Uighur Leader Raises New Accusations

Abstract: In the weeks since ethnic bloodletting claimed nearly 200 lives in the northwest Chinese region of Xinjiang, the government has been waging a global propaganda war against Rebiya Kadeer , the exiled Uighur leader it accuses of instigating the violence. As a result, Ms. Kadeer, who spent more than four years in a Chinese prison and now lives in the United States, has emerged as the international face of the Uighur cause. On Wednesday, she ratcheted up the war of words during a visit to Japan, where she claimed that “nearly 10,000” Uighurs had disappeared “overnight” in Urumqi, the Xinjiang capital. “Where did they go?” she asked during a news conference, according to The Associated Press. “Were they all killed or sent somewhere? The Chinese government should disclose what happened to them.” Ms. Kadeer did not provide evidence to back up her assertion, which stands in stark contrast to government figures that place the numbers of those arrested at 1,200. But her comments infuriated China , which summoned Japan’s ambassador in Beijing to express “strong dissatisfaction” with the decision to grant her a visa. China’s Foreign Ministry demanded that Japan “take effective action to stop her anti-China, splittist activities.” The Japanese government declined to intervene, saying that Ms. Kadeer was visiting as a private citizen. The true story of what happened in Urumqi may never be known. But Ms. Kadeer’s and the Chinese government’s dueling, sometimes hyperbolic, accounts have sowed confusion and created an even wider chasm between the government and those pressing for greater Uighur autonomy. “This has become an exercise in influence-building and image management,” said Russell Leigh Moses, a Beijing-based analyst of Chinese politics. “As each side scrambles to push their version of events, the chances for dialogue are rapidly receding. Xinjiang could very well reignite, but instead of fire prevention, each party seems bent on trying to prove the other side is the one with the lighter fluid.” China has not minced words in its approach to Ms. Kadeer, 62, who heads the World Uighur Congress , which advocates for Uighur self-determination. Editorial writers, government officials and even normally staid diplomats have described her as “a terrorist” and “a criminal” who caused the death of 197 people, most of them Han Chinese. As proof, they cite a phone call she made to her brother in Urumqi shortly before the strife began, warning him to stay off the streets. Ms. Kadeer does not deny making the call but says she was just looking out for his safety. On Wednesday, Chinese officials delivered a DVD to the offices of The New York Times in Beijing titled “Xinjiang, Urumqi, July 5 Riots: Truth.” The 20-minute film, with versions in Arabic, Turkish, English and other languages, begins with idyllic scenes of Uighurs and members of other ethnic groups who inhabit the region and goes on to show graphic images of beatings that it says were “incited and controlled” by Ms. Kadeer. According to the state-run Xinhua news agency, the July 5 mayhem was orchestrated through text and e-mail messages. Gangs of killers, it said, were sent to 50 locations in Urumqi after protesters gathered at a downtown square to express anger over a brawl at a south China toy factory during which two Uighurs were beaten to death by Han Chinese co-workers. In the official accounting of how events unfolded on July 5, security officials described mysterious women in “long Islamic robes” who issued orders to the rioters. One woman, they said, even passed out clubs. Such assertions, however, are difficult to verify, and the government has yet to provide proof showing that Ms. Kadeer or her organization had a hand in planning the chaos. In recent weeks Ms. Kadeer has given a very different narrative. She says that most of the dead were Uighur, not Han, and that as many as 1,000 people were killed, many of them peaceful demonstrators shot dead by security officials who chased them down dead-end streets and opened fire after turning off street lamps. She has not provided evidence to back up such claims, saying to reveal her sources would put them in peril. Interviews with both Han and Uighur residents in Urumqi, however, have not yielded any witnesses who can corroborate such accounts. Ms. Kadeer’s next trip, to the Melbourne Film Festival in Australia, is sure to produce a fresh round of invective. A documentary about Ms. Kadeer’s life, which will be shown on Aug. 8, has already prompted three Chinese filmmakers to pull out of the festival. Last weekend, after a Chinese consular official told organizers to drop the film, the festival’s Web site was overrun by hackers, who replaced film schedules with a Chinese flag and slogans denouncing Ms. Kadeer.

Kadeer Rebiya
Uighurs (Chinese Ethnic Group)
China
Urumqi (China)
Xinjiang (China)


F.C.C. Chairman Sees No Need to Set Aside More Airwaves for Smaller Cell Carriers

Abstract: The country’s top communications regulator on Thursday rejected calls to dedicate more airwaves for smaller wireless carriers in an auction expected next year. Tom Wheeler, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, wrote in a blog post that he wanted to keep the level sold exclusively to smaller carriers at the level agreed to last year. T-Mobile US and other smaller wireless carriers lobbied for months to increase the size. As Americans spend more time using their cellphones, the F.C.C. wants to dedicate a larger portion of available spectrum to cell service. Spectrum is the airwaves through which television, radio and many other signals are sent. To do so, the agency is buying back rights sold to local TV stations decades ago. It then plans to sell them back to cell carriers, helping them improve service nationwide. The F.C.C. said that to increase competition, it would limit the amount of spectrum that could be sold to AT&T and Verizon, the two dominant wireless carriers. Already, AT&T and Verizon own the majority of the span of airwaves that are best for sending cell data. But smaller carriers — in particular, T-Mobile US and its outspoken chief executive, John Legere — pushed Mr. Wheeler to set aside even more for them. The company found allies within the government: This month, the Justice Department sent letters to the F.C.C. urging it to earmark even more spectrum for smaller carriers. Mr. Wheeler’s response was that the F.C.C. was already doing enough to increase competition. “There will be significant spectrum made available in all markets of the country to all bidders,” Mr. Wheeler wrote. “As a result, consumers will benefit directly from competition in all parts of the country.” The auction rules are expected to be voted on by all five commissioners, including Mr. Wheeler, next month. That seemed to give Mr. Legere room for optimism. “A lot of noise coming out of Washington today,” Mr. Legere told his followers Thursday afternoon on Periscope, a live-streaming app. “I want you to understand, this is going to go on for another month or so. So don’t give up hope.”

Wireless
Mobile phone
Telecommunication
FCC
T-Mobile US
Verizon Communications
AT&T


Talks Over Syria Are Set to Begin, but Iran Is Not Invited

Abstract: WASHINGTON — American and other Western diplomats on Monday managed to salvage the long-awaited peace conference on Syria, which had seemed on the verge of unraveling before it even began when Ban Ki-moon, the United Nations secretary general, issued an unexpected invitation to Iran to attend. The possible presence of the Iranians infuriated Syrian opposition leaders, who said they would not attend the conference. But after a day of intensive consultations in which American officials made clear their unhappiness with Mr. Ban’s move, Iran was disinvited, and diplomats affirmed the conference will begin in Switzerland on Wednesday. The 24-hour controversy, while a diversion from the main issues about Syria’s future that will be on the table there, seemed a fitting prelude for what even the most optimistic American diplomats say will be prolonged, grinding and uncertain negotiations in which the combatants in the Syrian civil war are scheduled to meet face to face for the first time. “I don’t think that anyone who’s dealt with Syrian officials has any false expectations of rapid progress,” a senior official at the State Department said on Monday, in one of the day’s more optimistic assessments. “This is the beginning of a process. It is not going to be fast.” It is, in fact, hard to imagine a peace conference that has been convened under less propitious circumstances. Secretary of State John Kerry announced during a trip to Moscow in May that the United States, along with Russia, wanted to convene the peace conference, an idea first discussed the year before in Geneva. But since that announcement, President Bashar al-Assad of Syria has strengthened his military position, the fractious opposition has become more divided, and Russia and the United States have differed on how to interpret the mandate for the meeting. The United States’ leverage over the Assad government, meanwhile, has declined. Mr. Kerry arrived at the State Department last year declaring his intention to change Mr. Assad’s “calculation” about his ability to hold on to power. But the Obama administration withdrew the threat of force in return last fall for an agreement that requires Syria to eliminate its chemical arsenal, while the American effort to train and equip Syrian rebels, by all accounts, remained very limited. “For any political conference to succeed in trying to defuse, much less settle, an intense conflict, the ground has to be laid,” said Dennis B. Ross, a former Middle East envoy. “An agenda needs to be agreed, the parties have to want some minimal achievement, the convening co-sponsors have to share some basic goals, and there has to be sufficient leverage on those doing the fighting to permit some compromises to be made. Most of these conditions are lacking.” Added a Western diplomat involved in preparations for the talks: “We don’t have a Plan B.” Unlike the Middle East talks, in which Mr. Kerry set a nine-month goal for completing a peace treaty, there is no target date for completing the Syria peace talks or establishing a transitional administration that could take over if Mr. Assad agreed to relinquish power. In a closed-door meeting with the Syrian opposition last year, Mr. Kerry noted that Vietnam peace negotiations had gone on for years. Despite the enormous obstacles, the State Department asserts that the talks are worth holding because the push to establish a transitional body to govern Syria, a main goal of the conference, might encourage defections among Mr. Assad’s traditional supporters, including the Alawite sect, of which he is a member. “There are elements inside the regime itself, among its supporters, that are anxious to find a peaceful solution, and we’ve gotten plenty of messages from people inside; they want a way out,” the State Department official said. “That’s the whole point of their going to Geneva,” the official added, referring to officials of the Syrian opposition. “To promote the alternative, the alternative vision.” But if that is the goal, Mr. Assad has sought to redefine the purpose of the talks before they have even begun. In comments published on Monday by Agence France-Presse , Mr. Assad said that the purpose of the meeting should be to discuss ways to fight terrorism and that it was “totally unrealistic” to think that he would ever share power with the opposition that is living in exile. At the same time, American officials say, Syrian forces have carried out a display of force by stepping up their attacks in Syria and have continued to bomb Aleppo, its largest city. A recent announcement by the Syrian government that it was prepared to accept a cease-fire in the bitter battle for Aleppo, American officials report, contained an enormous catch: It requires rebel fighters to vacate the city, where many of their families reside, so it could be controlled by Syrian forces. To get even this far required a day of intensive diplomacy after Mr. Ban announced on Sunday night that the Iranian foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, had agreed to the mandate for the conference and that Iran would be invited to attend. American officials said that Mr. Kerry had told Mr. Ban before his announcement that Iran needed to publicly endorse the 2012 communiqué that laid the basis for the conference, which stipulates that the goal of the meeting is the establishment of transitional administration by “mutual consent” of the Assad government and the Syrian opposition. Mr. Kerry was described by an American official as having been furious after Mr. Ban’s news conference. For the Syrian opposition, the invitation to Iran was a major insult. Iran’s paramilitary Quds Force has been helping Syrian forces in their campaign in Aleppo, opposition officials said, and training Mr. Assad’s militias. Now a belligerent in the conflict would be attending a peace conference that the opposition already feared might be unproductive. But after Iran declined to publicly endorse the communiqué on Monday, the United Nations withdrew the invitation, and the conference was back on track. The controversy played out on the same day that the temporary agreement to constrain Iran’s nuclear program went into effect. But American officials say the United States has received no communications from Iran complaining about the withdrawal of the invitation or linking the Syria issue to the nuclear negotiations. As a general rule, Iran and the United States have compartmentalized the nuclear talks and have engaged in little discussion of regional issues, even in their back channel negotiations. The Syria conference will begin on Wednesday with a round of addresses by Mr. Kerry and his counterparts in the Swiss town of Montreux. On Friday, the conference will shift to Geneva, where a delegation of Syrian opposition officials will sit down with a team sent to represent Mr. Assad. Attending the meeting carries risks for both sides. For the government delegation, a hotel lobby teeming with foreign journalists, Western diplomats and Syrian opposition members is an opportunity to sell its message, but anyone suspected of talking about possible participation in a transitional body could face repercussions at home. The opposition coalition, for its part, risks a further erosion of influence with fighters inside Syria for sitting down to talk with Mr. Assad’s delegation. The opposition has yet to release the names of its delegation and its several dozen advisers, but they are said to include only a small number of military commanders. An immediate question is whether the talks will lead to the opening of aid corridors, prisoner exchanges or local cease-fires. The matter is important to address the deteriorating humanitarian situation in which the Assad government has imposed blockades on the delivery of food, medicine and aid to try to drive its opponents into submission. But such measures would also be intended to create an environment for an eventual political accommodation. Sergey V. Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, announced last week that the Syrian government was making a significant gesture by opening aid channels to two besieged towns, Al Ghezlaniya and Jdaidet al-Shibani. But the State Department official said the towns had long been under the control of the government and had not been blockaded. A convoy was allowed on Saturday to deliver aid — a tiny fraction of what is needed — to the Yarmouk camp for Palestinian refugees. But East Ghouta, a Damascus suburb of 160,000 people, remains cut off from food, medicine and other supplies. A Western diplomat who follows Syria said he was exasperated with both the opposition and the government for placing new conditions and making aggressive statements at the last minute — possibly squandering a chance to ease the suffering of Syrian civilians. “This proves that anybody pretending that he is representing the Syrian people is lying and misleading, and doing this either to preserve his power or to acquire power,” the diplomat said. “We’re headed this way: By the end of summer we’ll be talking about 150,000 to 200,000 dead.”

Iran
Syria
Ban Ki moon
UN
US
International relations
Bashar al-Assad
Arab Spring


Observer Goes Tabloid and Drops Pink

Abstract: The New York Observer rose to prominence as a salmon pink, broadsheet newspaper. Starting Wednesday, when a wholesale redesign begins, it will be white, tabloid-size and stapled like a magazine. Its website, too, is being transformed to display one major story and a summary of other stories — a strategy other sites have used to appeal to advertisers. The redesign was planned in part to better showcase advertisements and photography against a white background, its owner, Jared Kushner, said in a telephone interview on Tuesday. Its editorial pages will remain pink as a nod to the paper’s history. The first issue under the new format will feature a cover article about the actor Alan Cumming. The change is the latest under Mr. Kushner, a New Jersey real estate scion who bought The Observer in 2006 when he was just 25. In the eight years since then, it has had six editors, though Mr. Kushner pointed out that two were interim choices. “Pink paper in some ways is a gimmick,” he said. “If that’s all that distinguishes a paper, you’re not doing a good job.” Dropping it, he said, was not a hard decision. “The advertisers for years have been saying their ads didn’t look good on the pink,” he said. “And when I saw the whole package and the redesign, it looked really good. I don’t miss it.” He disputed accounts that suggested the paper stock was dropped because of the expense. “One of my favorite quotes is that change is like heaven,” said Mr. Kushner. “Everyone wants to go there, but no one wants to die.” The Observer Media Group, he said, is profitable. “We have a thriving media property, which was not always the case,” he said. Luxury advertisers, including the watch brand Piaget, have returned under the redesign, a spokesman for The Observer said. The paper has, in recent weeks, found itself rebutting accusations that it used its pages to favor Mr. Kushner’s father-in-law, Donald Trump — Mr. Kushner is married to Ivanka Trump — and broader claims that it had lost its way editorially. It ran a long, unflattering article about New York’s attorney general, Eric T. Schneiderman, that critics claimed was retribution for a lawsuit Mr. Schneiderman’s office was pursuing against Mr. Trump’s education business. The Observer denies that there was any such motivation behind the article, and it says it has not been contacted about any factual errors. Mr. Kushner declined to discuss the matter. But, speaking of the paper’s editorial voice, he said, “We stand for common sense, what’s great for New York. We’re pro-business and anti-entitlements.” Asked whether those were also his own views, he said, “If I have a strong point of view, I make it known.” He added that he was a hands-off proprietor and that he and his editors often disagreed. Asked about the assertion by some of his critics that he tries to hire editors he can control, he said that it was a “silly and paranoid question.” New York’s celebrities have long appeared on The Observer’s pink pages. Its prominent alumni include Candace Bushnell, the author of the Sex and the City column; Graydon Carter, now the editor of Vanity Fair; and Susan Morrison, an editor at The New Yorker. Mr. Kushner said he avoided paying too much attention to his critics. “It’s a time of such change,” he said. “The media world likes to write and chatter about the media world, and it holds back progress and leads to fear of trying new things. I stopped listening to a lot of the chatter.”

The New York Observer
Jared Kushner
Newspaper
News media,journalism


Palestinian Kills 3 With Construction Vehicle

Abstract: JERUSALEM — The Palestinian driver of a large construction vehicle went on a deadly rampage along a central Jerusalem thoroughfare on Wednesday, crushing several cars and ramming into buses and pedestrians before an off-duty soldier and a police officer clambered up to the cabin and fatally shot him. At least three people were killed by the lurching vehicle, and more than 40 were wounded, Israeli officials said. The police said that they were treating the event as a terrorist attack and that the driver, about 30 years old, was a resident of Sur Baher, an Arab neighborhood of East Jerusalem, which was captured by Israel in 1967 and then annexed. “There is no doubt at all that this was a terrorist attack,” Micky Rosenfeld, a police spokesman, said at the scene shortly afterward. He added that the authorities were investigating whether the driver, identified by acquaintances as Hussam Dweikat, had acted alone. Two of the victims were Israeli women, Bat Sheva Unterman, 33, and Elizabeth Goren-Friedman, 54, both residents of Jerusalem. The identity of the third victim still had not been released by late Wednesday night. The fact that the driver was a Jerusalem resident, with access to all parts of the city, was likely to raise tensions here. Less than four months ago another East Jerusalem Palestinian, Ala Abu Dhaim, killed eight students at a Jewish seminary in West Jerusalem. The attack led to calls for harsh action like the demolition of the attacker’s home. Police officials said that the driver had a criminal background, but that there had been no prior intelligence information to suggest that he would carry out an attack. Three Palestinian groups claimed responsibility, including Al Aksa Martyrs Brigades, a group affiliated with the mainstream Fatah movement led by the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas. But it was not clear if any of the claims were credible. The Israeli chief of police, Dudi Cohen, said Wednesday that the attacker appeared to have been acting spontaneously and alone. Hamas, the Islamic group that controls Gaza and which recently agreed to a temporary cease-fire with Israel there, said it did not carry out the attack but nevertheless praised it, according to The Associated Press. Witnesses said they saw the vehicle, a large Caterpillar front-end loader, set off close to midday from a building site at one of the busiest intersections in the predominantly Jewish, western half of the city, between the central bus station and the popular Mahane Yehuda market. The hulking vehicle turned onto Jaffa Road, which runs through the city’s commercial downtown area, immediately slicing through the drivers’ cabin of a small white van and flipping a silver Chevrolet on its side. Continuing along Jaffa Road, the driver used the loader’s serrated scoop to overturn a bus from the Egged public transportation company and leave a swath of tangled wreckage about 300 yards long, as it mowed into several other cars and collided with a second bus. The police said they believed the driver might have intended to plow into the crowded market. “It could have been a lot worse,” Mr. Rosenfeld said. Police officials contended that it was necessary to kill the driver to stop him. An initial investigation indicated that at least four security personnel members had tried to stop the driver. The off-duty soldier shot him but failed to kill him. An officer from a special antiterrorism police unit who sped to the scene on a motorcycle finally ended the episode. The officer, Eli Mizrahi, told reporters that he had climbed up to the driver’s cabin “when he was still driving like crazy and trying to harm civilians,” and that he fired twice. Much of the rampage took place directly below the windows of an office block housing several foreign television networks. The vehicle finally came to a halt outside the Israel Broadcast Authority building, a car completely flattened beneath it. In the first moments, witnesses said, they thought the vehicle was involved in a road accident, but it soon became apparent that the driver was on the attack. “People started running for cover into stores and buildings,” said Yuri Gudkovich, a security guard at an apartment block on Jaffa Road. A crowd of passers-by also began to chase the loader, desperate for a way to stop it. “We started to run after it, shouting to find someone with a gun,” said Moshe Oren, who works in a storefront transportation company along the road. Mr. Oren, 58, said he looked into the face of the driver and saw “an expression of madness.” “It’s hard to define,” Mr. Oren continued, “but he also seemed coolheaded. He looked crazy and calculated at the same time.” Spare diapers, a toddler’s pink jacket and a bottle of fruit juice were scattered on the bottom of the overturned bus. There was blood on the hood of a car whose roof had been ripped off. Residents of the area were incensed. Sara Nagani, 48, said the driver’s neighborhood “has to be wiped out.” She said she had come to Jerusalem with her family from India at the age of 3. “I’ll live and die here,” she said, “but not like this.” Caterpillar equipment has a special resonance among Palestinians. Human rights activists have lobbied the company to stop selling its heavy vehicles to the Israeli military out of concern that they have been used to demolish Palestinian homes, uproot orchards and construct Jewish settlements in occupied land.

Terrorism
Jerusalem (Israel)
Murders and Attempted Murders
Israel
Palestinians


Caterpillar to Build Texas Plant to Make Excavators

Abstract: PEORIA, Ill. (AP) — Caterpillar said Thursday it would build a new plant in Texas to manufacture hydraulic excavators that would employ more than 500 workers. The plant, in the south central town of Victoria, will triple Caterpillar’s hydraulic excavator production capacity in the United States, and double the number of Caterpillar’s employees making excavators in the country. Construction of the 600,000-square-foot structure will begin next month, with production expected to start in mid-2012. “Based on our comprehensive review of possible locations, Victoria’s proximity to our supply base, access to ports and other transportation, as well as the positive business climate in Texas made this the ideal site for this project,” said Gary Stampanato, Caterpillar vice president with responsibility for excavators. Caterpillar received a $1.18 million grant from the Texas Enterprise Fund as part of its commitment to build in the state, Gov. Rick Perry said Thursday. Since its creation in 2003, the fund has invested more than $397 million in securing job-creating projects in the state. Currently in the United States, Caterpillar produces two excavator models at a facility in Aurora, Ill., where it also makes wheel loaders, soil and landfill compactors, wheel dozers and components. Caterpillar also makes excavators in Belgium, Brazil, China, France, Indonesia, Japan and Russia. The new plant will manufacture the two models now made in Aurora, as well as several other models now produced in Akashi, Japan, and exported to the United States. In July, Caterpillar reported a 91 percent surge in second-quarter earnings driven by strong sales, particularly in emerging markets like China.

Caterpillar Inc
Company Reports
Labor and Jobs
Illinois


Viewership of Super Bowl Falls Short of Record

Abstract: The Denver Broncos’ 24-10 victory over the Carolina Panthers in Super Bowl 50 on Sunday night was not always interesting and not always exciting. And it was long at 3 hours 43 minutes. And so it did not set a viewership record, as the prior two Super Bowls did. Still, an enormous number of people watched. The average of 111.9 million viewers made Super Bowl 50 the third-most-watched television program in United States history, behind the 114.4 million for the Super Bowl last year and 112.2 million for the 2014 game. Without a climactic finish to keep viewers riveted, the peak of 115.5 million was reached from 8:30 to 9 p.m. Eastern, which coincided partly with the halftime show starring Coldplay, Beyoncé and Bruno Mars. Viewership fell in each subsequent half-hour, winding up at 113.1 million. Streaming of the game by CBS and the N.F.L. added 1.4 million viewers. MANZIEL AFFIDAVIT Johnny Manziel’s ex-girlfriend, Colleen Crowley, said in an affidavit published online that the Cleveland Browns quarterback hit her so hard during a late-night confrontation last month that she lost hearing in one ear. She won a protective order last week against Manziel, who is under criminal investigation on allegations of domestic violence. (AP)

Football
Ratings
TV
Broncos
Carolina Panthers
Super Bowl


Aerospace Companies Express Doubts on Plans to Revamp NASA

Abstract: Boeing and Lockheed Martin , the aerospace giants with decades of experience working on America’s space program, will happily sell rockets to carry astronauts into space, but the companies are leery about taking a leading role in President Obama ’s vision for a revamped National Aeronautics and Space Administration . The prospect of NASA relying on smaller companies — unproven upstarts in the view of critics — could create yet another hurdle in convincing an already skeptical Congress of the idea of relying on commercial companies to provide taxi transportation to the International Space Station. “I don’t think there is a business case for us,” John Karas, vice president and general manager of human spaceflight at Lockheed Martin, said about space taxis. Publicly, Boeing has been enthusiastic. “We have a vested interest in the International Space Station,” Brewster H. Shaw, vice president and general manager of Boeing’s NASA Systems business unit, said in February after NASA awarded the company $18 million to draw up a preliminary design of a capsule that could serve as the basis of a commercial crew system. “We want to see I.S.S. live up to its potential by having a robust logistics for the delivery of cargo and crew.” But Loren B. Thompson, an analyst at the Lexington Institute , a policy group financed by military contractors, said Boeing is more skeptical in private. In 1995, Boeing began pursuing the commercial space business through an international partnership called Sea Launch; it also developed the Delta IV rocket to launch both military and commercial satellites. The company lost money in both efforts, with Sea Launch filing for bankruptcy in 2009. To stem the Delta IV losses, Boeing and Lockheed Martin, which was also losing money with its Atlas V rocket, set up a joint venture called the United Launch Alliance in 2006. “Senior Boeing executives have told me that they are skeptical about new launch opportunities, given the losses they incurred on previous initiatives such as Sea Launch and the Pentagon’s expendable launcher program,” Dr. Thompson said. “They are unlikely to invest large amounts of money on the new NASA vision.” Mr. Obama has called for the cancellation of NASA’s current Constellation program to send astronauts back to the Moon. In its place, the administration would like to spend $6 billion over five years to finance the development of rockets and crew capsules by commercial companies. NASA officials have said the program would be set up to attract new and established companies. The money would most likely be split between two or more companies. In pitching the idea, administration officials have said that commercial companies have always built the rockets and spacecraft that carried American astronauts and that it would not be a radical shift to turn to aerospace companies with decades of experience. They also contend that competition would spur innovation and drive down the launching costs, which, in turn, would open vibrant new markets. NASA has not described details of the planned competition, and the companies said they would take a look at what the agency proposes. “Assuming the business case is right, we’re all in,” said Keith Reiley, program manager for Boeing’s capsule development. The business case depends on how much money NASA will be asking the companies to invest. In traditional “cost plus” development, NASA pays for everything. In that case, Mr. Reilly said, “of course, we’d be happy to do that.” If NASA were to ask the companies to shoulder all of the financial risk, however, Boeing would certainly not participate. The key would be how the $6 billion would be divided. “Hopefully,” Mr. Reilly said, “those issues will get resolved.” Both Boeing and Lockheed were stung during the last burst of optimism for the commercial space business about a decade ago. They invested several billion dollars — Lockheed to develop its Atlas V, Boeing for the Delta IV — in the hopes that the huge market for commercial satellites would supplement their traditional business of launching American military spy satellites. The market did not materialize, and what business there was went to European and Russian rockets that were cheaper. With the United Launch Alliance, Boeing and Lockheed Martin share costs and profits equally. The joint venture now operates in the black, but the companies did not recoup their original investments, and much of the infrastructure they built remains underused. “I think people who have been in the launcher business for many years find it hard to take the president’s plan seriously,” Dr. Thompson said. “They think it sounds like an elaborate wake for the human spaceflight program more than a plan for moving forward.” The hoped-for commercial market for space taxis hinges on one small company, Bigelow Aerospace of Las Vegas, which is teaming up with Boeing on its capsule design. Founded by Robert T. Bigelow, a real estate investor who made a fortune with the Budget Suites hotel chain, Bigelow Aerospace is developing inflatable space habitats that it hopes to market as research facilities to companies and foreign nations looking to establish a space program. The company’s plans are ambitious. It is already negotiating with United Launch Alliance for seven Atlas V launches in 2014. “That nearly doubles the output of the Atlas V in any given year,” said Michael N. Gold, director of Bigelow’s Washington office. “It’s really a snowball effect here,” he said, with economies of scale expected to drive down the costs. The result of the launches in 2014 would be a private space station that could house 12 astronauts — twice as many as the International Space Station. Plans call for a second, even larger Bigelow station two years later, with room for 24 astronauts. The company projected 148 to 176 launches between 2014 and 2022. “We’re extremely confident in the market,” Mr. Gold said. The only missing pieces, he said, are the rockets to carry people to and from the Bigelow stations. But if Bigelow’s plans do not unfold as the company projects, and if NASA were the only customer, the space taxi business might be too small — perhaps just two flights a year to the International Space Station — and too risky for Boeing or Lockheed Martin to invest much time and money. James McAleese, a defense consultant in McLean, Va., said that large aerospace firms like Boeing and Lockheed typically generate returns of 11 percent or 12 percent on their investments, and that for riskier enterprises like space, the companies would be looking for even higher returns. “I don’t believe there’s a burning desire to get into the spacecraft piece of the business,” he said. If a commercial market developed, that could still be a lucrative business, said Mr. Karas, of Lockheed Martin, who once led the company’s expendable rockets business. But he added, “Personally, this is exactly the same rhetoric as last time.” Still, even if Boeing and Lockheed declined to bid directly on NASA’s plans, at least some of the astronauts would probably be traveling in Atlas Vs or Delta IVs built by those companies. The NASA competition may seek proposals solely for spacecraft — the crew capsules or winged craft atop the rockets — rather than the rockets themselves. The spacecraft makers would specify which rocket a craft would launch on. One likely bidder, Space Exploration Technologies Corporation of Hawthorne, Calif., is developing both a crew capsule, the Dragon, and its own rocket, the Falcon 9. Other possible competitors, like Blue Origin, a start-up by Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon.com, would build only the capsule and put it on top of an existing rocket, with the most likely choice being United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V. The joint venture would sell rockets — the lower-end versions of the Atlas V cost about $150 million each — to the spacecraft makers. Thus, the alliance — and, indirectly, Boeing and Lockheed Martin — would continue their involvement with NASA’s space program, but in a secondary role. Michael C. Gass, president and chief executive of United Launch Alliance, has said that upgrading the low-end version of the Atlas V for astronauts — adding a monitoring system to alert controllers of problems with the rocket and modifying the launching pad to handle astronauts — would cost $400 million. “When you start getting into a heavier crew transfer vehicle and a dedicated launch facility, it’s over a billion dollars, but less than two,” Mr. Gass said. Those improvements “should be funded by the U.S. government” without additional investment from Boeing and Lockheed, he said. Even with Bigelow already negotiating launches, Mr. Gass said, he did not yet see a definite commercial market. “The commercial market could develop,” he said. “Right now, we’re approaching it as incremental.”

United States Defense and Military Forces


The Importance of Morgan State vs. Army

Abstract: By August 1968, the dream described so eloquently by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. five years earlier had been punctured. Dr. King, our prince of peace, had been murdered in April, Robert F. Kennedy in June. When I left Chicago that summer to begin my college football career at Morgan State in Baltimore, the Democratic National Convention was about to get under way. In the wake of the madness that surrounded us, including the war in Vietnam, the draft and widespread poverty, many of us — black and white, young and idealistic — were being guided by Malcolm X when he said in a speech, “We don’t see any American dream; we’ve experienced only the American nightmare.” For me, a 17-year-old freshman, social upheaval was trumped by the anticipation of participating in a huge football game that September: Morgan State vs. Grambling, at Yankee Stadium. This would be a game for the ages in black college football, and we knew it. Our coach, Earl Banks, made sure we knew it. Eddie Robinson made sure his Grambling players knew it, too. Years later, Frank Lewis, Grambling’s wing back then and later a star with the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Buffalo Bills, said, “I didn’t focus on the city and the stadium, just that two black universities had sold out that stadium.” Morgan was undefeated in three consecutive seasons, and it had not lost since the final game of the 1964 season. Grambling and Morgan State had been crowned black national co-champions by The Pittsburgh Courier the previous year. Morgan won the game in New York, 9-7 . At West Point on Friday night, Morgan State will open its new season with a game against Army. It will be the first time Army has played one of the nation’s historically black colleges in football, and the stakes are as different as the times. Morgan State and Army are coming off losing seasons, and neither program is what it once was. Army was a powerhouse in the 1940s and ‘50s, when it produced three Heisman Trophy winners. Morgan, a power in the 1960s, produced three members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. One of them, Willie Lanier, will be at Michie Stadium on Friday. In 1968, Morgan vs. Grambling was a big game because of the coaches leading the teams and because the programs were known for attracting some of the country’s best talent and sending it on to the N.F.L. Now, in an era when football at historically black colleges and at Army is sometimes an afterthought, Morgan’s trip north is important for different reasons. The arc from 1968 to 2013 is populated by drastic change, positive and negative. In the 1960s, football was king at Morgan, especially when the team brought positive attention to other parts of the college. In 2013, Morgan, like many universities, is reassessing the role of intercollegiate athletics on campus, especially costly programs like football. “Morgan-Army is important because of the intersection of the academic missions of the two institutions,” David Wilson, the Morgan president, said, mentioning his university’s engineering program as a point of pride. “Today it is less about the football competitiveness between Army and Morgan than it was about football competitiveness in 1968 between Morgan and Grambling.” Back then, football programs were glamorous centerpieces at historically black colleges, a result of the rigid segregation patterns and quotas that either excluded or limited the presence of black athletes at larger universities. “H.B.C.U.'s had the best talent, and those programs were winning,” Wilson said. “Enthusiasm was off the charts. You could see it at homecoming, when thousands of alumni would come back. It was nirvana.” The push for equal and open access resulted in wider opportunities for some, but it has devastated black college football and raised the question of who, ultimately, was the big winner in the integration sweepstakes. Integration opened opportunities for first- and second-tier black football and basketball players to attend predominately white programs, which had long been closed to them. But at a time of a widening gap between rich and poor, and shrinking opportunities, Wilson said the role of historically black colleges and universities like Morgan in challenging elite students and finding diamonds in the rough was more important than ever. He should know; he was one of those diamonds. At the time of the Morgan-Grambling game in 1968, Wilson was 13 and living in rural McKinley, Ala. “I was basically barely in school because I grew up in a sharecropper’s family,” he said. “In 1968, my father had a system in place where we could not attend school for five days. We couldn’t go to school for five consecutive days.” Instead, Wilson and his siblings would alternate, three days one week and two the next. On the other days, Wilson said, he picked cotton, corn and okra. But when Wilson was in ninth grade, a teacher took an interest in him and took him on a visit to Tuskegee Institute, established by Booker T. Washington. Wilson later graduated from Tuskegee with a degree in political science, and returned to earn a master’s in education. He went on to Harvard, earning a second master’s degree and a doctorate in administration, planning and social policy. But Tuskegee was Wilson’s launching pad. “They made me realize that, ‘Hey, you have some talent here, and we’re going to put you in a position where you can realize it,' ” he said. Given his path from sharecropper’s son to president of a historically black university, Wilson acknowledged that Friday’s visit to Army had special meaning for him. “Just seeing the convergence of these two programs, and reflecting on my path, it’s been somewhat of an emotional week for me,” he said. Friday night’s game is a matchup between two institutions at which football has become background music to historic and well-defined missions. Three weeks ago, a few of us returned to Morgan to talk to the current players about tradition: how to build, how to maintain, how to reconstruct when traditions are lost. They watched a documentary about the 1968 Morgan-Grambling game, which also explored the evolution of black college football: there was a time when nobody envisioned Morgan andGrambling playing in Yankee Stadium or Morgan traveling to West Point to play Army. For the players on each team, the matchup is another moment to be savored. For Morgan players, their very presence at West Point is a testament to the enduring power of a dream.

College football
Morgan State University
Grambling State University
West Point
Frank Lewis
Eddie Robinson


Qaddafi Government Defiant as Battle Rages at Strategic Oil City

Abstract: TRIPOLI, Libya — With loyalist forces clashing for a second day with rebels around a strategic oil city less than 30 miles west of here, the government of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi on Sunday told the “ugly, evil forces of NATO” to accept that the rebel cause was doomed and that the Libyan leader would not be driven from power by rebel attacks or NATO airstrikes. The fighting around the oil city, Zawiya, site of the refinery that is the Qaddafi government’s last remaining source of fuel, came as new battles raged over the weekend at three points that are part of the strategic defenses of Tripoli: in the east, near Misurata, 130 miles from the capital; in the south, at Zintan, about 125 miles from the capital; and, potentially most threatening, at Zawiya, which commands the coastal road that carries vital supplies of food and other necessities to Tripoli from Tunisia. But more than four months after the revolt against Colonel Qaddafi’s 40-year rule began, and nearly three months into the NATO airstrikes that have empowered the rebels, the government’s official response, measured by the mood at a news conference in Tripoli on Sunday, suggested that the Libyan leader and his associates were as deeply dug in as ever. They seemed confident, at least publicly, that they could outlast NATO and the rebels and win their way through to a Libya still under Colonel Qaddafi’s rule. Moussa Ibrahim, the chief government spokesman, chose the Zawiya fighting as the occasion for a renewed denunciation of NATO and its demand, echoing that of the rebels who control about a third of the country from a base in the eastern city Benghazi, that Colonel Qaddafi quit power and leave the country as a condition for peace talks. NATO’s demand, Mr. Ibrahim said, was “immoral and illegal, and we reject it outright, and any talk of the leader leaving is nonsense.” Last week, NATO focused its heaviest daylight bombing raids on Colonel Qaddafi’s command compound in Tripoli and attacked his tented retreat in the desert east of the capital, strikes that a senior American official described as having been “psychological” as much as military. But Mr. Ibrahim spoke as if Colonel Qaddafi felt more sure of his position than ever, enjoyed the overwhelming backing of Libya’s six million people and was buttressed by the “hatred” Libyans felt toward NATO and the rebels. “Now, our blood is united,” he said. As if to underscore Colonel Qaddafi’s confidence, Libyan state television broadcast pictures of him on Sunday meeting with Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, a Russian provincial governor who is president of FIDE, the international chess federation. Russia’s Interfax news agency quoted the Russian official as saying that he had played chess with Colonel Qaddafi, who told him he had no intention of leaving. As if to emphasize the point, Mr. Ibrahim said plans for a senior Russian official to visit Tripoli for mediation talks on the war were a waste of time unless Russia reversed its decision last month to back the calls for Colonel Qaddafi to quit. Anybody taking that position, Mr. Ibrahim said, was “not welcome.” The Russian official, Mikhail V. Margelov, met in Benghazi on Friday with rebel leaders and said he was preparing to travel to Tripoli for talks with Colonel Qaddafi’s government. Accounts of the fighting at Zawiya varied widely. Rebel spokesmen described it as a resumption of battles that erupted there in February and March, when rebels exploited the chaotic first stages of the anti-Qaddafi revolt by seizing much of the city of 250,000 and holding it for three weeks until Qaddafi forces crushed them with tanks and heavy weapons. In Tripoli, government officials described the new fighting as a minor flare-up confined mostly to an area around Al-Mutrad, a small town on the city’s southwestern edge. Mr. Ibrahim sought to depict the fighting as a snapshot of a wider weakening of the rebel forces, which he described as rolling back under heavy government pressure on all of the approaches to Tripoli. He said the rebel fighters who struck around Zawiya on Saturday were fleeing a government counteroffensive in the Nafusah mountains, a majority Berber area where the rebels have overrun a string of small towns in recent weeks. “They were escaping northward to Zawiya,” he said. “They had nowhere else to go.” The government narrative was dismissive toward the rebels. Mr. Ibrahim said that the fighters at al-Mutrad numbered barely 100, and that many were “Yemenis, Egyptians and Algerians,” in effect mercenaries. He said some had been killed and others captured, while still others were besieged by government troops, under promises for their safety if they surrendered. Over all, he said, they were typical of the rebel threat, which consisted of “a few pockets of violence” across the country, all “weak and pathetic” and surviving only because of NATO air power. Rebel accounts offered a different view. Rebel spokesmen at Misurata, a port city considered a linchpin of the wider war, acknowledged that rebel forces had taken new casualties in fighting there, with six rebels dead, but that rebel losses, amounting to several dozen killed in recent days, had resulted from a push to gain ground in a rural area west of the city. The rebels said the attacks at Zawiya, which led briefly to the closing of the coastal road between Tripoli and the Tunisian border, were the product of a rebel push northward from the Nafusah mountains, with rebel fighters joining elements of the armed underground in Zawiya, and not the result of government advances.

Middle East and North Africa Unrest (2010- )


Closing of Live Poultry Markets Is Called Effective in Flu Fight

Abstract: Shutting down live poultry markets is extremely effective in preventing human cases of avian flu and should be considered if the disease reappears this winter, researchers in China reported Wednesday. But experts, including the authors, warned that shutting such markets permanently would be impractical because consumers in many countries demand live birds, and small farmers cannot afford refrigerated slaughterhouses and trucks. Even temporary shutdowns create economic problems but should be considered, they said. The study, published by The Lancet, concerned last spring’s outbreak of H7N9 flu outbreak in southern China. The flu is still rare in humans — only 135 cases were confirmed before it disappeared in the summer, but 45 were fatal. Two new human cases appeared in China this month, raising fears that it will surge this winter. In four cities that responded in April by closing their live poultry markets — Shanghai, Hangzhou, Huzhou and Nanjing — human cases dropped almost immediately by 97 to 99 percent, the researchers said. The flu first appeared in March. Most victims caught it from birds and only a few passed it on to family members or medical personnel, scientists believe. The closed markets have all reopened, and the outbreak cost the economy an estimated $1.6 billion. It also upset the poultry industry, which is believed to have “substantial political connections,” said Benjamin J. Cowling, an epidemiologist at the University of Hong Kong medical school and an author of the study. Other experts warned that during outbreaks of H5N1 avian flu — another rare but potentially lethal influenza that has circulated since 1997 — live markets in countries like Vietnam and Egypt simply ignored orders to close. China, by contrast, is very effective at enforcing public health measures when officials decide to act. Even in cities where refrigeration is available, many markets sell live poultry “because people like to look at the bird’s color, its age, to see if it looks healthy,” said Dr. Juan Lubroth, chief veterinary officer of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. Live poultry markets are often crowded and filthy; bird flu spreads in droppings, and chickens, ducks, geese and other birds often wander over floors covered with them. Some poultry is sold live in virtually every city in the world, including New York. In poor countries, live sales are the norm because slaughtered birds spoil quickly without refrigeration. In China, live markets “are more common than Walmart is in the U.S.,” Dr. Cowling said, adding that food scandals have made consumers wary of chilled or frozen meat. To prevent H5N1 outbreaks, some Asian cities have mandated “rest days” on which markets must be empty for 24 hours while they are cleaned and disinfected. A study published last year of 54,000 samples of droppings collected in live bird markets over 12 years found that the presence of flu viruses on market floors could be reduced by 84 percent through several measures less punitive than full shutdowns: two monthly rest days, bans on leaving poultry in markets overnight and bans on selling quail. Some markets require that all birds not sold by closing time must be slaughtered and disposed of. But unless sellers are compensated, they will evade those rules, said Dr. Guillaume Fournié, an epidemiologist at the Royal Veterinary College in England, who wrote a comment on The Lancet’s study. Work he did in Vietnam, Dr. Fournié said, suggested that identifying “hub” markets, cleaning them regularly and disinfecting trucks hauling birds between markets could interrupt disease transmission with fewer shutdowns.

Bird Flu
Poultry
Agriculture
China
Research


A Push Is On for Same-Sex Marriage Rights Across New England

Abstract: BOSTON — The Iowa Supreme Court’s approval of same-sex marriage on Friday gave advocates an important first victory in the nation’s heartland, thwarting the notion that only the Northeast will accept it. But for now, New England remains the nucleus of the same-sex marriage movement, with a campaign under way to extend marriage rights to gay men and lesbians in all six of the region’s states by 2012. Massachusetts has allowed same-sex marriage since 2004, and Connecticut began allowing it last fall. The Vermont Legislature just voted to let same-sex couples marry, and supporters hope to gather enough votes to override a veto promised by Gov. Jim Douglas, a Republican. New Hampshire is not far behind; its House of Representatives approved a same-sex marriage bill last month. The legislatures in Maine and Rhode Island are considering their own versions, though they are not as far along in the process. Across New England, advocacy groups have been raising money, training volunteers and lobbying voters and lawmakers as part of a campaign they call “Six by Twelve,” led by the legal advocacy group that persuaded the Supreme Courts in Massachusetts and Connecticut to allow same-sex marriage in 2003 and 2008. Equal rights advocates said Friday that while the Midwest in general was culturally and politically different from the Northeast, Iowa shared New England’s independent streak and so was a logical place to file another court challenge. “We picked Iowa because many of us who don’t live in the Midwest might think of it as being a conservative monolith,” said Jennifer C. Pizer, marriage project director for Lambda Legal , which argued the Iowa case. “But people who know Iowa have been saying for some time that it is different from its neighbors. There’s a tradition of independence and willingness to stand up on issues of fairness.” As in most New England states, voters in Iowa cannot initiate constitutional amendments, a common strategy for blocking same-sex marriage elsewhere. In California, voters last fall amended the State Constitution to ban such marriages after a court decision made it legal. The California Supreme Court is considering a petition to overturn the ban, but many legal scholars have predicted that it will be upheld. Proponents of same-sex marriage in California are building support among voters in hopes of making it legal there, probably through another ballot measure in the next few years. And at least six states outside New England (Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York and Washington) have same-sex marriage bills before their legislatures this year, but none are expected to pass. Critics say the success of the movement in New England is largely because courts and legislatures, not voters, are making the decisions. Voters have approved constitutional bans on same-sex marriage in 26 states since the Massachusetts law, a landmark, took effect; the constitutions of four other states also limit marriage to heterosexuals. “Activists have targeted these states because they think it’s going to be easier to convince legislators than the populace,” said Brian Brown, executive director of the National Organization for Marriage , a group established to fight same-sex marriage. “They’re doing everything they can to keep the public from having a part in this process.” But Prof. David H. Watters, director of the Center for New England Culture at the University of New Hampshire, said there were also deep-rooted cultural reasons for the momentum here. Same-sex couples have found acceptance in New England for over a century, he said, especially among its large intellectual class. In the late 1800s, marriage-like relationships between upper-class women in and around Boston were so common that a phrase — “Boston marriage” — emerged to describe them. The region’s strong libertarian bent also helps explain why same-sex marriage has found support here, Professor Watters said. “The New England states really emphasize individual liberties,” he said, pointing out that the abolition and women’s suffrage movements also started here. “There’s a strong regional tradition that if somebody has rights, everybody ought to have them.” New England is also the least religious region of the country, according to a recent survey by Trinity College in Hartford. Evangelistic churches, often among the most adamant opponents of same-sex marriage, are especially rare, and Catholicism is waning. Moreover, the Northeast is home to two of the three states — New Hampshire, New Jersey and Vermont — that allow civil unions for same-sex couples, an intermediate step that supporters say has made same-sex marriage seem less threatening. “People can see that the sky hasn’t fallen,” said Betsy Smith, executive director of EqualityMaine , a group pushing for passage of the marriage bill. Ms. Smith’s group has spent three years building public support in Maine, where a legislative committee is scheduled to hold a hearing on same-sex marriage on April 24. In November, the group got more than 31,000 voters at the polls to sign postcards in support of same-sex marriage. The cards went to state lawmakers, 64 of whom are listed as sponsors of the bill. “We have a very methodical way of going out and training folks in the communities on this as their own personal issue,” said Ms. Smith, who has a staff of 10 full-time field organizers. “They talk to their family and neighbors and co-workers, whether they are gay or straight, about how important it is for everyone to have access to marriage.” Rather than follow the strategy adopted in Connecticut, New Hampshire and Vermont — seeking legislative approval of civil unions before same-sex marriage — organizers in Maine and Rhode Island are going directly for marriage laws. Civil unions, they say, relegate same-sex couples to a separate and unequal category. Advocates of same-sex marriage in Rhode Island said they were aiming for legislative approval in 2011. That is when Gov. Donald L. Carcieri, a Republican who is against same-sex marriage, will leave office because of term limits. The leaders of the State Senate and House of Representatives, both Democrats, have also expressed opposition. But the same-sex marriage bill in the House has 31 sponsors out of 75 House members; a similar bill in 2003 had only 4. In Vermont, Governor Douglas is poised to veto a same-sex marriage bill that recently passed both houses of the Legislature; supporters of the bill are scrambling to gather the five additional votes needed for an override. Gov. John Lynch of New Hampshire and Gov. John Baldacci of Maine, both Democrats, are also opposed to same-sex marriage, though they have not said whether they would veto the bills moving through their legislatures. “Every time we talk about this issue we break down barriers,” said State Representative James Splaine of New Hampshire, an openly gay Democrat who sponsored the bill that will now move to the State Senate. “And if we are not successful this year, we will be eventually.” Meanwhile, equal-rights advocates said, the Iowa ruling was an important reminder that New England is not the only place where same-sex marriage has a future. New England is “probably considered nutty by a lot of the country,” said Gary Buseck, legal director for Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders , and so the Iowa decision could have more national resonance. “We still think that New England is poised to certainly set an example,” Mr. Buseck said. “But this Iowa decision will be a real boost.”

Same-Sex Marriage Civil Unions and Domestic Partnerships


Austria Holds Ukrainian Pending Extradition Decision

Abstract: BERLIN — An Austrian court ruled on Friday that it would continue to hold a Ukrainian businessman, identified as Dmitry V. Firtash, a billionaire with close ties to his country’s ousted president, and set bail at 125 million euros, or $174 million, after his arrest this week on an American warrant. The Vienna State Criminal Court said that if the Ukrainian were to post bail, he would be required to remain in the country pending a decision on whether he would be extradited to the United States, where he is sought on charges of corruption and belonging to a criminal organization. He has appealed the ruling, the court said in a statement. Austrian government sources said that Mr. Firtash, 48, was detained on Wednesday evening in Vienna as he walked down the street with his bodyguards, who did not resist the arrest. The authorities had acted on a tip that Mr. Firtash was in the capital, they said. The Austrian court said it was waiting for documents from the American authorities in order to decide whether Mr. Firtash was to be extradited. Mr. Firtash had strong connections to Ukraine’s ousted president, Viktor F. Yanukovych, and was well connected within the higher circles in Russia. His arrest comes against mounting political pressure from Western nations to enact tougher economic sanctions against Russia in response to the standoff over Crimea. European diplomats are considering a list of Russian business leaders who could be targeted by the sanctions when European Union leaders convene in Brussels on Thursday, if Russia has not shown any sign of defusing the situation.

Extradition
Dmitry Firtash
Ukraine
Austria


Seeking to Assure Students’ Safety Outside School

Abstract: When parents in some Chicago neighborhoods talk about keeping their streets safe for schoolchildren, they often refer to the times “before Derrion” and “after Derrion.” The terms are a reference to 16-year-old Derrion Albert, who was beaten to death on Sept. 24 on his way home from Fenger High School. The brutality was caught on video and viewed around the world on the Web. Before Derrion, similar violent incidents in and around schools had met with expressions of public outrage and had galvanized parents, police and school officials into renewed efforts to ensure safe passage for students. Then, as headlines and angry marches faded away, so did the momentum behind the anti-violence campaigns. Derrion’s family hopes that his death will change that. Joseph Walker, a man Derrion lived with and knew as “Grandaddy Joe,” co-founded an organization called Pain to Power that aims to sustain safe-passage efforts, including parent patrols to help children travel safely around schools. And the Chicago Public Schools will take $2 million from a $30 million federal stimulus grant and apply it to safe passage, paying for community watches in 13 areas. “The death of my grandson, that was something I just could not let go,” Mr. Walker said. “My agenda is to stop the violence, but I can’t do it without the adults.” In an office building near U.S. Cellular Field recently, Mr. Walker stood at a third-floor window and pointed toward empty street corners where he envisions parents in brightly colored vests watching over children walking to and from school. In his vision they always make it home safely. Adrienne Leonard, the co-founder and chief executive of Pain to Power, said the group hoped to clear obstacles that prevent parents from keeping a street-corner vigil every school day. The foundation, which includes Daniel W. Hynes, the Illinois comptroller, as an advisory board member, has been organizing parent training sessions and plans to support the patrols with jackets, radios, gloves and whatever else volunteers may need. There will even be cash incentives in some cases. “When you can give somebody a $50 or a $100 check and thank them for their services, they’ll come back,” Ms. Leonard said. Mr. Walker’s efforts at peacemaking take him into territory that has long been difficult for schools and the police to manage. “It’s hard to get community engagement — period,” said Kenneth S. Trump, a school security consultant in Cleveland. “It’s especially hard to get community engagement consistently.” Chicago Public Schools plans to use the remainder of the $30 million grant to create what it calls “culture of calm” programs in selected high schools and to mount an intensive effort to identify students most at risk and pair them with mentors, said Monique Bond, spokeswoman for the public schools. The school district hopes to find more money for the programs after the federal stimulus money runs out, Ms. Bond said. The lack of steady financing often derails school safety initiatives, Mr. Trump said. When a violent incident dominates the headlines, money often becomes available, but when the outrage quiets down, the money disappears. For example, he said, a family liaison program started last year by Cleveland schools with stimulus dollars already faces cuts. “We legislate and fund by anecdote,” Mr. Trump said. Pain to Power has submitted a bid to Chicago schools for a safe-passage contract, but Ms. Leonard said the group was already working in neighborhoods across the city and would continue to do so even without the contract. One recent morning, Ms. Leonard was in the Belmont Cragin neighborhood on the Northwest Side to “connect the dots” linking schools, the police and the community. Parents were shaken by an incident at a church across the street from the West Belden Campus of Chicago International Charter School. During a service, a fight broke out between rival gangs, who climbed over pews to throw punches, said Cheyla Molina, a parent volunteer now working with Pain to Power. In addition, several weeks ago, members of a gang came to the charter school intending to beat up an eighth-grader. “But they didn’t because of her,” Ms. Molina said, pointing to Anna Maria Martinez next to her, a mother who intervened to stop the fight. Other parents arranged for the child’s parents to pick him up so he could get home safely that day. Since then, parents have been more visible on the corners after school. Chicago schools and the police have long relied on parents and grandparents to keep watch before or after school. Though they are there unofficially, they carry an air of authority that can discourage any trouble. The idea behind the safe-passage programs is to organize parent patrols into a more reliable means of protection. LaVesha Tiger-Williams, a youth services coordinator for the Chicago Police Department, has been training parents for this duty for 15 years and is familiar with peaks and valleys of community involvement. “For a short amount of time,” Ms. Tiger-Williams said, “we’ll have a large group of parents really want to be involved because of something that happened.” But their involvement is often temporary, she said, adding, “Parents are more reactive than proactive.” The neighborhood watch efforts that have been successful have been supported by principals, who may buy supplies like vests or even offer cash, she said. In training sessions, Ms. Tiger-Williams told parents to look for threatening body language and other signs of trouble. Keep students moving when they come out of the building, she said. Take notes of anything suspicious and notify the school’s safety officer. Ms. Tiger-Williams instructed parents to try to build relationships with the students passing by “because kids may come and tell you something’s going on.” Relationships with other adults can be tricky, she said. At a training session for parents in March, Estella Holloway said she had had to break up a fight outside her child’s school. “It got kind of ugly; the little girl would not stop fighting,” Ms. Holloway said. An angry relative came down to the school upset that Ms. Holloway had intervened. “What do you do if a parent comes and says, ‘Why did you touch my child?’ “ Ms. Holloway asked. Ms. Tiger-Williams said the best response was to inform the principal and let the school take it from there. Parents are discouraged from confronting gang members or drug dealers, but they can be a deterrent. In a gravel parking lot surrounded by boarded-up Chicago Housing Authority buildings, Marguerite Jacobs and Kenya Atkins stood at the place where students from Fenger High School are dropped off each afternoon. “We’ve been doing this since October,” Ms. Atkins said. “After Derrion.” If there is trouble brewing, “once they see us, they stop, because they know we could get to their parents,” she said. Ms. Leonard said she and Mr. Walker hoped to take Pain to Power’s message to Fenger High in September to mark the anniversary of Derrion’s death. They want to “talk about what happened, what we’ve learned and what we’re doing about it,” she said. Mr. Walker said, “I don’t ever want them to stop talking about Derrion.”

Pain to Power
Chicago (Ill)
Education and Schools
Assaults


Record Set in World Cup Victory for West Indies

Abstract: Chris Gayle scored a record Cricket World Cup innings of 215 to lead West Indies to a 73-run win over Zimbabwe. Gayle also had a record-equaling 16 sixes in his innings.

Cricket
Chris Gayle
West Indies
Zimbabwe


Noah Rubin Gets the Feel for a Bigger Stage at the U.S. Open

Abstract: Noah Rubin stepped into a plausible preview of his United States Open tennis future early Tuesday afternoon when he strode onto a crowded Court 13, drowning out a boisterous reception with a pair of headphones and proceeding to confront an opponent six inches taller. Local boy and undersized warrior is a combination that could make Rubin a fan favorite at the world’s rowdiest grand slam for a good many years. But that’s putting the prospective career before the freshman year in college and fails to note that the sport can devour teenagers and spit out their junior credentials like the residue from smokeless tobacco. Rubin, an 18-year-old from Long Island, earned this boys-to-men debut in the main draw of the U.S. Open by claiming the junior boys’ national championship in Kalamazoo, Mich., this month, weeks after winning the same title at Wimbledon. But Tuesday’s stage was so much bigger, like the opponent, the 6-foot-3 Federico Delbonis of Argentina. The first-round result, 6-4, 6-3, 6-0, reflected the proportional disparity not only in size but in experience: The 23-year-old Delbonis is ranked 66th and owns a 2013 victory over Roger Federer. Mostly, it made clear that the 5-9, 145-pound Rubin needs to grow, however possible, before he does business as a professional. “I’m going to school, going to college to get in the best physical condition, and to mature as a person and a tennis player,” he said. Image Noah Rubin, an 18-year-old Long Islander, lost to Federico Delbonis in the first round of the U.S. Open. Rubin will be a freshman at Wake Forest this year. Credit Uli Seit for The New York Times Still in the doubles draw but forgoing the junior tournament, he will be a few days late to Wake Forest, where his plan is to eat his Wheaties, develop his body, amp up his serve. As one of his coaches, Lawrence Kleger, said when Rubin played the juniors here last year, “He’s very athletic, but if you have any way for him to grow, let me know.” Rubin’s father, Eric, who taught him the game, is about 6 feet tall. His mother, Melanie, is 5-7. The gene pool might yet be heard from, but Rubin’s scruffy facial hair could be the clue that if he is going to have an impact in the pros, it will have to be as a reasonable facsimile of the fifth-ranked, 32-year-old ball chaser, David Ferrer, who is also 5-9. “People do talk about how quick he is,” Melanie Rubin said of her son. He also is blessed with soft hands, solid ground strokes and enough audacity — a good thing — to say after Tuesday’s match, “Fitness can definitely be at a higher level, but I can play with these guys on any given day.” On the same day when Rubin had his moments in what he called “my backyard,” another American first-timer at Flushing Meadows experienced an even grander stage and a more gigantic opponent when Marcos Giron, a 21-year-old Californian and the 2014 N.C.A.A. singles champion, was beaten by the 6-9 John Isner, 7-6 (5), 6-2, 7-6 (2), on the Arthur Ashe Stadium court. Giron said he “looked up,” literally and figuratively, to Isner, the top-ranked American, who played four years at Georgia before hitting the tour in 2007. “Having someone like Isner come out of school to become a top player in the world, that tells you it’s possible,” Giron said. Maybe it was coincidence that Giron, at 5-11 no towering presence himself, managed to push the 13th-seeded Isner in two of the three sets. He said his three years at U.C.L.A. helped prepare him well for the occasion. “Colleges are a great steppingstone,” he said. “It’s a great place to get better, to mature.” Understand that this is mostly an American discussion, another in a continuous series that examines the issue of adolescent professionals with the line shifting, sport by sport. Roger Federer didn’t go to college. Rafael Nadal won the French Open at 19. And even as tennis is described as more physical than ever, no place for the unripe, a Nick Kyrgios can materialize suddenly — as Kyrgios, a 19-year-old Australian, did at Wimbledon, where he defeated Nadal. A 17-year-old, Borna Coric of Croatia, stunned the 29th-seeded veteran Lukas Rosol, 6-4, 6-1, 6-2, on Tuesday, presumably underscoring Rubin’s point: On any given day. But the real deals, the obvious prodigies, tend to be exceptions to the rule, those who grab a sport by the collar and refuse to let go. Almost everyone else needs a visionary game plan, a smart guidance counselor, a longer view. As opposed to how it is with N.B.A. wannabes, no one ever seems offended when a tennis player takes the scholarship for the one-and-done thing, as John McEnroe — whose academy on Randalls Island Rubin has trained at — and many others have done across the decades. For Giron’s part, he went to U.C.L.A. and stayed three years. “When you’re 17, 18, are you ready to go out there to go and battle out on the Futures tour?” Giron said. “If you’re not ready, it’s easy to get down on yourself early on. You’re traveling a lot, maybe not doing so well, and you can ask, Is this what I’m going to be doing for the next 15 years of my life with no backup?” Giron has turned pro now but said he would like to complete the three semesters he needs for an economics degree, the backup plan. Rubin, meanwhile, was at Wake Forest last weekend, checking into his dorm room, meeting the guys. He emailed his professors — in art history, writing, astronomy and intro to Judaism — to let them know he would be a bit late. How long will he, or should he, stay? “His goal is to turn pro — it’s been an ongoing discussion,” Melanie Rubin said. “But let’s see how he grows as a person, as a tennis player, academically.” Wearing her black Wake Forest T-shirt, she added, “You never know.”

Tennis
US Open Tennis
Noah Rubin
Height
Federico Delbonis


Obama Calls for New Push on Immigration Overhaul

Abstract: President Obama told a gathering of business, labor, religious and political leaders at the White House on Tuesday that he remains committed to an overhaul of the nation’s immigration laws and wants to try again in the coming months to push Congress to pass a bill. With his re-election campaign launched this month and Latino communities growing increasingly frustrated with his immigration policies, Mr. Obama summoned more than 60 high-profile supporters of the stalled overhaul legislation to a strategy session, looking for ways to revive it. Among those attending were Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of New York, an independent; Mayor Julian Castro of San Antonio, a Democrat; and former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger of California, a Republican. Two big-city police chiefs, Raymond W. Kelly of New York and Charles Ramsey of Philadelphia, were there, as was Sheryl Sandberg, a top executive at Facebook, and Leith Anderson, president of the National Association of Evangelicals , the largest group of evangelical Christians. Prospects for the proposed policy, which would grant legal status to millions of illegal immigrants and revamp the immigration system, seem bleak in this Congress, with staunch Republican opponents of the bill controlling pivotal committee positions in the House of Representatives. Recently Latino leaders have stepped up their criticism of Mr. Obama, as deportations have reached record numbers under his administration and he has offered no relief from the crackdown on immigrant communities. Latino voters helped several Democrats, including Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader, survive the Republican shift in the midterm elections last fall, and they are expected to be a major force in the presidential vote next year. In the closed meeting, Mr. Obama argued that the overhaul would bring immigrant entrepreneurs to the United States and was a crucial piece of the economic recovery, according to several people who attended. He sought views on whether to try to pass smaller pieces of the massive overhaul, such as a bill that would give legal status to illegal immigrant students, or one that would increase visas for highly skilled foreign workers. The president asked for help to “change the debate” to attract Republicans to support the bill. He said he could not pass the overhaul “if I am leading the debate alone,” according to a White House statement . Mr. Bloomberg suggested recasting the acrimonious discussion over the proposed policy to stress that it would not take jobs from Americans but would help the economy, said John Feinblatt, the chief policy adviser to the mayor, who was in the room. “We need an immigration policy that attracts the best, brightest and hardest working to our shores to help create jobs and spur growth,” Mr. Bloomberg said. He has started a national campaign in support of the immigration bill.

Immigration and Emigration
Law and Legislation
Obama Barack
House of Representatives
Senate


Texas Is an Indie-Film Player, but the Game Has Changed

Abstract: From all available evidence, this is a new golden age for Texas independent filmmaking. Eight narrative features, either made by Texas-based directors or shot in the state, had their world premieres at this year’s Sundance Film Festival; more than a dozen more Texas efforts had their premieres at the South by Southwest Film Festival last month. One of those Sundance titles, “Ain’t Them Bodies Saints,” by the Dallas-based director David Lowery, reportedly received a seven-figure distribution deal with IFC Films, which plans to release it later this year. The film’s success helped Mr. Lowery land two high-profile gigs, as co-writer of a reboot of the 1977 Disney film “Pete’s Dragon,” and as writer and director of a crime drama set to star Robert Redford. Shane Carruth’s widely noted “Upstream Color” seems poised to become an art-house hit; shot in North Texas, it grossed nearly $30,000 on one screen in New York City when it opened last weekend. And on April 26, “Mud,” a thriller by the Austin-based writer-director Jeff Nichols, starring Matthew McConaughey, will open in theaters. Yet for all the buzz surrounding these films, there is another side of the story. Some of the state’s most original talents are toiling far below the cultural radar, stuck in an independent film ecosystem that is proving inhospitable to low-budget projects that do not feature Hollywood stars. Take the case of Bryan Poyser, an Austin-based writer and director. His 2010 feature, “Lovers of Hate,” follows a failed writer whose loutish brother tries to seduce the writer’s soon-to-be ex-wife. Mr. Poyser’s latest effort, “The Bounceback,” which had its premiere at South by Southwest, is a raunchy farce about another failed writer, who hops on a plane from Los Angeles to Austin when he learns that his ex-girlfriend is going to be visiting the city. Mr. Poyser fearlessly prods at the raw nerves of failed relationships. But while “Lovers of Hate” was acquired for commercial distribution by IFC, it ended up playing in only a handful of cities and is still not available on DVD. Despite enthusiastic reviews, “The Bounceback” left SXSW without a distribution deal. “It’s been a little disappointing,” said Mr. Poyser in an interview during the Dallas International Film Festival last week. “I want to make something that people are going to see.” Mr. Poyser’s frustrations are echoed by Clay Liford, another Austin-based director, whose comedy-drama “Wuss,” about a meek schoolteacher who takes revenge on a bullying student, was well received on the festival circuit in 2011. “Wuss” won an audience award at the A.F.I. Fest in Los Angeles, but after Mr. Liford committed to a distributor, the film’s release date was repeatedly postponed and executives eventually seemed to lose interest. Mr. Liford ended up taking back the rights to the film and is now distributing it via video-on-demand. It is also set to have a May theatrical release at the trendy reRun Gastropub Theater in Brooklyn. “It’s definitely still an uphill battle,” Mr. Liford said. The directors’ problems are hardly Texas-specific. With the widespread availability of cheap filmmaking equipment, the glut of titles being produced these days makes it difficult to stand out no matter where you’re from. What is curious is that even as the rules of financing and distribution are rapidly changing, with the rise of Internet fund-raising services like Kickstarter and video-on-demand distribution via the likes of iTunes, film distributors are still following an unoriginal playbook. According to Mr. Liford, the distributor that acquired “Wuss” wanted to change the title so it would place higher on alphabetical listings. Mr. Poyser said he kept hearing from companies that liked “The Bounceback” but feared the cast was not starry enough to attract large audiences. All of this points to a bleak paradox: that during the decades it took Texas to build an indie-filmmaker-friendly infrastructure, the game changed entirely. Most young filmmakers will find it more difficult than ever to make a living. “I have a great manager who signed me after ‘Wuss,’” said Mr. Liford. “But have I had any major paid jobs since then? No.” Some argue that fame and seven-figure deals should not be the goal. “Commercial success is nice because it brings dollars that can sustain the infrastructure,” said Rebecca Campbell, executive director of the Austin Film Society, a nonprofit organization that provides grants to Texas filmmakers. But, she said, “it means playing according to the rules of commerce, which are not friendly to art.” Still, Mr. Poyser believes that what might truly confirm this moment as a golden era would be a breakout hit on the order of “Beasts of the Southern Wild,” something that would attract additional financing and boost confidence. As Mr. Liford pointed out, even the most dedicated filmmaker can carry on only so long in obscurity. “I don’t want to have to shoot reality TV to keep a roof over my head,” he said.


U.N. Resolution Aims at North Korean Banks and Diplomats

Abstract: The United Nations Security Council moved closer on Tuesday to expanding sanctions on North Korea for its nuclear and ballistic missile activities. The United States and China introduced a resolution that would target North Korean bankers and overseas cash couriers, tighten inspections of suspect ship and air cargo, and subject the country’s diplomats to invasive scrutiny and increased risk of expulsion. Passage of the measure, drafted in response to the third North Korean underground nuclear test three weeks ago, seemed all but assured, in part because China — North Korea’s major benefactor — participated in drafting the language. It would be the fourth Security Council sanctions resolution on North Korea, which has defied the previous measures with increasing belligerence. A vote was expected on Thursday. Infuriated, North Korea vowed to scrap the 1953 armistice that halted the Korean War and threatened to attack the United States with what the North Korean government news agency called an arsenal of diverse “lighter and smaller nukes.” American officials played down the North Korean warning, which echoed bombastic admonitions that have become part of the standard fare from the North. Still, the threat of a North Korean nuclear attack seemed all the more provocative, coming two days after North Korea conveyed a message of friendship to a visiting American group that included Dennis Rodman, the former basketball star. Susan E. Rice, the United States ambassador to the United Nations, who introduced the resolution in a closed session of the 15-member Security Council, told reporters afterward that it “builds upon, strengthens and significantly expands the scope of the strong U.N. sanctions already in place.” For the first time, she said, the resolution would target “the illicit activities of North Korean diplomatic personnel, North Korean banking relationships, illicit transfers of bulk cash and new travel restrictions.” In the past, North Korea has been accused of running extensive counterfeiting and illegal drug enterprises, to raise much-needed hard currency. Ms. Rice declined to predict whether the North would respond with another nuclear test or other retaliation. “All I can tell you is that the international community is united and very firm in its opposition to North Korea’s illicit nuclear and missile programs,” she said. “And the more provocations that occur, the more isolated and impoverished, sadly, North Korea will become.” The Americans did not publicly release the resolution text. But a Security Council diplomat familiar with the measure, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the language may still be subject to revision, said it broke new ground with restrictions and prohibitions on North Korean banking transactions, new travel restrictions and increased monitoring of North Korean ship and air cargo. The diplomat also said that the resolution added a special lubricant and valve, needed for uranium enrichment, to items that North Korea cannot import. The resolution would also place greater scrutiny on North Korean diplomatic personnel who are suspected of carrying proscribed goods and cash under the guise of official business, exposing them to possible deportation. “We know there are diplomats out there cooking up deals and moving funds around,” the Security Council diplomat said. Among the other provisions, the diplomat said the resolution also included new language aimed at enforcement that had been absent from the earlier resolutions. It requires, for example, that if a North Korean cargo vessel crew refuses a host country’s request for inspection, the host is under a legal obligation to deny the vessel port access. If a cargo plane is suspected of carrying prohibited goods to or from North Korea, the resolution would urge, but not require, that it be denied permission to fly over any other country — a new provision that could affect China, which routinely permits North Korean flights over its territory. Previous rounds of sanctions have blacklisted trading and financial firms believed to be directly involved with nuclear and missile work. The sanctions have also restricted the importation of luxury goods, an effort directed at the country’s ruling elite. American officials said privately that the latest resolution did not go as far as they would have liked, reflecting China’s insistence that the punitive measures remain focused on discouraging North Korea’s nuclear and missile behavior and avoid actions that could destabilize the country and lead to an economic collapse. But the text was stronger than what some North Korean experts had anticipated, particularly the measures that could slow or frustrate the country’s banking activities and extensive dependence on cash payments in its trade with other countries. “Going after the banking system in a broad brush way is arguably the strongest thing on this list,” said Evans J. R. Revere, a former State Department specialist in East Asian and Pacific affairs, and now senior director at the Albright Stonebridge Group, a Washington-based consulting company. “It does begin to eat into the ability of North Korea to finance many things.” Mr. Revere attributed North Korea’s reaction on Tuesday to an accumulation of perceived affronts: China’s cooperation in drafting the sanctions, the annual military exercises under way between the United States and South Korea, and a hardened attitude by the South’s newly elected president, Park Geun-hye. “This is North Korea’s way of saying, ‘We know you guys are doing several things, and here is our response,’ ” Mr. Revere said.

China
North Korea
Sanctions
UN Security Council
Nuclear weapons testing
International relations
UN


Inspectors Find Home for Men Full and Filthy

Abstract: On Aug. 31, a team of state health inspectors, accompanied by police officers, forced their way into a four-story brownstone on Lafayette Avenue in Brooklyn. Residents and neighbors in Bedford-Stuyvesant had been complaining that the house, an unlicensed home for single adult men known as Alberta’s Place, was an unsanitary blight. Inspectors said that they found 67 men in bedrooms that were “very overcrowded, dirty and having foul odor,” sleeping on mattresses infested with “bedbugs the size of roaches,” and using bathrooms that were “filthy without toilet paper, no soap, no towels and no washcloths.” The report, which was made available to The New York Times, also noted that food, medical oversight and medical dispensation were inadequate. Several of the men, the report from the state Department of Health showed, had been referred from public places, including hospitals in Queens and Manhattan, and from city homeless shelters. Alberta’s Place is one of scores of private homes in Brooklyn and Queens, many of which describe themselves as therapeutic or supportive housing for the indigent. Advocates for the homeless and mentally ill say that these homes are receiving more and more referrals from public agencies. The advocates are worried about the trend because the homes fall into a gray area of oversight and regulation. The city’s Department of Homeless Services acknowledges that the number of such referrals is increasing, though they are only a fraction of the total referrals from shelters. “We are talking about less than 200 this year at most,” said Angela Allen, a spokeswoman for the department. The agency completes about 7,500 placements a year. After the inspection, 20 of the sicker residents of Alberta’s Place were relocated, and regulators demanded that the owners buy four new mattresses. But the home stayed open. The regulators said that they were monitoring Alberta’s Place to see if it required licensing. In a recent interview, the shelter’s owner, Daryl Evans, said that he and his staff were doing their best with a highly troublesome segment of the homeless population, a group of men no one else wants. City officials say they are under pressure to move single men out of shelters because Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg promised in 2004 to reduce the city’s chronic homeless population by two-thirds. But they say they are sending only men capable of caring for themselves to homes like Alberta’s Place, most of which they called decent. If they receive complaints about a specific residence, they said, they send out e-mail messages warning the shelters not to send any more men there. A warning has been sent out about Alberta’s Place. Bill Lienhard, the director of the mental health project at the Urban Justice Center, said that his organization was hoping to gather enough evidence for a lawsuit to demand more constant regulation. He said Alberta’s Place showed that whatever the official designation, sick and vulnerable people end up in these homes. “These places find residents by trolling through the shelters and by calling psychiatric units,” he said. “The state knows about it. The city knows about them. But because there is such pressure to find housing for these men, they have turned a blind eye.” Mr. Lienhard estimated that there were at least 50 of these homes in New York, many of them owned by people who have poor track records. The Department of Health memo, for example, noted that Mr. Evans of Alberta’s Place “has a history of operating other unlicensed boarding homes,” and that at least one was closed by health authorities. In a way, Mr. Evans did not disagree. “We are the lowest on the totem poll,” he said. “Our primary function is to take undesirables. We take people who have been thrown out of other shelters because of their behavior. We take certain type of clients that might require more help, but I can’t say I have any regrets about taking them. For a lot of them it was a matter of life and death.” Mr. Evans said that his shelter does have bedbugs, but that at least he has been fighting them with an exterminator. “At least we are trying to do something about it,” he said. “As far as cleanliness, we deal with a very difficult population. There are times when a client makes a mess and we are cleaning up behind.” He said he had nothing against being regulated. The Department of Health said that since these private homes do not provide services to those who are too mentally or physically ill to care for themselves, they are not subject to annual inspections. If enough complaints are made about such a home, the Department of Health might investigate and might act — but then again, it might not. “Each incidence is decided on a case-by-case basis,” said Jeffrey Hammond, a spokesman for the Department of Health. “If we received a complaint based on a public health concern we would investigate.” Mr. Hammond said that lousy and dirty conditions could more likely be the responsibility of the city’s buildings and housing officials to investigate. Patrick Markee, a senior policy analyst for the New York City Coalition for the Homeless, said he worried that clients are ending up at the private residences because the city is inappropriately pressuring them to leave shelters. “In the last year, we have definitely seen increasing pressure on shelter residents to take these placements, site unseen,” he said. “In some instances, we’ve actually had staff present in meetings where the men were brow-beaten into taking a placement they didn’t want.” He said some seriously ill men ended up in these places because they did not know enough to complain. Anthony Dash is one resident of Alberta’s Place. He gave his age as 30 or 35, and said he has been homeless since his father kicked him out of their apartment a few months ago. While he said he had been at Alberta’s Place for two weeks, his case file showed that he has been there two months. He said he agreed to go there voluntarily because his counselor at a city-run shelter told him it was nice. Instead, he said, it was “very nasty.” Mr. Dash said that he did not get enough to eat, and the bedbugs kept him up at night. “I have little nips all over my arm,” he said.

Homeless Persons
Brooklyn (NYC)
Housing
Department of Homeless Services