Europeans’ Masters Title Drought Looms Large in Rory McIlroy’s 77

Abstract: AUGUSTA, Ga. — The photos of past Masters champions are on a wall just inside the clubhouse entrance at Augusta National, and at this stage, you have to do some searching to find the last European champion. It is José María Olazábal, the strong-minded Basque from Spain who won the second of his two Masters in 1999. In the last 17 years, European golfers have continued to dominate the United States in the Ryder Cup and have won the other three major tournaments repeatedly. But the Masters has remained elusive, and though the leader of Europe’s new generation, Rory McIlroy, was best placed to challenge on Saturday, the European in best position to end the drought when the blustery third round was over was a man eight years older than Olazábal: the 58-year-old Bernhard Langer. Augusta National has been full of surprises this past week, even if Jordan Spieth remains the leader in the clubhouse at three under par, one shot ahead of the Masters rookie Smylie Kaufman and two shots ahead of Langer and Hideki Matsuyama. As for McIlroy, the Northern Irishman who started the day just one stroke behind Spieth, he now has some more Masters scar tissue and is five strokes off the lead at two over. McIlroy, one of the game’s longest drivers and best ball strikers, could not manage a single birdie in the gusting conditions. “I didn’t feel like anything was off,” said McIlroy, arms folded as he spoke frankly to the news media in the fading light after his disappointing 77. But McIlroy did feel as if he were, in his words, “playing upstream.” Even the par 5s that have been his prime hunting ground this past week provided little cheer. He was seven under on those holes in the first two rounds. He had to settle for four pars on them on Saturday along with a double bogey on the par-4 11th. But Spieth gave McIlroy and the other Europeans some unexpected room for optimism with a bogey on 17 and a double bogey on 18. McIlroy, his playing partner, had a close-up view. “To be honest with you, I would be feeling a lot worse about myself, if I hadn’t just seen what Jordan did the last two holes,” McIlroy said. “I sort of take a bit of heart from that, that I’m still in this golf tournament.” Other Europeans still in the hunt include Danny Willett of England at even par, Lee Westwood of England and Soren Kjeldsen of Denmark at one over and the former United States Open champion Justin Rose of England at three over. Of the eight Englishmen in the Masters field, seven made the cut. “Who let us down?” said Westwood, ever dry of wit. Andy Sullivan was the answer. “Kids nowadays,” said Westwood, 42. At 29, Sullivan, a Masters rookie, is certainly a “kid” compared with Langer, but even if seven Englishmen out of eight are still playing Augusta National, the odds remain against a European trying on another green jacket.


Second-Generation Ethiopian-Israelis March Toward Acceptance

Abstract: JERUSALEM — Yetmwork Makurya, 35, had tears in her eyes as she spoke of her attachment to Israel . When she arrived as a teenager in 1991 on a secret overnight airlift from Ethiopia , she said, “Jerusalem and the land of Israel was my dream.” Yet over the past three months Ms. Makurya has spent much of her time with an angry new generation of Ethiopian-Israeli activists on the sidewalk near the prime minister’s residence in central Jerusalem, protesting against unofficial but hurtful racism and discrimination. “Here,” said Ms. Makurya, a mother of three, “everything is determined by the color of my skin.” For many Israelis, the idea that Jews could be racist toward other Jews is anathema. The 1991 airlift, known as Operation Solomon , brought 14,000 Ethiopian Jews to Israel within 36 hours and was greeted at the time with great celebration. Natan Sharansky, the human rights activist who spent years in Soviet prisons before arriving in Israel, joined one of the flights. In an interview on the 20th anniversary of the airlift last year, Mr. Sharansky, by then the chairman of the quasi-governmental Jewish Agency that deals with immigration , said with pride, “Black, white — there is no difference in the ingathering of exiles.” As the dazed new immigrants descended the plane steps, many kissed the tarmac. Operation Solomon followed an earlier, smaller wave of clandestine immigration in the 1980s, involving a treacherous trek from Ethiopia to camps on the Sudanese border. Thousands perished along the way; Israel recently began honoring them with official memorials. Armies of volunteers and organizations, and a plethora of programs largely financed by American Jews, helped ease the transition of the Ethiopians from the rural life to modern Israeli society. The government has also allocated significant resources to help them. But a second generation of young, educated adults who have grown up in Israel say they are still struggling to be accepted as Israeli, and are distancing themselves from the grateful passivity of their parents. “For our parents it was a privilege to come to Israel, so they didn’t complain,” said Yamluck Waggow Ichasheman, 31. “Longings for Zion brought them here.” They bristle at what they see as a patronizing attitude. Many Israelis, said Ms. Makurya, who works as a counselor, convey the message, “ ‘Say thank you that you’re here, we gave you food.’ ” She added, “Some here say there is no such thing as a black Jew.” The immigrants first exploded in rage when reports emerged in 1996 that Israel was secretly dumping blood donated by Ethiopians for fear that it was contaminated with H.I.V. Immigration experts here say that the Ethiopian-Israelis do face some racism and prejudice, but that racism is not the main problem blocking their progress. Earlier immigrants from other countries like Morocco and Yemen also had a long, rough entry into Israeli society. “I have always said that integration takes a generation,” said Arnon Mantver, the director of JDC-Israel, the Israeli branch of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, which has worked intensively with the Ethiopian community. Given the formidable challenges facing the Ethiopians, he said, “Perhaps it takes longer.” Unlike the Russian immigrants of the early 1990s, who came as doctors, engineers and musicians, many of the Ethiopians had never been to school. Tamar Lilay, 31, said she did not know how to hold a pencil when she first landed. She now has a degree from Haifa University in special education and runs a program pioneered by JDC-Israel for the empowerment of Ethiopian women in Gedera, a town south of Tel Aviv. There was also culture shock. Ms. Lilay recalled being driven from the airport to a hotel in Eilat, a southern resort full of women in bikinis. “My mother only cried,” Ms. Lilay said. “We came from a village, a modest life. All our stories were about holy Jerusalem, not Eilat. We were not prepared for that.” The high employment rate of Ethiopian women, more than 60 percent, is considered one of the more successful measures of integration. But many of the women, and men, are employed in low-grade jobs, often as contract workers with little hope of advancement. Ethiopian Israelis are concentrated in poor areas; they could afford only cheap housing with special mortgages granted by the government. As a consequence, some kindergartens and schools became almost exclusively Ethiopian, leading to accusations of ghettoization and separate systems of education. The Orthodox-dominated religious establishment has been less than accommodating, while the Kessim, traditional Ethiopian Jewish spiritual leaders, complain that they have lost their stature. “I left my authority as a parent and an educator at the airport,” said Kess Eyasu Barhane, 81, as he sat under a colorful umbrella at a recent demonstration outside the prime minister’s residence. Immigration to Israel “was like entering a sort of paradise,” he said, speaking in Amharic through an interpreter, “but I hardly had time to enjoy the happiness before being left with a bad taste.” Education gaps remain, and there are high rates of alcoholism and truancy among Ethiopian-Israeli youth. The rates of suicide, divorce and domestic violence are also higher than in the rest of Israeli society. A recent parliamentary report said that 30 percent of the killings of women by their husbands occur within the Ethiopian community, though the 130,000 or so Ethiopians make up less than 2 percent of Israel’s population. The move to Israel caused an “earthquake that shook the foundations of the family structure,” said Malka Shabtay, an anthropologist at the Ruppin Academic Center’s Institute for Immigration and Social Integration, in Israel. But Dr. Shabtay said that the recent protest was a positive development that could result in the kind of unified community leadership that had so far been lacking. Another source of contention has been the slow trickle of immigration of the Falash Mura, Ethiopians of Jewish descent who converted to Christianity. Thousands are still waiting in camps in Ethiopia. This year’s protests were fueled by a number of ugly episodes that grabbed the attention of the local news media. In the southern town of Kiryat Malachi, the residents of four buildings signed an agreement not to rent or sell apartments to Ethiopians. Some told visiting television crews that the Ethiopians ate strange food and smelled bad. Ms. Makurya’s young children were kicked off a public bus in Jerusalem by an abusive driver in April. The driver accused one of them of not paying for a ticket though the youngest, a 4-year-old girl, was entitled to ride for free. The bus company said it had suspended the driver, and the police are investigating. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met twice with the protest leaders. In mid-May his government approved a plan to accelerate the integration process for the second-generation Ethiopians. It increased mortgages for young Ethiopian couples, offered employment guidance and allocated 30 new Civil Service job slots to Ethiopian-Israelis. “They are our flesh, they are part of us,” Mr. Netanyahu told his cabinet, “and we will not tolerate any displays of racism against them.” A protest tent came down at the end of May, by court order, but the activists have remained on the sidewalk under a large umbrella. Alemitu Ferede, 30, a law school graduate from Ashkelon who had been behind the effort to set up the protest tent, said the government offer was inadequate. “They decided for us, not with us,” she said. “The time has come to fight to be Israelis.”

Immigration and Emigration
Race and Ethnicity
Discrimination
Israel
Ethiopia
Labor and Jobs


Marta Figueras-Dotti Cultivates Young Spanish Golf Stars

Abstract: When the coach of the Spanish women’s golf team, Marta Figueras-Dotti, was asked to serve as a captain’s assistant for the European Solheim Cup team last year, it marked a turning point. This wasn’t just a personal accolade for the Spanish coach. It was a statement about the strength of her national program: Three of the 12 Europeans on that 2013 Solheim Cup team, which beat the United States in Colorado to retain the Cup, were from Spain. “Honestly, I am less and less surprised every day,” Figueras-Dotti said of the recent success of female Spanish golfers. And when asked about the chance that a Spanish woman would win a major title for the first time this week at the Evian Championship in France, she singled out several players who seem poised to peak at the right time: Azahara Muñoz, Carlota Ciganda and Belén Mozo. “I think Azahara has a chance to win because her mind is so strong and she has been right up there every week,” Figueras-Dotti said. “Carlota has the passion and drive to win soon, and she loves that course.” And Mozo, who has two top-10 finishes this year, has refocused on her mental approach, she said. Of Figueras-Dotti’s three Solheim Cup players, Muñoz has posted eight top-10 finishes this year and is hoping to add a second career L.P.G.A. victory. Ciganda, in her second full L.P.G.A. season, recorded her career-best tie for 13th in a major last month at the Wegmans L.P.G.A. Championship. And Beatriz Recari, who has three victories and 19 top-10 L.P.G.A. finishes, seems poised for a breakthrough tournament this year. In the current world rankings for professionals, France and Spain lead Europe, each with three players in the top 100. Muñoz is the top-ranked Spaniard, at No.12, followed by No.42 Recari and Ciganda at No.63. In the world amateur rankings, seven Spanish women are in the top 100, with three in the top 20, the most for a European nation. But those numbers did not fall into place serendipitously. Figueras-Dotti, 56, lobbied for change within the Spanish Golf Federation after she retired from the L.P.G.A. Tour in 2001 and became coach of the national women’s team. As the first Spanish player to play on the L.P.G.A. Tour and the tour’s first winner from Spain, Figueras-Dotti had experienced top competition in golf. But when she pointed to the path she had taken, others didn’t view it as the one Spain’s top young talent should follow. “When I returned to Spain after playing on tour, I was told not to talk to the amateurs about my experiences in the United States,” Figueras-Dotti recalled. “They were afraid the players would leave Europe to play college golf in the States and that we wouldn’t have good representatives for our tournaments in Europe.” The new coach argued that Spanish players would never become globally respected if they competed only in Europe. She asked the Spanish Golf Federation to think on a larger scale. “I knew our players would be known if they played or won on the L.P.G.A. Tour or if they played in the Solheim Cup,” she said. “It was a struggle until I helped the federation see that and believe it.” Image The Spanish coach Marta Figueras-Dotti, left, with Carlota Ciganda at the 2013 Solheim Cup in Parker, Colorado, last summer. Credit David Cannon/Getty Images Soon, Spaniards began heading to the United States to play college golf while pursuing their education. It didn’t take long for some of Spain’s top amateurs to have an impact on the best college programs in America. Muñoz was the 2008 N.C.A.A. individual champion while at Arizona State, and Mozo helped her University of Southern California team win the 2008 N.C.A.A. team championship. The next year, Muñoz and Ciganda helped Arizona State win the 2009 N.C.A.A. team championship, and the same year their compatriot María Hernández won the individual national title playing for Purdue University. In 2011, another Spaniard, Marta Silva, starred at the University of Georgia and was voted Player of the Year by the National Golf Coaches Association. But Hernández had to be convinced to try college golf. Figueras-Dotti, who graduated from the University of Southern California in 1982 with a degree in humanities and social sciences, encouraged Hernández to use the collegiate environment to improve her skills. “For me, she has meant everything, and without Marta, none of us would be where we are today,” said Hernández, who earned L.P.G.A. membership in 2010. Muñoz said the coach’s “experience as a player was extremely valuable” to the national team and that she shared her insight with players to help them grow. “Everything I have done since I was little has made me a better golfer and prepared me for the L.P.G.A,” Muñoz said. Referring to the fact that Figueras-Dotti was the first Spanish player to win on the L.P.G.A., Recari added, “it’s a true honor and privilege to be on that list after her.” Tania Elósegui, a Spaniard who plays on the Ladies European Tour, was also encouraged by Figueras-Dotti to dream big. Elósegui turned pro in 2005, qualified for the 2009 L.P.G.A. Tour and was selected for the 2009 European Solheim Cup team. “She was a very big influence on me and was my coach for almost 10 years,” Elósegui said. Figueras-Dotti will continue molding her young Spanish amateurs and encouraging her pros, but her next focus is to send a competitive Spanish team to Rio for the 2016 Summer Olympics. She was recently awarded a medal by the National Sports Council of Spain and was given an honorary life membership at Royal Birkdale Golf Club in Southport, England, for her victory in the Women’s British Open there in 1982. The honors have been meaningful, she said, but not as much as seeing her players excel. “On a personal level, I’m very proud of the work I’m doing, and they’ve made me grow as a coach,” she said. “I may be a better coach than I was a player.” And her players have learned that their coach still expects big things from them — whether they are winning college tournaments, L.P.G.A. championships, climbing the world rankings or regularly reminding the world that Spanish golf is now a global contender.

Golf
LPGA
Solheim Cup
Women's British Open Golf
NCAA


Universities Spar Over Disappearing Electronic Messages

Abstract: In less than two months after a group of University of Washington computer researchers proposed a novel system for making electronic messages “disappear” after a certain period of time, a rival group of researchers based at the University of Texas at Austin, Princeton, and the University of Michigan, has claimed to have undermined the scheme. In July, the University of Washington team described an experimental system called “Vanish” predicated on the idea of scattering the parts of an encryption key on a publicly accessible peer-to-peer file sharing network in such a way that the key — a large number — would become unusable as pieces of it were lost from the network. The Vanish researchers had argued that increasingly in a networked world sensitive discussions involving something like a divorce or a lawsuit threaten users’ privacy when they are archived on multiple systems. Encrypting such messages is only a partial solution, the researchers argued, because encryption systems can be broken or keys can be subpoenaed. Therefore, it is virtually impossible to reliably delete information that has been transmitted via the Internet. The Vanish attackers have created a demonstration system they call “Unvanish” and they said they had undone the Vanish model for gradually eroding encryption keys by subverting the peer-to-peer file sharing system. Their insight was to use a single computer to masquerade as a large number of members of a file sharing network. That rogue machine would simply need to capture and store anything that looked like a Vanish key fragment. The researchers said that this was simple, as the Vanish fragments are identifiable because of their size. Later it would be possible to reconstruct a Vanish message by simply consulting the Unvanish archive. “In our experiments with Unvanish, we have shown that it is possible to make Vanish messages ‘reappear’ long after they should have ‘disappeared’ nearly 100 percent of the time,” the researchers wrote on a Web site that describes their experiment. According to Emmett Witchel, a U.T.-Austin computer scientist, such technical jousting matches are at the very heart of both the computer security and cryptography fields. “The goals of the Vanish researchers are reasonable goals,” he said, “but their system is fundamentally flawed.” The scheme would not be saved by trying to mask the size of the individual fragments, he added. “It would make the attack a little bit more expensive, but it doesn’t change the basic nature of the problem.” On Monday, the Vanish researchers responded that they had now modified their initial prototype to use multiple file sharing networks, complicating the task of an attacker. “The newly discovered weaknesses with our initial research prototype are not an invalidation of Vanish,” said Tadayoshi Kohno, a University of Washington computer scientist.

Computer Security
Cryptography
Colleges and Universities
Computers and the Internet
Science and Technology


Personal Liability Insurance Is Essential, Advisers Say

Abstract: AFTER sorting out health, home, life and car insurance , personal liability coverage may seem like a policy too far. But in a world filled with lawyers and bad luck, financial advisers find it vital. A personal liability policy, commonly called an umbrella policy, is a last line of defense against lawsuits, advisers explain. When other insurance has reached its limit, an umbrella policy will pay claims up to the amount covered. Consider this situation: Someone slips and falls on your icy driveway and then you run over and kill the person while backing out of your garage. If you have $1 million limits each on your home and auto policies and the victim’s estate wins $10 million in a negligence judgment, you could face financial ruin unless you have an umbrella policy that covers the difference. The insurance also pays off if there is liability for something more obscure, like slander, libel or false arrest . Financial advisers generally recommend the insurance to any client with significant assets to protect, often before discussing anything else. “We talk to them about umbrella coverage almost upfront,” said David H. Bugen, an adviser at RegentAtlantic in Morristown, N.J. “When you do financial planning, clients want to go from Point A to B, and one of their biggest concerns is what will keep them from getting there.” Near the top of the list is “an event that’s unlikely to occur, but if it occurs it can disrupt your financial future forever,” Mr. Bugen said. “You want to insure against a large catastrophic risk and cover smaller risks yourself.” Peter E. Lang, managing director of HighTower Advisors in Harrison, N.Y., likewise finds an umbrella policy essential, even for someone who owns a home and little else of great value. An often cited appeal of the insurance is that it doesn’t make judgments. “The thing I find most interesting about this is that it doesn’t matter whose fault it is,” said Jonathan R. Foster, chief executive of Angeles Wealth Management in Santa Monica, Calif. “If someone dies in a car accident and it’s your fault, it goes a long way to protecting you or your family.” A long way, but not necessarily all the way. Aside from the maximum benefit written into all policies, the insurance cannot get someone out of a criminal charge that might result from negligence or worse. Some may consider the chances of having to make a claim on an umbrella policy too remote to make it worth buying. But “because it happens so rarely, it’s actually quite cheap,” Mr. Foster said. The annual premium is about $500 for every $1 million of coverage, although people whose lifestyles are believed to expose them to greater risk typically have to pay more. Also, Mr. Foster said, underwriters of umbrella insurance may require policyholders to raise the limits on their car and home coverage, incurring higher costs there. The consensus among financial advisers is that coverage on personal liability insurance should roughly equal a policyholder’s net worth. It is possible that someone will be sued for more than that figure, but in their experience it is unusual. Up to that amount, the policy pays off; substantially more than that and the policyholder on the wrong end of a court judgment is likely to file for bankruptcy and the plaintiff will have to stand in line with other creditors, advisers say. Personal liability protection is seldom sold on its own. It is usually tacked on to other types of insurance because insurers want to be certain that customers have enough coverage that pays out ahead of an umbrella policy. Advisers note that bundling can make the various policies cheaper than if they are bought à la carte. As with any insurance, it pays to shop around. Mr. Bugen, the RegentAtlantic adviser, recommends getting quotes from agents who have expertise in personal liability policies. Mr. Lang at HighTower encourages prospective policyholders to make sure that the company that underwrites the coverage is a large, well-established one.

Insurance
Financial Planners
Suits and Litigation


Airbnb Sues Over Nasty Surprise From Its Hometown

Abstract: Sometimes local politicians can be an awfully unpredictable bunch. This month, Airbnb appeared to be surprised when the once friendly San Francisco Board of Supervisors turned hostile, unanimously voting to fine Airbnb $1,000 a day for every unregistered host who uses the service, in a new law that is expected to go into effect in July. Airbnb is suing to stop it , arguing that the supervisors are violating a federal law that protects websites from being responsible for what people post on them. What’s more, the supervisors’ vote was a rare setback for Airbnb, which often cited San Francisco as a city that understood how to support innovation. Innovation, of course, being a code word for agreeing to do what the tech industry wants. Image Has San Francisco lost its zeal for the tech industry? Unlikely. Uber appears to be getting along just fine with local officials. Tech buses are still using municipal bus stops with the city’s blessing (and a very small fee). And tech luminaries like the angel investor Ron Conway continue to have an outsize influence in local politics. That could change. Housing activists say they will continue to press their case that Airbnb is limiting affordable housing, and they have indicated they’ll take a second swing at a ballot measure to place tight restrictions on the service. Their first attempt failed last year. Now there are indications that voters may be asked to change the rules of engagement for tax breaks that lured companies like Twitter to the city’s Mid-Market neighborhood. According to The San Francisco Examiner , the city’s voters may be asked to approve a 1.5 percent surtax on tech company payrolls. Advocates say it could raise $120 million a year. In a city struggling with soaring housing prices blamed on an influx of moneyed tech workers, it should surprise no one that local officials are starting to look at those companies as a source of tax revenue that has yet to live up to its potential.

Lawsuits
Affordable housing
Hotels
Airbnb
San Francisco Board of Supervisors
San Francisco


Gatlin Accepts Test and Faces 8-Year Ban

Abstract: Justin Gatlin made the unusual move of accepting the laboratory results for a positive test for testosterone yesterday. In turn, the United States Anti-Doping Agency has handed down an eight-year suspension from track and field, although he will appeal to an international arbitrator for a shorter penalty. Gatlin, 24, also agreed to cooperate with the United States Anti-Doping Agency’s efforts, although he has not revealed whether that means he will help the agency investigate his coach, Trevor Graham. A statement from the antidoping agency said that as part of the agreement, Gatlin would forfeit his share of the world record in the 100 meters and any other results from competitions since his positive test April 22 at the Kansas Relays. He tied the world record May 12 in Doha, Qatar, and he won the national title in the 100 in June. By agreeing not to fight the validity of the positive test, Gatlin avoided a potential lifetime ban because this was his second doping violation. Antidoping officials said they agreed to the reduction because Gatlin’s first positive test in 2001 was believed to be unintentional — he was taking medication for attention-deficit disorder — and because of Gatlin’s offer to cooperate. “It’s a refreshing approach for an athlete to acknowledge the science and the solid work of Don Catlin and the laboratory in Los Angeles,” said Travis Tygart, the general counsel for the antidoping agency. “It saves us the time and money of arguing the validity of the test, which is money that should be used to help clean athletes.” Gatlin has maintained that he does not know how the synthetic testosterone got into his system. If the eight-year ban is upheld, it will most likely end Gatlin’s career. But one of his lawyers, Cameron Myler, said that Gatlin would appeal, which could reduce the suspension and salvage his ability to compete. Gatlin could base the appeal on cooperation with antidoping efforts, most notably in a case that may be pursued against Graham; he has coached seven athletes who have received doping suspensions. “We certainly have had discussions with USADA,” Myler said. “But at this point, we’re not ready to discuss the details.” Graham said in a statement released by his lawyer, Joseph Zeszotarski, that he “completely supports Justin Gatlin and Justin’s cooperation with USADA and efforts to get reinstated.” In the statement, Zeszotarski added that “Trevor knows that he has done nothing wrong in his relationship with Justin or any of his athletes, and only wants the truth to come out.” He added that Graham was willing to cooperate with antidoping officials. In his appeal, Gatlin could also argue exceptional circumstances behind his positive test, which would require him to prove sabotage or other unintentional use. Although Graham has said that Gatlin was sabotaged by a masseur, Christopher Whetstine, Gatlin has not endorsed that theory. Whetstine has denied using any illegal substances on Gatlin. If he had fought the validity of the test, Gatlin would have had little chance of escaping a lifetime suspension, according to officials from track’s international federation, the I.A.A.F. Reductions are largely granted for athletes who cooperate or prove unusual circumstances. “Justin Gatlin’s doping case has been a setback for our sport,” Craig Masback, executive director of USA Track & Field, said in a statement. “While we are glad Justin has taken responsibility for his positive test and will cooperate in USADA’s antidoping efforts, we are sorely disappointed in him.” Gatlin, who won a gold medal in the 100 meters and a bronze in the 200 at the 2004 Olympics in Athens, had been a vocal opponent of drug use in sports. He even spoke out against doping at the national championships in June, after he had learned that his A sample from the Kansas Relays had tested positive. His B sample confirmed that finding in July. Gatlin’s case has turned up the heat on Graham, who has since been banned from using United States Olympic Committee facilities because so many of his athletes have tested positive. One meet director in Europe said that he would not invite any athlete trained by Graham to compete. Others hope that Gatlin’s cooperation is a positive step. The prosecution of athletes as a result of the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative investigation was helped by the sprinter Kelli White, who not only testified against other athletes and coaches, but also made many appearances on behalf of antidoping efforts. “Like Kelli White before him, Justin Gatlin is doing the right thing by stepping forward and acknowledging that he committed a doping offense,” Peter Ueberroth, chairman of the U.S.O.C., said in a statement. “He can play a meaningful role in solving a problem.” Ueberroth also supported the idea of following any lead to those who supply drugs to athletes. “If there are others who, in any way, are complicit in Justin’s doping offense, they, too, must step forward and accept responsibility for their actions,” he said. “To profit from your involvement in sport while knowingly participating in doping is fraud, and it should not be condoned.”

Gatlin Justin
Steroids
Testosterone
United States Anti-Doping Agency


Letters to the Sports Editor

Abstract: To the Sports Editor: Re “Ex-Racehorses Starve as Charity Fails in Mission to Care for Them,” March 18: I have a simple solution to the challenge of how to care for the thousands of racehorses entering the retiree population every year: Stop the breeding and end the cruel spectacle of horse racing. Catherine Gore Pocono Pines, Pa. To the Sports Editor: The Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation is set up to help horses, not hurt them. Why you choose to focus on the few problems rather than all the good they do is beyond me. John Sharpe Holmdel, N.J. To the Sports Editor: I strongly commend the investigative reporting of Joe Drape. I am shocked to learn that the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation has been delinquent in paying for the maintenance of retired thoroughbreds racehorses it is responsible for. There is no excuse for this kind of neglect. If the foundation was short of money, the problem could have been appropriately addressed and humane action taken. As a result of this article, hopefully that will happen. Carol Swenson Lake Grove, N.Y. To the Sports Editor: The only difference between the horses that have outlived their profitability, now nearly abandoned and starving, and many American workers is that many of our workers have unions. Charles Merrill New York

Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation
Horse Racing
Horses
Breeding of Animals


Giants’ Road Show Will Begin on Cowboys’ Big Stage

Abstract: Glamour and hype will dominate the mood Sunday night when the Giants visit the Dallas Cowboys before what could be an N.F.L. record crowd of more than 100,000 fans in the first regular-season game in their new $1.15 billion stadium in Arlington, Tex. Not only will it be a road game against a division rival in the National Football Conference East for the Giants, it also will be the first of three consecutive games away from home. In the bigger scope, four of the Giants’ next five games, and five of the next seven, are on the road. Perhaps it is too early to suggest that this lopsided itinerary makes for a critical juncture in their season, but it will be a challenge. “Obviously, you would like to have a nice balance,” Coach Tom Coughlin said of the schedule. “But we have had some success on the road before.” Barry Cofield , a defensive tackle, said the Giants were “not too worried about” the stretch of away games. “We’ve got the veteran leadership and experience playing on the road,” he said. Last season, the Giants were 5-3 in away games. The season before, when they won the Super Bowl , they swept four playoff games away from Giants Stadium. With all the hoopla in Texas over Sunday night’s nationally televised game, the Cowboys (1-0) could be more distracted. Most of the Giants seemed excited about playing in a building with about 80,000 seats and space for at least 20,000 more in standing-room sections. The crowd could challenge the N.F.L. attendance record that was set at Estadio Azteca in Mexico City, where 103,467 fans saw San Francisco play Arizona on Oct. 2, 2005. But not everyone is a Dallas fan. Earlier in the week, Giants running back Brandon Jacobs discussed his feelings toward America’s Team. “The reason I hate the Cowboys so much is because they have so many fans,” Jacobs said. “Everywhere you go, someone is always saying: ‘Big D! Go, Big D!’ I don’t want to hear that. That’s what makes me hate.” On offense, the Giants were hoping to improve upon last season’s trip to the old stadium when they lost, 20-8, and quarterback Eli Manning was sacked eight times. In that game, tackle Kareem McKenzie left early with an injury and guard Rich Seubert became ill. But Manning said the big problem was, “We were in a lot of third-and-long positions where you’ve got to hold the ball a little bit.” Center Shaun O’Hara said it was “a rough game for all of us” and that the key to this one would be “start fast and take the crowd out of it and make sure we don’t turn into a one-dimensional team” that has to pass. “Run the ball effectively and early so we can stay balanced,” O’Hara said. “You always want to say out of third-and-long, but especially on the road. That makes it hard. It kind of plays into their hands.” The responsibility for that will go not only to the blockers but also to Jacobs, who gained only 46 yards on 16 carries during a 23-17 victory over Washington last Sunday. Though the Giants won, they had trouble putting the football in the end zone, settling for three field goals. On a fourth-and-1 at the Redskins 3 at the start of the second quarter, they missed out altogether when Jacobs was stopped and the Giants turned the ball over on downs. Ramses Barden, a rookie receiver drafted in the third round, could play in place of Hakeem Nicks, the first-round draft choice who is out with a sprained foot. The 6-foot-6 Barden could help in the red zone, where the ability to elevate becomes more important because room to maneuver is limited. At least the offense is healthier than the defense. Cofield said he was concerned with a calf injury that will sideline Chris Canty, a fellow tackle and a former Cowboy. Jay Alford, another defensive tackle, is out for the season after knee surgery. “We’ve still got three good tackles left,” Cofield said. “But we probably won’t have the kind of rotation we expected. Hopefully, it’s not too hot down there. Thank goodness it’s a night game.” Cofield, Fred Robbins and Rocky Bernard make up a three-man rotation for the two tackle positions in the Giants’ 4-3 defense, although defensive end Justin Tuck also lines up inside on some passing downs. And the line is not the most damaged unit of the defense. In Friday’s final practice, the Giants used only five defensive backs. Cornerback Aaron Ross is still out with a hamstring injury. Listed as questionable and idle Friday were safety Kenny Phillips with a left knee injury and cornerback Kevin Dockery with a hamstring. Another injury during the game could force a wide receiver to line up on defense. And once the game is going, the Giants will have an opportunity to watch the already infamous scoreboard over the field that could obstruct punts while giving fans a big-screen view of the proceedings. “I watch a lot of TV,” defensive end Mathias Kiwanuka said. “So for me to go out there and watch an 80-yard Jumbotron, that’s going to be impressive.”


Australian Emissions Trading Plan in Trouble

Abstract: NEWCASTLE, AUSTRALIA — On the windswept streets of Newcastle, the world’s largest coal port and a hub of Australian heavy industry, people get nervous when asked to give their opinions on climate change. Australia is the world’s largest exporter of coal, which pumps billions of dollars into the economy, supplies more than 80 percent of the country’s electricity and keeps tens of thousands of people in their jobs — particularly in and around Newcastle. But the carbon dioxide produced from burning coal is also a major contributor to climate change, a problem the center-left Labor government has vowed to address. Two years after Prime Minister Kevin Rudd drew worldwide applause for reversing Australia’s longstanding refusal to ratify the Kyoto protocol on global warming, the government’s ambitious plan to change the way Australians use energy is facing major obstacles, raising the prospect of an early election with climate change as the central issue. Introduced with much fanfare last year, the government’s plan aims to create a domestic replica of the emissions trading projects already operating in Europe and elsewhere. In the simplest terms, the plan would set a cap on how much carbon dioxide could be released into the atmosphere each year and allow companies to buy and sell pollution permits designed to meet that target. It aims to cut Australian emissions by at least 5 percent of 2000 levels by 2020, or by as much as 25 percent overall if other major emitters commit to similar cuts at global climate talks in Copenhagen later this year. The Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme passed easily through the Labor-controlled House of Representatives this month. But the Senate, which is controlled by conservatives and minor parties, has vowed to defeat the bill. The government plans to introduce its legislation to the Senate on Monday. Opponents come from all sides of the ideological spectrum. Conservatives say Australia should not commit itself to any target before the world’s biggest emitters — China and the United States — lay their cards on the table, and a successor to the Kyoto agreement, which expires in 2012, is reached. They contend the plan will drive up the cost of coal and other energy-intensive exports, allowing competitors like Indonesia to undercut Australia on world markets. With conservatives voting as a coalition against the legislation, Labor needs the support of the pro-environment Greens party and at least two minority senators. But the Greens are also opposed, saying a 25 percent cut in emissions should be Australia’s minimum target, not its maximum. Steve Fielding, a senator from the conservative Family First party who holds one potentially tie-breaking vote, has said he has doubts about the human links to climate change. But Senator Christine Milne, the deputy leader of the Greens party, said, “I don’t think there is any doubt that the legislation will not be passed.” The party has been frozen out of the negotiations for its refusal to budge on the targets. Conservatives say they will either defeat the bill outright, or stage a filibuster — an extremely rare event in Australian politics — to buy more negotiating time. If it is voted down, the government has said it will reintroduce the climate laws later this year. Under the Australian Constitution, the government can call simultaneous elections in both the upper and lower house if the Senate rejects the same bill twice, with a three-month gap between votes. Mr. Rudd is not due to face re-election until next year, but he could opt for a so-called double dissolution election to clarify his mandate. A defeat in the Senate would be a setback for Mr. Rudd, a former diplomat and foreign policy wonk who has been working to raise Australia’s profile on the world stage. Some observers believe Mr. Rudd hoped to present Australia’s emissions trading proposal to climate negotiators at Copenhagen as a model for balancing the concerns of heavy industry and the environment. But allowing the government to force an early election in both houses could backfire on the conservatives, which lost ground on the issue under the previous government of John Howard, a longtime climate change skeptic. “I don’t think they want to face the people on an election that is fought on climate change,” said Michael Fullilove, director of the Global Issues Program at the Lowy Institute for International Policy. “The last election was fought partly on climate change, and they lost that election.” Meanwhile, among the smokestacks and coal loaders of Newcastle, a two-hour drive north of Sydney, some residents said they worried about climate change but were wary of speaking publicly for fear of backlash from their employers. One man, a supervisor at an aluminum plant who did not want to be identified, said that climate change was a threat but that Australia — which produces less than 2 percent of the world’s emissions — should not take drastic steps without knowing what the rest of the world would do. Chris Beverley, a 52-year-old who works as a security guard at a power station and describes himself as a “greenie vegetarian,” said he supported the government’s plan and did not care if it cost him his job. But, he added: “Nobody thinks like me. They’re all worried about climate change, but at the same time they want to pay the mortgage, and they want to stay in work.”


In Slovakia, Three Are Held in a Uranium Smuggling Case

Abstract: BRUSSELS, Nov. 29 — Two Hungarians and a Ukrainian were arrested Wednesday after trying to sell highly enriched uranium, Slovak diplomats and police authorities said Thursday. The quantity, however, was far too small to make a crude warhead. Zuzana Dutkova, a spokeswoman for the Permanent Representation of the Slovak Republic to the European Union in Brussels, said the three suspects, who were arrested in Slovakia and Hungary, were in possession of just under half a kilogram of uranium in powder form. Ms. Dutkova, who said she had been briefed on the case by officials from the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Bratislava, said: “We are almost 90 percent sure that the material originated in one of the former Soviet republics. It was possible to use this material for terrorist attacks or to build a dirty bomb.” Western experts, however, cautioned that uranium, even when highly enriched, had too little radioactivity to make a dirty bomb — a weapon that combines highly radioactive material with conventional explosives to disperse over a large area deadly dust that people would inhale. By contrast, highly enriched uranium can fuel nuclear arms. However, the experts said the amount of material confiscated — about a pound — was far shy of the 60 to 110 pounds a terrorist would need for a crude atomic weapon. They also cast doubt on the level of enrichment the Slovak authorities attributed to the uranium. Dirty bombs are considered more a psychological armament than a weapon of mass destruction because their radioactive material is potentially much less lethal than a bomb using conventional explosives, experts say. Consequently, dirty bombs are sometimes called “weapons of mass disruption” whose destructive power rests in the panic they provoke. Ms. Dutkova said officials from the Ministry of Internal Affairs were still trying to determine who was trying to buy the uranium, which the three suspects were believed to have been planning to sell for $1 million. She said two of the suspects were arrested in Slovakia , along the Hungarian border, while the other was arrested in Hungary . She said that a total of 481.4 grams of uranium had been hidden in containers, and that investigators had determined it was enriched to 98.6 percent uranium 235. Uranium is considered highly enriched if it contains 20 percent or more uranium 235, which can split in bursts of atomic energy. Thomas B. Cochran, director of the nuclear program at the Natural Resources Defense Council, a private group in Washington that monitors atomic arsenals, said he doubted that the 98.6 percent enrichment figure given by the Slovaks was correct. It was far more likely that “98.6 percent is the confidence in the radiation detector measurement, not the enrichment,” Mr. Cochran said. When Slovakia joined the European Union in May 2004, its eastern border with Ukraine became the union’s easternmost frontier. Some European Union officials have been concerned about security at that border, fearful that it could become a hotbed for terrorists and organized criminal gangs seeking to smuggle explosives or banned material into the union. Ms. Dutkova said Slovakia had been making efforts to tighten security at the Ukraine border. The International Atomic Energy Agency has tracked hundreds of cases of radioactive materials that were stolen, missing, smuggled or in the possession of unauthorized people. But in the past 15 years, only about 18 cases have come to light that involved illicit trade in plutonium or highly enriched uranium, the two fuels of atom bombs.

Atomic Energy
Slovakia
Bombs and Explosives
Hungary
Ukraine


Win Includes 5-Homer Inning

Abstract: Bonita, Calif., hit five home runs in the third inning to beat Bowling Green, Ky., 14-2, in the Little League World Series in South Williamsport, Pa. The five homer in an inning — hit by five players as part of an 11-run inning — tied a record set in 1992 by the Dominican Republic. In other games, Taylors, S.C., defeated Cranston, R.I., 7-1; Pearland, Tex., downed Portland, Ore, 1-0; Mexico edged Canada, 1-0; Kampala, Uganda, beat Santiago de los Caballeros, Dominican Republic, 4-1; Venezuela topped Australia, 5-2; and Tokyo beat Taipei, Taiwan, 7-5.


Cable Networks Trying to Build on Their Gains in Ratings

Abstract: If executives at VH1 starred in their own reality show, they could call it “Best Quarter Ever.” VH1 and a long line of cable channels — including USA Network, Bravo, TBS and E! — are enjoying their highest ratings ever, while their broadcast network brethren look back on their worst year ever. The traditional September-to-May broadcast season ended last week with a whimper. In the 18- to 49-year-old demographic highly favored by advertisers, ABC, CBS and NBC each recorded double-digit declines, while Fox showed a slight uptick of 2 percent over last year, according to Nielsen Media Research. During the same time frame, ad-supported cable channels showed a 9 percent audience gain. Cable networks do not measure seasons from September to May, the way broadcast networks do. But ad-supported cable is on track for another record year. So far this season, ESPN, TBS and Spike are each attracting a quarter of a million more viewers in prime time. At least 10 other networks with more than a million prime time viewers are also posting gains, from the History Channel (up 15 percent) and Fox News (12 percent) to AMC (9 percent) and USA (7 percent). Cable channels have been eroding broadcast viewership for years, and comparisons between them are inexact. This television season, though, the shifts are especially sharp. And some executives, like Brooke Johnson, the president of the Food Network, partly credit last winter’s writers’ strike. “The strike provided an opportunity for new viewers to sample the network,” Ms. Johnson said. Cable’s gains were especially evident during the first quarter of 2008, as the broadcast networks ran out of scripted shows. When the strike began in November, ad-supported cable channels averaged a 44 percent share of the total TV audience. By April, when new episodes of many sitcoms and dramas re-emerged on the broadcast networks, cable had a 48 percent share, or a gain of four share points. The networks lost four share points during that period. “The strike may be charged with aiding and abetting” the audience shift, said Ted Harbert, the president of Comcast Entertainment Group, who oversees the E!, Style and G4 networks. But he said the absence of scripted shows on the broadcast networks merely shined a spotlight on what viewers already knew. “Cable’s dependable. Broadcast isn’t,” said Mr. Harbert, a former programming executive at ABC. “If you like the kind of stuff that E! does, you can turn it on any night and it’s there.” Despite the gains, only a handful of cable series and specials — “High School Musical,” “WWE Raw” — draw audiences comparable to those of broadcast. And it is not a totally fair fight. More than broadcasters, cable networks rely extensively on repeats and a handful of signature shows that define their brand. If viewers miss a new episode of “Zoey 101” on Nickelodeon, they know the episode will be replayed many times. But as the ratings for broadcast decline and the ratings for cable increase, the two types of television are gradually becoming more alike. Breaking with tradition this month, Turner Entertainment decided to hold its upfront presentation for advertisers during the same week as the broadcasters’. On stage at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York, Steve Koonin, the president of Turner Entertainment Networks, asked the audience to consider which network promoted shows featuring “a man in a unitard” and “a talking car named KITT” — and which network offered shows starring Academy Award- and Golden Globe-winning actresses. The answers: NBC presents men in unitards on “American Gladiators” and the talking car in “Knight Rider,” while Turner’s TNT cable network presents the award winners Holly Hunter in “Saving Grace” and Kyra Sedgwick in “The Closer.” Not so long ago, Mr. Koonin said, agencies and advertisers would have assumed that the silly shows were on cable TV and the master thespians on broadcast TV. Later, in an interview, he said cable networks were enjoying unprecedented success. “While the recent strike was certainly a factor in the migration of more viewers to cable, the bigger story is that broadcast ratings were down sharply before the strike even began,” he said. Since the early 1980s, when they represented 10 percent of all TV viewership, cable channels have slowly and steadily expanded their share of the audience, to more than 55 percent now, including both ad-supported ones and premium services like HBO. “Prime-time TV viewing by household has been relatively flat since the early ’90s, so broadcast’s losses have been cable’s gains,” Bill Gorman, an editor of the ratings Web site TV by the Numbers, said. Aided by the strike, cable executives are looking forward to the summer, when they traditionally schedule new scripted shows to take advantage of the networks’ usual reliance on reality shows and repeats. USA will introduce “In Plain Sight,” about the witness protection program, on Sunday. Lifetime will bring back “Army Wives” one week later. New seasons of “The Closer” and “Saving Grace” will have their debuts on TNT in July. The premieres are likely to draw more viewers to cable before the broadcasters begin their fall season in September.

Television
Cable Television
Ratings and Rating Systems


Target and PayPal Sites Report Problems on Cyber Monday

Abstract: Cyber Monday, the online version of Black Friday, is not immune to traffic jams of shoppers rushing to take advantage of post-Thanksgiving sales. Some of the most popular websites experienced an overload on Monday, similar to a crowd pushing its way into an already packed brick-and-mortar store. Shoppers were for a period of time unable to gain access to the site of Target, the discount chain,and PayPal, the online payments processing service . Both are now back online after an onslaught that reflects the shifting trends in the way consumers are looking for shopping bargains. Foot Locker, Groupon and Victoria’s Secret also experienced brief outages or slowdowns Monday afternoon, according to Catchpoint Systems, a web monitoring firm. In a statement on Monday, Target said it was experiencing its biggest online volumes ever in response to a 15 percent online discount that it had announced previously. Visitors to the site early Monday got a message saying: “Please hold tight. So sorry, but high traffic’s causing delays. If you wouldn’t mind holding, we’ll refresh automatically & get things going ASAP.” According to a statement from Target, the company said it placed online shoppers in a queue in order to manage the volume of users, but it then allowed them to keep trying to gain access by refreshing their browser. A heat map on downdetector.com showed most of the problems with PayPal were reported in North America and Europe. Problems started around 8:30 a.m. Eastern time. PayPal said in an emailed statement that the “brief, intermittent interruption” in service was resolved. It did not provide a reason. The holiday buying frenzy has evolved over the years as more stores offer sales before and sometimes on Thanksgiving Day. It has also shifted away from physical stores as Americans have increasingly turned to online shopping. For many people, Monday was their first day back at work after the long Thanksgiving weekend, so some shopping was presumably being done surreptitiously while at work. More than 121 million holiday shoppers planned to shop online on Monday, according to a survey by the National Retail Federation . Thanksgiving results showed that 103 million people shopped online over the weekend, it said. According to the trade group, this year is the 10th anniversary of Cyber Monday. But the event has broadened in recent years; some retailers advertise deals that stretch for days, complete with countdown clocks. Adobe Digital Index said online spending in the morning hours until 10 a.m. was up 14 percent this year compared with the previous year.

Black Friday,Cyber Monday
Retail
E Commerce
PayPal
Target


N.Y. State Comptroller Warns of Perilous Local Finances

Abstract: Local governments across New York State are collecting less in taxes, burning through their cash reserves and running up deficits, according to a report released Wednesday by the state comptroller. The report by the comptroller, Thomas P. DiNapoli , cast long-term doubt on the financial health of many municipalities in the state, which are faced with anemic revenues and fewer remaining ways to cut costs. And it offered another sobering prospect to local officials who have worried aloud in recent months that some of the state’s largest city governments may soon be unable to make ends meet. In a telephone interview, Mr. DiNapoli said local governments were facing a “perfect storm” of financial pressures — including diminished state aid, falling property values and sluggish collections of sales tax. The result, according to the report, is that balance sheets across the state are, in many cases, unsound, and are likely to remain that way or worsen in the coming years. In many ways, the comptroller’s report echoed a study released last month by a task force of budget experts that concluded that the fiscal crisis facing state governments would linger even after the nation’s economy recovered. Mr. DiNapoli said the same was true of local governments in New York State. “The challenges that are being faced now are not just a short-term cycle that’s going to turn around quickly,” Mr. DiNapoli said. “At least for the foreseeable future, there is a new reality, in terms of diminished revenues, and it’s affecting every level of government.” More local governments, the report said, are struggling to pay their bills on a day-to-day basis. Almost 300 local governments ended the 2010 or 2011 fiscal year — or both — with a deficit, and more than 100 do not currently have enough cash on hand to pay even three-quarters of their liabilities, Mr. DiNapoli’s office found. Even a city that is not facing immediate issues of solvency, the report said, is “having a hard time maintaining the services its residents want and need” as a result of widespread spending cuts over the past few years. “No matter how you measure it, almost all cities in New York are stressed and have to work hard to keep their fiscal houses in order,” the report said. Mr. DiNapoli’s study focused in part on the challenges facing local governments in coming up with the revenue they need. Peter A. Baynes, the executive director of the New York State Conference of Mayors and Municipal Officials, said mayors were increasingly desperate for new sources of revenue, like additional aid from the state or increases in local sales tax rates. “They’ve done just about all they can do on the spending side of the equation, in terms of reining in expenses, consolidating departments and using attrition to not fill positions,” Mr. Baynes said. “All that’s left for cities is to lay off employees that provide essential services.” As he has in the past, Mr. DiNapoli urged local governments on Wednesday to embrace multiyear financial planning and to resist fiscal trickery as they seek to balance their budgets in the short term. The report said that poor record-keeping and other questionable accounting practices were serving, in some cases, to mask the extent of the governments’ financial distress. But Richard L. Brodsky, a former assemblyman who was a writer of a recent report on the troubled finances of Yonkers , said cities that had improved their financial planning and forsaken gimmicks found that within the next few years, they would be unable to close their projected budget gaps. Mr. Brodsky predicted that “New York will see what California has already seen,” with localities simply unable to make the budget math work. “You’ve got an unsolvable problem,” he said, “which logically takes you to the consequences of that, which are bankruptcy, bailout or control board. That’s where the mayors are. That’s the conversation they’re having.”

DiNapoli Thomas P
Local Government
Budgets and Budgeting
New York State


States Face Decisions on Who Is Mentally Fit to Vote

Abstract: CRANSTON, R.I. — Behind the barbed wire and thick walls of the state mental hospital here are two patients who have not been allowed to live in the outside world for 20 years. Both were found not guilty of murder by reason of insanity. Still, they have voted in elections nearly every two years, casting ballots by mail. Now, however, election officials are taking steps that could ban them from voting, arguing that state law denies the vote to people with such serious psychiatric impairments. “I just think if you are declared insane you should not be allowed to vote, period,” said Joseph DeLorenzo, chairman of the Cranston Board of Canvassers. “Some people are taking these two clowns and calling them disabled persons. Is insanity a disability? I have an answer to that: no. You’re insane; you’re nuts.” Rhode Island is among a growing number of states grappling with the question of who is too mentally impaired to vote. The issue is drawing attention for two major reasons: increasing efforts by the mentally ill and their advocates to secure voting rights, and mounting concern by psychiatrists and others who work with the elderly about the rights and risks of voting by people with conditions like Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. This summer, recommendations for national standards will be released by a group of psychiatrists, lawyers and others led by the American Bar Association, suggesting that people be prevented from voting only if they cannot indicate, with or without help, “a specific desire to participate in the voting process.” Some state skirmishes involve efforts to ease restrictions, while others involve specific cases that compel officials to clarify old laws. And with research showing that many people with dementia or other impairments vote or want to, there is also a desire to ensure they are not pressured to vote certain ways. “There’s a lot of people out there who either don’t have adequate access to the ballot and should, or could be vulnerable to overreaching political types who want to take advantage of their votes to swing an election,” said Charles Sabatino, director of the commission on law and aging at the bar association. In Missouri, advocates for the mentally ill have sued the state, trying to make it easier for people under guardianship for mental incapacity to vote. New Jersey may put on the November ballot an amendment to the state’s Constitution to replace language forbidding an “idiot or insane person” to vote. Advocates for the disabled want those words removed but worry that replacement language is so vague it could be unfairly restrictive. They want to allow people to vote if they can supply information for a voter registration form. In Maine, a federal ruling a few years ago said a constitutional provision, twice affirmed by referendum, was discriminatory because it barred voting by people under guardianship for mental illness. Recent local elections in Alabama, South Carolina and elsewhere have included accusations of ballots cast on behalf of nursing home residents who were incompetent to vote. In New Jersey, a nursing home employee who won a 2004 election to a county Democratic committee stepped down because her victory resulted from absentee ballots cast by the nursing home residents. State laws vary and are inconsistently applied, said Jennifer Mathis, deputy legal director for the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, an advocacy group in Washington. Ms. Mathis said most states fell into one of two categories. About 18 bar voting by people under guardianship or who are “non compos mentis” (“not master of one’s own mind”), a determination that is often not clearly defined. Another 18 prevent voting if there is a specific determination that people lack voting competence. Rhode Island’s case concerns William Sarmento, institutionalized after he claimed Satan had ordered him to kill two boys, ages 6 and 9, and John A. Sarro, charged in the throat-slashing of a man in a bar restroom, and later with killing another psychiatric patient. If the men had been convicted and imprisoned, they would be unable to vote; only Maine and Vermont allow jailed felons to vote. Last October, Edward Desautel, a restaurant manager running for the Rhode Island House of Representatives, learned that Mr. Sarro and Mr. Sarmento were on the voting rolls. He wrote the three-member Board of Canvassers, arguing “we don’t need the additional burden of worrying whether an incompetent child murderer’s vote might affect the outcome of a close School Committee or other local race.” In an interview, Mr. Desautel said, “If you’re criminally insane, even if you’re found not guilty, you still shouldn’t be able to vote.” Mr. DeLorenzo said he was “ready to remove them from the voting list,” but because the House election had been so close, the American Civil Liberties Union intervened, saying more notice was required for a hearing. (Mr. Desautel lost by 1,700 votes.) In March, the canvassers notified Mr. Sarro and Mr. Sarmento that their voting rights were being reviewed, and a hearing is expected soon. The canvassers cite a state constitutional provision that a person “lawfully adjudicated to be non compos mentis” cannot vote. Kate Sherlock and Kate Bowden, lawyers from the Rhode Island Disability Law Center, representing the hospitalized men, say “non compos mentis” is different from “not guilty by reason of insanity.” The latter “means they were not found to form the specific intent required for the crime,” Ms. Sherlock said. “It does not address an individual’s capacity to vote in any way.” Mr. DeLorenzo cited semiannual doctors’ evaluations saying the men should remain hospitalized. Ms. Bowden said the evaluations considered “dangerousness, not capacity to vote.” Dr. Barry Wall, director of the forensic service at the mental hospital, said the hospital encouraged voting when possible. “We think of it as part of their treatment, to try to move them closer to society,” Dr. Wall said. Through lawyers, Mr. Sarro, 52, said, “I’ve been voting a long time now, and it’s important to me.” Mr. Sarmento, 40, said: “I read the paper just about every day. I’m aware of what is going on in the world. I care about voting.” The Missouri lawsuit seeks to end what it calls a state voting ban for people under full guardianship because of mental illness. Missouri’s attorney general’s office says the law lets judges allow voting in individual cases. A court ruled for the state, but the case is being appealed. David C., 26, of Fayette, Mo., who asked that his last name be withheld, said he had been prevented from voting because he was under guardianship, although he had distributed campaign fliers and lobbied a state senator about issues like Medicaid. Sebastian Go of St. Peters, Mo., under guardianship because of bipolar disorder, Asperger’s syndrome and brain injury, registered to vote and researched races when he turned 18 last September, said his guardian and grandmother, Linda Clarke. But the day Mr. Go received his voting card he also got a letter saying he could not vote because he had been declared mentally incapacitated. “He has to have someone manage his money for him and make his medical decisions,” Ms. Clarke said. “But Sebastian is able to make a political decision.” Mr. Go said he considered voting “my duty as an American citizen,” adding “I have an opinion on the outside world, on who’s governor, who’s senator, who’s president. And that one vote could count.” The 2001 ruling in Maine, allowing people to vote if they understood the nature and effect of voting and could make a choice, was considered a model. How to assess such qualifications, however, is controversial. “To fail to have any standard that requires a person to have a grasp of what the process is all about would degrade the voting process,” said Dr. Paul S. Appelbaum, a Columbia University psychiatry professor who was a leader of a study that asked Alzheimer’s patients to choose between hypothetical candidates and describe how elections work. Some advocates for the mentally ill object to such questions, however, saying they exceed what most prospective voters are asked. “The question asked of you when you go to vote is, Have you registered,” said Sally Hurme, a senior project manager for AARP, an association for older Americans. “Why should your next-door neighbor be given a greater barrier to voting than you just because they have a medical diagnosis?” So far, in Maine “basically now there is no restriction,” said Melissa Packard, the state’s director of elections. “We don’t require local registrars to determine if they think the person understands the voting process.”

Voter Registration and Requirements
Mental Health and Disorders
Rhode Island
United States Politics and Government


Chávez Faces Complications From Cancer Surgery

Abstract: CARACAS, Venezuela — President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela experienced complications related to his cancer surgery , resulting in bleeding that required “corrective measures,” but he was showing signs of recovery, an official said Thursday. The surgery, which lasted more than six hours, was done in Havana on Tuesday. Ernesto Villegas, Mr. Chávez’s information minister, did not say when doctors detected the bleeding or got it under control. But he said that Mr. Chávez was recuperating in a way that he described as “progressive and favorable.” Given how little information the government has released on Mr. Chávez’s health throughout the course of his illness, the recent change in its tone suggests that his condition is extremely serious and that there are doubts about how fully he may recover. On Wednesday, Mr. Villegas had warned the country that Mr. Chávez, 58, might not be able to return to Venezuela by Jan. 10, when he is scheduled to be sworn in for a new six-year term. In that case, Mr. Villegas wrote in a note posted Wednesday on the Information Ministry’s Web site, “the people should be prepared to understand. It would be irresponsible to hide the delicacy of the present moment and the days to come.” If Mr. Chávez cannot begin his new term, the Constitution calls for new elections to be held within 30 days. Mr. Chávez has said that if that occurs, his vice president, Nicolás Maduro, should be his party’s candidate. In the note on Wednesday, Mr. Villegas wrote that the operation had been “hard, complex, delicate” and that the period following surgery would be as well. He urged Venezuelans to treat the situation in the same way as someone who has “an ill father, in a delicate situation.” Despite several announcements this week about Mr. Chávez’s surgery, most details about his cancer and treatment have been kept secret since he received the diagnosis in June 2011. Mr. Chávez and officials have refused to say what kind of cancer it is and where exactly in his body it is, other than to say that it was found in the pelvic region.

Chavez Hugo
Venezuela
Surgery and Surgeons
Havana (Cuba)
Cancer


Tesla Chief Asks Makers to Support Electric Cars

Abstract: DETROIT — Elon Musk, chief executive of the electric car company Tesla, urged traditional automakers to step up their efforts at electrifying automobiles, saying that with gasoline prices hovering in the $2-a-gallon range, high fuel prices can no longer be expected to drive consumers toward alternatives. Mr. Musk, speaking at a conference sponsored by the Automotive News here on Tuesday, said that electric motors were “fundamentally better” than gasoline engines in terms of efficiency, and that if major automakers throw their weight behind electrification, they “won’t regret making that decision.” “It’s only going to go there if the big car companies make risky decisions” to support electric vehicles, Mr. Musk said, adding that he was less than impressed with the efforts of the major carmakers, with the exception of Nissan, with its Leaf, and General Motors for its new Volt and the concept car Bolt. Image Elon Musk, chief of Tesla Credit Paul Sancya/Associated Press He said when he originally founded Tesla, he gave the company only a 10 percent chance of success. On Tuesday, Mr. Musk affirmed Tesla’s sales target of reaching 500,000 annually by the end of the decade. But in a frank admission by the generally upbeat chief executive, Mr. Musk acknowledged sales in China had hit turbulence at the end of 2014. “China was unexpectedly weak in the fourth quarter,” he said, attributing the problem to what he described as a “misperception about charging” that the company was taking steps to correct. The problem, Mr. Musk said, involved Chinese apartment dwellers who thought they would be unable to gain access to electrical outlets for charging. A Tesla spokeswoman later said that the company planned to ease the concerns of Chinese buyers by building supercharger stations in Chinese cities.

Electric Cars and Hybrids
Cars
Tesla
Elon Musk


Derrick Caracter Finds Measure of Success at UTEP

Abstract: EL PASO — When the basketball world first met Derrick Caracter, in July 2001, he was 13 years old, 6 feet 8 inches and carried around a stuffed orangutan named Ollie. On Thursday, many fans will be reintroduced to Caracter. He will take the court for 12th-seeded Texas-El Paso in the first round of the N.C.A.A. tournament against fifth-seeded Butler as a 21-year-old junior whose teenage innocence is long gone. In between, Caracter emerged as one of the most fascinating and frustrating personalities to come through the American basketball system. He attended three high schools and flamed out at Louisville. The hype surrounding Caracter was so great that a man said to be linked to a player agent dated Caracter’s aunt and lived in the same house with Caracter. Along his jagged path, Caracter was overweight and academically underwhelming, and he transformed from a can’t-miss preps-to-pros prospect to being labeled a washout at age 20. “If I could do it all over again? Maybe pray that David Stern didn’t change the rule about high school kids entering the draft,” said Caracter, referring to the N.B.A. commissioner. “Some guys just aren’t built for college.” Caracter and his stuffed orangutan came on the scene thanks to an exhaustive profile, under the headline “Boy Wonder,” in The Star-Ledger of Newark during the summer before his eighth-grade year. His high school choice soon became a big story, and he picked St. Patrick, a New Jersey powerhouse in Elizabeth near his family’s home in Fanwood. And he proved to be as precocious on the court as he was immature off it. “I’ve never seen a kid with so much ability,” said Grant Billmeier, a teammate at St. Pat’s. “I don’t think he realized what he had was so special.” Off the court, Caracter struggled with the school’s discipline policies. He did not make it through his first season before being suspended for a year for an accumulation of smaller offenses, ranging from uniform violations to tardiness to class misbehavior. “The principal didn’t want to deal with it anymore,” Caracter said. He transferred to Scotch Plains-Fanwood, his local public high school, and played there as a sophomore. Coach Dan Doherty said one conversation summed up that year. Doherty recalled Caracter telling him: “I don’t understand why I have to be here in math class. I don’t need this. I’m just going to go to the N.B.A.” That year, as Caracter climbed atop the recruiting rankings and LeBron James transformed from phenomenon to N.B.A. sensation, Doherty said things began to change. He said Caracter could call Nike representatives and they would ship gear to him by overnight mail. Caracter would show up with a new watch or a cellphone with a California area code. Doherty said Caracter’s explanation would be, “People give me things.” Around that time, Caracter’s aunt began dating Eddie Lau. Doherty said he was told that Lau was working for Dan Fegan, a prominent N.B.A. agent. Doherty said Lau offered to bring better players to the high school, an offer Doherty declined. He said Lau tried to hang around practices. “I’m certainly not a big fan of his,” Doherty said of Lau. “I know he’s not a big fan of mine. I would ask Derrick’s mom, ‘Who is this guy and why is he around?’ She’d say he’s going out with Derrick’s aunt and living in the house.” Caracter left Scotch Plains-Fanwood after his sophomore year to return to St. Patrick. Neither side was disappointed. Doherty said Caracter’s lack of interest in class forced his departure. “He had no study skills,” Doherty said. “He never learned how to and never really wanted to.” Caracter was happy to attend St. Pat’s, summing up his public school experience with Doherty by saying, “A good guy, but he was a math teacher.” Three years after Caracter left, Doherty won a state title. Caracter’s junior year was his most productive in high school. He relished his time playing for Kevin Boyle, whose camps he had attended since fourth grade. Caracter’s reputation bloomed and Lau’s presence increased. Lau, who dated Caracter’s aunt for four years, would pick Caracter up after practice. Boyle said he would let Lau in the gym, as he would other players’ family members. “I think Eddie had some influence over Derrick,” Boyle said. “Was it good or bad? I don’t know. I don’t know all the details.” On the advice of the Louisville assistant coach Steve Masiello, Caracter transferred to Notre Dame Prep, a school in Massachusetts with a reputation for getting academically troubled basketball players eligible. Caracter got his grades, but his game regressed, his playing time was limited and his weight ballooned. He openly clashed with Coach Bill Barton, now an assistant coach at Duquesne. Barton found Caracter lazy and irresponsible. “He really wanted the N.B.A. lifestyle for the lifestyle and not the game itself,” Barton said. Caracter said he chose Louisville in part because of Lau’s friendship with Masiello, and he said he had no regrets about going there. When Caracter arrived, he weighed 315 pounds. Coach Rick Pitino would not let him practice until he reduced his weight to 265. That began two seasons of two-way frustration and minimal production. There were suspensions, public criticisms and finally a dismissal. Soon after, the people around Caracter, including Lau — who had broken up with Caracter’s aunt — began to disappear. “I just felt like Eddie wasn’t one of the people who had my back when everyone thought I was washed up at 20 years old,” Caracter said. Lau said: “All these decisions were all made by Derrick and his mom and uncle. I didn’t influence him at all. People love to write about him and blame it on Eddie Lau.” Caracter’s mother, Winnie Terry, and uncle, Dodd Terry — known as Rusty — said they hate to think that Lau dated Caracter’s aunt only to forge a relationship with Caracter and deliver him to an agent. “I don’t know,” Rusty Terry said. “Honestly. I honestly don’t know. He indicated that he cared a lot about her. In hindsight, you become more and more suspicious.” Lau said in a telephone interview that his intentions were pure. “I dated her like any other girl who I cared about,” Lau said. He added about Caracter: “I don’t need to bring him to an agent to make it in life. I don’t sell kids. I help kids.” After four seasons of tumult, Caracter has found relative stability. He loves El Paso, saying “it’s like Miami, except there’s no beaches.” He has averaged 13.8 points and 8.0 rebounds, rehabbing his hopes as an N.B.A. prospect. UTEP Coach Tony Barbee speaks of Caracter’s transformation with a near-religious zeal. “You can’t change or turn like he has if you are a bad person,” Barbee said. “You can’t. You are what you are.” Caracter does not believe he has undergone a wholesale transformation. He said he has found some peace, living in El Paso with his girlfriend — a former Louisville dance team member — a friend from New Jersey, and his two pit bulls, Bentley and Bernie. “Honestly, I wouldn’t do anything different,” Rusty Terry said. “I think this was a necessary road for all of us to experience. This has all made him a much better person.”

University of Texas at El Paso
Caracter Derrick
Draft and Recruitment (Sports)
NCAA Basketball Tournament (Men)
College Athletics
Education and Schools
National Collegiate Athletic Assn
University of Louisville
Basketball


Inter Milan Outruns and Outscores Barça

Abstract: Memorandum to world soccer: The way to beat Barcelona? Simple. Give them a local derby in which Catalan fights tooth and nail against Catalan in their own city on Saturday. Next, put them on the road for 24 hours, and when they arrive, make sure your players hound theirs until they drop, or you do. Never, ever water the grass, because that is how Barça’s fine players like to move the ball: slick and swift. Finally, pay José Mourinho $10 million a year to coach or coax extreme belief into your team. “We feel sure he knows things that can help us,” Wesley Sneijder, Inter Milan’s Dutch midfielder, had said in a television interview before Tuesday’s game, in which Inter came from a goal down to beat Barcelona, 3-1. The same Sneijder had been a part of the Real Madrid side thrashed, 6-2, on its own turf by Barça last year. This season, he has been a crucial performer in every step that Inter takes toward the final, at Madrid’s Santiago Bernabéu stadium on May 22. On the subject of Mourinho, Sneijder is a believer. The momentum is going Inter’s way. It still has to negotiate the return leg in Barcelona next Wednesday. The field will be bigger and wider and the grass will be cut shorter and better watered. But if one image of Tuesday in the San Siro really got to the heart of why Inter inflicted the harshest defeat on Barcelona in two seasons, it was Diego Milito of Inter collapsing with cramps after barely an hour’s play. Here was an Argentine forward, one by no means guaranteed a place in the approaching World Cup, determined to upstage his more famous countryman, Barça’s Lionel Messi. Milito’s night started wretchedly when he missed once, and missed twice, from acute angles in the early moments. Undaunted, driven maybe by the voice of Mourinho inside his head, he ran again, again and again. It began hurting, visibly, when he dropped to the ground more than once. Like a boxer pummeled to the canvas, he kept on getting back up, and kept on hurting until he was replaced in the 75th minute. By then, he had won over the 83,000 crowd by making the passes for goals by Sneijder and Maicon before heading in the third. He was offside, but the Portuguese match officials didn’t see it that way, any more than referee Olegário Benquerença got it right when he denied Barcelona two penalties. First, he chose to punish Dani Alves with a yellow card for what he interpreted as a dive; the cameras showed that Dani had had his legs taken from behind by Sneijder. Moments later, Inter’s defender Lúcio slammed into Gerard Piqué, and the referee saw that as a fair tackle. But, though Barcelona’s play maker Xavi Hernández reportedly made some comment in the tunnel at the end of the match about a Portuguese being chosen to referee a match involving the most famous Portuguese coach, Mourinho told Rai television: “I want to say something about the Barcelona players. They should be champions when they lose. “They should say that Inter was strong, and that’s it. Instead, in the tunnel, I saw Barcelona players trying to put pressure on the referee. Their players have short memories — my Chelsea players were complaining after a historically bad refereeing performance helped Barcelona to the final last year.” It is hard to remember a time when Mourinho and Barcelona, which once employed him as an interpreter and later assistant coach, agreed on a refereeing performance. Whoever is put in charge at the Nou Camp for next Wednesday’s second leg will need ear plugs and a pretty strong constitution. However, though refereeing played a part in the San Siro, it was not pivotal. Preparation and perseverance were. Even before Barcelona scored the opening goal, there were signs of a real testing of character and willpower. That opening strike, by Pedro after Maxwell had been allowed to sprint beyond both Maicon and Esteban Cambiasso on the left, seemed just reward for Barça’s greater possession. In fact, that was not the advantage it normally is to Barcelona. By the end, the Catalan team had commanded the ball for 20 minutes more than Inter — 38 minutes as opposed to just 18. Yet, Inter had prepared for that. Its experienced players knew that, man for man, Barça is the best team in the world at passing the ball. So Inter conceded territory, kept between the orange-shirted opponents and broke forward as swiftly and as hard as they could, whenever they could. Inter’s players were mentally sharp and physically strong. The forwards, Milito, Goran Pandev and Samuel Eto’o, chased back and forth, harassed and hustled, sacrificed themselves for the win. “The work they put in was contagious. When you see forwards running that much, fighting for every ball as they did,” Cambiasso told reporters. “It forced us to give our all as well.” Pep Guardiola, the player turned coach who has implanted the same kind of intensity into Barcelona, acknowledged as much. “They were always looking to get behind us, and they have very quick attackers,” he said. “They played in their style while we weren’t as effective as we have been in other games. But we have 90 minutes left, and we’re going to try.” The result when these teams last met, at Nou Camp in November, was 2-0 to home side. The same result would put Barcelona through this time. The likelihood that Inter will arrive comparatively fresh after a short flight rather than a long bus ride was put to Guardiola before he boarded the bus for home. “Its a long trip, its true,” he told reporters. “But I don’t want to make excuses. I am not a doctor, I cannot say what physical effect it had.” He might address in private the moment just after half time when Messi, of all people, was caught with the ball by Thiago Motta. It was deep in the Inter half, but before Barcelona reacted, the counterattack was on. The ball travelled long. Pandev and Milito chased it, and Maicon backed them up to score. “When I arrived here,” Mourinho said, “Inter was a little team in the Champions League. They had a fear of playing. At this point, we have a chance of winning against the best team. Inter is now a great team in the Champions League.”

Soccer
UEFA European Football Championship
FC Barcelona
Milan (Italy)
Inter Milan


Fire in Chicago Apartment Building Kills 4

Abstract: CHICAGO, March 10 (AP) — An apartment building fire killed at least four people on Saturday morning on the city’s North Side, the authorities said. One man was injured when he jumped from a third-floor window, said a Fire Department spokesman, Larry Langford. The fire appeared to have started in a stairwell, but there were no obvious ignition sources, and the Police Department’s arson unit was investigating, Mr. Langford said. The unit is routinely sent to fatal fires, said a police spokeswoman, Laura Kubiak. Three victims were found in one apartment and one in another, Mr. Langford said. The three-story brick building has about a dozen units and stands about a block from Wrigley Field. The man who jumped was listed in stable condition at Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center, Mr. Langford said. Several firefighters suffered minor injuries, including smoke inhalation. Firefighters were on the scene within about two minutes after the fire was reported, just before 7 a.m. The blaze was contained to the second and third floors and extinguished within a half-hour.

Chicago (Ill)
Fires and Firefighters
Accidents and Safety


Drop in Gang Violence Drove New York City Shootings Below 1,000 in 2016

Abstract: A steep drop in gang violence last year drove shootings in New York City to the lowest number in at least a quarter-century, Police Department data shows, a result of what police officials say has been a focus on gang takedowns and targeted arrests in some of the city’s roughest neighborhoods. The internal police data, obtained by The New York Times, paints a detailed portrait of the motives, locations and circumstances behind murders and shootings for the last two years. Gang-related shootings fell to 412 in 2016, from 560 the year before, according to the data, which tracked shootings and murders through Dec. 28 of each year. Gang-related killings dropped to 79 in 2016, from 129 in 2015. Those drop-offs helped push citywide shootings to a new low of 998 by year’s end, police officials said, down from 1,138 in 2015. Murders also fell, to 335 from 352 the year before. The New York City police commissioner, James P. O’Neill , has noted the department’s efforts to push shootings below 1,000 for the first time since at least the early 1990s, when the police began keeping similar records. Mr. O’Neill and Mayor Bill de Blasio were expected to discuss those efforts at a news conference in Brooklyn on Wednesday. Scores of gang takedowns this year, resulting in about 900 arrests, took violent people off the streets and made it more costly to engage in gang-related crimes, police officials said. “Precision policing targets those people who are responsible for the violence, which in a significant amount of cases are gangs,” said Stephen P. Davis, the department’s chief spokesman. “By going after the gang members, arresting them, we recognize the resultant reduction in violence.” Violent crime has been more persistent in some communities , especially outside Manhattan. But the Police Department, in continuing to drive down crime even as it has pulled back from heavy low-level enforcement and aggressive tactics like stop-and-frisk, has shown the value of focusing resources on stopping serious crime, said David M. Kennedy, a professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice. “New York City, in many ways, convinced the rest of the country that things like zero tolerance were the way to make communities safe,” he said. “And now it’s showing the country that you absolutely do not need to do that, you should not do it, and there are much, much better and less damaging ways to work with communities to produce public safety.” The reductions in New York stand in stark contrast to some other cities, most notably Chicago, which had a sharp increase in murders and shootings in 2016 and ended the year with 762 homicides . The New York Police Department data offers a rare glimpse into the more granular ways that the department’s Detective Bureau tracks and classifies crime, as well as the ever-changing tangle of reasons that people are shot and killed. Shootings and murders dropped across almost every category of motive last year. Murders in which drugs were the primary motive, for example, dropped to 29 in 2016, from 42 the year before. But domestic killings rose slightly, to 57 last year from 49 in 2015. Criminologists believe gang enforcement can result in arrests of people who are also domestic offenders, but they say that domestic violence remains more difficult to prevent, because it can escalate inside homes, without the police being notified. Mr. Kennedy said that efforts in smaller jurisdictions across the country to respond to the earliest signs of domestic violence and to punish repeat offenders were showing results, but that those strategies would be more difficult to replicate in a city the size of New York. Fewer people were murdered with guns in 2016, but the number of people killed by cutting rose to 73, from 50 the year before. Murders and shootings on the street, in public housing and in commercial locations all dropped last year through Dec. 28. Murders on playgrounds climbed to 12, from three the year before, and also rose in dwellings and in vehicles. More broadly, murders indoors ticked up by 19, while outdoor murders fell by 49. About a third of shootings and murders occurred between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m., and more than half happened between 6 p.m. and 2 a.m. The biggest share of murders were motivated by what the police call a “dispute.” Of those, the largest share had to do with words that were exchanged, followed by disputes over a man or woman, over money, and over a previous history. Five murders in 2016 were deemed to be motivated by a stare or a disrespectful act, two by gambling and two by road rage. Just under a third of the shooting cases last year were closed with an arrest, and 22 percent of the cases were closed because the police had exhausted all leads. Forty percent of the murder cases were closed with an arrest, and eight others were termed an exceptional clearance, a category that would include cases in which the person suspected of being the killer was murdered before an arrest was made.

Murders and Homicides
Police
Crime
NYPD
James P O'Neill
Bill de Blasio
NYC


From the Farm | How to Skip Supermarkets

Abstract: With summer approaching in earnest, farmers’ markets have been starting up for the season in towns throughout the state — a boon for shoppers stocking up on locally produced fruits and vegetables, cheeses and even surprises like seafood from the Jersey Shore. “You can do all of your food shopping here,” said Beth Feehan, a co-founder of the five-year-old West Windsor Community Farmers’ Market, as she surveyed the bustling scene in the parking lot of the Princeton Junction train station, where the market operates on Saturdays, in season. “The only thing you can’t get is toilet paper,” she said. Certainly, you can find the makings of a fine meal at the market, which opened in May and averages about 15 vendors a week. Serve organic baby lettuce harvested by North Slope Farm in Lambertville for a simple salad ($10 a pound). The farmstead cheese from Cherry Grove Farm in nearby Lawrenceville — the buttery provolone dolce is a good choice ($12 a pound) — makes an easy hors d’oeuvre; or buy crusty bread from the Village Bakery of Lawrenceville and make a sandwich. You can whip up a quiche with the beautifully brown cage-free eggs from Silver Forge Farm of Manalapan ($5 a dozen). If you’re not inclined to cook, Griggstown Quail Farm and Market, based outside Princeton, sells chicken potpies ($9.50 for a 5-inch pie). Strawberries picked at their sweet ripeness from Terhune Orchards of Princeton, make a simple, elegant dessert ($6.50 a quart). A bonus is the sense of community the market fosters, especially in West Windsor, which has no town center. It’s a social place, with neighbors exchanging news. You can get a cup of fair trade certified organic coffee from Crescent Moon Coffee Roasters of Mickleton ($1.50) and a vegan muffin from the Twisted Tree Cafe of Asbury Park ($2.50) and chat with the farmers. You might learn, for example, how to plant Thai basil, available from Chia-Sin Farms of Pittstown ($2.50 for a four-pack of bedding plants). West Windsor Community Farmers’ Market, Vaughn Drive parking lot of Princeton Junction Train Station, off Alexander Road; (609) 577-5113 or westwindsorfarmersmarket.org . Open Saturdays, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. through October.

Cooking and Cookbooks
Farmers' Markets
New Jersey


A Poet Mines Memories of Drug Addiction

Abstract: Gil Fagiani pulled out a copy of “White Lightning,” a tabloid from 1972, whose yellowed, brittle pages declared revolution. Inside, he pointed to a polemic he wrote headlined “Racism and Dope.” It described how he — a heroin addict with white, middle-class roots — was let off by the police with a warning inside an East Harlem tenement while his would-be connection, a Puerto Rican ex-con, was stripped, arrested and clubbed. He recounted the tale in his living room in Long Island City, Queens, almost within sight of those East Harlem streets where he had been a junkie in the late 1960s. He had been many things back then: a military college graduate, a community organizer, a political radical and a junkie. Now, at 68, he is a survivor. The rough past is gone, but lingers in memory. He has mined it in poetry, rendering in free verse the rhythms of struggle and street life that he hopes will connect with people in a way that his political writings could not. That newspaper story from 1972, he said proudly, has become “Just Out of Jail,” a poem that was recently accepted for publication in a journal. “In prose it was didactic, but as a poem it is powerful,” he said. “I feel poetry can affect people in a way that is more powerful than an essay because it stirs up the emotions. I trust myself and try to be honest. You don’t change people with political rhetoric.” He has noticed the outpouring of emotion and opinion in recent weeks since the high-profile overdose death of Philip Seymour Hoffman. Like many, he sees it as a cautionary tale, as well as a lesson that might jar other addicts out of denial because of the victim’s celebrity. At the same time, he understands the thrill and allure that precedes the fall, because he saw it in his own life. Some of his poems reflect that seduction, where hyped-up young men feel invincible, or at least numb. What others saw as surreal, or just criminal, was the everyday to him. For a good part of his adult life — after he kicked heroin — he worked in a psychiatric hospital in the Bronx and later ran a drug rehabilitation center in Brooklyn. Poetry came later, when he was in his 40s, though it did not come easily, given his day job. “I was a substance abuse professional,” he said. “There was a contradiction between that and being an honest writer. There’s a freedom you have in poetry. In my poem ‘Crossing 116th Street’ I wrote about this cocktail of drugs, about being so ramped up and in this almost perfect state of well-being. I enjoyed drugs. In the beginning.” Of course, that changed. He changed. A 14-month stay in a therapeutic community — presciently called Logos, Greek for “word” — set him on a new path in 1969. In time, he explored his Italian roots and learned that an uncle, Cesare Fagiani, had been an esteemed poet in Italy. Cesare and his father and his wife had all been poets, he discovered, writing mostly in a dialect of their native town of Lanciano. They were also, he said, in the tradition of poets of the people. “They were poets not from a literary background or from a privileged class,” he said. “These towns in Italy were their own universes. They had their own languages. When I asked someone for directions to the street named after my uncle, he started reciting one of his poems.” When he turned to poetry in the 1990s, his wellspring became the people and places of his past, from his upbringing in middle-class Connecticut to his down-and-out days in East Harlem and his rebirth in the Bronx. One collection dealt with the 12 years he spent as an aide at the Bronx Psychiatric Center. Another was called “A Blanquito in El Barrio” (“A White Boy in El Barrio”). He retired from his day job a few years ago, devoting even more time to his writing, translation and scholarship, especially on the life of Vito Marcantonio , an Italian-American radical who once represented East Harlem in Congress. He is not interested in scoring points with the literary crowd. He’d rather reach people. “I had a calling in recovery, a calling to help people,” he said. “I’m not that politically active anymore. It comes through my poetry. I’m willing to take the risk and trust the reader. I’m also more interested in giving a sense of dignity to the people that society would see as the scum of the earth. They’re human beings. The reason they became addicts is complex.”

Poetry
Drug Abuse
Gil Fagiani
East Harlem