Team Orders Again Sow the Seeds of Disorder

Abstract: A decade ago, Formula One fans and the media were outraged when the reigning world champion accepted his team’s orders to pass his teammate and snatch victory from him. Three weeks ago, the fans and the media were outraged when another reigning world champion refused to accept team orders, passed his teammate and took victory from him. World turned upside down? Not quite, just another twist in the never-ending saga of team orders at the pinnacle of auto racing. What Formula One did not foresee when it made team orders legal in 2011, after having banned them in 2002 to avoid controversy, was the controversial turn the tale would take at the Malaysian Grand Prix two weeks ago. The new case, involving a conflict between the drivers of the world champion Red Bull team, has dominated discussion among teams and drivers in Shanghai for the Chinese Grand Prix this weekend. Team orders are as old as auto racing, and the practice is accepted in other sports, most notably cycling, where a lead rider is aided by his teammates to win for the team. But in Formula One, where each team has only two drivers, the dynamic is more difficult to manage. Even so, as employees of the same team and despite tension and disagreements between them, teammates almost always accept the principle of team orders. The entente at Red Bull unraveled in Malaysia, however, and it could have grave consequences for the team. The acrimonious tone was set on Wednesday in Shanghai when Sebastian Vettel, under fire from the media for disobeying team orders in the final laps in Malaysia and thus snatching victory from his teammate, Mark Webber, refused to apologize for winning “because I am paid for that.” Then on Thursday he said he would not hand over a victory to Webber in return because he did not deserve it. He said Webber, too, had rejected team orders in the past. In Formula One, teams have two main goals: winning the constructors’ title, awarded to the team that scores the most total points, and winning the drivers’ title, which goes to the driver with the most points. The drivers’ title is the most important to the team in terms of prestige and marketing value. When a team wins the constructors’ title but not the drivers’ title, the glory goes to the team with the winning driver. So teams will often order their drivers to hold position or even to exchange positions so the leading driver or the driver viewed as more promising by the team can earn more points. Most teams and drivers agree with the concept, but, as Jenson Button, a driver at the McLaren Mercedes team, said in Shanghai on Thursday, it should not be happening this early in the season. Early in the 2002 season, Ferrari asked Rubens Barrichello to slow down during the Austrian Grand Prix and hand his impending victory to his teammate, Michael Schumacher. Schumacher had won the drivers’ title for Ferrari in the two previous seasons, but he had been the slower driver all weekend in Austria. Barrichello, frustrated, reluctantly accepted his team’s orders. But he did so only in the final lap in order to show the world who the real winner was. The resulting international outcry — including from the president of Brazil, Barrichello’s home country — caused the International Automobile Federation, or F.I. A., to outlaw team orders. There followed several years of hypocrisy. Teams still issued orders and chose their winning drivers, but they did so subtly, such as by calling a driver in for a pit stop so his teammate could pass. Because it was a fact of life and business, teams were rarely punished. Not surprisingly, when Jean Todt became the president of F.I.A. in October 2009, he soon legalized team orders again. Todt had been the director of Ferrari in 2002, and he had been known to have decided by the toss of a coin which of his drivers would win a rally race when he was director of a rally team before joining Formula One. But fans have difficulty accepting team orders, even if the drivers themselves understand the principle. “I’m a big sports fan and the fans of any sport will want it to be a perfect world, always,” Webber said. “We want it to be pure, we want it to be as we see — football, boxing, cycling, whatever. We want it to be real.” Image The Red Bull teammates Mark Webber, left, and Sebastian Vettel on the podium in Malaysia after Vettel, defying team orders, had passed Webber to snatch the victory. Credit Ahmad Yusni/European Pressphoto Agency “But there is an element of naïvety, for me watching some sport, as well, and in the case of some Formula One fans watching this situation,” he added. “It’s impossible for everybody to understand everything, and that’s the same for me watching a football match or a Champions League match. Sometimes there are things you don’t understand because sometimes there is naïvety.” Vettel said in Shanghai that he believed there was no “war” in his team after what happened in Malaysia. When told in a separate news conference of Vettel’s comments in China, Webber said, “If that’s what he thinks, then that’s what he thinks,” and he refused to enter into polemics. With just 10 laps left in the Malaysian Grand Prix, Webber was leading and had been told by his team to turn down the engine power to save on fuel and to preserve the tires to ensure victory. This was possible because Vettel was right behind him, and he, too, had been told to freeze his position. But the German, the reigning three-time world champion, ignored the orders and began attacking Webber. It was not a fair fight, as Webber did not have the engine power. The team director, Christian Horner, implored Vettel over the radio to stop, even saying, “This is silly, Seb!” Vettel fought on, putting both drivers in danger. He passed Webber and won the race, while Webber finished second. Horner scolded Vettel after the race and defended Webber. But he also tried to brush it off. “These things happen,” he said. “They are race drivers and they will push to the limit and that is part of what their DNA is. That’s why we sign them to do their jobs.” Reactions elsewhere were less charitable. “Red Bull have got a huge problem because the next time they’re in that situation, if they’re 1-2 and they want to call off the fight with a few laps to go, he is not going to trust anybody,” said Martin Brundle, a former Formula One driver and race commentator on British television, referring to Webber. “He’s not going to trust them that it will all take place so he will keep racing.” In Malaysia, there were similar orders given to the third- and fourth-place drivers, the Mercedes teammates Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg. Ross Brawn, the team director — who was sporting director at Ferrari alongside Todt in 2002 — asked Rosberg, the faster of the two, to hold off to let Hamilton take the points. Hamilton had scored more points than Rosberg in the season’s first race and so had a better position in the championship. Rosberg obeyed and let Hamilton finish third. But, frustrated, he said to Brawn over the radio, “Remember this.” In fact, throughout the history of the series there have been similar actions that have had dire consequences for the teams and drivers in question. The most tragic was in 1982, when Ferrari’s Gilles Villeneuve was leading the San Marino Grand Prix ahead of his teammate, Didier Pironi, who suddenly passed him to take the victory despite Villeneuve having reduced speed to preserve the car. Villeneuve said he would never speak to Pironi again, and two weeks later, still livid and feeling betrayed, he crashed and died during qualifying for the Belgian Grand Prix while trying to better Pironi’s lap time. Again at the San Marino Grand Prix, in 1989, Ayrton Senna ignored an agreement not to pass his McLaren teammate Alain Prost after the first corner. The incident was one of the final straws that pushed Prost to leave the team for Ferrari the following year. Yet there was a time when teammates even shared cars in the middle of a race. This happened in 1956 when Peter Collins gave Juan Manuel Fangio his car so the Argentine could take the title after his car had broken down. In 1964, John Surtees was given position by his teammate at Ferrari, Laurenzo Bandini, at the Mexican Grand Prix so that he could take the points needed to win the title. Meanwhile, while some fans complained after the race in Malaysia that they were being robbed of action, for many the soap-opera element of the drama has intensified the desire to see what will happen next in the saga.


Financing Deal Reached on Trans-Hudson Power Line Project

Abstract: After being pressed by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and other elected officials, New York City has struck a deal that would end months of wrangling over a plan to send electricity to Manhattan from New Jersey, people involved in the negotiations said Tuesday. Faced with a deadline of Monday to complete a proposed deal for a power cable under the Hudson River, city and state officials negotiated through the weekend to decide how to share its costs. The talks culminated in a telephone discussion between the governor and Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg on Monday afternoon, the people involved said. In the end, the city agreed to make payments starting at about $2 million annually and rising over 20 years, they said. In exchange, the city will get the benefit of an additional source of electricity that will make its power grid more reliable and provide access to power from new sources, including renewable sources like the wind. Officials at City Hall, in the governor’s office and at the New York Power Authority declined on Tuesday to discuss details of the agreement because it had not been signed. It must still be approved by the directors of the power authority, who are not scheduled to meet again until March 29, but could hold a special meeting sooner. Larry Schwartz, an aide to Mr. Cuomo, was involved in the talks through Monday, people involved in the negotiations said. New York’s two senators, Charles E. Schumer and Kirsten E. Gillibrand, also expressed support for the project to the mayor, as did the City Council speaker, Christine C. Quinn. All of those officials were concerned that the city might not have enough power to keep lights and air-conditioners on during periods of peak demand. Some also said they believed the outside power could hold down rates for electricity in the city. “This project is hugely beneficial to New York City because it brings a significant new source of power to bolster an already strained grid, it will sustain economic growth and it will facilitate more competition to help control rates,” Mr. Schumer said. The power would come through a seven-mile-long cable connected to the large grid that supplies electricity to New Jersey and other neighboring states. It would end at a Consolidated Edison substation on West 49th Street, in a neighborhood that is among the top users of power in the country. The cable would be built by a private developer at a total cost, including upgrades to power lines in New Jersey, of about $850 million, said Edward M. Stern, president of PowerBridge, the developer’s parent company. It would deliver up to 660 megawatts of electricity, or about 5 percent of the power consumed by New York City on the hottest summer days. The project has been in the planning stage for several years, but it has encountered regulatory and bureaucratic obstacles. The current proposal piggybacks on an earlier idea from a different developer that eventually withdrew. That idea, in essence, was to run an extension cord from a power plant in North Jersey to the 49th Street substation. In 2006, PowerBridge stepped in with a plan to connect the city to the regional power grid. Doing so would allow city and state agencies, like the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, to order power from a variety of sources west of the Hudson. Often, that power is significantly less expensive than electricity generated in the city. The metropolitan area consumes much more power than it produces, so officials are going to greater lengths to arrange a new supply. Long Island now gets about one-fifth of the power it uses through a cable strung across the floor of the Atlantic Ocean from Sayreville, N.J. That cable, known as the Neptune project, was also built by PowerBridge. If the power authority’s board approves the agreement, Mr. Stern said, construction could begin in early May. He said that the work would take about 27 months and that the project would employ about 200 people during the period. Power could be flowing to the city in time for summer 2013, he said. The developer faced a final deadline this week to procure the services of the companies that would make and lay the cable under the river, Mr. Stern said. Had an agreement not been reached this week, he said, the project might have been scrapped. Once the cable reaches the Manhattan shore, a construction crew will have to thread it under the West Side Highway to 52nd Street, then down 12th Avenue to the substation between 49th and 50th Streets. “We are delighted that the state and the city have reached agreement,” said Barry S. Sternlicht, chairman of Starwood Energy Group, an investment firm behind the cable project. He said the project would accomplish three of Mayor Bloomberg’s long-term goals for the city by “lowering the cost of energy, providing greater reliability and energy security and affording New Yorkers access to renewable power.”

Electric Light and Power
Manhattan (NYC)
New Jersey


Biting Words but No Action at Security Council Meeting

Abstract: UNITED NATIONS — As the Security Council jousted in an emergency session over Russian military action in Ukraine on Monday, Ukraine’s United Nations ambassador sent a three-page letter to every member state, accusing Russian forces of using stun grenades against Ukrainian soldiers, trespassing in Ukrainian airspace and deploying 16,000 troops to the Crimean peninsula. The Security Council’s emergency meeting was its third in four days on Ukraine, but the General Assembly has yet to take up the issue. The Russian ambassador, Vitaly I. Churkin, who sought the Security Council meeting, told fellow members that “ultranationalists,” including anti-Semites, had threatened Russians and Russian speakers inside Ukraine, prompting Russia to act. He echoed the comments of the foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, earlier in the day at a United Nations Human Rights Council meeting in Geneva. Armed groups had tried to forcibly remove the government in eastern Ukraine, the Russian ambassador said. “There’s been formation of a government of victors,” Mr. Churkin said. He expressed skepticism that observers sent by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the 57-member organization that includes both Russia and Ukraine, could protect minorities in a timely manner. He said later he was not objecting to the deployment of international observers. The O.S.C.E. announced that it had dispatched its envoy for national minorities, Astrid Thors, to Ukraine. The Security Council session quickly became a diplomatic venue for East-West recriminations. After Mr. Churkin had spoken, the United States ambassador, Samantha Power, said: “Listening to the representative of Russia, one might think that Moscow had just become the rapid response arm of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.” The British ambassador, Sir Mark Lyall-Grant, called Russia’s justification “bogus,” while the envoy from Lithuania, Raimonda Murmokaite, told the Council it “resurrects the memory of darkest pages of the 20th century.” Perhaps the most surprising pronouncement came from China, which has historically sided with Russia against the West on other issues in the Council, including the Syria conflict, for the last three years. The Chinese ambassador, Liu Jieyi, said Beijing had consistently supported “noninterference” and that it respects the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine. Diplomats were trying to force Mr. Churkin to state for the record whether to accept O.S.C.E. monitors. Mr. Churkin said that had yet to be discussed. Asked whether Russia would welcome O.S.C.E. monitors, Mr. Churkin was noncommittal, saying he was not the ambassador to that organization. Yuriy Sergeyev, the Ukrainian envoy, who pointedly spoke in Russian along with English and French, told the council that 16,000 Russian troops were in Crimea and that all major roads were blocked. He described the government of the ousted President Viktor F. Yanukovych, his former boss, as “a wretched, corrupt system.” Asked if the Council would consider a resolution, the British ambassador said: “We certainly do not rule out presenting resolution to the Security Council in the next few days.”

UN Security Council
Ukraine
Russia
Military
Crimea


Monks Succeed in Cyclone Relief as Junta Falters

Abstract: KUN WAN, Myanmar — They paddle for hours on the stormy river, or carry their sick parents on their backs through the mud and rain, traveling for miles to reach the one source of help they can rely on: Buddhist monks. At a makeshift clinic in this village near Bogale, an Irrawaddy Delta town 75 miles southwest of Yangon, hundreds of villagers left destitute by Cyclone Nargis arrive each day seeking the assistance they have not received from the government or international aid workers. Since the cyclone, the Burmese have been growing even closer to the monks while their alienation from the junta grows. This development bodes ill for the government, which brutally cracked down on thousands of monks who took to the streets last September appealing to the ruling generals to improve conditions for the people. The May 3 cyclone left more than 134,000 dead or missing and 2.4 million survivors grappling with hunger and homelessness. This week, some of them who had taken shelter at monasteries or gathered on roadsides were being displaced again, this time by the junta, which wants them to stop being an embarrassment to the government and return to their villages “for reconstruction.” On Friday, United Nations officials said that refugees were also being evicted from government-run camps. The survivors have little left of their homes and find themselves almost as exposed to the elements as their mud-coated water buffaloes. Meanwhile, outside aid is slow to arrive, with foreign aid agencies gaining only incremental access to the hard-hit Irrawaddy Delta and the government impounding cars of some private Burmese donors. In a scene the ruling generals are unlikely to see played out for themselves, a convoy of trucks carrying relief supplies, led by Buddhist monks, passed through storm-devastated villages in the delta this week. Hungry children and homeless mothers bowed in supplication and respect. “When I see those people, I want to cry,” said Sitagu Sayadaw, 71, one of Myanmar’s most respected senior monks. Village after storm-hit village, it is clear who has won people’s hearts. Monks were among those who died in the storm. Now, others console the survivors while sharing their muddy squalor. With tears welling in her eyes, Thi Dar, 45, pressed her hands together in respect before the first monk she saw at the clinic here and told her story. The eight other members of her family were killed in the cyclone. She no longer had anyone to talk with and felt suicidal. The other day, word reached her village that a monk had opened a clinic six miles upriver. So on Thursday, she got up early and caught the first boat. “In my entire life, I have never seen a hospital,” she said. “So I came to the monk. I don’t know where the government office is. I can’t buy anything in the market because I lost everything to the cyclone.” Nay Lin, 36, a volunteer doctor at the clinic, one of the six emergency clinic shelters Sitagu Sayadaw has opened in the delta, said: “Our patients suffer from infected wounds, abdominal pains and vomiting. They also need counseling for mental trauma, anxiety and depression.” While the government has been criticized for obstructing the relief effort, the Buddhist monastery, the traditional center of moral authority in most villages here, proved to be the one institution people could rely on for help. The monasteries in the delta that are still standing have been clogged with refugees. People who could help went there with donations or as volunteers. Monasteries that served as religious centers, orphanages and homes for the elderly have also become shelters for the homeless. The interdependence between monks and laypeople is age-old. Monks receive alms from the laity and offer spiritual comfort in return. In villages without government schools, a monastic education is often the only option. “The monks’ role is more important than ever,” said Ar Sein Na, 46, a monk in the delta village of That Kyar. “In a time of immense suffering like this, people have nowhere to go except to monks.” Kyi Than, 38, said she traveled 15 miles by boat to Sitagu Sayadaw’s camp. “Our village monk died during the storm,” she said. “Monks are like parents to us. The government wants us to shut up, but monks listen to us.” Faced with the deadliest cyclone to hit Asia in 38 years, senior monks have organized their own relief campaigns. Every day, their convoys head down delta roads. A leading figure in these efforts is Sitagu Sayadaw, whose name invariably draws a thumbs-up sign here. “Meditation cannot remove this disaster,” he said. “Material support is very important now. Now in our country, spiritual and material support are unbalanced.” Trucks of rice, beans, onions, clothes, tarpaulins and cooking utensils, donated from all over Myanmar, pulled into his International Buddhist Missionary Center in Yangon from early morning on. Each day, shortly after dawn, a convoy of trucks or a barge on the Yangon River departs for the delta, loaded with relief supplies and volunteers. Sitagu Sayadaw sat on a wooden bench in his field headquarters as people lined up to pay their respects. Villagers came to present lists of their most urgent needs. Monks from outlying villages came asking for help to repair their temples. Wealthy families from towns knelt before him and donated bundles of cash. However, like other senior monks here, he must strike a careful balance. He has the moral duty to speak out on behalf of his suffering people, but in order to protect his social programs and hospitals, which provide free medical care to the destitute, he must try not to anger the government, which views such private undertakings as a reproof. Nonetheless, speaking at his shelter as an afternoon monsoon rain drummed against the roof, Sitagu Sayadaw sounded frustrated with the government. “In my country, I cannot see a real political leader,” he said. “Gen. Than Shwe’s ‘Burmese way to democracy?’ ” he said, referring to the junta’s top leader. “What is it?” He defended the monks’ uprising last September, saying the government’s failure to provide “material stability” for the people undermined the monks’ ability to provide “spiritual stability.” Among monks interviewed in the delta and Yangon, there was no sign of imminent protests. Still, a 40-year-old monk at Sitagu Sayadaw’s camp who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of official retribution said that “monks are very angry” about the government’s recent move to evict refugees from monasteries, roadside huts and other temporary shelters, even while the state-run media are filled with stories of government relief efforts. “The government doesn’t want to show the truth.” A young monk in the Chaukhtatgyi Paya monastery district in Yangon predicted trouble ahead. “You will see it again because everyone is angry and everyone is jobless,” said the monk, who said he joined the September “saffron revolution” and had a large gash over his right eye from a soldier’s beating to show for it. A monk from Mon State in southern Myanmar, who was visiting the delta to assess the damage and arrange an aid shipment, said, “For the government, these people are no more than dead animals in the fields.” The simmering confrontation between the pillars of Myanmar life was evident at the village level after the cyclone. Shortly after the storm, a monk in Myo Thit, a village 20 miles from Yangon, walked around with a loudspeaker inviting victims to his monastery and asking people to donate. The monk had to stop, villagers said, after a township leader affiliated with the government threatened to confiscate the loudspeaker.

Myanmar
Cyclones
Monks
Politics and Government
Foreign Aid
Medicine and Health
Homeless Persons
International Relations


Leader of the Other ‘United States’ Urges Changing Mexico’s Name

Abstract: MEXICO CITY — With just over a week left in office, the president of Mexico has offered perhaps the boldest proposal of his six-year tenure. He wants Mexico to just be “Mexico.” The formal name of the country is Estados Unidos Mexicanos, often translated as “United Mexican States” or “United States of Mexico.” It is the “Estados Unidos” that nags at President Felipe de Jesús Calderón Hinojosa (called just “Lipe” by some) and he wants it out, once and for all. It happens to be the Spanish name of the big neighbor up north, and that is no accident. Mexico was christened with the longer formal name in the early 19th century after independence from Spain, inspired by the democratic example next door. Other names considered at the time, noted Mr. Calderón, a fan of history, were Mexican Empire and Republic of Mexico. (“México” is derived from the Nahuatl word for the region.) Now it is time, he said, for Mexico to step out of the shadow of the United States, at least in name. “Mexico does not need a name that emulates another country and that none of us Mexicans use every day,” he said Thursday at a morning announcement at the presidential residence. “Mexico is the name that corresponds to the essence of our nation. Pardon the expression, but the name of Mexico is Mexico.” Making it so, however, will take a constitutional change. With Mr. Calderón leaving office on Dec. 1, the prospects seemed uncertain; his office did not respond to questions on why he proposed the shift only now. Associates have said he is looking for work in the United States after he leaves office, but Mr. Calderón is not known to particularly love the country and never shies from using it as a political whipping boy. He chose to make his announcement as the United States of America celebrated Thanksgiving Day. Still, it is not an entirely new idea. Such a name change has been proposed occasionally in the past but without getting very far. “With so many real problems in this country, I don’t think that it matters,” said Enrique Krauze, a leading historian and political analyst. “No one ever calls Mexico anything other than Mexico.” Opposition lawmakers, too, shrugged at the idea, with some viewing it as the early onset of Mr. Calderón’s post-presidency blues. “He is not prepared to leave power,” said Iris Vianey Mendoza, a senator with the leftist Party of the Democratic Revolution. “The problem is not that our name emulates that of the American government but that we don’t fight our subordinate relationship to it.” Mr. Calderón’s proposal likewise got a mixed reaction of derision, acceptance and some practical questions on social media. One user on Twitter, Ángel Quintanilla, did the math in heavily bureaucratic Mexico and wrote , “I don’t think @FelipeCalderón even considered the cost and hassle that changing every law and official document entails.”

Mexico
Names Geographical
Calderon Felipe


Community Gardens Imperiled by New York’s Affordable Housing Plans

Abstract: Apart from a colorful hand-painted sign, there is little to suggest that the Mandela Community Garden in Harlem, a lot piled with pieces of pavement and bounded by graffitied walls and a chain-link fence, is a garden at all. The volunteers who pulled up the concrete had made plans for the spring, however: to pepper the dirt with wildflower seeds, make sculptures from the rubble and turn the lot into a verdant little oasis. But those plans were dashed when the volunteers recently learned that their patch of earth was one of more than a dozen community gardens that the city said would be razed to make way for the construction of affordable housing, part of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s expansive plan to address the city’s housing shortfall. Roger That, a community garden in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, faces a different opponent: private development. People who tend that garden, which sprouted where an abandoned hardware store once moldered, have spent the last year in court, fighting eviction in between tending strawberries and garlic. Mandela and Roger That are part of a growing list of community gardens whose futures have been imperiled by New York City’s booming real estate market, where every square foot of land could potentially be developed. As the amount of available land decreases and real estate prices continue to climb, some gardens have been targeted by the city, while others are being eyed by developers. Urban enclaves filled with plants like leafy callaloo, calabash and maize, community gardens are often deceptively bucolic: The green patches, frequently the sites of barbecues, chicken coops and compost piles, have become a new front in the real estate wars. “We take every piece of land that the city has control over as a very precious resource,” said Vicki Been, the commissioner of the Department of Housing Preservation and Development, the city agency that controls many of the lots where community gardens sit; it determined the 14 plots, including the Mandela Community Garden, that would be demolished and built upon. “We are trying to make sure that the land that we have is devoted to the very best purposes. In some cases that may be open space, parks — and in some cases it’s affordable housing development.” Image Mandela Community Garden in Harlem. Credit Ángel Franco/The New York Times Urban gardens exist in different forms. Some, like those being repurposed by the de Blasio administration, are on city-owned property. Others are run by nonprofits, and still others simply grew in the interstitial space between buildings on abandoned land. The city lists more than 600 community gardens that are part of the GreenThumb program, which is administered by the Department of Parks and Recreation. About 1,200 lots in the city are used as community gardens, according to information compiled by 596 Acres, an advocacy group for community land access. “Community gardens are the most vulnerable spaces in the city,” said Paula Z. Segal, a lawyer and a co-founder of 596 Acres who frequently represents gardens fighting developers. “If you are a developer and looking for the opportunity to evict 16 families from their homes, or evict 16 community gardeners from where they grow their food, which would you choose? If you’re looking for the easy pickings, a garden is easier to evict.” Today’s real estate climate has made purchasing land prohibitively expensive, Ms. Been said, forcing the city to dip into the dwindling stores of land that it owns. The city considered more than 180 gardens and vacant lots for development as part of Mr. de Blasio’s initiative to create or preserve 200,000 units of affordable housing. Under the city’s plan, developers would get land for a nominal fee — $1 for a tract, in some cases — on the condition that they build housing that would be affordable to some of the poorest New Yorkers. But many of the lots targeted were far from vacant, some of them set with fruit trees or sowed with flowers. The city’s plan provoked a backlash, with some gardeners picketing City Hall, holding placards that they would later recycle for rabbit fencing. At the Mandela Community Garden, René Calvo, who started the garden, has vowed to pursue his plans to plant wildflowers, even though the lot has been reclaimed by the city. “We’re willing to give up the property, but I don’t think we should do it unquestioningly,” said Mr. Calvo, 57, a musician who owns a small hotel in Harlem. “We are going to be singing on the deck of the Titanic as it goes down.” Though some may seem to be neighborhood institutions, community gardens on city-owned land were never assured permanence. From the beginning, they were mostly meant as placeholders: Gardeners generally contract with the city as stewards, not owners, of the blighted lots, an arrangement codified in the late 1970s as a way to reduce barren spaces in a city grappling with a host of problems. The city has targeted community gardens before. In the late 1990s, Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani planned to sell off hundreds of gardens to developers. The ensuing outcry, which included gardeners chaining themselves to fences to block bulldozers, was eventually defused when Mr. Giuliani’s successor, Michael R. Bloomberg, helped broker a deal that permanently preserved 400 gardens, while reserving 150 as potential building sites. This time, the city spared most of the gardens on its property rolls, including 34 that have been made permanent and transferred to the parks department. The people who tend the 14 community gardens that the city plans to develop will in most cases join an existing garden nearby or set up a new one on an empty plot of land. “One of the things that makes this so difficult as a public policy issue is that you have these two very urgent public policy priorities to be addressed,” Wiley Norvell, a spokesman for Mr. de Blasio, said, referring to housing and open space. “We worked hard to do right by both.” Image About 1,200 lots in the city are used as community gardens. This one, in East Harlem, is one of the more than 600 that participate in a city parks department program called GreenThumb. Credit Hiroko Masuike/The New York Times Yet for many gardeners — particularly those being displaced from an existing garden — the situation is still fraught, even though many also support the mayor’s housing initiative. Renée Peperone, 44, spent several months waiting to hear the fate of EL Garden, a woodchip-strewn patch in Bushwick, Brooklyn, where hawks sometimes land. Housing for people of modest means would seem critical in the neighborhood, where about one-third of households were considered “severely rent-burdened,” according to a 2013 study by the Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy at New York University. “It sounds like this ridiculous sob story, especially when they frame it against housing,” Ms. Peperone, a filmmaker, said. “Yeah, you can uproot things, yeah, you can replant. But it is not taken lightly by any of the gardeners.” She recently found out that EL Garden will not be developed. But boom times mean that community gardens will remain in the cross hairs. Ms. Segal, of 596 Acres, keeps a roster of threatened gardens. And this week, gardeners of the Elizabeth Street Garden in SoHo found out the city’s timeline for when their garden will be turned into housing. In a garden in Prospect-Lefferts Gardens, Brooklyn, gardeners have questioned the validity of the property deed obtained by the new owners of the land. At a garden in Bushwick, gardeners say board members of the nonprofit that owns the land may have improperly sold it. At the Roger That garden in Crown Heights, gardeners have challenged multiple eviction orders, saying they believe the sale of their parcel was also improper. The sense among many gardeners is that “at any moment, anything could happen,” said Aresh Javadi, executive director of More Gardens, an advocacy group for community gardens, and a member of the board of the New York City Community Garden Coalition. Mr. Javadi said he believed that gardens must be fought for, whether it is a private developer or the city that wants the land. According to Mr. Javadi, many people simply accept that the city can take the space away. “That to me is a fallacy,” he said, “because we, the people who are growing the gardens, are the city.”

Department of Housing Preservation and Development NYC


Atlético Praised at Camp Nou as Deserving Titlist

Abstract: Atlético Madrid is the new champion of Spain and demonstrated its merit by winning the league title on the home turf of Barcelona, the outstanding team in the world over the past decade. Something more profound followed at the Camp Nou. There were 96,000 Barça supporters and officially only a few hundred from Madrid inside the stadium. At the final whistle, it seemed that every person there applauded the team from Madrid. O.K., it wasn’t Real Madrid, and people who know their history would not have expected Catalans to be so magnanimous if it were. But you have to question where else in the world, in this winner-takes-all age, would so many have been so generous in acknowledging the team that took their crown. “They deserved to be champions,” Barcelona’s Andrés Iniesta said while the Atlético players were still dancing on his terrain. “We took the lead, but their goal from a set piece hurt us. This season is over. Many things have come to an end, and now we must move forward.” Iniesta said a lot in a few words. The domestic season is indeed over, but Atlético has barely a few days to patch up the wounded and move on to Saturday’s little matter of contesting the Champions League final when it takes on its neighbor, Real Madrid, in Lisbon. And after that, virtually every man from these three Spanish teams who is fit enough to travel will head to Brazil for the World Cup. No rest for the gifted. No respite, especially for Spain, a world champion whose bid to repeat might now be hampered because the success of its domestic teams means its players will have less time to prepare and recuperate for Brazil. The tumultuous end to La Liga could not have been more demanding or more dramatic. A season of 38 games per team spread over nine months came down in the end to one match to decide the champion on Saturday. All Barça had to do was win. All Atlético needed was to avoid defeat. And all the expectations that the rigors of the long season would catch up with Madrid’s second club — in terms of wealth and resources — almost seemed to come true in the opening 20 minutes. First, Diego Costa, Atlético’s remarkable amalgam of talent and tenacity, pulled up in agony and in tears. Starting with almost his first sprint, Costa’s troublesome strained hamstring gave him such pain that he had to be replaced. Not many minutes after that, Arda Turan, the guileful Turk who also has suffered injuries of late, fell awkwardly after a challenge from Cesc Fàbregas. Turan, too, was taken out of the game. At that point, even Diego Simeone, the coach who has imbued this Atlético side with his own never-say-die spirit, was standing on the sideline, shaking his head. We have seldom, if ever, seen Simeone so pensive or so still. And when Barcelona scored after 32 minutes, it did seem as if the gods were against Atlético. A pass from Fàbregas picked out Lionel Messi in the penalty box. Messi, so very quiet in such an important game, used his chest to divert the ball down to the feet of Alexis Sánchez. In the blink of an eye, Sánchez let rip. He struck the ball instinctively with fearsome power and from an acute angle. It beat Thibaut Courtois, the most impressive goalkeeper in La Liga this season, at his near post. Though depleted, Atlético would not be defeated. In the dressing room at halftime, the coach and his senior players agreed that calmness was the key. Their chance would come if they stayed together. Simeone had learned much of his managerial approach from Luis Aragonés, the coach who put defiance into both Atlético and the Spanish national team when he coached them. “Luis Aragonés,” Simeone said on television after the comeback, “probably defended with us in the box during the second half.” Both teams, in fact, had lost coaching mentors this season. Aragonés died in February, and Barcelona is still coming to terms with the loss of its coach, Tito Vilanova, who won the title last season but died of cancer in April. That reference to Aragonés defending Atlético’s box would all have been to no avail had it not been for what happened just minutes into the second half. Barcelona’s known weakness to set pieces — a weakness particularly in the air — was exposed when Diego Godín was given far too much room and too much time in the penalty area. He rose head and shoulders above anyone else and hit the ball with his head like a hammer, drawing Atlético even. Now it was all about defense and desire. Barcelona had strangely left out its playmaker, Xavi Hernández, from the starting lineup for the decisive game of the season, but then brought him in during the final 15 minutes. Messi, who was acting subdued as he so often has been for long spells this season, woke up and tried some of his amazing runs. Messi, in fact, had the ball in the net after 64 minutes, but was clearly offside. Atlético would not yield. It played within the rules of the game, and it suffocated Barcelona on Barça’s own turf and in front of Barça’s overwhelmingly partisan audience. This had been the sixth meeting of the season between the teams, and not once could Barça come out a winner. Tata Martino, the Argentine coach who had been parachuted in to take over at the start of the campaign when Vilanova’s illness returned, fell on his sword after Saturday’s result. “I would like to thank the club for putting their confidence in me,” Martino said in front of the media. “And I am sorry that I was unable to deliver.” He, and Barça, finished second. Real Madrid finished third. Atlético mastered the two big powers of not just Spanish, but global, soccer. “We’ve fought all year long,” Godín concluded, speaking to TV while still on the field. “We’ve done an incredible job standing 38 rounds against such teams as Madrid and Barça, and in the end we’ve reaped our rewards.” The champion, Atlético.

Soccer
Atletico Madrid Soccer Team
Barcelona Soccer Team


Somalia: Pirates Hijack Oil Tanker

Abstract: Somali pirates have hijacked a Greek-owned oil tanker carrying close to a million barrels of crude oil in the Arabian Sea, the first successful attack on an oil tanker off the Horn of Africa in more than a year. The vessel was diverted toward Somalia ’s coastline, a pirate who identified himself as Ahmed said. The vessel’s manager, Dynacom Tankers Management, said it had lost contact with the crew of the tanker after the attack off Oman on Thursday. The London-based International Maritime Bureau said that the attack involved 10 pirates in two skiffs armed with automatic weapons and that they managed to board the ship on a second attempt after their first attack was thwarted.


Suit Accuses Coach of Sexual Misconduct and USA Swimming of Negligence

Abstract: A 21-year-old former competitive swimmer filed a civil suit Monday in Independence, Mo., against USA Swimming and her swim club, claiming they were negligent in protecting her and others from sexual abuse by a coach. Despite her complaints about his conduct, the suit said, the coach was able to move to a club in a different state. According to the complaint, filed in Jackson County, Mo., Circuit Court, USA Swimming’s executive director, Chuck Wielgus, was told of the alleged abuse and took no action, even though coaches in the organization are held to a “code of conduct” that prohibits any sexual contact between coaches and their athletes. Over the past 10 years, USA Swimming says it has had 36,402 affiliated coaches and expelled 36 for life for sexual misconduct. The so-called black list of barred coaches is not publicly available, but local swimming committee officials in charge of registering new coaches do have access to the list, said Jamie Fabos Olsen, a USA Swimming official. Before the filing, Wielgus said in a telephone interview that USA Swimming was a defendant in two other continuing lawsuits involving sexual misconduct. The swimmer, who is from Kansas and was identified in the filing by her initials, L.A.S., is suing her former Kansas City Dolphins team coach, Rob Mirande, for inappropriate sexual conduct that she said began in the summer of 2006 and continued through the winter of 2007. The suit claims Mirande, 43, took deliberate actions to befriend the swimmer and establish an emotional connection with her away from the pool through telephone conversations and text messages of a sexual nature. The suit describes the behavior as “sexual grooming.” According to the suit, Mirande urged the swimmer to meet him at his residence alone, provided her with alcohol and engaged in inappropriate sexual contact after her 18th birthday, and said his sexual misconduct continued when she left the state for college in the fall of 2007. After she left, the suit contends that Mirande began to similarly groom another swimmer, who was a year younger. In an e-mail message Monday, Mirande wrote, “I vigorously deny any sexual relations with the young woman.” Also named as a defendant is Aaron Dean, a former Dolphins general manager and head coach who was Mirande’s supervisor. The suit claims that during the spring of 2008, the swimmer told Dean in detail about Mirande’s inappropriate sexual contact with her. Mirande and Dean left the team that year, within six months of each other. Dean relocated to Occoquan Swimming in Virginia, where, in July 2009, according to the suit, he rehired Mirande to coach there. “At this time, I have no comment,” Dean said in response to an e-mail message for comment. “I look forward to the court system working this out rather than through the media.” The suit contends that the plaintiff’s mother contacted Wielgus in the fall of 2008 and described in detail the sexual misconduct by Mirande in several phone conversations that she followed with e-mail messages. According to the suit, Wielgus said he could not or would not investigate the incident unless a complaint was filed by the alleged victim or a member coach. Asked before Monday’s lawsuit was filed if USA Swimming had received an official complaint about Mirande, Wielgus said, “The easy answer is no.” He added that the plaintiff’s mother sent him a series of e-mail messages about the alleged sexual misconduct. “We didn’t recognize that as an official complaint,” he said. “And yet we initiated an investigation anyway. That’s the important point here.” Olsen said Monday that the organization began investigating the complaint made by the plaintiff’s mother in February. USA Swimming responded to the lawsuit by releasing a statement Monday: “We have been investigating this matter for the last three months. Unfortunately, we have been unable to obtain critical information from the individual bringing forward the complaint, although other individuals with whom our investigator has spoken have been quite helpful. Because we take allegations of coach misconduct very seriously, we have notified local law-enforcement authorities.” According to the suit, since 2004 the organization’s code of conduct has included a provision prohibiting sexual contact or advances directed toward an athlete by a coach, official, trainer or other person who, in the context of swimming, is in a position of authority over that athlete. Those found in violation of the code can be denied membership, censured, placed on probation, fined or expelled from the organization, but the suit contends that the policy has never been truly enacted or enforced and has not resulted in zero tolerance for sexual abuse and harassment in the sport.

Swimming
Sexual Harassment
Suits and Litigation
USA Swimming


G.M. Plans to Decide Saab’s Fate Next Week

Abstract: DETROIT — General Motors said it could decide next week to close its Saab Automobile unit after the Swedish company that planned to buy the brand backed out. It was the third time in less than two months that a sale of a G.M. brand has been called off, reflecting the difficulty of selling underperforming divisions in the midst of a global sales slump. G.M. said on Tuesday that its board planned to determine next week what to do with Saab. Closing the brand, as G.M. initially planned to do if it could not find a buyer, is a strong possibility, two people with direct knowledge of the company’s plans said. The people spoke on condition of anonymity because the board had not made its decision. The other options for G.M. are to seek another buyer or keep Saab, though both those steps are considered less likely. When Penske Automotive terminated its deal to buy Saturn in September, G.M. immediately announced that the brand and its dealerships would close. Koenigsegg, which agreed to buy Saab in June, issued a statement attributing its decision to G.M.’s moving too slowly. “The time factor has always been critical for our strategy to breathe new life into the company,” Koenigsegg said. “Unfortunately, delays in closing this acquisition have resulted in risks and uncertainties that prevent us from successfully implementing the new Saab business plan.” Officials at G.M, who were caught off-guard by the deal’s collapse, denied responsibility. “We negotiated in good faith and we met all our timing obligations under the agreement,” a G.M. spokeswoman, Renee Rashid-Merem, said. “We’re obviously very disappointed with the decision to pull out of the Saab purchase,” G.M.’s chief executive, Fritz Henderson, said in a statement. Three weeks ago, G.M. backed out of a deal to sell its European operations, Adam Opel, to a Canadian parts supplier and Russian bank. It has a tentative deal to sell Hummer to a Chinese industrial machinery manufacturer, but the Chinese government has not given its approval. Meanwhile, the Ford Motor Company spent nearly a year shopping around its Swedish brand, Volvo, before entering into exclusive talks with the Chinese carmaker Geely last month. John Casesa, an auto analyst with the firm Casesa Shapiro Group, said the collapse of the Saab and Saturn deals was more a symptom of the state of the automobile industry than of any missteps by G.M. “Saab is a weak brand in a market where there are no buyers,” Mr. Casesa said. “Car companies are in no mood to buy anything and financial sponsors aren’t able to buy anything. Saab wouldn’t be an easy sale in a good market.” Saab, which filed for bankruptcy protection in Sweden in February, has been a perennial money-loser and is among G.M.’s smallest brands, with sales of 93,000 vehicles worldwide last year. It is on pace to sell fewer than 10,000 vehicles in the United States this year. Closing Saab would cost G.M. considerably less than it is spending to shut down Saturn, analysts said, and failing to sell Saab is not expected to affect G.M.’s post-bankruptcy recovery. G.M. paid $600 million for half of Saab in 1990 and $125 million for the rest in 2000. Terms of the deal with Koenigsegg have not been revealed, but it was contingent on $600 million of financing from the European Investment Bank and Swedish government guarantees. Joran Hagglund, the Swedish secretary of state for industry, said on Tuesday that it was too early to know if it was the end of the line for Saab, but he said that there was no chance of the government stepping in.

Saab Automobile AB
General Motors
Mergers Acquisitions and Divestitures
Automobiles


Hi-Fi at Low Cost on a Converted Computer

Abstract: Back when my music was on vinyl or CD, I had a stereo in the living room where my music-loving friends would gather to listen, chat and argue. But now that I, like most of the world, buy digital downloads, my music resides on my main computer. So when my friends come by, we end up awkwardly crowded around the computer in my office, clicking on songs. This is not gracious entertaining. I considered linking my computer to the stereo, but most digital music is in a format like MP3, which removes some musical information to save space. The computer rebuilds the music when you play it back by making a best guess of what it should sound like. These files are fine for the car or gym, but on a good system the flaws of audio compression are easy to hear and annoying. The answer was a music server, a special computer built to store and play high-fidelity music. The problem is that they are costly — the better ones start at around $1,000 — and I am cheap. But then I realized that a music server is just a hard drive and processor. Why not use an old computer to build a low-cost, high-fidelity music server? I started with an old Mac laptop I was sentimentally attached to despite its age, its slowness, its meager 80-gigabyte hard drive and a case that was irreparably dented on a motorcycle trip. First task: Clear anything not needed for music from the hard drive. Most of it — 65 GB of the available 75 GB — was full. What could I toss? The disk turned out to be full of mystery programs. Shawn Stringfield of Premier Mac, a repair service near Baltimore, supervised my cleanup, although he said “in most cases the system won’t let you trash what it needs.” In fact, it often wouldn’t let me trash things I didn’t need. I could throw away a program and miss all kinds of ancillary files that might wreak havoc later. Mr. Stringfield recommended AppCleaner, a program that found files associated with anything I put in the trash and then removed them, too. For instance, when I threw away the 900-megabyte GarageBand folder, AppCleaner found another 2.4 gigabytes of files to go with it. With a little digging, a total of 44 gigabytes were cleared. To get more room, I considered adding an external hard drive to the machine. At less than $100 a terabyte — a terabyte, by the way, is more than a thousand gigabytes — such a drive would be affordable, but it could wait until I filled the disk I had. Now I had to address the problem of fidelity. Music servers have processors dedicated to making music sound good. Computers have processors built to handle not just music but video, documents and pictures. To keep the computer prices down, compromises are made. But I could add an “off board processor,” known as a DAC, for Digital-to-Analog Converter, made especially to handle music. They generally cost several hundred or thousands of dollars, but there are exceptions. I tried two, the High Resolution Technologies Music Streamer II for $150 and the NuForce uDAC-2 for $130. My plan was to copy my CDs in a high-fidelity, “lossless” format, which meant the music should sound as good as when played as a CD, but would take up less disk space. There was another wrinkle though. Online music purchases are generally not compressed in the lossless format, but in a lower-fidelity format, like MP3s or MP4s. You can find music in the lossless format online, from places like HDtracks and Rhino, but the tracks are more expensive and selection is limited. So considering the cost, I decided to not put my online purchases on the server yet, but to start with the 500 or so CDs I already owned. Problems started when I ripped my first CDs. I had been a little too eager in clearing my hard drive and had trashed the Safari Web browser, which I needed to download the artwork to my CDs. Oops. Reinstall. With Safari fixed and some music loaded, I was ready to wire the computer to the DAC processor and the DAC processor to the stereo. With anticipation I hit Play, and ... silence. Panic. Had I thrown away more critical software? Maybe the dented computer was broken in a way I hadn’t spotted. I called High Resolution Technology’s chief executive, Michael Hobson. As soon as he said “preference settings,” I felt like an idiot. Don’t forget to reset the “Output Device” preference to your DAC. I held my breath and pressed the button again. Voilà! Music! Before I became too ecstatic, I did a comparison listening test. My goal wasn’t just to have the server sound as good as a CD; I wanted it to sound better. I set it up so that I could compare the sound straight from the computer, from each of the two DACs and from a CD. There was no question that the DACs sounded richer and more detailed than music straight from the computer. But up against the CD player, it was a tougher call. Both DACs improved complex music, like symphonies and progressive rock. Background instruments and vocals were more discernible, acoustic instruments had more resonance. But when it came to fist-pumping rock standards like Free’s “All Right Now,” the CDs sounded more lively. After listening through a DAC for a few days, though, bass on the CD sounded a bit sloppy, so it is a matter of taste. As to which DAC was better, both the H.R.T. Music Streamer and the NuForce uDAC-2 improved a wide range of music. The Music Streamer was more pleasing on symphonic music, but whether you like it for rock depends on how controlled you like your bass. The uDAC-2 was set apart by its compact size — less than half that for the H.R.T. — and it has a headphone jack with a volume control, for listening to your laptop on the road. As a final touch to the system, I added an app called Remote to my iPhone . Now I can see every song on my server and control it from my phone. I can play D.J. from anywhere within Wi-Fi range — even the outside deck. No more awkward listening parties around the office desk. Debates about music can be held where they belong, over drinks in cushy chairs.


Obama Proposes Deal Over Taxes and Jobs

Abstract: CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. — President Obama came to a cavernous Amazon distribution center here Tuesday and backed a cut in corporate tax rates in return for a pledge from Republicans to invest in more programs to generate middle-class jobs. The proposal, an effort to break a stalemate with Republicans over budget policy, comes as Mr. Obama and his Congressional opposition are headed toward a showdown in the fall over taxes and spending. With a sea of cardboard boxes serving as a backdrop, Mr. Obama described a “grand bargain” for the middle class that he said would stimulate the economy while giving businesses the lower tax rates they have long sought. “If folks in Washington really want a ‘grand bargain,’ how about a grand bargain for middle-class jobs?” Mr. Obama told a crowd of 2,000. “If we’re going to give businesses a better deal,” he added, “we’re going to give workers a better deal, too.” It was the president’s first concrete proposal in an economic offensive that he inaugurated last week in Illinois to set his terms for coming budget battles with the Republican-controlled House. But only the packaging was new. The president essentially cobbled together two existing initiatives that have been stalled in Congress: corporate tax changes and his plan to create jobs through education, training, and public works projects. Mr. Obama outlined the terms of his tax plan in early 2012 during the presidential election, when he said the corporate tax rate would be reduced to 28 percent, from 35 percent, with a lower rate of 25 percent for manufacturing firms. While the president presented the proposal as a concession, Republicans dismissed it more acidly than usual. “It’s the opposite of a concession,” said Brendan Buck, a spokesman for Speaker John A. Boehner of Ohio. In the Republicans’ view, Mr. Obama’s offer was less of a “grand bargain” than an effort to extract a new fiscal stimulus program with money from a corporate tax cut that would end up, for accounting reasons, initially generating billions of dollars of revenue for the government. Image President Obama continued his series of speeches about helping the middle class at an Amazon facility in Chattanooga, Tenn., on Tuesday. Credit Stephen Crowley/The New York Times Administration officials said that the proposal, like past tax overhauls, would raise additional revenue on a one-time basis that could offset new spending. That money, the officials said, could be used to finance the investment in jobs. The revenue would result from the transition to a revised code — for example, as companies paid a one-time fee on profits they earned overseas but did not bring home because they did not make them subject to American tax rates. For two years, Republicans have rejected most of Mr. Obama’s initiatives to create jobs, in part because, to avoid increasing the budget deficit, he has paired those ideas with proposals to repeal or reduce tax breaks for wealthy individuals and corporations, especially oil companies. By presenting the tax-rate cut as a stand-alone proposal, the White House hoped to make it more appealing to Republicans — or, failing that, to depict them as obstructionists. Both Republicans and the administration have said that an overhaul of the corporate code should be “revenue neutral,” meaning it does not add to or subtract from the annual budget deficit. The White House and Republicans also clashed over Mr. Obama’s contention that he was making a concession by calling for an overhaul of the corporate tax code separate from one for individual taxes. In truth, analysts said, both the White House and Republicans have been increasingly open to separating the two, although neither likes to advertise it. In February 2012, Timothy F. Geithner, then the Treasury secretary, said the administration’s plan was devised so that the corporate tax code could be overhauled separately. Even the White House’s rollout of Mr. Obama’s proposal in Chattanooga became an excuse for finger-pointing. White House officials said they briefed Democratic and Republican lawmakers on Monday evening and tried to reach out to Mr. Boehner’s aides. But Mr. Buck said the Republican leadership learned of the initiative from the news media. The choice of Amazon was meant to illustrate Mr. Obama’s theme of a job revival in America. The company recently announced plans to hire 5,000 more workers at 17 fulfillment centers, where it packs and ships customer orders. But the White House came under fire because many Amazon jobs pay only $11 an hour, and the pace of the work in these warehouses has been described as exhausting. On his tour of the plant, Mr. Obama stopped at stations where workers were sorting and packing bottles of Metamucil and bags of pistachio nuts. “I’ve got a bunch of orders in there,” the president said, gesturing to a bin filled with boxes. Mr. Obama’s appearance here also raised the hackles of independent booksellers, who blame Amazon, with its deep discounting and massive selection, for putting bookstores out of business. “We are disheartened to see Amazon touted as a ‘jobs creator’ and its warehouse facility used as a backdrop for an important jobs speech, when, frankly, the exact opposite is true,” the American Booksellers Association said in a letter to Mr. Obama.

Barack Obama
Corporate tax
Jobs
Amazon
Federal Budget


Mets Hope an Aging Ace Can Still Provide a Lift

Abstract: PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — Early in the summer of 2002, Omar Minaya, the general manager of the Montreal Expos, made what he thought was an easy trade. After five consecutive losing seasons, the Expos, behind Vladimir Guerrero and Jose Vidro, were surprise contenders, in need of a boost. This was perhaps their last hurrah. As part of a six-player deal, Minaya sent Brandon Phillips, Cliff Lee and Grady Sizemore — all top prospects — to the Cleveland Indians for Bartolo Colon. That season, Colon was one of the best pitchers in baseball. In 17 starts, he compiled 10 wins, 4 complete games and a 3.31 earned run average, but the Expos fell out of the playoff race, finishing 83-79. Still, Minaya would make the same trade again. “Of course,” he said in a phone interview, “no doubt about it.” Colon energized the clubhouse, the whole ballpark, Minaya said. There was a buzz around the city. Years later, the Mets hope Colon will have a similar effect. After five consecutive losing seasons of their own, they signed him to a two-year, $20 million contract this off-season. They would like him to replace Matt Harvey, their young ace, who will very likely miss the season after having Tommy John elbow surgery. They hope that Colon, 40, can locate his fastball and mentor their young pitchers. On Saturday, Colon sat in a dugout in the Mets’ minor league complex and met with reporters for the first time this spring. His biceps and his belly stretched the blue shirt he was wearing. He looked bigger than his listed weight of 265 pounds. “I’m happy to be here,” Colon said, smiling. When Minaya traded for him, Colon was 29. His fastball could still touch 98 miles per hour. Off the field, too, he came as advertised. Minaya found him to be quiet, funny once you got to know him and a great teammate, who did not complain and wanted to pitch in every big game. “There was just no drama,” Minaya said. “You knew he was going to take the ball.” Minaya does not seem surprised Colon is still pitching. He was always big, but he knew how to carry his weight. His delivery was easy and compact, and he relied on his lower half, driving off that tree trunk of a leg. “So as long as his legs are working, he’s going to be fine,” Minaya said. Colon’s fastball is his signature pitch. Minaya marveled at its late movement. Terry Collins, the Mets’ manager, noted how Colon can move it inside and out, up and down, seemingly put it wherever he wants. Because his fastball is so dynamic, it does not necessarily matter how hard he throws. With the Oakland Athletics last season, using that fastball, Colon won 18 games and posted a career-best 2.65 E.R.A., both ranking second in the American League. Some were suspicious of the performance. From 2006 to 2009, he had started just 47 games, and then he missed the 2010 season and his career seemed in jeopardy. While he was out, in April 2010, he had a procedure in the Dominican Republic that involved injecting his own fat and bone marrow cells into his elbow and shoulder. The doctor who oversaw the procedure, Joseph Purita, was known to use human growth hormone with other patients. He denied using H.G.H. with Colon. But in August 2012, Colon was suspended for 50 games for having an elevated level of testosterone. He later was named as part of the Biogenesis scandal. Through an interpreter, Colon said he was “a little surprised as well” by how well he pitched in 2013. He attributed his success to improved control and simply “keeping healthy and working hard.” Oakland had taken precautions to protect Colon. He rarely threw bullpen sessions between his starts. His pitch count was generally capped at about 100. Collins does not seem as concerned about Colon’s age or potential fatigue, even though he will turn 41 in May. He called Colon an “old pro” who knows how to prepare and take care of himself. But Collins acknowledged concern when Colon, with his doughy physique, has to bat, run the bases and maybe even slide. Other than with the Expos, Colon has not played in the National League. The Mets were the only team to offer Colon a two-year deal. He said that he was not concerned about his weight, and that he wanted to lead the pitching staff by example. Collins wants the younger pitchers to watch him work his fastball. Colon was asked, How much longer can he pitch? He said he would go until his body “can’t take it anymore.”


Obama Mocks Romney’s Tax-Cut Plan

Abstract: WINTER PARK, Fla. — President Obama on Thursday continued his swing-state offensive against Mitt Romney ’s tax-cut plans, deriding them as a boon to the rich at the expense of everyone else — “trickle-down tax-cut fairy dust,” he called them at a college here. As for everyone else, Mr. Obama stopped short of repeating a first-term promise: that households making less than $250,000 a year would not see their income taxes increase “by a single dime” for the next four years. On Friday, when the monthly unemployment report will come out, the president will meet at the White House with middle-income voters to press Republicans in Congress to extend the expiring Bush-era tax rates except on annual incomes above that threshold. In Florida, the president spoke at Rollins College, a small liberal arts campus here, to about 2,400 spirited supporters, before heading to another event in Northern Virginia. As he had at rallies the day before in a third battleground state, Ohio, Mr. Obama seized on an analysis of Mr. Romney’s $5 trillion tax cut proposal by the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center to argue that his rival’s plan would mean big reductions in income taxes for the wealthy and an increase for 95 percent of American taxpayers. “He’s asking you to pay more so that people like him can pay less,” Mr. Obama said. “So that people like me pay less.” While the tax study has emerged as a major component of the economic debate at the core of this year’s presidential campaign, Mr. Romney did not allude to the analysis to contest its conclusions as he campaigned in Colorado on Thursday. But in an interview with conservative Fox host Sean Hannity, Mr. Romney said “my plan is very similar to the Simpson-Bowles plan.” The Romney proposal, however, has little in common with that bipartisan deficit-reduction proposal from a majority on the fiscal commission that Mr. Obama created in 2010. The Simpson-Bowles plan called for reduced income tax rates, but it would have raised about $2 trillion more in tax revenues over 10 years, mostly from high-income taxpayers, and cut spending to reduce the federal debt. Separately, a senior Romney aide dismissed the Tax Policy Center study as “a joke,” and an economic adviser told reporters on a conference call that the analysis did not sufficiently account for the economic growth that Mr. Romney’s proposed 20 percent reduction in all income tax rates would prompt. Mr. Obama, egged on by his audience, mocked the Romney campaign’s response to the study. Citing Romney aides’ complaint that the Tax Policy Center, a joint operation of two centrist research organizations, the Brookings Institution and the Urban Institute, is a liberal entity, Mr. Obama noted “the fact that it’s headed by an economist who worked for George Bush.” “Then they said that the study failed to fully take into account the massive economic boom that would come from cutting taxes on the wealthiest Americans and the biggest corporations,” Mr. Obama said, adding, “because we all know how well that worked out the last time we tried it.” He continued: “They have tried to sell us this trickle-down tax-cut fairy dust before. And guess what? It didn’t work then. It will not work now. It’s not a plan to create jobs. It is not a plan to reduce the deficit. It is not a plan to build our middle class. It is not a plan to move our economy forward. It takes us back to a place we don’t need to be.” As he usually does, Mr. Obama said he had kept his promise from 2008 to cut taxes for the middle class, by an average of $3,600 a year for families. This time he added, “If you’re a family that makes under $250,000 a year, like 98 percent of American families do, you won’t see your income taxes increase by a single dime next year.” In 2012, the president has not yet explicitly repeated the 2008 promise for another four-year term. Many nonpartisan budget analysts have criticized Mr. Obama for that promise since he first made it four years ago, saying the vow would be impossible to keep and still bring the projected growth of the federal debt under control. But administration officials at the White House said Thursday that Mr. Obama in a second term would continue to work to ensure that tax rates would not increase for people with annual incomes below $250,000 (for couples) or $200,000 (for individuals). They said that Mr. Obama showed the way to do so in the plan he outlined last fall to reduce annual deficits by $4 trillion over 10 years through a combination of spending reductions and tax increases on the wealthy. The president has a six-point lead in Florida, according to a new poll of battleground states for Quinnipiac University/The New York Times/CBS News.

Obama Barack
Romney Mitt
Presidential Election of 2012
Federal Taxes (US)
United States Politics and Government
Florida
Taxation
Income Tax


Ways to Cut City Traffic? Well, Maybe

Abstract: You wouldn’t be able to hail a cab in Manhattan below 86th Street, where cabs would be allowed to pick up passengers only at taxi stands scattered throughout the area. You wouldn’t be able to drive in Manhattan on the 5th, the 15th or the 25th of every month if your license plate ends in a 5. And parking on the street would cost you as much as parking in a garage. These are some of the proposals under consideration by the state commission evaluating how best to combat traffic in Manhattan. The ideas may seem fanciful, futuristic or simply far-fetched. But who thought a few years ago that you wouldn’t be able to light up a cigarette in a bar? “Everything that is being looked at is being looked at seriously,” said Marc V. Shaw, chairman of the Traffic Congestion Mitigation Commission, at a meeting of the panel yesterday. “There are a lot of committed people on this issue that feel very strongly about it, and we’re taking all these things seriously.” Yesterday’s meeting included presentations on a series of possible alternatives or additions to Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg ’s congestion pricing proposal, which calls for charging drivers $8 a day to bring their cars into Manhattan below 86th Street. The mayor has championed the plan as a way to reduce traffic and raise money for public transportation. The commission was created by the State Legislature to come up with a plan by the end of next month on how best to achieve both those goals. Under the timetable set by lawmakers, the Legislature would take up the plan by the end of March. One proposal could be nearly as controversial as the mayor’s congestion pricing plan: the establishment of a No Hail Zone in the area below 86th Street. Under such a plan, yellow cabs could pick up people only at designated taxi stands. The stands, up to 1,200 of them, would be set up on each block in busy areas and every few blocks in other parts of the zone. Taxis account for close to a third of the traffic — or vehicle miles traveled each day — in the area, according to a research report prepared for the commission. It is hard, however, to predict what impact the change would have on traffic. While taxi drivers would spend less time cruising in search of fares, some might drive greater distances to get to the busiest taxi stands, said Bruce Schaller, deputy commissioner for planning and sustainability at the city’s Department of Transportation. And the attitudes of riders have to be taken into account, Mr. Schaller said. The image of an intrepid or even aggressive New Yorker, hand upraised and hollering for a cab to stop, is an iconic one for many people. Some riders might resist lining up in orderly queues, waiting their turns. “It wouldn’t be New York without it,” said Ricardo Barajas, 22, a law student. He saw the proposal as an encroachment on New Yorkers’ freedom to stand on street corners of their choosing with their hands in the air. “I don’t want to be restricted,” he said. But Judy Plasse, 34, an information technology manager, saw it differently as she stood in a light rain yesterday at Broadway and Grand Street. “It’s not a bad idea,” Ms. Plasse said, peering along both streets in the hope of spotting an empty taxi. “Because I can think of certain areas where it’s impossible to hail a cab.” As an alternative, Mr. Schaller said, a No Hail Zone could be tried on an experimental basis in a smaller area and for limited hours of the day. The commission’s report, however, pointed out that, unlike some other traffic reduction proposals under consideration, the No Hail Zones would not raise any money. They might actually cost the city more money, to set up taxi stands and to enforce the ban on street hails. Many of the ideas under consideration by the commission were suggested by members of the public or advocacy groups at hearings. Commission members have yet to say whether they would ultimately support them. The commission is also studying a proposal known as license plate rationing, under which cars would be barred from the area below 86th Street on certain days, depending on their license plate. One possibility would be to ban cars on the days of the month that end in the same digit as their license plates. That would mean that if a person’s plates end in a 5, for example, they could not drive on the 5th, the 15th or the 25th of each month. If the person’s plate ended in a 4, the vehicle would be banned on a different three days: the 4th, the 14th, and the 24th. In another version, license plates would come in five colors, with each color barred from the congestion zone one day a week. Similar schemes have been tried in some Latin American cities, the report said, but in many cases, people have found ways to get around the restrictions, such as by buying a second car with a different last digit on the plates. Nonetheless, rationing could have a significant effect on traffic. Over all, just excluding individual cars on three days each month could reduce total vehicle travel by more than three percent, according to the report. Using the color code scheme to keep each car out one day a week could bring a 6.2 percent reduction, almost the same as that expected for the mayor’s congestion pricing plan. One solution that could cut traffic and raise money involves increasing the cost of on-street parking. Currently, Mr. Schaller said, most metered parking spaces in Manhattan charge $1 or $1.50 an hour. If those rates were increased to up to $4 an hour, he said, parking on the street for eight hours would cost about the same as the daily rate at many garages. The higher rates would generate $17 million in fees, and traffic would be reduced about 0.5 percent, he said.

Manhattan (NYC)
congestion pricing
Taxicabs and Taxicab Drivers
Roads and Traffic
Department of Transportation
Bloomberg Michael R


Police Committee’s Agenda Rarely Concerns Crime

Abstract: Violence and crime do not lead the discussion among members of the City Council committee overseeing violence and crime. An analysis to be released Tuesday by the Chicago Justice Project, a nonprofit focused on increasing access to criminal justice data, shows that 40 percent of the 148 agenda items considered from 2006 through 2009 by the Council’s Committee on Police and Fire concerned the donation of old equipment, mostly police and fire vehicles, to communities in Iraq, Mexico and elsewhere. In contrast, just 1 percent had anything to do with crime or violence. Tracy Siska, the executive director of the Chicago Justice Project, said the committee should hold regular meetings to review police performance. The Chicago Police Department has gone through significant change and tumult over the last several years. In 2007 off-duty officers were videotaped beating people; amid the outrage that followed, Mayor Richard M. Daley pushed Police Superintendent Phil Cline into retirement and eventually picked a replacement, Jody Weis, who has been unpopular with rank and file officers as well as with the public. In addition, city budget problems have forced reductions in the police ranks that have increased the pressure on the remaining street-patrol officers. Yet none of these issues came up for discussion before the city’s legislative body charged with police oversight, which has instead devoted efforts to items like legislation imposing fines on the owners of dogs that bark too loud. During the period covered by the analysis, the committee was led by Alderman Isaac Carothers, a mayoral ally who quit in February after pleading guilty to federal charges of bribery and tax evasion. His successor, Anthony Beale, whom Mr. Daley tapped for the post in April, said he was working with the police and fire departments so that “routine items” like equipment donations could be handled outside the committee, leaving it more time for oversight.

Chicago (Ill)
Crime and Criminals
Police


Moldova: European Union Plans to Invest Millions

Abstract: The European Union said Thursday that it would finance projects worth about $68 million in Moldova, a former Soviet republic that is prepared to sign an association agreement with the European bloc amid protests from Moscow. José Manuel Barroso, the president of the European Commission, the bloc’s executive body, said the money would be invested in energy and rural development, and in overhauling the police force. Mr. Barroso urged Russia not to punish Moldova after it signs the trade agreement on June 27. Russia placed a trade ban on Moldovan wine and brandy in September in what was seen as a punishment for Moldova’s plans to sign the deal.


Lance Armstrong Draws Mixed Reception From Triathlon Community

Abstract: For the past year, Lance Armstrong has achieved a competitive second act in the triathlon, a sport he had not pursued since his teenage years. And while cycling was at the center of the extensive details released by the United States Anti-Doping Agency on Wednesday regarding its investigation of Armstrong, his relatively new athletic career also drew interest from the agency, and his ability to continue competing in triathlon events has been called into question. According to the investigation, Armstrong’s professional relationship with Dr. Michele Ferrari, who was a consulting physician to him and some of his cycling teammates and who received a lifetime ban from the agency in July, “continued even into preparation for Armstrong’s new career in triathlon.” As early as 2008, Armstrong was asking Ferrari’s son, Stefano, about competing in triathlon events. On Feb. 23 of that year, Armstrong e-mailed Stefano Ferarri, asking, “How hard would it be to win the ironman?” Two years later, the two exchanged notes about how to train, according to the agency’s evidence. “The first you’ll have to do once the Tour is over is recover a bit,” Ferrari wrote on July 25, 2010. “Then start working on refining your swimming technique.” Later Ferrari wrote that his father said they would have “to discuss and plan for the Ironman events, as it’s no easy joke, of course. The main issue could be the running, we’ll have to restart carefully and purposefully.” He added: “But yea, he says it’s possible! I say it’s freaking cool.” Michele Ferrari was convicted of sporting fraud by an Italian court, a ruling that was overturned for statute of limitation reasons. In addition to his Usada ban, which resulted from his not responding to allegations that he was involved in doping, Ferrari has also been barred for life by the Italian Olympic committee. The documents released Wednesday detail more than $1 million in payments to Ferrari from Armstrong, who has long denied allegations that he has used performance-enhancing drugs. Usada sent a copy of its decision describing its charges against Armstrong to the World Triathlon Corporation. Armstrong won Ironman events in Hawaii and Florida this year, fueling speculation that he would compete in the Ironman World Championship event being held this weekend in Kona, Hawaii. But in June, event organizers decided to maintain their policy that prohibits an athlete from competing if they are the subject of a continuing doping investigation. Armstrong is currently barred from competitions that are governed by Olympic governing bodies like USA Triathlon. The running community has not been entirely open to Armstrong, either. The Chicago Marathon rejected Armstrong’s bid to compete in its race this fall. But some of the triathlons that have welcomed Armstrong in recent months have forfeited their USAT certification, in the hope of attracting a high-profile competitor who could draw more entrants. The certification means elite triathletes who compete can have the results count toward their international rankings and it lowers insurance costs. “Our relationship with Lance remains to be around his philanthropic work and the fight against cancer,” said Brock Yetso, the president and chief executive of the Ulman Cancer Fund, which oversaw Maryland’s Half Full Triathlon, won by Armstrong on Sunday. “The response was overwhelming. We’re big believers in Lance and that was only reinforced this weekend.” On Saturday, Armstrong did a question-and-answer session in which he talked about his career and battle against cancer, Yetso said, adding that 300 more competitors signed up for the event after it was announced Armstrong would participate. “I respect that every individual and every race has their own opinion, rules and regulations,” Yetso said. “But for us, our event has always been around the cancer fight and raising funds. We have and will continue to welcome him.” Others in the triathlon community do not feel that way. Paulo Sousa, a longtime triathlete and coach, said Armstrong’s presence “cheapens the sport.” “The triathlons’ welcoming Lance makes people think it’s a free sport,” Sousa said. “If you’re washed up, you can come do a triathlon. I don’t want to see the sport as a place where dopers come when they can’t compete in anything else.” Armstrong’s allies among elite endurance athletes argue that he is the victim of a witch hunt, while his detractors say his participation in light of the doping charges harms the sport, no matter how much it does for charitable causes. “The danger here is that we’ll have a sport where doping is acceptable,” Sousa said. “What does that teach our children?” The United States has won only one Olympic medal in triathlon, a bronze, since the sport’s introduction at the 2000 Games in Sydney, Australia, and the sport has struggled to gain broader attention. Armstrong’s participation had some thinking that he could raise the sport’s popularity. While Usada said its case against Armstrong did not hinge on whether he doped from 2009 to 2012, the period in which he began to again compete in triathlons and Ironmans, the documents released Wednesday claimed that evidence from that period provided “strong corroboration for the already overwhelming evidence of Armstrong’s doping from the period from 1998 through 2005.” It has left some of his competitors with mixed feelings. Richie Cunningham, who came in third against Armstrong’s second place at the Ironman 70.3 Panama race in February, said that he had concerns surrounding some of Armstrong’s competition results. “I think it’s great he’s raised money for cancer,” he said. “But if he’s cheating, he’s cheating. It’s disgraceful. If he wants to raise money on his own, fine. But he needs to pack up and go.” Tim O’Donnell, who won the Ironman 70.3 in Texas in April, said, “Lance’s participation was definitely positive in bringing more attention to the sport.” Armstrong finished seventh. O’Donnell has taken part in the event three times and said that Armstrong’s participation made this year’s competition “the biggest production yet; it was a big deal for me to win and brought more attention to me, being the guy who won the race when Lance was competing.” O’Donnell will be among those competing in the Ironman event on Saturday and said he supported the World Triathlon Corporation’s decision to prohibit Armstrong’s participation. “The bottom line for most professional athletes is that the triathlon is a clean sport, and we want to keep it that way,” he said. “The cycling community has a tainted reputation, and at the end of the day, we don’t want to go down that road.”

Armstrong Lance
Triathlon
Doping (Sports)
United States Anti-Doping Agency
Ferrari Michele
Bicycles and Bicycling
Ironman Triathlon (Hawaii)


As Egypt Floods Gaza Tunnels, Smugglers Fear an End to Their Trade

Abstract: RAFAH, Gaza Strip — On a humid night in Rafah recently, six Palestinian smugglers sat around a backyard table, ticking off the damage that Egypt has done to their tunnels over the past two years. It dropped dynamite and floated poison gas into them. It filled them with sewage . Last year, it took the extraordinary step of razing more than 3,000 homes on its side of the border to create a buffer zone that would seal off access to the tunnels, creating a humanitarian catastrophe in the process. Now, the smugglers fear that Egypt has settled on a strategy that could spell doom for their trade: flooding the tunnels so they collapse. Within the past month, Egypt has flooded part of the nine-mile border area twice, causing two tunnels to cave in completely and damaging 10 or so more. Only about 20 of 250 tunnels are still operating — the worst situation smugglers can remember. They find themselves waiting nervously for the flooding to begin again. “This is the end for us,” said Abu Jazar, a 42-year-old smuggler, who, like others interviewed for this article, declined to give his full name out of fear that the Egyptian authorities might identify him. “If they were bombing us, we could fix it.” Israel and Egypt imposed restrictions on Gaza after Hamas seized control of the territory in 2007. But Egypt’s crackdown intensified after Abdel Fattah el-Sisi became defense minister under President Mohamed Morsi in 2012. That year, gunmen killed 15 soldiers at an Egyptian Army checkpoint in the northern Sinai Peninsula, which abuts Gaza. At the time, it was the deadliest assault against Egyptian soldiers in recent memory. After Mr. Sisi became president, he saw the tunnels not only as a boon for Hamas — which he despised as an arm of the Muslim Brotherhood — but also as a direct threat to Egypt’s security, asserting that arms and militants were flowing through them. “From the beginning with Sisi, it was 50 percent hard,” Abu Jazar lamented. “Now it is 90 percent hard. It will be 100 percent hard when they turn on the pumps.” Image The border between Rafah, in the Gaza Strip, and Egypt on the right. Egypt has flooded part of the nine-mile border area twice. Credit Wissam Nassar for The New York Times The tunnels once played a central role in the economy of this coastal enclave of 1.1 million people. Many of the goods that got into Gaza — livestock, cars, appliances, building materials — came through them. Since the crackdown began, thousands of Palestinians have been thrown out of work, contributing to soaring poverty in the territory. Already long power cuts have gotten worse, as tunnels supplying one million liters (about 260,000 gallons) of diesel each day have been shut down. Thousands of tons of merchandise no longer get in. Mr. Sisi has put even more pressure on Gaza through prolonged closings of the Rafah border crossing. The 20 tunnels that remain in operation are able to move only small items like cellphones and cigarettes. During the summer, the Egyptians dug a trench on the Sinai side of the border and then laid pipes parallel to the dusty buffer-zone road, known as the Philadelphia route. Water from the nearby sea was pumped in, creating an overnight canal, said Abu Ibrahim, a Palestinian border guard. The water channel flooded two tunnels, causing them to collapse, smugglers said. In early October, it happened again, this time flooding 10 tunnels. Abu Khalil, 34, said he was working on repairs to his 2,000-foot tunnel when he heard the water rushing in. “We saw the water,” he said. “We could have been washed away.” He returned with 15 workers and a pump. For two days, they pumped water out of the tunnel, trying to keep the walls from collapsing. Abu Khalil said that once all the water was pumped out he would shore up the walls with pieces of wood. “God willing, we’ll take control,” he said. If the recent episodes of flooding were a trial run, as many Palestinians here suspect, a more sustained flooding would be a disaster, because Gaza officials could not pump the water out fast enough into the sea. “All this area will be destroyed,” said Wael Abu Omar, a Gaza Interior Ministry official, gesturing at the pools of muddy water drying in the sun. An Egyptian Foreign Ministry spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the latest measures to destroy the tunnels. Image Juma Abu Shaer and his wife, Masouma Abu Shaer, at home in Rafah. They fear they may have to leave because of the flooding. Credit Wissam Nassar for The New York Times If flooding recurs, it may have other consequences: harming nearby agricultural lands and exacerbating the salinity of Gaza’s badly damaged aquifer. It has already terrified residents near the border, who fear their homes will buckle. “They say the water is coming from Egypt,” Mansoura Abu Shaer, 73, said in the doorway of her small house. She and her 74-year-old husband had been forced to leave two other homes because of Israeli shelling. This time, she feared Egypt would prompt their displacement. Ms. Abu Shaer said she and her husband now sat outside at night, waiting for a flood “to see if we should run away.” Of the 20 tunnels still operating, about six were being lengthened to reach built-up areas again. One tunnel, smugglers said, was now two miles long. Some of the men were trying to reinforce and waterproof their passageways with cement and steel bars, hoping they would be saved from collapse if more flooding occurred. Two tunnel owners, they said, were now digging deeper into the ground, hoping to go down 160 feet, gambling that water pumped in by Egypt would not reach that far. “Two people are trying, but they have a lot of money,” said Abu Rabah, 44, a former tunnel owner. “They are kings, first-class tunnel owners.” Abu Ramzy, 33, who still had working tunnels, said they were waiting to see if that strategy had any impact. “We are watching and waiting,” he said. “None of the tunnel guys are sleeping. All of us are thinking of what our next plan is going to be.” Abu Rabah, whose tunnel had been idle for months, considered his options: “Maybe we will go above the fence. Or maybe go by the sea. Or maybe we need planes.” To that Abu Jazar responded, “Or maybe we should just give up and go fishing.”

Gaza Strip
Smuggling
Egypt
Palestinians
Abdel Fattah el-Sisi
Bridges,Tunnels
Israel
Flood
Hamas