Showtime Chief Matthew Blank to Step Aside Next Year

Abstract: Showtime’s longtime chief executive, Matthew C. Blank, will step aside early next year and be succeeded by his second in command, David Nevins, the network announced on Thursday. Mr. Blank will retain the title of chairman. Mr. Blank has been chief executive since 1995. Showtime has long been in the shadow of its bigger rival, HBO, but the premium cable channel has made big strides in the last few years, with hit shows like “Homeland,” “Dexter” and “Masters of Sex.” Les Moonves, the chief executive of Showtime’s parent company, CBS, praised Mr. Blank for “building Showtime into the powerhouse it is today.” Mr. Nevins, currently the president, will become chief executive on Jan. 1; his contract has been extended through 2018, the network said. He joined the network five years ago and previously worked as a producer for “Arrested Development” and “24.”

Matthew C Blank
David Nevins
Showtime
Appointments and Executive Changes
Cable television


Lundqvist's Painful Move Saves Sweden

Abstract: TURIN, Italy, Feb. 26 - As Henrik Lundqvist dropped into a split, a hockey goalie turned ice dancer, an arena winced and a country cringed. Sweden led Finland by one goal. The clock at Palasport Olimpico showed 25 seconds. The puck trickled ominously into the crease. Lundqvist, the Swedish goalie who plays for the Rangers when he is not at the Olympics, had little choice but to assume his most painful position. Shielded from the action, Lundqvist said he did not see Finland's Olli Jokinen kick the puck with his skate, control it with his stick and fling it toward the net. Stretched across the goal line, Lundqvist missed the puck with his right leg. He missed it with his right arm. Only a couple splinters of his stick secured Sweden's 3-2 victory over Finland in Sunday's gold medal game, the final event of the Olympics. "It was," Lundqvist said, "one of the most important saves of my career." As the Swedish forward Fredrik Modin said: "It was the gold. Right there." The last time Sweden captured a gold medal in hockey, at the Lillehammer Games in 1994, the Swedish Postal Services created a stamp to commemorate Peter Forsberg's winning goal. Should a new stamp be issued, it will have to show Lundqvist with his legs splayed. It will have to show Jokinen, starting to raise his arms. And it will have to show the puck finally dribbling away. "Close," Jokinen said. "Sick," Forsberg said. "Luck," Lundqvist said. When the 25 seconds had ticked to zero, Lundqvist was Sweden's newest legend and the Rangers' newest icon, all at once. He took off his mask, emblazoned with the Statue of Liberty, and tossed it triumphantly in the air. He untucked his jersey, colored Sweden's blue and gold, and revealed his red Rangers' goalie pants underneath his pads. Lundqvist will return to New York this week, forever changed from when he left. He is no longer the Rangers' rookie goalie who went to training camp vying for a backup job. He is one of the most celebrated hockey players in the world. As Lundqvist looked down at his gold medal, he said, "On my flight back to New York, I will be staring at this." The viewing public will still be deconstructing replays of his inconceivable flurry of saves. Lundqvist acknowledged that he had an inconsistent Olympic tournament, but in the final minutes of the final game, he blocked a shot by Kimmo Timonen with his chest. He deflected a shot by Niklas Hagman with his shoulder. He turned away a shot by Jere Lehtinen with his stick. He left Teemu Selanne in tears. "Some guys are smiling all the way," Selanne said. "And some are not." At the medal ceremony, the Swedish side of the ice was littered with helmets and gloves and sticks, the remnants of a raging victory party. The Finnish side was laid completely bare. Swedish players kissed their gold medals. Finnish players did not even acknowledge whatever silver accessory was hanging from their necks. Losing a game of this magnitude was difficult enough. But losing it to the Swedes was especially excruciating. These two Nordic countries, which share 380 miles of borders, have long been oceans apart in the hockey standings. Sweden has beaten Finland 40 times in Olympic and World Championship competition. Finland has beaten Sweden 15 times. So cocky were the Swedes that one tabloid newspaper ran a story Sunday encouraging Finnish residents to immigrate to Sweden if they wanted to be part of a gold medal celebration. The story was headlined "Tomorrow is too late," and it included a link on the Web site to official immigration documents. The link was particularly insulting, considering that Sweden had ruled Finland for 650 years. Once again, big brother beat little brother, the bully ruled the playground, the prom king got the girl. Ten seconds into the third period, with the score tied at 2-2 and the teams playing four-on-four, Mats Sundin left a pass for Forsberg, who left a pass for defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom. Those three players, more than any others, have made Sweden a hockey superpower. And those three players, together one last time, would team up for their crowning moment. In a single furious motion, Lidstrom took the pass, took the shot and scored the winning goal, a high hard one that struck Finland square in the chin. "I hit it perfect," Lidstrom said. "I had everything on that shot. It went right where I aimed. It could be the biggest goal I ever scored." As four Swedes embraced on the ice, one Swede started jumping up and down in the penalty box. Tomas Holmstrom, the Swedish forward who also plays alongside Lidstrom for the Detroit Red Wings, worried that his penalty would hurt his team. But Lidstrom, a defenseman to his core, continued to erase mistakes. "He always comes through," Holmstrom said. "I'm glad he's on my side." Soon enough, the Swedes will have to go without Lidstrom, Forsberg and Sundin, their aging leaders. The country will turn instead to Lundqvist, a 23-year-old who also plays bass guitar in a rock band. The flag was officially passed to Lundqvist late Sunday afternoon, and he wore it around his shoulders, matching his gold medal. Now it is back to New York, to a team that leads the Atlantic Division and is starting to talk about the unthinkable. Lundqvist tried Sunday to compare the gold medal he has already won with the Stanley Cup he has not yet won. He refused to say the gold medal meant more. He refused to settle for a split.

SWEDEN
FINLAND
LUNDQVIST HENRIK
OLYMPIC GAMES (2006)
HOCKEY ICE
WINTER GAMES (OLYMPICS)
OLYMPIC GAMES


California: Former Teacher Said to Be Planning Plea in Abuse Case

Abstract: A former Los Angeles teacher charged with blindfolding students and spoon-feeding them cookies laced with his semen has agreed to plead no contest to all charges, a lawyer for some of the students said Thursday. The former teacher, Mark Berndt, plans to enter the legal equivalent of guilty pleas to 23 charges on Friday, according to John Manly, who represents 30 Miramonte Elementary School students and their parents. Mr. Manly said he was notified of the plea by prosecutors. The plea agreement, first reported by The Daily News of Los Angeles, calls for Mr. Berndt to be sentenced to 25 years in prison. The district attorney’s office and Mr. Berndt’s lawyer declined to comment.

Los Angeles
Mark Berndt
Teachers
Miramonte Elementary School
Rape
K-12 Education


Misfiring Deron Williams Takes Shot at the Nets’ System

Abstract: Deron Williams became a Net because the Utah Jazz traded him, because they feared he would leave anyway and because Williams himself could not guarantee otherwise. “It was smart on their part,” Williams said Monday, “because there’s a possibility that I wouldn’t have came back.” Twenty-two months and a $100 million contract later, Williams seems happy with his fate in Brooklyn. He has a solid supporting cast, a winning record and the adoration of New York’s biggest borough. But some things were better in Salt Lake City. Namely, Williams himself. Since coming to the Northeast, he has eroded in nearly every facet of his game. His scoring has declined, and his shooting percentages have plummeted. Through 23 games, Williams is averaging 17 points and 8.3 assists while shooting 38.8 percent from the field and 29.9 percent from 3-point range. Injuries may be partly to blame. But as the Nets prepared to host the Jazz on Tuesday, Williams listed another factor: the playbook. “That system was a great system for my style of play,” Williams said of the “flex” offense run by Utah Coach Jerry Sloan. “I’m a system player. I love Coach Sloan’s system. I loved the offense there.” The comments were provocative on multiple levels. Williams was widely blamed for Sloan’s sudden retirement in February 2011, just before the Jazz traded Williams to the Nets. And his openly pining for Sloan’s system could be viewed as subtle criticism of Coach Avery Johnson’s offense. Williams did nothing to discourage that interpretation when he was asked to compare the offense used by the Nets with the one he ran in Utah. “Is it as good as there? No,” he said. “There’s just more one-on-one and isos” in Johnson’s offense. The Nets rely much more on isolation plays, usually featuring Williams or guard Joe Johnson, than the Jazz ever did. It is a staple of Avery Johnson’s offense. However, Johnson has also installed a number of “U.C.L.A.” sets, to emulate some of Sloan’s offense. An Eastern Conference scout noted that Johnson never ran the U.C.L.A. sets when he coached in Dallas and that he seemed to be using them now for Williams’s benefit. Williams made his remarks on Monday after Johnson had already spoken to reporters, so the coach was not available to respond. During his peak years in Utah, from 2006-7 through 2009-10, Williams’ field-goal accuracy ranged from 45.6 percent to 50.7 percent. He was shooting 45.8 percent for the Jazz when they traded him in February 2011. In 90 games with the Nets, Williams is shooting 39.6 percent from the field. The struggles were understandable during the season and a half Williams spent in New Jersey. The team was terrible, the environment was depressing, and Williams was frequently hurt. But with a talent-rich new roster and the move to Brooklyn, the Nets (13-10) expected Williams to return to All-Star form. They are still waiting. Williams has converted 50 percent of his shots in just three games this season. At 28, he is too young to be on the decline. Just two years ago, he was considered one of the top two point guards in the N.B.A. Although Williams is dealing with wrist and ankle injuries, he said the problem was not physical. Avery Johnson concurred. “I even told him before practice today in our video session, nothing is wrong with his game,” Johnson said. “Everything is going to be fine. It’s the 23rd game of the season. He has a chance to get on a roll for the next 23 games.” The problem may be where Williams is getting his shots, according to a recent analysis by Ethan Sherwood Strauss of Bleacher Report . In 2008-9, Williams attempted 43.3 percent of his shots at the rim, Sherwood noted. Since Williams joined the Nets, that figure has dropped below 30 percent. In recent weeks, Williams has alluded to his confidence and comfort level as issues. This is the first time he has specifically pointed to the offense. He said his high school team had a set system and that his college team ran a motion offense that featured cutting and passing. “I’m used to just movement,” he said, “so I’m still trying to adjust.” But, Williams said, “I believe I can adapt to anything. We’re still a young team. Things don’t happen overnight. It’s still just December.” REBOUNDS Brook Lopez reported no problems in his right foot after playing back-to-back games, and he practiced Monday without limitations. Lopez was capped at 24 minutes in each of the last two games, but that limit is likely to be raised Tuesday night. ... Jerry Stackhouse (sore knee) did not practice and is listed as questionable.

Williams Deron
Brooklyn Nets
Johnson Avery
Utah Jazz
Sloan Jerry
Basketball


Rivera Shines on His First Day, but Cervelli Is Shadowed by Suspicion

Abstract: TAMPA, Fla. — The juxtaposition of emotions was striking. Early Wednesday morning, Yankees catcher Francisco Cervelli stood against a wall outside the clubhouse at Steinbrenner Field and grimly answered rapid-fire questions about his involvement with an embattled clinic near Miami. Two hours later, with the toothy smile of a child handed the keys to an ice cream truck, the 43-year-old closer Mariano Rivera bounded through his first team drills since he tore a right knee ligament in May. Take one guess who had the better day. “It was wonderful to be back there again, especially another spring training,” said Rivera, who wore a small knee brace under his uniform pants. “I was grateful and give to the Lord that he gave me an opportunity to be here. I enjoyed it.” Rivera threw 25 pitches from a mound, jogged without a limp and even put himself through an extra session of fielding practice while the rest of his workout group — C. C. Sabathia, Andy Pettitte, Hiroki Kuroda and Phil Hughes — headed inside. “The command was there,” Manager Joe Girardi said. “He took it nice and slow. He didn’t try to overthrow. He’s been doing it for so long, I think he’s pretty aware of what he has to do.” Rivera’s presence revived last year’s speculation about retirement, and he said he would announce a decision about next season before opening day. “I will let you know when it happens,” he said. Why shouldn’t Rivera enjoy himself? His job is guaranteed as long as he is healthy. Cervelli, meanwhile, is competing with Chris Stewart and perhaps the prospect Austin Romine to be the starting catcher after Russell Martin went to the Pittsburgh Pirates as a free agent. Image Catcher Francisco Cervelli fielded the expected questions about the clinic Biogenesis. Credit Matt Slocum/Associated Press Cervelli had enough to focus on with the competition, so he chose Wednesday to field the expected questions about Biogenesis, an anti-aging clinic. Biogenesis and its director, Anthony Bosch, are under investigation by Major League Baseball for accusations the clinic supplied players with performance-enhancing drugs. Cervelli’s name turned up on a clinic document obtained by Miami New Times. Augmenting a statement released last week, Cervelli said he consulted with Bosch after breaking his left foot when he fouled a ball off it in March 2011. Cervelli missed more than a month before being activated April 29. During that time, Cervelli said, someone whom he declined to name suggested he go to the clinic. “I checked with doctors, people, and somebody recommend me Biogenesis,” Cervelli said. “I went there for maybe suggestions, and that’s it. I walked away with nothing in my hands. I just went there, talk, and that’s it.” Cervelli’s account differed slightly from his statement, which said he bought legal supplements from Biogenesis. Cervelli, who is from Venezuela, said Wednesday that the doctors he checked with were Venezuelan and that no players or agents recommended Biogenesis. Cervelli said he consulted with Bosch because he was desperate to return, but he denied using performance enhancers. He said he would cooperate with M.L.B. investigators. “Look at me,” Cervelli said, spreading his arms. “Check the numbers. I know it doesn’t matter, but if you check the numbers and everything, I don’t use that stuff.” Cervelli has never hit more than four home runs in any of his five professional seasons. In his 184 major league games , Cervelli batted .271 with five homers. “Right now, I realize it was a mistake to go there,” he said of the clinic. “But it already happened, so what can I do?” Image Mariano Rivera bounded through his first team drills since he tore a knee ligament in May. “I wasn’t thinking about it at all, my knee,” Rivera said Wednesday. Credit Matt Slocum/Associated Press An hour later, the Yankees took the field under overcast skies. More than 100 members of the news media watched Rivera play long toss with the bullpen coach, Mike Harkey. Rivera demonstrated that a cutter thrown from 100 feet off outfield grass broke the same as one from the top of a pitching mound. But he was not perfect. He overthrew Harkey twice from about 120 feet. Last year, the Yankees constructed a five-mound bullpen on Field No. 4 in the shadow of Steinbrenner Field, with unattached pavilions covering the mounds and the plates. Rivera threw easily from an end mound to the 21-year-old J. R. Murphy, a second-round pick in 2009 who split last season between Class A Tampa and Class AA Trenton. Girardi and the Yankees’ pitching coach, Larry Rothschild, stood behind Rivera, with Harkey perched to Murphy’s left. But Murphy said he was not nervous. “It was pretty cool to catch a guy like that, and it was pretty easy,” he said. “You don’t have to move the web that much.” Then Rivera stuck a bottle of water in his left back pocket and headed to a far diamond, where the special instructor David Wells tapped ground balls to pitchers. Rivera mishandled two and laughed, while Wells, his former teammate, needled him. “I wasn’t thinking about it at all, my knee,” Rivera said. “I was just having fun and doing my job. I wasn’t thinking about it one bit.” Girardi was, however. “Any time a player comes off an injury, you watch him a lot closer than you would normally,” he said. “Not pitching a whole year, you want to make sure he bounces back from his bullpens O.K., using his legs like he had before, moving around fine. We’ll watch him.” Girardi said he expected Rivera to maintain his usual spring workload — seven or eight innings, all at home — although the Yankees may add bullpen sessions or a simulated game to counteract Rivera’s long layoff. And Girardi said he would not stop Rivera from shagging balls during batting practice — except, he joked, in Kansas City, where Rivera hurt the knee. “It’s his time to relax and have fun and prepare for the day,” Girardi said. “I don’t want to take it away from him.”

Francisco Cervelli
Mariano Rivera
Baseball
Yankees
Doping
Biogenesis of America


Taliban Attack Afghan Guards in Deadly Raid

Abstract: KABUL, Afghanistan — Taliban fighters in a rural area near the Helmand River staged an audacious nighttime raid early Thursday, swooping down on several hundred sleeping Afghan private security guards who were securing a road construction project, and killing at least 21, according to guards who escaped. The attack was striking not only for its scale and viciousness but because it took place in the Helmand River Valley, where thousands of British troops have been stationed for the past three years and where now American troops have entered to try to rout the Taliban. News of the Taliban raid emerged Friday, as Senator John Kerry, Democrat of Massachusetts and the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, met with President Hamid Karzai for the second time in four days to discuss corruption among members of the Afghan government, some of whom have been implicated in several major cases. Support for the nine-year war, and for Mr. Karzai, is ebbing in the United States, while Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top American commander in Afghanistan , has signaled that, if anything, the troops would need more time on the ground to accomplish their mission. Mr. Kerry said in a statement that he hoped to see anticorruption agencies strengthened and said “the work of these entities must be allowed to continue free from outside interference or political influence, including with respect to ongoing cases.” He was referring to Mr. Karzai’s sharp criticism of the work of the American-mentored Major Crimes Task Force and Sensitive Investigative Unit after a top Karzai aide, Mohammed Zia Saleh, was detained on graft charges. Mr. Karzai questioned the legality of both units and set up a commission to review their work; Mr. Saleh was released on orders from the attorney general’s office. The continuing complaints of government corruption have added to the difficulties the Americans face in trying to oust Taliban militants, build a credible central government and restore security for citizens. In Helmand Province on Friday, interviews with security guards who survived the attack, as well as with police officers and village elders, suggested a confluence of factors was to blame: local frustration with the government, a subcontractor who had not hired local villagers for the road project and a vigorous Taliban that has not yet been weakened by Western troops. The attack began at 3 a.m. on Thursday as most of the guards slept, said Mohammed Tahir, a guard for the Khushal Civil Construction Company, the subcontractor charged with guarding the road and the supplies for the project. It was unclear whether the Americans or one of the many other foreign governments involved in reconstruction here was the primary contractor. Security for the project involved about 1,200 guards, according to two Khushal employees. Mr. Tahir painted a scene of chaos as his fellow guards woke to gunshots and ran for their lives. “When the Taliban attacked, they were killing everyone, whoever was sleeping, and our guards were running away from their posts and Taliban were hitting them with their vehicles,” he said. “My brothers were working there, and I do not yet know what happened to them.” After a sporadic gunfight that lasted until 7 a.m., the Taliban attacked again; this time in larger numbers, said Abdul Qahir, who commanded 400 Khushal company guards. “They came with eight Toyota Land Cruisers and drove fast toward us and broke the first security belt,” he said, “and we were all firing on them, but they kept driving towards us and broke the second and third belts and drove over our concertina wires.” The death toll is likely to rise once all of the dead are recovered, Mr. Qahir said. Some of the victims were at the security company’s checkpoints, which the Taliban seized. Reports of the toll varied: those closest to the attack said more than 21; NATO said fewer; the local police said 35. Local elders said that the Taliban opposed the road — a strategic 21-mile connector between the cities of Sangin and Greshkh — fearing the increased access to an area they currently dominate, the elders said. That meshed with opposition from villagers, who were upset that the contractor had not consulted them about building the road or asked what services they needed, nor offered local people jobs on the project. “One of the big problems that the contractors face and one reason they get attacked is because they bring people from other villages as laborers and security guards,” said Haji Abdul Ahad Khan, an elder who on Friday was attending the funeral of one of the slain security guards. “They do not ask our villagers to participate in these projects or hire them to do any of the labor. “This makes our people angry,” he said. “And they start projects in our area without consulting the village elders. They start cleaning our canals for us or building a road for us. I don’t want a road, why would you build that? We need a school or a clinic.” He added that the government was weak in the area, and that, adding to the general distrust, Afghan security forces behaved badly when they came. “The forces steal money and jewelry from houses, and sometimes when they see a boy, they take the boy with them,” he said. “These are the things that make people hate the government forces.” Zemary Khan, the district police chief, said that the Taliban were strong in the area, but that the security guards were naïve to think they could protect themselves. “At the beginning they told us that ‘We can take care of this road and ourselves,’ ” he said. “Now, see they cannot even take care of themselves. “The area is full of Taliban and the Taliban have deep influence there,” he added. Despite the length of time foreign forces have been fighting in Helmand, it is large, with a porous southern border, and troops have yet to fight in many places. The last was the case here, said the police chief. “Coalition forces have never been to these places to patrol, and neither have the Afghan police,” he said, “so this can be the reason that the Taliban can walk and do their activities freely.”

Afghanistan
Afghanistan War (2001- )
Taliban


Lord Onslow, a Peer by Birth and Contrarian by Nature, Dies at 73

Abstract: Michael William Coplestone Dillon Onslow, the seventh Earl of Onslow, who publicly advocated purging hereditary peers from the British House of Lords but who then, in the sort of full-bore reversal that seems a peerly prerogative, vowed to fight such an action “like a football hooligan” when it threatened to become a reality, died in England on May 14. Lord Onslow, who was also the seventh Viscount Cranley, 10th Baron Onslow and 11th Baronet of West Clandon, among other things, was 73. The cause, his family told The Associated Press, was “an illness most courageously borne.” Several British newspapers reported that he had had cancer. A nominal Conservative and a constitutional contrarian, Lord Onslow continued a family tradition of parliamentary service begun in the 16th century. “I don’t know what Tory policy is on virtually anything,” he told The Daily Telegraph in 2004. “And I’d probably disagree with it even if I did.” He was one of 92 hereditary peers allowed to stay in the House of Lords after hundreds were swept out by the Labor government of Prime Minister Tony Blair in a divisive reform measure of 1999. (House of Lords reform is the subject of continuing debate in Britain .) Long before the measure, and long after, Lord Onslow was a favorite of the world news media, for even in a nation known for cheese rolling and competitive nettle eating, he was a somewhat unusual character. His exploits — including the curious incidents of the wayward bull, the stone testicle and the loose monkey on the Underground — were widely recounted and are well within the realm of probability. A dapper man given to red socks, pink bow ties and plain speech, Lord Onslow was born on Feb. 28, 1938. His forebears, he liked to say, were cattle thieves who acquired titles through canny political dealings during the Renaissance and afterward. They created a memorable lineage. “That’s the second baron, known as Dickie Ducklegs,” Lord Onslow told a reporter in 2006 as he traversed the portrait gallery at Clandon Park , the family home in Surrey. “He spent most of his wife’s fortune building this place and defending a woman in Godalming accused of giving birth to rabbits.” Young Michael attended Eton and the Sorbonne, but was, he later said, “too stupid to have gone to university,” and never obtained a degree. In 1964, he married Robin Bullard. He once left a stone testicle — a genuine Roman artifact — under her pillow as a present. Besides his wife, his survivors include a sister, Lady Teresa Waugh (the widow of Auberon Waugh, a son of the novelist Evelyn Waugh); two daughters, Lady Arabella and Lady Charlotte; and a son, Rupert, now the eighth earl. As Lord Onslow’s obituary in The Daily Telegraph of London reminded readers on Wednesday, “He once confessed to a desire to ‘thrash most of my children most of the time.’ ” Lord Onslow had assumed the earldom in 1971, on his father’s death, and for years farmed the family’s 800 acres. He once pursued a runaway bull down a local freeway, which would have been less remarkable had he not been on horseback at the time. He also worked as an underwriter for Lloyd’s of London, once boarding the London Underground, bound for the office, with his pet monkey in tow. It escaped on the train and was later apprehended by the police. In 1994, the earl astonished listeners by serving as the host of a BBC radio series devoted to hip-hop, thrash metal and the like. (“Hello and welcome to the ‘Supertunes’ chill-out zone, from me, Lord Onslow, your mellow and, I hope, laid-back host,” he intoned.) Despite his lineage, or perhaps because of it, Lord Onslow had long questioned the right of hereditary peers to serve in the House of Lords. As he once explained, “I have been in favor of Lords reform almost since I have been there, because any House which has me in it really needs its head examined.” But he became a sworn foe of Mr. Blair’s plan, under which, he felt, peers were sent packing without precisely agreed-upon long-term provisions for replacing them. “If the government is going to play silly monkeys, I’m going to behave like a football hooligan and” botch “things up,” he said in 1998. (Lord Onslow did not use the word “botch.”) Despite an eventual compromise that let him and 91 other peers remain, Lord Onslow deplored the arrangement, calling it a “weak half-bastard thing.” In the end, however, he was philosophical. After all, he acknowledged, it was pure genetic happenstance that had put him in the House of Lords in the first place. “I find it extremely difficult to justify the fact that because one of my ancestors got” drunk “with George IV I can boss the British people about,” he said in a 1996 interview. Lord Onslow did not use the word “drunk.”


U.N. to Send Peacekeepers to Central African Republic

Abstract: UNITED NATIONS — The United Nations Security Council on Thursday voted unanimously to send 12,000 peacekeepers authorized to do whatever necessary to protect civilians in the Central African Republic, where a vicious sectarian conflict has effectively partitioned the country into Christian and Muslim swaths and left a trail of gruesome killings. France, which wrote the resolution , has said it will keep its 2,000-member force in the Central African Republic, a former French colony, until the new peacekeeping force can be deployed in full. How long that will take remains unclear, as does the question of how capable the troops will be of protecting civilians without abusing them. Peacekeepers from neighboring Chad pulled out from the Central African Republic this month after some of them were accused of shooting civilians in a busy market in the capital, Bangui. Many of the roughly 5,000 African Union peacekeeping troops in the country now could be incorporated into the United Nations peacekeeping mission. The resolution calls for 10,000 soldiers and nearly 2,000 police officers. Rights groups that have been pressing the United Nations to take a more assertive role in the crisis welcomed its passage. “Precious time wasted but #CARcrisis resolution creates strong UN mission to protect civilians, monitor human rights, help rule of law,” wrote Philippe Bolopion, the United Nations director at Human Rights Watch, on Twitter. Rare for a United Nations mission, due to start in September, the peacekeepers are additionally authorized to support law and order in the country, at a time when its police and court system have basically collapsed. They are also supposed to monitor human rights abuses and help the national authorities arrest war criminals. The Central African Republic is a signatory to the treaty that created the International Criminal Court, which has already opened an investigation into atrocities in the course of the conflict. “Justice is necessary to the process. Impunity led us to where we are now,” its foreign minister, Toussaint Kongo-Doudou, told reporters after the Security Council vote.

United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations


Newsday Rejects Ad Criticizing Cablevision

Abstract: Newsday last week rejected an advertisement from the Tennis Channel that sharply criticizes the newspaper’s parent company, Cablevision, for not carrying the network. “Thanks for nothing Cablevision,” says the ad, which shows a tennis racket smashing a cable box. It adds: “You’ve dropped the ball by preventing your subscribers from seeing Tennis Channel’s round-the-clock coverage of the U.S. Open .” It invites Cablevision customers to switch to DirecTV, Dish TV or Verizon FiOS to get access to the coverage. The channel said that the ad was accepted by all the newspapers it was offered to — the New York Times, New York Post, Daily News, Westchester-Rockland Journal News and the Record of New Jersey. Newsday’s decision not to carry the ad raises questions about the paper’s independence from Cablevision and whether it would have accepted the ad under its previous owner, the Tribune Company. Bob Steele, an ethics expert at the Poynter Institute, said, “There are times when a newspaper says no to an ad because they find it objectionable on taste grounds, or find it filled with hatred for a particular group of people. But this one doesn’t measure up in terms of protection because they’re protecting themselves.” John Mancini, the editor of Newsday, would not comment and Tim Knight, the publisher, did not respond to requests for comment. But in a statement, Cablevision wrote: “The Tennis Channel ads are nasty, unfair and intentionally misleading, and we don’t think anyone should carry them.” Neither Cablevision nor Newsday would say who made the decision not to accept the ad. Ken Solomon, the chief executive of the Tennis Channel, said that after four years of fruitless negotiations with Cablevision, the ad was “a court of last resort.” He added, “We desperately wish we weren’t in this situation. This wasn’t of our choosing. But at some point you have to look a bully in the eye and say, ‘This isn’t right.’ ” He said the network has received “thousands of emails” from Cablevision subscribers wanting to know why the cable operator doesn’t carry it. “They can’t get it and they get angry at us,” he said. In its statement, Cablevision described Tennis Channel’s leaders as “only interested in money,” and said it would add the channel to its lineup “tomorrow” if Solomon would accept a fair deal. It continued: “No Cablevision customer is going to miss the U.S. Open on television, with the best and most significant matches available on CBS and ESPN.” The Tennis Channel is one of the least expensive national sports networks available, costing a monthly fee of 14 to 15 cents a subscriber, according to SNL Kagan, a media research company. At that price, it costs about a dime less than the Golf Channel, and a few cents less than ESPNU and the Fox Soccer Channel. The Tennis Channel’s decision to pick a public fight with Cablevision comes two weeks before its first-time coverage of the United States Open. Last year, the Tennis Channel and ESPN agreed to take over as the Grand Slam’s cable partners through 2014, replacing the USA Network. The Tennis Channel is sublicensing rights from ESPN. Together, the Tennis Channel and ESPN2 plan to show an estimated 334 hours, up from 125 last year on USA. Less than one-third of the Tennis Channel’s planned 239 hours of coverage will be live; the rest will be replays of matches and studio programming. The Tennis Channel is available in 25 million cable, satellite and telephone company households on various tiers of service. For majors like the French Open , Wimbledon and the Australian Open, to which the network has rights, the figure balloons to about 55 million. Practically all of the major providers have come to terms with the Tennis Channel with the exception of Cablevision and AT&T U-verse. Cablevision has demonstrated a tough approach to adding new channels before, most notably in a long fight over carrying the YES Network. Solomon said he had hoped ownership of Newsday would not make a difference in whether the paper would accept the ad because it involves a news event that takes place within Cablevision’s region, which includes Long Island, Brooklyn and Westchester. “We figured this was just business and simply a message to let viewers know where to find us,” he said. “The newspaper industry is not doing all that well, so it’s a surprise they turned down this amount of money.” Howard Schneider, a former Newsday editor who is dean of the journalism school at Stony Brook University, said, “It’s not a felony to protect your economic self-interest unless it influences your news coverage.”

Newsday
Tennis Channel The
Cablevision Systems Corp


Crews at Work Replacing Section of Delaware Aqueduct

Abstract: NEWBURGH, N.Y. — City government often looks small. Petty, even. The parking ticket. The real estate tax bill. Sanitary inspection grades. Window-guard surveys. The fruitless call to 311 at 2 a.m. to complain about jackhammers outside. From here, however, government doesn’t look petty at all — here being the bottom of a 350-foot-deep, 35-foot-diameter shaft through a 460-million-year-old shale formation in Orange County, 70 miles north of City Hall. It is an uninviting spot critical to satisfying one of New York’s City’s basic needs. Miners in fluorescent yellow coats and full-brimmed hard hats await our departure from the Stygian cylinder so they can get back to the earsplitting excavation of a hole that will reach 900 feet into the earth, as deep as the Citigroup Center is tall. Rain cascades down the open shaft on this particular day and groundwater weeps through the layers of dark gray shale at the bottom of the pit, which has yet to be lined with concrete. Across the Hudson River, in Wappinger, N.Y., miners are excavating a companion shaft. The two projects are to be finished next year, setting the stage for the real work, beginning in 2016: digging a two-and-a-half-mile tunnel from one shaft to the other. Video New York City’s “Water for the Future” project is bypassing a leaky aqueduct underneath the Hudson River. Credit Credit Ángel Franco/The New York Times The tunnel will parallel and eventually bypass a long-troubled section of the Delaware Aqueduct, through which New York City receives about half of its 1.1-billion-gallon-a-day water supply. This part of the aqueduct has been leaking up to 35 million gallons of water a day for decades. Officials believe it is irreparable. If all goes according to plan, the city’s Department of Environmental Protection will shut down the Delaware Aqueduct in October 2022. After the water has drained out, workers will connect each end of the new bypass tunnel to the older aqueduct, plug up the damaged portion permanently and make repairs elsewhere while they have the chance. Five to eight months later, they will reopen the aqueduct. The Delaware Aqueduct bypass is an approximately $1 billion project that few New Yorkers will ever see, though it affects every New Yorker’s life. City government is still capable of thinking big when it has to — and in the case of the water supply, it must. From late 2022 through early 2023, the city will compensate for the dry Delaware spigot by relying more on the Catskill and Croton watersheds. The Croton system, by far the oldest of the three, has been shut since 2008, while the city constructs a filtration plant in the Bronx. That should be finished next year. The city will also reactivate a groundwater system in southeastern Queens and institute conservation measures, like installing low-flow fixtures in public schools and housing developments. Image Workers, observed by Emily Lloyd, New York City’s commissioner of environmental protection, using a machine called a robodrill. Credit Ángel Franco/The New York Times “The idea of replacing 50 percent of the water supply for a long period of time was really daunting,” said Emily Lloyd , the commissioner of the environmental agency. “You wanted to make sure you were designing a solution that was not too big,” she said, “but that was big enough to solve the problem.” The bypass plan was devised in 2010 to overcome leaking that has been evident since the 1980s in a 45-mile tunnel between the Rondout Reservoir in the Catskill Mountains and the West Branch Reservoir in Putnam County. In service since 1948, the Rondout-West Branch tunnel is the first leg of an 85-mile-long conduit that daily brings more than 600 million gallons of water, by gravity alone, from the Delaware River watershed in the Catskills to the Hillview Reservoir in Yonkers. Water has flowed through the tunnel continuously since 1958, the last time it was drained for inspection — by a Jeep. To find the source of the leaks without emptying the tunnel, the city sent a robotic submarine developed by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution through the tunnel in 2003. Its five digital cameras took 160,000 pictures. Image Part of the Delaware Aqueduct has been leaking up to 35 million gallons of water a day for decades. Sean McAndrew, an engineer leading the project, said the new infrastructure would keep the water where it belonged. Credit Ángel Franco/The New York Times The bad news was that it found cracks in the concrete tunnel through a limestone formation just west of the Hudson. “The good news was that we didn’t have a gaping hole,” said Paul V. Rush , an engineer and the deputy commissioner of the city’s environmental protection department in charge of the Bureau of Water Supply. Engineers in the 1940s knew they were boring through an unstable area of limestone. So they reinforced the concrete tunnel with 1,100 feet of steel interliner. Bureau lore has it that as little steel was used as possible, since the tunnel was being built during World War II , when every ounce of steel was needed for the war effort. In any case, the interliner proved way too short, said Sean McAndrew, an engineer who is leading the agency’s repair project. By contrast, the new bypass tunnel, 14 feet in diameter, will have a steel interliner for 9,000 feet, or nearly two miles, bridging the limestone zone under the Hudson between two far more stable formations of Normanskill shale on either side. “We’ll keep all that water in the tunnel,” Mr. McAndrew promised. “Where it belongs.”

Department of Environmental Protection NYC


Obama Makes Historic Inroads in South

Abstract: RALEIGH, N.C. — The race for North Carolina ’s electoral votes is still too close to call. But if Senator Barack Obama , who is ahead by a nostril, is declared the winner, he will be able to claim a remarkable set of victories in three former Confederate states, where just a half century ago black people were systematically denied even the opportunity to vote, much less run for president. “His making inroads in the South was important symbolically and historically, and also important in terms of his governance,” said Ferrel Guillory, a political science professor at the University of North Carolina. “It’s important that the nation’s first black president has support in states that within my lifetime practiced legal segregation, and that he won support in these states, not only among black Americans but among a strong plurality of white Americans.” Exit polls showed Mr. Obama winning 35 percent of the white vote in North Carolina, 42 percent in Florida and 39 percent in Virginia. Blacks supported him at higher rates than for John Kerry in 2004. North Carolina exit polls showed Mr. Obama with 100 percent of the vote of black women. Political analysts attributed his victories in the South to an effective ground operation and an increase in non-Southerners and younger, educated workers. They also credited a high black turnout, which went almost wholly for Mr. Obama and dissatisfaction with President Bush, which pushed many independent voters into the Obama column. What was less certain, they said, was whether Mr. Obama’s gains would have staying power in the South. The African-Americans and first-time voters who turned out for this historic election may not return to the polls, they said, and the Bush administration will no longer be a spur. “The tide is gone, and the next question is whether he’s a successful president or not,” said Carter Wrenn, a Republican strategist in Raleigh. “If he is, he’ll be fine, and if he’s not the gains will be wiped out.” Steven Greene, a political scientist at North Carolina State University, said people had invested so much hope in Mr. Obama that there would inevitably be disappointment. But Mr. Greene predicted that Mr. Obama’s support among young people augured well for the Democrats’ future. On the North Carolina electoral map, Mr. Obama’s support took a different shape from Bill Clinton’s near-victory there in 1992 or the gains of Kay Hagan, the Democrat who decisively beat Senator Elizabeth Dole on Tuesday, perhaps reflecting the importance of race to some voters. Both Mr. Clinton and Ms. Hagan won conservative Democratic counties in the mostly white Appalachian region in the western part of the state, while Mr. Obama lost those counties, making up the losses in urban and suburban counties. Wake County, which includes Raleigh, went narrowly for Mr. Clinton in 1992, rejected him in 1996, and voted for Mr. Bush in 2000 and 2004. On Tuesday, Wake County went for Mr. Obama by a whopping 16 percentage points. Many of his supporters here were recent transplants like Nichole Krist, 33, who is from Michigan but has lived in Raleigh for a year and works as a geographic information systems analyst. “People are really freaked out right now” about the economy, she said. “Like me, I’ve been spoiled all my life, and now I’m an adult and it affects me directly.” Despite the electoral history here, several black voters insisted they were not surprised by Mr. Obama’s win. “It went exactly the way I thought it would go,” said Larry Pulley, a barber in downtown Raleigh. Nationally, exit polling showed that Mr. Obama had the lead among young voters, with 66 percent of voters under 30, but in North Carolina he dominated in that category, winning 74 percent.

Southern States (US)
Presidential Election of 2008
Obama Barack
North Carolina
Blacks
Race
Voting and Voters
United States Politics and Government


Next Jump Uses Data to Turn Online Browsing Into Buying

Abstract: NEXT JUMP may well be the most intriguing Internet business that you’ve never heard of — though that’s likely to change as the company seeks a wider audience. The handful of industry analysts who were invited into the company’s New York offices recently have come away impressed. Next Jump, they say, represents the future of online commerce and could emerge as a counterweight to Amazon , the giant Web merchant. And this patiently gestated start-up, they add, shows one path to the still-elusive promise of Internet advertising: using data to greatly improve the efficiency of marketing. “Next Jump is a bellwether for the next generation of e-commerce, driven by better data,” says Tim O’Reilly, a blogger and the chief executive of the technology publisher O’Reilly Media. Maybe, maybe not. But whether it succeeds or eventually stumbles, Next Jump certainly seems like a company to watch, and to consider. Next Jump’s origins go back to 1994, when Charlie Kim, the founder, was a student at Tufts University. There he started a business that inserted coupons from local merchants into guide books that universities issued to students. A year later, Mr. Kim went to work for Morgan Stanley. But he kept the side business and soon expanded to working on corporate perk programs that offered employees discounts on merchandise. He left Morgan Stanley in 1997 and took the business online. Today, 60 percent of the Fortune 500 companies use Next Jump’s technology for their employee discount programs. Next Jump also handles the rewards programs that offer deals to loyal customers of companies like Dell, Borders and Hilton Hotels, and similar programs for membership organizations like AARP and the American Federation of Teachers. More than 100 million Americans have access to Next Jump’s e-commerce marketplace, and 10 million a year are customers. As it has quietly expanded, Next Jump has been gathering data, and not only from companies and customers. It also gets credit-card transaction data from American Express and MasterCard. This vast trove — accumulated over years — is the company’s most precious asset, analysts say. Next Jump analyzes that data to draw inferences about what a person would be likely to buy, and at what price. Its network also includes 28,000 retailers who can specify the characteristics of customers — age, location, income, for example — that they are most interested in luring with certain products. Next Jump’s software then tailors offerings to small segments of potential customers, down to individuals, often reaching them with e-mail alerts. “It’s true microtargeting,” Mr. Kim said. Most striking is the efficiency of Next Jump’s sizable network. Its click-through rate — the percentage of Web surfers who see an ad or offer and click on it — is 60 percent, the company says. At most e-commerce sites, a 5 percent click-through rate is considered excellent, analysts say. But the endgame of Internet marketing is converting browsers to buyers. Next Jump says that for every 11 people who see one of its ads, one person makes a purchase. In Web commerce generally, 1,000 to 1 is deemed a good performance. Until recently, the Next Jump e-commerce engine was entirely unbranded, working unseen underneath corporate intranets or retailer’s rewards Web sites. “We were all white label,” Mr. Kim said. “Nobody knew who we were.” But that is starting to change. The Yahoo Deals shopping area now has a Personal Offers site, whose logo says “Powered by Next Jump” — co-branding similar to the Intel Inside campaign of the big chip maker. In September, Next Jump rolled out a Web site, Corporate Perks , that lets small businesses and consumers tap into its marketplace. Similarly, it has recently developed BlackBerry, Android and iPhone applications for another of its sites, Overwhelming Offers , that offers deep discounts on merchandise in sales that typically last an hour or two. Last month, the company struck a deal with MasterCard to offer Next Jump’s e-commerce marketplace to its cardholders. By broadening its reach, Next Jump promises to become a more strategic partner for consumer-goods retailers. Many of them, analysts say, are leery of Amazon’s growing clout as the dominant online marketplace. Unlike Amazon, Next Jump is not a retail competitor, merely a technology engine for sales. “Next Jump can potentially become a really viable alternative to Amazon for retailers,” said Leslie Hand, research director for IDC Retail Insights. NEXT JUMP’S status as a trusted middleman has enabled it to collect fees both from companies who use its software and from retailers on goods sold. Mr. Kim declines to disclose financial details, other than to say Next Jump is profitable, has no debt and is growing rapidly. Its backing so far has come from angel investors, who have put in $45 million, including Kevin Parker, chief executive of Deutsche Bank’s asset management division, and Ram Shriram, a former Amazon executive, who was one of Google’s first investors. Next Jump is heading for a public offering someday, but Mr. Kim says that is not imminent. For now, it is focused on growth. One goal is to assemble one of the largest Internet engineering teams on the East Coast, he said. Its payroll of 225 includes 150 engineers, and it plans to hire 100 more in the next year. Gautam Arora joined the company in June, after receiving his master’s degree in computer science from Georgia Tech. He chose Next Jump over Microsoft and a few Silicon Valley companies. “I had my doubts at first,” Mr. Arora said. “From the outside, it looks like just a shopping portal for employee perks. But look more closely, and you see a company that has morphed into a personalized advertising platform, and a company that could influence how advertising and marketing are done on the Internet.”

Computers and the Internet
Shopping and Retail
E-Commerce
Advertising and Marketing
Amazon.com Inc
Next Jump


To Questions, Alex Rodriguez Has but One Real Reply

Abstract: TAMPA, Fla. — Move over, Marshawn (“I’m just here so I don’t get fined”) Lynch and Rasheed (“Both teams played hard”) Wallace. Alex (“I’ll talk to Joe first”) Rodriguez may be prepared to join you on the Mount Rushmore of pat answers. In an abbreviated 85-second meeting with reporters Sunday, Rodriguez brushed off several questions about when he might take the field in a game for the first time — either the intrasquad scrimmage Monday or the exhibition season that begins Tuesday — with “I’ll talk to Joe first” or a variation of it. After Saturday’s workouts were cut short or moved indoors because of heavy rain, Rodriguez took batting practice on the main field Sunday and received an ovation from a small crowd that watched the workout. Asked if he felt ready to play in a game, Rodriguez said, “I’ll talk to Joe first.” Rodriguez also did fielding work on a back field. But for the second consecutive outdoor workout, Rodriguez played first base without his new first baseman’s glove, which Manager Joe Girardi said was not broken in yet. Asked how long it would take to break in the glove, Rodriguez said, “A couple more days,” and then turned and excused himself from reporters. But if Rodriguez is able to help the Yankees, it will probably be at designated hitter. Girardi said it was important to get Rodriguez as many at-bats as he could handle this spring because his age (39) and suspension for all of last season would challenge his ability to return to form. Batting practice does not tell Girardi much, a point Rodrgiuez also made. “We see guys at Old-Timers’ Day, and they hit the ball out of the ballpark,” Girardi said. “The real test comes in the games. That’s what we’ve got to see.” INSIDE PITCH Joe Girardi announced his starting pitchers for the first three exhibition games: Adam Warren on Tuesday (Philadelphia), Nathan Eovaldi on Wednesday (Philadelphia) and Esmil Rogers on Thursday (Pittsburgh). Each will throw two innings or 30 to 35 pitches, Girardi said. He declined to say who else would pitch on those days. The Yankees have not discussed a season innings limit for starter Michael Pineda, who missed the 2012 and 2013 seasons with shoulder surgery and missed nearly three months last year with a back muscle injury. After Sunday’s workout, many of the Yankees spent about an hour visiting with local military families. Shortstop Didi Gregorius pitched Wiffle ball batting practice to the young children.

Baseball
Alex Rodriguez
Joe Girardi
Yankees


Knicks Trade Milicic; Robinson Likely to Be Next

Abstract: The night began with a survey of lockers, specifically the empty ones. Nate Robinson’s was devoid of personal belongings, save for a jar of Vaseline. Darko Milicic still had a name plate, but little else to attest to his Knick existence. By late Wednesday night, the name plate was gone, too. More lockers could be vacated soon. Milicic was traded to Minnesota, and the Knicks reached an agreement in principle to send Robinson to Boston. But the most critical deal remained on the table as the Knicks approached Thursday’s 3 p.m. trading deadline. The Knicks were still working hard to acquire Houston’s Tracy McGrady and his $23 million expiring contract, a move that could create enough payroll room to sign two superstars this summer. It could be the most important trade the Knicks have made in a decade. But the signs were still murky late Wednesday night. “I’m hopeful,” said the team’s president, Donnie Walsh, without commenting on any specific proposal. The hangup in the McGrady deal involves two first-round draft picks that the Rockets are demanding in the trade, in 2011 and 2012. The Knicks want protection on the picks in case they fail to sign a superstar and end up in the draft lottery. The Rockets want the picks free of restrictions. The standoff began on Tuesday. The rest of the deal is set. Houston would acquire the rookie Jordan Hill, Larry Hughes and Jared Jeffries for McGrady, Brian Cook and Joey Dorsey. The Rockets want the unprotected picks as compensation for taking Jeffries, who is owed $6.9 million next season, plus a $2 million trade bonus. Unloading Jeffries’s contract would give the Knicks about $31.5 million in cap space this summer, nearly enough to sign two maximum-level free agents. The belief is that the Knicks have a better chance to land LeBron James if they can also sign another elite player, like Chris Bosh. The Chicago Bulls, who had also been competing for McGrady, pulled out of the running, according to two people involved in the discussion. That development seemed to favor the Knicks, but the Rockets were trying to involve other teams in a potential deal. The Knicks have also been discussing a deal that could send Al Harrington to Chicago for a package including Tyrus Thomas. Milicic and Robinson are both free agents this summer, and neither one figured into the Knicks’ long-term plans. The Knicks swapped Milicic, who was not playing, for Brian Cardinal, who will probably be waived. The Knicks could also use Cardinal in a subsequent trade. The swap saves the Knicks about $1.58 million in salary and luxury-tax payments, although the actual savings will be lower because the Knicks sent an undisclosed amount of cash to Minnesota. The details of the Robinson trade were still being worked out Wednesday. The Knicks will receive a package including Eddie House and perhaps J. R. Giddens. Because of salary-cap complications, the Knicks might have to add another low-salaried player, like Marcus Landry, to make the deal work. Walsh declined to confirm the deal, saying: “I’m not going to go into any trades until they’re done, because I’ve done this too long. And it can be over in a minute.” Robinson, however, has already been removed from the Knicks’ pregame video. He did not attend the Knicks’ game against the Bulls on Wednesday because he is recovering from an illness. In Boston, House told reporters that he expected to be dealt. Robinson, with his energy and athleticism, was a fan favorite throughout his four seasons with the Knicks. But his poor decision-making and bouts of immaturity grated on coaches. Coach Mike D’Antoni benched him for 14 games in December, damaging their relationship. Eric Goodwin, one of Robinson’s agents, said in an e-mail message that the trade “validates that teams value him.” “Great opportunity for him to be on a contender, to learn the game from a championship coach with a proven history of patience with talented young players,” Goodwin wrote. With so many deals being discussed and so many fates uncertain, the atmosphere at Madison Square Garden was tense as the Knicks stumbled to their fifth straight loss, 115-109 to the Bulls. “Everybody’s probably on edge a little bit,” D’Antoni said. At 19-34, the Knicks’ playoff hopes are virtually dead, clearing the way for D’Antoni and Walsh to focus on the future. The final 29 games will be irrelevant, save for the opportunity to develop Danilo Gallinari and Wilson Chandler. A trade for McGrady could be the final step in a two-year effort to purge the payroll and start over. “We’ve come a long ways in two years,” D’Antoni said. “We’re not going to waver from what we want. And if something will come along that helps in the future, then that’s what we’ll do.”

New York Knicks
Milicic Darko
Robinson Nate
Trades (Sports)
Basketball


Court Halts de Blasio’s Plan to Give Some Homeowners a $183 Credit

Abstract: In a blow to Mayor Bill de Blasio, a state court on Monday halted his plan to give certain homeowners a $183 credit on their water and sewer bill. Justice Carol R. Edmead of State Supreme Court in Manhattan ruled that the actions of the water board in authorizing the one-time payment along with a general rate increase was “an abuse of discretion” and exceeded the board’s authority. Mr. de Blasio heralded the water bill credit in an April news conference and has since promoted the measure as an action his administration was taking to help New York homeowners. The administration argued that the credit, which was to apply only to one- to three-family homes, was made possible by the city’s decision to no longer request a “rental payment” from the water board, an independent public benefit corporation, leaving it with a surplus. Three Brooklyn real estate companies and the Rent Stabilization Association, a landlord group, filed a petition in court to stop the city’s proposal, which also included a rate increase of 2.1 percent and was set to go into effect on July 1. The rate increases would have affected landlords across the city, most of whom would not receive the credit, and by extension their renters. “The sole purpose of the rate increase was to fund this bill credit,” said Michael Berengarten, a partner at Herrick, Feinstein, who represented the plaintiffs. “The water board,” Mr. Berengarten added, “allowed itself to be co-opted by a political process.” The court agreed with the plaintiffs’ legal arguments, if not their political analysis. In her decision, Justice Edmead wrote that because the city “failed to demonstrate” that it had the authority to approve the rate increase and the bill credit, “the resolutions were arbitrary, capricious and unreasonable, as a matter of law.” The city has vowed to appeal. “The mayor’s intent is quite clear and he remains undeterred: He wants to return money to the pockets of homeowners,” Mr. de Blasio’s top spokesman, Eric F. Phillips, said in a statement. In the meantime, water bills will remain as they were, without increases or credits.

Tax Credits Tax Deductions Tax Exemptions


Setting Chile’s Past Aside, a City Welcomes Soldiers

Abstract: CONCEPCIÓN, Chile — They may have arrived a couple of days late, and carrying a painful legacy from Chile ’s past, but to an emotional Álvaro Ramírez, the presence of some 6,000 troops here on the streets of Chile’s second largest city was a godsend. “I was giving thanks for them being here,” said Mr. Ramírez, tears in his eyes as he stood at a military checkpoint on Thursday. One hand patted the shoulder of Cpl. Juan Valencia, the other rested on the head of his mop-haired son Benjamín, 8, who clung to his father’s leg. “If they had not come, there could have been a civil war here.” In Chile, the military clearly evokes mixed emotions because of the role it played in the torture and disappearance of some 3,000 Chileans during this country’s bloody 19-year dictatorship. But in the five days since Chile was shaken by a magnitude 8.8 earthquake, one of the worst natural disasters in its history, the military’s relationship with the country’s people was turning a new page. Tanks were stationed outside supermarkets that had been looted and vandalized for two days before the troops arrived. Soldiers organized lines for residents to enter banks, pharmacies and gasoline stations. And for the most part, emotional and exhausted residents like Mr. Ramírez embraced them. On Monday night, as a mob made its way through downtown Concepción, setting fire to supermarkets and robbing homes, Mr. Ramírez was at home with his two sons when the mob passed through their neighborhood. “People had to start to protect themselves and to guard their streets,” he said. “My youngest son suffered a psychological blow.” “If I would have had to kill somebody, I would have,” he added. Mr. Ramírez, who works as a clerk at a courthouse, said that his father had retired from the military in March 1973, just six months before Gen. Augusto Pinochet took power in a coup. That memory seemed to dictate the actions of one of his government’s torture victims, President Michelle Bachelet , after the quake struck on Saturday. Ms. Bachelet waited until Sunday night to call in the military. By then the situation had turned chaotic in Concepción. In her defense, Ms. Bachelet said that there was “no lack of will” and that the government was paralyzed by the chaos and lack of communication. At the Bigger supermarket, looters “robbed everything,” said Francisco Chávez, the chain’s regional manager. They stripped shelves of food and alcohol, and stole cash registers, computers, even security cameras, he said. On Thursday, Mr. Chávez was at a downtown supermarket where he helped the soldiers organize people into a line. The shoppers were allowed to enter the store 10 at a time. Near the store’s entrance, a soldier helped Margarita Henríquez secure a carton of eggs with string for her walk home. “The military arrived so late here,” said Mrs. Henríquez, 49. “The looters took everything in this city, even the lights in the supermarkets. It was dreadful. And all because the president was worried about what happened in 1973. We don’t care about that now. We want order, not chaos.” The quake damaged Concepción more than any other major city in Chile. The downtown seemed as if it had been jack- hammered into submission, with commercial structures separated from the sidewalks. Streets were still littered with rubble and smelly garbage from burned-out supermarkets. A banner hanging over Plaza de la Independencia pleaded for volunteers. “With your help we can get back on our feet,” it read. Some of the city’s newest structures suffered the most. An apartment building with 120 units along the riverfront area had toppled completely on its side, killing at least seven people; rescue workers are trying to recover what they believe are six more bodies buried in the rubble, said Cmdr. Miguel Díaz. An office building, more than 20 stories high, still had a banner on it advertising “offices for sale,” and was crumpled like a deflated birthday cake. The military has cordoned off the area for several blocks. Firefighters said they expected the building to collapse at any moment. Life has changed sharply for residents of Concepción, and not only for those who lost loved ones in the quake. Few can go back to work, as the downtown is still without electricity in most places, and most businesses are closed. An 18-hour, military-enforced curfew gives residents only from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. to be on the streets. But residents seemed to be taking the curfew in stride on Thursday. They stood patiently at supermarkets and pharmacies in lines that stretched more than two city blocks. At another supermarket, Lisbeth Salazar and her boyfriend, Alex Mejía, said they had waited for two hours in the line on Thursday. They arranged their five shopping bags, including a 22-pound bag of flour, on the ground before setting off for their 90-minute walk home. “We have to do what we can to help the family,” said Mr. Mejía, 30. But in all the struggle that life has become here, Concepción residents interacted respectfully with the armed soldiers, obeying their calmly delivered orders and thanking them at every turn. Older residents seemed to support them as much as those too young to remember the years of the dictatorship. “People are ready for them to leave, but we need them to control the streets,” said Ricardo Pérez, 39, who stood in a line for the pharmacy. “The people are appreciating us,” said Corporal Valencia, 24, moments after Mr. Ramírez’s emotional outpouring. “They pat us on the back, they want to hug us. We are only here to provide order and security to Chileans. They have to respect us.” What happened in 1973, he said, “was another time.”

Chile
Earthquakes
Defense and Military Forces
Bachelet Michelle


Germany Arrests Algerian Suspected of Planning Terrorist Attack

Abstract: BERLIN — An Algerian man suspected of training with Islamic State terrorists in Syria and of planning an attack in Germany was taken into custody at a refugee shelter in North Rhine-Westphalia early Thursday as hundreds of police officers carried out raids in three German states, the police said. Image German police officers arrested a suspect in Berlin during antiterrorism raids on Thursday. Credit Paul Zinken/European Pressphoto Agency The police detained the man, 35, who was not identified in keeping with German law, along with an Algerian woman whose arrest had been sought on different charges, the authorities said. The Algerian man entered Germany at the Bavarian border last fall, the news service DPA reported, citing security sources. Germany took in more than one million migrants last year and has been on high alert since the Paris terrorist attacks in November that killed 130 people, Where ISIS Has Directed and Inspired Attacks Around the World More than a dozen countries have had attacks since the Islamic State, or ISIS, began to pursue a global strategy in the summer of 2014. A second Algerian man was also detained in the coordinated raids, which began at 6 a.m. in Berlin, Hanover and Attendorn, a town of about 25,000 about an hour’s drive northeast of Cologne, a Berlin police spokesman, Stefan Redlich, said. The police found two other Algerian men they were seeking — a 31-year-old in Berlin and a 26-year-old in Hanover — but did not take them formally into custody, the authorities said. All four men are suspected of links to the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, and are believed to have been “planning a violent act intended to seriously damage the state,” Mr. Redlich said. The raids involved 450 police officers, Mr. Redlich said. In Berlin they were centered on four apartments and two businesses; in Attendorn and Hanover the investigation focused on refugee shelters. The police in North Rhine-Westphalia disclosed last month that a man who had most recently lived at a refugee shelter in the town of Recklinghausen was the lone assailant who was shot and killed in January as he approached a Paris police station on the anniversary of the assault in January 2015 on the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo .

Middle East and Africa Migrant Crisis,European Migrant Crisis


When Technology Sets Off a Populist Revolt

Abstract: MENLO PARK, Calif. — To spend time in Silicon Valley in a year of political upheaval is, on one level, soothing. It is pleasant to hear talk of wearables, walled gardens and disruptive beverages in between updates about mass deportation. But there is another conversation happening in the valley today. Its premise is that, when it comes to populist revolt, we may have seen nothing yet. The idea is: If you think globalization, immigration, trade and demographic change have contributed to displacement and political anger, wait until robots take away millions and millions of jobs, including those requiring the use of a well-trained brain. Some believe it will be glorious to live in this “disruptive” future; others believe it will pose devastating social and political challenges that dwarf anything being discussed in this election. And then there are those, like Vinod Khosla, who ardently believe both things. Mr. Khosla, a billionaire venture capitalist and a Silicon Valley celebrity, is gung-ho on disruption and an investor in start-ups that are building technology to take away people’s jobs. “If you’re doing anything disruptive, you’re disrupting somebody, and somebody’s getting hurt,” he said at a conference last year. “Revolutions are hard on people. People get killed. People get hurt.” And yet Mr. Khosla is part of a cohort of Silicon Valley types who have begun to sound warnings about the very future they are invested in. “It seems likely that the top 10 to 20 percent of any profession — be they computer programmers, civil engineers, musicians, athletes or artists — will continue to do well,” he told me. “What happens to the bottom 20 percent or even 80 percent, if that is the delineation? Will the bottom 80 percent be able to compete effectively against computer systems that are superior to human intelligence?” Others in Silicon Valley, most notably the venture capitalist Marc Andreessen, have dismissed this concern as Luddism, assuring people that new jobs always replace the ones that vanish. Image Vinod Khosla, a billionaire venture capitalist, has looked at the technologies he and others are investing in and sees massive job displacements down the road. Credit Jason Henry for The New York Times And it is hardly surprising for stalwarts of an industry to claim it won’t harm anyone. What is more notable is what sometimes is called “argument against interest” — people criticizing a thing from which they stand to benefit. Mr. Khosla looks at the technologies he and others are investing in and sees massive displacement down the road. He thinks of it as both an entertainment problem (how would we occupy the minds of all those jobless people?) and a political problem (how do we keep those people from revolting?). “I worry a lot about how do you keep humans motivated to live,” he said. In the world Mr. Khosla envisions, technology will continue to widen inequality by amplifying the productivity of some hypertalented people — 100xers, they are sometimes called in Silicon Valley — even as it beaches many others. The only answer, he believes, is massive economic redistribution via something like a guaranteed minimum income. The idea has been gaining ground. “Does capitalism need to be reinvented for modern technology? I’m absolutely convinced it does,” he said. In primordial capitalism, he said, the challenge was efficiency — how to juice as much as possible from scarce resources. In a coming world of abundance, he added, the problem will be political: how to create the conditions in which a minority of hyperproductive people can do their work. And then he said, “Capitalism is interesting, because capitalism as a system is by permission of democracy, right?” My eyes drifted over to a wall of glass to my right and, beyond it, a lovely garden. “Otherwise, there’ll be people coming in through the windows all the time?” I asked. “Imagine 10 times as many people were unemployed today than are,” Mr. Khosla said. To be plain, Mr. Khosla and others of like mind in the valley are not radicals. They are speaking of a new social contract, in which an undisrupted few assume new obligations to the disrupted many, in order to be freed to go back to their disruptive works. “To put it crudely, it’s bribing the population to be well-enough-off,” Mr. Khosla said. “Otherwise, they’ll work for changing the system.”

Vinod Khosla
Jobs
Computers and the Internet
Tech Industry
Unemployment
Silicon Valley


New York Finds Space for 3 Charter Schools

Abstract: The office of Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York announced on Saturday that it has found space for three charter schools that had been at the heart of a battle between the new mayor and Eva S. Moskowitz, the leader of a high-performing charter network. According to a statement from the mayor’s office, the three schools, Harlem Success Academy 4, Success Academy Jamaica and Success Academy City Hall, will move into former Catholic school buildings that the city will lease from the Archdiocese of New York. The schools are run by Success Academy Charter Schools, founded by Ms. Moskowitz. Wiley Norvell, a spokesman for Mr. de Blasio, said the terms of the lease would soon be finalized. The buildings are in Harlem, Upper Manhattan and Rosedale, Queens, the statement said. “The new locations replace co-location proposals previously halted by the Department of Education due to clear and consistent criteria established to ensure high-quality learning opportunities for all students,” the statement said. “Under the agreement, the city will provide for leasing and renovations to ensure a high-quality school environment for students,” the statement added. “Each site has program space commensurate with that of the original co-location proposals.” The arrangement comes after months of animosity between Mr. de Blasio and Ms. Moskowitz. During the campaign for mayor last year, Mr. de Blasio, a Democrat, criticized Ms. Moskowitz and her charter schools, which the administration of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg had provided with free public school space. Mr. de Blasio said then he considered the charters emblematic of problems caused by independent education providers in the school system and that he would charge them rent. In February, Mr. de Blasio announced that nearly all charter schools could stay at their current locations, but that these three would have to move because they impeded programs for students with disabilities and forced elementary school students to attend classes in high school buildings. A charter advocacy group, Families for Excellent Schools, then began a $3.6 million advertising campaign protesting the mayor’s decision. In March, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo defended charters’ role in city education at a rally at the Capitol in Albany while Mr. de Blasio held one in support of his prekindergarten plan nearby. (Both the mayor and governor maintained that the rallies were unrelated.) The state budget that Mr. Cuomo and legislative leaders announced later that month prohibited the city from charging charters rent and required it to find public school space for them or pay much of the cost for a private location. Mr. Norvell said that a legal complaint filed by Success Academy to the state’s Education Department had been dropped and that Mr. Cuomo’s office had helped find a solution. For her part, Ms. Moskowitz said she was glad that the political tilting between her and Mr. de Blasio seemed to be at an end. “I’m heartened we’ve been able to put politics behind us and establish a positive working relationship,” Ms. Moskowitz said in a statement. “With valuable guidance and support by Governor Cuomo, we have advanced our shared goal of improving educational opportunities.”

Charter school
K-12 Education
NYC Department of Education
Success Academy Charter Schools
Bill de Blasio
New York
NYC
Harlem Success Academy
Eva S Moskowitz


Wins of Their Fathers Weigh on Two Super Bowl Coordinators

Abstract: SAN FRANCISCO — If a person encountered Wade Phillips and Mike Shula on the street, there would be little reason to believe the two had anything in common. Phillips, with a personality as big as Texas and a one-liner to fit every occasion, is like a Hollywood casting description of “football coach” come to life. Shula, with a deep tan and a quiet voice, is happy to chat but is unassuming to the point that he seems surprised to be recognized. When you dig beneath the surface, you find men who grew up in the shadows of larger-than-life fathers and coaches, Bum Phillips and Don Shula. And while Wade Phillips, the defensive coordinator of the Denver Broncos, and Mike Shula, the offensive coordinator of the Carolina Panthers, have tried their hand at head coaching, they seem happy now to focus on running one side of a football team rather than dealing with the hoopla and the distractions that come with being in charge of the whole operation. In the cutthroat N.F.L., both men have come to be defined by the number of times they have been sent packing, but they say their struggles were just part of what got them to the Super Bowl . For Phillips, a series of hirings and firings over the years could have worn him down, but that is all he has known. His father, who was a coaching legend in the South long before he ran the Houston Oilers in the 1970s, was hired and fired by so many teams at so many levels that he once divided coaches into two camps: those who have been fired and those who will be. Image Mike Shula, left, the offensive coordinator of the Carolina Panthers, was an assistant under his father, Don, with the Dolphins. Credit NFL Photos, via Associated Press For the younger Phillips, that has been all too true. This is his eighth stop as a defensive coordinator, with three stints as an interim coach and three full-time head coaching jobs mixed in. Asked to single out which job he had been most unjustly fired from, Phillips thought about it and said, “I’m going to say every one of them.” John Elway, the Broncos’ general manager, said he was impressed by the humility Phillips showed when he admitted that he was not a great head coach and by the way he stood up for himself as a great defensive coordinator. Phillips said Elway had exaggerated his words. “I was a lousy head coach,” Phillips, hired by Denver in January 2015, said. “And I didn’t say ‘great’; I said I’m a pretty good defensive coordinator. That’s my niche, and that’s what I’ve done well.” While Phillips’s head coaching stints in Buffalo and Dallas were more successful than people may remember, he has had his greatest success running defenses. In 24 seasons as a defensive coordinator, he has had a top-10 defense 15 times and a top-five defense nine times. At each of his stops, his teams improved immediately, with the most extreme leap coming when he took the Houston Texans from the 30th-ranked defense in terms of yards a game in 2010 to second in 2011. (That team had the help of a rookie named J. J. Watt.) Image Don Shula playfully wrestling with his son Mike at his house in Miami Lakes, Fla., during the Dolphins’ perfect 1972 season. Credit Associated Press Denver’s jump this season may not have seemed as dramatic, with the Broncos going from third in the N.F.L. in yards allowed to first, but anyone who watched the team’s dismantling of Tom Brady and the New England Patriots in the A.F.C. championship game knows Phillips has turned a good unit into something special. Phillips said getting off to a fast start at a new job came down to teaching and presentation. He said he purposefully deceived his players in terms of the simplicity of the game plan. “We try to say, ‘Hey, this is simple: We’re going to get this done this way, and if they do this, then we kind of adjust right here,’ ” Phillips said. “We’re actually moving to a different coverage, but they don’t know that.” Shula, too, has endured firings and second-guessing. After a childhood in which he watched his father win two Super Bowls, including one at the end of a perfect 1972 season, Shula struggled when he set out on his own to coach. Only recently has he enjoyed some sustained success. He served as the offensive coordinator of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers from 1996 until February 2000, with many believing his offense was holding back a team that Tony Dungy had at the doorstep of contention. His tenure as head coach at Alabama, from 2003 to 2006, included a 10-win season and a Cotton Bowl victory, but his combined record in his other three seasons was 16-21, and the bowl win was vacated because of N.C.A.A. infractions. Image Sean McDermott, left, the Panthers’ defensive coordinator, and Mike Shula, who leads the offense, heading for a team practice last month in Charlotte, N.C. Credit Chuck Burton/Associated Press Shula’s struggles led some to say he was a coach strictly because of his last name, a criticism he does not shy away from. “I’ll be the first to admit that my dad, who he is, has opened doors,” Shula said. “I’d be lying if I said it didn’t. But I’ve always tried to be extremely appreciative and take nothing for granted.” Over the last five seasons, first as the Panthers’ quarterbacks coach and then as offensive coordinator, Shula has been changing perceptions while building an offense to suit Cam Newton, a quarterback unlike any who came before. While there were growing pains, everything seemed to click this season, with the Panthers leading the N.F.L. in scoring. Asked to evaluate Shula’s work, Newton called him his secret weapon. Newton also said the continuity of working with Shula throughout his pro career had been instrumental in his development. “When you’ve got a guy that cares about you as a person rather than just how many touchdowns you can run and throw, it kind of makes it different for the player,” Newton said. “Not only that, he asks you and you know by the game play selection that he takes into consideration what you like to do.” Position coaches and players said that while Shula was stubborn, he was also modest when it came to what he had done for the Panthers. “He’s put together a tremendous offense,” Ken Dorsey, the team’s quarterbacks coach, said. “I think some people don’t like it because they might not understand it at times. But I think he’s done a great job in terms of adjusting to what pieces we have.” Shula, 50, said Carolina’s run at a perfect season of its own — the team started the season 14-0 — was a lot of fun, and he talked excitedly about having Don Shula, now 86, coming out for the Super Bowl. But Phillips, while regaling reporters with tales of the past, slipped into a rare somber tone when asked about how his bombastic father, who died in 2013 , would have appreciated the chaos of Super Bowl week. “He could handle all this,” Phillips said. “He’d have a lot of funny things to say, I could tell you that. But let’s not talk about my dad too much.” The jovial Phillips, 68, who has been coaching in the N.F.L. since 1976, recovered quickly, with the next question about how long he would like to keep coaching. “I’d like to finish this year,” he deadpanned. Come Sunday, Shula will send his atypical offense out to try to bust open holes in Phillips’s suffocating defense. While their presence will always remind people of their famous fathers, one of them will walk away with a Super Bowl ring of his own. And he will have done it by sticking with his way of doing things, no matter how many times it got him fired.

Football
Wade Phillips
Mike Shula
Don Shula
Bum Phillips
Coaches
Super Bowl
Carolina Panthers
Broncos


Officials Say Boy, 2, Who Died in March Was a Homicide Victim

Abstract: Nearly nine months after a 2-year-old boy was found unconscious in his family’s East Harlem apartment, the police said on Wednesday that his death was now being investigated as a homicide, after a lengthy review by the medical examiner. Police officers found the boy, Rashid Washington, on the morning of March 20 after they were called to the apartment on 126th Street, near Lexington Avenue. He was taken to Harlem Hospital Center, where he was pronounced dead. After an investigation that concluded on Friday, the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner determined that the death was a homicide caused by blunt-force abdominal trauma with liver and spleen lacerations, a spokeswoman for the medical examiner said. Officials said investigations into children’s deaths could take longer because of the complexity and the additional testing involved. The police said that the boy’s mother told the officers that Rashid had been asleep, woke about 7 a.m. and fell. The mother had been sleeping, she told the police, but said she had awakened when she heard him moaning and had put him back to bed. She checked on him several times, she told the police, and later found him unresponsive. A home health aide, who was in the apartment caring for the child’s maternal grandmother, tried to resuscitate the child until emergency medical workers arrived. The police said on Wednesday that a criminal investigation was continuing and that there had been no arrests.

Murders and Homicides
East Harlem
Rashid Washington


Losing Mobility and Gaining a Work Life

Abstract: I always cringe a little when I hear people say that affirmative action doesn’t work or isn’t fair. That’s because I know I wouldn’t be where I am today without it. I also know that very few people see the issue from the same perspective that I do. As a young black male from Brownsville in Brooklyn, I was extremely athletic. I played baseball, touch football and basketball. I even took ballet classes with the Eliot Feld ballet school in a special program for disadvantaged city youth. I dreamed of being Gregory Hines. Growing up in the 1970s, I also had an addiction — video games and pinball — and I desperately craved quarters. I never knew my father, and my mother was often on welfare or working an exhausting temporary job. Feeding my addiction was on me. I got my first paying gig at the age of 10, bagging groceries at a Key Food on Avenue B and Sixth Street in Manhattan through the father of a schoolmate who managed the store. (We had moved to the Lower East Side after a fire forced us out of our apartment in Brooklyn.) That summer I worked daily shifts, roughly four hours each, for tips. On a good day I brought home $3. On a great day, $5. I was supposed to share a percentage with my mother, but I often shortchanged her. It became a major source of pride for me, this “pay for labor” thing, and it instilled a work ethic I would never lose. Not even after I was shot in the back while walking home one night. The police never did find my shooter, and the bullet, still lodged near my spine today, paralyzed me for life from the waist down at the age of 13. I spent six months in the hospital trying to recover. My arms were so weak I could barely lift them over my head. I had to learn to do everything all over again. In high school, I watched as many of my able-bodied friends juggled school and part-time jobs. By this time I had gained considerable upper-body strength. However, as someone who was paralyzed, I never imagined that any employers in their right minds would hire me. I was fiercely independent and darted around the city in my wheelchair with no assistance, but who would hire a cripple when you could have a “regular” kid? I wasn’t going to deliver pizzas or wash cars or stand behind a counter and ring people up on a cash register. I assumed I would just collect a disability check well into my adulthood. Maybe if I got lucky I would score a computer job down the line. In the spring of my junior year in high school, a guidance counselor told me about a government-sponsored program that placed high school students with disabilities in work positions for the summer. She encouraged me to apply. I would make minimum wage, of course, but it promised to be more worthwhile than hanging out watching TV, so I signed up. That June I nervously started my first placement, at a dermatology office at Bellevue Hospital, a bus ride from where my family now lived in Chelsea. Monday through Friday, 9 to 5, I sorted dermatology slides, answered phones and ran materials to and from Bellevue and the neighboring N.Y.U. medical center. I loved it. Someone depended on me to show up. I never took a sick day that summer. That job gave me a powerful sense of purpose and belonging. I became friendly with many of the staff members there, like nurses, doctors and lab technicians. Another high school student, a Puerto Rican girl from Harlem who worked in outpatient check-in, became a dear friend. On breaks we would visit one another’s departments and flirt. Every payday Friday, she and I would go out to lunch at our favorite pizza place on Second Avenue. I fell in love with her. But that’s a whole other story. The point is that Working — with a capital W — filled me with such confidence and increased my self-esteem in such immeasurable ways that I could feel comfortable falling for a beautiful able-bodied girl. My boss at Bellevue was Rachel, a middle-aged doctor, who talked to me as if I were an adult. She set the bar impossibly high for all of my future bosses. She was humorous and laid-back, but was also conscientious and well respected by her peers. I remember thinking that if I ever got to be someone’s boss, I’d strive to be like her. On my last day there before having to return to school for my senior year, Rachel took me out to lunch at a popular Indian restaurant. She told me she often took new interns there. I felt special, important, appreciated. She said she would miss me and that if I wanted to return, there would be a job there for me next summer. I nodded, thinking that was exactly what I wanted. But that next summer the program gave me a different placement at the Bobst Library at N.Y.U. in the heart of Greenwich Village, placing bar codes in books. Though the mood and responsibilities were different, the pride and sense of self-worth were the same. It gave me great satisfaction to get out of the house by 8 every morning knowing I wouldn’t be back until nightfall because I had a job. I had to be someplace where my knowledge and expertise were needed. Even the drug dealers in my neighborhood respected me. I knew this because my building had three steps to the entrance, and every morning and night one of those dealers helped me up or down the steps. The one I was closest to would see me in the morning and say: “Gotta get Jerry to the office.” It has been nearly 30 years since I rolled into that Bellevue lobby, a skinny kid with a Richard Pryor Afro in a clunky wheelchair. With the exception of a few tiny breaks, I haven’t stopped working since. I’ve been a customer service representative, a case manager for homeless youth, an actor in commercials and films and a production manager and writer for a theater company, among other things. Once I even dressed up as a cow and passed out fliers in Times Square to promote a new Ben & Jerry’s. And I always have that pride — that feeling that I’m a contributing member of society. I matter. My belief is that the people who are against affirmative action must lack an empathy gene. Oh, if they could only roll a mile in my wheelchair. The unemployment rates for people with disabilities worldwide are mind-numbingly high. I know because I’ve traveled to over two dozen countries and met these people, as a tour guide leader for those with disabilities. The main reason the jobless rate is so high for people with disabilities is that they are not given an equal chance in the mainstream work world. Employers bring their own baggage and ill-conceived preconceptions about my tribe. The Americans With Disabilities Act and similar laws notwithstanding, some employers are unwilling to make certain changes to an office space that would make a worker’s life more comfortable and productive. I had several jobs where the floor on the building I worked in didn’t have a wheelchair-accessible bathroom; at one job I even had to go across the street to a different office building to use a bathroom that didn’t belong to my company. This little trip was a bonus in the summer, but was dreadful in the winter. The sad truth is that sometimes employers need a forceful nudge to make them do the right thing. That’s just the harsh reality. I got really lucky. But luck should not have to be a part of the equation.

Disability
Careers and Professions
Jobs
Bellevue Hospital Center
Brooklyn