the next 10 years. That is a relative drop in the bucket when it comes to paying for health care reform , which is expected to cost about $1 trillion over 10 years. One reason for limited savings in the first decade is that it would probably take a few years for copycat biologics to reach the market after the law was enacted. Another factor is that biologics accounted for only 16 percent — about $46 billion — of total prescription drug spending last year, according to the market researchers IMS Health. And pharmaceuticals represent only about 10 percent of the nation’s overall health care spending. The real savings might come more than 10 years out, as new biologic drugs appeared and as biologics represented an increasingly greater part of overall spending on drugs. That ramp-up is already evident: Express Scripts, a pharmacy benefits manager, says its spending on biologics grew 10 percent last year, compared with 2.5 percent for other drugs. But anyone expecting the price wars that ensue when generic pills come on the market — when prices often drop by more than 60 percent — might be disappointed by the way competition plays out in biologic drugs. Because it is harder and costlier to make biologic drugs than it is to copy pills, fewer generic competitors are likely to enter the fray. Many experts, including the Federal Trade Commission, expect price declines of more like 10 to 40 percent in biologics. Even that would be a substantial savings for the overall health care system. But for many individuals, a $35,000 copycat version of a $50,000 cancer drug would still be unaffordable. Another factor is that generic biologics are likely to undergo greater regulatory scrutiny than generic pills require. It is difficult or impossible to verify that a copy of a biologic is exactly the same as the original — which is why the drugs are often called “biosimilars” rather than generic biologics. Because even small changes might affect the drug’s safety or activity, it is likely that makers of biosimilars will have to conduct at least some clinical trials to win F.D.A. approval of their drugs, which makers of generic small-molecule pills are not required to do. Such trials can cost a lot of money. Since biosimilars will not be exact replicas, generic makers will probably need sales forces to persuade doctors to prescribe their drugs and pharmacists to dispense them. All of that costs money, too. In Europe, which has approved biosimilar versions of three biologic drugs, companies generally price their biosimilar drugs about 20 to 30 percent lower than the originals. The impact in Europe has been limited so far, but in Germany the biosimilars have captured about 30 percent of the market for anemia drugs and forced the brand-name manufacturers to lower their prices. The likelihood that biosimilar competition might be somewhat muted means that sales and profits of the originals may not necessarily dry up. Kevin W. Sharer, Amgen’s chief executive, told investors in May that he hoped biotechnology companies would retain 30 to 50 percent of the cash flow from their drugs even after biosimilars reached the market. That, he said, “is a dramatically different outcome than we see in the small-molecule companies.” That is also one reason the Federal Trade Commission, in a report last month, said that no exclusivity period at all was needed. At the very least, because biologic drugs do not require appreciably more time or money to bring to market than small-molecule drugs, it is reasonable to ask why they should deserve longer protection from competition than the five years that small-molecule drugs now receive. The reason, biotechnology executives say, is that patents may offer less protection for biologics than for small-molecule drugs. Because a biosimilar is not an exact knock-off of the original, a competitor might persuasively claim that it is not infringing the patents on the original drug. So far biologic patents have held up well in court cases. Amgen, for example, has won legal victories preventing competitors from introducing anemia drugs that are slightly different from its own Epogen. But generic makers and their supporters, sensing that many of the biologic patents may not withstand court challenges, are lobbying for the shortest possible exclusivity period. “If your patents are strong, let your patents stand for themselves,” said Katie Huffard, executive director of the Coalition for a Competitive Pharmaceutical Market, a group of employers, insurers, pharmacies and generic makers lobbying for easier access to biosimilars. “That’s what every other industry has to do.”

Inventions and Patents
Drugs (Pharmaceuticals)
Biotechnology
Medicine and Health
Food and Drug Administration
Generic and Brand Name Products
biologics


Reducing Hurricane Sandy to a Tropical Storm Undercut Warnings

Abstract: Days before Hurricane Sandy hit , forecasters at the National Hurricane Center knew that it was going to pack a wallop when it slammed into the East Coast. But they also knew that the storm was unlikely to make landfall as a hurricane — leaving them with some very undesirable decisions to make about how to warn the public about what was on the way, according to a report released by the center on Tuesday. Issuing a hurricane warning and then downgrading the storm to a post-tropical cyclone could have devastating consequences, emergency management officials across the region warned agency officials, with people deciding that the storm did not pose a serious threat. “We could have continued to call it a hurricane for one or two days,” said James Franklin, the chief of hurricane forecasts for the center. But that would have been a lie, he said, and “would have utterly destroyed the credibility of the agency in the long run.” So by Saturday, Oct. 27, two days before the storm made landfall, the center downgraded its forecast to a post-tropical cyclone. The agency decided that it was best to leave the warnings to local officials, while working with them to keep public attention focused on the approaching storm. But that was far from ideal and, in the report, the center proposes changing the warning system so it could “continue issuing formal advisories on post-tropical cyclones as long as those systems pose a significant threat to life and property.” Once the storm was classified as a post-tropical cyclone, the center, because of its complicated rules, could no longer issue official advisories. The center called on its parent agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, “to implement explicit storm surge watches and warnings, a goal NOAA has been working toward for several years.” The center noted that tropical cyclones had killed more than 25,000 people in the continental United States over the course of the country’s history, with a majority of those deaths attributable to storm surges. When a downgraded Hurricane Sandy finally hit, it did largely what the forecasts predicted, according to the report. It made landfall as a post-tropical cyclone, near Brigantine, N.J., at 7:30 p.m. on Oct. 29, and “drove a catastrophic storm surge into the New Jersey and New York coastlines.” By the time the waters receded and the winds subsided, at least 147 deaths across the Atlantic basin, including the Caribbean, were attributed to the storm, with 72 of those fatalities in the mid-Atlantic and northeastern United States, according to the report. At least 650,000 houses were either damaged or destroyed and 8.5 million people were left without power. The 156-page report is meant to provide “the official storm history,” Mr. Franklin said. Much of it focuses on meteorological details like the exact path Hurricane Sandy took after its origin off the west coast of Africa on Oct. 11. It adds details and context to previously reported information and also changes some earlier observations. For instance, the report notes that the storm went ashore as a Category 3 hurricane in Cuba, not a Category 2, as it was first classified. But it was the sheer size of the storm that may well have been its most defining trait. It was the largest tropical cyclone since the National Hurricane Center started taking such measurements in 1988. The report details the factors that led to the storm’s being “an extraordinarily large hurricane,” as well as the “extreme size of the cyclone.” Mr. Franklin said that the complex nature of the storm posed challenges for the center because of the way it was expected to change from a hurricane to a post-tropical cyclone while still over water. The center currently lacks the ability to convey the severity of a storm without being hemmed in by the technical definition of a hurricane, he said. While Hurricane Sandy may have been unusual in its size and East Coast residents unlucky because of the path it took, Mr. Franklin said there were lessons that could be learned and applied to future storms. “Obviously, it happened once,” Mr. Franklin said, “and we didn’t have the tools in our toolbox.”

Hurricane Sandy
National Hurricane Center
Weather
East Coast US


Survivors Describe Fights and Fear After Haitian Migrants’ Boat Ran Aground

Abstract: MIAMI — The Haitians piled onto the rickety vessel with visions of a new life in the United States. But five days into the voyage, the overloaded sailboat packed with 150 people ran aground and quickly broke apart. At least 30 people died in the frigid seas. People drowned trying to make it to shore on planks while survivors threw punches at one another in a desperate attempt to stay on the boat and survive. Only six bodies have been recovered. “I lost all of my common sense, and I was going crazy, just like everybody else,” said Kaitlee Joseph, 23, who is from Saint-Marc. Ms. Joseph was one of the 111 survivors aboard the Haitian migrant vessel, which ran aground and capsized Saturday off the Bahamian coast while en route to the United States. The survivors were rescued late Tuesday and brought to a Royal Bahamas Defense Force base, where they described a weeklong odyssey that started without enough rations to keep passengers alive and ended in a frenzy. One more survivor was rescued early Wednesday. They were participants in the latest of a spate of deadly crossings by Haitians, more and more of whom are scraping together up to a year’s wages for passage, only to encounter unscrupulous captains who take no precautions for their safety. American and Bahamian law enforcement officials say it is unclear what is driving the latest flurry of smuggling, but they note that the trips are increasingly mixed with narcotics trafficking and more likely to follow treacherous routes. Several passengers interviewed said they did not pay for the trip, which the authorities say is a common lie from people unwilling to point out who among the drenched, disheveled survivors was the skipper responsible. This latest group is believed to have left from L’île de la Tortue, an island off Haiti’s northwest coast that served as a gathering point for the migrants. The passengers said they left Nov. 18 and ran aground and capsized off Harvey Cay, about 250 miles southeast of Florida. The boat came apart when the passengers tried to right it, setting off a furious and competitive effort to survive. “They started fighting and beating one another,” said Jean Will Charles, 19, a fisherman. “The seas were rough. People had to cling on for dear life on the boat.” At low tide, he said some people could see sandbars. They waded toward them, thinking they had reached land. “When high tide came, some of them drowned,” he said. Video Dozens of Haitians sat on the hull of a sailboat after it grounded and capsized 15 nautical miles southwest of the Bahamas. Others paddled to shore. “Some people tried to take pieces of planks and plywood and tried to get to the mainland, and in an attempt to try to get to the mainland, some of those people died,” said Yelan Joseph, 40. “People were encouraging me, telling me ‘let’s go, grab a plank, grab a piece of plywood and let’s go,’ and if I had listened to those people, I would not be here today.” Instead, she waited three days for rescue while Mr. Charles hid from the others by climbing the sail and waving his red shirt. Even as the rescue operation was underway, the Bahamian military spotted another vessel packed with about 50 people heading north near Ragged Island. So far this year, the Bahamian government recorded 26 boat landings, up from 20 in 2011. “The way they pack those boats, to a certain point you have to wonder what they are thinking, because obviously they are not going to make it,” said Francois Guillaume II, Haiti’s general consul in Miami. “What I hear from survivors is about the ruthlessness of the people who organize these trips. I hear the boat captain will stop the boat in the middle of the sea and say, ‘All right, you’ve got to get off.’ ” The fare is usually $1,000 to $2,000, paid by families in South Florida who are too willing to disregard risks and hope for the best. Mr. Guillaume said he believed the traffickers were the force behind the recent increase in Haitian migration. Although Haiti suffered a devastating earthquake nearly four years ago, the natural disaster did not set off a mass exodus by sea. Frederick A. Mitchell, the foreign minister of the Bahamas, called for urgent talks between the countries involved to find a solution to the flow of illegal immigration. “We have a small population under 400,000, and we are faced with 10 million on our southern border who are seeking a better way of life and are either trying to get to us, or are using us as a way to get to the U.S.,” Mr. Mitchell said in a telephone interview. Marleine Bastien, the founder of Haitian Women of Miami, said the migrants were simply responding to broken promises by the international community, Haiti and the Obama administration. When the last Haitian migrant voyage ended in tragedy last month, it fell to her group to help arrange to bury the dead. “This is really emotionally taxing to us,” she said.

Haiti
Boat Accidents
Illegal Immigration
Bahamas
Florida


Pocket Constitution Sales Soar After Trump Feud With Khan Family

Abstract: The Constitution appears to be having a moment. When Khizr Khan, the Harvard-educated lawyer and father of a Muslim soldier killed in Iraq, chastised Donald J. Trump at the Democratic National Convention last week, he made his point with a small, but deeply symbolic prop. “Let me ask you,” said Mr. Khan, directly addressing the Republican presidential nominee, “have you even read the United States Constitution?” As the audience erupted in cheers, Mr. Khan pulled a miniature version of the founding document from his coat pocket and shook it in the air. “I will gladly lend you my copy,” he said. It was a star turn for the Constitution that stirred the hearts of dozens of organizations across the country dedicated to promoting its tenets. By the weekend, a pocket-size copy of the document published by the National Center for Constitutional Studies, a conservative group, had rocketed up Amazon’s list of best-selling books. On Monday, it was holding strong in the No. 2 position, trailing only “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.” (The Times does not track the Constitution for its own best-seller rankings.) Video Donald Trump is facing criticism from Democrats and Republicans over his comments to Khizr Khan and his wife after a speech at the Democratic convention. Their son, an Army captain, died in Iraq. Credit Credit Sam Hodgson for The New York Times Some buyers of the center’s version of the Constitution have taken issue with its use of ultraconservative annotations and commentary. Other niche publishers that offer miniature Constitutions have also been trying to catch the wave of interest. On Friday, the American Civil Liberties Union began offering its $5 Constitution for free. On Monday, the U.S. Government Publishing Office promoted its own version for $1.50 on Twitter . “I was watching the D.N.C. and saw Mr. Khan’s speech and was extremely moved by it,” Lorraine Kenny, the A.C.L.U.’s head of marketing, said on Monday. “I thought, ‘We have to do something with this.’” Ms. Kenny said the organization had received more than 40,000 orders since Friday. “This situation is just off the scale in terms of people’s response and interest,” she said. On Saturday, Mr. Trump bristled at Mr. Khan’s remarks, saying in a statement that he “has no right to stand in front of millions of people and claim I have never read the Constitution, (which is false).” Of course, the Constitution, which turns 229 next month, has long been simple to get hold of. A Google search turns up countless links to the text, including a printable version at the National Archives website. Amazon is giving away a digital copy free of cost on its Kindle device. But pocket-size versions come with an added feature — a physical representation of Americans’ rights that can be hoisted during a congressional hearing, political rally or a spirited discussion with a police officer. Many lawmakers on Capitol Hill carry a copy. Robert C. Byrd, the longest-serving senator, was perhaps the best known, sometimes whipping out his ever-present pocket Constitution to make a point. Justice Stephen G. Breyer has said he carries one . Miniature Constitutions have in recent years been closely identified with conservative groups like the Tea Party, which have used them at their rallies. But advocacy groups, both on the left and right, have pushed the document’s universal appeal, especially the physical version. “There’s something tangible about it,” said Jenny Parker McCloskey, a spokeswoman for the National Constitution Center, a nonpartisan group. “Yeah, I suppose these days you could just Google it. But given that it’s a founding document, people like to have it close in a form that’s real to them, not just virtual.” The center handed out more than 30,000 pocket Constitutions at both the Republican and Democratic conventions, Ms. McCloskey said. Caroline Fredrickson, president of the American Constitution Society for Law and Policy, said Americans who have not consulted the roughly 4,500-word document since middle school should take the plunge. “It’s pretty easy reading,” she said. “It’s short. It’s very concise.” Ms. Kenny, of the A.C.L.U, said her organization’s goal now was to get a pocket Constitution into every home in America. She added, “And it would be great if people actually read it.”

US Constitution,United States Constitution


In FIFA Inquiry, Switzerland Aids U.S. but Is Wary of Being Eclipsed

Abstract: BERN, Switzerland — As Swiss authorities again carried out the wishes of United States law enforcement early Thursday, arresting two global soccer officials in Zurich who had been indicted in Brooklyn federal court, American prosecutors praised Switzerland as a critical partner in the Justice Department’s corruption case. But in contrast to that publicly harmonious partnership, government officials from the two countries have hardly worked in lock step. Swiss authorities have been wary of appearing as puppets of the United States, according to people familiar with the thinking of Switzerland’s Office of the Attorney General, and they are eager to telegraph that the United States is not Switzerland’s most vigilant policeman. Several United States government agencies — notably the United States attorney’s office for the Eastern District of New York, the New York field office of the F.B.I. and the I.R.S.’s criminal investigation unit — have spent years investigating what they call a global network of soccer officials and businessmen who have participated in corruption schemes amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars. They have needed cooperation from many countries, especially Switzerland because it is home to FIFA, soccer’s world governing body, based in Zurich. But Switzerland’s privacy laws have stoked a behind-the-scenes competition, keeping potential key evidence out of the immediate reach of American prosecutors at the same time that Swiss prosecutors have trumpeted their own independent criminal inquiry into global soccer’s top leadership. “They’re playing a game of Ping-Pong,” said Mark Pieth, a professor of criminal law at the University of Basel. “Switzerland has direct access to FIFA’s documents, which has its advantages, and the United States has defendants in its case who are now talking.” In the United States indictments unsealed in May and on Thursday, FIFA — a nonprofit with more than $1.5 billion in cash reserves — was framed as the victim . The organization has not been charged with any crime. The Soccer Officials Indicted on Corruption Charges The 16 men arrested Thursday include five current or former members of FIFA’s ruling executive committee and the current presidents of Concacaf and Conmebol. Responding to the United States’ allegations, FIFA hired top white-collar defense lawyers from the American firm Quinn Emanuel to conduct an internal investigation. A principal aim of that inquiry was to share information with American prosecutors, FIFA said. But since the summer, Swiss law has blocked the organization from sending the results of that inquiry to the United States, according to people familiar with the internal investigation and with FIFA’s communications with American and Swiss authorities. Swiss officials indicated unusual reluctance to waive the law in question, those people said, and the situation for months left FIFA caught between two federal powers — while also leaving United States investigators without access to potentially critical information to advance their case. Vanessa Alarcon Duvanel, a lawyer with White & Case in Geneva with expertise in introducing evidence from Switzerland into United States legal proceedings, said it was not unusual to have the law, Article 271 of the Swiss criminal code, waived. The circumstances for FIFA, presenting a potential choice between pleasing one government and alienating another, recalled the United States’ tax evasion case settled against UBS in 2009, in which the same law forbade banks to fulfill American authorities’ requests for the names of account holders. The two governments later signed a treaty to resolve future conflicts specific to banks. The law’s relevance to the FIFA case, however, shines a new light on Switzerland as a bastion of privacy, not just for financial institutions but also for the many sports organizations headquartered there. In recent months, the people running FIFA’s internal investigation weighed sharing documents with the United States and facing jail time for violating Swiss law, or not sharing documents and jeopardizing the organization’s status as a cooperating victim, possibly risking a suit from American prosecutors, according to people familiar with the situation. To avoid either scenario, FIFA considered filing civil lawsuits in United States court against the people indicted by the Justice Department — not only to recover money but also to bring documents into American jurisdiction without violating Swiss criminal law. Latest Justice Department Indictment of Soccer Officials The Justice Department unsealed a 236-page indictment on Thursday that described charges against some of the most powerful leaders of international soccer. This past week, as the governments came together to orchestrate another round of arrests, the three parties — FIFA, American authorities and Swiss authorities — reached a tentative agreement, according to people involved in those discussions, to soon allow the potential evidence into the United States. But in the months leading to that tentative agreement, Switzerland’s Office of the Attorney General, which had not formally investigated FIFA until last spring, strategically publicized that it was now taking a hard look at soccer’s top leadership. In late September, Michael Lauber, Switzerland’s attorney general, announced that his office had opened a criminal inquiry into Sepp Blatter, FIFA’s president, who is not a defendant in the United States’ case. In response, FIFA’s ethics committee suspended Mr. Blatter and several other top officials . For Swiss prosecutors to publicly identify the subject of such a criminal investigation is unusual, said Mr. Pieth, the criminal law professor in Switzerland, who also formerly led FIFA’s independent governance committee. Like the United States, Switzerland presumes people to be innocent until proven guilty. The country, however, permits the identification of individuals under investigation in cases in which the information may “warn or reassure” the public, or because of “special circumstances.” Doing so, however, allows the person under investigation, Mr. Blatter, to gain access to the attorney general’s investigative file on him, giving his lawyers the opportunity to build a defense before any possible charges might be brought. Still, Switzerland seized those special circumstances, announcing the inquiry in a high-profile fashion last fall, when FIFA’s top leadership had congregated in Zurich. “The Swiss attorney general learned from Loretta Lynch,” Mr. Pieth said, referring to the United States’ May announcement by Ms. Lynch, the United States attorney general, which coincided with a meeting of hundreds of members of FIFA from around the world. (Thursday’s actions, too, came as the organization’s top two dozen people had descended on Zurich for meetings.) “The Swiss suddenly see this as a chance,” Mr. Pieth said. “Mr. Lauber is in a way making his reputation, as is Loretta Lynch, and I think he likes to be seen with her onstage.” Asked on Thursday about Switzerland’s decision to publicly name Mr. Blatter as a suspect, Ms. Lynch noted that she had appeared at a news conference with Mr. Lauber days before that announcement. “I congratulated him on the investigative work that his office had taken and thanked him again for their great cooperation with us,” she said. Mr. Pieth said he did not expect the dynamic to affect either country’s investigation; authorities are not pursuing redundant inquiries, as each is focused on potential crimes that fall within its own jurisdiction, he said. The United States has focused on tracing money trails from abroad to American bank branches to justify charges that touch dozens of countries. The Swiss agency that has directly supported the United States in its investigation is distinct from the Office of the Attorney General. It is the Swiss Federal Office of Justice that has made arrests, held defendants in jail and ruled on requests to extradite those people to the United States, while also managing United States requests to freeze bank accounts and share financial information. The Federal Office of Justice is situated downhill from the Office of the Attorney General in a squat modern building in the shadow of Switzerland’s Parliament House. According to a spokesman, the office has assigned significant resources to assisting the United States. There has not, however, been universal support or understanding of the office’s mutual legal assistance agreement with the United States. The spokesman said that some in Switzerland had criticized it for being “under stars and stripes.”

Soccer
FIFA
Switzerland
Bribery and Kickbacks
Justice Department
Lawsuits
Ethics Misconduct Malfeasance


Art Rust Jr., Pioneer in Sports Talk Radio, Dies at 82

Abstract: Art Rust Jr., a pioneering figure in New York radio sports talk shows and a sports historian whose books focused on the interplay of race and athletics, died Tuesday at a hospital in Manhattan. He was 82. The cause was complications of Parkinson’s disease, said his daughter, Suzanne Rust. In the 1980s, Mr. Rust became a familiar voice with his “Sports-talk” show on WABC Radio. “Every time I’d go out in the street, somebody would shake my hand to get an autograph,” he told MSG.com in 2003. Mr. Rust was not the first New York radio sports host who bantered with listeners over the phone; Bill Mazer had an earlier popular program. But Mr. Rust “certainly set the groundwork and the foundation for a WFAN,” Steve Somers, a host for that station, told the MSG Web site. Steve Malzberg, Mr. Rust’s producer, said “there was a warmth” to Mr. Rust’s broadcasts. “It was feeling like you knew Arthur George Rust Jr. and he was in your home,” he said. Mr. Rust reveled in his love of sports history. He was also known for his “Rustisms.” A left-hander was a “portsider” and home plate was the “dish.” He called Yankee Stadium “the big ball orchard in the South Bronx.” Back in the 1930s, Mr. Rust was a youngster living in Harlem whose hopes of playing in Yankee Stadium some day seemed more like an outlandish dream. In his 1976 book “Get That Nigger Off the Field!,” a history of black baseball, Mr. Rust remembered how “baseball was my life.” “At one time I wanted to be a major league ballplayer, but I was black,” he wrote. He told of racial epithets being hurled at him by some visiting ballplayers when he attended games at Yankee Stadium and the Polo Grounds. Mr. Rust and his wife, Edna, collaborated with the heavyweight boxing champion Joe Louis on the 1978 autobiography “Joe Louis, My Life.” Mr. Rust gained widespread attention when he collaborated on “Darryl” (1992) with Darryl Strawberry, the often-troubled outfielder who starred for the 1980s Mets. The book gained notice for Strawberry’s strong opinions but also for “how ornately they are expressed,” as Richard Sandomir wrote in The New York Times. “I’m not putting words in his mouth,” Mr. Rust said. “I might change a phrase, but not the meaning.” Mr. Rust, a graduate of Long Island University, got his broadcasting start at the New York radio station WWRL in the 1950s. He was a sports broadcaster and covered general news for WNBC-TV in the late 1960s and early 1970s and later worked at WMCA and WINS Radio before developing his “Sportstalk” show, which combined interviews with sports figures and calls from listeners. He broadcast for WBLS Radio in the early 1990s. In addition to his daughter, Mr. Rust, who lived in Manhattan, is survived by his second wife, Patty, and two grandchildren. Edna Rust died in 1986. In recalling his Harlem youth, Mr. Rust wrote about the passing of the years and the changes in the United States. As he put it in 1976: “I lived to see blacks elected to the Hall of Fame. I lived to see Emmett Ashford, the first black umpire. I lived to see Aaron break Babe Ruth’s home-run record. I lived to see Frank Robinson become the first black manager in the major leagues. The system is breaking. “However,” he added, “an interesting development: My 10-year-old daughter, Suzanne, wants to know why women can’t play major league baseball.”


Syracuse Falls Again; Florida Rolls

Abstract: Trae Golden scored 16 points, including six free throws in the final seconds, and visiting Georgia Tech stunned struggling No. 7 Syracuse, 67-62, on Tuesday night. Syracuse (26-4, 13-4 Atlantic Coast Conference) had lost three of four coming into the game and dropped three more spots in the rankings after starting the season with 25 straight wins and spending three weeks at No. 1. “I’m not happy with tonight, but I’m very happy to be 26-4,” Syracuse Coach Jim Boeheim said. “We’re well ahead of predictions. We just have to regroup.” Georgia Tech (14-16, 5-12) snapped a four-game losing skid. It was the second straight home loss for Syracuse and cost the Orange a chance to lock up a high seed in the conference tournament next week. It was the final home game in the careers of the seniors C. J. Fair and Baye Moussa Keita, and it was one they will long remember — for all the wrong reasons, despite Fair’s 28 points, which matched his career high. Daniel Miller had 15 points for the Yellow Jackets. FLORIDA 72, SOUTH CAROLINA 46 Michael Frazier II set a Florida record with 11 3-pointers to finish with a career-high 37 points and helped the No. 1 Gators (28-2, 17-0) move within a game of a perfect Southeastern Conference regular season in a rout of host South Carolina (11-19, 4-13). Frazier broke the 28-year-old Florida mark of Joe Lawrence, who made nine 3-pointers against California in 1986. MICHIGAN 84, ILLINOIS 53 Nik Stauskas scored 24 points and No. 12 Michigan (22-7, 14-3 Big Ten) shot 70 percent from the 3-point line to win its first Big Ten title outright since 1986, crushing Illinois (17-13, 6-11) on the road. The Wolverines were 16 of 23 from 3-point range, including Stauskas’s career-high seven. GEORGETOWN 75, CREIGHTON 63 D’Vauntes Smith-Rivera had 18 points and a career-high 12 rebounds, and host Georgetown (17-12, 8-9 Big East) stymied Doug McDermott until late in the game, holding off a rally led by the nation’s leading scorer in a win over No. 13 Creighton (23-6, 13-4). McDermott scored 16 of his 22 points in the second half. BAYLOR 74, IOWA STATE 61 Brady Heslip scored 18 points, including five 3-pointers in the second half, and host Baylor (20-10, 8-9 Big 12) got a much-needed boost to its N.C.A.A. tournament hopes by knocking off No. 16 Iowa State (22-7, 10-7). KENTUCKY 55, ALABAMA 48 Julius Randle had 12 points and 11 rebounds, and No. 25 Kentucky (22-8, 12-5 SEC) rallied past visiting Alabama (12-18, 6-11) to end a two-game losing streak. Women BAYLOR 70, IOWA STATE 54 Nina Davis scored 26 points to help No. 9 Baylor (26-4, 16-2 Big 12) clinch a share of the Big 12 title by beating host Iowa State (20-9, 9-9). WEST VIRGINIA 67, KANSAS 60 Bria Holmes scored 16 points to lead No. 7 West Virginia (27-3, 16-2 Big 12) to a home victory over Kansas (12-18, 5-13) and a share of the Big 12 title.

College basketball
Georgia Institute of Technology
Syracuse University
University of Florida


World Trade Center Parachutists Go on Trial

Abstract: One of the three sky divers who parachuted off the 1 World Trade Center tower on a September 2013 night left a note for his mother before the covert jump. “Sorry mom, for what it’s worth,” the jumper, Andrew Rossig, wrote. “But I had to write some history.” A prosecutor quoted the note on Monday during opening statements in the trial of Mr. Rossig and the two other defendants, James Brady and Marko Markovich, hoping to persuade a jury that the parachutists had purposely endangered people on the street below to satisfy a thirst for a thrill. “This case is about their decision to put their egos above the law and above the safety of New Yorkers,” the prosecutor, Joseph Giovannetti, said in State Supreme Court in Manhattan. “They knew it was wrong and dangerous, but they did it anyway, simply because they wanted to.” But Mr. Rossig’s lawyer, Timothy Parlatore, portrayed the jumpers as experts who could control their landings and took every precaution to ensure that the dive off the 1,776-foot building put no one in harm’s way. “The evidence in this case will show that every step that could be taken to minimize danger was taken,” he said, adding a few minutes later, “People with this level of expertise and experience can land on a postage stamp.” The jumpers are charged with reckless endangerment, a misdemeanor, as well as breaking a city ordinance against parachuting off buildings, antennas, bridges or cliffs, a sport known as BASE jumping. But they are also charged with burglary, a felony that carries a penalty of up to seven years in prison. The Manhattan district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance Jr., who has taken a hard line against daredevils of all kinds , contends that their stunt meets the definition of burglary because they entered the building with the intent to commit a crime. The three men, all experienced sky divers, do not dispute that they climbed to the top of 1 World Trade Center at 3 a.m. on Sept. 30, 2013, and leapt off while a fourth man kept watch below. They opened their chutes, floated silently and landed on West Street near Vesey Street, recording the stunt with helmet cameras. To counter the burglary charge, defense lawyers assert that the divers were not technically inside the building when they broke the law, but on its roof, a slender distinction that they say makes the charge moot. Mr. Giovannetti said the men climbed up the stairs of the building to the open-air, walled level on the 105th floor, then continued up a three-tiered superstructure that holds communications equipment, throwing themselves off the top tier. Mr. Markovich’s lawyer, Joseph Corozzo, said the jury merely had to decide whether the men broke the city ordinance against such stunts inside the building or outside. “They jump off the communications ring,” he said. “It’s not inside anything.” Whatever the outcome of the trial, the group’s ability to slip into the building, which was still under construction, and spend three hours on the roof raised concerns about security at the site, considered a prime target for terrorists. The jump might have gone unnoticed had Mohammad Alzainy, the manager of a bagel store on Vesey Street, not spotted one of the sky divers, masked and dressed in black, running and rapidly stowing his parachute just after he landed. The manager’s call to 911 prompted New York police detectives to start an aggressive hunt for the daredevils. Mr. Giovannetti said the sky divers slipped through a hole in a perimeter fence near the portable office of DCM Erectors Inc., walked through the front door and climbed the steps to the top the building. Mr. Brady, 33, of Kings Park on Long Island, had been an ironworker at the World Trade Center site since 2009 and knew about the break in the fence, the prosecutor said. The day before the jump, he lugged the group’s parachutes to the top of the building, where he was working to install a camera, and hid them there. Mr. Markovich, 28, is a professional sky-diving instructor from New Jersey who has made more than 7,000 dives, his lawyer said. He discovered just before the jump from the tower that a small pilot parachute used to deploy the main parachute had become shredded, but he went ahead with the jump anyway, Mr. Giovannetti said. Mr. Rossig, 34, a movie-set carpenter from Slate Hill, N.Y., has been an avid BASE jumper for years, recording more than 360 jumps in a logbook found in his home. He uttered a line about “God loves fools, drunks and idiots” before he did a back flip into space off the tower, Mr. Giovannetti said. But Mr. Parlatore countered that for Mr. Rossig, jumping from buildings was almost a religious experience. “That is where he is able to connect to the universe,” he said.

Parachuting
1 World Trade Center
Andrew Rossig
Marko Markovich
James Brady
World Trade Center


Competitive Fire Burns, With an Era, and Maybe a Career, in the Balance

Abstract: They have the storied stockpile of 26 championships and a home-field advantage exotically known as Mystique and Aura. They are baseball’s budget bullies and boast the game’s highest-paid and pound-for-pound best player, along with his neighbor, the modern-day Mr. October, on the left side of the infield. But history, Yankee Stadium and a $200 million payroll that includes Alex Rodriguez and Derek Jeter are not individually or collectively the best things the Yankees have going for them tonight as they try to stave off elimination by the Indians in Game 3 of their American League division series. In such a predicament, trailing, 2-0, in the best-of-five series, what they are looking for is an uncompromising stage presence, the consummate staying power, the near-religious belief that the spotlight is worth standing in because it was always meant to be on him. The Yankees desperately need what they have working for them tonight, the timeless vanity of Roger Clemens . They need his Texas-size ego, which demanded and received a prorated $28 million at age 44 and now, at 45, would never admit to guilt or remorse for the paltry six victories he produced for it. For a game in which they face extinction at the hands of a team the Yankees beat six times this season without a defeat, they require the self-accommodative attitude of a man who believes he isn’t going away unless it is on his terms. Individually, that is what Clemens is pitching for tonight, to raise the hypothesis that his regular-season ordinariness was more an aberration than it was about age. He pitches to prove there is still a place for him in October, so even if he should never make it back this way again, historians will note that, had he chosen to, he could have. For the Yankees, these terms, like the contract demands, are readily acceptable. They have no leverage, no other choice, down by two games to a Cleveland team that is young, feisty and well aware that the Yankees have been making an annual event of losing the division series, and tempting the Good Ship Steinbrenner to bring closure to the Joe Torre era. • Clemens gets the ball instead of, for argument’s sake, the rookie Phil Hughes because tonight is about holding on to what has been more than what will be. Because Clemens, just like the Yankees, still wants to believe he can control his destiny, even in the division series crapshoot and after not pitching since Sept. 16 because of a barking hamstring. “I think anybody else besides him, you’d be concerned,” Andy Pettitte, Clemens’s comrade-in-arms-maintenance, said of the late September inactivity yesterday at the Stadium. Torre agreed because, as he said, nobody in the history of pitching has ever worked harder between starts and nobody has ever simulated game situations in his mind better than Clemens. “I’ve seen it,” Torre said. “Last time I did it was in Toronto, and I was pretty much in awe of what he was doing, because he was sort of talking to himself.” In other words, to his best friend. The operative term here that Clemens and Pettitte made use of yesterday is that he is the master of being “locked in,” of harnessing his energy, blocking out distractions and, of course, being quite modest about it. “Like I said, I’ve got a lot of will and desire, doesn’t matter my age,” Clemens said. “And I’ve had that, again, if you guys have been following me for not only the time I’ve been here, but my entire career, you know that’s what I draw on.” In a truth-serum moment, Torre would rather draw from the Yankees’ supposedly formidable offense, which has generated the grand total of eight hits in two games, than rest his hopes on a hobbled geriatric. Pettitte said he expected the change of scenery and the pressure of sudden death to awaken the lineup, but how many Yankees can still tap into the residue of those championship seasons when, as Clemens said, “it’s been a long seven years” since the last one? Even Jeter (1 for 8) hit like a skeptic in Cleveland, while Rodriguez (0 for 6 over all; three strikeouts in Game 2) was reverting to the role of the Yankees’ fall guy. He was one of many unproductive hitters, as Torre argued in his defense, but the only one reportedly campaigning for a $30 million payday. • Who among this bunch believes more than Clemens in the existential right to shoulder on, to make the Yankees believe the Cleveland gnats will not be to them what the Nats of Washington were to the Mets? Who better for Torre to hand the ball to tonight than the man who in 2003 was showered with farewells, who said he was 99 percent sure he would never pitch again and who parlayed that proclamation into four more years and roughly $70 million? But still, there is an alternate reality here, potentially antithetical to every Clemens simulation. Is this the night the competitive bonfire of his vanities breaks out from within to take the Yankees and the Torre era down in flames? They have no other choice — or no better one — but to find out.


Ricochet Sends Rangers Soaring Into First Place

Abstract: PHILADELPHIA, Feb. 4 - After a stunning 4-3 overtime victory over the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday, the Rangers are in sole possession of first place of their division this late in a season for the first time in nearly a decade. Jaromir Jagr's power-play goal 1 minute 24 seconds into overtime gave the Rangers their seventh victory in nine games and first place in the Atlantic Division. The last time they led their division this late in a season was April 7, 1996, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. The Rangers had tied the score with just 41.1 seconds left in regulation, on a shot that was deflected twice, bouncing in off Petr Sykora's helmet. But the victory came at a price. The Rangers lost the rookie right wing Petr Prucha, who is second on the team with 25 goals. He sprained his right knee in the second period, with the Rangers holding a 2-0 lead. Prucha said he was told the injury would keep him out four to six weeks. That is probably worse news for the Czech Republic than for the Rangers. Prucha was scheduled to play for the Czechs later this month at the Turin Olympics. Prucha is expected to have a magnetic resonance imaging test Sunday. If the test reveals that the injury is not severe, the 23-year-old Prucha could end up missing only a handful of Rangers games because of the Olympic break. After their game next Saturday, the Rangers do not play again until March 2, at Philadelphia. The Rangers (32-15-8) have 72 points. The Flyers (31-14-9), who defeated the Rangers, 3-2, in overtime Monday at Madison Square Garden, have 71. "I think what it means is that we're going in the right direction," Rangers Coach Tom Renney said. "That our approach to rebuilding this organization to respectability is on track." Jagr's goal, a one-timer from the right circle, was his 35th of the season. He also had an assist on the Rangers' second goal, increasing his league-leading point total to 80. With less than a minute remaining in regulation and the Rangers staring at another disheartening defeat, Renney called a timeout and put six forwards on the ice for a face-off in the right circle in the Flyers' end. At the other end, the Rangers' net was empty. Rangers center Steve Rucchin won the face-off from Mike Richards and sent the puck back to Martin Straka at the right point. Straka passed to Martin Rucinsky at the left point. Rucinsky's slap shot was deflected first by Michael Nylander, then off Sykora's helmet and past Philadelphia goaltender Robert Esche to tie the score at 3-3. "It was like a game of pool: I called it," Rucinsky said. At the end of regulation, Philadelphia defenseman Joni Pitkanen was called for tripping Straka on a final Rangers rush. "He had to take that penalty," Philadelphia Coach Ken Hitchcock said. "Straka had him beat." But the infraction gave the Rangers a four-on-three power play to start overtime. And Jagr delivered. Afterward, he played down the significance of the Rangers' being in first place this late in the season. "It doesn't satisfy me 30 games before the season is over," he said. "It might make me happy after 82 games. But not right now." The Rangers nearly left Philadelphia with nothing to be happy about Saturday. They could not hang on to a two-goal lead against the Flyers for the second time this week. The Rangers were ahead, 2-0, and were seemingly in control when Prucha was injured at 14:27 of the second period in a leg-on-leg collision with the Flyers' Turner Stevenson. "When Pruchs went down," Sykora said, "it kind of took a little bit out of us and let them back into the game." Mike Knuble, a former Ranger, scored the first of his two goals at 15:22 of the second. Just 1:34 into the third, Jeff Carter made the score 2-2. When Knuble scored at 11:08, his 25th goal of the season, the Flyers had a 3-2 lead and the game seemingly in hand -- until Renney's successful gamble in the final minute of regulation. SLAP SHOTS The Rangers and the Flyers have split their first four meetings this season, with each winning twice on the road. They meet four more times. The Flyers played the last two periods without center Petr Nedved (groin strain) and defenseman Chris Therien (head injury).

PHILADELPHIA FLYERS
NEW YORK RANGERS
HOCKEY ICE


Uruguay: Legal Abortion Near Approval

Abstract: A bill legalizing abortion in Uruguay appeared to be nearing final approval after the Chamber of Deputies passed the bill 50 to 49 late on Tuesday. President José Mujica says he will allow it to become law if the Senate approves it. The Senate has already approved an even more liberal version of the abortion measure. In Latin America, no country except Cuba has made abortions accessible to all women during the first trimester of pregnancy.

Abortion
Law and Legislation
Mujica Jose
Uruguay


Toughest Summer Job This Year Is Finding One

Abstract: TULSA, Okla. — School is out, and Aaron Stallings, his junior year of high school behind him, wanders the air-conditioned cocoon of the Woodland Hills Mall in search of a job. Mr. Stallings, 18, says he has been looking for three months, burning gasoline to get to the mall, then filling out applications at stores selling skateboard T-shirts, beach sandals and baseball caps. He likes the idea of working amid the goods he covets. But so far, no offers. “I’m going to go to Iraq and get a job,” he says acidly. “I hear they’ve got cheap gas.” He grins. “I’m just playing. But I’ve been all over, and nobody’s hiring. They just say, ‘We’ll call you tomorrow.’ And no one ever calls back.” As the forces of economic downturn ripple widely across the United States, the job market of 2008 is shaping up as the weakest in more than half a century for teenagers looking for summer work, according to labor economists, government data and companies that hire young people. This deterioration is jeopardizing what many experts consider a crucial beginning stage of working life, one that gives young people experience and confidence along with pocket money. Little more than one-third of the 16- to 19-year-olds in the United States are likely to be employed this summer, the smallest share since the government began tracking teenage work in 1948, according to a research paper published by the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University in Boston. That is a sharp drop from the 45 percent level of teenage employment reached in 2000. The rates among minority young people have been particularly low, with only 21 percent of African-Americans and 31 percent of Hispanics from the ages of 16 to 19 employed last summer, according to the Labor Department. Retailers, a major source of summer jobs, are grappling with a loss of American spending power, causing some to pull back in hiring. Restaurants, also big employers of teenagers, are adding jobs at a slower pace than in previous summers, said Hudson Riehle, senior vice president for research at the National Restaurant Association in Washington. As older people stay in the work force longer and as experienced workers lose jobs at factories and offices, settling for lower-paying work in restaurants and retail, some teenagers are being squeezed out. “When you go into a recession, kids always get hit the hardest,” said Andrew Sum, an economist at the Center for Labor Market Studies who led the study on the summer job market. “Kids always go to the back of the hiring queue. Now, they find themselves with a lot of other people in line ahead of them.” At the lower end of the market, adult Mexican immigrants, in particular, pose competition for jobs traditionally filled by younger Americans, like those at fast food chains. “Spanish-speaking team members in our stores have increased the age a little bit,” said Andy Lorenzen, senior manager for human resources at Chick-fil-A, a national chain of chicken restaurants based in Atlanta, where 70 percent of the work force is 14 to 19 years old. Adult workers “have lost jobs in this economic downturn and begun to seek employment in our stores.” Employment among American teenagers has been sliding continuously for the last decade and, with a few ups and downs, dropping steadily since the late 1970s, when nearly half of all 16- to 19-year-olds had summer jobs. Economists debate the cause of this precipitous decline in teenage employment. Many contend that the drop is largely a favorable trend, reflecting a rising percentage of teenagers completing high school and going on to college, with some enrolling in summer academic programs, leaving less time for work. “The key factor is the attraction of attending college and enjoying the increasing wage premium that accompanies this,” said John H. Pencavel, a labor economist at Stanford University. In wealthier households, many have come to see summer work as a waste of time that could be spent gaining an edge in the competition for entry to elite colleges. “Kids from higher-income households just aren’t going into the labor market,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Economy.com . “They’re looking for things to put on résumés, and working at Dairy Queen or Wal-Mart just isn’t going to help you get into Wake Forest or Stanford. And they just don’t need the cash.” But others, like Professor Sum, contend that plenty of teenagers want to work but face increasing difficulties landing jobs. From early 2001 to the middle of 2007, the number of Americans employed outside the military grew more than 8.3 million, according to the Labor Department, yet employment among teenagers fell more than 1.2 million. In the New York metropolitan area, an index by Economy.com shows a modest increase in the sorts of jobs typically filled by teenagers in the summer. Still, with the economy gripped by what many experts believe is a recession, opportunities are growing leaner for teenagers in most of the country. Even in parts of the country where there are jobs, some teenagers are having trouble finding them. Tulsa, a town on the banks of the Arkansas River that swelled into a city amid an oil boom early last century, seems at first an easy place to find work. This metropolitan area of 900,000 people never saw the increase in housing prices and subsequent collapse that leveled economies elsewhere. While energy prices are reaching records and the oil patch is buzzing with activity, Tulsa’s unemployment rate was a mere 3.3 percent in March, compared with the national rate of 5.1 percent that month. Here, the force of Hispanic immigration is being reversed: A bill aimed at cracking down on illegal immigrants passed by the state legislature late last year has prompted thousands of them to leave town. So along the broad suburban avenues in the southern part of town — ribbons of black pavement lined with ice cream shops, burger stands and barbecue joints — managers are having a hard time finding workers. “Pretty much everybody is hiring,” said Andy Irick, director of operations for Sonic, a restaurant chain based in Oklahoma, complete with blaring music and servers on roller skates. “If you walk in and you’re clean cut and presentable, you’re going to get a job.” While summer jobs may be abundant in some industries, opportunities tend to divide along traditional fault lines like race, the connections offered by one’s parents and — not least — whether one has a car in this sprawling city of scant public transportation. More than 15 percent of the city’s population is African-American, according to the 2000 census. Black people are largely clustered in the older, northern part of town, on weather-beaten roads largely devoid of shopping and places to work. The suburban strip malls to the south are miles away. At a state-financed program that helps lower-income young people find jobs, Arbor Education and Training, some have quit coming to the center because gas prices are too high, and some have lost jobs because they could not get to work, said the program’s director of operations, Jacky Noden. Meanwhile, at a job skills class at Booker T. Washington High School, considered Tulsa’s most prestigious public campus, six graduating seniors, all bound for college and all possessing cars, already had jobs for the summer. Greg Robinson, 18, cast his job as an instructor at a golf course as a perfect chance to network. “Golf is the sport of business.” Shakhura Henderson, 18, saw her job as an assistant in an optometrist’s office as a beachhead in a growing area of the American economy. She and the other students stammered in veritable horror when asked if they would consider working in fast food. “I don’t see myself saying, ‘Hey, sir, may I take your order,’ ” Ms. Henderson said. “I don’t see any growth in it.” Claire Tolson, 17, a student at another selective school, Thomas A. Edison Preparatory, said she planned to spend the summer as a hostess at the Local Table, a restaurant specializing in produce from around the area, earning $8 an hour, plus tips. Tall, blond and poised, and looking ahead to a career in engineering, Ms. Tolson has two friends working at the restaurant already. One of their parents knows the owner, she said. “I don’t think it’s too hard to find a job,” she said. But Ms. Tolson’s classmate, Wesley Childers, has no such connections, relying instead on newspaper classified advertisements for his job search. He wants a job so he can save money to buy a car next year, but his lack of a vehicle presents something of a Catch-22. “Employers want you to have reliable transportation,” he said. Mr. Childers wears a pressed blue suit and shiny black loafers to job interviews. He has applied to McDonald’s and to Target, the discount department store, among other places. “I haven’t heard anything back,” he said. “There’s so many other kids, and there’s also so many other people who are unemployed. It’s getting frustrating.” At Will Rogers High School in a heavily Hispanic part of town, a 15-year-old sophomore named José, who has lived here since he was 2 years old but lacks legal immigration papers, worried that he would not find a job. He would happily work in fast food, he said, but word is that more places are checking papers. “It limits your choices,” he said. “A lot of people are afraid.”

Children and Youth
Labor
Layoffs and Job Reductions
United States Economy
Retail Stores and Trade
Hiring and Promotion
Recession and Depression
Economic Conditions and Trends
Northeastern University
Labor Department