The Trans-Pacific Partnership: Questions and Answers

Abstract: WASHINGTON — After a decade of negotiations among a dozen nations, the trade deal known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership, or T.P.P., is almost complete and ready for final consideration by Congress. But before President Obama can present the final document for approval, Congress must vote to give him the right to limit consideration of the T.P.P. to a single up-or-down vote, with no filibusters or amendments allowed. That is called trade promotion authority, or T.P.A., and, so far, Mr. Obama has failed to get it. Q. What is the T.P.P., and who wants it? A. The T.P.P. is a 30-chapter document that promises to ease trade restrictions among the United States and 11 Pacific Rim nations, which together represent an annual gross domestic product of nearly $28 trillion, or 40 percent of the world’s G.D.P. It is being pushed by Mr. Obama, many Republicans and a handful of Democrats on behalf of American businesses, who say it will open lucrative new markets. Critics, including most Democrats, say it is a giveaway to big business that will encourage companies to shift manufacturing jobs to low-wage nations. Q. Why doesn’t Congress just vote on the T.P.P. when it is finished? A. After years of mostly secret talks among the United States and other nations, the deal would unravel if United States lawmakers had the right to amend it. So backers are pushing to give the president T.P.A. — the ability to present the agreement as a take-it-or-leave-it decision. Lawmakers could not filibuster or amend the deal, but they could reject it. That is the way previous trade deals, including the North American Free Trade Agreement, or Nafta, were approved in Congress. If Mr. Obama doesn’t get T.P.A., he is certain to leave office without the trade deal he says is critical to the American economy’s long-term health. Q. Didn’t the Senate already pass a bill giving T.P.A. to Mr. Obama? A. Yes. In late May, a bipartisan coalition that included most of the Republicans and 14 Democrats agreed by a vote of 62-37 to give the president trade promotion authority for up to six years. But they did so only after reaching a deal with Democrats to include more money for trade adjustment assistance, or T.A.A., a program designed to help American workers displaced by global trade. That program is beloved by Democrats and hated by Republicans, who call it a waste of money designed largely to benefit labor unions. The legislation passed by the Senate packaged T.P.A. and T.A.A. together in a bid to win support from both parties — and it worked. Q. So did the House take up the same package? A. In the House, Speaker John A. Boehner chose to have lawmakers vote on the two parts of the Senate package — T.A.A. and T.P.A. — separately. He was betting that Democrats would ensure that the trade-assistance measure would pass, and that enough Republicans would back the T.P.A. so that it passed, too. Once both were approved in the House, Mr. Boehner thought, the package would go to Mr. Obama for his signature. And that would clear the way for final consideration of the trade deal. Q. But it didn’t work out that way. What happened? A. Democrats in the House who oppose the trade deal realized that they might not be able to defeat the authority part of the package. So instead, they decided to sacrifice the part of the Senate package that they liked — the trade assistance for workers — in a bid to halt the legislative progress. By voting en masse against the assistance measure (along with many Republicans, who oppose the program anyway), Democrats killed that part of the trade package . Even though the other part — the T.P.A. — narrowly passed, the package cannot be passed to Mr. Obama because it is different from what passed in the Senate. Q. So what happens now? A. That’s unclear. If the House could pass the trade-assistance part of the package, it could go to Mr. Obama for his signature. But there appears to be little support among Republicans in the House to pass a measure they dislike, and Democrats are refusing to budge. On Tuesday, Mr. Boehner pushed through an extension that allows members to consider the issue for another six weeks. That could allow Mr. Obama and his supporters to try to reach a deal in which Democrats drop their opposition to the trade assistance in exchange for getting something else they want. That could include promises of protections for workers or it could include unrelated measures, like passage of a long-stalled transportation bill. Q. It’s so confusing, especially with so many similar-sounding abbreviations. Why couldn’t this all be simpler? A. Very true. But perhaps Washington politicians are just adapting to the Internet slang common among young people. In 140 characters: Mr. Obama really wants to get T.P.P., but he needs T.P.A. and that requires T.A.A. Democrats like T.A.A. but will kill it to block T.P.A. #LOL

International trade
Trans-Pacific Partnership
US Politics
Legislation
House of Representatives
Congress
Senate
Congress
Barack Obama
Jobs


Evoking Donald Trump, Ted Cruz Grabs for the Limelight During Southern Tour

Abstract: FRANKLIN, Tenn. — The sweet tea was mostly gone, the homemade coffee cakes picked over by the more than 2,000 who showed up here to hear Senator Ted Cruz deliver a blistering indictment of the direction the country is headed in and of the man who is now leading it. “You know, in 2013, the Obama administration released to the public 104,000 criminal illegal aliens,” Mr. Cruz told the people gathered here in a converted factory turned concert space at midday on Monday. Among them, he said, were “murderers,” “rapists” and “drunk drivers.” This was a new addition to Mr. Cruz’s stump speech. Once the most outspoken conservative when it came to illegal immigration — his appeals to voters back in March included pledges to “secure the border” and a joke about sending 90,000 Internal Revenue Service agents to help accomplish that goal — Mr. Cruz has been overshadowed of late, along with most of his rivals, by Donald J. Trump, whose suggestion that Mexico was sending rapists and murderers across the border drew widespread condemnation but also a fervent following in some quarters . After a speech in Murfreesboro, Tenn., Mr. Cruz was asked about what a local reporter called the “T-word.” Who Is Running for President? Donald J. Trump officially accepted the Republican party's nomination on July 22. Hillary Clinton was officially nominated on July 26 at the Democratic Convention. Mr. Cruz heaved a brief sigh, before saying, as he has often, that he appreciated the attention that Mr. Trump had brought to the race, including last week’s debate. But a sliver of frustration slipped out. This election is not about “a soap opera of personalities,” Mr. Cruz said, his only complaint. If Mr. Trump has commandeered much of the attention in the Republican primary contest, Mr. Cruz’s seven-day, seven-state swing through the Southeast was a pointed effort to grab whatever limelight he could have to himself. The zigzagging bus tour, which ends Thursday in Tulsa, Okla., with a “This Is Cruz Country” rally, has drawn consistently enthusiastic crowds in the hundreds, and sometimes thousands, as Mr. Cruz tries to establish a foothold in states where a large number of delegates are expected to be up for grabs on March 1, Super Tuesday. That so-called S.E.C. primary — a reference to the Southeastern Conference of college sports — had Mr. Cruz flattering his audience with tributes to Southern culture and to the region’s growing political importance. “Arkansas is going to play a critical role,” Mr. Cruz told a crowd outside Republican headquarters on Wednesday in Little Rock — a version of a line he delivered to groups in Mississippi, Tennessee and Alabama. He made sure to note that he was competing earnestly in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, too. “But 10 days later, boom, it’s Super Tuesday,” he said. Overflow crowds were met with overflowing tables: baskets of biscuits and gravy at Graceworks Church in Chattanooga, Tenn., pulled pork at a fairgrounds in Jackson, Tenn. Brown sugar meatballs kept a waiting crowd content in Murfreesboro while Mr. Cruz detoured to the memorial to Marines killed last month in Chattanooga. And sweet tea flowed at every stop. “Y’all are making it real hard to talk with those onion rings,” Mr. Cruz told a crowd at a restaurant in Olive Branch, Miss. “Is there any food on earth that isn’t better deep fried?” Campaigning in the Southeast left Mr. Cruz — who as the first declared candidate briefly had the entire race to himself earlier this year — the only contender plying the highways from South Carolina to Oklahoma. He adjusted his stump speech, highlighting faith and religion more than usual. At Graceworks Church, where Mr. Cruz delivered his remarks from the altar under a giant cross, he pledged to order a Justice Department investigation into Planned Parenthood and to defend those who he says are unfairly made to break with their religious beliefs over issues like contraception and prayer in public. “Persecution of religious liberty ends today,” he said to a roar of applause. In Mississippi, Mr. Cruz was accompanied by Chris McDaniel , the Tea Party state senator who nearly unseated Senator Thad Cochran in a contentious primary last year. Mr. Cruz hopes to turn many of Mr. McDaniel’s voters into Cruz volunteers. Some in the crowd in Tupelo were clutching “Cruz 2016” signs in one hand and red “Vote McDaniel” signs in the other. “Prior to this, I was leaning towards Cruz,” said George Bogardus, 72, from nearby Saltillo, Miss., who was also clutching signs supporting both men. “But Mr. McDaniel cemented it.” In Arkansas, as at other points along the way, Mr. Cruz’s faith-filled message seemed to resonate. “He’s a Christian, and I’m a true Christian,” said Hazel Bragg, who showed up to hear Mr. Cruz outside the Little Rock party headquarters. “And I believe if he goes God’s way, we can’t go wrong with that.”

Ted Cruz
2016 Presidential Election
Illegal Immigration
Donald Trump
Primaries
US states
Tennessee
Arkansas
Mississippi


Activists Say Police Abuse of Transgender People Persists Despite Reforms

Abstract: New Year’s revelers clamored outside the window of Shagasyia Diamond’s apartment in the Bronx the day she was arrested. Newly into 2014, she was in the midst of a dispute with her husband when officers showed up at her front door, placed her in handcuffs and escorted her to a nearby precinct. It was there, Ms. Diamond recalled, that the violations began. Although the New York Police Department amended its patrol guide in 2012 to require respectful treatment of transgender people, Ms. Diamond, who is a transgender woman, said she was subjected to a strip search by a male officer. Two other officers watched from a few feet away, gawking as she spread her legs. Officers then placed Ms. Diamond in a cell for men, she said, where she cowered in the corner as other inmates heckled her and used the exposed toilet in her presence. When she expressed her discomfort to an officer, he replied, “You know you like it in there with all the men.” Officers snickered at Ms. Diamond throughout the process, she said, calling her a “he-she,” “tranny” and “it.” “I felt totally voiceless,” Ms. Diamond, who is 37 and now divorced, said recently through tears. “Like I wasn’t even human. Like my safety didn’t even matter.” When the patrol guide reforms were issued, advocates for transgender people lauded the changes as groundbreaking, if overdue. Officers now were required, among other provisions, to refer to people by their preferred names and gender pronouns, to allow people to be searched by an officer of their requested gender, and to refrain from “discourteous or disrespectful remarks” regarding sexual orientation or gender identity. But in interviews with more than 20 transgender and gender nonconforming New Yorkers who have been arrested or had other contact with the police, as well as activists and lawyers representing them, they charge that three years since the regulations were adopted, police officers regularly flout them. Even as transgender visibility surges in the news media and in popular culture, and government agencies develop more sensitive policies, many transgender people continue to report that they are mocked in the most degrading terms by officers, searched roughly and inappropriately and placed in holding cells that do not correspond with their gender identity, all violations of the reforms enacted to address those very indignities. “We’re hearing the same sorts of things today that we heard five years ago,” said Sharon Stapel, the executive director of the New York City Anti-Violence Project , an advocacy group for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. “Trans people are still targeted and harassed by the police for being trans.” Some activists and elected officials are calling on the Police Department’s inspector general to audit the department’s adherence to the reforms. At a meeting in late July with Commissioner William J. Bratton, members of the commissioner’s L.G.B.T. Advisory Panel, made up of leaders in the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community, also asked for an audit. Mr. Bratton showed reluctance, according to people present at the meeting, but eventually referred the group to the department’s quality assurance division. “It’s one thing to make a reform on paper, but it takes a greater commitment of resources to make the necessary cultural changes,” said Councilman Ritchie Torres, a Bronx Democrat who is formally requesting an audit. “The N.Y.P.D. is a deeply intransigent, conservative institution,” Mr. Torres added. “It’s going to take extensive retraining for officers to fully live up to the spirit and letter of the 2012 changes.” Detective Tim Duffy, the department’s liaison to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community, said the department had begun a variety of programs to address the concerns. Among other measures, he said, newly promoted sergeants, lieutenants and captains now undergo two hours of training meant to guard against profiling and other forms of mistreatment. The training familiarizes officers, for example, with police forms that now have space for a preferred name and preferred gender pronouns. He noted that in the past several years, two police officers and one school safety officer underwent gender transitions. Although Detective Duffy said the department has had “no reports of any issues with officers not following the guidelines,” he acknowledged some resistance. “Just like any big group, everybody may not agree with the policy,” he said, “but we have to do our jobs.” The reforms followed years of complaints about police mistreatment, including one from 2010 in which a transgender woman who was arrested on suspicion of prostitution said an officer stomped on her head three times, breaking a tooth and a bone near her eye. Her skirt rode up, exposing her genitals, which she said the officer then twisted and squeezed. She filed a lawsuit against the city, which was settled for around $80,000. But in 2013, a year after the guidelines were changed, Crystal Sheridan, a transgender woman arrested on suspicion of prostitution, was called a “whore” and a “man” by police officers, she said, as they took her to a Queens precinct, where she remained for several days. “It was like I was being bullied for no reason,” recalled Ms. Sheridan, 30, who said the charges were dropped by a judge. Often rejected by their families and stymied in their pursuit of jobs, transgender people — particularly women who are members of racial minorities — experience high rates of poverty, homelessness and violent crime. They also sometimes resort to illegal activity as a means of survival. Ms. Diamond, who was arrested in the Bronx, spent 10 years in prison for robbing a gas station, she said, to get money for sex-reassignment surgery after her family in Flint, Mich., turned their backs on her. Such circumstances, activists said, have contributed to a form of profiling. Just as African-Americans complain of being stopped for “driving while black,” transgender people claim they are singled out by the police for “walking while trans,” activists say. At a transgender forum this July in the Bronx, the roughly 200 people in attendance were asked, Have you ever felt profiled or mocked by the police? Nearly every hand shot up. Have you ever complained? Nearly every hand came down. Tasha Hodges, a 33-year-old transgender woman from East New York, Brooklyn, kept her grievances to herself after officers referred to her by a bevy of insulting titles, she said, after a 2013 arrest for trespassing. “I’ve learned to accept the disrespect,” Ms. Hodges explained. Mina Malik, the executive director of the city’s Civilian Complaint Review Board , which investigates complaints against the police, said the organization had collected grievances from transgender people since the reforms were instituted, but that she could not provide any data. “The C.C.R.B. is only as effective as its reputation in the community allows it to be,” said Andrea Ritchie, a lawyer with the nonprofit group Streetwise and Safe . “People’s experience with the C.C.R.B. is that they don’t feel heard.” Ms. Malik said the review board has “historically not had the best reputation” among transgender people, which she said explained in part why “underreporting is a chronic problem” in that community. “We are working to improve it,” Ms. Malik added. Some transgender defendants have gotten redress by calling Ms. Ritchie. She said clients had phoned her from jail in anguish after being placed in cells for a different gender. Ms. Ritchie has then had to explain the new regulations to the officers in charge, often referring them to the exact page in their guides. Detective Duffy said that officers faced a natural learning curve. “Just like the general public is learning about the trans community and learning about trans people by people coming out like Chaz Bono and Caitlyn Jenner , so are we,” he said. After her experience in the Bronx stationhouse, Ms. Diamond slipped into an intense depression, she said, during which she lost 60 pounds. Even though the district attorney dropped the charges against her, she said she still has not filed a complaint against the police, out of fear and doubt that she would not be taken seriously. “People used to tell me things were different in New York,” said Ms. Diamond, a singer who left home in 2009. “But I know better now.”

Police Brutality,Police Misconduct,Police Shootings


President Obama Meets With Pope Francis

Abstract: VATICAN CITY — President Obama and Pope Francis on Thursday skirted social issues that have generated tension between some Roman Catholic leaders and the American president, opting instead for a nearly hourlong discussion that touched on income inequality, the conflict raging in Syria, the persecution of Christians around the world and the elusiveness of global peace. The first meeting between Mr. Obama and the pope had been the subject of keen anticipation. Few expected an embarrassing confrontation, but many were watching the chemistry between the two men, curious about the issues that would captivate them and how they would navigate their differences. Would those differences crowd out a desire by both men to focus on the plight of the poor? In the end, it appears that they did not. At home, Mr. Obama has faced anger from Catholic bishops about abortion and his health care law’s requirements that some religious-based groups provide access to contraception for employees. The president’s endorsement of same-sex marriage in 2012 further separated him from Catholic leaders. But in the 52 minutes that Mr. Obama spent on Thursday sitting across from Francis at a spare desk with a small, golden crucifix, those disputes seemed to fade away. According to Mr. Obama, the discussion was instead focused on two areas: how to help the poor and marginalized around the world and how to confront conflicts that test the limits of peace. “We actually didn’t talk a whole lot about social schisms,” Mr. Obama told reporters a few hours after the private audience with the pontiff. “His Holiness and the Vatican have been clear on a range of issues. Some of them I differ with. Most of them I heartily agree with.” In its own assessment of the meeting, the Vatican alluded to a cordial discussion that touched on “the exercise of the rights to religious freedom, life and conscientious objection,” perhaps an allusion to the contraception provision. American prelates argue that the mandate is a violation of religious freedom. But the papal communiqué also said that Francis and Mr. Obama talked about “current international themes,” immigration reform and a commitment to fight human trafficking. Each seemed eager to use the meeting to further his own broader agenda. In his first year as pope, Francis has sought to shift the church’s public emphasis to themes of mercy and forgiveness and the plight of the world’s poor. Receiving the American president gave him another very high-profile chance to do just that. Video On the Minute, The Times’s White House Photographer Doug Mills reports on the first meeting of President Obama and Pope Francis in Vatican. Credit Credit Doug Mills/The New York Times In a similar way, Mr. Obama has said he intends to spend the balance of his second term bolstering the fortunes of the middle class and reducing income inequality in the United States. Associating himself with Francis on those issues offered at least the aura of support from a global leader. Asked whether he envisions a strategic alliance of sorts with the pope, Mr. Obama demurred, saying, “I don’t think His Holiness envisions entering into a partnership or a coalition with any political figure on any issue.” “His job is a little more elevated,” he added. “We are down on the ground dealing with the often profane. He’s pretty much with higher powers.” “I do think there is a potential convergence between what policy makers have to think about and what he’s talking about,” Mr. Obama said, adding, “He’s, hopefully, creating an environment in which those of us who care about this are able to talk about it more effectively.” Many analysts had wondered whether the pope would raise concerns about the Affordable Care Act directly to Mr. Obama, especially given the opposition by leading American cardinals. Instead, Francis seems to have delegated that part of the agenda to his second-in-command, Cardinal Pietro Parolin , the Vatican’s secretary of state. Mr. Obama said that Cardinal Parolin did raise the contraceptive requirements under the health care law, along with other issues, at a separate meeting. He said he told the cardinal that most religious organizations were exempt from the coverage mandate, but said he pledged to “continue a dialogue with the U.S. Conference of Bishops to make sure we can strike the right balance.” Alberto Melloni, a Vatican historian, said it was not surprising that Francis did not directly raise “uncomfortable topics like social issues in the United States,” given that any confrontation would have been embarrassing and unseemly. He also said that Francis had already made plain his distaste for publicly fighting “religious wars.” “Everybody knows where the church stands on such issues,” Mr. Melloni said. For Mr. Obama, the day also included later encounters with Italy’s president, Giorgio Napolitano, and its new prime minister, Matteo Renzi, and ended with a private tour of the Colosseum. As he walked through the ruins of the arena, Mr. Obama said he could imagine what it might have been like in ancient times. Image President Obama with Pope Francis on Thursday at the Vatican. Credit Doug Mills/The New York Times “I can,” he said. “This is bigger than some current baseball stadiums,” he said, mentioning Wrigley Field in Chicago as an example. “I have to check on what it seats. It’s remarkable. Unbelievable.” Yet the meeting with Francis was the centerpiece of the trip to Rome. Mr. Obama met Pope Benedict XVI during a July 2009 visit to the Vatican, but Thursday’s meeting was more laden with symbolism. Arriving under gray, rainy morning skies, Mr. Obama was led in a procession through the center of the ornate Clementine Hall, proceeding past a dozen members of the Swiss Guards as they stood at attention. The two men appeared to share a lighthearted rapport during an exchange of gifts. Francis, an Argentine and the first pontiff from the Southern Hemisphere, gave the president two medallions, including one that symbolized the need for solidarity and peace between the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. He also presented Mr. Obama with a copy of “Evangelii Gaudium,” or “The Joy of the Gospel,” the apostolic exhortation that Francis released last November as his call for a new era of evangelization and for a renewed focus on the poor. Mr. Obama presented Francis with a custom-made seed chest featuring a variety of fruit and vegetable seeds used in the White House garden, noting that the box was made from reclaimed wood from the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Baltimore. “If you have a chance to come to the White House, we can show you our garden as well,” the president said. Using a Spanish phrase that can be translated as “Why not?” or “For sure,” Francis quickly responded. “Cómo no?” he said. At the conclusion of the visit, Mr. Obama and Pope Francis stood together as others filed out of the room, according to a strict protocol. “His Holiness is probably the only person who has to put up with more protocol than me,” Mr. Obama said, prompting a smile from the pope after an interpreter translated the remark.

Barack Obama
Pope Francis
US Foreign Policy
Catholic Church


Blame for 1993 Attack at Center Is Still at Issue

Abstract: One of the most painful parts has been the wait, a lawyer for victims of the 1993 bombing at the World Trade Center told an appeals court on Wednesday. Next month will be the 15th anniversary of the Feb. 26, 1993, terrorist strike in the trade center’s underground garage, an event that has almost been forgotten in the glare of the attack that brought down the twin towers on Sept. 11, 2001. It was only two years ago, though, that its victims won a major victory, when a Manhattan jury found that the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey , which owned the trade center, was more to blame for the bombing than the terrorists. On Wednesday both sides were back in court as the case continued to wind its way through the judicial system. This time, in the Appellate Division of State Supreme Court in Manhattan, the authority asked a five-judge panel to throw out what it called the jury’s “bizarre” verdict declaring that the agency was 68 percent responsible for the bombing and the terrorists bore only 32 percent of the responsibility. This was the sixth appeal in the case, one of the victims’ lawyers, Victor A. Kovner, told the judges’ panel, and “the fourth time I personally am before the court.” In nearly 15 years, he said, “there hasn’t been a single damages trial” to determine how much the victims should receive for the pain and suffering they endured and for their financial losses. The appellate judges seemed to share Mr. Kovner’s sense of urgency, as they peppered lawyers on both sides of the dispute with questions. One of them asked the authority’s lawyer, John J. Gibbons: If the authority was not 68 percent to blame for the bombing, then “what percentage would you think would be supported by the evidence?” Mr. Gibbons declined to be specific, saying only that he considered the Port Authority a victim too and that the percentage should be 50 percent or less. The 50 percent figure is important because if the authority is more than 50 percent liable for the attack, then it must pay 100 percent of any damages for pain and suffering, the victims’ lawyers said later. The authority is responsible for financial damages regardless of how the blame is apportioned, the lawyers said. In the 1993 attack, Islamic terrorists drove a rented Ryder van packed with explosives into the trade center’s underground garage, set a 10-minute fuse and left. The blast killed six people and injured 1,000. Originally, hundreds of people and companies sued. By early 2005, many still had lawsuits, while others had dropped out or settled. Victims’ lawyers said yesterday that there were 47 cases remaining, including 43 personal injury cases. Among the victims still fighting is Linda P. Nash. Ms. Nash, a former management consultant now in her 60s, was in the garage when the bomb went off and has not been able to work since because of short-term memory disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder prompted by the attack, her lawyer, Louis A. Mangone, said. At the trial, the plaintiffs focused on a 1985 report commissioned by the Port Authority, warning that the underground garage was vulnerable to a car bombing and recommending that it be closed to public parking. “Wasn’t there evidence that the Port Authority had been warned by its own experts?” one of the appellate judges asked on Wednesday. “No,” Mr. Gibbons said, adding that none of the reports “suggested that a terrorist attack on the World Trade Center was likely.” One judge asked if it was true that there was only one police officer patrolling the garage. “At times,” Mr. Gibbons conceded. In its court papers, the authority compared its position to that of a subway token booth clerk who falls asleep while a passenger is attacked, but who is not as much to blame as the attacker himself. But Brian Shoot, another of the victims’ lawyers present in court, told the judges that the token clerk analogy was flawed. The decision to leave the garage open to the public, despite recommendations to the contrary, was made by “the highest ranking members of the Port Authority,” he said, and not by a clerk.


Where Acting Is an Avocation

Abstract: COMMUNITY theater, the institution so deftly parodied in the 1996 film “Waiting for Guffman,” occupies a singular place in New York City’s suburbs. Not only does Broadway draw stage actors of the highest caliber, but professional regional theaters like Paper Mill in Millburn, Westport Country Playhouse in Connecticut and Schoolhouse Theater in Croton Falls, N.Y., also bring first-class talent directly to our doorsteps. “It’s a good place to be, and some of us have had the opportunity to work down in New York,” said Richard Mancini, who works with half a dozen community theater companies. “It’s a double-edged sword, though, because you have audiences here who go to New York all the time, and their standards are pretty high.” In the 30 years he has done theater in Connecticut, Mr. Mancini said, he has seen and been part of many shows that were on a par with professional performances. To the casual observer, the difference between community and professional theater can become blurred when amateur shows feature first-class lighting, sound and costumes. Sometimes the biggest difference is whether those acting have earned membership in the Actors’ Equity union. Occasionally, an actor will break into professional theater, and although it is rare, professional actors sometimes perform in community theater productions to keep sharp between paying gigs. Mr. Mancini said the biggest difference between the pros and the amateurs was preparation time. “I know people who’ve worked in theatrical productions down in New York, and they’ll have rehearsal eight hours a day for four weeks,” he said. “Here, we rehearse maybe two or three hours a day, then a little on the weekend.” Judging from the number of community theater companies in the area, there is no shortage of those with an avocation for acting, singing and dancing. The Summit Playhouse has been putting on plays since 1918, making it New Jersey ’s longest-running community theater. In Connecticut, theater groups are in every coastal town from Greenwich to New Haven, and some, like the Curtain Call in Stamford, have expanded to include outdoor summer theater. The Township Theater Group in Huntington on Long Island has been operating for 55 years, and the Fort Hill Players in White Plains for nearly 70. “I think community theater is extremely strong,” said Joann Scanlon, president of the Summit Playhouse. “There must be 10 within a half-hour drive of us. You get to recognize faces and you get to know the names of a lot of people.” Whereas shows with paid casts recruit from afar, she said, her theater draws from the immediate area. The two groups rarely cross paths. “People want to pursue the arts but can’t afford to devote their life to it,” Ms. Scanlon said. “They do it as an outlet because they have these talents that they want to show.” Linda Cummins worked at a hedge fund in Greenwich while starring in a three-week run of “Born Yesterday,” directed by Mr. Mancini for the Westport Community Theater in April. She had appeared in “Sesame Street” as a child, considered acting full time as recently as two years ago and even now gets parts in movies. “It was a question of waiting tables and trying to make it full time, or living a comfortable life and having a full-time job,” she said. “That’s why I went for community theater.” John Pyron, a “Born Yesterday” cast member who has acted in more than 100 professional and amateur shows in Westchester and Connecticut, said the quality of community theater had improved in the last 20 years because local theater groups are not as insistent that actors be subscribers to that particular group’s season. The production is the focus, not the clique. “I think the camaraderie is part of the reason I’m an actor,” he said, “because you do work very closely to create this thing.” That camaraderie extends to the crew, too. “It needs to be a good experience for everyone involved,” said Amy Louise Carter, who produced and acted in the show. “That’s why people come back again.” It certainly is not for the money. Lighting, sound systems, costumes and props are generally paid for by ticket sales, even though some theater groups get support from town governments. The Fort Hill Players, which started in 1938 in Scarsdale and was invited by the City of White Plains to move there in 1969, gets free use of the 400-seat auditorium at the Rochambeau School, and in return, it puts on a free matinee performance for seniors, said Joan Charischak, the group’s president. “The city gives us the stage and use of the school, which is immense in its value, but we fund our own productions, which is typical,” she said. And much of that financing depends on the audience. For old chestnuts like “Born Yesterday,” theatergoers skew grayer, but most groups are not solely doing retreads of Neil Simon plays. Ms. Scanlon cited Summit’s recent booking of “Brooklyn Boy,” which opened on Broadway in 2005, and Mr. Mancini is looking forward to directing “Orson’s Shadow,” which also made its debut in 2005. Like Westport Community Theater, the Summit Playhouse has its own space for performances. Many companies, though, do without a traditional home, like Theater Box, a 27-year-old group based in Floral Park, N.Y. Brian Payne, the group’s president, said the United Methodist Church of Floral Park lets them put on three shows a year in its basement auditorium/gymnasium. “We’ve been lucky; we’ve had a succession of pastors who were interested in the arts and happy to have us,” he said. “We’ve had a number of people who say, ‘I just saw a Broadway play, and this was better.’ Whether we believe them is another thing.” Cheaper ticket prices and shorter driving distances are part of the draw, and there is also the added bonus of supporting neighbors. “We have several teachers who tend to gravitate to the summer shows,” Mr. Payne said of his Theater Box actors. “One guy works for the transit authority, one is a retired engineer. It’s really all walks of life.” Theater Box performs five shows at a time in a 100-seat space, and it does not go begging for an audience, either. “For some people, there’s something about being able to say, ‘I know that guy, I met him in the A.&P., now look at what he’s doing,’ ” Mr. Payne said. “That’ll draw people in to the show. They’ll say, ‘Those are our people.’ ”

Theater
Actors and Actresses
Connecticut
New York State
New Jersey


Rio Tinto to Cut 14,000 Jobs

Abstract: HONG KONG — Rio Tinto , the mining company, said on Wednesday that it would cut 14,000 jobs and sharply reduce spending as demand for raw materials slows. The company cited the “unprecedented rapidity and severity of the global economic downturn,” and said it was shedding 14,000 jobs, 8,500 of them contract positions. It will also cut capital expenditures next year by more than half. It said the measures would help to reduce operating costs by $2.5 billion a year by 2010. Rio Tinto has a work force of 112,000. The announcement came just weeks after BHP Billiton, the world’s biggest mining company, walked away from a long battle to acquire Rio Tinto. BHP, faced with demands by European regulators that it sell significant assets to secure approval, abandoned the hostile $66 billion bid on Nov. 25, saying the turmoil in the financial markets and declining commodity prices made the transaction too risky. Luc Pez, an analyst who covers metals and miners at Oddo & Compagnie in Paris, said the Rio Tinto announcement was “not very surprising, given the focus on reducing debt after BHP abandoned its offer.” Rio Tinto is struggling to reduce debt of nearly $40 billion, most of which stems from its purchase last year of Alcan. It hopes to cut $10 billion from that by the end of next year, and said it was cutting capital expenditures to $4 billion, from more than $9 billion. Severance payments will cost $400 million, the company said. The global mining industry is struggling after a serious demand shock, Mr. Pez said, but most rival companies will probably not need to take such radical action.

Rio Tinto PLC
Layoffs and Job Reductions
Mines and Mining


Ehud Netzer, Archeologist Who Unearthed Herod’s Tomb, Dies at 76

Abstract: JERUSALEM — Ehud Netzer, one of Israel ’s best-known archeologists who unearthed King Herod’s tomb near Bethlehem three years ago, died on Thursday after being injured in a fall at the site. He was 76. Mr. Netzer was leaning on a wooden safety rail on Monday when it gave way, sending him tumbling 15 feet. He was taken to Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem with critical injuries and died there. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the death “a loss for his family, for scholars of Israel’s history and for archeology.” Mr. Netzer, who was professor emeritus of archeology at Hebrew University, had led high-profile digs across the country and helped educate several generations of Israeli archeologists. After three decades of research, he was the pre-eminent expert on Herodium , a fortified palace complex that Herod built atop a small mountain near Bethlehem when he ruled in the decades just before the birth of Jesus. Herod, the Rome-appointed king of Judea from 37 to 4 B. C., was famed for his monumental structures, including the Second Temple in Jerusalem, the desert fortress of Masada near the Dead Sea and Herodium. Mr. Netzer announced in 2007 that he had found the remnants of Herod’s burial site, including pieces of a large sarcophagus made of pinkish Jerusalem limestone and decorated with carved floral motifs. He had been excavating the site since 1972. The sarcophagus had been deliberately smashed to pieces during the first Jewish revolt against the Romans in A. D. 66 to 72, according to the historian Flavius Josephus, the main source from the time. The rebels despised Herod, whom they saw as a Roman puppet. Mr. Netzer began his archeological career in the 1960s as part of the dig of Masada led by Yigael Yadin, the country’s best-known archeologist, who later went into politics. Masada is the site of a showdown between Roman legionnaires and Jewish rebels after the destruction of Herod’s temple in A. D. 70. That siege ended when the Jews committed suicide en masse and has become a potent symbol in contemporary Israel. Mr. Netzer also dug up the oldest known synagogue near Jericho as well as a Hasmonean winter palace with gardens and pools, and led excavations in Zippori in northern Israel, where a well-known mosaic synagogue floor was found. Mr. Netzer was also exceptional in that he published news of his excavations and findings promptly and in rich detail, according to Yosef Garfinkel, a colleague at Hebrew University. Mr. Netzer is survived by his wife, Devora, four children and 10 grandchildren.

Netzer Ehud
Israel
Archaeology and Anthropology
Deaths (Obituaries)


Court Urged to Reverse a Ruling on Terror

Abstract: The Obama administration on Wednesday urged a federal appeals court to overturn a sweeping ruling by a district judge that blocked the government from enforcing a statute related to the indefinite detention without trial of terrorism suspects. Appearing before a three-judge panel of the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, in Manhattan, Robert M. Loeb, a Justice Department lawyer, said a lawsuit challenging the statute should be dismissed because those who brought it — including a former reporter for The New York Times, Christopher Hedges, who interacts with terrorist groups for his reporting, and several supporters of the antisecrecy group WikiLeaks — had no real-world risk of being detained. “The plaintiffs’ claims all fail at the outset,” Mr. Loeb said, asserting that the plaintiffs had failed to show an “objectively reasonable fear of being placed in long-term detention.” But lawyers for the plaintiffs, Carl J. Mayer and Bruce Afran, insisted that their clients had legal standing to challenge the statute — a provision of the National Defense Authorization Act of 2012 — because it interfered with their right to free speech by creating a basis to fear that they might be placed in military detention on the basis of their activities. The provision authorizes the detention of people who are part of or “substantially supported” Al Qaeda or “associated forces.” When Congress enacted it, lawmakers said the statute merely reaffirmed, and did not expand, the existing detention powers granted a decade earlier in the authorization to use military force against the perpetrators of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. But lawmakers did not specify whether Americans could be detained without trial and were vague about what kind of conduct was off limits. In September, Judge Katherine B. Forrest of Federal District Court ruled that Congress had expanded the government’s detention powers, saying the 2001 version did not cover mere supporters. A portion of her ruling suggested that the government could be held in contempt if it detained anyone under that theory. The Obama administration appealed, arguing that her ruling was wrong and put a cloud over its existing detention authority for prisoners picked up in the Afghanistan war zone . On Wednesday, Judge Raymond J. Lohier, an appellate court judge, pressed Mr. Loeb about whether there had been any authority before the 2011 statute that allowed the government to detain people based upon “substantial support” of a terrorist group. “To my knowledge it has never been applied that way,” Mr. Loeb replied. Another judge on the panel, Lewis Kaplan, questioned whether there could be any guarantee that the current policy limits on powers would always be in place. “The executive branch has been known occasionally to change its mind, isn’t that true?” he asked. David Rivkin, a lawyer representing three lawmakers, including Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, argued that the statute should be upheld because Congress, presidents of both parties and other judges had agreed that the government has, and should have, indefinite detention powers in the war against Al Qaeda. “The political branches are speaking in unison,” Mr. Rivkin said.

Lawsuit
Terrorism
Detainees
Al Qaeda
Military
Afghanistan
Afghanistan War


China to Investigate French Company Over Claims of Tainted Formula

Abstract: BEIJING — After days of articles in Chinese newspapers saying that some children were sickened by infant formula produced by the French food and beverage giant Danone, the government said Thursday that it would investigate whether the company’s Dumex formula was tainted with melamine . The newspaper accounts provided no evidence of contamination, and Danone executives on Thursday rejected the assertions. They said that the company’s infant formula was made entirely from imported milk, and that in 2,600 government inspections since April 2007, no traces of melamine had ever been found. Alejandro Rivas, managing director of the Dumex Baby Food Co. in Shanghai, said there was no evidence that infants had been sickened by its formula. “We want to, once and for all, clarify to Chinese consumers that our products are 100 percent safe,” he said. Since September, inspectors have found melamine contamination in the milk products of 22 Chinese companies believed to have sickened almost 300,000 children and killed 6. The scandal prompted a global recall of products made with Chinese dairy ingredients. This is the first time a foreign majority-owned producer has been accused in the scandal. An industrial compound used in the manufacture of plastics and fertilizers, melamine can cause kidney stones and other health problems if consumed in high quantities. In China , melamine was illegally used to give the illusion of adequate protein content in watered-down milk. The 21st Century Business Herald , a leading newspaper, reported that at least 53 children had been sickened by Dumex milk across China, although it provided no evidence except for quoting Jiang Yalin of Guizhou Province as saying her 20-month-old daughter was found to have kidney stones last September after she drank Dumex. Xinhua, the state news agency, said that the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine would investigate batches of Dumex produced before Sept. 14. Danone is embroiled in a legal battle with its Chinese partner, the Hangzhou Wahaha Group. The two companies are currently in arbitration over ownership of the Wahaha brand, maker of China’s best-selling beverages. In a series of lawsuits, Danone has claimed that its Chinese partner secretly set up parallel companies that sold water and other beverages under the Wahaha name but did not share revenues. Wahaha executives say Danone knew of the side ventures. The battle has been unusually acrimonious, playing out in courts across the world since 2007. Wahaha’s former executive, Zong Qinghou, has accused Danone of slandering his family and spreading lies about his company’s business practices. In a letter he posted on the Internet last year, Mr. Zong vowed to punish Danone for its “evil deeds.” Also on Thursday, Sanlu Group, the dairy company at the heart of the melamine scandal, and which is partly owned by a New Zealand dairy cooperative, was declared bankrupt by a court in Shijiazhuang. In the bankruptcy filing, executives said their company was crippled by $161 million in debt, much of that in medical expenses for children sickened by Sanlu products.

China
Groupe Danone
Infant Formulas
Melamine
Food Contamination and Poisoning
Dairy Products


In New York Housing Project, Cameras Don’t Erase Fear of Crime

Abstract: LIKE many residents of the Elliott-Chelsea Houses, a public housing project in Chelsea, Phyllis Gonzalez tries whenever possible to stay within the gaze of the security cameras posted in the complex’s seven high-rise buildings. Ms. Gonzalez, 61, who has congestive heart failure, uses a motorized wheelchair, and on Tuesday she could be found on tenant patrol duty near the front door of her 21-story building, not far from a camera mounted in the building’s corner. As she kept an eye on passing tenants, she recalled some of the ugly scenes she has witnessed. “I sat here and watched a kid get kicked in the face,” she said matter-of-factly. “They were ripping his earring out of his ear.” She called the police and was told that nothing could be done unless the young man came forward. She understood, but felt frustrated that the attacker had escaped. In this complex, bounded by West 25th and 26th Streets and Ninth and 10th Avenues, a fear of retaliation keeps some victims from reporting crimes against them. “Don’t see nothing, don’t say nothing,” said a man asking strangers for money outside the entrance to the building. That attitude prompted Ms. Gonzalez to wonder aloud: “So, what is the use of the cameras?” Still, many of the project’s nearly 2,400 residents are so unsettled by a spate of nonfatal shootings and muggings over the summer that they were heartened to learn that the city will spend $500,000 to install additional security cameras at both Elliott-Chelsea and Fulton Houses, which is about seven blocks to the south. “These cameras are literally eyes on the street,” said Christine Quinn, the City Council speaker, who obtained the money. In May, shots were fired outside Elliott-Chelsea Houses, and on July 16, a camera captured an image of a man shooting two residents near a playground in front of one of the buildings. The 10th Police Precinct, which includes Elliott-Chelsea, has seen a rise in murders, rapes, robberies and assaults this year, according to the authorities. And neighborhood advocates said night clubs bordering the projects are increasingly a factor in crimes at Elliott-Chelsea, with clubgoers, often intoxicated, committing them. Currently, the buildings are equipped with 94 cameras, said Howard Marder, a spokesman for the New York City Housing Authority. But the cameras, which were installed in 2006, leave what Ms. Gonzalez and other residents refer to as “dead spots”: parking lots, playgrounds, maintenance ramps and other areas outside the cameras’ scope. Too often, residents say, these places become the province of drug deals, pit bull fights and other suspicious activity. One of Ms. Gonzalez’s priorities for a camera is a desolate hallway with pale yellow walls leading from a staircase to the exit of her building. The hallway, she said, which makes many jagged turns that result in minimal visibility, is a favorite location of drug dealers and, in winter, homeless people seeking shelter. “If you’re caught down there, no one can tell,” Ms. Gonzalez said.

Cameras
Security and Warning Systems
Public Housing
New York City Housing Authority
Chelsea (NYC)


Jets’ Ryan Keeps Talking, but Injuries Are a Worry

Abstract: FLORHAM PARK, N.J. — Other than designating the Jets ’ playoff game Sunday against the Patriots as “the second-biggest game in the history of the franchise,” Coach Rex Ryan was much more prudent Friday, particularly when discussing injuries. As his team wrapped up preparations for a game that Ryan says is outweighed in importance only by the Jets’ upset victory over the Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III, Ryan said wide receiver Brad Smith and cornerback Drew Coleman were questionable to play. “And that’s what I’m going to stay with,” Ryan said. “Let them figure it out. Both of those guys could be game-time decisions.” Ryan might have been as evasive as, say, Bill Belichick is almost every day because Ryan has now defined the game as even bigger than the A.F.C. championship game last January, which the Jets lost to Indianapolis. “I think this one is huge because you have your rival, who is a team that has won three Super Bowls, in your own division, at their place and coming off the huge, embarrassing Monday night loss,” he said, referring to the Jets’ 45-3 loss at New England on Dec. 3. Coleman, the team’s nickel back and a special-teams standout, sustained a knee injury in practice Thursday and did not practice Friday. Smith, a wide receiver who returns kicks and also runs the Wildcat offense, has a groin injury and was limited in practice, Ryan said. Neither player was in the locker room when it was open to the news media, but they were not the only concerns. Damien Woody, the veteran right tackle, sustained a season-ending injury to his left Achilles’ tendon against Indianapolis. Brandon Moore, the right guard, participated in practice for the second consecutive day after injuring his back Wednesday lifting weights and expects to play. He said of his injury, “It’s a non-issue, really.” Smith’s injury could be more problematic than Coleman’s because he is a superb kick returner, scoring two touchdowns and averaging 28.6 yards a return in the regular season. Smith, a former Missouri quarterback, has 310 yards rushing in 17 games. Ryan has an alternate kick returner in cornerback Antonio Cromartie, who returned two kickoffs for 88 yards against the Colts after Smith was hurt, including a 47-yard return that led to Nick Folk’s winning 32-yard field goal as time expired. “Whatever way it is medically, we’ll be prepared to go,” Mike Westhoff, the special-teams coach, said Thursday. Asked if Cromartie could return kicks Sunday so that Smith could focus on running the Wildcat, Ryan said: “That’s certainly a possibility. The way Cro looked, he’s an explosive returner back there and, certainly, we could definitely do that.” Mike Pettine, the defensive coordinator, said Coleman would probably be replaced as a nickel back by a “committee” of several players if he was unable to play. Included in that group is the rookie Kyle Wilson, who has been in and out of the lineup. “All I can do is just be ready, and when my number is called, just go out there and play fast,” Wilson said. After he announced that Coleman had been injured, Ryan mentioned that Isaiah Trufant, a cornerback signed to the practice squad Dec. 8 and activated for the regular-season finale against Buffalo, could be an option to replace Coleman. On Friday, Ryan sounded less interested in using Trufant, saying, “He probably doesn’t know the defense as well as other players, which would probably be the biggest setback.” Reflecting the mood of his team, Ryan was less playful than he had been earlier in the week. He said the “hay was in the barn” in regard to the team’s preparation, and he all but promised that Sunday’s game would not end the way the Dec. 3 game did. He even gave New England receiver Wes Welker a pass. Welker had referred to feet 11 times in a news conference Thursday, apparently poking fun at Internet videos that were reported to be of Ryan admiring his wife’s feet. “I think this is a huge rivalry type game, and anything goes,” Ryan said. “I can take it,” Ryan said. Drawing laughs, he added, “I’m not going to discuss it, but I can take it.”

New York Jets
Ryan Rex
Smith Brad
Coleman Drew
Sports Injuries
New England Patriots
Football
Playoff Games


Pope Sets Tone in U.S. by Naming Inclusive Prelate as Chicago Archbishop

Abstract: In his first major appointment in the United States, Pope Francis named Bishop Blase J. Cupich of Spokane, Wash., on Saturday to be the next archbishop of Chicago, replacing a combative conservative with a prelate whose pastoral approach to upholding church doctrine is more in keeping with the pope’s inclusive tone. Bishop Cupich, 65, will be installed on Nov. 18 as the ninth archbishop of Chicago, succeeding Cardinal Francis George, 77, who is ill with cancer. Two years ago, at 75, Cardinal George offered his resignation, as is the church tradition at that age. Pope Francis’ choice of prelate for Chicago was highly anticipated as a sign of the direction he intends to set for the Roman Catholic Church in the United States. Chicago is the nation’s third-largest Roman Catholic diocese, with 2.3 million members, and its archbishops have often taken leading roles in the American hierarchy. Bishop Cupich appeared at ease in a news conference on Saturday morning in Chicago, deftly handling questions about whether he would call himself a “moderate” and what message Francis may be trying to send with the selection. “His priority is not to send a message but a bishop, and that’s what he’s sending you, someone to serve the needs of people,” Bishop Cupich said. “I think he sent a pastor, not a messenger.” Very early into his prepared remarks he shifted into Spanish, the language of a growing percentage of Chicago’s Catholics, saying they should think of him as “your brother” and relating that his relatives were immigrants. He gave a strong push, in English, for immigration reform, saying, “It’s time for political leaders to put aside their own agendas and to take up this issue.” Bishop Cupich (pronounced SOO-pitch) has been chairman of the bishops’ committee responding to the sexual abuse crisis, and has at times been unusually forthright in criticizing the church’s record on abuse. He took over the Spokane Diocese in 2010 after it was sued by abuse victims and declared bankruptcy, and it is still embroiled in a legal case over how the bankruptcy was handled. He spoke out against a referendum on same-sex marriage in Washington State in 2012. But even before Francis became pope, Bishop Cupich and he sounded much alike. Bishop Cupich emphasized care for the poor and dispossessed, and on hot-button moral issues he employed a tone that emphasized respect and dignity for gays and dialogue with those who disagreed with church teaching. In a pastoral letter before the vote on same-sex marriage, Bishop Cupich wrote that “the Catholic Church has no tolerance for the misuse of this moment to incite hostility towards homosexual persons or promote an agenda that is hateful and disrespectful of their human dignity.” Some liberal Catholic commentators and groups, like Call to Action, which is based in Chicago, praised the appointment, while some conservatives were a bit wary. They recalled an experience in 2011 when priests and seminarians said Bishop Cupich had urged them not to join protesters planning to hold prayer vigils outside clinics that perform abortions. In a brief interview on Saturday immediately after the news conference, Bishop Cupich was asked whether his approach to ministry is to emphasize dialogue over confrontation. He said the church should be willing to confront social issues head-on, but also to listen to opponents. “I’ve learned from people on both sides of any issue,” he said. “So both are needed: dialogue and, I think, confrontation at times. I’m not afraid of that.” The Rev. John I. Jenkins, president of the University of Notre Dame, said in a statement , “Having first met Bishop Blase Cupich when I was an 18-year-old backpacker in Europe and he was a seminarian in Rome, I can say with confidence that, as archbishop of Chicago, he will be a pastorally dedicated, theologically astute and visionary leader in line with Francis’ transformative papacy.” Cardinal George, who has served in Chicago since 1997, led the American bishops’ conference in confrontations with the Obama administration over abortion, same-sex marriage and religious liberty. His immediate predecessor, Cardinal Joseph Bernardin, a prominent liberal, was also elected president of the American bishops’ conference and galvanized a generation of church leaders to take stands on such issues as economic justice, nuclear weapons and the environment. As the bishops were gearing up to sue the Obama administration over the contraception mandate in the health care overhaul, Bishop Cupich called for a “return to civility” in an essay he wrote in the Jesuit magazine America. He wrote that “outrage” over the mandate was “understandable,” and that religious freedom truly was at risk, but warned against letting the situation escalate lest it “bring lasting harm to both the church and the nation, and even worse, disproportionately affect the least among us.” Blase (pronounced BLAZE) Joseph Cupich was born in Omaha on March 19, 1949, one of nine children and a grandson of Croatian immigrants. He has a bachelor of arts degree from the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, studied in Rome and holds a doctorate in sacred theology from The Catholic University of America in Washington. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1975 for the Archdiocese of Omaha and worked in parishes and a Catholic high school in Omaha; served as rector of a Catholic college in Columbus, Ohio; and in 1998 was made bishop of Rapid City, S.D., by Pope John Paul II. After 12 years, Pope Benedict appointed him bishop of the Diocese of Spokane, and he was installed on Sept. 3, 2010. Bishop Cupich said in the news conference that he was “overwhelmed and very surprised” when he learned of the appointment during a phone call about 10 days ago from the pope’s ambassador to the United States, Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò. Bishop Cupich told reporters that the populous Chicago Archdiocese was an “enormous upgrade, so to speak,” from Spokane, which has about 100,000 Catholics. He said the Spokane Diocese bankruptcy, which was initiated by his predecessor, had left “some issues that need to be resolved.” The diocese has filed a malpractice suit against the law firm that handled the bankruptcy, accusing the firm of failing to use a strategy that would have prevented more sexual abuse claims from being filed. So far, about 230 claims have been filed, according to The Spokesman-Review newspaper. The Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests said it had been disappointed by Bishop Cupich’s record on sexual abuse in Spokane and his role as chairman of the bishops’ committee on child protection. In an interview with The New York Times in June, Bishop Cupich said he had been reading Francis’ writings on redistribution of wealth, collaborative leadership and leading by listening. “I’ve always believed in collaboration and consultation, but I guess I’m listening more intently to the voices of people who might not have had the kind of hearing that they should have — people of diverse backgrounds, people with differing opinions,” Bishop Cupich said. His lifestyle is in keeping with the frugal example that Francis has been setting for bishops. Bishop Cupich said that in Spokane he lives in a room at the seminary and does not own any furniture. At the news conference on Saturday, Cardinal George, who is undergoing an experimental cancer treatment and is a survivor of polio, expressed confidence in his successor and “relief” that Francis is allowing him to step down. But the famously intellectual cardinal also shared his mixed feelings. “At one moment you’re the center of everything, and at the next moment,” he said, “you’re not.”

Blase J. Cupich
Pope Francis
Catholic Church
Chicago
Priest
Francis E George


Hamilton’s Formula One Title That Wasn’t

Abstract: Before the race, it had seemed that the Chinese Grand Prix of 2007 was set to make history no matter what the outcome. The British driver Lewis Hamilton, a rookie at McLaren Mercedes who had been a protégé of the team since childhood, led the series by 12 points and could win the drivers’ title in this, the penultimate race of the season. His teammate, Fernando Alonso, a two-time world champion who was in his first year at McLaren, was the second-placed driver, 12 points behind Hamilton, while Kimi Raikkonen, in his first year at Ferrari, was 5 more points adrift of the British driver. To win the championship in his first season and become the first mixed-race world drivers’ champion, Hamilton had only to finish within 1 point of his teammate or within 6 points of the Ferrari driver. It had been a spectacular season for the rookie. But it had also been littered with disputes within the team over its dueling drivers, and with the biggest cheating scandal in the series’ history: McLaren was disqualified from the constructors’ championship and required to pay a $100 million fine after a spying scandal in which it had obtained secrets of Ferrari’s car design. In Shanghai, Hamilton scored the pole position, with Raikkonen second on the grid, Felipe Massa, the other Ferrari driver, in third, and Alonso fourth. It seemed almost a formality that Hamilton would win the title there. But it rained shortly before the race, so the drivers used intermediate wet-weather tires — which are lightly treaded — on the wet track. At the start, the four leading drivers on the grid maintained their positions, with Hamilton quickly building a huge lead. But it looked as if he was on a light fuel tank, and when he made his first pit stop after only 14 laps, that was confirmed. Still, he comfortably controlled the race. But then it began to rain again. The downpour created complicated choices for the teams about precisely when to stop and which tires to use. Hamilton was kept on the track as his team weighed options and his tires began to wear. By Lap 28, he lost the lead to Raikkonen. This was not a problem, however: He only needed to finish second and keep Alonso — who was in third — behind him to win the title, even if the Ferrari driver won the race. But the longer he stayed on the track, the more his tires began to wear out and become ineffective. His right rear tire in particular was in bad shape, running down to the canvas and beginning to delaminate. “The tires were finished, ” Hamilton later said. “It was like driving on ice.” He finally turned in to make his pit stop after Lap 31. It should have been a formality. He should have quickly rejoined the track and maintained a position to win the title. But as he headed into the pit lane, he slid off the entry road and into a gravel trap, where the car became stuck. Hamilton could not move the car. A crane had to be used to remove it from the gravel. Not only had Hamilton lost the race; worse, Alonso finished second and Raikkonen won, gaining 10 points and setting up a three-way showdown for the title in the final race, in Brazil. In São Paulo, the seemingly impossible happened: Raikkonen won the race, and Hamilton and Alonso finished seventh and third, respectively. With that, Raikkonen won the title, 1 point ahead of both of the McLaren drivers, who finished the series level on points. Hamilton’s remarkable debut season ended in sadness and even controversy. His team director, Ron Dennis, had said after the China race that the team had not been thinking about Raikkonen, but had been trying to make sure that Alonso finished behind Hamilton. “We weren’t racing Kimi, we were basically racing Fernando,” Dennis said. “Kimi winning and Lewis coming second was adequate. It just didn’t quite work out that way.” That led Alonso to request that the race stewards keep an eye on the McLaren management at the final race to make sure that the team treated him and Hamilton equally. For his part, Hamilton said of his mistake in China: “When I got out of the car I was just gutted. Because I haven’t made a mistake all year and to do it on the way into the pit, is not something I usually do. But you can’t go through life without making mistakes.” Few people blamed Hamilton entirely for the error. Many in the British public and news media chose to blame McLaren for keeping him out on the track too long. “Job vacancy: McLaren race engineer. Must be able to spot when tires are falling to bits,” David Croft said while doing commentary on the race for BBC radio. In any case, Alonso left McLaren after the season, returning to Renault, the team where he had won his world titles. And Hamilton went on to win the title the next year — clinching it by 1 point over Massa in the last race, in Brazil.

Formula One
Car Racing
China
Shanghai
Fernando Alonso
Ferrari
McLaren Racing


Tacitly, Britain’s Top Banker Makes Case for Staying in E.U.

Abstract: LONDON — Britons may be divided on whether they should remain within the European Union, recent public opinion polls show, but many big players in business and finance appear to know their views — and they seem to want to stay in the bloc. On Wednesday, the governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, gave a positive, if cautious, assessment of British membership in the union, on which Britons will vote in a referendum by the end of 2017. That came after a more full-throated endorsement of the bloc issued by the country’s main business lobby, the Confederation of British Industry. Speaking at the University of Oxford, Mr. Carney stressed that he was not giving an overall verdict on British membership, but on its implications for the bank. “Over all, European Union membership has increased the openness of the U.K. economy, facilitating dynamism, but also creating some monetary and financial stability challenges for the Bank of England to manage,” he said. “Thus far, we have been able to meet these challenges,” he added. Mr. Carney also said that Britain’s openness had made it vulnerable to shocks after the euro crisis and he argued that there should be “clear principles to safeguard the interests of non-euro member states,” including Britain, which kept the pound rather than adopting the European single currency. Aside from his status as a central bank governor, Mr. Carney, may prove to be influential player in the debate partly because, as a Canadian, he is a relative newcomer to Britain’s agonized internal debate about its place in Europe. Those campaigning for Britain to stay in the European Union often rely on the economic case for membership, and therefore hope that the voices of business and finance leaders could prove persuasive. On Wednesday, the Confederation of British Industry laid out its case for staying in a single market of 500 million people, and for being able to influence the bloc’s rules and standards. “Alternative arrangements to full membership either have serious downsides or are surrounded by huge uncertainty,” Britain’s main business group said. The industry group conceded that some of its members “recognize that there are disadvantages to E.U. membership,” and called for the regulatory burden on smaller businesses to be eased and for further measures to increase competitiveness in Europe. Still, it argued that membership in the bloc remained in the national interest. “For business, the benefits of full membership outweigh the disadvantages, but the European Union must work better,” said the confederation’s director general, John Cridland. Vote Leave, one of the groups campaigning for withdrawal from the union, rejected the business group’s argument. “The fundamental logic of the single market is not supported by most U.K. businesses,” it said in a statement. “We want to end the supremacy of European Union law and regain the ability to make our own trade deals. There is only one way to choose our future, and that is to Vote Leave in the European Union referendum.” Both sides of the argument have held campaign kickoffs in recent weeks, and, while big business appears more favorable to the “in” campaign, there are also some significant figures in the business world who want Britain to quit. They argue that outside the bloc, Britain could forge advantageous trade deals with other areas of the globe, and that, being tied to sluggish continental European economies is akin to being shackled to an economic corpse. Before the referendum, Prime Minister David Cameron plans to renegotiate key aspects of British membership of the European Union, changes that — if achieved — he hopes to use to persuade Britons to stay in. Under pressure from several European allies, including France, Mr. Cameron has promised to give more information next month on the type of legislative and other concessions he wants. But on Tuesday, Britain’s minister for Europe, David Lidington, suggested this would not amount to a detailed list. Mr. Lidington told reporters in London that his advice to Mr. Cameron was that the “last thing” he should do should be to publish “a detailed negotiating position” setting out “red lines.” That, he added, was “because a detailed negotiating position becomes seen either as an opening bid, from which you can of course be negotiated down, or it is seen by another group of people as an absolute minimum that you must get, and any retreat from that is a devastating reverse.” Progress in these negotiations will determine the timing of the referendum, Mr. Lidington added. “You could be looking at next summer, you could be looking at next autumn, if we are still in European negotiations this time next year, then you’re looking at 2017, sometime,” Mr. Lidington said. Opinion polls tend to show Britain narrowly in favor of remaining in the European Union, and a study this week by Natcen , a social research institute, said that younger and better educated voters tended to be more opposed to British withdrawal.

Referendum
Great Britain
EU
International trade
Bank of England
Mark Carney


Potsdam Boy’s Murder Case May Hinge on Minuscule DNA Sample From Fingernail

Abstract: POTSDAM, N.Y. — A long-simmering murder case in northern New York connected to the strangulation of a 12-year-old boy is shaping up as an important legal test of a cutting-edge method of teasing DNA evidence out of microscopic amounts of biological matter. The case involves the killing of the boy, Garrett Phillips , here in October 2011, a crime for which a former local college soccer coach, Oral Nicholas Hillary, has been charged, despite a seeming paucity of physical evidence. In recent months, however, the prosecution has suggested that it may use low-template DNA analysis to tie Mr. Hillary to Garrett’s murder, utilizing sophisticated algorithms to determine statistical probabilities by analyzing genetic data that older methods could not interpret. In particular, the prosecution is attempting to use software developed by a New Zealand company — STRmix — on a minute sample that was scraped from one of Garrett’s fingernails and came from an unknown individual, possibly during a struggle. But the defense team — led by a prominent civil rights lawyer, Norman Siegel , and a criminal defense lawyer, Earl S. Ward — has challenged the methodology as unreliable, citing past problems with STRmix’s computer programs, as well as the minuscule amount of material used for analysis. And this month, the judge in the case, Felix J. Catena, agreed to a so-called Frye hearing on the admissibility of the STRmix program, citing the extremely small amount of biological material. Image Garrett Phillips, 12, in 2011. Credit No credit. The hearing is scheduled to begin on Monday in nearby Canton; its outcome may be felt in Potsdam — a riverfront village that has been shaken and divided by Garrett’s murder — as well as further afield, as prosecutors seek more methods to convict those charged and defense lawyers seek more ways to exonerate them. New computer programs have allowed analysis of many samples — often with mixed and multiple individuals’ DNA — that were previously considered inconclusive. Still, there is scientific debate about the use of such low-template DNA (which refers to how much DNA is recovered, sometimes as little a few cells) and low-copy-number DNA analysis (the process of using extra amplification of very small samples). In the case of the STRmix method, a Michigan court allowed expert testimony on its use and its statistical evidence in December, but the program has faced only one Frye hearing in New York before, in a sexual assault case in Niagara County this year, where the analysis was allowed. In the Phillips case, the small amount of material recovered has caused the defense to fight its introduction at trial. Image Oral Nicholas Hillary, who was a former boyfriend of Garrett Phillips’s mother, was charged in 2014 for the boy’s 2011 murder; he has maintained his innocence and has suggested the prosecution may be driven in part by race. Credit Nathaniel Brooks for The New York Times “The use of STRmix and the interpretation of STRmix of low-template DNA is inappropriate, unreliable and leads to a wrong conclusion,” Mr. Siegel said in an interview on Friday. The most immediate effect of the hearing may be on Mr. Hillary, who has steadfastly maintained his innocence, suggesting that the prosecution may be driven in part by his race: Mr. Hillary, 42, is black, while the vast majority of St. Lawrence County is white, as was Garrett. The St. Lawrence County district attorney, Mary Rain, has denied that Mr. Hillary’s race is a motivating factor. But his assertion of an unjustified prosecution has been bolstered by the lack of hard evidence: The police have said in earlier testimony that no fingerprints, no witnesses and no hair or tissue samples link him to the crime. Mr. Hillary, who still lives in Potsdam with his girlfriend and their five children, has also been backed by a public campaign to press his innocence. At the same time, Ms. Rain’s competence has been questioned after a series of professional missteps that led to a no-confidence vote by county legislators in April. Image From left: Mr. Hillary’s lawyers, Earl Ward and Norman Siegel; Mary Rain, St. Lawrence County district attorney, and William Fitzpatrick, a fellow prosecutor. Credit From left: Annie Tritt for the New York Times; Ozier Muhammad/The New York Times; Nathaniel Brooks for The New York Times; Kevin Rivoli/Associated Press The Frye hearing is the latest legal chapter in a case that stretches back almost five years to Garrett’s murder, which occurred on a rainy afternoon in a run-down apartment building along one of this village’s main thoroughfares. Mr. Hillary, the coach of the men’s soccer team at Clarkson University here when Garrett was killed, was a former boyfriend of the boy’s mother, and a suspect from the beginning. He was not charged until 2014 , after Ms. Rain, a Republican who had promised to bring new scrutiny to the crime, was elected. (Her predecessor, Nicole Duve, a Democrat, had declined to bring charges, citing a lack of evidence.) The first indictment against Mr. Hillary was thrown out for prosecutorial misconduct, and though a second indictment was later secured, the judge in the case asked to be recused earlier this year after filing an ethics complaint against Ms. Rain. Ms. Rain has enlisted William Fitzpatrick , a well-regarded district attorney from the Syracuse area, to assist in the prosecution. Ms. Rain and Mr. Fitzpatrick, citing a judge’s order, declined to comment on the case or the Frye hearing. A spokesman for STRmix also declined to comment on the case. Last year, a coding error in the STRmix program was reported to have affected probabilities in dozens of cases in Queensland, Australia. Dr. John Buckleton , a creator of STRmix, is expected to testify during the hearing in Canton. Mr. Hillary is also expected to attend.

Potsdam
Garrett Phillips
Murders and Homicides
Oral Nicholas Hillary
Forensic science
DNA
STRmix


Endangered Species Listings Stall Amid Flood of Petitions

Abstract: In February, the Obama administration declared the Pacific walrus to be at risk of extinction because its Arctic habitat was melting. But it declined to list the marine mammal as an endangered species, saying a backlog of other animals faced greater peril. Now, it turns out, the walrus is on a very long waiting list. The federal Fish and Wildlife Service is in emergency triage mode as it struggles with an avalanche of petitions and lawsuits over the endangered species list, the chief tool for protecting plants and animals facing extinction in the United States. Over the last four years, a few environmental groups have requested that more than 1,230 species be listed, compared with the previous 12 years in which annual requests averaged only 20 species. Some environmental groups argue that vastly expanded listings are needed as evidence mounts that the world is entering an era of mass extinctions related to destruction of habitat, climate and other changes. Such threats require a focus on entire ecosystems, they say, rather than individual species. Fish and Wildlife Service officials say the barrage has paralyzed the listing process. Last month, the agency asked Congress to intervene and impose a limit on the number of species it must consider for protection, setting the stage for a showdown. “The many requests for species petitions has inundated the listing program’s domestic species listing capabilities,” the service wrote in its 2012 budget request. Already it faces a backlog of 254 species — including the yellow-billed loon, Gunnison’s prairie dog and the North American wolverine. It says their protection is warranted but precluded by a lack of resources. The Fish and Wildlife Service declined to make officials available for comment. But Gary Frazer, the agency’s assistant director for endangered species, discussed the mass of filings in an interview last year. “These megapetitions are putting us in a difficult spot, and they’re basically going to shut down our ability to list any candidates for the foreseeable future,” Mr. Frazer said. “If all our resources are used responding to petitions, we don’t have resources to put species on the endangered species list. It’s not a happy situation.” Two environmental groups, the Center for Biological Diversity and WildEarth Guardians , have filed 90 percent of the listings petitions since 2007 and maintain that a bioblitz, as it is often called, is the best strategy for forcing the service to be more assertive in its wildlife protection mission. “We want to compel the Fish and Wildlife Service to look at the full extent of the extinction crisis in the United States,” said Nicole Rosmarino, wildlife program director for WildEarth Guardians, which is based in Santa Fe, N.M. “We would like a system where the service is actively looking for species that merit protection rather than the current system where groups like ours have to drive this process.” The wider environmental community appears divided on the mass-listing strategy. “It is undoubtedly the case that the resources and the staffing for the Fish and Wildlife Service are inadequate,” said Bob Irvin, senior vice president for conservation programs at Defenders of Wildlife in Washington. “The question is, is tying the service in knots the best way to save the web of life?” In its 2012 budget request, the service estimated that in 2011 it will be able to make final listing decisions on only 4 percent of warranted petitions within one year as required by law, down from 12 percent in 2010. Since Congress passed the Endangered Species Act 37 years ago, some 1,370 species have been listed, the last being the southern rockhopper penguin. Last month, the agency asked Congress to impose a cap on the amount of money the agency can spend on processing listing petitions, both to control its workload and as a defense against lawsuits. “We would essentially use that as our defense for not doing more,” Mr. Frazer, the agency’s assistant director for endangered species, testified, “so that we can balance among the various duties that we have.” This month, Congress intervened with the list for the first time, removing protections for wolves in Montana and Idaho, but it is unclear whether it will act on the wildlife service’s current request. Patrick Parenteau, a professor and endangered species expert at Vermont Law School who was special counsel to the Fish and Wildlife Service in the 1990s, said he could empathize with both sides. “The agency does seem to be reaching a political tipping point,” he said. “They feel overwhelmed, they feel politically vulnerable, they can’t handle the job, and all these petitions makes it harder and harder.” “But from an endangered species conservation perspective, the environmentalists are doing exactly what the science demands,” he added. “If you want to save these species, you have to list them, designate their critical habitat and spend money.” WildEarth Guardians and the Center for Biological Diversity have filed more than 100 lawsuits against the Interior Department over listing delays involving some 1,100 species since 2007, according to government records. Under the act, the Interior Department must determine if a petition to list a species warrants further investigation within 90 days of its receipt. Officials acknowledge that the Fish and Wildlife Service invariably misses that deadline. If the agency issues a finding that a listing may be warranted, it has 12 months to conduct a scientific investigation and make a final determination. That deadline is often missed as well, leading to more litigation. The Center for Biological Diversity is a particularly formidable adversary. The nonprofit group, based in Tucson, has 20 lawyers on its staff in more than a dozen offices across the country. The center raised $7.5 million in 2009, according to its annual report, including $4.8 million from membership donations and $1.2 million in what it calls “legal returns” from cases. The Fish and Wildlife Service’s 2012 budget request includes $24.6 million for the endangered-species listing program, including paying a staff of 141. That is an 11 percent increase from the previous fiscal year and a 28 percent rise since 2009. Daniel J. Rohlf, an associate professor at Lewis & Clark Law School in Portland, Ore., who specializes in endangered species law, said that was nowhere near sufficient. “In an age of accelerating threats to biodiversity, not just from habitat loss but from invasive species and climate change , the budgets for Fish and Wildlife Service have not even been close to keeping up with the demands on the agency,” Mr. Rohlf said. Noah Greenwald, the endangered species program director for the Center for Biological Diversity, said the government needed to streamline the listing process. “It’s more efficient to list species in batches by habitat or geography,” he said. “The petitions are also designed in part to pressure them to take that approach more often.” According to a 2004 review conducted by the center, 42 species went extinct in the first 21 years of the Endangered Species Act’s existence while waiting to be listed. The study found that 24 species — including the four-angled pelea, a Hawaiian flowering plant, and the honeyeater, a bird native to Guam — became extinct while on the candidate list. Last year, the Center for Biological Diversity filed a petition to list 404 plants and animals, including the Alabama hickory nut and the frecklebelly madtom, citing an “extinction crisis” for species dependent on waterways in the Southeast. WildEarth Guardians began its barrage in 2007 in reaction to a sharp decline in listing decisions under the Bush administration. In that administration, only eight species were listed a year on average, compared with 58 per year in the Clinton administration, according to the center. In a little over two years, the Obama administration has listed 59 species, Mr. Rohlf said. Of those, 48 were species of Hawaiian birds and plants listed as a group, in the kind of broad approach to habitat advocated by the most active petitioners. “We’re pushing species to extinction every day, and it’s an overwhelming job, frankly, that the Fish and Wildlife Service has,” Mr. Parenteau said. “But is the answer to put your head in the sand and say, We’re not going to do it?”

Endangered and Extinct Species
Environment
Fish and Wildlife Service


‘You See Your Boys, You Stop’: At Le Basket in Greenwich Village

Abstract: You’re a bike messenger in New York City and you’ve just finished your day, clocking in more than 50 miles racing around town contending with traffic and chaos. You’d like to unwind with your colleagues over a beer. The obvious, if unlikely, choice is Le Basket , a deli at the corner of Broadway and East Third Street whose utilitarian outdoor seating area doubles as a beer garden where, thanks to the bike messengers who stop there on their way home, it’s always happy hour. On a recent Tuesday, a cluster of messengers gathered around two stainless-steel tables on the deli’s enclosed sidewalk patio. Clean Bandit’s “Rather Be” played on a Bluetooth speaker, accompanied by the din of Broadway traffic and the rumbling subway below, as beer cans were popped and the no-smoking sign disregarded. “What more could I want?” asked Sam Williams, 30, a messenger who has been a Le Basket regular for a decade. “I can get food, alcohol, cigarettes, there’s a bathroom, you got your music going. Basically, we’re in control of the bar versus the bar being in control of us.” Mr. Williams acts as a liaison with the owner when things get out of hand, as they did this summer when too many messengers crowded into the space and rowdiness ensued. (The proprietor, who identified himself only as “Mr. Lee,” said he opened the place about 10 years ago, but otherwise he declined to talk.) Al Lopez, 31, who was shirtless and tattooed, took swigs from a 25-ounce can of Bud Light ($3), his brakeless, steel-frame track bike locked to the railing. He chalked up the bad behavior to a wave of newbies who got into the game because of the recent bike-messenger thriller, “Premium Rush.” He has considered going elsewhere, but Le Basket is hard to resist. “You’re going home, you see your boys, you stop, you have a beer, you have three beers, whatever,” Mr. Lopez said. “You sit here, there’s a beautiful view of the flow of life, and it’s economical.” Of course, that’s precisely what draws the mix of in-the-know patrons who park themselves at this still point of the turning world — from college students to artists to tourists, like Dora Lapuerta, 50, a lawyer from Spain who was at the neighboring table enjoying a tall Heineken ($4.75) with her husband, Juan Loeck, 55. “This is our bar here in New York,” she said. Inside, it’s your typical mom-and-pop Korean deli. It’s got a prepared-food bar, the usual snacks, an ATM, stacks of Kleenex and toilet paper, two refrigerators full of domestic and foreign beers and freshly made sandwiches praised by Yelp reviewers. On a warm evening a few days later, the tables were littered with beer cans, and all 20 seats were taken, bicycles stacked on a nearby sign pole. “Le Basket is a steppingstone between work and home — or the next bar,” said Douglas Plantada, 27, a messenger living in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. Sitting a few tables away was Kyle Nicholas, 34, a web producer who was part of another contingent that has staked out a space: skateboarders. He described Le Basket as “a sanctuary” amid the rush of Broadway where he has met many characters over the years, having discovered it when he lived nearby. “This is the only place that draws me back to the area,” he said, tall-boy Bud in hand. “It’s more authentic than the pretentious places downtown. It’s got a soul.”

Le Basket
Lower East Side Manhattan
Biking
Restaurant
Delicatessen
Greenwich Village Manhattan


Teams in Upstate New York Play Dodgeball for 43 Hours

Abstract: HALFMOON, N.Y. — Max Standa bounded up the stairs in a bustling sports complex here, cleats on, shin guards up, urging on friends behind him. “This way,” he said, dashing past a mass of sleeping bags and pillows and empty Gatorade bottles. On the fields below, hundreds of people watched soccer scrimmages, but this 9-year-old sought a different game entirely, which he had discovered the night before. Around a corner, on a narrow court bound by plexiglass, he found it. “Oh, yes!” he said. “They’re still playing!” A dozen men and women charged the midcourt line, grabbing at six red balls and scattering as the shots began to fly. As the balls struck bodies, players stepped off until one lone man faced a double threat: two balls sailed at him at once. Thwack! The boys cheered. It was Hour 17. Max slept, but the games did not stop. On Friday night in this small town north of Albany, two teams representing Halfmoon’s Hometown Dodgeball league began their first game. Before the weekend was over, they would play roughly 800 more, fighting off swollen feet and fiery shoulders in an attempt to break a Guinness World Record for the longest marathon of dodgeball. The man behind the quest was Rob Immel, a 31-year-old physical education teacher from Ballston Spa, N.Y. Mr. Immel, who founded the league in 2005 and is a regular competitor at the National Dodgeball League World Championship, was on the Hometown team that earned the 2010 record for a 31-hour game, playing against Albany Dodgeball. The current holder, according to Guinness World Records, is a group at Castleton State College in Vermont. Their time: 41 hours 3 minutes 17 seconds. Image Toshiya Yoshida flew 14 hours from Tokyo to play. Credit Nathaniel Brooks for The New York Times To reclaim the title, Mr. Immel rounded up a team and picked a magic number of his own: 43. The effort is not only about the record, he said — “though it belongs here in New York” — but the game itself. “It’s an incredible sport and I want as many people to know about it as possible,” Mr. Immel said. “I obviously love it if I’m motivated to go out and put myself through this for 43 hours.” The players sported knee braces and tattoos and shirts screaming their love of the game, a world away from weekday jobs in schools and print shops and advertising agencies. While most were members of the Hometown league, some drove up from Manhattan and one especially devoted player flew across the world. Toshiya Yoshida, 32, who lives in Tokyo, met Mr. Immel last summer at the world championships in Las Vegas. Despite the language barrier, his love of the game was evident and the upstate players quickly befriended him. After a 14-hour flight Thursday, Mr. Yoshida arrived, bleary-eyed but happy. “I wanted to show my gratitude for their kindness,” Mr. Yoshida said. “When they invited me, I wanted to contribute for Rob and for this team.” He rubbed his eyes, smiling. “We play so hard and I am so very tired.” The parameters left little time for rest: six players on the court, a total of nine per team. Every hour played earned a five-minute break. The group banked their breaks, waiting until 6:34 on Saturday morning — their 23rd hour — for the first official break. Forty-five minutes later, they were back on the court. As Saturday turned to Sunday, the lights in the complex were off, the visitors gone. Music from a 680-song playlist, including Metallica, Salt-N-Pepa and the Dropkick Murphys blasted from speakers to keep everyone awake. The air was cold, bandages now hidden beneath sweatshirts and track pants. Image The players' belongings filled the Sportsplex of Halfmoon, N.Y. Credit Nathaniel Brooks for The New York Times It was Hour 27. Egg sandwiches arrived at dawn, along with family members for the final push. And finally, 41 hours after the first game Friday night, Castleton’s record was broken. The players crossed the centerline, slapping hands, giddy. They savored the moment — for three minutes — and then the balls began to fly. Hour 43 was in sight. Lizzy Tepper, 29, a preschool teacher from Manhattan, looked on wistfully as she rubbed her cracked hands. “I almost feel a little sad that this is going to be over,” Ms. Tepper said. “But not that much,” quipped 30-year-old Tommy Huthansel, beside her. Mr. Huthansel, who began the games wearing a Mexican wrestling mask, was on his seventh T-shirt and third pair of sneakers. The end arrived at 2:30 p.m. amid cheers and spraying Champagne. Though logbooks and videos would have to be reviewed by Guinness World Records before any official crowning, for the team, a record stood. Dan Lester, a 31-year-old Albany bartender who had played 31 hours with the 2010 team, celebrated amid his teammates, mulling the hours ahead — “I got a Guinness, I’m going to drink a Guinness” — and the previous 43. “Pretty epic,” he said. His body mapped the hours as well: cracked knuckles, bloody knees and bright red turf rash crawling along his shins. “I can’t feel my legs. I can’t even sit down because I don’t think I could get back up. But I got my record back.” He laughed. “And I’m never going to do it again.”